[Music]
happy new year
I suppose thus speak the Reverend I am
jolly in the famous only an excuse on
Scottish television on harmony seeking
to convey the Presbyterian dismal hatred
of enjoyment that's a bit like I felt at
New Year yes not least because I
discovered that the hootenanny we were
watching with Jools Holland and all
kinds of chanters and dancers and
performers was pre-recorded so there are
there now you're born homey was entirely
fun and I learned that about 10 minutes
to midnight so even if I was not of the
Reverend I enjoyed his bent which I am
in fact as a lifelong non drinker new
year it's like a canyon of horror at
least it was when I was forced to meet
other people around that time and as I
sat there with my small family
drinking tea watching Jools Holland and
I then learned that it was entirely fake
how that it's a scientist no no no no
you also are in a non drinking household
yes how did you bring in the new year
we've waited capitalist con it's an
absolute rip of a height new year I used
to because I used to work as a hotel
manager my pasts of decade of
Christmases and new years up until sort
of 2030 yeah 2013 we're spent working so
I was always and always instigating
other people's enjoyments and fun but
I'm not a fan of New Year we we saw
flicked on the BBC watch the appalling
3.2 million pounds of Greater London
Authority money go up in smoke right and
smoke it went up in a yes a conspiracy
of that my goodness as
should have written an article yes yeah
so there's a new flag coming up um we
just watched that kind of an but I was
we were talking about this affair and
I'm gonna repeat it for our viewers and
there's a very interesting background to
New Year's in so much that happened till
1752 in this country and the new year
was celebrated on March 25th because
totally amazed and it's a story because
the Pope whoever the whoever in the
1500s introduced a Gregorian calendar
across Europe obviously from the
Catholic Church obviously we were not
sons of the Catholic Church at the time
it was a Protestant country by then and
we didn't implement this calendar until
1752 so therefore we were running on an
old calendar which had New Year's march
to 25th because we changed the date to
fit into the Christian the sort of the
East period as it was then what was
interesting was that when they
introduced in 1750 to mass civil unrest
occurred because the old calendar was
based on the lunar cycle not the solar
cycle therefore when they switched to
the Gregorian calendar which is the
Solar solar cycle if you like there were
11 more working days in the year ah very
interesting so was it a were Industrial
Revolution sort of a move to get more
working days of the people is there was
quite interesting even Jerome Robbins
not offering 11 new Korbin if you're
watching then go change first pledge as
a foreign aid government to return a
luna count return to the lunar calendar
or lunacy as it might otherwise be known
speaking of lunacy what did you make of
the scenes outside the House of Commons
yesterday I'm I'm quite ambivalent about
them I've no doubt that I would despise
the individuals doing the screaming and
shouting not at all
I've equally no doubt that I despise
Anna sue Bri and like or enjoins only a
little bit more at the same time as
someone who was four and a half years
ago now quite savagely assaulted and
before my
two core beliefs left in a hospital bed
I know what political violence feels
like and it's extremely painful no they
didn't come across any actual violence
although assault doesn't have to involve
an actual net blows but they were being
screamed at in a very ugly way and
therefore it's my view I'm not trying to
be Saint Francis of Assisi here but
though I don't like Jones very much and
I actually hate Anna sue Bri I hate what
happened to them yesterday because I
know how close that is from an actual
full-blown attack yeah there are a
number of ironies though they're all
complaining about why there were no
police around to come to their aid in
which the whole of Britain said yeah
tell us about it because with 21,000
police officers down across the country
this is the norm for most people there's
a trouble looming or a burglary in
progress called the police and you'll
have to wait quite some time before they
arrive so that's one irony the second
irony is the Anna Sabri herself has
helped over the last year's generally
some of the poisonous character of
public discourse that exists in this
country but my third observation would
be they ain't seen nothing yet
if brexit is betrayed if seventeen point
four million people including millions
with absolutely nothing to lose
feel that they've been cheated out of
that which they voted for there's a real
risk to social peace in this country and
we the Queen doesn't have enough
soldiers and we don't have enough police
officers to deal with it yeah over to
you yeah and now I'm so broadly long
your train of thought with that as it
where I have no sympathy generally vanos
sober I think she is one of
the worst conservative politicians in
terms of the fact that she constantly
presents as this caring concerned trying
to run the sort of central line as it
were with caring centrism it's caring
centrist and she presents and yet evoke
in boating record shows something
completely differently I think she's a
snake in the glass because don't forget
she's a lawyer so she's trained to UM
talk essentially [ __ ] all the time
and I think she's a dangerous politician
in terms of like I say because she
presents as one thing when in reality
she's actually another I'm no fan of
