Member of Parliament Talks About The State of The UK – Johnny Mercer MP | E58

Expect to get the everyday perspective on why and how Johnny became a politican, what it was like being ‘banged up’ with a hitman on TV, Johnny’s real thoughts on politics, his view on the NHS and if doctors should be striking, the issue with men’s mental health and much more…

Johnny Mercer is a British Politician, Minister of State for Veterans’ Affairs and former Army Officer, serving 13 years in the UK Commandos. Fighting in the Afghanistan war, he was fed up of politicians who said one thing and did another. He’d never voted before, and knew nothing about local politics but decided to become one as he saw it was the best platform to create positive change.

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Website – https://johnnymercer.co.uk/
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00:00 Is That A Hair Dryer!?
02:17 Being ‘Banged U|p’
08:26 Military to MP
16:06 Reality vs Media
24:07 Knowing Who to Vote For
28:45 State of the UK
34:23 NHS Pressures
41:50 Mental Health
46:52 Thoughts on the Military

#mentalhealth #mensmentalhealth #politics #military #veterans #suicide #nhs #ukpolitics

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you guys serving the military at all no no not M look down on us no not at all you obviously [ __ ] dodged it well done yeah it was a consideration growing up cuz there weren’t a lot of other opportunities uh no it’s good there are more opportunities now to absolutely I had asthma so I could I tried to I tried to enroll when I was like 19 yeah but they I had asthma from like 2 years old so they were like [ __ ] off basically good right let’s do it guys is that a a hair dry in a mirror it is mate do you need it for you guys F me what has happened to the Modern Man how old are you hey by the way that’s not mine that’s not M how old are you 34 what is all that about ask him we have a we have a wide range of guests it’s occasionally windy it’s not for guests it’s you video podcast what you going to do oh man come on then let’s go jeez I love that oh my God stick already all right welcome back to the everyday perspective podcast please like the video and subscribe to our Channel today’s guest is a local MP Johnny Mercer Johnny how are you all right yeah yeah yeah good thanks got over the the hair dryer uh well I thought I thought this is a podcast didn’t really matter what you look like anyway but it’s a video podcast M it’s a video video podcast right okay okay for those of you can’t see there’s there’s basically a hairdressing Salon in the corner with um a hair dryer hair product three Combs and I thought I thought I thought um yeah like it’s bit like a lady’s dressing room is it professional you guys apparently which is nice well done modern man right thanks mate pause that’s it no no words so mate we’re going to get into a little bit about politics before we do that though I’ve got to ask the pressing question because you were obviously on channel 4’s bang. reality show and you got the pleasure of sharing a Cale with a convicted Hitman Lane yeah and there was a hilarious scene between you two where he would very kind to offer you a cigarette which um in in some way you appreciate but not in others yeah but we got to ask how how was that show and and how was it sharing that sale with that man so I mean I’ll be honest the show was the show was pretty tough uh it’s probably one of the hardest things I’ve done what happened was I I’ve um yeah my career’s kind of up and down right and uh uh one of the prime ministers Liz trust sacked me um I’ve been sacked a couple of times and I basically thought you know politics wasn’t wasn’t to be anymore and was looking at doing other stuff and started looking into TV and um based a pilot to do some immersive journalism to against prison I did the pilot and then obviously we had a new prime minister who asked me to come back into his cabinet so I then had to stop it and they then turned it into that show so it the Genesis of it wasn’t wasn’t that show but I was in there um on my own at a different time to everyone else and yeah I mean it was challenging right I think prison is um you know clearly quite a dehumanizing place um you’re mixed in with um some pretty interesting people and that was certainly the case to me but what it doesn’t convey right is the sort of lack of control you have when they lock that door and and you’re not going anywhere um and you know I only had it for a few days but um um it’s pretty unpleasant obviously pretty intimidating as well H yeah I bet so so just so we understand then so it was relatively realistic in the sense you were actually locked in the cell oh yeah I mean it’s prob probably the most realistic um thing you can do without actually going to prison um because all these guys are sort of three months out of out of jail um you know they are um you know it says on the program they’re reformed I think that’s doing bit of heavy lifting um but uh yeah lock door you can’t get out um yeah I think it’s safer now I think if they get another series it’ll be safer and slightly different but certainly I was I was first guinea pig in and had a chat with him about safety afterwards definitely yeah yeah and yeah and how did you find Kevin Lane because he’s a I’ve seen him on other podcasts actually I don’t know if you’re familiar with no I don’t I don’t know who he is is he a he’s an interesting guy yeah he spent a very long time in prison for for killing people um so that tells you something well he would claim he’s innocent was he convicted for it he was convicted okay uh yeah I mean interested guy so it’s C the first guy oil um really decent guy um I mean obviously he did murder someone so there is that but um you know he he’s in my view now you know prison for for people like him works right I mean there’s all this narrative that prison doesn’t work and all actually for people like him it did because it changed his life around you know I can’t see him re offending um and you know I’ve seen him a couple of times since we had lunch in the House of Commons and I’ve said him up with a job and things like that so you know there’s that really positive side of it and then unfortunately Kevin I think has been recalled back to prison the last couple of weeks he has yeah so um you know so so you get but you get all sorts of characters um in prison um from across Society loads of different stories um it’s a fascinating kind of petri dish of bles why why blokes do what they do why why does some cross the line why does some become violent um the emotions that play and all sorts of things mhm yeah and you kind of uh you kind of joked about or you commented about it reforming them or them being reformed but you know questionably do you think prison works and it’s current setup oh you could say you know there’s there’s uh a view where