Episode 144 – Crying Over Spilt Milkshake – May’s Deal Again, Partly Global Broadcast, EU Elections, Tatton Spiller on The Breakdown

Released on Tuesday, May 21st, 2019.

Episode 144 – Crying Over Spilt Milkshake – May’s Deal Again, Partly Global Broadcast, EU Elections, Tatton Spiller on The Breakdown

Episode 144 – Milkshake is the new weapon of progress, Theresa May still has no new ideas, and apparently there is politics happening in other places in the world too, calling for an overdue Partly Global Broadcast. Plus Tiernan (@tiernandouieb) speaks to friend of the pod Tatton Spiller from Simple Politics (@easypoliticsuk) about his new book The Breakdown.

BUY TATTON’S BOOK FROM THESE TAX AVOIDING BASTARDS HERE:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Breakdown-Making-Sense-Politics-Messed/dp/1783964235/ref=sr_1_fkmrnull_1?crid=1GXN9PD1KC3OH&keywords=tatton+spiller&qid=1558390725&s=gateway&sprefix=tatton+spi%2Caps%2C227&sr=8-1-fkmrnull

HOW DOES THIS POLITICS THING WORK THEN?

‘How Does This Politics Thing Work Then?’ at Quarterhouse Folkestone on May 25th

And at Underbelly Festival at Southbank on May 30th and 31st

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Further Reading


Transcript

Ep144

 

 

Hello and welcome to the Partly Political Broadcast podcast, the podcast that takes a sideways look at politics, but that’s mainly because politics appears to be lying face down, waiting to die. This is episode 144, I’m Tiernan Douieb and yes, that is an intro line I’ve used before but I’m following the example set by the Prime Minister and novelty winter hat on top of a scowl Theresa May who is bringing her 3 times rejected deal to the Commons. May says it’s new and improved, which will excite far right Brexiteers who are hoping it’ll be for a whiter than white Brexit, and the PM insists the bill will be a bold offer, which is very likely just a reference to changes she’s made to the text formatting.

 

It’s EU elections week and they’re either about to happen or have happened depending on where you are in your week when you hear this, or if you’re from an alternate multi-verse where the Conservatives managed to actually go through with Brexit in March as they planned, they’re still about to happen or have happened as chances are you’ll have emigrated to an EU country in order to, you know, still eat things.

 

So, what does May offer the public in an election her party have repeatedly said is pointless? That’s right, consistency. Didn’t like her deal before? Well you’ll very likely still hate it when it returns in June, but in these turbulent times, maybe it’s just that sort of certainty that we need and will pull everyone together? Is she planning to actually change the deal at all? Is the Prime Minister even really hoping it goes through, or is the notion that it’ll just keep popping back for a vote, every few months, Theresa May’s way of giving a schedule to an ever-flailing country? No of course not, it’s because she has no other ideas and no one else does either and this is the Sisyphean nightmare we all deserve.

 

Cross party talks failed with no deal at the end of them, with each side blaming the other in what I like to call, the same storyline but again and this time even more boring. Labour leader and exhausted shrew Jeremy Corbyn said the talks had gone as far as they can, which I imagine means 5 minutes of polite chat followed by each leader looking at their phones for an hour till they’re allowed outside. He said the talks failure was down to the government’s increasing weakness and instability, which is an exact reversal of May’s old campaign slogan strong and stable, leaving us with the sort of narrative arc some Game of Thrones fans would sign a petition about. May of course said it was Labour’s fault as the lack of common position in their party had made talks difficult. But Labour do have a common position, it’s just a sort of tantric one that involves them going to extra effort so they can constantly screw themselves. So, the deal will return in the week of June 3rd, a week that also has a visit from US President and infected arse implant Donald Trump, the Peterborough by-elections & the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. But what better way to honour the Normandy landings and those who died in the second world war, than by giving a state welcome to a white supremacist sympathizer, having a battle to replace a black official, and voting on a deal to remove the country from its European alliances. It’s like celebrating the 1833 abolition of slavery act with a workfare scheme, or the great fire of London by handing out free shell suits and space heaters. If the country survives that week, there’ll probably be memorial celebrations about in 75 years’ time and refer to it as bidet on account of the shit that we managed to get through.

What would be a good celebration of the liberation of Europe from a despot would be if June 6th is the day May resigns, as she’s expected to go regardless of if her bill passes or not.

