TMGS 28/04/2026 STARMER Faces Parliament | Assassination Attempt DIVIDES U.S | Kimmel’s Melania Joke

That's not me.What's going on?Where am I?I've disappeared.How does that work?I don't know.

That's amazing.What's going on?Is it on some kind of delay?That's extraordinary.It must be on some kind of delay, no?I mean, that's never happened before.

Where have you gone?What's going on?I don't know.Can anybody hear me?Can anybody hear me?I'm going to put it out.

Can anybody hear me?I'm wearing an invisibility cloak.You mean an infinity cloak, isn't it?What do they call it?Invisibility cloak.They can hear me, apparently.

Yeah, well, say hello.Good morning.Good morning.And welcome to the White Graham Show.Now, look, this is not some kind of sorcery we're getting involved in here.But apparently, Pooch doesn't understand what's going on.

That was what it looked like before I sat down and put my jacket on, which was just before seven o 'clock.It's now two minutes past seven.And is it frozen?Do you need?I mean, what can we do?It must have been.

It must have been frozen, surely.There we go.Ah, good morning.Good morning.We're back.You know, who knew that I had it?

power to make myself disappear?That was quite weird, wasn't it?Very good morning to you.It is the Mike Graham Show.I am indeed here.I was here before, but for some reason it wasn't picking me up.

Some people suggested I was wearing the Harry Potter invisibility cloak, which would come in quite handy, actually.Because there's a story, isn't there, that you say to people, you know, if you could wear an invisibility cloak, what would you do?And quite a lot of the answers are not printable here in a family newspaper or indeed a show.But yeah, that was very strange.And one of the great things about doing this show and one of the things that we love about having you as the audience is that one you don't seem to care.You just go, where are you?

Why are you not there?It's just extraordinary.But also, it's that every single time anything goes wrong, it's never gone wrong before.No.Right?So that has literally never happened.

We've been doing this show since January the 4th.We're now about to enter May.So January, February, March, April.Four months, right?80 -odd shows.80 -odd shows, yeah.

And not once have I not appeared.At the appointed hour, which is pretty amazing in itself actually, but um, uh, you know, you have to drag me out of a bar somewhere or You know find me out in the street somewhere or can't get in or car's broken down or you know what I mean?That's never happened.So that I mean we've got to put that into some kind of clip, haven't we?Because apparently they could hear me as well Yeah, so you could hear me but there was literally nobody in the chair I mean, fantastic stuff.Anyway, listen, welcome to Tuesday the 28th of April, three minutes past seven.

It is going to be another amazing day for news because it's all about Starmer, it's all about the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, it's all about King Charles in America, of course, as well.I sent you, by the way, did you get my, what do you call it, my news list?Because now I'm struggling to find that.Let's have a look.I was too busy with Invisible.Yeah, why can't I find it?

Why can't I find it?Can you send it back to me?It's all very strange.We're going to talk to Russell Quirk, who's over in Los Angeles for us.Apparently, he's been out and about at some comedy club or other.I don't know if he's here yet, but let me run through some of the papers.

Russell, very good morning to you, sir.I don't know what happened there.Good evening.You're the first broadcaster ever to empty chair yourself.I know.Except I didn't do it.

It must be stuck in some way, shape, or form.It's very weird.Anyway, so we've got the front pages, basically, to run through here.And obviously, we'll kick off with the United States of America, which is where you are, because I'm very interested in your take on what's going on.The front page is the Daily Mail.Scott, welcome to the USA, Your Majesty, with that nice picture of them outside the White House with the King and the Queen, Melania and Donald.

United King Don is the Sun headline.The I newspaper's got the King's warning to America Charles urges u .s.President Congress to stick with Europe and of course we've got what else have got Britain and the u .s.Must come together on the front pages of Daily Telegraph, so so very much a theme of you know No kings in America, but there is actually now a king there and nobody's demonstrating funnily enough.

How is it in Los Angeles?much about the King's visit, I have to say.I mean, obviously, for the purposes of this show and balance, I have actually flicked through the likes of MSNBC, CNN, and CBS, but I can only bear it for about 30 seconds at a time.The rest of the time I've spent with Fox, which won't surprise anybody at all.So the King's arrival has had a very kind of muted response.I guess there's some big state banquet going on either, I don't know, tonight or tomorrow night, which we'll then report on, I guess, in terms of what the King has to say and what Donald Trump has to say.

in response.The news here very, very much is, of course, still focused on the attempted assassination, the third assassination attempt on Donald Trump, which obviously you would have been covering, and how politicized it's become in the US here.And what I mean by that is the fact that we've had a situation where Donald Trump, and I don't know if you have covered this, forgive me if you have already, yesterday.But the fact that Donald Trump was interviewed on 60 Minutes, which is a CBS show yesterday, and it was a one -on -one interview, where he looked straight at the interviewer on the basis that she was effectively telling him why she thought that this assailant, this would -be potential assassin, had targeted Trump and his entire administration.And that's because of apparently a manifesto that that particular criminal, as he is, had written, which alleged that Donald Trump is all sorts of things, including a rapist, a paedophile, and so on.And so it's got so politicized that you've got the likes of CBS and MSNBC and CNN, either a not talking about the potential assassination two days later, or they're laying the blame at Trump himself for effecting goading people to try and kill him.

Yeah.I mean, it's remarkable.Well, not only is that remarkable, Russell, but we covered it here in a different way because we had the rather unfortunate appearance once again of Brian Cox, the actor, on Laura Kunzberg's show on Sunday.And he more or less justified the fact that somebody tried to kill Trump on the grounds that Trump's made a lot of people very unhappy.And I was going, you know, at what point is Laura Kunzberg going to say to him, yeah, but obviously you wouldn't condone this kind of behavior.She didn't say it.

And so therefore, I put out a rant about it yesterday, which has gone absolutely viral.And I've sent it on to a Caroline Lange.the press secretary, who of course got up yesterday in the White House and said all of these attacks on Donald Trump calling him a fascist and a Nazi and all these other horrible names that you've just mentioned are driving these nutters to do this stuff.Yeah, but you've also got the likes of Jimmy Kimmel, who's an incredibly highly paid talk show host and so -called comedian, I think they question mark over that title to us, who even before the event showed a picture on his show of Melania and said, oh look, Melania is absolutely glowing.She looks like a widow in waiting.And Donald Trump over the last few hours has said that, and I don't necessarily agree with this by the way, but Donald Trump has said that he, not for the first time, should be fired, should be censured effectively for not so much his right to say what he said in a joke about Melania, but the fact, as you rightly say, and this is the big narrative here in the US, is that the rhetoric from the media and from politicians is such that it is seeming to incite, it's seeming to incite people by way of that kind of, that dishonest characterization of Donald Trump, almost to give leave and an excuse for people to attack Donald Trump and indeed therefore J .

D.Vance and Caroline Leavitt and the rest of the administration.It's kind of got to a point where it's getting a bit out of control I think.Well it is.Also, you know, in a country where an awful lot of people walk around with guns and an awful lot of people have access to guns, like this character did.He had a shotgun, he had a rifle, he had a handgun.

You know, it's amazing in a way that he didn't cause more damage than he actually did.But I noticed, I saw this story yesterday and they were talking about it this morning on the BBC and of course the BBC are talking about it as though Kimmel has a right to say whatever he wants.And of course, all the people writing into the BBC with their views are saying, yeah, it serves Trump right.He's a horrible man.But here's what Melania Trump posted on Facebook last night.She said Kimmel's hateful and violent rhetoric is intended to divide our country.

His monologue about my family isn't comedy.His words are corrosive and deepens the political sickness within America.People like Kimmel shouldn't have the opportunity to enter our homes each evening to spread hate.A coward, Kimmel hides behind ABC because he knows the network will keep running cover to protect him.And she says enough is enough.Time for ABC to take a stand.

So this is going to be a huge story, isn't it?Well, isn't it funny how, you know, the same people on the left that are now all of a sudden defending the right to free speech didn't do so when it was Lucy Connolly.Or, you know, the poor chap that went to prison and then died, committed suicide in prison because he'd been put in for doing something on social media.So we all want to protect the right to free speech, but we also accept that there is a limit.And the limit is not just if someone says something that you don't like, or, you know, it's a little bit offensive.What we're seeing here in the US from politicians and media is is a step over and above that, which is, you know, back to as we've had in the UK over the last 18 months or so, an element where they are seemingly inciting violence.

And, you know, really kind of supporting almost the death of the President of the United States.And I think that's what most of us, most right minded people on both sides of the Atlantic say, well actually that's a bridge too far.You cannot have the absolute right to say whatever you like if it makes other people pick up guns and do stupid things.The other thing, of course, Mike, and I don't know if you've talked about this over there, but it hasn't really been talked about much here, is the fact that this individual, this would -be assassin, was a teacher.And not just a teacher, but one that apparently had a glowing background, one teacher of the month in December 2024.made me think here that we've talked a lot about the

indoctrination of students and the kind of the propaganda that's peddled by institutions, education institutions in Britain.And it seems to me that this is kind of the next stage of that, you know, almost the epitome, almost the demonstration of why we should be worried about the teaching class, the faculty in Britain, you know, indoctrinating, because actually some of these teachers clearly are doing it because they are extreme, because they're unhinged.And I think that that is something that we need to take stock of.Absolutely right.And it's interesting.I remember having a conversation with or watching a conversation about America and what their kind of their principles are in terms of incitement to violence because in terms of Lucy Connolly and I think it was Charlie Kirk who was interviewed at the time on GB News who said you know in America you cannot be done for incitement to violence if it's a sort of vague concept or if it's something that you said so Kimmel probably would get away with it in the sense that you know even though we as sensible individuals would know that what he's doing is ramping up the rhetoric and ramping up people who are already deranged to do something even more dangerous.

But because of the way the American legal system works, and his argument was about Lucy Connolly, he said in America she would not have been charged with incitement to violence because he has to be very specific.He has to be saying Donald Trump is going to be at the correspondence dinner, you should go and shoot him and then you would be done.Because the First Amendment here, of course, is pretty absolute.But also, as I understand it in US law, I think that incitement actually has to result in violence.I think that's the difference.But the fact is, whether people like this or not, and of course, there's a large body of people on both sides of the Atlantic that don't like Donald Trump, what he stands for,

but he's been elected actually for the second time.Twice.Two years ago, was elected, yes.So he has a mandate and whether you like it or not, the majority of voters in the United States by way of democratic process gave him a mandate.Yeah.get over it you know and if the answer from the left and isn't it always the left despite the fact that apparently the far right are the biggest threat to democracy and society and you know britain uh as opposed to any other faction that might be more obvious um it's always the left um and the extreme left as it seems to be that are the violent ones you know they're the ones that killed for instance you know uh david amis aren't they you know they're the ones that have you know been the face of Antifa on the street at the Epping Bell Hotel throwing things at innocent protestors.

It's always the left that seem to be the ones that are the violent ones, that are the provocateurs.And of course, as we know, they get away with it.Yeah, absolutely.Well, we've got, I think, a clip of Jimmy Kimmel in which he's basically saying he's responding, I think, to what Melania said.The second one is a bit longer, right?This is him saying he's never going to apologise for it.

I greeted the day facing yet another Twitter vomit storm.And a call to fire me from our first lady, Melania Trump, saying I should be fired because of a joke I made, again, five nights ago.It was a pretend roast.I said, our first lady, Melania, is here.Look at her, so beautiful.Mrs. Trump, you have a glow like an expectant widow, which obviously was a joke about their age difference.

and the look of joy we see on her face every time they're together.It was a very light roast joke about the fact that he's almost 80 and she's younger than I am.It was not by any stretch of the imagination.definition, a call to assassination.And they know that.I've been very vocal for many years, speaking out against gun violence in particular.

But I understand that the First Lady had a stressful experience over the weekend.And probably every weekend is pretty stressful in that house.And also, I agree that hateful and violent rhetoric is something we should reject.I do.And I think a great place to start, to dial that back, would be to have a conversation with your husband about it.Because, um.

I mean, just a complete and utter disingenuous scumbag as far as I'm concerned, because he knows exactly what he's doing when he says, oh, I was making a joke about her being a widow because she's a lot younger than him.Rubbish.Why are the audience laughing at that?It's not something to laugh at.You know, I'm not one of those people who says you shouldn't be allowed to make jokes, even if they're distasteful.I would just rather you didn't.

And if you've got such a big audience and you've got such a big platform, you should really be a bit more careful.And the idea as well that he can say, oh, she looks so miserable standing next to him.Actually, that's not even true.You know, she actually looks far happier, if you like, than she ever did standing next to him now.Yeah, she does.He's made that so -called kind of explanation in the wake of that third assassination attempt.

You know, he's making light of the fact that you might not like Donald Trump.You might not like the fact that Melania married him.You might not like J .D.Vance because he was elected on the same ticket.But there were 2 ,000 people in that room.

And if that lunatic with those guns and knives had got his own way, he would have murdered, maimed, slaughtered dozens, potentially hundreds of people.So I don't think that's very funny.No, it's not funny.And the fact that people are laughing at it tells you what's wrong with America, because all the people who are laughing at it are people who hate somebody so much that they would like to see him dead, because he doesn't agree with what they believe in, which is insane.60 Minutes, which, you know, it'sprobably a shadow of what it used to be, but it's effectively a kind of news night type program here.

in the United States, instead of interviewing Trump and asking him how he is, whether he's going to tighten security, whether, you know, this justifies him spending, in fact, he's not spending millions and millions of dollars on the ballroom at the White House because it's being privately funded, but whether that is now a more suitable place for the correspondence board every year and so on.Instead of asking him kind of pertinent questions about the assassination attempt and, you know, what it means that people are effectively not trying to remove, or not being successful in removing him at the ballot box, or preventing him getting off his ballot box, but using violence and potential murder.Instead, they question him on the very pathetic and incorrect, inaccurate, and spurious allegations that, well actually, this guy did it because he thinks you're a paedophile and a rapist, so don't you think there's justification in that?It's incredible, isn't it?It's quite incredible.I mean, you know, it's a bit like somebody saying to Keir Starmer, and we're going to be playing some really vomit making interview techniques from Cathy Newman shortly, who interviewed Keir Starmer for her new show.

You know, it's a bit like her saying, you know, do you think that those three Ukrainian models set fire to your house and car because of something that you didn't do for them or did for them?Maybe it's connected to, I don't know, maybe their grandparents had the winter fuel allowance taken away from them.Do you think it's that?Yeah, it must be something like that.It must be something like that.Yeah, very possibly so.

But yeah, I mean, that's the other thing that, you know, and we'll be playing obviously lots of...I don't care too much about Charles and Camilla coming off the plane, but I love the sight of the motorcade coming into Washington.I don't know if we can see that.Pooch.The motorcade coming in, which was like something out of Star Wars.You know, you just know that these guys are not to be messed with.

Let's have a look.I mean, just an extraordinary sight, isn't it?Well, you wouldn't want to be in charge of the King's security, would you, given what's happened just three or four days previously in the very place that you're just about to land in England?Yeah, I know.Can you imagine?Yeah, they're in one car, right?

That is fantastic, isn't it?you know, fair play to us and our faith in our own security and fair play to King Charles that in the wake of that potential assassination just three nights ago that he's not cancelled that tour, you know, and, and actually, as we'll see, I think over the next 2448 hours, we will see Donald Trump and King Charles getting on very, very well.Indeed, I think, you know, like a couple of naughty schoolboys as they were at the state banquet, when Trump visited London last year.And of course, let us also not forget that probably the main reason that King Charles has had to kind of get out of bed and, you know, jump into a cavalcade of 45 SUVs there is because he's got to fix the relationship between the UK and the US because Keir Starmer's bloody broken it.because of some things that have happened over the last 24 hours.But coming up later on this morning, we will be in the company of Baroness Clare Fox, who's going to be here, doing what you did last time there was a Foreign Affairs Select Committee meeting, because we're going to see Morgan McSweeney around about 11 o 'clock this morning, but at 9 o 'clock this morning, Sir Philip Barton, who is the outgoing Ollie Robbins figure, the guy who we believe left the job because he didn't want to do Keir Starmer's bidding, right?

