Hope for Northern Ireland, bankers’ bonuses: Nish Kumar takes on the evil plotters | Pod Save The UK

After nearly two years without a functioning Government, are the people of Northern Ireland finally about to see the power-sharing executive return to Stormont? Nish and Coco reflect on a dramatic week with journalist Amanda Ferguson. The Labour MP Nadia Whittome talks of her frustration at her party’s stance on calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Gaza conflict, but says Labour’s position is now evolving. She insists the party is still a broad church but admits it is a problem that there are no MPs from the left in Keir Starmer’s shadow cabinet. She also tells Nish and Coco why she donates more than half of her MP’s salary to worthy causes – in stark contrast to the Tory MP who resigned from his ministerial role because it didn’t pay enough! Coco celebrates the drag artist Crystal for taking down a high-profile right-wing troll, while Nish is left exasperated by the Tory ‘evil plotters’ WhatsApp group. Plus we find out why Coco wants a beard, and relive Nish’s childhood barbershop trauma.

CHAPTERS:
0:00 Pre-titles
0:39 Deadline Coco & beardless Nish
04:42 Is Stormont back?
11:10 Break 1
11:15 MP Nadia Whittome on banker’s bonuses, Israel/Gaza and transgender rights
39:00 Heroes & Villains
47:00 End credits

Archive & Image Credits:
Nish Kumar
BBC
GeorgeFreemanMP
MANPalestine
Associated Press
Gay Times
Sky News

Want Pod Save America ad-free? Subscribe to Friends of the Pod: crooked.com/friends

Crooked Media believes that we need a better conversation about politics, culture, and the world around us—one that doesn’t just focus on what’s broken, but what we can do to fix it. We are a media network that showcases stories, voices, and opportunities for activism that inform, entertain, and inspire action, because it’s up to all of us to do our part to build a better world.

That’s it. End of mission.
Learn more about us at crooked.com

Hi this is podsafe the UK I’m Nish Kamar and I’m Coco on today’s show the return to stormant just days before the 2-year anniversary of the collapse of power sharing are the people of Northern Ireland finally getting their government back and what’s it like to be a 20-some

MP working in a crumbling old building surrounded by equally crumbling old MPS one time baby of the house nardia witam will be here to tell us what turned her on to politics so young and why it’s important for young people’s views and experiences to be represented in Parliament hi Coco sorry why are you immediately laughing don’t know I just feel like I feel like you’re going put me on the spot why am I going to put you on the spot all I ever ask you is how are you and what’s have been happening in your

Week do me a favor don’t ever be grilled on the news if if what have you been up to was causing you to crumble mentally just had it’s just one of those things like lots of deadlines all on top of each other so I’ve been working a lot and one of the

Things I find I don’t know if the same for you but when I go through these periods where I’m working a lot these Sprint periods where I’m really involved I go I just go completely feral basically what do you mean completely feral like rubbing yourself in mud and

Living in the trees no just like when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror I’m like oh [ __ ] hell you know like I look unkempt I look unclean I find that I go through these cuz also I’m not seeing anyone I’m quite animal as you

Know about me so if I don’t see people it’s like I become I lose my civil civilizational skills I think it’s just hard for people to um compute you being completely feral because obviously a lot of people listen to the podcast but also you can watch the podcast on YouTube and

You obviously look extremely put together and I look like I’ve come to the studio every week fresh from being on the run from the police like every week it looks like somebody found me in a hedge but that’s but that’s very on trend is it yeah you know are you not

Everybody’s doing it darling Timothy shalam he’s also doing this I I’m not sure there’s any comparison between me and Timothy sh that can be legitimately made well is there if I find old pictures of you is there a moment where you were trying out a different look no

I were you doing a kind of like I’m David Gandy moment I’m looking into the middle distance I am you know chiseled I am no there’s never been a period of that in 2020 when we were doing when I was doing a TV show from my house because of

The pandemic I tried to trim my beard and accidentally shave the whole thing off and my girlfriend said I look like the 18-year-old intern and she didn’t mean it as a compliment she wasn’t like it’s taking years off you she’s like you look awful you look genuinely terrible I

Would love to see you without a beard you got any photos yeah I’ve got loads of photos I’ll I mean I’ll post them on I’ll send them to the producers can put them on the YouTube clips it’s funny isn’t it cuz you can know someone so

Well but do you really know them if you haven’t seen their chin uh I I think I look considerably worse without a beard my mom’s like you should get rid of the beard but when I was a kid my mom used to make me my mom used to tell the