it does work and you look at people like oi the first guy I saw and actually you know victims have a have a right to expect people to be locked away I think vitim forgotten a lot of but yeah there’s real issues around reoffending you know and the repeat revolving door particularly around minor crimes and minor sentences um but any conversation you have around that in this country is immediately drowned out by those who just want to send more and more P people to prison right so um I think you got to be careful about it you’ve got to follow the evidence um but I think yeah in some cases it works and in some cases it doesn’t it’s not it’s not black and white no of course not and what was the reaction like Following the show because I know for me I mentioned a second ago that I I found the whole scene hilarious but actually found it kind of Drew me into you a little bit because Danny had mentioned previously about getting you on being a local MP and I was like nah don’t want to speak to a politician the boring and then I saw that show particularly that scene with the window and thankfully haven’t got any windows in the studio so we’re safe but okay but like fair play but yeah you obviously very real in that in that show and very authentic um what’s the reaction been like with certainly with your colleagues in the in Parliament to that show look I don’t I I don’t think the reaction of my colleagues in Parliament is a particularly sort of strong barometer as to how how people actually feel right I mean it was the most downloaded um episode one of a series they’ve ever had on Channel 4 was it uh yeah they did really well yeah they did really well um and what was the reaction I mean yeah yeah really positive obviously politics is is just is kind of it’s it’s not real right it’s mental it it’s a um it’s a kind of pantomime so obviously when you’re representing 880,000 people in Plymouth and you’ve got to make decision about something clearly people are going to get annoyed when you make decisions they don’t like and so there’s people who get up in the city every day try and sort of um knock me out of public life and their their reaction was predictable but they were kind of on their own in that respect everyone else you know thought it was it was really good and um yeah I’ll be honest I mean it was it was a hard program I found it pretty difficult and it was pretty uncomfortable yeah and I imagine some of the inmates probably pressed you quite hard about various topics as well yeah of course they do of course they do and you’ve got to I think always in public life you’ve got to be you got to be careful what you’re doing you know you just you just got to be careful you’ve just got to think about what you’re doing um think about your job um and what you’re there to represent um and and behave accordingly yeah no fair enough mate but yeah well done it was a good show we see you on there and tell us about your background because um you’ve not always been in politics no so where did you grow up so I grew up in Sussex um but uh I essentially joined up came down here and joined up when I was a teenager so came down to Plymouth um joined up a 29 Commando in the Citadel and um I mean you know I’ve I’ve never really been one with like a huge ambition to be a soldier or to be you know to be anything really um but I joined the military I think for reasons lots of people join the milit play a bit of sport and have a good time and you know be with like-minded individuals was fit strong all the rest of it um but then uh obviously 911 happened when I was going through training and that changed what being the military meant to you know a whole generation of us and we ended up you know I personally ended up in in Afghanistan um 2006 8 nine 10 um and that very much sort of shapes me I think you know people you’ve had Mark om on the program I think and you know very much shaped uh our characters and our um personalities I never thought that that would then springboard me into this right I never thought that I had this campaigning sort of gene on it I just I was just faced with this um real from you know I thought it was it was an appalling um contrast between the way people spoke about veterans in the UK and then what it actually felt like to be a veteran what it felt like to be bathed by service what it felt like to lose your arm and leg legs like Mark has done um and the contrast between that and obviously what politicians like to say and how the country likes to parade its war heroes right so so I just thought I’m going to try and change it um I mean there was a particular moment I I came back I was taking Commando training in 2012 and um there’s a program by Panorama that year that looked at um suicide in the serving in veteran population and actually in 2012 more took their own lives them were killed in the conflict that year and there were a couple of really heartbreaking stories in there of guys who did that um uh one in particular L Sergeant Dan Collins um who basically had um fought in Afghanistan round about the same time as me um came back and he really really tried hard to get help he really went for it you know everywhere he looked and in the end um he just couldn’t do it anymore and he went up to Cy Bridge he made a video for his mom he was like look I’m so so sorry but there was just nothing here and I can’t get away from this you know it was awful and he he killed himself and I just remember watching that thinking this this country’s got to change and I I I never you know I don’t have I never had this kind of misiah complex it was going to be me I was just determined to change it and determined to kind of make people feel uncomfortable until until we got there so that’s why I decided to go into it but I’d never never voted before never had anything to do with politics um you know you have to join a party if you’re going to get elected in this country I obviously um join the conservative party um and in Plymouth that’s obviously quite a rough ride um traditionally a pretty strong labor city um but uh I thought yeah like you guys really I thought why do people not vote and most of the time it’s because they’re just not engaged they’re not engaged by people people don’t go out make the effort to bring him in and my wife didn’t vote and all the rest of it so basically in in 20 end of 2014 I drew up a map of Plymouth a street view map and I basically marked up every single house and worked out how many houses I could bang on in a single day literally going door too like that and then worked back from the general election and worked out that um if we started on 2nd of January in 2015 i’ get around every house in Plymouth M VI obviously not everyone’s going to be in right but at least you’ve gone out there you’ve made the effort and I thought if you do that enough you know people will see how much you care and what you believe