But Starmer, is on the front page of the Mail because he's basically ordering his own MPs to save his skin, right?They're going to have a vote today as to whether or not he gets referred to the Privileges Committee for misleading Parliament.Inside the Daily Mail, Dan Hodges has got seven examples of when he misled Parliament, but he won't let them have a free vote.Starmer's stitch up to save his own skin, is what it says.Prime Minister's ready to order Labour backbenchers to vote against Mandelson ethics inquiry that could force him from office.PM battles to block Slee's vote, it says on the front page of The Times.

And then inside on The Telegraph, it's even worse.It's got basically, you know, Keir Starmer pleads with his MPs to save him.I mean, how embarrassing that he's now got to such a place that he cannot even guarantee his own survival without bribing his own MPs.Yeah, this is disgraceful.We assume it's a three -line whip, which effectively means that you cannot, as a Labour MP, not vote the way that Stalmer, the whips and the Labour government tell you to, for fear of losing the whip.You would effectively not be a Labour MP any longer.

We should be clear on this, Mike.This is the equivalent to someone going to court and the judge saying to the jury before any evidence has been placed, this is the verdict that you must deliver.I mean, honestly, I mean, if Keir Starmer has nothing to fear, if Keir Starmer has not lied and not misled the public and not misled Parliament, then what's he got to fear from an inquiry?I would suggest that most of us, with half a brain,realize that the only reason that he is whipping his own MPs to ensure that he doesn't be the subject of an inquiry is because he's got something to hide.In fact, he's probably got more than one or two things to hide in terms of his influence over Ollie Robbins and the whole process of Mandelson office with the whole Waheed Ali thing and I genuinely lost count of the amount of scandals, the disgraceful incompetence and bad faith that Keir Starmer and the front bench of the Labour government have been the subject to, have orchestrated July 2024.

Well this is the thing I mean there's an awful lot of stories circulating now in Westminster circles and elsewhere that Starmer's wife is actually not even living in Downing Street anymore and that she's taken the kids and gone somewhere else and I know personally of several journalists who are trying to find out where she is. I don't know whether it's true but have a look at this right we're going to need some Starmer alerts today because we're going to have quite a few of them but I don't know if you've got it ready Pooch but let's have a Starmer alert first.So this is the first one I'm going to show you.This is the new Kathy Newman show on Sky News.I imagine they've probably got at least four or five people watching it.Kathy Newman's show, wow.Yeah, I know.

There's nothing new about it.So she gets an interview with the Prime Minister, right?And of course, she doesn't ask him anything interesting.She doesn't ask him anything about why he's told a load of lies.She doesn't ask him whether his wife's left him.She doesn't ask him whether, you know, he thinks that, you know, he should have actually resigned when he made out that Ollie Robbins had done something wrong, when it's very clear now that he hasn't done anything wrong.

Instead, she asks him about his wife's advice.Check this out.turns to you and says, you know, enough's enough.This pressure is intolerable.Would you listen to her?I always listen to Vic.

And I think she was the one in the first place that basically said, why on earth would you want to go into politics?But she is an absolute...And you answer to that question now?She is an absolute rock.And I confide in her all of the time.And hers is the best advice.

And I'm just thankful that I've got her every day.And at the moment, she's advising you to keep going.She is, yes.And...And we've tried everything through.And it's fantastic.

I've met her too.Fantastic.She's a 17 -year -old and a 15 -year -old.I'll be OK. I can't tell you how much joy and happiness they are my tribe.Oh, man.Oh, that's so disgusting.

That is the only appropriate response to that record interview.That face.You know, I always listen to Vic.Oh, really?Oh, you must have a telephone then because she's not in the same room as you, you plonker.Well, let's be really honest, the reason that Vic has apparently said that she insists and supports her husband Keir Starmer remaining as Prime Minister, of course, is because then she would get to see less of him.

The last thing she wants is him to not be Prime Minister and end up at home, where she's got to put up in 2027.So if I was Vic Starmer, I'd be saying exactly the same.No, no, you carry on, darling.You do a great job.You stay there in Downing Street and I'll end up round at my mum's house in, you know,Islington or wherever she lives.

And that's kind of Vic Starmer utopia, I guess, isn't it?I mean, I would think so.But it is. I mean, we've got let's have a quick look here at what Dan Hodges and Dan Hodges, who's been sort of on a one man crusade ever since I convinced him that Star was a charlatan.He says that he's basically misled the House of Commons seven times or broken the Mysterio code seven times.First on September the 10th, 2025.Starmer told the house that full due process was followed during Mandelson's appointment, which was obviously not true.

Last Wednesday, offence number two, he was asked by Kemi Badenoch if pressure had been leveraged on civil servants and he said no pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case, which he's already now contradicted.Offence number three, in the same session, Starmer claimed Sir Ollie Robbins could not have been clearer in his evidence yesterday.He then read out a series of quotes that were wrong, right.Offence number four, he does an interview with the Sunday Times.The Prime Minister again claimed Robinson insisted no pressure was brought to bear, which is wrong.Offence number five, it was reported that Steinberg breached the ministerial code by attending a meeting with Mandelson and one of his former clients Palantir, right, which he hasn't recorded.

Offence number six, last month it was reported that Morgan McSweeney had his mobile phone stolen on which there were messages related to Mandelson's appointment.In response, Starmer told the country the theft could not have been staged because the idea that somehow everybody could have seen that sometime in the future, there'd be a request over the phone is, to my mind, far -fetched.And then finally, offence number seven, February, Starmer gave a statement in which he pointedly blamed failings by security for Mandelson's appointment.So, you know, he's banged to rights, this guy.Yeah, no, I was just going to say, look, we should count out the amount of times that Starmer and Rayner and Reeves and goodness knows who else went in opposition before July 2024.called for the resignation for far lesser reasons of conservatives, including, you know, Boris Johnson, who happened to walk past a room that had a birthday cake in it.

Yeah, right.I know, it's absolutely extraordinary.Speaking of Rachel Reeves, I thought I'd get your opinion on this one because there's a story doing the rounds this morning in which it says that Rachel Reeves basically wants to freeze rental payments because of the Iran war.She reckons, this is on the front page of The Guardian this morning, that she wants to interfere in the general rental market of the UK.She says she's going to be imposing a one -year rent freeze on private sector homes in the coming weeks amid growing alarm in the government about the impact of the Iran war.I mean, how could she ban landlords from raising the rent?

No, so the real reason she wants to do this is because it's a Zak Polanski from the Green Party policy.So Zak mad Polanski.has declared that he thinks it's a great idea because, of course, you know, tenants are more likely to vote for him than landlords to cap or freeze rents.Now, sounds great if you're a tenant, but there's an unintended consequences there, as has been discovered, actually, when Scotland tried rent caps and Berlin and goodness knows other places around the world.What then happens is the hard -pressed landlord who have been squeezed many, many times through various acts of, you know, kind of legislative harm over the last three or four years by both governments, Labour and the Conservatives.What happens is, as a landlord, you think, well, do you know what?

I just don't want to do this anymore.If I can't increase my rent, if I can't get tax relief on my mortgage interest payments, if I can't now boot out bad tenants because of the Renters' Rights Act, and so on, you'll take your money elsewhere, which means those landlords sell those properties, which means they are no longer rentable, which means you end up with an acute shortage of property.rental stock and you end up with tenants on the street.That's the unintended consequence.That's exactly what happened in Berlin and started to happen in Scotland.This is ideological kind of green -eyed monster sixth form politics being laid out in front of us as some kind of magic economic solution.

you know, rather than doing what's right.And as I say, the unintended consequences here are going to be significant.But this is about the Green Party and Labour trying to match them the same as the Conservatives are copying reform left, right and centre on such things as leaving the ECHR, which of course, the Conservatives didn't want to do until about five months ago.So this is a game of petty political Trump's effectively, Mike.And that's what this is.If the government do it, you will see I mean, they reckon about 200 ,000 landlords exited the private rental sector last year in anticipation of what they call the Renters Rights Act, which is now become becomes law properly, and is enacted next month, actually.

So, yeah, it's, it's going to cause absolute mayhem to the rental market, it'll be devastating for those very tenants that the Labour Party and the Greens stay actually they want to yeah well this is it I mean I think we should start calling him mad dog Polanski, because he is mad.He's completely getting unraveled as well, even by interviews that he's doing on things like Good Morning Britain, where he was taken apart by Ed Balls, where he's moaning and groaning that nobody's asking him the right questions.It's like, well, sorry, mate, you don't get to choose the questions you get asked.You have to answer the questions that people are putting to you.Well, it's funny that he doesn't want to answer questions on such policies that he now knows are incredibly unpopular, like rent controls, like not having prisons.I mean, seriously.

and legalizing all drugs, including date rape drugs.And I'll tell you what's really interesting is knocking on a few doors, as I've been doing for the local elections over the last couple of weeks, when people say they're voting Green, and you tell them, hang on, this is not about windmillsand solar panels.And you know, the Ed Miliband esque quest for net zero.This is about Marxism.And, you know, acute uber liberalism, you know, to the extreme in terms of just basic, you know, criminals run roughshod, and so on.

Most people don't realize actually.Most ordinary people that aren't in this political bubble of ours, they don't realise yet what Zak Polanski and his other mad mob of green lunatics actually stand for when it comes to them intending to drive Britain even further into the mud than Keir Starmer and the Labour Front bench have.Yeah, I mean they're trying their best, aren't they?I mean this is the other thing that the Labour government is coming out with.They've been sending out people like David Lammy yesterday and Stephen Kinnock to basically say, oh yeah, this whole business of the Mandelson inquiry, this whole business of misleading Parliament, it's all a distraction.It's all just being led by reform and the Conservatives, the opposition just want a political stunt.

And it's like, you know, people are not that stupid.Do you really think people do not know what is going on here?What we know and what everybody knows is that Starmer is at the very best a liar, at the very worst a corrupt individual.who is trying to save his own skin because he knows he's finished.Yeah, well, it's double standards in their extreme, isn't it?You know, if a reform MP parts on a double yellow line, the left want him imprisoned or her for, you know, many, many years.

Of course, I'm exaggerating, but you take the point that, you know, those on the right are vilified, hounded, harassed, I would say, you know, you had Richard Tice on the show last week talking about the outrageous and inaccurate reporting on his so -called tax affairs.You know, when it's someone on the right, particularly Reform, particularly Nigel Farage or the top team at Reform, they are got at and, you know, these journalistsand politicians are like dogs with bones.But it seems that when it's the left, when it's Labour, it's oh, no, there's nothing to see here.This is just a misunderstanding, or it was only a tiny deception.He only lied to Parliament a little bit.

Yeah, exactly right.Absolutely extraordinary stuff.We've got a poll going at the moment, actually, after the assassination attempts on Donald Trump this weekend.What has been the most shocking death in living memory?Number one, JFK.Number two, Diana.

And that would be Diana, Princess of Wales, of course.Number three, Michael Jackson.Or number four, Starmer's integrity, which appears to be winning at the moment at 58%.I'm not quite sure he ever had any integrity, but he pretended that he did.Do you remember when he came in and talked about no more sleaze, you know, a return to transparency, no more corruption, absolutely, you know, moral high ground occupied all the time by the Labour government.It's been a complete disaster.

Nothing has ever been worse than this.And he said many, many times in the run up to the general election in 2024 that it was country first, party second.I'm going to govern differently.The whole kind of drain the swamp type of rhetoric that we've seen actually from Donald Trump a lot.And actually, you think about the act of whipping your Labour MPs not to vote to have them investigated because you're worried about what might come out or indeed that you might be found guilty.I mean, that's hardly putting country or indeed democracy or integrity or truth first.

That's very much putting the party and yourself as an individual first.On your list there, by the way, we should have had the shocking death of the Conservative Party, which of course happened in 2010, David Cameron took power.As soon as he started going up north to look for the ozone layer on a Skid Row and started talking about how many hoodies we should have realised the Conservative Party was dead from that point forward.That was the end.Yeah, you're absolutely right.We won't be able to add that one in.

Finally, you're in Los Angeles, right?It's eight hours behind, so you're going to have to...at quite a late night for you.You've been out at a comedy club.What have your findings about Los Angeles been so far?I have.

I've been out supporting my mate Lee Alliston, who's at the Comedy Store.Jay Leno was the headline, would you believe?Was he?Wow.It's still gigging.Yeah.

So we just sat there in a, you know, a decent sized audience, kind of a hundred people.So that, that, that was fun.Um, LA, I have a soft spot for, I've been a couple of times.Um, but it is in many, many ways a sad shadow of itself.I mean, the homeless are still everywhere, in tents.And it's really bad, isn't it?

Yeah.Um, the fentanyl problem here, and I'm not talking from personal experience, but the fentanyl problem, uh, is a major, major issue.Um, and it's, It feels like a pretty downtrodden, sad city in most parts.The Hollywood Walk of Fame, which you've probably walked along, used to be this glamorous place where Elvis and God knows who else have got their handprint, footprint and the golden stars and so on.That is now occupied by tents lived in by homeless people and people on fentanyl walking around like zombies.The last time I was there, which I think was about 2019, which is quite a long time ago now.

I remember standing outside Mann's Chinese Theatre where they have the Oscars and all that, and all I could smell was this massive stench of skunk and marijuana.It was just awful.Well, weed here, of course, for medicinal purposes, and apparently it's pretty easy to get a medical certificate, is kind of legal.I mean, there's no end of police on the streets.So I mean, I don't feel fearful walking around.I don't think it's like London where I, you know, you walk around with a nice watch on and you're worried about it.

You don't worry so much about being mugged or stabbed.But it's just it's a sad and slightly decrepit city.And the traffic, by the way, is absolutelyawful.I mean, it really is hell.Well, I mentioned that to you.

I mean, if you're trying to go anywhere on 495 coming out of LA and going south or north, to be honest, you've got eight lanes of traffic in both directions, completely solid.You can't move for hours.Yeah, anything, any route now in or out of LA is terrible.So, you know, there's still some, you know, Rodeo Drive, we went there a couple of days ago, you know, the whole pretty woman thing and so on.I mean, that's very glamorous, very chic and very memorable.The Hollywood sign, you know, there's, you know, we took a quick trip into Universal Studios today because we had a couple of hours to kill.

So there's lots to like about LA, but But it's not as we remember it, if you like.Some of us at a certain age, in the 80s and 90s, where it was heart to heart and chips and all this wonderful stuff where LA was a glamorous place.I think there's tiny bits of LA now that are glamorous.But most of it is actually quite downtrodden.Yeah.No, I think that's absolutely right.

And it's a shame.It's really sad to see.But listen, well, have a wonderful time.Great to see you.Thank you so much for spending the late night hours with us.And keep an eye on King Charles.

I'm not one of those that's worried.You can imagine the lefty media here are all up in arms going, he shouldn't have gone.Trump's going to embarrass him.It's going to be terrible.Well, it isn't going to be terrible, because first of all, most of it isn't going to be televised anyway.And I think it's this afternoon that Charles will be addressing the two houses of Congress, which will be a fairly reasonably historic affair, I think.

So we're quite looking forward to it.Yeah, yeah, no indeed.Let's just put it this way, King Charles won't disgrace himself like Keir Starmer has on the world stage.No, exactly right.And also he's got his wife with him, which is unlike Starmer, who doesn't seem to have one at the moment, but there we are.Russell, great to see you.

Thank you very much indeed.Russell Quirk there, checking in with us from Los Angeles, California, which is in a fantastic place.fantastic place to go.But it is, as he says, now a shadow of its former self.Some super chats coming in.Mr. Woodward says the poll is invalid.

Starmer never had any integrity.You know, I did wonder about that.But he did pretend that he did.He kind of sold us this dummy that he did have it.He didn't sell it to me.Mike, you need a bloopers section.

Brilliant, says Kiki.I think we're going to try and play the start of the show just so we can watch it again in a minute.David says this.Vic is a bloke, obviously.I always listen to Vic.Shut up.