Hairdressers that I had a set side parting which obviously for my hair is impossible it’s absolutely impossible so these people would these poor hairdressers would try and find the side parting in the nest that is my hair and I’d end up coming out of it looking like

Sam L Jackson in Unbreakable who’s got this sort of lopsided afro oh I love the idea of baby lopsided there this is so sweet my last question about the beard because I’ve always wanted to have a beard yeah kind of I like the aspect of cuz sometimes I put on different hats

And when I put on a different hat I don’t mean that metaphorically I mean like I have hats and sometimes I wear different hats it’s amazing how people treat you differently if I wear a cap I get one response if I wear a hat you

Know with a brim yeah I might I get a different response well if I so if you wear a beard I’m just curious if I trim my beard nicely I look like as a respectable businessman at the moment I look like I’ve been on the run from the

Law and if I shave it into a mustache I immediately go on a register how low can you get it how long can you get it how long can I get my beard it goes long really yeah yeah we’re talking like I’m a I’m a teacher of wisdom are we talking

That level of beard or no no no it’s like uh I’m wanted for War crime somewhere [ __ ] it’s it’s full like you were watching this VHS of me threatening the [Laughter] West imagine having no proper functioning government for nearly two years that’s been the reality for the

People of Northern Ireland but it seems the weight might finally be over following a tense meeting of the democratic unionist parties’s executive in countyd down which lasted over 5 hours the dup’s leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson finally emerged at 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday morning to confirm that an

Agreement had been reached for them to return to a poers sharing government we recognize that significant further advances have been achieved through these negotiations and the details of the new package of measures will be published by the UK government in due course this package I believe safeguards Northern Ireland’s place in the union

And will restore our place within the UK internal Market it will remove checks for goods moving within the UK and remaining in Northern Ireland and will end Northern Ireland automatically following future EU laws the dup caused the collapse of the country’s devolved government the northern Irish assembly nearly two years

Ago when they walked out in protest against post brexit trade agreements that have created trade barriers between Great Britain and Northern Ireland we discussed this in an earlier episode of this podcast with the sdp’s Matthew o tool that is definitely worth listening back to where we also discussed the toll

A lack of a functioning government has had on the country now look it’s worth explaining the northern isand government operates under a power sharing model devised as part of the Good Friday agreement unlike a more usual political Coalition where at least two parties agree to govern together it’s mandatory

For Northern Ireland’s political parties to share power there must be representatives from both nationalist parties who want Irish un and unionists who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK the details of the deal agreed between the dup and the government will be presented in the Commons later today

After we record this but let’s talk to Belfast based journalist Amanda Ferguson who’s been following developments from stormant Amanda thank you so much for joining us can you just talk us through the dramatic events of the week that have brought us to this point today what we’ve seen this week is Sir Jeffrey

Donaldson finally moved to a position H where he can make a decision and get the the endorsement of his party and to head back into the par sharing government so the dup had quite dramatic um meetings that had protests outside and lots of very tired reporters waiting around and

There had been a a press conference scheduled for for half 10 that didn’t end up taking place until 1: in the morning uh it was in a whiskey Distillery though so uh I did have a little dram while I was there but essentially essentially what what what

We know is that while Sir Jeffrey Donson acknowledges the what he’s achieved for his party and for unionists in Northern Ireland isn’t perfect it’s a it’s a vast Improvement on what was there before and those Post brexit Trading Arrangements that he had such concerns about he feels more reassured uh about the UK

Government’s position and the UK and the EU have agreed uh that um northern Ireland’s uh place in the internal UK Market is restored as unionist would view it and then also the Constitutional concerns that unionists have we’re kind of already taking care care of by the 1998 good Freddy agreement peace deal so

The the peace deal was always very clear that Northern Ireland is a conditional part of the United Kingdom unless and until a majority of people would vote for something different now the the UK government is going to offer unionist reassurance on that and and restate Northern Ireland’s uh place in the UK H

But I think that is more for Comfort than it it really adding sort of much wait to anything so we’re still waiting for the details of the agreement between the dup and the government but what stage will we know with any certainty what’s going to be in it well uh the

Details have literally just uh been posted in the last couple of minutes as I’ve been talking to you uh so it’s essentially going to to show that the that the Northern Ireland uh place in the UK internal Market that the there’ll be a reduction on TR on all the checks

That that are due to take place H that Northern Ireland won’t diverge uh from the rest of the UK uh in a in a way that is upsetting uh to unionists and I think for the fact that the other political parties who aren’t um of a unionist persuasion you know seem quite relaxed