Former foreign secretary and half shaved honey monster with a head injury Boris Johnson has announced he will be standing in the Conservative party leadership contest, probably in order to spend less time with his families. It was an incredibly unsurprising announcement and Boris is the favourite to be new leader according to a poll of Conservative members. I suppose if you’ve already given up on the party, why not elect someone who will completely quash any last dying embers by clumsily falling on top of them while shouting something about Churchill. That’s if there’ll be a party left for Johnson to be the leader of. Dog strangler Michael Hesletine has announced that he’ll be voting for the Liberal Democrats in the EU elections, saying that his party had become infected with the virus of extremism. Can you really become infected if you’ve been a carrier for that many years? Hesletine’s announcement has sent shock waves through the Conservatives as none of them can believe a high-ranking member would want to work with the Lib Dems, again.

 

But why not when their EU elections slogan is bollocks to Brexit, which is either an aggressively anti-Brexit slogan or a very pro-Brexit one for nudists. When on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, party leader and Vizzini from the Princes Bride Vince Cable talked about their slogan and said bollocks on air, on BBC, in the morning. Many, like myself, were very surprised as really someone should have said that on the Andrew Marr show before, probably Andrew when speaking to nearly every single guest every single week. Vince also defended the Lib Dems time in the coalition government by saying that people are reappraising its achievements. He’s right. I mean we all still think it was a horrifically shit time, but we’ve realized that without the Lib Dems the Tories are even worse than that. They were the least shit of two hugely shit options. Like diluting your mug of turds with a bit of steaming piss so it’s not quite as bad as a full mug of turds. But regardless, it’s nice to know though that by electing the Lib Dems to MEP seats where they’d only operate inside the EU for however long we remain within it, and they’d have absolutely no part in the Brexit negotiations, that somehow you’d be saying bollocks to Brexit. Like how if you got a job as a cinema usher and while there you showed people to their seats, you’d be an active campaigner against the monopolization of the film industry by Disney. Passive protesting for the win.

 

While Hesletine said he’ll be voting for the Lib Dems, 62% of Conservative voters say they’ll vote for the Brexit Party, because nothing says put out this fire than embracing some fire lighters and a blowtorch and jumping into the flames. Brexit party leader and the missing link between something sticky you found on your shoe that time and that unpleasant feeling you get in your gut if you go over a bump too quickly Nigel Farage is under investigation after failing to declare being given nearly half a million pounds in funding by billionaire made entirely of neck Arron Banks. Farage denied he was given any money by him, then when it was proved he did, admitted it but said that he wasn’t in politics at the time, you know except for the MEP job he’d been hired to do that he’s trying to get re-elected for all over again. The funding included a chauffeur driven car, rent and bills on a £4.4m home in Chelsea and private flights to the US to meet Trump supporting politicians. Because hey, how are you meant to challenge the elite if you don’t research your enemy and the way in which they live their elitist lives? Right? It’s just immense undercover investigation of the sort that anyone looking in that isn’t the elite can totally see. I mean how can you prove you’re a man of the people if you can’t look at the people from the window your Chelsea home and sneer at them as they walk past before calling security just in case because some of them aren’t white and they’re just a bit too close? It’s just cos Nige cares so much about doing what’s right that he has to fly privately anywhere as how will he really know what the people need if he has to actually talk to any of them? An investigation into the funding of the Brexit Party has been called for as there are concerns that it’s financial structure, or rather lack of, could lead to foreign interference in the elections or money laundering, which completely misses the point that I’m sure that’s what they set it up for as why else would you willingly assemble a collection of melted versions of Tussards chamber of horrors to spend weeks bleeting loudly at crowds of people they obviously don’t like? Farage said the accusations were disgusting smears, which is weird as that’s exactly one of my many preferred ways to describe him.

 

At a Farage rally in Edinburgh, police asked a local McDonalds to stop selling milkshakes out of concerns they may be thrown at the party leader in protest.. It didn’t stop someone absolutely dousing him in milkshake in Newcastle though, leaving Nigel looking very shaked up, like a twat who got the cream. Farage said he will be prosecuting the milk chucker, because he likes crying over spilt milk. The throwing milkshakes at fascist trend is growing, as UKIP candidate and man who has the face of someone who’s been banned from going near any of his local schools Carl Benjamin, had four milkshakes thrown over him last week during campaigning. You think he’d be able to take a joke right? Though to be fair, it might’ve been more powerful if protestors had shouted ‘I wouldn’t even milkshake you’ at him. Some far-right commentators seem to think that chucking milkshakes are just one step away from throwing bricks, like they’re a gateway glug but I think what that mainly shows is that their politics are so flawed, they’re scared of anything that has consistency.