You're going back in the kitchen.Yeah, we got it.Let's have a look.This is how we started the show, for those of you who missed it.That's not me.What's going on?

Where am I?I've disappeared.How does that work?I don't know.That's amazing.Well, what's going on?

Is it on some kind of delay?I don't know.Can anybody hear me?You can't hear me, apparently.Yeah, well, say hello.Pooch doesn't understand what's going on.

That was what it looked like before I sat down and put my jacket on.Good morning.Good morning.We're back.You know, who knew that I had the power to make myself disappear?That was quite weird, wasn't it?

Very good morning to you.It is the Mike Graham Show.I am indeed here.I was here before, but for some reason it wasn't picking me up.Amazing.I think it's the first time that's ever happened to me on any show that I've ever done in the last 20 years, which is pretty amazing.

Listen, Dr Gavin Ashenden is going to be with us very shortly.But first, let's get some news with Edward Hughes.Good morning.I'm Edward Hughes, King Charles.has jetted off to the States for a state visit with Trump.Palace sources insist the king will keep calm and carry on, because dodging bullets is just another day in the royal diary.

Back home, Sir Keir Bell End is facing a sleaze probe vote over whether he twisted arms to fast track Peter Mandelson.Number 10 calls it a desperate Tory stunt.Of course it is, darling.Everything's a stunt until it's not.Treasury's also said no extra cash for NHS staff or teachers.Yes, Jimmy Hill.

Iran's messing with your mortgage.And someone's suggesting a sugar tax on milkshakes.Because when the world's on fire, what we really need is the government telling you your strawberry freakshake is problematic.Please remember to like and subscribe.Laters, tigers.What's going on with his head there?

Apparently he got his hair cut in Swindon when he was there and I've been to Swindon quite a few times and there's a lot of that there and he just told them to give him something that they thought he would look good.He's gone Vietnam says MLB.Yeah I think he's losing the plot but it sometimes happens you know when your domestic situation gets difficult.Sometimes you can make some bad decisions about the way you look and where you go and what you say.Edward, you are gorgeous, says Primrose.He's a very interesting character, isn't he?

Who knows?Nobody knows what he's going to do next, but we'll keep an eye on him.And here's another one.Is anyone a bit concerned about Ed?The whole marriage breakup seems to be having an effect, says John.Well, it does, though.

That's the trouble.Maybe we should give him some time off, get Fiona in again.Because it might be that he's What do they call it?We should have a sort of compassionate care for our employees, right?So that they don't get themselves into any bad places.A couple of other stories to mention to you, by the way.

And here's one about the local elections.Ed's been to a Turkish barber, says Cheesecake.Apparently, the bin strike in Birmingham is on the brink of being solved, despite the fact that it's been going on for more than a year, and I think more like 18 months.The local council, which is Labour -run, are saying, oh yeah, we'll solve the bin crisis.Don't worry about that.All you've got to do is re -elect us as the local council.

So they're basically asking for a bribe.They're basically saying to the public, if you vote us back in, we will fix the bin problem, which is pretty disgusting.And also Ed Miliband's in the papers today being blasted for having no solar panels on his house, his 1 .6 million pound house in North London.It's in an area where solar panels are granted to people who want them.And they're even given a grant if you like to get them.But Ed Miliband, the man who is net zero obsessed, doesn't have any.

Isn't that weird?He doesn't have an electric car either.If you remember, he's got two kitchens as well, one for him and one for the nanny.Heaven forbid he ends up becoming the prime minister of this great country of ours.Also, by the way, We have hit the magic number of 157 ,000 subscribers this morning.So please remember to go and like the channel and subscribe to it.

It's called the Mike Graham Show, of course, because everything that you do to help us will eventually help the channel and will eventually increase the algorithm and make more people aware of what it is that we do.What was that about the clock?The UK clock on the left, international clock on the right, please.Well, that's the right way around, isn't it?That's exactly how it is.Does it not look like that to you?

What's happened to the two clocks?Well one of them is on Chagos Island time, which is the international clock, and the other one is on local time, which of course is London time, 7 .46 and 14 seconds, or roughly that.Let's talk to Dr Gavin Ashington and see what he makes of the situation currently going on in the UK.Dr Gavin, a very good morning to you sir.Hello Mike, good morning.Very good to see you.

Obviously an awful lot of people are a little bit obsessed with the King's visit to America at the moment.You're obviously formally associated with the Royals.What do you make of it all?There's an awful lot of people it seems in this country who are so kind of deranged about Donald Trump that they don't think Charles should have gone.I think it's a good idea, don't you?Yes, it's more than a good idea.

It's absolutely essential.I don't think relationships between our country and America have never been worse, except perhaps when America sought independence.The king has gone out to try and flatter and charm them.The Americans don't understand the king has no power.They think in Disney terms that he must be a king and therefore be able to do things.But that doesn't matter.

It's soft power.And Donald Trump has a soft spot for the king.So in a way, it's win -win for us if the king can charm the Donald.And there isn't any downside to it at all, I don't think.Unless, of course, you suffer from Trump derangement syndrome, in which case you don't understand what's going on.Yeah.

I mean, this is the thing.So many people in this country do.And so many of those people are involved in the media or politics in some way, shape or form.And they all kind of clutch their pearls when somebody tries to kill Donald Trump for the third time and wonder why these kind of maniacs are being driven to it.Oh, it's worse than that.There was a philosopher, a theologian philosopher on X yesterday who likened the killer to Bonhoeffer.

Bonhoeffer was a famous a resistance leader against the Nazis, a very honorable man.They hung him from piano a fortnight before release.And one of the things he did was he said, sometimes you have a moral duty to kill a tyrant.It's a big ethical, controversial thing.The idea of comparing a man as dignified and as extraordinary as Bonhoeffer, who was dealing with Hitler, with Trump, and this weird teacher,just shows you how far derangement syndrome has gone.

I mean, you know, it's a joke when people call, when the left call people Nazis and large figures Hitler, but it isn't a joke.They really believe it.It's a state of extraordinary madness and it makes it very difficult to have sane conversations with people who suffer from that kind of mental derangement.It is very difficult.I mean, Zach Polanski, who I've decided we should call Mad Dog Polanski, although somebody said, how about Dangerous Dave?I mean, he actually gave an interview the other day in which he said, that he couldn't really understand people who had right -wing views and that he couldn't really understand what they thought and why they thought what they thought.

And he said, I think we have to consider constructing a society without them.Those were his words.And I thought to myself, I don't know what he means by that, but it doesn't sound very good.I think we're suffering a kind of social and political schizophrenia with two sides of the personality pitted against each other and unable to reconcile.I mean, there's a point where we've been laughing at it.We're still just about laughing at it.

But there's a serious threat of civil war hanging around, firstly in America, between the red and the blue states, in terms of complete economic disparity.You've been describing Los Angeles and the level of inequality chaos in the blue states is really terrible.But also there's the threat of civil war here.We have a professor of war studies saying we're nearly at stage five in his civil war progression list.Ireland is at the same place.If in that very charged political context you have people who so demonize the others that they begin to enter into the realm of madness, we're in a really serious situation.

If you're dealing with sane people, there are things you can do to try and make things better.But if you're dealing with the insane, things get out of way beyond our control.And I mean, the Labour government isn't much better.removed from that insanity, because you've got now Keir Starmer on the front pages this morning, basically trying to save his own skin, ordering his own MPs not to vote him as a possible, you know, breacher of parliamentary standards, not to let him be investigated, because they want to pretend that the There's nothing going on.And actually, it's all a political stunt by the Tories to try and somehow wreck their chances at the polls on May the 7th.Well, I've got some news for Keir Starmer.

The polls have already been wrecked for Labour government by the Labour government themselves.And at the end of the day, all of these people who keep going out and telling lies to the public on various different forms of media, and I'm talking about politicians like David Lammy, people like Stephen Kinnock, who was rolled out yesterday, to say, oh, there's nothing to see here.And then sort of pretending that, oh, it's nothing like what happened to Boris Johnson.You know, that was really serious.Cake gates.That was terrible.

But this is nothing at all to worry about.I mean, I find it's almost as though they've nationalised lying.It's very difficult because if you say that we're in a situation where one side has gone mad, but it's calling the other side mad, it feels like an exchange of insults, but it isn't really.It's a serious diagnosis of a political and a sort of psychosocial condition.But the fact is they really, they accuse us of being, well they accuse us essentially of being bad, but bad and mad.But it is in fact the left that's lost touch with reality and it's difficult to know apart from to tell them.

So I mean, which is why it's a very good and real thing that the King has gone out to do some soft diplomacy.He may be able to save the Falkland Islands, which is a very big thing.Donald Trump isso cross and wants us to pay a price for what he considers to be quite reasonably, are treachery and betrayal.And if the price is the freedom of the Falkland Islands, well, it's a very serious issue.And so the king's gone to do something really quite serious, something he has no power to do politically, but he's got the power in terms of, I suppose, cultural charm.

Well, this is an enormously important event.The idea of the left to say he shouldn't go because a madman rushed lacks security.and was brought down.It's just, it's a complete disconnect.So, you know, good luck to the King.There's every chance that he'll get on with Donald Trump, despite all the fact that Donald Trump has been hugely disrespected when he came to us with a state visit.

Let's hope that if the fate of the Falkland Islands hangs on it, the king can actually exercise some charm.It'd be quite good to have a reasonable trade agreement so we don't find our own cost of living going up too.That also matters, and that's something that the king can achieve.Again, it's ludicrous to say, well, he shouldn't go into circumstances where there's been a degree of political excitement.Yes.No, quite.

But the bad news for those of us who think that we don't wish to have a recession in this country is this figure that's just come out today from Lee Nallingham, a man that we have on this show on a regular basis.He studies the Office for National Statistics and their statistics.And they've come out with one last week in which it said the government in the last two years has borrowed, wait for it, 284 billion pounds in the last two years.284 billion quid.I mean, that's extraordinary, isn't it?I mean, the whole thing is extraordinary.

We're living in a time where things get more extraordinary and more alarming and then eventually more, you know, this is a piece of economic madness by the day.I suppose the good news is maybe we've got till 29 to try and survive and then one hopes that a degree of self -respecting, self -interesting sanity will come on the electorate here and they won't get a whole hog and go for the Islamic green alternative.But we live in very dangerous times.And all we can do is to go on telling the truth as much as we can.And the sane will listen to the sane and we'll take responsibility.Well, I'm going to finish with showing you somebody who is not telling the truth and who is incapable of doing it.

And he is, unfortunately, you have to admit, the deputy prime minister of this great country of ours.He is David Lammy.This is what he had to say yesterday.about Keir Starmer's predicament.This is a political stunt.by the Conservatives to keep this thing running.

And why do they want to keep it running?They want to keep it running because we've got local elections.They don't want to talk about that.Even Boris Johnson allowed himself to be investigated.Let me make this point.Standards in public life matter.

Of course they matter.And this is the Prime Minister who came to office promising to do things differently, saying, I will lead with integrity and transparency, and is now about to order his MPs, reportedly, to block an independent inquiry into his conduct.Do you want to see how that looks?Hang on.We've got a humble address that is producing documents as a result of Parliament.We have a Foreign Affairs Select Committee.

It is crystal clear that the Prime Minister did not mislead Parliament.That has already been established.What is the basis for this new inquiry by the Privileges Committee other than a political deliberate attempt to harness a committee onto this issue to muddy the waters before a local elections?It reminds me of the...Sorry, Mike, go on.I was going to say, I find that quite disgusting, actually.

It is disgusting.At a comic level, it reminds me of the general, his name was Ali, I think, in the Iraq War.Comical Ali, yeah.Comical Ali was, you know, we're winning, we're winning a great victory, everything is absolutely fine, you know, we're really kicking American arse that, you know, you could believe us, it's absolutely true.There's a level of desperation, which would be comic if it wasn't so tragic and affecting us.And again, as always, It's the attempt to scapegoat and to blame others in order to hold on to power.

I mean, there come moments when I think these people should be locked up for a crime against democracy because they've taken it too far.And it seems as though, you know, you look back fondly now on the sort of Alistair Campbell Blair days when lying was at least something that people were ashamed of doing.Now they just do it as a matter of course, you know, and as you say, Comical Ali, my favourite clip of him was saying the Americans are not coming anywhere near Baghdad, even as the tanks were coming behind him, rolling down the street, you know, with American flags coming out of them.But, you know, it's, I mean, I said this yesterday, about something else, but it's like a sickness.They're all suffering from this inability to tell the truth.And they seem to think that that's acceptable as a political manoeuvre.

Well, I completely agree.We've entered a period of social life where we're really quite ill.We're ill economically, we're ill psychiatrically, and we're being led by people who are so desperate for power and also so consumed by hatred, I'm afraid, that they will do anything.They'll tell any lie at all.And, you know, post -COVID, when we gave them power over us to lock us up, it's an alarming situation.We have to do everything we can to restore democratic

balance and normality.And it's not going to come from the left, which is in hock to this terrible grand deception.Yeah, absolutely right.Dr Gavin Ashton, brilliant to talk to you as ever.Thank you so much for spending some time with us.Always very commonsensical and absolutely straightforward and a man of great honour as well.

I don't understand what's happened to our political class, particularly the lefties, particularly the Labour Party, who have just told one lie after another.Let's have a look at this just before we go off for some more news with Edward Hughes, who seems to be having a bit of a difficult day.This is a collection, a summary if you like, of things that Starmer has lied about.Have a look.We've had a referendum.We shouldn't have another referendum on the same issue.

Whatever the outcome, there's got to be a referendum.Remain should be an option, and the Labour Party will campaign for remain.We have left the EU.There's no case for going back to the EU.I oppose HS2 on cost and on merit.Every Labour leader since then, including me, I took over in 2018, has supported HS2.

We do support it.I'm not going to rank Jeremy Corbyn.He's a colleague, he's a friend and he's led us through some really difficult times in the Labour Party.He was never a friend.No, not in the sense that we went to visit each other or anything like that.Trans rights are human rights and I support The right to self -identification.

We don't think that self -identification is the right way forward.I don't think you can simply do away with any assessment.And those assessments are appalling.And I would scrap them, just like Becky would.Scrap the assessments, scrap the sanctions, scrap universal credit.Freedom of movement will have to end as we leave the EU.

We have to make the case for freedom of movement.And we have to make it strongly.Freedom of movement has gone and it's not coming back.What now?Um...about we just scrap Keir Starmer?

Is that possible?I mean, there must be some mechanism by which we can do that.Scrapping Keir Starmer seems like the best idea I've had all day.We've got a poll currently going on, by the way.The poll says, what was the most shocking death of all the deaths that have happened over time after that assassination attempt on Donald Trump?The third assassination attempt on Donald Trump, by the way.

And the nominees are, number one, JFK, John F. Kennedy.Second, Diana, Princess of Wales.Third, Michael Jackson.The King of Pop of course, I'm giving them all titles.And finally Starmer's integrity which seems to be leading at the moment with 58%.The problem is of course that some have made the point he didn't ever have any integrity.

Well yes I know that and we know that now but he claimed that he did.He said he would rule with integrity and transparency.It would be the end of sleaze.It would be the end of self -serving ministers helping themselves to all sorts of goodies that they weren't entitled to.And within literally a week of him getting into power in July 2024, Keir Starmer, it turned out, was getting his clothes bought for him by Lord Ali, getting his glasses bought for him by Lord Ali, using Lord Ali's penthouse as an office space and possibly even a place to stay when his wife kicked him out, a place where his son could live.He was using Lord Alley's house down in Kent with a swimming pool for parties.

And he was getting free tickets to football.He was getting free tickets to Taylor Swift.So we knew straight away that he was basically lying all about what he was going to change about the way that Britain was going to run.And nothing has changed.In fact, if anything, it's got worse.Unbelievable.

It's coming up to just one minute past eight, not only on my clock here in London, but also on the Chagos Islands International Clock, where it's a little bit later.It's just after one there.So if you are planning on heading to that part of the world, you'll need some support.more than likely.Let's get Edward Hughes with some news.Good morning, I'm Edward Hughes.