About what’s likely uh to be outlined uh this afternoon is is quite you know an important note because it is a part sharing government in Northern Ireland so essentially what we’re going to have is sequence in over the next couple of days of everyone getting to pour over

The detail of what’s been agreed by the UK uh and um the the DU and then we’re going to see a move to recall the assembly have a speaker elected and then have first ministers H elected and then get back to the to the normal sort of functioning devolved government that you

Would expect in most jurisdictions but the list of problems for the incoming executive is extremely long and is there a chance that any of this could be derailed there’s always a possibility of a last minute Banner in the works but um all of the sequencing so far is pointing

Towards a recall the the current Speaker Alex masi sent out a directive this afternoon essentially alerting uh mlaas to be on standby short notice uh for a meeting of the assembly so unless something major happens you know this is sort of 99% there H and I wouldn’t want

To say that things couldn’t fall apart but it’s it’s unlikely that they would at this stage they’ve got quite a lot of work to do haven’t they two years without a government yeah the Health Service is in a mess uh public sector workers are on strike there’s going to

Be a strike action that takes place tomorrow the public transport worker strike still is going ahead because members have been balloted and uh they are not holding out H for a promise while it looks very likely that government’s going to be back by the weekend early next week at the very

Latest um they uh still have got their pay claim honored and also the money that’s part of the 3.3 billion daily uh that the UK government agreed with the the parties that are eligible to form government about 600 million of that is for public sector workers pay uh but

That doesn’t explain exactly how it’s going to be divied up and it doesn’t include F future play games so I’d imagine that the trade unions will be looking very carefully at what’s been agreed okay Amanda thank you so much for joining Us our guest today is the labor MP for Nottingham East nardia witam she entered parliament in 2019 when she was just 23 which at time made her the official baby of the house I was trying to remember what I was doing when I was 23

And I’m pretty sure that was the year I got so drunk that I fell asleep uh on a train leaving London that was supposed to go to Cen and I woke up in Brighton better than waking up in Cen though that’s where my family’s from Nadia my family’s originally from Quon

Too really know that I’m trying to envisage myself at 23 and I can’t understand how it would have felt for me to walk into Parliament what was that like for you oh it was it was so wild honestly it was such a baptism of fire because I I got selected so like voted

By local party members to be the candidate just the I think it was the day before the snap election was called and that was kind of the first shot cuz no one expected the 23y old to win the selection and then we were straight into this campaign got elected on early hours of

Friday morning in Parliament on Monday getting sworn in it was it was such a baptism of fire what made you stand as a as an MP you know at especially at that sort of young age it’s incredible it it wasn’t the plan and if

If I if I had been able to choose my time it wouldn’t have been that time but I guess like that was the kind of time that presented itself and um the reason I joined the labor party and got active in politics was because of the bedroom

Tax that was back in 2013 just remind people what the bedroom tax is so this was the the policy that was introduced uced by the Tory Le coalition government that meant that if you live in a council home and you’ve got a spare room in your

House then you have to pay an extra tax on it and I was so angry about this we’d had three years of austerity by that point I was sick of like our benefits being cut um like access to Services just being so shy you know I was seeing

Friends just waiting for what felt like forever on Mental Health waiting lists on Cam’s waiting lists and um yeah so I got involved in the labor party um bedroom tax was the straw that broke the camel’s back really even though it didn’t affect um us it affected lots of

People in my community one thing that’s well known about you is that when you became an MP you pledged to keep just £335,000 of your then £86,000 yearly salary keeps you in line with the national average and you donate the rest to good causes why did you decide to do

That and how is that going so my take-home is 35k rather than the the salary so I take home 35k and I donate the rest to local causes um organizations in my community that are fighting austerity that are serving the community in the face of these really

Brutal cuts um and that’s because well firstly I think it’s kind of a representative principle that if you come to Parliament a work as representative I didn’t want to be on a wage that massively separated me from the community that I represent and it’s still like quite a lot of money it’s

More than I was raised on it’s more than a lot of people earn um but it’s also about like redistributing what I’m earning and sharing it well the subject of MP salaries comes up quite a lot it’s obviously quite a controversial issue just a few days ago there was the story

About the conservative Minister George Freeman he’s had to resign from his ministerial post because apparently his salary of £18 roughly ,000 a year wasn’t enough to pay his expenses he’s had a mortgage hike many of us are facing that um how do you feel hearing that it’s

It’s a slap in the face isn’t it I think particularly for for Our Generation when like he’s complaining about his his mortgage this is the same party that says um live within your means and Lee Anderson the former Deputy chair um saying that people should just look for 30p meal