in they’ll actually think yeah it’s worth going out and general election and voting for this guy um I just made that calculation off the off the back of my head really I didn’t I there was no science behind it um I did it with my wife who is um a lot better than me like I think most people think they’re voting for her um and uh yeah we got round and it was amazing and I I won and uh never really looked back I when gave my maid speech about veterans and spoke about Dan Collins and a few others and guys who I fought with and died and um and then I I I became you know so it wasn’t the ambition to go into that and create this this farough right but I just kind of fell into it because then people wanted to know like what do we need to change around veterans the trouble is there’s a big gap between people knowing what they want to change and the kind of intellectual changing of policy to change what it feels like to be a veteran so you know I had to take Veterans Affairs out of the ministry of Defense because these are not serving Personnel they’re civilians who just need Civil Society to work for them um and I had to build in you know all sorts of Pathways around Health housing education mental health provision um jobs and all the rest of it and slly it’s been a long time you know I’ve been sacked twice from this job I’m back in for a third time but um you know this prime minister wants to make this the best country in the world to be a veteran and it’s a privilege to try and deliver that yeah a quite quite amazing story mate and to be fair I didn’t realize that you were in a similar position before you jumped into politics yourself where you weren’t even voting oh yeah yeah I mean I I had the traditional view of politicians um after the expense Scandal that I think any right minding um person would have uh that this was a different world um that uh um almost uh had nothing in common with but I always saw I did see Politics as this powerful platform because when I was in the military I would particularly when I was doing sensitive work politicians would would get involved and you brief them on what you were doing and I just remember looking at them you know David Cameron and Gordon Brown and others and just looking at them and thinking if I had your position I would go on about this Injustice every day until it changed and that’s really where the thought came from cuz I thought yeah you know that’s that’s what I’m going to get this platform then I’m just going to use it and use it you get you know you get two two types of politicians basically you get people who go into it because they want to be someone you get people who go into it because they want to do something um obviously there’s loads of the former um um but if you want to do something it’s an amazing platform you know if you look at one facet of veterans mental health right I set up something called op courage in 2019 uh it’s a24 million pound uh pathway through the NHS specifically for mental health care provision for veterans the UK’s first Mental Health Care provision for veterans 19,000 referrals in its first year right where are all these people going before so and I just wouldn’t have you know I’m I’m I’m obviously a bit about politics and some people love it and I I just don’t I’m afraid but um you don’t get that platform anywhere else I wouldn’t I wouldn’t be able to do that I wouldn’t be able to change these lives I would you know there were no rough sleepers uh veteran rough sleepers this Christmas because of a lack of provision because we designed a pathway for them so and I just wouldn’t be able to do that outside politics so I’m I’m kind of a bit of a you know I’m you know I’m constantly in contrast really I I the whole games of politics is just horrific but then you you have this platform to do amazing stuff for people who need you yeah yeah amazing quite refreshing to hear isn’t it yeah it must be so so weird being one side of it and then seeing the other side yeah do you know what it’s kind of it’s kind of worse so so I had a pretty DM view of it when I went into it and actually like when you’re in it and you look behind the curtain like in my view it’s worse is actually yeah see this is why again I don’t vote because I just don’t have any faith in it yeah but you have to look at you have to you have I think you know we have a two party system in this country we have a first part the post system and I think you know there’s people who are not fans of that so in Europe they have smaller parties and you have coalitions and what coalitions do you so you have lots of different parties come in to a um you know former government and they kind of take the edges off different policies and they end up hopefully pretty Centrist um you know that’s certainly the case in the coalition government and 2010 where you had lib Dems and and uh the T Tory party um but you know I was listening to a really interesting uh interview uh recently from uh the president of France who’s just who stepped down before maon and he was like he he he wanted to change the kind of two- party state but now they have you know they they they’ve kind of changed that a little bit in France and they’ve got um you know and there’s coalitions and all the rest of it but he actually regrets that now because every kind of presidential runoff comes down to one guy or girl and then the far right or the far left or some sort of extremist it’s always going to be that one person so it’s kind of taken away that competition so you know Churchill said democracy’s the best of a of a very bad set of choices when it comes to running a running a country right so and I think he was probably right I just feel like my vote doesn’t really make a difference that’s my honest that’s my honest opinion it’s not like you know I’m not into it you know I don’t really mind but I always feel that you’re just voting in one [ __ ] person who’s going to do the same thing as the other person effectively yeah it’s full of lies they say that you know brexit was a big thing you know we’re going to save 300 million for the NHS all this sort of stuff then they that when it’s all done oh you know apology yeah we didn’t we couldn’t we couldn’t provide that it was it was false information blah blah blah blah blah we putting that on [ __ ] buses yeah you know what I mean and then what from from regular person viewing that you’re like I ain’t got time to to even look into it to how real it is or not I get it I get it and it’s just that’s what I mean but for you where you’ve been a military man wanting to change something and you’re changing it for for for what you believe in it must be just crazy to see the other side the Boris Johnson stood there who’s like fed into this pathway where they’re always going to be politicians so they’re always going to be this certain way and then you’re seeing the that side of it must be pretty