‘Money Doesn’t Grow On BLOODY Trees' — Andy Burnham ‘Doesn't Have' A Plan

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Brilliant. Let's be honest, because you were a special advisor. There is a caveat, but hear me out. He's very good at, he's better at politics than Starmer. It was a low bar, but at this moment, my fear is, and I don't want to be disrespectful to anybody, there are millions of people in this country, JP, who are neither invested nor interested in politics, who will hear, your bus is two quid, your VAT is coming off this, we're going to do this, we're going to do that, and we'll go, lovely man, I think he's going to call an early election. I don't think anybody's holding him to task here for obvious reasons. I'd love your thoughts, because cynically, I am going to ask repeatedly where the money's coming from, but for many people, they won't, [00:00:43] Speaker 2: and that's a concern. Yeah, absolutely right. The argument against is that he's never going to get a majority as big as what he's got right now, because the Tories, bless us, lost that election so catastrophically, thanks Rishi Sunak, rather than Starmer or Labour actually winning it. So he's inherited a part he doesn't know, he hasn't got any particular beef with, with the exception of the few people who actually thought that Keir Starmer was doing a good job. And on some of his announcements about social care that came out overnight, he said things like, I think there's a lot we can do before an election. So that's the argument against, but obviously, as you say, the argument in favour is the way that he is behaving, spending money he doesn't have, like a drunk sailor on shore leave with apologies to all of our great sailors. The problem with this is socialism is eventually run out of other people's money. And you can say it again and again and again and again. And unfortunately, we've got a very sophisticated financial market system globally around the world now that allows us to borrow money, and to put off feeling the pain, always, always, always until tomorrow, as long as you don't mind people's living standards being depressed and decrease all the time, which is what we've now had for 20 odd years, the economy hasn't grown properly in 20 years because of excess taxes and excess regulation, and therefore a lack of economic growth. And that's the reason more than anything else, why everybody at home doesn't feel as well off as they deserve to, as they would have done had those things not have happened. And as they would have done, if they did, for example, lived in the United States, where growth kept on going, even after that financial crash. Does Andy Burnham get that? Does he care? That's what worries me. I don't think he does. [00:02:16] Speaker 1: I dug a bit this week, and you must have seen Friday. Happiest day of my life, as he stood there. No, no, but can I just point out for people, because I lived there for 15 years, and I'm allowed to say this. He's a scouse, supports Everton, doesn't come from bloody Manchester anyway. Manchester City Council agreed to the lease on the 11th of May. Three days later, Josh Simons resigned as the MP for Makerfield so Burnham can stand. On the 10th of June, the council confirms the lease agreement from Heron House. Eight days before the election in Makerfield, and by the time he's Prime Minister, within 96 hours, this office is up and running and functional and done. It's like the bus the other day. I was looking out thinking, you haven't done that in 24 hours. How orchestrated a plan was this, JP? [00:03:07] Speaker 2: Well, it's either that his very presence has fashioned to increase state capacity and make the civil service from a useless body that can't get anything done to the most ruthlessly efficient organisation since, what, the Royal Navy under Admiral Nelson or something. Or, as you say, there's a bit of a bit of chicanery and a bit of shenanigans going on here. And I think that there'll be a lot of stories as time goes on. And as the media starts to turn against our dear blessed saviour, and death in the coming weeks, about some of the various deals, about people close to Andy Burnham who may work for companies that may have got nice deals, which is always what happened. [00:03:45] Speaker 1: Oh, Jay, I've got to jump in. Look, look, I've got to jump in. That's a model door of number 10. How long did, I mean, look at this model, how long did that take to do? [00:03:55] Speaker 2: It's astonishing, isn't it? But I think this goes to this wider point that I say that at the moment, scrambling to get favourable access to Andy Burnham and his team, a lot of the kind of, let's call it, mainstream media types, will be quite fawning because they want to get interviews, they want to get contacts, they want to get the phone numbers, frankly, of all the people around Burnham. Eventually, when they get that, they'll decide that the access isn't worth it anymore, and they'll start actually doing journalism again. And as I say, there'll be an awful lot of interesting things around Manchester. For example, you'll never see Andy Burnham, I think probably fair enough, but maybe those on the left wouldn't agree, never see him criticising the United Arab Emirates because they put so much investment into Manchester when they bought Manchester City. Now, I think that's fine, but I wonder how many of the people on the left really think about that if he's ever going to get pushed on it. Ditto all sorts of other deals that end up happening. And let's not forget, of course, that the city of Liverpool, down the road, as you say, where Andy Burnham is actually from, saw so much corruption that the mayor was put in prison and central government had to take it over. So you actually had, at the time, community secretary, Robert Jenrick, directly controlling Liverpool from his desk in London. So I wonder, yeah, I think you may be right here, Jess, that it doesn't quite pass the smell test, does it? [00:05:08] Speaker 1: And you know, half of me, and I'm being completely straight here, half of me worries that people will be taken in. I'm not having a