Recipes um but when when you’re saying that you can’t afford your mortgage on an 118k salary and you’re speaking to people who are in the midst of the worst cost of living crisis the worst housing crisis like our generation is spending half of their salaries on rents um rent

Hikes Just Happening whenever the landlord fancies it when for the landlord fancy is an extra skiing holiday probably um people are getting evicted like a my my friends who um are living in London in their late 20s having to like shell out a grand for one

Room in a big flat share and like how can you even start of think of like starting a family or living a a reasonable proper life on that I mean one of the things and this is just as side it always reminds me of it’s like there’s this particular reality TV Trope

Where they’ll take sometimes a politician or a celebrity and they make them live like real people and there’s always this moment where they’re like oh God it turns out it’s quite hard and you have this moment being like why is this a surprise like all those people had

Been saying for ages this is really difficult so I feel like maybe we should invite this minister to be you just to see even TV show but even that would give him like a a good standard of living you know I can get a delivery when I want I can I’m not promoting

Delivery by the way or for or for all workers rights practices um but you know like I I have a comfortable life I know but when he sits in Commons with his friends who are in skiing he’s going to be like so hurt that he couldn’t go to

Shamanic or whatever it was this week do you know me when um Mary Black was in here on this podcast she said that she’d been told by an MP who she didn’t name to be fair she but she said she’d been told by an MP that if you’re not a

Millionaire in this job you’re doing it wrong you really [ __ ] up Nadia oh the [ __ ] are you doing sorry mate I can that could have been a lot of people who had said that earlier we were discussing the big story of the week the potential return of a power sharing

Agreement in Northern Ireland what’s your reaction to the news um I mean for for the last two years the people of Northern Ireland have essentially not not had a government it’s been run by civil servants on a sort of form of autopilot um I’m really relieved to hear

Um about the um restoration of power sharing I think it’s also important to remember like the reason why we got here in the first place is that the dup resigned in protest of um of post breit trade agreements we’re seeing play out in currently what everybody warned would

Happen at the time of the brexit campaign but I think there was no way near enough um attention or scrutiny on that and it must be frustrating for you to sit in the house with people who have manufactured that problem and who will will now presumably take credit for

Resolving it yeah yeah exactly or just rewrite history like Andrea ledum said that um that people were warned at the time that this might be tough for business businesses I don’t think people leading the brexit campaign did want that I think they they said the opposite

Of that yeah yeah we were told we were going to be swimming in gold coins like Scrooge McDuck basically and like my favorite bit by favorite I mean you know least favorite bit was that when anyone mentioned anything people would say stop being negative I like what is this a h

Meeting I’m just hanging out with my girls stop being negative that’s not politics or it’s this no bad vibes exactly um n I’d like to talk to you about the difficult position the labor party has found itself in in response to the Israel Gaza crisis you were a number

Of Labor MPS who defied the party leadership to vote in support of the ceasefire in Gaza Jess Phillips resigned as a shadow Minister for doing so another of your colleagues the MP K osore has been suspended by the party for adding a reference to Gaza to a tweet marking International Holocaust

Day I just want to play this clip from a recent fundraising event in Stockport where the deputy leader Angela Raina speech was interrupted by a man called dalul Aladar who’d lost his mom brother pregnant sister-in-law and two nieces in the bombing of Gaza I lost my family in

Gaza just a second I want to show you my mom I lost my family in Gaza if the what kind of need that’s the only I need let me finish I need why you not fire um just to explain to listeners the clip that we’re watching and you’re

Hearing ends with a man being manhandled out the room uh while Angela Rina looks on Nadia how do you feel seeing obviously very distressing scenes like that playing out honestly I just I feel heartbroken for for that man who I I cannot none of us can comprehend the the

Scale of the death and destruction in G I I I could not imagine losing multiple members of my family while the world sort of just looks on and and shrugs essentially 1% of the the whole population has been killed um 2 million people are being deprived of clean water

And food they’re on the brink of starvation we’re hearing stories about children who are writing their names on their hands so that when when they’re brought out of the rubble people know who they are um children having to bury their younger siblings amputations being performed without without anesthetic it’s it’s

Beyond comprehension and it’s it’s not surprising that 71% of the UK public supports the ceasefire and I completely agree with them that is what I’ve been calling for since since October um so what’s going on why why can’t labor adopt this position I I have also been frustrated very frustrated with um Labor’s

Positioning on this um I’m glad that it has begun to shift but I think that is still happening too slowly and not far enough um and I think some of the message in it can seem quite contradictory so I I understand that you know it’s a very fast moving situation