cool yeah yeah it’s amazing it’s amazing position to be able to have that view it’s it’s it’s a real privilege but I would all I would say as well and you know Boris is a good case in point is that generally the public perception to the private perception is is is is completely different do you know what I mean so these characters are built up like even I’m built up in the media in certain ways right um and they’re they’re just completely different from um sort of getting to know them I don’t think you know I don’t think a few people really go into it I think to do bad I think that um being in politics if you’re quite sort of weak and shallow um you know suddenly the newspapers all want to hear what you have to say and you get loads of attention all this I think that changes people very very quickly and I’ve I’ve seen that change people very quickly I can imagine the pressure must be horrendous the pressure must be horrendous because I particularly like some of my biggest run-ins in Westminster have been with people who served in the mil military as well no way yeah cuz they go up there and they’re absolutely committed to supporting the party supporting the government um and I’m I’m I’m obviously there I’m a I’m in the conservative party I’m part of the government and I’m there but ultimately I’m not there for myself I’m there for you know foreign and Commonwealth veterans who need their visa fees where I’m here for people like Mark omard I’m here for Lads and girls who live in Plymouth and need better services so um for me it’s it’s always it’s always been this kind of tension you know I was go running around trying to get visas um Visa free settlements basically if you’re a foreign and commonweal Soldier you’re a Fijian or whatever in the military and you leave you used to have to pay to stay in the country which is just insane right sometimes was over £10,000 so guys would send their wife and kids back and then work over here trying to bring their families over these guys be in the military to I was going around trying to get these with Dan Jarvis a labor MP trying to get these guys Visa um free access to the the UK and other military conservative ministers were campaigning against me and it just kind of like it just kind of blows your mind it is mad is it but I think people always have to have an agenda whether they feel that strongly or not about it they sometimes take dislike to people rather than policies and that’s what annoys me a little bit as well with politics you talk about Boris Johnson people Boris done a lot of good and a lot of bad and whatever people have his opinion but I don’t think ultimately with everything he went out to do a bad thing but people no matter what good he would do they would always because they didn’t like him as a person they would always come back to done this done thousand and it’s always the one wrong the media the whole time right once they’ve made their mind up everything that that person does is good or everything they do is bad and nobody’s like that right I’ve made loads and loads of mistakes in this right so people can’t you know nobody is all good or all bad and that respect in terms of their career and the policies they’ve made and you’re absolutely right and I think podcasts and things like that is how the media can’t control this anymore because you can come up on and we can have an open open and honest conversation about something whereas if you were doing an interview with the media you’re very guarded yeah even I used to own a shop at the bottom end of the Town yeah and I remember when I was about 19 I done an interview for the I don’t know West country news or something and I said loads of nice things and I said yeah but the Market’s you know it is struggling but it’s getting better blah blah they cut out everything in between and then cut me just saying that the Market’s struggling yeah and I got [ __ ] [ __ ] from it from from the market and I was like you know Was Naive you know I said you know 5 minute interview they cut 30 seconds and I was like holy [ __ ] like the people like you must it must be hor it happens all the time happens and it’s so frustrating this why you have to keep at it right because you know because I’m in public life I have to keep engaging with the media like that I’ll be honest with you like I don’t like it I don’t I don’t like engaging with uh the media I did when I was back backbencher and I was camp campaigning because I used them to help campaign to achieve a department an Office of Veterans Affairs to change the law on Northern Island veterans and all this stuff so in that respect they were helpful but they’re not your friends right they’re a business and it’s important to remember that and it’s incredibly frustrating if you’re trying to because nothing’s black and white right you try to put out a nuanced message and they’ll take one bit of it and then in my opinion and my experience completely misrepresent your views yeah and again that’s on one person’s interpretation that conversation you know that that person might be quite left or right or whatever and you they can take one specific part and then just make it that’s why I think though that podcast and I don’t know even social media is it’s got a lot of bad but it’s got a lot good you know you can get uncensored information you know we can get this full interview out on YouTube yeah people can make their own yeah they can watch it for what it is rather than they still probably a cut part of it yeah they can still trim something but at least people can at least people can go back and find the full conversation the full information if if they if they want to where again if it’s an interview on on the [ __ ] news account yeah yeah so I guess I’d like you to try and help us navigate this whole situation which situation of understanding where to kind of Po a vote yeah so we’ve just explained how how the media will have an agenda and how people will form opinions based on individuals and whether they like them or not as like a a Layman yeah I’m thinking I want to use my about yeah but I I a don’t know where to start B don’t trust anyone can’t trust the media like where where do I even go to begin to know who to vote for I think you got to really look at the individuals who are standing and really try and work them out right locally or nationally locally and nationally right so locally whichever party they’re standing for it’s far more about their character and their values and what they truly believe in MH then in some ways than than the party right because if you look at you know I don’t talk about anyone else but if you if you look at myself for example I’ve clearly got a set of values and and so on that I I try and live and and and work by to the point where I’ve been pretty unpopular in in my own party a number of times I’ve I’ve been sacked as we’ve talked about um but