King Charles has jetted off to the States for a state visit with Trump.Palace sources insist the King will keep calm and carry on because dodging bullets is just another day in the royal diary.Back home, Sir Keir Bell End is facing a sleaze probe vote over whether he twisted arms to fast -track Peter Mandelson.Number 10 calls it a desperate Tory stunt.Of course it is, darling.Everything's a stunt until it's not.

Treasury's also said no extra cash for NHS staff or teachers.Yes, Jimmy Hill.Iran's messing with your mortgage.And someone's suggesting a sugar tax on milkshakes.Because when the world's on fire, what we really need is the government telling you your strawberry freakshake is problematic.Please remember to like and subscribe.

Laters, tigers.Chippendales.Yeah, he was here for that.The Stranglers, about time.Amazing.Delametri.

Delametri, yeah.Around here we've got Alanis Morissette.We've got Tracy Chapman.I mean, amazing, isn't it?This one is fantastic.Rolls -Royce, Shalamar and The Real Thing.

Tony Denton Promotions.I wonder who that is.Never heard of that.It's just amazing, and there's no 0171 numbers, that's quite old.And then, this is the entrance to the stage here, so you can see through there.So I'm going to walk through here.

Well, we're going to have a lectern over there.Pooch is going to be producing up somewhere up here.There's going to be a desk scenario kind of here, and then we're going to have a couple of sofas over there where people can sit.and chat and you know Interact with each other.We're gonna do plank of the week probably on the sofas plunk of the week.Maybe as well a lot of equipment over here There's a clock.

We need more than one clock that way.We need the international clock We'll bring the international clock and set it up somewhere maybe behind us But I just I love it.I just fabulous, you know They talk about the smell of the grease paint and all that but you do you feel fantastic when you come to a place like this Look at the sky.I mean, there's lights up there, there's a gantry, there's a mirror ball.They're actually showing World Cup football here at some point during the World Cup, obviously.Fantastic, isn't it?

And so many bands have played here.I'm literally walking on the same stage as Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin.You know, I don't need to do anything else now.I can die happy.We'll see you on May the 6th.Today's Meltdown isn't about Keir Starmer.

Surprisingly, it probably will be tomorrow.But you can't do it every single day, can you?No, today I'm going to do something slightly different.And it will be something, I hope, that will resonate with an awful lot of you, people in particular who drive cars.You know, we've already had the nightmare of the London closed down, shut down for the marathon.We talked about that yesterday.

But it's not about just that.It's about the fact that car driving now in this country is becoming more and more difficult.And the government doesn't care.Yesterday for example, and this is just one tiny example, and I'm sure most of you will be able to find any number of other examples yesterday I went to go to the gym as I do on a Monday and so I got on a bus and the bus washalfway to the station that I was supposed to get an underground train from and stopped and the driver said this bus is on diversion in fact it wasn't the driver it was an automated voice that said this bus is on diversion and whenever it says that I always think okay well that's fine maybe you could tell us what the diversion is and in the past whenever I've asked bus drivers what the diversion is they don't know they can't tell you and they say I'm just following the signs somebody's put some signs up I thought that was a bit odd.So I went to the front.

In fact, I got off the bus because I thought if I'm going to bid on diversion and it's not going to go to the station, I'm just going to get off and walk.So I said to the driver, is this bus still going to the station?And he went, no.I said, fine.In that case, I'll walk.And as I walked down the road, and it's Jamaica Road is the road in question in Bermondsey, which is a very, very sort of busy arterial connecting road, which takes people from basically Greenwich to London Bridge, which is quite a busy thoroughfare.

Lots of people, there's lots of buses that go down it, there's at least five different buses that use it.There's all sorts of problems on the road already because, thanks to Sadiq Khan, the road that used to have two lanes on either side, which meant that buses and cars could live quite happily together and it wasn't congested at all, it's now congested all the time, because of course what they did was they split it into three.A bloody great cycle lane on one side, a traffic island for bus stops, between that and the eastbound carriageway which is one lane only for buses and cars and then of course the westbound carriageway on the way to London Bridge also one lane only for buses and cars.You can't even use a kind of alternate intermittent traffic light scenario so that cars could go round if there's some kind of blockage because they built a hugecurb, which is about a foot and a half tall, like that.So cars can't get over it.

And it turns out they closed Jamaica Road, not because there was a car accident, not because there was a hole being dug, but because there were two vans parked there, which were from Thames Water.Now, you can see the road there.The blue fence and the red and white striped fence is over a bit of the pavement, which they were digging up.There was nothing that the road needed to be affected by.There was no reason to have the fence going into the road.I walked past it and I looked and the hole was very much on the pavement side, on the right hand side of the curb, right?

So they could have put those Thames water vans around the corner and they could have fixed the hole, whatever it was, in the pavement without having to shut down the road.But they didn't care.They just shut down the road and it was shut for the entire afternoon, meaning that the traffic in the whole area was completely screwed up.And it means that basically, and I put out a tweet about it, And Thames Water actually responded to the tweet and said, could you please give us the location and we'll see what we can find out about this.You kind of go, well, sorry, have you not got any kind of ability to check where your people are digging up the roads and where your people are stopping anybody from doing anything?Have you not got a record of that?

And they asked me bizarrely to answer them on this thing.You know that method they've got, Pooch, of trying to find out where you are?What's it called?It's got something like, where are we?Let me see if I can find it.Yeah, no, it's it's it's got a name.

It's like the three what's it called?What's three words?Yeah, which I don't even understand, you know So it asked me to fill out what three words to locate where it was, which I didn't know how to do So I didn't do it right instead.I sent them a message saying where the location was And it said thanks for the info Mike.Could you pin the location?on this thing here?

And then said, feel free to respond when you can.One of our team members will get back to you.Well, no, I don't want to have a long going conversation with you complete plonkers.I just want to know why you've had to shut the road down, right?And what they've done is they've sent me a link to the same place where I couldn't figure it out before.What three words?

I've got three words for you.Piss right off.How about that for three right words, right?So of course this morning I come out, I come to work and it turns out that the thing has now disappeared.So they were there till about six o 'clock yesterday evening which is one of the busiest times and they've now disappeared and they've no doubt fixed whatever it was that they thought they couldn't fix before.But it just shows you and I keep getting reports, I mean every time I come to work I have to go past two or three different temporary traffic lights.

Down in Sussex, whole sections of the A21 are closed off or blocked by temporary traffic lights, which make a journey that should take, say, an hour from Chumpage Wells take about an hour and a half.I hear from people all the time now that London's completely gridlocked at this time of the morning.You can't get east or west.You can't get north or south.You know, we had Russell Quirk complaining about the traffic in LA.It's really, really and utterly ridiculous.

How about this from Patrick Knight?They're doing the same on Streatham High Road, a cycle lane wide enough for a bus.And that is the point.You just cannot, for the life of you, get from point A to point B anymore.It is absolutely and utterly ridiculous, right?And I don't understand why we keep putting up with it, because it's costing money, it's costing commerce, it's costing all sorts of people.

I mean, the people on the street, for example, on that section of Jamaica Road, were all in despair, because suddenly now there was no traffic going past.So buses were not going past, and people weren't getting off buses, people weren't getting on buses.people weren't using the takeaway food sections.You know, it's death and destruction to the economy.We've already heard this morning about how this ridiculous government of ours has borrowed 248 billion.Clare's Accessories is shutting down again because they can't make any money.

We've got a story this morning saying that three restaurants and pubs are closing every single day.And it's not least in part due to the fact you can't get anywhere.So people just don't bother going out because roads are closed.You know, even if you're trying to use public transport, you're trying to use buses, the roads are shut.You can't get from where I live to the local underground station without walking.I can walk because I'm reasonably able -bodied, but not everybody can.

People who are disabled, people who are older, people who need to be deposited right by the train station because that's where they need to go.Yesterday, they couldn't do that.And I think it's a disgrace.I blame Sadiq Khan for what's going on in London, but it's not just him.It's all over the country.And it's got to stop.

We're literally strangling our own ability to make money in all sorts of ways.And one of the ways you can make money is to get in a car, go to work, deliver things, and manage to do it in a reasonably quick time.That is now impossible in this country.And that's why I'm having a meltdown about it.Now, you might think that that's something to get annoyed about.But I'm about to speak to the lovely Marilyn Hawes, who's going to join us.

And she's got something to be annoyed about as well.Marilyn, very good morning.Nice to see you.I wanted to get that off my chest about I mean you know Thames water right dig up a road and shut it what are you doing with your camera well yeah I mean it's true it's everywhere you go I mean we I you know my xenophobiavillage.Yes.

Oh, there's my big fat face there.God's sake.How is the xenophobic village?Don't do something with that face.There you go.Well, just move back a bit.

You'll be fine.What's going on in the xenophobic village?Oh, for goodness sake.What's the news?Yes, that's better.Leave it there.

There you go.Don't touch it, right?Leave it alone.What's the news?What's the big news in the xenophobic village?what we've got, we can hardly get out of it either, because we've got Nodeworks everywhere.

four -way traffic lights it takes to go two miles to the next village it's taking about half an hour it's just ridiculous you're absolutely right Mike you're also right about restaurants and everything you know I love fish and chips and I don't know if you think I read the other day because I've just come back from Bermuda and I read the other day on the plane on the paper it said thousands of fish and chip shops are going to be closed because of they can't get them going because of the cost of all the fuel and everything I know we don't eat fish and chips from oil as, not petrol oil, but you know, it's dreadful, the impact on the economy and the actual, the actual, what do you call it, hospitality industry.Sorry, I'm a bit numb this morning, not through alcohol, but jet lag.Yeah, yeah, absolutely.It was an absolute joy to go.I mean, I go over there quite often.I'm lucky enough to have a very wealthy daughter.

I don't have a pot to piss in.We should cut down on the booze.It's okay, it's fine.I wish I could show you, well I can show you next week because it's the 6th of May, isn't it?Yes, you're coming to the live show.We're getting a special

escort for you so you don't go too early as it were.I've got a little surprise for you as well.Have you?Excellent.Good to hear.You go over there to Bermuda and there are two very opposing stories.

It's ever so funny actually.You never hear of sex assaults against children.You don't hear of rapes.It is the safest little country.I shouldn't be saying this because everybody will go there now.It's the most incredible country to raise children in.

Kids are kids there, do you know what I mean?And they are completely safe to walk around.You would never go to a county fair here and let your children wander around with a £20 note and see you later kids in an hour.You wouldn't risk it.Somebody would be getting raped at the back of a tent.You know what I mean?

You wouldn't do it.It's like the 1970s, it's as safe as houses.But what is the opposite thing of that was a friend of my daughter's lives, well, they all live near the ocean, you can't get away from it.But she went down to the beach one day, and she found this enormous, her boys found this huge black plastic package.Wonder what that is, opened it up and it turned out to be $20 million of cocaine.Wow.

Well, I mean, that washes up on the south east south coast of Britain every now and again, doesn't it?Probably every day.But what they do, the fishermen over there, a little bit corrupt, they go out right into the sea, where it's arranged that, you know, these ships with the transporting drugs, they drop it in the ocean and then they rock up and get it.And obviously this one went wayward.But what...So what did they do with it?

He must have had a good weekend.Did they hand it in though?oh yeah they did and they didn't get you know they should have got a reward for it shouldn't they they should have absolutelyBut that's another thing.But I, you know, going back to be less jolly, I'm really serious about this.I just want to talk about a little bit, just for two minutes, about the nonce party.

Who was the nonce party?Come on.Who?Are you asking me?Yeah, I'm asking you.I'm not taking over the show, Mike.

Well, listen, if you want to call somebody the nonce party, that's fine.It's not something I would say.It's not something I would identify.I mean, I wouldn't say that any particular party was the nonce party.But you're entitled to have your opinion, so you tell me.Oh, well, that's the Labour Party.

All right.Because you look in all the time, I think there were two Labour councillors I found in the news yesterday, who had been, one of them particularly bad, only given a 32 -month sentence.He also worked for the Select Committee for Children's Services, right?You can find it online.Explicit appalling images, but I won't explain that because people choke on their breakfast.But he was also, oh, he had a 32 -month sentence, oh bless his heart, he had a mental health issue, oh yes, yes he did.

But he also took cocaine and cannabis and lots of alcohol and all of this, but he was on the Children's Select Committee.Then, There's something else online which Labour are trying to take down.There's a website called labour25 .com and that's listing any Labour members that have been convicted of paedophilia over the last few years.This is labour25 .com.

So then you've got two of these cases came up I'm furious about because having gone from where you don't see a Muslim or a mosque anywhere in Bermuda.Loads of other dominations, loads.I've never seenplace with so many churches, but not a mosque.Hooray.You know, there was an asylum seeker who raped a 14 -year -old girl who's been set free, but he's got to have consent lessons.

Well, you know, 14 -year -olds can't consent.Unbelievable, isn't it?It is unbelievable.He wants to go and do what he wants to do, dust the evil, vile, depraved, on a 14 -year -old girl, you know, he's going to have consent lessons.Honestly, goodness sake, why isn't he being deported?He's an asylum seeker, honestly.

And then we've got another one.I saw this last night.I mean, I was so enraged.I came back all happy.You know, I'm quite tanned, actually, but I won't show you the white bits.Thank you.

I appreciate that.It's time in the morning, yeah.But he raped a child, right?And put all this stuff out on social media, filming it all.And then he said, ha, ha, ha, ha, the child deserved it.And he got zero sentence.

And he's another Muslim.You know, when is this going to end?And the reason, you know, going up to the higher echelon, that awful creep called Lord Homer.Yeah, I know, ghastly individual.a vile man. I mean, on two counts here.If you appealed to him, the guy that abused my kids, I appealed when it was Peter I can't remember his name now.

He was lovely.He was a Labour Attorney General.Lovely, lovely guy.And he called up the papers and said this guy's, you know, in our case, unduly lenient, and of course called it up and he went to prison.Can you imagine appealing?Because that's what you have to do.

You have to appeal to theGeneral, and you have 28 days in which to do it.So these cases should all be appealed.But it's going to have to run over the desk of Lord Herma, who being a friend of, you know, what's his name, Starmer, you know, Herma obviously blows smoke up his own backside, doesn't he?He thinks he's wonderful.And then he And then, you know, so he's not going to, like, say, Oh, yes, this is unduly lenient.

No, because he's part of the same nonce party.And then you've got going on about the military.I just, I cannot believe what this man has said, that insurgents did more over in Afghanistan, wherever than our military.How dare he?Yeah.I was watching a Labour MP last night on GB News who was saying that, you know, it's absolutely right that if British soldiers had committed acts which they shouldn't have committed, they should be persecuted and prosecuted.

And I'm going, hang on a minute, you know, first of all, all of these complaints that were made by the Iraqis who were encouraged to do so by Lord Hermer because he was working for Shiner, that ghastly, horrible solicitor who made it all up, right?None of the claims were true.So the idea that you're putting British soldiers through the bringer and putting them through awful horrendous court trials and possibly making them suicidal over something which wasn't even true is disgusting.It is absolutely disgusting because in any war you've got you know, I mean, I think that I don't know I mean, there's nothing pretty about war even in World War one two or ever the trenches.No one's absolutely appalling It's just so awful.Yeah, but you know, but he was the same one Forgetting the military even he was the same one who?

You know approved a loose economy going behind bars.Yeah And in one social media post, anybody could understand her doing it.And she apologized.But in fact, you know, a thing called karma.He's, not Starmer, Karma.You know, it's actually given her a career.

Well, he has.Absolutely right.But here's the thing.The problem is, right, at the end of the day, Harmer and Hermer and Starmer, they're all sort of one person.They're like this amorphous blob of, you know, human rights law.And I had a great conversation, actually, last week on Plank of the Week with Rebecca Butler, who's a fantastic barrister, who basically said, you know, these people are not really that good at law.

They're not really lawyers.They're actually just clerks.who works on immigration panels and that makes them supposedly these human rights experts.He doesn't care about Britain.He doesn't care about British borders.He doesn't care about invasion forces coming here from overseas, whether they be coming illegally or legally.