And people are being put on the spot in in media interviews but the party needs to be very clear about where we stand and that needs to be in support of an immediate ceasefire um for a proper peace process that begins with ending the blockade of Gaza ending the illegal occupation of of

The West Bank ending illegal settlements um and for a solution that that supports the the rights and the the self-determination of of both peoples and we need to be clear and consistent it was good to hear you say that Labor’s shifting a bit on that because as a

Labor voter I’m on the fence at the moment I’ll be honest um and this whole situation it’s not it’s not warming me to the cause or to the party sorry um I’m I’m really glad to hear that cuz I I don’t feel that that’s necessarily been communicated to me as someone who’s

Interested in politics and cares about this issue I don’t think I’m alone in that either the uh Guardians front page had a story about Labor losing support amongst its Muslim Community but also younger people Urban people Millennial people you know you know what I mean there’s a lot of us who are really

Unhappy I mean are are you concerned about this loss of support I mean when I say that we’ve seen a shift now the the position is for a a permanent and sustainable ceasefire um but that obviously should have been the position a very long time ago and you know um whipping an abstention

On the snp’s amendment that would have um that would have called for the UK Parliament to um be pushing for a ceasefire was in my view the wrong thing to do that’s why I I voted for that Amendment um I am very concerned about not not just about that polling you know

I’m glad that the polling has happened happened I’m glad that it’s been reported that the party is worried about this um because there obviously is an electoral consequence of taking these positions but it’s it’s also a moral imperative I’ve received more emails about Israel and Palestine than I have

On any other subject since becoming an MP by quite some way and that’s not just from Muslim constituents it’s from constituents of all demographics yeah I mean I I think that you know we should always say and our sister shows pod save America and pod save the world are also very keen to

Stress this that the internal debates within the Democrat Party and the labor party are not the priority here the priority here is uh preventing further civilian loss of life getting hostages released that that’s the important thing here I worry that we live in like very cruel times um the only reason I

Mentioned that is because I’m going to ask you about another really cruel thing in my view that’s been going on which is about the safety of Rwanda Bill I know it’s something you care a lot about it’s something we care a lot about on this

Show and you also went to the uh BBY stock Home the accommodation barge which is more in Portland off the coast of Dorset what was that like what did you make of it it was um it was horrific I wrote last year to the Home Secretary twice well two

Home secretaries because the first time it was sella bravman and then it was James cleverly to seek permission to enter the baby Stockholm barge to see for myself and I did this alongside other MPS we wanted to see for ourselves the the conditions on board what is the government

Hiding we didn’t get that permission so I just went anyway and spoke to the the people on there seeking Asylum and the conditions that they described to me they were it it’s like a prison Health Care is completely inadequate um that I I spoke to somebody

Who was a torture Survivor in the home office’s own guidelines it says that torture survivors should not be housed on this they’re not asking for for special treatment they want the right to work so that they can you know live normally in the community with everyone

Else rather than being forced to live on 49 18p a week um they want the their case is to be dealt with quickly because it’s a political decision to to have let this um this backlog grow and build um and they want safe and legal routs you know if you

Want to stop Channel Boat Crossings then you need to introduce safe and legal Roots because what the what the government’s current policy reads like is like a trafficker Charter we get quite a lot of correspondence from younger listeners and a message we often get is a kind of disillusionment with

Politics in general at the moment I I just want to play you this and then ask you a question off the back of it this voice note has coming from Charlie and it’s a response to a message we played a few weeks ago hello my name’s Charlie

I’m calling you from mvin in the Midlands um I was um reminded when you had your message from your 18-year-old in Shrewsbury who said that she had met someone who was not interested in news not interested in politics didn’t want to get involved um it reminded me of

Friends of mine who have been very reluctant to get off the bums and vote and a lot of the time the message is that there isn’t anyone for them to vote for um so I just wanted to get your thoughts on spoiling your ballot paper uh a little while ago a comedian was

Talking about how valuable that can be and how there are statistics on spoiled ballots um so just wondering what your thoughts are if everybody who didn’t want to vote went to the polling station and spoiled their ballot paper and wrote something useful like none of these people represent me or something um

Whether that would have any impact at all on you know how politics Works in this country um it would be amazing if it did uh but I don’t know how optimistic I am what’ you make of that I think that’s completely the wrong strategy I understand why um why people

Are are very frustrated um about the political system that we live in I think I think it is a a bit of a myth that young people are apolitical though um we’re a very politicized generation and we’ve seen that through the the mass mobilizations around climate now around Gaza um but I

