How the British Establishment REALLY Works | Aaron Bastani meets Simon Kuper
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- Опубликовано: 7 сен 2024
- Simon Kuper has been a journalist at the Financial Times for three decades - so he’s seen up close how Britain works, and who it works for.
In his latest book, ‘Good Chaps: How Corrupt Politicians Broke Our Law and Institutions’, Kuper chronicles changes in the instincts of Britain’s ruling class - and how corruption came to be increasingly normalised.
What do these elites believe? When did those beliefs change? And who are the people, places and policies that led to such shifts? Watch the conversation to find out.
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Comments referring to audio issues - these have now been fixed.
Just to point out that there was not a £3 membership for the Labour Party. In 2015 it was possible to register as a supporter of the LP for £3 and vote in the leadership election. Thousands of people registered and after Corbyn was elected leader many joined the LP paying the normal fees. The Labour Party cleared it's debts quickly and for a short period did not have to rely on big money donors many of which had stopped funding the Party due to Corbyn's leadership. Having the LP funded by it's membership and the trade union movement was good for democracy and a protection against corruption.
At 9:30 he says "Britain is a country that for 350 years there's no invasions, no famines, no civil war"...................! The Irish famine of 1845-1850 happened when Ireland was part of the UK and the civil war in Northern Ireland from 1969 to 1998 happened when Northern Ireland was part of the UK. It is astonishing how anything negative 'didn't happen here' and Britain can be cleaved away from the UK when it suits the narrative. I lost confidence in the podcast after that. Also a complete failure to even mention the influence of bad actors from Israel in British politics. I won't be buying his book.
spot on
Same here. The “nothing is going wrong in Germany because, tragedy”, comment is incorrect. Germany is being systematically ruined as I type; ongoing since 2010.
There were several Jacobite rebellions, which were civil wars, less than 300 years ago.
Did you not hear him acknowledge this at 10:28
In football £250,000 is called a bung. In politics £250,000 is called a donation.
Interesting, informative guest & always impressed with Aaron's interviews & research. Amazing to get through a whole interview on corruption in British politics without mentioning the Israel Lobby.
PLEASE FIX THE SOUND - Simon's volume is coming through on only the right ear and Aaron's on left. You guys need to mix the volume so it's mono or only slightly panned. I'm sure it's a mistake but makes for a horrible listener experience.
Thank you - checked comments to see if anyone else had this problem. Very weird to listen to!
sounds like politics asmr lol
Indeed. The sound is bad, it should be fully center panned. The video editing is also bad. If you guys don't know how to edit, just leave it on a static shot of both speakers and leave it like that. Don't try to be creative if you don't understand the absolute basics of video editing. This is just distracting and annoying.
Definitely to quiet.
I feel like I'm sat between them help
Real estate, rentier capital, neo liberalism, create big money for the few, create big and increasing costs for everyone else
Simon Kuper mentions on several occasions, the typical bad guys of foreign influence (the Russians, Gulf States, oligarchs) but interestingly, he does not mention the US or Israel.
Thanks. On the basis of your comment I won't be watching the interview.
@@JohnnyFriendlyIt’s still worth a watch, even with all his ideological blinders.
Israel? Are you mad? - maybe he still wants to work in the media😉
Move to Russia then boyo
Not true, US influence is mentioned several times throughout the interview, such as 1:14:53
The dead children don’t affect me like they used to.
The images. The videos. They still disturb and horrify, but not like they did in the beginning. Not anywhere close.
And, honestly, I hate it. I hate that that part of me has been stolen.
As much as I hated having my heart kicked around all day and having nightmares all night, I’d rather have that than this decreased sensitivity.
People should not become desensitized to such horrors. People should not become accustomed to decapitated babies and small, mangled bodies. To corpses run over by tanks. To body parts carried in plastic bags by loved ones.
These things should jar you. They should rattle you to your core. But they don’t anymore. Not here.
I held onto it for as long as I could. It felt like a solemn duty, to hold on to that part of me that still screamed with an appropriate mixture of grief and outrage at the latest tiny shredded body. But desensitization sets in whether you want it to or not. That’s how they create soldiers, after all.