 

At the other end of the political spectrum, Change UK aka The Independent Group aka My First Politics Project show that their name, or at least their latest name seems to mainly represent their candidates mind sets as their lead candidate in Scotland, David McDonald a man who looks like the sitcom version of a construction foreman, has quit. He is now endorsing the Lib Dems instead, the party of sloppy seconds, on account, he said of the CHUK’s not standing much of a chance. Party leader in all but title and man made entirely of un biodegradable materials Chukka Ummuna said it was disappointing that McDonald had let his fellow candidates down. Oh, that’s funny Chuks, you’re saying that abandoning your party isn’t a good thing? Hmmm. Meanwhile another of Change UK’s candidates and what if Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster were merged in a teleportation accident, Rachel Johnson, has said that the party is a sinking ship with a terrible name. Well at least once its sunk no one will remember what to look for and won’t waste time searching for any survivors. The biggest tragedy of the party is that they haven’t been filming and documenting their journey so that they can edit it afterwards and win lots of comedy awards. I mean, just look at the speech made by Joan ‘always looks like she’s just made a pie out of her victims’ Ryan where she asked the audience to look at their hands, before telling them that’s where the future is. It would’ve been better to either get them to place their faces into them or have them stare at their feet as she quietly shuffled off instead.

 

Heidi ‘always looking like a headshot from a staff page on a website for a corporation that does something vague about consulting’ Allen challenged Nigel Farage to a debate but he declined, asking who she was. While it could be a valid question from anyone else, it just shows that Farage is too scared to debate someone he doesn’t know incase it might be a child or a name of a table with various statements on it that could easily defeat any points he has. Still, I think it should go ahead, but only so I know I’ll be able to avoid both of them by not watching just one channel.

 

The Institute of Fiscal Studies is launching the UK’s biggest analysis on inequality and claims that widening gaps in earnings are making a mockery of democracy. Well it’s nice to know it’s in line with the political parties we have. This comes as the government reveal that female unemployment is at its lowest since 1971, but also that 4m people are in poverty despite having jobs. Hooray for equality! Now even more woman can earn not enough to live too! ITV show known for exploiting and abusing people with mental health issues and those on benefits, Jeremy Kyle was axed last week after a contestant committed suicide a week after recording. This is long overdue and I can only hope that at some point soon Kyle is interviewed by a presenter who keeps circling him, telling him he’s a disgrace, that he’s let his family down, asking him how he’ll sort his life out now he’s unemployed and making him do a lie detector test. Conservative MP and definite human disguise for an alien Damien Collins was one of the MPs calling for the show to be cancelled saying that its cruel to vulnerable people, which upsets him I guess because yet again someone’s trying to steal his party’s brand.

 

Number 10 was lit up in the sort of green you’d find in the chamber of horrors apparently to mark the start of mental health awareness week. That’s a great call. Why not make people really aware of mental health issues and the dire state services are in, by choosing to spend a ton of money on green lights instead of social care. The government have decided to renationalize the probation service after the part privitisation initiated by, you’ve guessed it, now Transport Secretary and freezer burnt cod carcass Chris Grayling, were a costly failure. Maybe we’ve been getting Grayling wrong all this time. Perhaps Chris Grayling is a secret socialist spy. Maybe he’s just biding his time in transport until all the railways are nationalized too, before heading over to energy. I’m sure its actually just that he’s so bad there’s no other options but on that basis alone, I hope he becomes next Conservative leader and most of the services in the UK should be in public ownership by the end of the year.

 

The Conservatives have rejected adopting the All Parliamentary Group on British Muslims definition of Islamophobia, saying that it would inhibit free speech, by which you know, they mean the free speech to be horribly Islamophobic. Do you remember when Labour had their own definition of what anti-Semitism was and were pressured into accepting the IHRA one as their refusal displayed clear unacceptable racism? Well this isn’t like that at all, because that was a code defined by the highly respected International Holocaust Remembrance Association and was widely agreed by many to be a defining notion of what anti-Semitism was and this, well this about Muslims so the Conservatives couldn’t give a shit.