Think the problem and and what Charlie highlights is people feel disillusioned with mainstream politics they feel that they’re not listen to by politicians and I think there’s this Vicious Circle isn’t there with political part parties not offering policies for young people to vote for many young people then not

Voting and then political parties not not making that offer and it’s it’s a responsibility of political parties to break that fisher cycle I do think it’s extremely important to vote if you believe that any change at all is possible through Parliament no matter how minor in in the grand scheme of

Things then then it’s important to engage with that parliamentary system even if you think that the labor party should be offering more I would like the labor party to be going further but I think voting it takes five minutes you go and you choose the party that will

That will move us furthest towards the the kind of world you want and then you can spend the rest of your time campaigning for something even better so can I ask you a question and this is one that’s been on my mind for a lot traditionally when I to labor in the

Past it’s not because I felt especially represented by every aspect of it but I knew that there was a big tent and there were people that were a bit more like-minded to me in that tent and I trusted that that movement together would nudge things in a direction that I

Wanted to see things to go right now with the party my concern is that all the lefties are gone basically and so I’m scared that the tent is not big you are one of those lefties I’m sure it’s very lonely and I wondered if that idea

Of the tent is is that something that can still survive is that something that exists I completely agree with you um the the broad tent within the party is is so important I think it’s what makes the party stronger you know when we listen to each other when we have

Disagreements um but we disagree well and um we we do that democratically through debates um clearly I mean there are no um MPS from the left of the Party In the Shadow cabinet I think that is a problem um I would like to see the party

Listening to to the left um because I think we still do have a lot of the answers to the crises that we’re facing you know things like um a 15 pound1 15 P an hour minimum wage that would not only improve people’s lives putting money in their pockets but that money will go

Into the local economy and grow the economy um things like rent controls that would mean that people could actually have security rather than being scared of of their landlord increasing their rent whenever they want to um and I I think it’s it’s really important for

Um for those views to be listened to and taken on board if we’re to have a chance of fighting the cost of living crisis and fighting the climate Crisis so you were on the front cover of the gay times recently they awarded you for their their future fighter title congratulations for a start very well deserved uh hearing you speak there I’m like yeah future fire I can hear it I can hear it uh you’re a huge supporter

Of the lgbtqia community so I wanted to ask you about what the [ __ ] is going on with this trans debate oh my God I don’t think it will go away if an election is called because the Tories have already said that they um that they intend to

Fight the election on cultur War issues yeah every week in pmqs rishy sunak regardless of the question he’s asked seems to bring it up which I mean at points it seems like he’s he’s lost complete playing a drinking game or is he like it is a culture War drinking game

It’s Boat Crossings K Arma doesn’t know what a woman is like it really is like it’s it’s a bingo card of absolute Prejudice at this point like it I’m I I feel nothing but like Sympathy for the transgender Community because they’re just being used as a political football

I mean what’s it like for you as a representative of the wider lgbtq the tenor as well it’s so nasty it definitely feels that like any level of decorum or respect on this issue is just gone disappeared it’s it’s disgraceful and it like the the way that it’s being

Weaponized you know like we we laugh about rishy sunak bringing this up at every opportunity even when there isn’t an opportunity um but like this is people’s lives and it’s incredibly serious what we’re seeing is the the Tory government and the right-wing press they’re waging an ideological war on just the the right

Of trans people to Simply live their lives and already the the trans community and of course the The Wider lgbtq community faces massive discrimination two and three young trans people um are bullied at school because of their gender identity um trans people face disproportionate rates of Domestic and Sexual

Violence people are waiting seven years just for an initial NHS assessment and are then you know sometimes taking their own lives as they’re languishing on those waiting lists but instead of improving that situation we’re going backwards and even when I look back to when I was elected

First in in 2019 at that time the the conservative government had promised to ban conversion therapy and to reform the gender recognition act to make it easier to get a a gender recognition certificate now they’ve they’ve dropped um their pledge to um to ban conversion therapy and instead of reforming the the

Gender recognition act to make it better they’re talking about they say reforming but um watering down the equality act changing it to remove the the rights and protections that we already have and yeah this is this is because they’re using trans people and sometimes it’s trans people sometimes it’s migrants

Sometimes it’s people of color um but they will always use a scapegoat to divide and Rule to say to people it’s it’s not us who are responsible for your for your problems for your dropping living standards it’s this this bogey man that will continue um particularly