He's trying to sell off the Chagos Islands.You know, I'm not surprised if they try and sell off Gibraltar, if they try and sell off the Falkland Islands, you know.And now he wants to go after the British armed forces.The guy is a disgrace and he should be out of a job and he should have been fired out of a cannon literally, you know, three weeks ago.he's part of the club isn't he he's part of the same boys club he won't they're all linked together complete with sadiq khan as well there was a post yesterday that he was appealing that oh you know muslims are finding it uh difficult living in england well sod off then yeah because Quite frankly, you know what?We find it.

We find it.What's happening to our young girls and our kids and even boys, you know, at random because they think they can do it because, ooh, they didn't know.You know, they say in the Quran, oh, we were allowed to rape white women.I don't know any, any religion.Well, this is a cult, isn't it?No God, whoever you worship, whatever, would ever, you know, comply with the rape and pillage of women and it's just outrageous.

I thought so but I've got some bad news for you Marilyn, I've got some very bad news for you because ever sincewe promised to give France another 662 million quid, there's a picture in the Sun today of a French warship escorting a migrant dinghy into British waters where they then were able to clamber onto a border force boat and make their way here.So another few hundred came yesterday, there'll be another few hundred no doubt today, another few thousand before the end.And they've got the temerity.Yesterday, I saw another Labour cabinet member boasting about how they've reduced the number of people coming on small boats.They haven't.

It's all absolute and utter rubbish.They actually need to go to spec savers if their site is that bad.I mean, I just don't know how they can keep standing up and saying this mantra.It's about 25 ,000 in and two out, isn't it?And those two are probably the ones that actually said they wanted to go back.I mean, I say it should be illegal to have halal meat because all the Muslims are saying, if you don't have halal meat, we'll leave the country.

Whoopee.That's easy, isn't it?Job done.Indeed.Listen, Marilyn, we've got to run because we've got a busy old show going on.So we've got to run.

But stay strong.Enjoy the old village in which you reside.And we'll see you.You'll get instructions as to when to show up and where to come to on Tuesday or probably maybe even Monday.Oh, good.Excellent.

You'll need a place to stay the night.It's going to be great.Absolutely fantastic 6 or 7 p .m.The doors open I should say on May the 6th and Marilyn will be there plonk of the week plank of the week who knows what she's gonna be doing or saying but it's gonna be great night.Thank you very much indeed Marilyn Hawes ladies and gentlemen always with an opinion that you want to listen to.

Right now though we're gonna go live to Washington DC I'm delighted to say because Rob Jobson is with us.Rob hi how you doing man?Well it's a bit early but I'm justto get this bloody thing sorted out to be honest with you.Yeah, I know, sorry.It's about 3 .30 in the morning or something, isn't it there?

Yeah, a little ungodly hour, yeah, but it's, anyway, I'm trying to do my best.But that's fine, yeah, just, there you go, that's good.There we go, that's better.Thank you so much for doing this for us.I know it's, I know it's late and it's been probably a very busy 24 hours, but it's all going pretty well so far, isn't it?Yeah, I think so.

I think considering some nutter tried to kill the President or tried to have a go at the media or whatever he did 24 hours earlier, I think everything's gone pretty smoothly.Security's good.The King and the Queen are doing their bit.They've had meetings with the President.Well, the King's had meetings with the President.Headlining the Sun is the United King Don, which I think is quite clever.

And, yeah, the message is that the relationship's good.I mean, the Foreign Office don't use the expression special relationship.They haven't done so for the last 20 years, actually.But the relationship is linked, you know, through culture and through, well, just through the links we've had with America, mainly the bucks we spend and the pounds we spend in each other's countries.Absolutely right, and today is quite an important day for Charles and for his speech I guess at the joint session of Congress.His mother did the same I think it was back in 1991, you were probably there for that as well.

I'm told he's going to be making quite a long speech, like longer than the one Queen Elizabeth made which was about 15 minutes, this one's going to be about half an hour.Well, we'll see.I mean, we don't know that yet.All we do know is that they trailed the speech in the papers, giving a little indication of what it's all about.I never quite understand why they do that, because in a way you spoil the story before it actually happens.I mean, so I don't think the papers are gathered.

bites in it but maybe it's because social media will have a go at it but you know after the long speeches then people can read it in its entirety but I'm interested to see the actual detail of the speech because that's where we understand what's actually going on and what the level of Charles's relationship with Trump.I think he will address the fact that the president was involved in a security incident, but we'll have to wait and see exactly what the detail King says.Cooper is there apparently as well, so it shows you that there is some sort of government presence if you like.Yeah, but that always happens.Whenever I keep a state visit, I remember years ago, I don't want to go down all those yesterdays, but I was in 92, the year the Dailoh died, I was in India and Pakistan and Robin Cook came and he had to go home halfway because he got, Alistair Campbell released details of his affair.with his secretary, so the poor guy had to go home and try and resolve it, or at least tell his wife he was leaving her.

But I remember him saying that to me, I don't know what to do, I said, I think you'd better go home, while I'm here with the Queen.And I said, well, you might be here with the Queen, but I think you'd better go and speak to your wife, don't you?And he did, to be fair.No, fair enough.I mean it is obviously it's a very difficult time for anyone representing the government of Great Britain because Keir Starmer is being such a hatch of it all that if you're Yvette Cooper you probably want to keep your head down don't you, you don't really want to talk to anybody.well she could always talk to Ed Balls who's on GMTV or wherever it's called these days and he can advise her.

But the government has to have a representative here, the Foreign Secretary's in that group.Actually to be fair, she's a pretty experienced politician and she's been around the block so I think that out of all the politicians to be with her in this state, with the King in this state, she's probably betterthan he is if it.Cooper, an experienced politician, unlike sort of David Lammy, who's not necessarily the greatest fucking section we've ever seen.Sorry, what other highlights are you looking forward to?there's plenty still to come, but I think the real speech at the congress is really the moment.

Then he goes down to 9 -11, of course he'll pay his respects with the memorial there.He's also doing something that for him is actually very, very important and I'm trying to get some inside track on it actually.It's called the sustainable market development.Now that, I know it sounds a bit boring, but basically for him it's so important because he wants to get hold of big business and say make sure your business is run sustainable and as a result of it there'll be more profit in it for you.Well, he's talking sense when it comes to that.And what about the way it's being covered because we hear, we were speaking to Russell Quirk who's in LA at the moment and how a lot of the media at the moment are obsessed with obviously the assassination attempt and also Jimmy Kimmel.

um who's been talking about Melania and he's got himself into a bit of hot water by saying that you know she's got the glow of a soon -to -be widow or something like that you know um it was a bit I mean it was a bit distasteful Mike but you know Jimmy Kim is a comedian I mean he's not a political commentator or but you know that's that is the sort of nature what goes on in America I think you know the bottom line is when the president went to the Hilton with all his cabinet, I thought it was probably unwise to have so many of your cabinet on the top table, particularly when the actual politics of this country is so diametrically opposed to each other and it's split down the middle.So, I mean, Jimmy Kimmel, you know, whatever really, I mean, if that's the biggest problem they've got, and whether he'd be banned or not, whatever, it seems a little bit daft to me.He's a comedian.Yeah, no, I just wonder if that's keeping the royals off the front page.No, actually, no.Well, they're not really on the front page.

I mean, what's really dominating, I mean, I do a lot of work with Good Morning America and ABC, and what's dominating is the attack upon the President and whose responsibility it was that they got so far.But I think we're missing the point a bit.I mean, I know because we've had a lot of eyewitness reports from journalists, you know, who dramatically saw everything but actually...I was in the facility doing a check on how they did it, their security, for an event I'm running in Westminster, Abbey, where we're hoping to get a royal coming.I hope you come as well, actually, Mike.But they messed it up.

But the bottom line is, it didn't get to the same level as the president.At the end of the day, the security worked.And all the way the journalists were talking, I was there.Most of them were cowering under a table, never saw anything.Well exactly right and I mean that was the problem wasn't it I mean yes he did he was able to break through the the initial cordon but he didn't actually get into the room which is fortunate because if he had done god knows what would have happened but but I mean no no that that's that's the point but the point is security worked one person took a bullet in the chest and then he was wearing a bulletproof vest but none of the journalists actually witnessed the shooter the way it was being described at the time and bear in mind i was there you know i was in the area and not actually in the ballroom but i was in the area um it was like they were witnessing jfk jfk's head you know head was blown off although it is serious the security worked Yeah well I mean one of the more amusing aspects of it was the pictures that came out yesterday of a lot of the journos nicking all the wine as they were about to be relocated to another place and they were just like packing the wine intotheir handbags.

It wasn't me and I wasn't at that particular area.Brilliant.Well, listen, good to see you, Robert.Thanks very much for doing this at short notice.I really appreciate it.Enjoy your time in D .

C.and give our regards to President Trump if you see him.Well, hopefully I will see him, but I would say it's a very important visit.It's very important for both countries to have a be united.And although Mr Starmer has done his best to irritate the president, the relationship between America and Britain goes far beyond politicians.Absolutely right.

Robert Jobson reporting in from Washington, D .C.Great to see you.Thank you very much indeed.Always a voice of reason.Later on today, of course, King Charles will be addressing the two houses, the House of Representatives and the Senate in Washington, D .

C., in the Capitol building for the first time since his mother did the same thing.back in 1991.Mr Gillespie says this on a super chat, Labour candidates in Birmingham yesterday lying to voters about solving the Birmingham bin strike with Unite when they're still negotiating.Absolute gaslighting scum.Well here's the thing, it's worse than that right, because it's Labour candidates and the Labour council saying we will solve the bin strike if you re -elect us.

So they're basically saying vote for us and we'll sort everything out.when they haven't sorted it out for the best part of the last two years.Super chat from BGT.Next time, would the great doctor play some Handel for us on the piano behind him?Who's that then?Is that Dr. Ashenden you're talking about?

Yeah, yeah, maybe next time we'll ask him to do that.Do you think Diana, Prince of Wales, started wokery, says Barker?Well, I think there's no doubt that the death of Princess Diana certainly led to very much a sea change in the way that this country actually reacted to things.And I don't think any of us had seen anything like it.You know, all the flowers that were laid outside Kensington Palace, the kind of, you know, sombre nature of the way that people reacted todeath.

And it was a good, I think it was a bit of a moment in the history of the culture of Great Britain.And certainly it was the end of the stiff upper lip, I think.There's no question about that.So she may not have been responsible for it, but certainly her death caused a very different reaction in this country than had ever been seen before.And I think that's true.We can explore that particular situation much later on.

We're being asked, by the way, if we're going to be covering the Morgan McSweeney appearance in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.That's at 11 o 'clock this morning.So we won't actually be on the air, but we will be bringing you the Foreign Affairs Select Committee from nine o 'clock when it kicks off this morning with Sir Philip Barton.He is the former head of the Foreign Office.He's the guy that was removed or who left before Ollie Robbins came in to basically green light the Peter Mandelson appointment as US Ambassador to the United States of America.So we expect to hear a few interesting things out of Sir Philip Barton's mouth because he, we think, left the job that he was in because he didn't want to do Keir Starmer's bidding.

You might remember Morgan McSweeney was heard to say, just get it effing done, just get it effing approved.And of course, Starmer has been in the shtook ever since then because he's been denying there's any pressure put on anybody, which is clearly a lie, which means he clearly misled Parliament, which clearly means he should be at least dressed down for that and should at least be suspended from Parliament for doing it, if not sacked altogether.We shall see.Let's get some news with Edward Hughes.Good morning, I'm Edward Hughes.King Charles has jetted off to the States for a state visit with Trump.

Palace sources insist the King will keep calm and carry on because dodging bullets is just another day in the royal diary.Back home, Sir Keir Bell End is facing a sleaze probe vote over whether he twisted arms to fast -track Peter Mandelson.Number 10 calls it a desperate Tory stunt.Of course it is, darling.Everything's a stunt until it's not.Treasury's also said no extra cash for NHS staff or teachers.

Yes, Jimmy Hill.Iran's messing with your mortgage.And someone's suggesting a sugar tax on milkshakes.Because when the world's on fire, what we really need is the government telling you your strawberry freakshake is problematic.Please remember to like and subscribe.Laters Tigers!

Loving the new hairstyle from Edward Hughes.I think he's having a bit of a breakdown to be honest.We'll see whether we can have a chat to him later on and see if he needs any of our assistance.Now we're getting very very close not only to an incredible night which is a week on Wednesday which is us at the Sheppard Bush Empire, Mike Graham and friends.It's going to be a night to remember.We've got all sorts of people coming like Right Said Fred, we've got Carol Decker, we've got Stephen Barrett coming along, we've got Will Geddes, we've got Russell Quirk, we've got Marilyn Hawes as well.

We're going to be plonker of the week, playing of the week is going to be great and tickets are still available on Ticketmaster.If you haven't got one yet you need to go and get one.But first, of course, we've also got to get quite excited about May 7th, the following day, the Thursday, because that is when Scotland, Wales and local councils in England get to vote on what it is that they want to see in the future.And what they don't want to see in the future, I can tell you that, is Keir Starmer and the Labour Party, because the Labour Party have been out and about over the course of the last several days saying well there's nothing to see here with this Mandelson inquiry you don't want to get involved in that because let's face it it's a political stunt it's just reform and the Tories trying to discredit the Labour government because they've done all these great things and of course they haven't done all these great things.Let's talk to Darren Grimes from Reform and get his view of what he's expecting which I think is a bit of a bumper Thursday, next Thursday week.Darren very good morning to you, welcome.

Oh, I don't think we can hear you.Have you muted yourself?Let's see.Can you hear him, Pooch?No?I think you might have muted yourself.

No?Still can't hear him.Shall we play a little clip and then see if we can come back to him?Let's play Keir Starmer being interviewed by Cathy Newman.This will make you sick to your stomach.Have a look.

Turns to you and says, you know, enough's enough.this pressure is intolerable.Would you listen to her?I always listen to Vic.I think she was the one in the first place that basically said, why on earth would you want to go into politics?And you answer to that question now?

She is an absolute rock.And I confide in her all of the time.And hers is the best advice.And I'm just thankful that I've got her every day.And at the moment, she's advising you to keep going.She is, yes.

And we talk everything through and it's fantastic.We've got also two fantastic kids, a 17 -year -old and a 15 -year -old.I can't tell you how much joy and happiness they bring.They are my pride and joy every single day.My pride and joy every single day.I listen to Vic.

I mean, you know, is there anyone more pathetic than this bloke?It's ridiculous.Let's try again with Darren.Darren, how are you doing?Yeah.I'm very good Mike, can you hear me now?

I can indeed, thank goodness for that.Yes, brilliant, brilliant.It's the Labour party, it's the Labour gremlins, that's what it is.Yeah, obviously.I mean we keep getting hacked, so you never know when you're going to get taken off air, you know.But listen, exciting times to be in reform, you know, still very much the front runners in all the polls, despite what some people suggested a few weeks ago.

What's the mood like?What are you expecting?And what would you say is a good result for you and one where people might, for example, pick on you on Friday morning and say, well, it wasn't as good as I thought?Look, I actually think we'll get climbing to 2 ,000 extra councillors in England's local elections.Then, of course, in Scotland, doing phenomenally well, becoming the opposition, maybe, as the, you know, tour de force within Scottish politics, which was never meant to happen.You know, they always said that actually this party would never do well in a country like Scotland because I don't know, you'll know this better than me Mike, but they paint Scotland as being some kind of a complete freak within the UK as far as its politics is concerned.

But actually, we all think the same.We all want the same things.Lower taxes.We want law and order.We want an NHS that works.All of these things.

We don't want immigration being prioritized in places like Glasgow, where if you want social housing and you're not a foreign national, well, you can jog on, mate.Right?All of these things are the same in Wales.It all suggests that we want the same.things throughout the United Kingdom.There isn't any special exemption within any particular nation state.