 

Across the pond in the US, the state of Alabama has passed a law banning abortion in almost all cases including incest or rape, because as the state with the 2nd highest amount of gun violence last year, they’re just in desperate need of fodder for their killing sprees. 31 of Alabama’s 35 senators are men, and the four female ones did not back it. The law may not pass through court and Trump has not fully backed it saying that he is pro-life in all but three exceptions, rape, incest, and protecting the life of the mother, leaving out his other pro-life exceptions of anyone in Iran, black people and any illicit children from any of his mistresses.

 

And lastly, former Prime Minister and tenderized Iggle Piggle David Cameron has announced the title of his forthcoming autobiography that absolutely no one has asked for, and it’s called For The Record. I’m excited to see exactly which record he means. The one for quickest cowardly escape after fucking everything up? The record of tax avoidance sums hiding in the Caymans? The record of most pigs shagged? Most like a deflated balloon? I’m excited to find it in a charity shop and not read it and just put it in a bin. And lastly Britain came absolute last in the Eurovision song contest despite singer Michael Rice, a man who looked like the nightmare Sam Smith has about himself, trying his best which was shit. We probably should’ve sung a cover of Should I Stay or Should I go? The event took place in Israel, with the message Dare To Dream for this year’s show, just you know, don’t dare to dream of a 2 state solution or the liberation of the people of Palestine apparently. Madonna, dressed like she was trying to escape Immortan Joe, protested against the Israeli government by singing like she was trying to destroy their ears and then having two of her dancers wear the Israel and Palestine flag and embrace each other, which is a lovely gesture as if only any Palestinian could get that close to Isreali leader and anemic goblin Netenyahu they may be able to take him out.

 

 

ADMIN

 

Hello podchamps, how’s tricks? Or for any of you that aren’t magicians, how’s things? I shamefully watched Eurovision on Saturday despite the boycott that many were doing in support of Palestine and I had a few people on Twitter call me a scab. They’re not wrong but part of me can’t help but feel that me not watching a show wouldn’t have made any difference to anything, and in fact its 100% likely no one would have noticed that I wasn’t. But me watching and regularly tweeting about the oppression of Palestine throughout? Well still no one cared, but I think it hopefully reached a handful more people. I always think of a lovely story about excellent comedian Robin Ince, that I’ll probably tell badly, but of him turning up to host a charity gig for the Red Cross only to find BAE systems were in attendance. He panicked, called champion political comedian Mark Thomas and asked if he should walk and Mark said no, do it but make your point, so Robin walked onstage, talked about the work the Red Cross do and then said ‘and thanks to BAE systems as without your horrific weapons the Red Cross wouldn’t have anything to do. I’m probably wrong, but feel free to not write in and tell me. The Eurovision did force Israel to have a ceasefire with Gaza after things kicked off last week, so maybe the best thing to do is campaign to have a Eurovision every week resulting in ever lasting peace? Ok, I’ll stop on this now. My moral compass is such a mess. I’m mostly socialist but I really love trainers. I want to save the environment, but I also want to book some flights to go away on holiday for a bit. I very much want the Conservative government to fuck off and Brexit to be resolved in the best way possible, but also if that happens I’ll lose a lot of jokes and this podcast will get fairly dull. It’s tricky being selfish huh?

 

Tell you what though, I am loving this tackling fascism with milkshakes though, and again, as was the theme this weekend, someone told me that we should be better than that in fighting the far right. Really? Milkshakes aren’t violent, unless the recipient is lactose intolerant. The only reason I could see against it is that you’re likely giving business to global corporations like McDonalds which isn’t great, unless you use a Yazoo which is in a hard plastic bottle so does then become violent. Plus you’re endorsing the dairy industry in a world where veganism is increasingly important. So I guess you could throw a dairy alternative but they’re quite pricey, so then suddenly you’ve made tackling fascists elitist? Ice tea? It’d have to be herbal though as proper tea is theft. Oh, it’s all very hard. I mean obviously the best thing would be if they weren’t empowered by a failing democracy, and a media who seeks ratings over information but hey, for now, I think milkshakes are ok.