go at them for that because they're not invested in politics and that's understandable. But what inspires me is that belief that stations like this say to the silent majority, your voice can be heard. For example, Burnham used the official government jet. His right is the prime minister to fly to Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games and then home on Friday at a cost of 300,000 pounds. If he goes home every Friday across the year, I reckon that'll cost him 10, well, us, 10 million pounds. So I don't know. I'm sort of, I'm loath to sort of, I like the messaging. I just, I will not stop to sit here and say, because I remember a socialist government before any of you, because I'm 60, you are so right. They spend money they haven't got until they run out and then they're voted out of office and run out of town. And it's all lovely and it's all great. And certain radio presenters who I will never name on this station go, all you lot do on talk is, is, is cynically say, where's the money coming from? Yeah, I do. Because at the end of the day, mate, we're all going to have to pay for this. It sounds great, but money doesn't grow on bloody trees, does it? You, you won't name James O'Brien, but it's [00:06:24] Speaker 2: all right because all the students and unemployed people who listen to him aren't awake yet, so don't worry about it. I'll name him. But you're exactly right. This is the problem. These guys don't understand how economics works. And we're already hurtling towards the potential of a sovereign debt crisis of some kind of default, because the moment we've the cost of borrowing and this again, sounds boring, but I'm never going to stop going on about it. And so you just have to disinvite me because borrowing is going up and up and up. They're much higher routinely than it spikes to when Liz trust was prime minister, by the way. So it's so expensive now more than a hundred billion pounds a year. That's a lot of private jet flights for Andy Burnham is spent just on servicing our debt, not paying it down. And that number gets higher every year as we keep borrowing. So we keep adding to that. We add to our debt pile, we add to the deficit, and we add to that amount of money that we repay. And eventually you'll get to a point where you just won't be able to afford to pay anything else. And we will either default on our debt, in which case, I mean, I can't even imagine how awful that might end up being, or we're going to have to start to learn to live within our means. And that means being a little bit mean to people who just want infinite amounts of other people's money. And that's what's going to have to happen. But the longer this goes on, frankly, the more difficult it's going to be for a future right wing government to fix it, because no Labour government leaves office with employment higher than when they found it. Employment is always lower, unemployment is always higher, whenever Labour leave office, they always leave the country in more debt, more weaker, more defence problems, all the rest of it. And it just makes it so difficult for a right wing government that comes in to kill the mess afterwards, an even bigger mess to happen. [00:08:00] Speaker 1: Well, talking about that, he went on air and he said, I want to, with Kunzberg, I don't need to play, I'm ruling out a general election, right? Poppy Coburn and I were talking about this earlier. I think he absolutely will. And so does she call an early election, because right now, the right is divided, reform have some issues. Certainly, Chem is kicking through. But I have to say that the party is still toxic in the mind of voters. Actually, interestingly, as well, she made the point, the Greens are down to 8% in the latest opinion poll, which means your average left winger has gravitated back to Burnham. His choice will simply be this. Do I go for five years and accept a majority of 30 or 40, 20 to 40, I suspect he could win right now, because people aren't questioning the sweets. At this moment in time, he's on a bit of a honeymoon period. Then he looks his MPs in the face and goes, you know, 150 of you are going to lose your jobs. But for the greater good, I'm going to do it. I think it's fascinating. Where do you stand on compulsory voting? Apparently, he's eyeing it up. He says, proposal will mean a £10 fine for those who do not cast a ballot and with none of the above option to be included. Should you be forced to vote in this country, [00:09:04] Speaker 2: JP? I mean, first of all, I think it's really interesting that it just seems such a random assortment of policies that this bloke Andy Burnham goes, oh, do you know what we'll do today? I quite like this idea. Let's do that. Doesn't seem like there's any kind of strategy behind any of this stuff, particularly. On this specific issue, I'm actually a little bit torn. One bit of me thinks that it's terrible to compel people to do things that they wouldn't want to do. And I've always been against spending any public money on advertising campaigns to encourage people to vote. Because frankly, if you need an advert at a bus stop to remind you that there's an election happening, you should go and vote. You probably haven't thought very deeply through all the [00:09:42] Speaker 1: different options and ideas. But can I jump in for a reason? You and I, of course, would be. But many people, and I'm not going to insult them because there's a point here, many people are so hacked off with what they see as politics and people who have let them down that they've switched on from it, off from it, or people who have just never invested in it who will fall for the BS that is undoubtedly being spewed from number 10 in London and Manchester. And I'm not saying it's not good politics. What I'm saying is there has to be an end point. And the end point is there's no money. We are skint. So where's it coming from? You've either got to make cuts or borrow or print or raise taxes. And people need to know that. They have to know that. [00:10:24] Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, part of our job is to have these people to get it, I