As the the Tories uh are focused on that during an election time because they have no solutions to offer of course they don’t have any solutions they’re the ones who cause the problems in the first place so just before you go we want to ask you just for your reaction

To the news that shadow Chancellor Rachel re confirmed that labor wouldn’t be bringing back the banker bonus cap obviously I’m very disappointed by that news but that’s not going to stop me from fighting not just for um Bankers bonuses to be capped you know this was something that was introduced

Um after the 2008 financial crash and it’s ever more relevant and necessary now that we’ve got a massive Gulf between the the very rich and the very poor um and that inequality is is only growing um but we also need things like wealth taxes like to redress that

Balance to redistribute wealth and power in this country but also you know to to fund our public services and that doesn’t have to be very very radical like you could for example equalize capital gains and income tax something so radical that the Tory Chancellor Nigel Lawson was in support of it yeah

Yeah that would raise eight billion pounds a year yeah and these are the things that we the the labor party is going to have to look at in government because they always keep saying they don’t want to turn the Taps on but turn them on I’m thirsty everybody’s pared

It’s hard not to get disillusioned when you hear things like that but you think that I mean look you’re still in the party you still believe in the power of the party and I just want to just hear from you like should we still have faith in

Them I don’t think it’s about having faith I don’t think we should have faith in in anyone but our our Collective power to to make sure that things happen and I absolutely think that people need to vote labor at the next election we need to get the Tories out and we we

Need to bring ourselves closer to the the kind of world that that we need Nadia thank you so much for coming in um we really appreciate your time and good luck with the next year it’s a big old campaign we so appreciate you taking the

Time to to us no thank you so much for having me it’s been fun crooked’s newest limited series dissident at the doorstep is dropping their fifth episode this Saturday this podcast is a wild ride following the true story of one of China’s most prominent human rights activists who

Later turned into a trump Maga supporter a few years later listen to new episodes of dissident at the doorstep every Saturday available on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcast coko who’s your psuk hero of the week so my hero of the week is the drag artist

Crystal for taking on and beating the actor turned right-wing troll Lawrence Fox so a high court judge has ruled that Lawrence Fox former GB News host and leader of the reclaim party did liel Crystal whose real name is Colin Seymour as well as Stonewall trustee Simon Blake

And actor Nicola Thorp nous mate my friend exactly congratulations to them all well B fox called the bedo called your mate aedo right which is not really cool for anyone um and that was on a heated exchange on Twitter so there was quite a lot of counter claims Fox

Claimed that he’d been defamed when Crystal called him a racist for example and it is all a bit complicated but the Judgment was emphatic Mrs Justice Collins rice said Fox’s comments were seriously harmful defamatory and baseless doing a Victory lap of the TV studios the next day Crystal absolutely

Went for it uh she pulled no punches in in in commenting what a nasty man he’ been through the proceedings and and really hitting home why it was significant and why it was important to not let these comments slide but she did it all in high heels and dressed up like

L from Legally Blonde so uh listen that’s the only way to dress after a legal Victory so it’s it’s quite fabulous I think if I’d known at the outset that it was going to be three and a half years later that we’d still be talking about this I may have thought twice but

Um honestly he’s he he’s a bully and and accusations of pedophilia against people in the queer Community against drag queens these are old old tropes and um I didn’t want to stand for it I didn’t want to let that slide it it honestly felt like if I didn’t pursue this to the

Very end that it was a tacit admission as well I needed to I needed to see it through and make it clear that there was no basis in fact to this so that clip was from Sky News oh poor Crystal so she wasn’t able to celebrate the victory um

With a few drinks as you’d kind of expect because she agreed to do that appearance on sky that meant a 3:00 a.m. start to fit in two hours of meticulous drag makeup so listen for taking on and beating one of the I’d say highest profile rightwing trolls out there and

Doing it while looking fabulous there’s only one hero of the week and it has got to be Crystal absolutely outstanding choice so Nish who’s your villain of the week uh it’s Tori MP and trade and Industry secretary kemy badok good old kemy she was doing the rounds uh in the

TV studios at the weekend uh she was on Laura cburg show on the BBC and she’s been urging unity and urging the conservative party to get behind rishy sunak after Liz truss left uh I stood uh I stood up and said I’m not running again rishie is the person who should do

The job and I did so because I’d worked with him in the treasury I knew he had a handle on the economy but also I saw just during that previous leadership campaign just how many nasty and unpleasant personal attacks that he had been getting and I thought this is a

Good guy he does the right thing and that’s the team I want to be on not on the team of the bullies or the people putting out nasty personal abuse but on the team of people who are focused on delivering for the country then uh later