Odin Jones so I think a lot of the
problems on the Left are down to his
kind of school of thoughts this kind of
democratic socialism presenting as
radical is not helpful to anyone however
nor do I sympathize with the people who
abuse them in the street it is
unnecessary and it's it's it's not the
counterproductive do raise it doesn't
achieve anything but and by the same way
I criticize the same people who go out
on anti-fascist marches with their
stomping boots shouting the far right
now it's not achieving anything all
you're doing is taking an immovable
object is ironic isn't it because the
the pro-eu forces in Britain have been
calling the rest of us Nazis for the
last two years and exactly we wanted out
of the EU and this is the thing so it
should not happen there's an ugly state
of affairs however you have a shoe quite
right in points now you have to look at
the reasons how we've come to this place
not least publications like The Daily
Mail who ran an opinion column from a
condom who was with the headline was why
I hate Jeremy Corbyn and his Nazi stooge
from storm troopers remember that I am
and so it's fine for the day that was
actually written by a Labour candidate
that's foster yeah multimillionaire
that language is fine obviously because
it's a Daily Mail yeah so and it's about
Korbin yeah which is except you know
he's arriving anti-semite and racist now
so you can scream that in Jeremy Corbyn
space but you can't show
see an assumed no and nor can you have
any context as you say how we've got to
that point not least as we've discussed
on this program before the years of
triangulated Blair Clinton PC which
abandoned working-class communities
which lend led to the abandonment of
labor which then led to the rise of you
Kip which then they took the brexit vote
which then led to the position we see
ourselves in now which politicians of
all shapes and colors have to take
responsibility for that's in part what
has led to this but also there's there's
the gain underlying issue for me which
we see all the time which is what this
incident will now be used for and it
will now be used for an increased
crackdown on legitimate demonstration
and protest outside Parliament you've
already seen 50 MPs have written to
proceed a dick head of the net saying
they want her to sort the security and
policing issues surrounding
demonstrations and protesters Parliament
you know we used to crack down on
left-wing protests that's happened on a
regular basis outside parliament we're
on eclis we talked about this on my
podcast
the drone incident and Gatwick what I
said on the podcast repeatedly is now
coming true that they're now bringing
anti-drone laws where every drone over
250 grams has to be registered that is
people who use drone for activism and
campaign purposes whether between the
monitor police monitor corporations make
independent film sets then now having to
essentially register with the government
for their use and governments always do
this well are there any drones by the
way at the end we still don't know do we
no no apparently apparently that
couldn't be none at all that happened
while we were on our hiatus exactly but
the entire economy of Britain in the
aviation sector I've gotten brought to a
halt because of repeated sightings of
drones that may well have been police
drones looking for other drugs and the
airport had no defense mechanism against
drones flying over the runways and
potentially causing an aviation
hasta yet they've got inside the airport
hundreds of millions of pounds worth of
security precautions there are armed
police everywhere
if only the terrorists knew that they
could have brought the airports to their
knees with a 1299 Rhona of how far
exactly it's ridiculous but and and and
by the way while we were off the dragged
a totally innocent couple now yes
unsuspecting blinking into the light are
these the morons who destroyed Christmas
I said the front page of The Daily Mail
to which the answer was no it was yes
that that story was fascinating last
year but and back to super Ian Jones
yeah well of course lead to that it will
also be their attempt to generate more
angst about brexit as a result you see
these are the kind of people that
support brexit although actually the
euro fanatics outside parliament weaving
their EU flags running after journalists
photo bombing every television shock
then all that agro has come from the pro
remainder people but it will be used as
a stick to beat brexit with but i repeat
myself it's a somber warning the
opposite influences one should be drawn
and that was yes and that's my kind of
final point on this if you like I think
you're correct in the implications for
where we are headed with this and I
don't see anything on the landscape in
my opinion this is going to be effective
to counter this I mean you only have to
look at the people behind these protests
and and and the abuse of silence and so
Briand Jones and they're claiming to be
the yellow vest movement in the UK these
people yeah and now this is also a major
concern they do just too much to go into
for this segment now but there's also a
narrative to be had about what's going
on with the attempts of the
best movement in this country because
one the one and you've got this small
group of far-right Tommy Robertson
supporters claiming the carrying their
mantle of being the yellow vests
movement then by contrast you've got
People's Assembly on Saturday 12th of
January who were going to do in their
own yellow vest movement and for me is
that they're going to wear young yes
well if they are then that's good
because if you create a vacuum other