It is the case that we all want a bit of common sense.So yeah, I think in England, climate, 2 ,000 additional councillors, that's extra friends that I'll have alongside me in England.In Scotland, you see us doing really well challenging the SNP.And in Wales, we're going head to head with Plaid Cymru, which the Labour Party are nowhere to be seen.seen.You know, they are so utterly toxic that it looks like some kind of it's 40 years on since Chernobyl.

Well, it actuallylooks like the Labour Party are about as toxic as that nuclear waste, Mike.Well, they are, because there was a time, of course, in Scotland where Labour ran all of Scotland, you know, and they allowed themselves to be overtaken by the SNP because they were very complacent.You know, I mean, they did nothing for some of the poorest areas of Scotland for decades and decades and decades, when all of the MPs from Scotland were from Labour, you know, people like Lord Robertson who allowed Grangemouth to be sold off and broken up and all sorts of inner city parts of Glasgow and Edinburgh where People were living in abject poverty.And I saw it when I was up there working.And they suddenly were surprised when people turned to the SNP, not because they wanted independence, but because they didn't like Labour anymore.

And now it looks as though the worms finally turned.I mean, I read a tweet from somebody yesterday, I can't remember who it was, who said this might be the first election in the history of British politics where the two major parties are no longer the two most popular parties in Scotland, in Wales, and very possibly in England.Yeah, I think that will bear fruit.I think that is right.You know, the old uni party, the two party politics, well, that's died to death.And it's because actually, Mike, their defence of us as the British people, that's died to death too.

They no longer are the the party that actually represents the country.They represent globalists, they represent mass migration, they represent net zero, they represent basically everything that strengthens everybody else other than the nation state, other than the British people.And local politics matters, Mike, right?It matters that your bins get collected, not with ransom demands saying that if you don't vote for the Labour Party in Birmingham, you won't get it.This is desperate stuff.I heard you say that earlier, Mike, and you are absolutely right, you are spot on on this.

It is a ransom demand, this is basically saying.that you will not receive your bin collection if you do not vote for the Labour Party.Well, that's a total nonsense.They got into power.They told us they would stop the strikes, Mike.Sadiq Khan was elected.

He told us that he would stop the strikes on the London Tube.Well, that didn't happen either.They are complete charlatans.They have lost control.The trade unions don't like them anymore.Most of them are getting into bed with that man who thinks he can expand a woman's breasts, Polanka Polanski.

You know, the whole thing is utterly ludicrous and I think the writing is on the wall for the Uni Party.We both know exactly what they stand for and it ain't for us.No, exactly right.And what do you make of the rise of the Green Party?Because I find that kind of baffling in a way.I mean, I know that there are certain people who are easily kind of led and who might look for, you know, some kind of out.

But when you see people like Hannah Spencer, talking about, oh, I can smell alcohol on people's breath when I'm at the House of Commons.But you're OK shooting up some heroin on the terrace if you want to, and you're rolling up a spliff in the Strangers gallery.But the bottom line is that you don't have to dig down very deep to find out that most of their policies are completely bonkers.Yeah, absolutely.I mean, I'd rather have the smell of, I don't know, a Chardonnay on someone's breath than I would the smell of weed.I find the thing so utterly repulsive when you walk around certain streets and you can smell that.

It's absolutely gross.But look, honestly, the Green Party phenomena is, is to me, utterly bizarre because you've either got young people who maybe, Mike, you can sort of excuse and you can say, well, you know, this is the innocence of youth.This is, this is just a youthful dalliance with a rather extreme party but actually when it comes to the middle classes voting for them they think that they're voting for this nice bunch of greenies that care about the environment and maybe want to do somethingdo laudable things like clear up Britain's waterways, but actually it's much more sinister than that.This is a party that I fear has become totally aligned with their Islamo -fascists and people that actually do not share the values of the middle -class greens who maybe are feminists and all these other things, where actually there are far too many ultra -conservative Muslims who would quite like to see women's rights changed in a way in this country that they haven't been for, well, many, many hundreds of years.So ultimately, I think that there is a disconnect between two separate groups within the Green Party, but that is a fragile coalition that will actually come to the fore eventually, Mike, and you'll see one hell of a nasty split within that party because it's an unholy alliance.

It really is.There's no question about that.And what about the ability of reform to sort of, as you say, seep into all sorts of areas where they haven't been before, like Scotland, where they're suddenly becoming what looks like a bit of a force, and like Wales?Do you think there's a possible chance that they could just pip Plaid Cymru at the final furlong?Yeah, I mean, the polls suggest that we are neck and neck, so it's anyone's game.You know, it is actually either us or Plaid Cymru who will be on top when it, in Wales, when it comes to that election.

Ultimately, we've got to get our people out.You know, we've got to be making the message that Plaid Cymru, you know, are a deeply, when it comes to Welsh politics, they supported everything from the 20 mile power roads, they've supported everything that basically has held Wales back when it comes to being a powerhouse within the United Kingdom.So we are making that case day in, day out.We've got a great set of candidates that we've put forward that actually do want Wales to be a serious player within the UK conversation, and we're the only party that can do it.We also want to stop Wales being used, frankly, as a dumping ground for mass migration.And I applied Cymru, I Bet you my bottom dollar will do the total opposite of that.

If you think things are bad in Wales right now, just wait until these cowboys get in.Well, they're into all this sanctuary city rubbish, aren't they?Of course, they are.As Glasgow has been, which has now got Scotland as, I think, the biggest recipient in Glasgow of the most migrants per capita, which is ruining the city.It doesn't matter which way you cut it.It doesn't matter how welcoming you want to be to people.

You know, this is not good for Britain.No, it's not good for Britain at all.And I think actually the SNP, you know, when it comes to people voting for Reform UK, the SNP, as I said earlier, they would champion the message that Scotland would never ever vote for a party like Reform.Well, actually, yes.And it's in large part thanks to not just SNP incompetence when it comes to running the economy, taxing people out of business, the pub closures and all the rest of it.But actually, it comes down to people feeling that they are, when it comes to social housing and waiting lists, not being prioritized over foreign nationals, some of whom have absolutely no rights to be within the UK.

So ultimately, I think people are crying out for change.They voted for Keir Starmer in the Westminster elections, hoping that there would be some semblance of change there.Well, the only change that we've had, Mike, is Keir Starmer takenwe will do exceptionally well and it's because of the fact that we are, in our own nation, second -class citizens.Yeah, we are.And it's becoming clear in all sorts of areas like benefits and housing, NHS and all sorts of different things where people are given priority who shouldn't even be here, which is extraordinary.

Claire Fox is here.She's going to be talking to us a little while about all of that.Plus, we've got Sir Philip Barton coming up at nine o 'clock.We're going to bring you that live as his appearance in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee.We've been told for the best part of the last three days by the likes of Darren Jones, David Lammy, Stephen Kinnock, any number of other Labour Party ministers and or government officials that nobody's really talking about this Peter Mandelson business.You know, it's all a ruse.

It's all just a political stunt by our opposition parties like Reform and the Tories.I mean, what are you hearing on the doorsteps when you talk to people about Labour and the disgraceful way that they've run this government?Look, I think actually you strip it back and you put it back in really quite quite reductive terms, Mike.And what it is, is that basically the Labour Party's policy is to say that if you're friends with a paedophile and you're in the House of Lords, well, the Labour Party are on your side and will offer you a job and bully civil servants in order to get you one.You know, I think that is cutting through.It's cutting through in a way in which actually the championing of Boris Johnson having some cake in Downing Street was put about by Keir Starmer.

And he sort of put it on the National conversation by suggesting that this made clear that the Conservative government under Boris Johnson was effectively corrupt, Mike.You remember it.Week in, week out, this is what he told us.Well, actually, it looks like the Labour Party are totally, totally out of step when it comes to the people's priorities.and prioritization of their mates within the House of Lords getting plum jobs.Well, I actually think that this nine o 'clock session, forget the Morgan McSweeney session, I think you're right to be covering the nine o 'clock session, Mike, because I think this session will make clear that the civil servants were effectively bullied into seeking these jobs for labour maids.

Does that not stink to the high heavens?I think it's having cut through, Mike.It totally does.And also what I find really objectionable is the way that they're playing kind of semantics with different phrases.And it's very clear to me that Morgan McSweeney's phone was probably not stolen, that they deliberately made sure that he called the police to record the fact that it had been stolen.The fact the police have now finally decided to go into Downing Street and ask a few questions to people there as to what they remember, despite the fact that they still haven't produced the CCTV footage from Mayfair of when his phone was nicked.

even though it's the most CCTV covered area in the entire world, right?And it's just a bit too convenient because I believe that every single answer to every single question about all of this and how it happened and how it unfolded and who said what and who did what is all on his phone, right?And amazingly we can't find out where it is and we can't find any of the information that was on it.No, absolutely right.And as I say, going back to the lockdown conversation and the Boris Johnson days, if it was Boris Johnson, one of his staff and their phone had gone missing, honestly, Keir Starmer would be screaming bloody murder, actually.He would be saying, you know, that this is actually a sign of a Conservative government that's totally out of control.

Well, this is a Labour government that's totally out of control.They told us, actually, that they would be a complete polar opposite of what we've been used to over recent years.Well actually no they haven't, they've beenexactly the same.They're covering their tracks.They're seeking to actually see that the British people can't receive the truth when it comes to their actions within government and it feels, Mike, does it not feel to you that this government have been in power for years and years now and that they're running out of road when actually 2024 wasn't that long ago, you know?

It really wasn't, no, but in two years we've learned today from Lee and the Lanningham that they borrowed something like 240 billion quid over the course of the last two years since they've been in and haven't quite been in two years yet you know those are the kind of numbers that you don't recover from you can't actually just earn that money back.You know, the country's on its ass economically.You know, we've got more unemployment coming down the pipe.We've got more closures.I mean, today we've got a story saying three pubs and restaurants are closing every single day.Right.

There's no jobs available for young people coming out of either school or university.You know, everything has basically got worse since they were in charge.And so, you know, I really don't see them lasting until 2029.I just don't see it.No, I mean, one thing that really does get me, actually, is that you're basically okay in British life as long as you're on benefits, right?And the number of residents that I have in County Durham, for example, who say to me, well, the Labour Party are offering schemes on everything from insulating your homes to make sure that you're going to be all right in winter after the Iran war has sent energy bills flying but you'll be all right right as long as uh you're on universal credit when it comes to getting support for uh actually insulating yourself financially from those energy bills as well not just your home but you're actually pounding your pocket too but if you work if you're on the breadline if you're

making as much as some people are in benefits, then you'll get the sweet square root of sod all, Mike.That to me is the injustice in British life today.If you don't work, you get now.If you don't work, you get everything.If you do work, you get now.And if you come here illegally, you get everything.

But if you come here through the actual proper legal channels, you also get now.system totally works against hard -working British people, people who want to do the right thing, people who want to pay their taxes.I mean, I was even reading the paper this morning, Mike, saying that, you know, security guards have been told not to challenge shoplifters.We are a broken country.And Kemi Badenoch turns around and tells us Britain isn't broken.Well, it feels pretty broken to me.

And I'm sure most of your viewers watching us this morning, Mike, are screaming at their screens.saying, how can Britain not be broken when it comes to everything from the mass migration problem, the high taxation, the 100 % of GDP debt ratio, It is broken within the extreme.Nobody recognizes their own country anymore.And this has happened within my lifetime.1993, I was put on this planet.It is a massively different, a vastly different country to the one that I grew up in.

It no longer feels safe.It no longer feels secure.It no longer feels somewhere that you can raise a family and go out and make a decent crust on a with a decent wage and a decent job.You can't expect that anymore.We need fundamental reform.And yes, Mike, I do say that deliberately, pun intended.

Well, very good.I think everyone agrees with you as well.Certainly everyone watching this show.Darren, listen, great to see you.Thank you very much indeed.Good luck with the campaign.

And we'll talk to you, I'm sure, very soon.if not before, on the day after on Friday the 8th of May, which we will be covering, of course, here on The Mike Graham Show.It will take a while for the count to be done because for some bizarre reasons, local elections always take a lot longer to count.So normally by the next day, you're not quite sure how it's all played out.But we can seek the guidance of Baroness Clare Fox, who joins me now.Clare, very good morning to you.

Good to be with you.I mean, that makes you feel old, doesn't it?He was put on this planet in 1993.I was also thinking, I think I met him when he was... 17.He's done terribly well.I still think of him as that young lad.

Well he is.He still is.Relative to me.Certainly compared to us he is.He's gone all grown up and political hasn't he?He's great though isn't he?

I mean he makes perfect sense.What he was saying there is all absolutely spot on.I mean I was just reading as he was saying it that Rachel Reeves is now trying to double the cost of a caravan holiday in England.You know we've got on the one hand we've got Keir Starmer saying oh you might not want to go abroad because of the Iran war.Yeah well if you go on holiday in Britain you're going to get taxed even more and it's going to cost you another couple of hundred pounds.Quinn to pitch up in Dorset or Devon you know with the family and the dog and then when you go out it'll be more tax on the drinking that you're doing and the eating that you're doing.

I mean it's just horrendous isn't it.You're here though of course because of a great many things but we're going to watch together hopefully if Pooch can get the technology working.We're going to watch the Foreign Affairs Select Committee this morning Return of Emily Thornberry who I thought did rather well last week.Impressive.Went up a bit in my estimation it has to be said.Impressive, she's a formidable inquisitor.

She is and she loves it and she obviously doesn't like Starmer very much which also puts her very firmly in our camp.But we've got Sir Philip Barton who's going to be speaking this morning.He's the guy who was the predecessor to Ollie Robbins who sort of left his job as head of the Foreign Office Civil Service if you like.We believe, and we don't know this, but we believe because he was being pressurised.to give Madamson a job.We don't know and that's what will be interesting to hear if he reveals anything.

But he certainly seemed to leave prematurely.He did.But nobody's ever stated why.And the situation seems to be that there's now an argument about the definition of the word pressure.Which is unfortunate because this is now where Keir Starmer's kind of defence seems to be lying.He's somebody's given him a thesaurus and gone, all right, just go through these different words and redefine them and then maybe you'll get off with it.

Although the one thing I'd sort of say in relation to what Darren was just saying was the whole concept of what's broken in Britain makes me feel as though sometimes I do feel slightly distracted by this story.I mean, I know we all want to do over, you know, we don't.The whole nation doesn't.But I mean, there is a sense in which you want Starman to get his comeuppance.But it does feel as though we're being dragged into the procedurals ourselves.Possibly so.

But that's all his fault though, isn't it?No, I understand that.But it's just that I feel like I want to get him on a load of other things.That's all I'm saying.the play on words, the what does this mean?What does that mean?

No, I mean, I think that what might happen is I don't think the vote will go through today.And what's more is I think even if it did go through, I mean, they've just announced three line width.Yeah.I mean, that is extraordinary.Yeah.I mean, they should at least give their MPs the freedom to vote on.

This is a matter of conscience, whoever there was.So that's a sign of desperation.It's actually the number of times that he's phoned MPs and the cabinet ministers have It's almost like stalking or bullying.And in view of the criticism...For most people it would be totally embarrassing, it would be so embarrassing that you would just leave the job.You'd quit, wouldn't you?

But the criticism of government and of the cabinet has been that they're really kind of quite snooty when it comes to backbench MPs.They'll talk to them.Now they're never off the phone to them, but only to save Starmer's life.But all I'm saying is there's the staterotting in front of us.And I just don't want them to get off with that bit.

No, I get that.And it's a good point that you make.And we'll explore that in a minute.Because I think, well, should we do the news first?All right, let's do some news with Edward Hughes, who's had a mohawk.Good morning.

I'm Edward Hughes.King Charles has jetted off to the States for a state visit with Trump.Palace sources insist the king will keep calm and carry on.because dodging bullets is just another day in the royal diary.Back home, Sir Keir Bell End is facing a sleaze probe vote over whether he twisted arms to fast -track Peter Mandelson.Number 10 calls it a desperate Tory stunt.