suppose. And if you do have compulsory voting, the thing I like about it is that it does sort of force a greater level of civic engagement, right? In the same way that a couple of years ago when I did jury service, it was a pain in the in the bits for two weeks. But at least I knew that I was doing something that was contributing to the kind of civic governance of my fellow man. I've been called. I've been called up. Right. And how many other things like that are there? We don't have conscription or a draft or national service anymore. We don't have anything that you are compelled to do positively beyond not breaking laws other than jury service. Oh, no, you can break the law. You can break the law now. You can break the law. It's fine. Oh, well, of course, if you're, you know, if you're of a certain disposition and grouping, then we have to take into account. You've got anxiety, don't you? You're on, Pip. You've got [00:11:11] Speaker 1: anxiety. Come on, don't you? I'm fair. I'm going to read you this. You'll love this. From Paul. Two most iconic addresses in this country, which are revered across the world, are now not worthy of their new incumbents. Buckingham Palace, no longer the home to our monarchy. Number 10 Downing Street, no longer worthy of our new PM. It tells you everything you need to know about my bloody [00:11:27] Speaker 2: country, says Paul. I think he's right, isn't he? Well, I wouldn't dare, having said that we shouldn't break the law, dare to commit treason and criticise his majesty. I think that some of the criticisms of him are a little bit OTT, especially when we've got such a ghastly semi-incumbent of number 10 now. I think that it's, we're very lucky that we have the system [00:11:48] Speaker 1: that we have. Oh, I'm not criticising the monarchy, and I understand the reasons for moving out of Buckingham Palace, but it is quite interesting. If you think back, you think, right, you know, think about Churchill, Attlee, think of them all, you know, number 10, and then you think of the king, and then the queen, number 10, Buckingham Palace. Now, you know, St. James's Palace. Well, my old man worked. He's just an office, Buckingham Palace, although there's a room out the back for old Ginge. He's coming home, isn't he? And then number 10 up north. I do want to finish with you, because I love having you on this show more than anything. There's two stories I'd like you to concentrate on, please, if you could, JP. An Albanian drug dealer, we today report, will not be deported because his daughter wets the bed, he told a court last week. The girl needed therapeutic intervention due to her accidents, which worsened during his time in jail, where he served two years for his role in a money laundering drug gang. But irrespective of that, the judge said, no, it's not fair that your daughter wets the bed, despite the fact she's 36. No, I mean, that was a joke. So you can stay in this country. What the... Honestly, what is wrong with us? He's an Albanian drug dealer. [00:12:56] Speaker 2: Pardon the puns, Jess, because I know we're before the watershed, but that really is taking the pee, isn't it? [00:13:03] Speaker 1: That was... Listen, that was good. Diversity and equality initiatives have cost the British police 631 million since 2020. Police forces have defied the High Court trans ruling as well by continuing to put biological men in women's cells. [00:13:18] Speaker 2: I mean, you get story after story of this stuff, doesn't it? And it just, it's almost, it would be boring if it wasn't so terrifying and so horrendous and hideous that we've got all this stuff going on. I just think that we should play the thought experiment of when we're old people and we look back and try and explain this period to our grandchildren, they're going to say, you did what? Right? It's in the same way that when you look back at some of the stuff in 2020 now, some of the totally bonkers things, you know, police officers taking the knee in front of Buckingham, in front of Downing Street because protesters says, yes, hands up, don't shoot to a bunch of unarmed police... [00:13:50] Speaker 1: And walking through the park and saying to your wife, God, we've had 57 minutes, we need to get home, we've only got an hour this morning, otherwise this disease is going to kill us all. [00:13:59] Speaker 2: from all that fresh air, right, during a respiratory virus. It's absolutely bonkers. All, by the way, from the people that said trust the science and all the rest of it. Yeah. Michael Gove was right, we are tired of so-called experts and I'd like to go back to actual experts and police should focus on policing rather than any of this woke nonsense. That shouldn't be a controversial thing to say. No, but it is and to finish, I mean, [00:14:20] Speaker 1: woke nonsense or the mood of the nation. Do you remember care bears? Vaguely. I'm a caring bear, I think. Some teddy bears are trans, says a taxpayer-backed art group. No, it's gone. It's gone. Yeah. Some teddy bears are trans. I am, they don't even have genital... I know, JP, I mean, we're both, we're not pretending to be intelligent, but Jesus Christ, man, what's going on? Honestly. [00:14:46] Speaker 2: I know I'm, as the kids say, Nixon maxing, wearing my Richard Nixon jumper today, but the teddy bear is named after Theodore Roosevelt, a man who was a sickly young boy and managed through his own efforts of the strenuous life to turn himself into this great hulking cowboy bull of a man who charged up a hill during war against the Spanish in Cuba and killed a man and went on to become president and all the rest of it. Imagine telling him, he'd be so happy to know that teddy bears were named after him and that he spread joy to millions of kids, and then try and tell him that some of those teddy bears are trans. I mean, imagine the death stare that he would give you. [00:15:20] Speaker 1: Mate, I cannot tell you how much I love... In a world where I increasingly feel that I'm going and losing the plot, JP is my balance. Thank you, James Price. Love you. Thanks for coming on, Jude. [00:15:44] Speaker ?: Thanks for coming on, Jude.