people will fill it and if the left
doesn't take to the streets and the kind
of protest scene in France - one hopes
violence and destruction then the right
wing will do it is but it's it's
People's Assembly and my issue with that
is that it's losing the whole what why
it worked in France was because it was
spontaneous and all new people having
the grievance was you have a peaceful
assembly who at the top of their
organizational tree have people in
full-time jobs being paid to organize
this [ __ ] they then go and pay
Westminster Council at least 20,000
pounds for the privilege of marching as
I knows I've seen their [ __ ] books
and it just dis dissipates the whole
point of the yell at let's move and
that's my concern that in and it's a
microcosm I think of the problem we have
in Britain that the whole notion of
working-class solidarity and
working-class organization is completely
lost it's been co-opted out to either
the far-right or the middle classes
University educators who who take
something like what's happening in
France and make it into their own
money-making scheme essentially because
I'm afraid that's what people's assembly
is they literally have people they pay
people are on the earner from people
specifically and the whole point of it
is lost and people are go go johny die
out yes that would be unfortunate I
don't know anything about the People's
Assembly I've never been invited to it I
have no contact with it I don't know who
runs it don't know who these people are
that are organizing it but of course I
know the kind of thing to which you
and if Saturday is a demonstration of
you know peaceniks and liberals that
will not capture the spirit at all of
the yellow vests movement it will be
still what while going and I hope that
people go to it I won't be going myself
I only go if I'm allowed to speak at
things and I'm not allowed to speak at
this but I hope people go in significant
numbers because it will assist the
worldwide Sunday European wide movement
that is going on now to reject the
prevailing orthodoxy to reject austerity
reject neoliberalism reject our
governments demand the dimmest yandi de
cachet of the of the leaders that we
have but the People's Assembly ain't
going to storm the Bastille that's for
sure
you can't storm the Bastille
metaphorically speaking unless the
people from the estates the working
class the real song culotte the real
songs co-opted
unless they're on the demonstration
unless workers unemployed workers
tenants unless the mass of the people
are on the street you ain't going to be
overthrowing any government yep
but still it's a worthwhile effort and
you know I wish it well I'm sorry most
skeptical and I don't wish it well and
afraid I've been on one too many
People's Assembly marches and I care to
remember and that my patience has been
lost with them not least because on
several marches there's numerous issues
with disability access they don't even
give a thought to disabled people and
purely for the fact that we have had
enough organized paid a to be marches
now and it is merely firstly watering
down the left and what it should be
standing for and what we should be
focusing on and be because it's so
unrepresentative of actual working-class
move they've organized [ __ ] coaches
and it is
people coming down from across the
country for a nice jolly day out they
bring the packed lunches they probably
go to Preta Monge after water no your
get back start with the romaine March
they're all the [ __ ] same and it's
the time is done for these kind of
marches and I find it insulting to the
people of France the People's Assembly
have co-opted the yellow vest movement
and I have no qualms without saying that
on camera I'm done with People's
Assembly then it I'm very irritated very
interesting I need to reflect on mantan
or you said that as any self-respecting
revolutionary socialists will know the
essential magazine titles it should be
on your coffee table our of course the
Morningstar red pepper and and this
dexter's London property perfectional us
now having a frantic finger through the
pages of Dexter's this January I
stumbled across a property in Buckingham
Gate sw1 which is a a classic white
fronted house directly opposite that
score the palace up for sale well it's
directly opposite Buckingham Palace
George and adjacent Susan James Park
there are eight bedrooms the double
height glass atrium courtyard gardens
far away with Paul's father and Jim
there's also staff accommodation don't
you know I'm ready for us to breakfast
it's a private garage on parking this
can all be yours for the measly major
price of 62 and a half million quid burn
actually doing that it's million quid
sixty two and a half million pounds for
a property in sw1
now as I say it should be always a
normal copy of red pepper alongside that
now this is of course coming at the same
time as shelter charity produce their
overarching reports into the crisis and
social housing in this country it was a
cross-party drawn up project which had
the likes of Ed Miliband from one side
and Baroness Varzi from another side
coming together to work out a plan for
the government for social housing and
given recommendations of the
Conservative Party needs to be
implementing the headlines you will all
have sinned them because it was all over
social media on Tuesday headlines are
that we need to build build 3.1 million
social ham houses by I think 2030
to meet demand there needs to be
organized renters unions there needs to
be a new omnis ombudsman like the Office
for Budget Responsibility who monitor
what's going on with spending in social
housing and numerous others measures