that’s because I feel I have a duty to Plymouth and a duty to veterans above everything else including um my party um if you look at the way others go about the way they’ll talk is that their party gets everything right all the time and they’ve got the answers to everything MH and to me as a Layman voter that would make me very nervous because no party has got the right answer to everything and the way two- Party politics works is that if one party does one thing it’s a good thing the other party has to criticize it right so you’re not you know and provide that so it’s mad I know it’s always like that have a look at the individual and the sort of values and character that that individual does lives a lot life where when it comes to the National picture it’s the same you’re essentially at a general election choosing who you want to be prime minister that’s essentially what you’re doing and really look at the character and the values of of the two main Party leaders and think which one is really which one uh aligns with me and is really going to have my and my family’s best interests at heart um and uh that’s the choice you need to make yeah and where where’s the best resource to to to explore those values in those things because again it’s known where to look as well well I think I think you have to do it over time so this is quite interesting right if you go on see on side see unseen side of politics if you’re on Wikipedia right I always get annoyed if I go and do a speech to someone and do a bit of fundraising and all they do is read out my Wikipedia page because there are activists in Plymouth right who get up every day to try and make me lose my job and that is from everything from editing my Wikipedia page to make it look like I’m the most crooked bloke going has time to do this sh but they do this is their life crazy because they’re so obsessed every day you you just you put on um social media put in my name you’ll see some of the appalling stuff on there every single day um because it’s everything to them it’s it’s you know being in power and their political party is everything to them um so where are you going to look I think you’ve just got to make your own mind up over time do your own research just be really you know really kind of Savvy as to where you’re getting your news from I mean look at you know the Plymouth Herald will have a view you know generally pretty leftwing The Daily Mail generally pretty rightwing um you know the podcasts are good but to be honest a lot of the podcasts you know you look at uh the um politics one one that alista Campbell does I mean he’s very leftwing with that’s it though that’s that’s an agenda isn’t it they are they’re agenda driven but you have to be able to kind of find your own course yeah everyone else a a way that’s that’s why politics is quite interesting as well because obviously in the media and everything else this country’s gunning for change at the next election they’re like everything’s rubbish we’re gunning for change including the papers and everyone else when I knock on doors it’s totally different it’s totally different if you speak people like you know how are you what is going on in your life what’s working for you what’s not working for you the narrative on the doors is totally different to the media at the moment and that’s why I think this election will be quite interesting so what are you hearing on the doorsteps then what are people saying um look I mean some people uh for some people in our city um you know through no fault of their own life is really bloody difficult okay and that’s because the government for them is massive they’re in social housing their child may have special educational needs um and uh you know the local Authority w’t be helping them particularly uh and things like that for them it’s really really tough I’ve got to be honest that the majority um it’s pretty good people like living in Plymouth uh the economy local economy in Plymouth when it comes to jobs is in a good space when it comes to uh medium wage we’re in a good space if you look at you know why do you live in a certain area schooling in 2010 42% of kids impl with more view we’re in good or outstanding schools it’s now 84% right so if you’re going to transform the life chance of kids who grow up in Plymouth that’s where I decided to put my energy and that’s where we’ve seen Real Results obviously people want to live in different parts of the country for different reasons I want Plymouth to be the best place to uh live work and raise a family and and so I try and Tackle those sort of key metrics and we’ve been successful in that have we got everything right of course we haven’t you know there’s always more we can do I think the only thing that affects like me from where I am is just just mortgage mortgage rates mortgage rates that’s like me and my Peri of real inflation right um and it was scheduled to go on for a lot longer I mean but by quarter two of this year so in a few months time um inflation backed down to 2% or below 2% come down yeah come down from 14% um you know when this prime minister came to office it’s pretty impressive yeah I I I I quite like uh richy sunak I think he’s uh I like it that he’s just quiet I don’t hear too much about him it was piss of me off there and Boris in the news every two seconds I think he must be doing a good job because they can’t slate him enough that’s what I always saying if he’s quiet he must be doing all right you can get like saturated with news can’t yeah yeah if well if they do something wrong they’re all over it like you said so if he’s if he’s not in the news for the wrong reasons he’s obviously doing something wrong he’s a really smart guy he’s really capable I know him very well um he’s uh he he’s um a good leader he is uh empathetic you know the the media character again is just like yeah yeah because people you know I get charactered in the mediate you know for all sorts of things being sick cuz I was in the Army and all this stuff you know it’s just ridiculous and I you know that’s by people I look at and I think wow you really are thicker than a whale omelet and you’re telling me that I’m thick you know so it’s just and and it’s like that but a hundred times for the Prime Minister oh yeah he always get it from everywhere all over the world not just a country yeah as we said you you kind of touched on a few bits there obviously cost of living’s been a big sort of factor recently um we’ve touched on the men’s mental health so obviously you’re very passionate about that and and also well specifically around military guys but I think for men under 50 suicide is the biggest killer now um so it’s obviously a real problem and obviously the NHS feels like it’s on fire at the moment as well um so they’re the things I think that we’re probably seeing as the everyday person I mean you talked about there’s maybe a need