On in the week it was revealed that she was the member of a conservative WhatsApp group called evil plotters that’s the name of the WhatsApp group is evil plotters I’m sick of the country being governed by banter I’m I’m I’m absolutely sick to the back teeth of it

You’re not organizing a stag or hendu you’re supposed to be running the country and the focus of the conservative party is on its own Survival slash its own self imulation so K is pretty mellan in her villainy she sort of largely has gone under the radar she’s been letting other people do her

Dirty work while she sits back and waits for the opportunity to take over as leader we’ve discussed on the show when Kai Andrews was on that he still believes she’s going to be Britain’s first B prime minister but the fact that she has been talking about how they need

To be more unified whilst also being a member of uh this evil plotters WhatsApp group it it is an absolute hypocrisy you know we’re at the point where um a lot of people that work within the NHS are suggesting that they need to declare a state of emergency to help St save the

Service there are real crises going on in this country but once again the government of the day is solely focused on its own internal Psycho Drama and kemy badok this week is the protagonist of that psycho drama that distracts from the real issues of governing the country I

Also can’t [ __ ] stand her be in mind that I feel like we don’t talk about this enough KY admitted that in 2008 she hacked Harriet Harmon’s website in order to put up a fake post saying that she was supporting Boris Johnson to be London mayor the thing about

Conservatives is they are exactly who you think they are instead of going out and getting hammered like most people in their late 20s she was hacking labor MP’s websites to spread [ __ ] about them also I think the only person that can use evil plotters is Stephen

King it’s pathetic C can we is there a way that we can make it a decree that ministers can’t have whatsapps like they can only use whatsapps for their personal use WhatsApp groups are for like talking about the traitors and planning weekends away they’re not for governing the

[ __ ] country I mean I agree with all of the above but just as an aside what is the weirdest name you’ve had in for a WhatsApp oh I mean so many it’s it’s come to the point where you look at whatsapp group sometimes you think I

Don’t even remember what this in joke is a reference to I have no clue what this in joke is a reference to what does poppy your sacks on it mean I don’t know I don’t know but I’ve got 25 messages on my phone from it from from popping your

Socks off poppy a saxs on it no idea poppy a saxs on it that’s a genuine name of a WhatsApp group I’m part I don’t even know what those words absolutely no idea absolutely no idea by all means uh listeners uh send us your weirdest name

To Whatsapp group yeah I’d love to hear it send us the name of a WhatsApp group that you can’t remember why it’s called that so while we’re on the subject of whatsapps we should say that former Scottish first Minister Nicholas sturgeon is in front of the co inquiry

As we speak she’s being quizzed about her whatsapps she says she did not use informal Communications like WhatsApp to reach decisions or to have substantial discussions she’s been questioned by lead Council Jamie Dawson KC sturgeon admitted to deleting her messages but said that everything of relevance was

Available on the public record and next week we’ll be joined by Nicholas sturgeon’s successor as Scotland’s first Minister Hamza Yousef so if you’ve got a question for him send it to us by emailing psuk reduced listening. co.uk it’s also always nice to hear your voices so do send us a voice note on

WhatsApp our number is 07514 6445 72 internationally that’s plus 44751 4644 572 we want to hear your weirdest named WhatsApp group and I will be changing Ours from psuk discussion to Coco K’s weird dreams don’t forget to follow pod saave the UK on Instagram and Twitter you can also find us on YouTube

For access to full episodes and other exclusive content and if you’re as opinionated as we are consider leaving us a review you our WhatsApp group is just called psuk I know it’s so awful we should get another I’m changing that this week oh really Coco’s weird dreams

I’m changing it to Coco’s weird dreams as soon as we finish recording because this whole this whole podcast is a weird dream oh come on this isn’t Dallas another up-to-date reference for our younger listeners I didn’t even get that what is that there was a whole

Plotline in the soap Dallas the 80 soap that was uh completely undone when it was revealed it was one of the characters of Dreams really listen they don’t make TV like that anymore do they TV anymore pod save the UK is a reduced listing production for crooked media

Thanks to senior producer musty as and digital producer Alex Bishop video editing was by Will darkin and the music is by vasilis phis thanks to our engineer David dargahi the executive producers are Anish Karma Dan Jackson and meline heringer with additional support from AR Schwarz remember to hit

Subscribe for new shows on Thursdays on Amazon Spotify or apple or wherever you get your podcasts you could do go like a little Fade Out dreamy music now wake up Coco wake up it was all a dream the Tories didn’t win the 2010 election wow Wow