which shelters are saying needs to be
implemented now for me while this is
obviously welcomed at so conversations
being had about social housing because
it is one of the crises that is
affecting this country and has affected
this country for many years for me the
reporting go far enough it didn't
address the fact for starters that the
Conservative government's have taken
away housing associations statuses
charities and put them back into the
private sector allowing them firstly to
access private debt again so they can
take on loads of loans to build a few
properties but also it takes various
obligations away from housing
associations nor did it do anything to
address the fact that there is still a
mismatch in the property market between
what people can afford and what people
are actually having to pay and also for
me it just buys into this notion because
a lot of the report was about how people
are locked out of owning their own
properties and this obsession in this
country with mortgages and with property
as some sort of thing that is it's like
a pair of socks that we all should have
and if we don't happen and there's
something wrong with us needs to end so
for me the report wasn't radical enough
that's me so obviously it wasn't gonna
be pretty radical like you I come from a
council house background I lived in a
slum with an outside toilet sharing the
outside toilet with five other families
and we got moved to a brand new council
house with a bath never mind an inside
toilet but there's only so much time you
can spend in the bath and if you are
moved to a council estate where there is
nothing else except houses with baths in
them then alienation and dissatisfaction
of course soon grows and the devil
work for idle hands so I'm the last to
say that just building millions of
council houses will be the answer to all
our prayers but it will be the answer to
some of them yep it'll be the answer to
the ultra high rents and the private
sector in many places and certainly
including London it will bring down
houses for sale prices because if there
are more options to rent there are fewer
people chasing the properties that are
available and so the obscene escalation
like you I've looked at that dexter's
I'm sorry to tell you that that's not
the most expensive house in the magazine
the most explosive is in Westminster ok
and it is 82 million pounds that is to
say looking in all but the very very top
weeks of the EuroMillions lottery you
would win the lottery and still not be
able to buy one house to ever mind do
anything else would never mind giving
any of a way or looking after your
future you couldn't buy one house in
London in Westminster for a euromillions
windfall of course that's the extreme
end of the market but there's I in that
very same magazine a one-bedroom flat in
angel Islington for 600,000 pounds pH
Attell don't you know for 600,000 pounds
this is unsustainable yeah because of
course people can only afford to buy it
by taking on monumental debt the
slightest dip in the economy will turn
these kind of properties into subprime
and then you're on the brink of another
10 2008 collapse so of course if you're
looking at this holistically it's not
going to be solved just by building more
roofs but it cannot be solved without
building
those more new roofs but I want to test
you on something you use the term social
housing I used the term council house
yeah now sadly I am old enough to be
able to say I told you so
hmm I was there when they started
selling council houses and I warned that
it would lead exactly ineluctably where
it has led I was there when the left
came up with the idea of housing
associations I denounced them this is
for the cognoscenti as tea tourism at
the time a deviation from socialism that
would only could only end in market
economics and a return to capitalism and
again that is exactly what has happened
these housing associations have taken
the place of the council as your
landlord our Democratic landlord that
you can vote for and vote out if you're
not happy these housing associations
began as public bodies but inevitably
they became less and less public and now
they're entirely private yet and they've
actually taken up the lion's share of
social house buildings such as there has
been over these last 30 to 40 years
so I'm old-fashioned yep I believe we
need council houses yes and this is the
crux of the matter no it's completely
agree with you this is my main issue
with this the fact that it is your right
because social housing just comes out of
my mouth naturally and this fits because
and somewhat of my age yeah you have
you've called cancer it's called social
housing and you just comes out my mouth
and this is the crux of the problem the
report from shelter mentions nothing
about the fact that we should be moving
towards council housing where as you
quite rightly say you can vote out your
landlord if you don't like them it does
say it talks about possible Mutual's and
co-op arrangements um where people can
invest in their own small community
housing
projects if you like it also talks about
accountability of housing associations
and how the the ombudsman that should be
created should monitor the standards of
Housing Association and housing
providers but it still doesn't do
anything to address as you said the fact
that these are for profits now companies
and to be honest when they had charity
stages if you dig deep enough
they were always full anyway that has
subsidiaries which profit which money
gets filtered in through which is a
profit-making entity and though what's
happening profit-making it's just now in