for change I mean what do you think needs to change in this country I still think there’s a there’s a there’s a lack of sort of fundamental honesty in in the debate so I think this idea that everything’s perfect in this country is obviously not true but this idea that everything is broken and we’re all [ __ ] is obviously not true either you go up to dord today with an emergency you’ll get world-class treatment um you know you um we don’t you know we have uh levels of sleeping rough in Plymouth but we generally have a good provision when it comes to the hostels and things like that um you know our kids 84% of kids in good outstanding schools um you know our emergency services our security you know if you look at what’s going on in Ukraine and other areas and Gaza at the moment our security is is fantastic we live free lives we have a free press um you know our our politics you people would say they’re corrupt but actually the people who actually look into it realize you know we’re one of the most open and transparent democracies in the world so this idea that we’re all you know that it’s all terrible is rubbish that said you know could can we we’d be doing better of course we could you know and and the pandemics 400 billion pound they spent on that pandemic 400 billion P I mean it’s just mindblowing um so of course I would prefer you know the economy to be doing better um I’d prefer mortgage rates to be lower I prefer to build more houses so people can get on the housing ladder um and uh you know better jobs and skills and opportunities for people in but that’s why I stay in the job because I want to keep going on that right and I want to transform life chances for kids going up on Estates in North Prospect and St buo and um and across Plymouth so there’s more to do but I think you can’t have an honest conversation um with with anybody who thinks Plymouth you know has done anything other than you know is in real danger of fulfilling its potential as as the best place in the UK to live work and raise a family I mean it’s completely changed over the last 10 years um but we’ve got further to go mhm yeah 100% with the NHS thing I mean I agree the NHS is amazing and the the healthcare we we get certainly from you know an emergency department is amazing obviously the waiting lists in in the emergency department are obviously quite long and I know the hospital itself is often at that point of of bursting at the seams yeah so there definitely feels like there’s some work to do there and I think again just sat here as a as a normal bloke think it just feels like we’re so far away from that ever improving yeah the NHS is a really fascinating one right because ultimately you have this healthc care that’s free at the point of need in the UK why it’s set up in 1948 um and since then obviously the population has changed dramatically and so has our ability to treat illnesses so is our ability to live longer and so it is under this constant pressure that is borne by amazing people who work as doctors and nurses up in dord and working the teams to try and manage that um the truth is around around the finances is people will always argue for more money for the NHS the truth is also that the NHS has never had more money okay um but it’s also true that more people are using it than ever before um and that’s what’s really breaking the system the whole time is that um use and uh um people turning up at A&E and so on is just higher than we’ve ever seen um particularly after the pandemic and clearly then that has that KnockOn effect and you know the resource envelope gets stretched and you know so I’m trying to build a new hospital up at dford we’re you know we’ve been successful in Phase One of a fa five-phase operation we got 190 million pounds last year to rebuild the emergency department um but that comes back to your previous points around like how dared politicians are right because even when I did that those people who get up every day and change my Wikipedia page even they weren’t happy then that there’s still like stuff to criticize you know I’m literally trying to build a new hospital in Plymouth but even then they’re trying to knock you at every stage it will never happen you know willfully kind of mistranslating it to people and stuff you just when I started I found it quite difficult so when I was just a you know well I still but a normal ad coming into this I was like why are you trying to do my legs the whole time when I’m like there’s nothing in this for me right I didn’t get into politics myself I came in to serve the community um Plymouth and Veterans and I found it quite hard but now I just realized that’s just the way politics is really yeah not bit and I know I do this personally but I’ve got private healthcare right um and it feels like more and more certainly young people perhaps are kind of going down the rout where they just P paying for private healthcare now yeah a lot of my clients have recently yeah um what what are your thoughts on that well I don’t have Private health cover um yeah I you know I want the NHS to work for everybody yeah there’s huge challenges in this city um you know Dentistry is a really big one at the moment to be honest with to stre GP appointments you know GPS I’ve worked really hard on GPS and to be honest I haven’t been as successful as I wanted to you know we’re about 21 22 GPS down in Plymouth um I’ve even got you know when Simon Stevens was head of the NHS got him down we ran a recruitment campaign specifically for Plymouth 5 million pound he put into it specifically we had um we had two applicants uh and they both they both dropped out before before they came to Plymouth recruiting GPS is really really hard and then that pressure If you imagine that’s your first point of contact with the house the knock on from that onto the front door of dord is obvious right and that’s sometimes where it starts I mean Dentistry is we’re in a similar place on Dentistry at the moment you know there’s 20 24,000 people on the waiting list in in um for an NHS dentist I’m one of them um yeah I’m saying I got kicked out of my Dentistry because I forgot to go to an appointment and then just like you know life gets in the way now I thought oh just go up for a checkup and they were like no you’ve been you’ve been removed I was like right no no no I didn’t even I didn’t even miss an appointment they just wrote me in the post like it’s like getting binned by a girlfriend back in the day why is it such a problem lots of reasons uh workforce planning so making sure there’s enough dentists um also the contract that was worked out you know a long time ago now 20 years ago that uh basically the contract that people work uh and can you know complete that work in the NHS they can obviously get paid more in private and if people can afford that you know you w you struggle to find a dentist who’s prepared to be