Of course it is, darling.Everything's a stunt until it's not.Treasury's also said no extra cash for NHS staff or teachers.Yes, Jimmy Hill.Iran's messing with your mortgage, and someone's suggesting a sugar tax on milkshakes.Because when the world's on fire, What we really need is the government telling you your strawberry freakshake.

But I think the thing to do is to remind you that you're no longer a civil servant.So I suppose the first question is, you did have eight months left on your contract before you left.So why did you leave?I'll be honest and open with you, and I'm no longer a civil servant.It wasn't my choice to leave at that point, Chair, and I would have preferred to see out my tenure, but after what I think was a very successful transition to the Labour team in the FCDO, David Lammy wanted to make a change and told me that, and told me he wanted somebody who would lead the department over the years ahead and carry out a major transformation programme.So I agree to leave, and just to finish my thought.

Major transformation programme means what?Means 25 % cuts in the staff?That at the time wasn't on the agenda.because I hadn't been the Spending Review Chair, but it's not that unusual, just to finish my thoughts on this, for a Permanent Secretary to change following a change of party of government.So I agreed to step down in January of last year.I mean, I know that you were really only properly involved in the process for the appointment of Peter Mendelsohn for a very short time.

So I think probably basically December to mid -January.But can I just take you back to a few months prior to that?Before Donald Trump was elected president, we've got Karen Pierce, who's the ambassador.Yeah, I think it'd be good if we could be envisioning, because we might just interrupt it from time to time.With the Biden team and with the Trump team as well.We've got an internal candidate who's been, there's been a process for getting a replacement for Karen Pearce when she steps down, I believe.

So, as I think is clear from Lord Casey's advice to the Prime Minister revealed in the papers given to the Humble Address, the last government decided in the first part of 2024 to hold an internal competition to find a replacement for Dame Karen.And that individual was recommended at the end of that process.But in the end, it wasn't taken forward because the general election was called and the appointment process was frozen under the rules that apply on significant decisions during an election period.So it was...Oh, I see.I didn't realise it was pre -election.

Right.It was before the election.OK, cool.So let's go to late summer, early September.What discussions were taking place about an alternative candidate then?I wasn't involved in any discussions at that point.

Right.And then two months later, we have Peter Mandelson announced as ambassador to the United States.Were you, I mean, at what stage were you involved in aid?Yeah, no, good question.I was first involved when I was in mid -December told of the Prime Minister's decision to make a political appointment as ambassador, and that political appointment was Peter Mendelsohn.So that was when I was first involved.

It was, if I recall right, the 15th of December, so the beginning of the week that ended with his announcement.From the first tranche of the Humble Address papers, we've seen that between November 11th and December 11th, the Prime Minister's PPS and private secretary for the Foreign Office give advice.We see the then -Cabinet Secretary, Sir Simon Case, give his advice, and we see the due diligence carried out by the Cabinet Office, but we don't see advice from you.I mean, it may be for members of the public, that seems surprising that you're not, that, you know, were you ever asked your opinion about appointing Peter Maddison as ambassador?I mean, you were in charge of the Foreign Office.The first I was aware of, of the decision was when I was told on the 15th of December.

The first I was aware of the advice that had gone to the Prime Minister, or indeed that it was being formulated, was when I read it in the Humble Address release papers.I wasn't involved.I wasn't told a decision was coming.Do you expect it to?I think it is.Well, I think two things.

I think one is on the face of it, it is it is reasonable for the head of the Foreign Office to be involved.in thinking around what is our major top bilateral ambassador post.On the other hand, given clearly the Prime Minister was deciding to make a political appointment, I think it is also reasonable that civil servants would not be directly involved in discussions around what is a political appointment because in the end that is a matter for elected elected politicians and I can also see the sensitivity so I'm I'm a bit conflicted I mean clearly I think ideally you want to have a situation where there is a you know tight and small circle of of people who can be consulted on a big decision like this on the basis of...I mean all I'm saying is it's such a high profile appointment of somebody whose nickname is the Prince of Darkness, who you as a party have sacked twice, who's got a kind of reputation, you'd at least think Can we just check if there's anything even more murky?And that's if you don't even count the Epstein stuff.And then the Epstein stuff was high profile, right?

And even if it turns out that he shouldn't have been appointed, or he should have been appointed, he certainly shouldn't have been appointed and given access to all of the documents that he got before he actually even got the job, which was back in December.And then before he was even given the announcement, and before he was even in America, He was given all this access to what they used to call, what do they call it?What is the phrase?Something three.Not plank, it should be plank three.Strap three, which is rather ironic given the nature of things.

But he was getting all this access to documentation that was presumably coming from the CIA, it was coming from Canada, from the Five Eyes and all that.You know, it makes us look like a laughing stock in terms of national security, doesn't it?I think that's one of the things is you just feel as though...There was a cavalier carelessness about the security of the country, which I feel about in relation to the defence spending.I feel as though they don't care about the defence of the country in terms of, you know, undocumented males arriving on small boats.And this is just another example.

But the main thing is, is that it would indicate a lack of maturity in terms of running a country.You're prepared to get your mates in at any expense.I'm not sure about what happens in relation to the vetting.I mean, as you say, there's people all over the detail.There doesn't seem to be any point to it, does it?But that's what I can't understand is, there is a document somewhere with the big, two big red marks, right, that say something important.

It always seems to be ignored.Yeah.Olly Robbins.I mean, it's a silly process, isn't it?Because I'd just like to point out that a lot of the civil servants say, well, we couldn't tell them, we're not allowed to tell them anything.Well, that's a stupid plan.

Well, exactly.I don't care what anyone says, right?He might have been doing his job.I don't doubt that.He shouldn't have been sacked.But on the other hand, no wonder this country gets itself into a mess.

When, if you're trying to be the political leader of the country, the prime minister, and the civil service say, oh no, our protocol is that we don't tell you.That seems to me to be mad too.are they saying?Because actually these are mandarins and we know that there's been a real problem in recent years which is that the civil service at the special services...in some instances, have stood in the way of democratic decisions being implemented.And somehow now we're all worried about them.

And that's because they've been treated badly, don't get me wrong.But I don't want that to be...I want the public to understand the blob is still the blob, right?And they need to do what the politicians say.So the whole thing is just...I actually nominated Ollie Robbins.

Everyone was talking about what a hero he was last week.I actually nominated him for Plank of the Week last week because I said, well, hang on a minute, this is a guy who didn't do what he should have done, which was to say to Sama, look, I'm sorry, there's been a few flags raised about this guy, so I don't think we should go forward with the nomination.But one of the reasons they did it the way they did it was so that he could say to him, yeah, but the thing is, the King's already said yes.America's already said yes.The Trump administration's already said yes.So we can't go back on it now.

They did that deliberately.Yeah.But it's also the case that what you get is he didn't then, when Starmer carried on reiterating it.clarify.That's the one thing I agree with Starmer on.You know, you think at some point somebody in the civil service can say, can somebody have a word with him and say, it wasn't a clean bill of health.

But what I'm saying about the processes that are ridiculous is everyone's watching their back.I mean, it really is plausible deniability.So the civil service have got this system in place where they can say, no, we did this and we couldn't tell you this.And this is the way it happened.I understand that vetting is very sensitive and you can't give them the detail, but the idea that you can't give them a nudge.Surely he should be able to say he's not going to pass without saying why.

And that to a certain extent is what Starmer is saying, so we don't want to let Starmer off the hook.But we also know that there's a different thing at play, which is that Starmer, maybe Morgan Matsuini, whoever, said this is our man, we're having him, whatever.And of course the big issue is they made a very bad judgement call in appointing Mandelson.They should never have done that.all the wrong reasons regardless of whether he went flying through vetting.But this is what annoys me so much, we'll go back to it in a second because we should be listening to some more of this, but what annoys me so much is the kind of absolute and utter paucity of scrutiny going on in the media.

You know Cathy Newman yesterday gets her first show on the road with Sky, gets an interview with the Prime Minister, starts asking him about his wife and whether she tells him that he should stay in the job and he tells her he always listens to Vic and isn't it great.You know, if I was sat in front of the Prime Minister, I'd have at least five questions, one of which would be, why did you seem to be so insistent on appointing Mandelson in the first place?Because imagine if you hadn't bothered to do that, none of this would be happening.I know.And that is the beginning of the sort of the Greek tragedy, if you like, that because he was so insistent, and we still don't really know why, was it Tony Blair that told him?Was it McSweeney?

Was it Mandelson himself?Has he got something on Starmer?You know, all these questions that if you were a proper journalist, you would ask.which is why they don't put me in front of him.Fair enough.I mean, I think I suppose to go back to my theme, though, which is it does seem to me that maybe I can raise one of my other issues.

You know, it does seem to me that Starmer is just an absolute coward.And the only time you really see him with a sense of determination and backbone is in defending himself.Yes.So one of my stories, which Tony Blair reminded me, because it's actually from the Tony Blair Institute, is this important report out from the Tony Blair Institute that indicates that welfare spending is likely to cost us 173 billion.Yeah.If we could make it up.

I know.Four million people are not in work because they're on the sick.Yeah.And sick, being on the sick these days is not actually industrial -style diseases or horrible cancer.It very often is thesemore amorphous and nebulous anxiety, ADHD, mental health problems.

And actually Tony Blair's Institute has rightly said they should be working unless they can prove that they require an exemption.The assumption should be that they're not ruling themselves out of work.Even if they've got ADHD, go to work.And then if it's so severe, get a doctor's note and bring it in, right?And that's important because recently Lord Robertson, not somebody I've ever thought I'd ever agree with, said we need to increase this absolute complacency about defence spending.And where are we going to get the money?

We have to tackle welfare.And what do we know about Starmer?He's lost his bottle on that.They won't tackle it.They won't do it.That's what I mean about the serious matters of state.

No courage.But he's on the phone.with huge courage fighting off Kami Bandhanok's attack in the Commons about him.And claiming that, you know, he has to do that because, you know, he was elected to rescue Britain from whatever mess it was in and he's supposed to be fixing it.Well, he's not, is he?Well, I went through every barrier to get Mandelstam appointed.

But they've also borrowed.I mean, that's a big number, £175 billion or whatever it is.But we're now told that in the past two years alone, they've borrowed £280 billion.And what's more is, you know, I'm doing a book launch tonight of an important book called The Crisis in the Classroom, How Special Needs Explosion is Destroying Education.It's not just welfare.Schools are being destroyed by the number of people who have been statemented as having some kind of SEND, right, the special needs crisis.

Although the schools get extra money for that though, which is one of the reasons why there's so many of them.No, but they're being destroyed because if you're a teacher, you've now got so many people with individual special needs that you have to cater to, according to the school, that you can't just stand in front of the class and teach them.So in that sense it's destroying it.And it's teachingyoung people.But they've destroyed it from within.

Yeah.They're being socialised into thinking that they're not well.So it starts very early on.And I'm just making the point these are big issues.We saw the courage and determination of this government to get Mandelson appointed as the American ambassador.They know all this is happening, by the way.

They know there's a problem in schools.They know there's a problem with the welfare spending.And if they'd only shown that much determination to get that sorted as they have to sort out Mandelson.As they did with the defence as well.Let's go back and have another listen.We're listening to the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Emily Thornberry in the chair.

This is a guy called Sir Philip Barton.night a decision was taken in line with the guidance that he should be given access to the building and access to the paperwork.Is it all working okay?For example, you know, the UK government's preparations and policies towards an incoming administration and I was given that advice and I endorsed it and I, you know, I signed off on it and I think it was the right thing to do to make sure that, as I say, the Prime Minister's choice for ambassador was properly prepared when he started his job.I think it would be very odd not to do that.It does look odd, though, because he's got a green pass, which just means that he's got DV.

And he had a DV pass on the very day that, according to the DV people, he should be recommended to not get DV.So on the day that Ollie Robbins is making his decision that it's borderline, Mandelson is wandering around the Foreign Office with a DV pass.There's a photograph of him going into the Foreign Office on that day.I mean, I don't know the answer on the actual type of pass, and it was clear to everybody, and I can't quite remember what the letter from the Foreign Office last night said, was that it was, I think,clear at the time, was that he didn't have DV, and there were limits to what he could see and told.And again, I do think this is in the letter last night, but I can't quite remember.

I do think there was a process in place to tell people who were going to brief him that there was a certain level of classification they could go up to in talking to him, and they couldn't go beyond that because he didn't have DV clearance.Just one final question.Just coming back to the answer you gave to the Chair about your leaving your post.You said it when David Lammy told you that he wanted to make a change because of the transformation programme.Do you believe that your concerns about the way in which Peter Mandelson had been appointed had any influence on the decision to ask you to leave early?No, for a simple timing reason.

I announced to the department I was leaving on the 4th of November 2024.I didn't know anything about Mandelson until the middle of December.So the answer is straightforwardly no.Afri, you wanted to follow up?Yes, thank you.So I just wanted to check with you.

I mean, obviously, despite being head of the diplomatic service, you obviously hadn't been asked by Number 10 or the Prime Minister directly or indirectly your view on Peter Manderson's suitability for the role.Had you been, would you have wanted to raise or would you have said you had concerns about the reputational risks that he carried?I think that is genuinely a really hard question to answer because hindsight is a fantastically wonderful thing and it is hypothetical.But let me have a go at what I was thinking at the time.Firstly, it's just wonderful.repeating, at no point did anyone consult me, ask me, I was presented with a decision and told to get on with it.

There was no space for dialogue.You know that.I think, look, it is the most important job we have.I had been I had been deputy ambassador, I knew the U .S.well from 10 years previously, and obviously worked a lot in the United States throughout my diplomatic career.

So I think I had a sense and an understanding of U .S.politics, which gave me an idea of what might or might not be a problem further down the track.I had a concern at the time, it was a part of me that had a concern at the time that, I don't know anything that wasn't in the public domain, obviously we know now a lot more about Mandelson's links to Epstein, but I had a concern that a man who, demonstrably from the public record at the time, and it's clearly much bigger than we all knew, had a link to Epstein, and that Epstein, through both the presidential election campaign in the US, and more generally in US politics, had been and was a controversial figure.And I was worried, I was worried that this could become a problem in future, not because I was expecting that we were going to find out more, because to be honest, I wasn't and who would necessarily know, but much more, I just thought that it was a potentially difficult issue politically in the United States.So that is a very candid account of probably what I was thinking.

So he's basically saying, by the looks of it, that, you know, he knew that Mandelson would be a problem.without even knowing all the stuff that we know now, just from knowing what he knew then about him having to leave two different governments, having been involved in some way, shape or form with Epstein, but he wasn't clearly asked his opinion.and he was just told as in his words to get on with it.Yeah.So, I mean, he wasn't asked his opinion.You could say, well, that is not the job of civil servants to offer their opinion there.

But as he had been a deputy ambassador in America, you'd think that for good relations, you'd have the chat.You would.But it's also the case that I just think that everybody knew that bit about Dodgy Mandelson.So for me, and it was very, they'd obviously decided, right.I remember when Maurice Glassman came, and in fact he's now made that very clear that he sent a note to number 10, just said when he went to America, in America, MAGA people, people around Trump, were saying, this guy is an absolute nutter.they were saying that he was a pervert because he had hung out with Epstein and things.

The idea that the British government thought he was a good idea, that's the bit we can't get our head around.It's like what made you think?But that's why my question to Keir Starmer, if I only was able to give him one question, would be why were you so insistent on having this man who everybody told you was a risk?From David Lammy to Ed Miliband to some of the civil servants, why were you so insistent on having him?That's the thing is and then if you said no our instinct is that we've got a dodgy Trump as the president in their eyes, right?He'll be able to deal with him Machiavellian.

Yeah, our Peter.We just call him Peter.Yeah, and as I said once recently and well, you know Fine.Then can you just check what he's been up to recently, please?And we have a security service that knows how to check things that the rest of us wouldn't know how to check.And we still have to go back to the lies and the deceit from Keir Starmer's office.