 

Essentially what I’m doing this week is making poor excuses for my shitness and what I should be doing is saying a big ol’ thanks to you lot for being here again, even though impending EU elections will render this week’s show semi-pointless in but a few days. If you are listening to this on Saturday, enjoy the smugness of hindsight. Thanks this week to Dave for donating to the Patreon and if you too would like to buy me a drink for this weekly jabbering, you can do that monthly at Patreon.com/parpolbro or also monthly at ko-fi.com/parpolbro or a one off if I only deserve one drink ever. If handing over your hard earning moolah ain’t a plan, please give the show a review on whichever pod app you use or just spread the word. This show didn’t win anything at the British podcast awards last weekend, or even get nominated, or probably even vaguely thought about by anyone there, but on the plus side, that means this show is super underground cool and cult and hasn’t remotely sold out, so if that’s how you want to tell other people about it, you go nuts and then when it’s really popular you can all tell each other how you liked the way it used to be but now I’ve ruined it, then start a petition for me to remake loads of it.

 

On this week’s show I’m speaking to friend of the podcast Tatton Spiller from Simple Politics, who’s now been on this show three times. He’s basically the Partly Political Broadcast version of Farage. He has released a book so I talk to him all about that, plus a bit about the kids shows we are doing which are happening in Folkestone at the Quarterhouse this Saturday 25th May and at the Underbelly Festival in Southbank on the 30th and 31st May. Please come. Please. I’ve popped the links in the podcast blurb bit so you can buy tickets for you and your tiny people while listening. As well as just promoting things I’m doing, there’s also the return of the Partly Global Broadcast for a quick catch up on worldly happenings because it turns out, things do happen in places that aren’t doing a Brexit. I know right? So weird. Anyway, first up, here’s this:

 

 

 

INTERVIEW WITH TATTON

 

If I was to say that we are living in times of massive societal division, some of you would agree and some of you wouldn’t, entirely proving my point and allowing me to high five everyone before crowd surfing out over your sea of general unimpressed-ness. According to the folks, them public folks, you’re either for or against, a traitor or a patriot, a Brexiteer or a Remainer, a Corbynista or a Blairite, a typical leftie or scumbag fascist, member of the elite or of the people but at the same time actually also of the elite, Marvel or DC, Team Edward or Team Jacob, Wash your legs in the shower or not, etc etc

 

This sort of aggressive division isn’t healthy outside of some sort of combined boxing and maths class, which if it isn’t a thing, should be a thing. So here we are in a world where cross party talks can’t work because they’re cross party and lines can’t be crossed, an election that should be about which MEPs will do the job best for however long they’re there is now another referendum on leaving or remaining in the EU and I’m struggling to write jokes on twitter without some idiot making a comment like ‘this is why your side can’t win elections’ causing me to reply that my side can’t win elections because I’m always lying on it and don’t enter it into elections, which caused much confusion. But do we need to be here? Isn’t there some lovely utopian middle ground everyone could meet on and share the things they agree on while Nigel Farage lurks in the corners trying not to enter the sunlight for fear of death? Did @MitchLane need me to confuse and upset him? Well no, except to the last one, but there probably isn’t a magical solution for all, but there was a time many moons ago where at least civil discourse was just that, and not shouty, shouty othering. As the phrase goes, united we stand, divided we waste away our lives on social media getting all angry because there still isn’t an obvious sarcastic or joking font and that makes everything tricky.

 

But could we return to a time where people find common ground without some developer getting there first to build luxury flats on it? Well, maybe yes, and before you might say I’m a dreamer, which I’m not as lack of sleep due to parenting ensures that, you might want to check out the new book by friend of the podcast, and of mine too as it happens, Tatton Spiller. Creator of Simple Politics and my cohort in our kids show about politics has written his first book entitled The Breakdown, making sense of politics in a messed-up world. In it, Tatton explains all the political ideologies, where similarities lie between them and makes a pretty good case for why we should really stop being such bastards to each other. Luckily I am able to read books again, in-between telling everyone how tired I am and changing nappies and saying how tired I am and stopping my daughter headbutting sharp things and telling everyone how I tired I am, and I breezed through Tatton’s book last week, thoroughly learning, enjoying and laughing my way through it. The last part is because he’s put some lovely gags and similies throughout, not because I’m being mean. I actually couldn’t recommend it enough and so this week, Tatton had a chat with me all about his new book and I asked him annoying questions about it to be contradictory for no reason because he’s a friend and that’s fun to do. Oh and I know there was a bit I was meant to edit out of this but despite two listens through, I couldn’t find it, so let me know if you do and you won’t win a prize but I will say something nice about your hair. Hope you enjoy, here is Tatton:

 

INTERVIEW WITH TATTON PART 1

 

And we’ll be back with Tatton in a minute but first a long overdue….