worse off because he wants to treat NHS patients there are people like that what we have to do is try to get the incentives right so that actually you know um NHS Dentistry is back on its feet and that’s what a group is trying to do in Plymouth at the moment yeah and then in regard to I guess other pressures for the NHS might my have a half to doctor so so I hear about it from the inside a little bit as well just looking from the outside she’s uh she’s a consultant so she’s not a junior but obviously the Junior’s striking quite lot the moment and it it feels like what they’re asking for is quite unrealistic yeah um you know and my other half being a doctor is very supportive of their right to strike and everything else but is one of the people that are then in there trying to pick up the slack so I mean um I take a slightly different view I was obviously in the military where you can’t strike police can’t strike I don’t think I don’t think these people should be striking I think that is a different sort of job um and I don’t agree with them striking also don’t agree with holding the government to Ransom on a 35% pay increase but is that what they want 35% it’s insane you know we all make our beds don’t we um that’s that’s where they are I think it’s completely unrealistic and I I I fundamentally disagree with healthcare workers striking I’ve worked incredibly hard to try and reduce weight times and improve performance at dford and then another wave of strikes come along and it just yeah smashes the whole thing and I know there’s people who’ve been delayed and have not had their care because people are out on strike I’m afraid I just don’t agree with it in healthcare M that will obviously upset a lot of people but yeah oh is what it is mate you know I juste I completely agree to be perfectly honest you I I don’t really have much of an opinion but when you say it like up yeah puts people’s lives at risk at the end of the day and you do choose your your pathway like you said you no one’s forcing anyone to be a doctor or a nurse but I just don’t see how that how that gets resolved because as you say it’s get eventually because they obviously do deserve a pay rise right because but they had some good off well there have been offers but it hasn’t been enough and you know we always go through this process don’t we with government offering and then slowly slowly and then we get there right but the only people that suffer are the patients correct every time they’re doing that that’s the only people that are suffering my dad is actually in hospital now and he’s waiting for a emergency triple bypass so he’s he’s just in a bed waiting and and those types of strikes might actually that’s why I have a moral problem with um Healthcare weapons strike yeah yeah I mean well Sam another example isn’t he our Jiu-Jitsu coach recently it wasn’t life-threatening but Sam is in Sam who runs the Jiu-Jitsu place with Mark uh no no no you’re thinking of sham Sam Sheriff yeah no this is another chap he’s not military guy um so you may not have heard of him but he was competing in London um got leg locked uh spiral fra with his TI around his FIB oh my God that was on Sunday afternoon he was still waiting at K it was in Kings in London not down here but was still waiting on Wednesday to have it surgically repaired so three or four days but it was the week of the strikes yeah so he just I think Hospital yeah I think it was a day or so to get a bed and then he finally got a bed and then it it got deprioritized several times because obviously with more life-threatening surgeries that needed to be done and again that’s just another example of again not lifethreatening but not pleasant for somebody to sit there W list go up when they go on strike yeah yes Bonkers and another thing we mentioned as well is obviously men’s mental health so you’re obviously very much in that veteran space and you know we obvious had mark on we had Ben wam as well who’s local chap ex ex raw Marine he does a lot for men’s mental health he would use your um hair stuff actually he’s yeah he’s big into all that do you know he didn’t he didn’t he did I was surprised he came in he came on his bike he had he had helmet head L like his hair cut with a spoon was he in his Speedos he’s always in the Speedos isn’t he he wasn’t on this occasion and he had his shirt on as well wow that’s quite R the first time I’ve seen him with a shirt yeah know recognize him yeah but yeah it was a good episode and uh it was you know he was very kind of can and and emotionally quite vulnerable at Point as well should check it out it’s a good episode but obviously you know those boys do a lot for men’s mental health and you know outside of the military as well it’s a massive problem it just seems to cross the board I mean what do you think is going on there obviously you’ve got your view on on Veterans but how about just normal population I mean uh I think there’s lots of things coming together I think um you know our awareness of this is completely different um now I mean I remember when I started right I you know we went through a space of uh people um coming off the Tamar Bridge right and I went down there and I couldn’t believe there weren’t basic things like a sign for the Samaritans and stuff and I just wanted like my first ask was a sign for the Samaritans because you do all sorts right you can put barriers up even getting a sign up for the Samaritans is was like we don’t talk about suicide we don’t talk about people jumping off the T Bridge because W you know well because because the thinking is that it then encourages copycat attacks but for me I it just blew my mind the reason I got involved you one of the worst things I saw was a a lady jump off the T Bridge um you know cycling trying to get to her in time and she just you know she had a little milk crate she went over hanging off and and then she fell off and this poor guy was there trying to persuade his com out it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen you know you get Afghan and all that uh this was just so out of context in your day-to-day life it Dreadful so from that I was like you know I really want to do some stuff around suicide of the Tomar Bridge um but yeah I found the authorities and um you know and the people who run the bridge were really reticent to anything in this regard and even getting that one Samaritan sign up down there was like pulling teeth so even in in this in that time you know we do talk about it a bit more and people are more honest and more open about it that’s obviously going to create a demand signal on healthc care services there is more money in mental health um than there has been before but there is clearly still a significant unmet need right and I think we all have a a role to play in that whether it’s around Al Fitness whether it’s the ability to be resilient and deal with day-to-day