You know, we still have Keir Starmer's first impression and first defence line, which was Peter Mandelson lied to me, which he was then followed up by saying, oh, actually, I never spoke to him.Well you can't have both of those can you?But it's also the case when he says Peter Mandelson lied to me.Yeah.You think oh shocker from the locker.What do we all know about Mandelson?

That's exactly what we know about him.So the idea that I mean vetting is not like Peter.Have you got any dodgy, secret, naughty things you've done that you'd like to share with me?He's not going to go, oh, all right, I'll tell you everything, right?That's not how vetting is done.You can talk to the individual, but that's a secret service leaning on you slightly going, we know quite a lot about you.

Is there anything else to tell us in secret?It's not the same as getting on the phone and saying, it's like one of those things like saying, are you, have you ever been a terrorist?No.That's what people tend to say, you know what I mean?Exactly, when you fill out the visa form.You know, yeah, 2011, I was happily, I had my spiker.

I was watching a show probably a couple of weeks ago and there was, I think it was a Labour MP who had been in some quite high civil service job at some point or other and she talked about going through the vetting process and how they went all the way down back into her days as a university student.They looked at her student loan to see whether it had been repaid or whether, you know, it was quite a detailed sort of, you know, deep dive into what your past will show up.And the idea that, you know, Ostama's defense is, oh, he lied to us.No, that doesn't wash.No, exactly.And his reputation was that anyway.

So I just think that they they believed so strongly in what they were doing that they pushed him through.And it's obviously some part of a network.I mean, that's I don't like to get conspiratorial.There's obviously some kind of a network.They felt this was a group of people who were You know, when I went into the Lords, one of the most disconcerting thing would be you'd walk around the corner and there would be Peter Mandelson.And he was like lurking, like a dark presence.

And he was kind of, this was when they were in opposition, when Labour was in opposition, he'd be like standing at the corner.He never spoke when I was there, but he'd stand and lurk.and kind of look over.He got the impression that he was very much, you know, don't say that, don't say that.That was the way he operated, right?You know, he knew I was he wasn't friendly with me.

But what I'm saying is he, he has, that's what he's known for.Right.And he was obviously part of a group of people lurking.Yeah, definitely lurking.Yeah.But there was a group of people who used to meet actually in Roger Liddell's house, Lord Liddell.

Yeah, they're all Lord.Anyway.And Wes Treaty used to go to those meetings as well as Morgan Matsuini and various star men and all the rest of it before they got in power.Yeah.And they'd have a pizza every week.Apparently, this is all in those books that have been written about the Labour Party, and they'd plan how they were going to win the election and take over.

Mandelson was part of that.Which is what they did in the 90s.There's a group of people right now.Well, it's what they did in the 90s.By the way, that's how, you know, that's how Cameron got elected because the Tories had the same sort of, I can't remember, was it Notting Hill bet or whatever?They used to do it, right?

So I get it, there's plots, but all I'm saying is they are all connected to one another.But as I say, for me, Despite that, the bigger problem is that Labour have been such an atrocious government beyond all of this.Yes.And we shouldn't let them off the hook.And in every particular, I mean, there is no aspect of it that's any good, you know.And you want to talk about the the safety, the online safety bill and the whole idea of this, you know, age verification and all of that.

Because again, without anybody really watching, they've kind of introduced a lot of this stuff.without telling anyone.My attempt here is to be even -handed.The ban on social media for under -16s, which I have opposed, I'm afraid, sadly, I've been the only person who's spoken against it in the Lords, so I've been a forlorn voice.I think it's ludicrous.I think it won't work, under -16 -year -olds won't be kept safe.

It will lead to digital ID for adults because there's Yeah, because you have to do it, right?But it's also the case that they're about to bring in, allegedly, voting for 16 -year -olds.16 -year -olds need to be able to negotiate and navigate.Although I saw the other day, I saw the other day...And they look like they might back off now.They're going to back off from that, yeah.

Because they think that...They're all going to vote Green.Exactly.But the reason I want to say this, the Tories have pushed this and pushed this and pushed this.to the point, and I can't understand it, it's a censorious, ridiculous policy that's become fashionable because everyone's read one book, Jonathan Haidt's book, and they say the evidence is in.It's much more contentious than that.

The evidence is not in that young people looking at social media makes them mentally ill and all the things that are being said.And now what's happened is that because we're in, you know, ping pong before prorogation, it looks like they have forced the Labour government to do a U -turn and to agree.So it's the Labour Party who is trying to say, no, we don't necessarily want to bring in a ban.It's the Tories who forced a ban.Completely liberal, ridiculous situation.And just the final thing to say is the Labour Party said, no, it's very important we don't bring it in until we finish our consultation.

Now they've said, OK, we've agreed that we will bring it in and it doesn't matter what the consultation says.So if anyone wants to know whether consultations are worth doing, obviously not.No, because the government have now just announced no matter what happens in the consultation, They're still going to bring it in because they've been forced to by the Conservative Party.And I do think that Cammy Badenoch's made a real serious error here.They're all obsessed with it.Keep children safe.

And no disrespect, because of course I agree with keep children safe.I don't think this will keep them safe.But you can rest assured wherever you hear that, think of the children, that some attack on our free speech online and sent it to the police.the corner and that's exactly what will happen.But this is again what the government is proving itself to be which is a government by deceit a government by kind of subterfuge, you know, everything they say they're going to do they don't do.The things that they do say they want to do are not for the reasons they say they want to do them.

You know, everything is kind of, you know, in a prism of bullshit.They can't hold the line.They can't hold the line.Because they can't get anything done despite the fact that they've got a massive majority.They have no authority.Starmer, I don't know what he thinks is going to come out of this day today.

that he thinks he's going to have won some victory, because he hasn't.Because it's still going to be an absolute bloodbath on May the 7th.You can have power, but you can't have authority without the consent of the people.You're only in that job because the demos have allowed you and put you there to take control.the population are tearing their hair out saying we don't trust you, we don't believe you, you're u -turning all the time.Then you can strut about the place but you've got absolutely no authority.

He did that by the way interview at the weekend in the Sunday Times I think.Which was ludicrous.It was ludicrous but one of the things he kept saying was there's a lot more support than you think amongst backbench MPs.Well that's not, what about the country?I mean it's not to do with the backbench MPs.Well I mean the latest, and I said this earlier, the latest sort of you know you know, line that the Labour government were putting out yesterday was nobody's talking about this.

You know, Darren Jones said, oh, I had a, you know, a town hall meeting in my constituency and over an hour and a half conversation, nobody asked about Peter Mandelson.Well, one, I don't believe him.And two, he probably said he didn't want to take any questions on it.That's not the point.Everybody's talking about how useless Keir Starmer is and how Peter Mandelson only just happens to be a kind of a symptom of the uselessness of the government.I talked to a Labour Party canvasser yesterday.

He's a mate of mine.And I said, how's it going?He said, not good.And I said, are you getting a hard time on the doorstep?He said, I don't get near the doorstep.They're chasing me off.

It's that bad.Exactly.So I don't think people are talking about Mendelsohn on the doorstep because they're basically not talking to Labour canvassers.They're not getting past F off.No, exactly.And that could be, by the way, from the Islamist independents.

It could be from the mad anti -Semitic, trans -inclusive Greens.and it could be from reform, it could just be from people who just say I've had enough.Labour Party are not going to do well in these local elections no matter what.There is nothing that they can do to bring it back.It doesn't mean that it's going to be a great success for those of us who want to really shake things up politically because there'll be a lot of horrendous councils elected.Yeah, no doubt.

But that's democracy for you.But there's also already a lot of horrendous councils.Look at what Birmingham are doing.Birmingham coming out today or yesterday and saying, well, make sure you re -elect us and then we'll sort the bin strike out.Well, hang on a minute.You haven't sorted it out for two years and now you're telling us you're going to sort it out if you get re -elected.

I mean, it's literally straight out bravo.I actually think that the Birmingham example is a perfect example of where they've lost control of the city as well, as we saw from the whole Aston Villa match.scenario where the police and so on effectively collaborated in making a Jew -free zone, that match, banning the Israeli team and so on.And the council just kind of like looked the other way somehow, it had nothing to do with them.And they've introduced ridiculous low traffic neighbourhoods and all sorts of things.Like every other match.

But they have been boasting about how well they've done it.So you know there's a lot of things.It's not good.Anyway.Let's go back and have another look at Sir Philip Barton and see what he's saying.The Prime Minister said at PMQs last week that, quote, no pressure existed whatsoever in relation to this case.

How can that be squared with Sir Ollie's evidence last week where he said that there was no pressure?sense that there was an atmosphere of pressure?I don't think it's for me to do evidence squaring and obviously there's going to be other conversations around this and you know I don't know who may or may not be asked to consider it in more detail.I'd have to ask you what do you actually mean by your question and the reason why the reason I ask you that I'm not being difficult because I think there's two possible questions here.Question one is Was there pressure on the substance of the DV case?Question two is, was there pressure to get the DV case done in a particular time frame?

And they are different time frame.Sorry, they are different questions.And I'm worried.Can you give us two answers?I can give you two answers.I actually wrote down two answers there, because I think there are two questions there.

And I do think some of the problem with them is people are talking past each other, because they're actually talking about different questions.things.Anyway, I can't find my answers, but I'll give them to you anyway.Should I just carry on?No, carry on.Answer one is, during my tenure, I was not aware of any pressure on the substance of the Mandelson DV case.

Question two, was there pressure?Absolutely.And I've described it, and I also have seen what the Foreign Office said to you last night and recognise what is said in that letter about the pressure to get it done by DV clearance by a particular time scale.As I said to you earlier, I don't think anyone could have been in any doubt in the department working on this that there was pressure to get everything done as quickly as possible.And I recognise your distinction between time pressure and...Because actually that's the same answer.

It's not two different answers, because if there's pressure to get it done quickly, then the inference is that you want it approved.You don't want to get it done quickly to not have it approved, do you?Well, we also, in this magic world now,which is what we're all trying to interpret, which is if you're under pressure to sort out DV clearance, but say, for example, he doesn't pass DV clearance, and then the processes of the foreign office says you can't tell anyone anyway.Yeah.What's the point of that?

What's the point of any of it?You're putting under huge pressure.Get it done.Get it done.Get it done.And then you say, we've got it done.

Actually, it's a bit dodgy, but we can't tell you that.So we're not going to tell you that.So it's now done.Yeah.And they say, don't worry, because we've already appointed him anyway.Yeah, exactly.

None of it makes any sense.No, that's what I'm saying is, that's why I don't like it, because you can just go round and round and round trying to work it out.And you can see, I mean, Emily Thornberry is, as we know, famous for her infamous, snobby, flag history.And there's a lot of things I don't like about it.But at least she's trying to be forensic.But you can just get completely tangled up in it.

And in some ways Starmer is relying on that.Which is what they're hoping for.We've got apparently Bridget Phillipson's now being wheeled out this morning to say it's a political stunt.So this will be their narrative from now until May the 7th, obviously, no matter what happens, right?And they're hoping that we'll all get sort of lost in the weeds, aren't they?Yeah, I actually think they will.

They won't even be frightened by this process now.And of course, they've then got Morgan.Matt Sweeney about to come up, he's the loyalist of them all.He won't give up anything will he?No, the opposite.He's the young man, clever by all accounts and all the rest of it, who's been the architect of starmarism.

I mean you could say he's got to be accountable for that.But again, people say he's a great genius.Maybe he was good at getting elected, but he didn't have to be very good at getting anyone elected to beat the Tories in July of 2024.And everything that then happened wasn't very clever.But that's a really important point.When we keep hearing about their major majority, we shouldn't fall for their hide.

I'm not saying you have, you've just pointed it out.You sometimes forget how thin that vote for a Labour government was.It really was, people were hoping that the mainstream party, led by Keir Starmer, that the grown -ups would be back in the room, it would be sensible, it would calm down from the madness and goodness knows there'd been enough betrayals and chaos under the Tories.And, you know, they'd kind of run out of steam.So within minutes, within minutes, it seems to me, they were destroying themselves.And I do think we forget, you know, it's not just the winter fuel allowance.

I mean, the attack on farmers.Well, hang on, it started in the first week with Lord Alley.I was going to say, the sleazy stories of glasses and suits, going to concerts and all the rest of it.They looked like, oh, we're in power now.And they just completely forgot that they'd been so self -righteously standing on the moral high ground.It's been, yeah, we can.

I mean, are we going to do news?What are we doing?We can do Star Wars lies.That's always a good one.We've had a referendum.We shouldn't have another referendum on the same issue.

Whatever the outcome, there's got to be a referendum.Remain should be an option and the Labour Party will campaign for Remain.We have left the EU.There's no case for going back to the EU.I oppose HS2 on cost.and on merit.

Every Labour leader since then, including me, I took over in 2018, has supported HS2.We do support it.I'm not going to rank Jeremy Corbyn.He's a colleague, he's a friend, and he's led us through some really difficult times in the Labour Party.He was never a friend.No, not in the sense that we went to visit each other or anything like that.

Trans rights are human rights, and I support the right to self -identification.We don't think that self -identification is the right way forward.I don't think you can simply do away with any assessment.And those assessments are appalling.And I would scrap them, just like Becky would.Scrap the assessments, scrap the sanctions, scrap universal credit.

Freedom of movement will have to end as we leave the EU.We have to make the case for freedom of movement.And we have to make it strongly.It's just, I mean, you can't make this stuff up.It really is extraordinary.I know you've got to go soon.

We'll leave it there, I guess.I want to say one thing is they're about to betray Brexit.Yeah.I mean, the great lie of all time is that he led the second referendum campaign.He was very much part of that movement.And then when he stood in the last election, and I remember saying, do they mean it?

Are they seriously?Their manifesto promises not to go back on Brexit.And then they brought out a document, a huge, I read it for no apparent reason, thinking it might mean something, called Taking Back Control.The nerve of them, right?I mean, just in that little small collection of clips there, everything he has ever said, he's completely and utterly reversed his policy.Also, it's the gaslighting.

It's the fact that he looks you in the eye and says, no, this is what I've always thought.I've always thought this.Jeremy Corbyn's a friend of mine.Oh, no, not really.He's not really a friend of mine.Trans rights are human rights.

Oh, I've never thought trans rights.We don't believe in self -ID, you know.But on the other hand, we're also, by the way, he says these things definitively and then they wobble, don't they?Yeah.They still won't bring out the guidance on the Supreme Court issue on gender and sex.But the reason I was saying about Brexit is one of the things that has happened is they have now just basically admitted we've abandoned the working class in this country.

The Red Wall had gone.Do you know what I mean?We had a moment where we thought we'd flirt with, you know, being the Labour Party again.Well, it's like they lost Scotland, right?They're now about to lose Wales.They've lost the Red Wall.

So the only thing they've got left, basically, is what they built on from 2019.Putney.Yeah.It's the identitarian youth.And of course, now there's a new kid on the block in the Green Party.And they can't contain that.

So they're done.They're dusted.Stick a fork in them, as we say.Clare Fox, great to see you.Sorry.Can we finish up with that?

All right.We won't worry about the news because we've just brought you all the news you need to know.But Claire, very good to see you.Thank you so much.It's been great to be here.Great to see you as ever.

We'll finish up with a little cheery pooch's pooch of the day.It's actually my dog Ziggy, who was gifted this very, very lovely herring, which he's now completely and utterly destroyed.So we're going to be asking you to send in another one and check this out.He's literally destroyed it.Look at the size of those paws.Can I leave now?

Yeah, of course.No, I don't mean, can I leave?Thanks.Thanks, both of you.Not at all.Great to see you.

Ziggy, so if anybody can figure out what that herring was, somebody very kindly sent the herring in for him.Maybe you can send another one because he's done that one in.He's mullered it.as Pooch would say.Thanks to everyone for being part of the show today, thanks to Claire, thanks to Russell Quirk coming in from Los Angeles, Robert Johnson coming in from Washington DC of course as well, Marilyn Hawes, she's going to be at the live show on the 6th of May which is next Wednesday of course, thanks to Pooch, thanks to Charlotte, we'll see you tomorrow morning at 7am.Why don't you relax and be a bit more MG, that would be a triumph.