PARTLY GLOBAL BROADCAST

 

You know the other countries? Yes those ones around the world that aren’t Britain, despite some British people’s desperate wish they were or were at least still owned by Britain. Well those ones, get this, they do politics too and while this is a predominantly a podcast that dives into UK politics, the EU elections this week make for far too shallow a depth for any sort of diving behavior without it being ruined by waves later in the week. Did I just mix up waves and diving despite no actual clue if the latter is affected by the former? Yes, yes I did, and while you’re still reeling from that, let me tell you that it’s time again to take a little quick looksie into the happenings of elsewhere in the return of….

 

 

PARTLY GLOBAL BROADCAST JINGLE

 

In Australia, aka Britain in the upside down, the current ruling conservative coalition won their general election in what the re-elected Prime Minister and tanned Roy Chubby Brown Scott Morrison hailed as a miracle victory. You know, like how miracle whip is a cheap unnatural alternative that people get because they’re devoid of taste. Actually it was a miracle victory because prior to the election, all polls suggested the Labour party would win 51-52% of the vote, with Morrison’s Liberal National Party on 48-49%, but now as the last votes are being counted, it looks like the LNP will have a majority allowing Morrison to push through anti-immigration, global heating ignoring, tax cutting plans. How did this happen? Well supposedly it’s down to Morrison’s rebrand as ScoMo which sounds a lot like a hoax video causing children to self-harm, ignoring his record of preventing boats of asylum seekers getting to Australia, and promising jobs over tackling the climate emergency because what everyone really wants is to be working in a proposed coal mine while their country goes on fire. Meanwhile the Labour party campaigned on long and complex initiatives such as plans to reduce carbon emissions and changes to taxes on income from the stock market. So, there we have it, progressive policies come second to shortening your name and pretending you like people. Oh god, BoJo is so going to win in the UK isn’t he?

 

In India where the world’s largest general elections are currently happening, it looks as though part shaved koala Narandra Modi and his party BJP, which always sounds rude but isn’t, will win, even though many say this might be exit poll gossip. If it’s true though, that’s quite amazing considering Modi’s government have overseen an economic slowdown, widespread unemployment, a rise in Hindu nationalism and violence towards Muslims and a farming crisis, getting to the brink of war with Pakistan and yet still, somehow, it looks like they’re the preferred choice. Modi is very much a populist and one political commentator said him and Trump were twins, separated by continents, which they would likely increase border security on so they don’t have to see each other. The only promise his government carried out being building 100 million toilets in five years, proving that literally his leadership has been a shit show, but it seems that rather than someone who bring them jobs voters prefer a strong, nationalistic combative leader who only provides places for jobbies.

 

The Austrian Chancellor and definite Patrick Bateman cosplay, Sebastian Kurz is calling for a snap election after his conservative and far right coalition government fell apart when a video was leaked showing Vice Chancellor and what if Alec Baldwin has a withering disease Heinz Christian Strache talking to a Russian investor. Strache is from the very far right, almost falling over Freedom Party and in the vid, he offers various contracts to the investor in the hope of building a media landscape like Hungarian fascist and fatball Victor Orban. Kurz has said that enough is enough and there should be an election in September, while Strache has blamed it all on being drunk and acting like a teenager. You know that classic teenage night out where you lie about your age to buy some spirits and next thing you know you’re negotiating with a rich Russian in order to push for the return to an authoritarian Austrian rule. Kids eh? What are they like? Nazis, apparently.

 

Switzerland have voted on a series of annual referendums with one outcome being a tightening of gun regulations as who needs them when you can just walk your chosen hunted animal or murder victim to a euthanasia clinic instead? The rules will now be in line with EU regulations which only previously caused issue because of a tradition of ex-soldiers keeping their assault rifles, something that seems particularly stupid on account of the Swiss always being a neutral country and that their soldiers may as well just carry spoons. Or you know, little knives with a toothpick and bottle opener on. But as well as this sensible decision, last month the Swiss supreme court overturned the result of a referendum on the grounds that voters were not given enough information to vote. It was to change the tax laws as they unfairly penalized married couples, but the public rejected it by 50.8% to 49.2%. The Christian Democratic party launched an appeal as at the time of the referendum the government said the tax penalty affected 80,000 married couples but it was revealed after that actually it affected nearly half a million. The court overturned it and the government have said it will now set up a group to propose additional measures to ensure the quality of preparation for decisions to be made by citizens. May I suggest not being allowed to write anything on a bus?