life um you know and at the same time seek help early for those conditions where you you know you can get treatment and and you can get better how do you feel about people like Ben who do a lot in the community Through physical fitness to help their mental Fitness how come there’s not enough I don’t know provision to to help people jump into that more cuz a lot of the time I F we we once the problem’s there we look to cure it but instead of curing it what about prevention what about getting people fit Health right well that’s and there’s no money ever going into that you know there’s I’m I’m a personal trainer Paul is you know we in the community we all feel the same but unless people have got a certain income they can only use me yeah you know because again our services are not the cheapest like is there any provision for people like us to there people something called social prescribing has become a really big thing right where you can go to the doctors now and instead of prescribing you drugs or whatever you’ll be prescribed a course in XY and z or even exercise or exercise classes um with um and with you know local groups and that happens a lot particularly amongst the elderly uh in Plymouth so I mean there are um there are aspects of that and a big part of obviously what Ben does is is that is that sort of sustaining your mental health and you know to to be honest that’s why that’s the only reason I exercise I don’t you know I don’t time or I I go running every day literally for my mental health um um and you know and I encourage everyone everyone to do it I find you know it’s the only real way I can stay in the job yeah it’s just it just always I don’t know there’s so many people that I speak to who go I can’t afford it I can’t afford to do this I can’t afford not just the gym membership because that like you know you can go pure gym and it’s £15 a month you know 99% of people can afford that but it’s understanding like how how beneficial your health and fitness is to to actually help your head you know like we we do Jiu-Jitsu and that’s a massive thing for us to actually go and fight and you feel so much better as a man and all those different things but so many so many people miss out on that because they just they I don’t think they realized the benefit if you’re not sporty like I so you probably sporty as a kid and done all that sort of stuff that’s probably why you went into the military where there’s there’s that big group of people who just probably never experienced Sport and then they as they get into adulthood they they just struggle with it and they just don’t understand they don’t have an outlet for it yeah know it’s very true yeah and I think another Factor as well people seem to lack a bit of purpose these days maybe that comes back to to a lack of values as well yeah and I don’t know I don’t I don’t know how you fix that problem how would you give people like an understanding of of their values and and purpose that’s why the military is such a great institution yeah because it’s one of those few sort of values driven charact you know it’s all about character particularly when you’re wearing operations and you know that’s why you know Afghanistan was so sort of formative for so many of us cuz you know when you are in close combat and things like that there there is no rank really there’s no you know there’s no it’s it’s literally all about character and I’ve seen senior ranks completely crumpled and I’ve seen the quietest people just be completely resilient and be able to cope and deal with um pretty extreme situations so you know um that that’s that’s why I’ll always be a fan of the military all the changes it goes through you know every military changes but I still think it’s the best thing you can do as a young person it will teach you obviously about other people but crucially about yourself and what you can and can’t do yeah definitely do you think um we kind of lost something when we we ditched ort of national service I was about to say that literally the because it’s very different now right so imagine the kids now doing national service yeah but the military is like super technical now right and it’s not like you know grunting around um it’s not you know it’s not like that anymore and I’m not sure that you know obviously there’s countries that do it right but I’m just not sure that um that’s the real answer to some of um the societal challenges at the moment but you know never say never yeah I I don’t know it’s something that we we’ve talked about before it’s I think you think about a lot of the the Young Generation like we said lack of purpose yeah lack of values uh lack of work ethic arguably in some cases lack of you know sort of appreciation for authority and and respect everything else and I don’t know I feel like you gain a lot of those things I imagine because we’ve not been there but through the military you’d You’ get that yeah I mean the biggest thing I learned in the military is kind of about yourself and obviously what you can do but crucially like what you can’t do because everyone thinks they can do anything you know and and there’s no kind of humility or um ability to accept your limitations and all the rest of it and look after yourself and spend time and you know and and really really understand and search your character and figure out what you’re made of yeah 100% so earlier you mentioned that we need to consider the values of our politicians yeah in order to vote for them so we’ve got obviously an election coming up at some point um in the future um you touched on your values a couple of times but tell us why tell us about your values and tell us why people should vote for you in the next election oh look I I I I don’t want um because otherwise they’re just going to read the read the Wiki page m in your your so we need something from you look I think I think just um you know I like I said you know I’m I’m I think it’s pretty obvious to everyone now that I’m you know I’m not in this to myself I try and look off to people pouth as best I can have completely transformed the way this country looks after her veterans and you know obviously I’m very proud of that but it’s um it’s not easy you know it’s it’s uh it’s um the sort of job that really is a kind of cooling in a service rather than anything else um and look you should just go and go and look his standing and look at the character and values of the individuals who are standing and and find someone who represents you I don’t want to like give a a big sort of party broadcast think um you’ll have people switching off in their drives yeah it’s why we asked at the very end of the podcast mate just just in case that Happ good in case that happens yeah anything else you want to mention no no it’s good good luck with the Pod and uh I look forward to seeing you yeah Bri appreciate thank you cheers Budd thank [Music] you