name they are private so now all of
these now open emotive profit-making but
let me give you a banal example it's
banal but telling if you are in a
council house and you've got two voters
in your house and there's a or ten
voters in your building and you go and
see your counselor and you tell them
that the repair to the building has not
been done or it's not been done well
enough or your repair in your house has
not been attended to properly the
counselor has to jump to kick ass make
sure it's done why because you have the
power to sack him yeah you don't have
that power over a Housing Association of
Knowshon exact Ora or or a private
landlord no and then that's up there on
the other foot privately that that is a
crucial point in this as well but I mean
also broadly this report it says 3.1
million that is based on how many people
will be coming into a situation which is
considered dire enough that they will
need social housing it's their estimate
on how many families and people and will
need in terms of government rhetoric and
sorry government language of needs or
rather what the parameters are for
needing social housing how many people
will need it not how many people would
benefit from social housing who are
currently stuck in the private rentals
well again this is sorry and I have to
say this they're not stopping right to
buy either there's no recommendation to
end right to buy pointless is this going
to salt I mean currently
it stands I think I mean the council
house waiting lists numbers have dropped
I remember when I first started writing
maths in 2014 there was 1.9 million on
council waiting lists I think it's down
to between 1 and 1.2 million now so
either way there's still a million
households that's not people households
waiting for social housing in this
country right now 3 million over the
next I don't know millions more that
would benefit exactly and this is the
point this this definition of council
housing social housing as a sink estate
where you fall into when you fall
through the bottom of every other market
is a profound misconception and it's a
peculiarly British disease if you go to
Paris virtually nobody owns the house
that they live you go to Germany
eventually nobody owns the house in
which they live they rent them why
should you tie up your whole life in the
equity of a piece of mission or exactly
what you could do with your life exactly
it is it's a very British phenomenon as
you say and it goes against you'll know
better than I do what's labour
politicians said this we were know
created social council housing the guy
said so something about the doctor and
the Midwife and the teacher and the work
all living on the same street wasn't it
and but it was Thatcherism ultimate
lives that sort of near liberals or was
a cargo tell I was there Thatcher
introduced the right to buy I was a
labor organizer at the time I led our
refusal to sell we were taken to law by
the Tory government by malcolm rifkind
it's the first time but not the last i
became his enemy and they brought in a
judge to hold an inquiry into our
refusal to sell the inquiry was mobbed
and occupied by the troops by us and
brought to a grinding halt and
eventually only on pain of actually
going to prison did our counselors
reluctantly agree to
CEL and then made it as difficult as
possible to sell but you know what it's
like the same with solitude it's a
dramatic comparison but with the
occupied territories in in Israel
Palestine once they've been occupied for
a long time and once they've been paved
and lit and the swimming pools and the
sprinklers and the gardens and so on are
all in place it's very difficult to go
back into the status quo ante and that's
what's happened with the right to buy so
I'm not against people owning their own
home though I caution against it but you
can only aspire to own your own home or
join the rat race in the private rented
sector if there's no publicly available
alternative and mayor after mirror in
London I don't mean to be London centric
about this but mayor after mayor in
London including Ken Livingstone
certainly Boris Johnson and definitely
Sadiq Khan have completely failed even
with their own very limited programs and
manifestos for 20% social housing in all
new developments 50% was Ken's
aspiration never remotely came near 50
Johnson's was I think 20 or 25 never
remotely nearly cons was 10 not remotely
near it so that every new development
that is being built on precious scarce
land is overwhelmingly for the richest
people in London or the most indebted
people in London because let's not
forget what the word mortgage means in
French it means the grip of death well
that's all the time we've got for the
first edition of topple Galloway first
edition of 2019 many more I hope to come
happy New Year to you Steve and I mean
that sincerely not in the Reverend I am
jolly we
yes and to you too and don't forget to
everyone if you want to get involved you
can tweet us using the hashtag toggle
Galloway and it's at mr. toggle at
George Galloway and also we'll be in
Neath on stage yes we're treading the
boards friend I haven't done that since
I was 16
what's the last show I was in I played
Jesus in Godspell I have no doubt that
oh I did and I would expect no less
I was Jesus God that's the last time I I
walked on a theater stage so this will
be this will be a somewhat and yes I'm
thinking of how it's a great opening
like that on stage Jesus no he's John
the Baptist well I am going to appear
with Jesus at the Gwynn Hall in Neath
and you can get the tickets online from
the hall it's going to be great yes
[Music]