 

And in Ukraine, comedian, stoned Jeremy Renner lookalike and now president Volodymyr Zelensky has become the country’s 6th head of state, and after doing so, immediately disbanded parliament. Typical comedian, storming it, swearing then shutting things down so it’s hard for the others on the bill.

 

And now back to Tatton…

 

INTERVIEW WITH TATTON PART 2

 

Thanks tons to Tatton, I know he’s been on lots but he’s allowed because he knows things. His book, as I mentioned earlier is excellent for either those politics beginners or as Tatton says those stalwarts who only know their own ideology. It’s a nicely easy read and useful in such political times, I can’t recommend it enough. It’s called The Breakdown and can be found in books shops of all moral repute as of May 30th. Do also check out, if you don’t already, Tatton’s online baby simplepolitics.co.uk which I regularly use as research for this show, sign up to the mailing list, listen to their podcast and follow them on Facebook or Twitter @easypoliticsuk. Oh and come and see our kids shows ‘How Does This Politics Thing Work Then?’ especially the ones in London on May 30th and 31st as it’d be nice if it wasn’t just us shouting at each other for an hour.

 

I’ve got the next two, possibly three, maybe even four weeks of interviews all sewn up depending on if people drop out or you know actually listen to the podcast before they do it and then refuse to take part. That hasn’t happened yet, but I’m very much waiting for it. So I always want suggestions of which guests to get and what subjects to find people to ask about. I know there are topics I’ve never looked into on this show, including defence which I struggle to find anyone up for a chat. They get very defensive when I ask which feels appropriate. But lemme know who to talk to and you can do that @parpolbro on Twitter, the Partly Political Broadcast facebook group, the contact page at partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk or partlypoliticalbroadcast@gmail.com. Or like the Voynich manuscript, you could scribe it on a manuscript in an unknown illustrated codex and then in hundreds of years time many will try to decode it but ultimately fail though it won’t really matter as I’ll be dead by then and this podcast won’t be a thing as everyone just has noises beamed directly into their brain through technology I don’t understand and that’s only if the world hasn’t ended by then, so look, all I’m saying is, it’s much easier just to email.

 

 

 

END

 

And that’s all for this week’s Partly Political Broadcast podcast. Thank you for listening to this weekly political mind belching and if you do enjoy the noises from my mouth, then please do donate to the ko-fi or Patreon, just enough for a cuppa, that drink you’d like to buy me or you know a milkshake if you don’t like throwing them at fascists or a spare one for me if you do so we can throw them together like dairy avengers. Please review the show on whichever podcast app is nearest to your fingers and thumbs, or toes if you’re clever like that. Please also tell people about this show and let them know it exists or if you like, that it doesn’t exist and is part of a weird conspiracy then they’ll seek it out, which may actually take a while because of this stupid podcast name’s algorithms thing but then when they find it they’ll think they’re in on something secret and immediately listen incase it’ll actually tell them some sort of future events or deep government goings on but is just me wanging on but then they’ll forget to subscribe and ultimately I’ll win. Ahem.

 

Thanks to Acast for still having this show amongst its actually good podcasts, allowing it to lurk at the back, to my brother The Last Skeptik for the musical hubbub, and to Kat Day for all the linear liner notes with all the links and that which you can of course find at partlypoliticalbroadcast.co.uk a few days after each ep is released.

 

This will be back next week when after decent EU elections wins, the Lib Dems announce their new slogan of ‘Fuck Brexit Up The Arse’ only for former leader Tim Farron to derail it by bursting into tears and condemning his own party to hell.

 

 

BYEEEEEEEEE

 

This week’s show was sponsored by SlimFash. Are worried about the rise in the far right in your area? Starting to wish you could shed those Nazis you’ve gained over Christmas? With SlimFash you just need to replace two skinheads in your area with milkshakes per day and by the end of the month, there won’t be any blackshirts as they’ll be covered in a lovely strawberry, peanut, chocolate or vanilla tinge. SlimFash, because who has time to get rid of racists slowly?

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