I hate that these pricks have amputated that part of me, and I hate that I know it will never grow back. I have been permanently disfigured inside, mutated by atrocities, all the way down here safe in the Melbourne suburbs.
And I hate that this is happening all around the world to everyone else who’s kept their gaze fixed on Gaza. All around the world humanity is being mutated. All around the world something sacred is being stolen from the hearts of good people. All around the world people are finding callouses where there used to be tenderness.
And I want my tenderness back, god damn it. I want my tenderness back.
Give me back the nightmares. Give me back the tears. Give me back the dry retching over the toilet, and the shaking under the blankets. Give me back the collapsing onto the couch and not moving for several hours until my system can recover from what my eyes just saw.
I’ll take it. I’ll take it all back again. Just give me back that soft, tender part of myself that has been withered to dust by a live-streamed genocide.
I will take good care of it. I will feed it good things. I’ll give it plenty of sunshine, cupping it delicately in my hands by the window. I will take it for walks, and let it rejoice at the children running and playing, with their parts all together and their insides on the inside.
Don’t leave me hardened and darkened like a soldier. Give me back that soft, sacred part of myself that weeps at the corpses of children, so I can behold the world gently again.
WOW😢
Reading this made my cry!
Painfully beautiful comment. Thank you for so poignantly writing what so many of us are experiencing. 😔 💔🕊️🤲
So beautifully said what so many of us are feeling. I also want my tenderness back and children not to be brutalised and afraid and dead 💔
As someone also from Melbourne but have family abd friends in Lebanon, Gaza and the west bank, I hear you and feel your statement so profoundly it scares me. The only difference is this happened to me about 1996, when I was in the middle of an israeli invasion.
If you ban big donations to the parties you also have to ban politicians being on the advisory boards of big companies while and after they are in office, because that`s how theses companies will otherwise buy their influence. Also personal gifts like vacations, etc.
They'll find an alternative until we decide to ban big companies themselves!
That's exactly what's wrong with the system: politician now, member of some advisory board of RTX after your political career has finished.
Yes, we can and should do this
We absolutely should do this - in Africa or South America the British Government would call political donating corruption but because it is in this country - oh it's ok! Nobody gives a huge donation to a political party unless they want to buy influence - its corruption pure and simple and we should stop it!
MPs get over £91,000.00, not £70k. This doesn't include any expenses they claim and is not far off being three times average annual earnings.
The basic annual salary of a Member of Parliament (MP) in the House of Commons is £91,346, plus expenses, from April 2024. In addition, MPs are able to claim allowances to cover the costs of running an office and employing staff, and maintaining a constituency residence or a residence in London.
...let's get another 50 comments about the audio, guys. I think the horse is still alive.
MPs make twice as much on expenses
Wonderful guest - I will order the book… fascinating to have British corruption and its history explained so clearly, and with comparison to Europe.
Tories are not “admiring” of business, they’re simply in business’ pocket.
Guardian article 8/2/23 👇
Boris Johnson has received £2.5m as an advance for speeches, meaning he has received earnings, hospitality and donations worth more than £5m over the last six months since leaving office.
you have omitted to balance your argument with Tony Blairs earnings
M8 it wouldn't matter how much you increased a politicians wage -it would only result in the said politicians demanding a Bigger Bribe.....
This needs a reupload after the audio is fixed
Agreed hard panning is really unnecessary. Sounds horrible on headphones...
Ah ha! I just commented. Wondered if it was me. Some minor soft panning might be OK but this is just weird on both speakers and headphones.
It’s still public school mentality, but with emphasis on privilege rather than service. A rule unto their own
You really need to watch The Mayfair Set by Adam Curtis if you haven't.
Adam Curtis did a great documentary on Afghanistan and how it was ruined by other nations from the 1960's onwards.
Omg. 15 million
Yep 🎯
£70k for an MP? It's £91.346k plus all the goodies. It's more than enough. If you want to earn more, don't be an MP.
If you want the best people you have to pay a high salary
I agree ! They should go get a real job if not happy.
It was £70k until quite recently.
@@jsquire5pa Is the 'money motive' really a good way to attract 'the best people' ?
@@cloudripples1073i know what you mean, but you’ll never have a qualified person choose MP over a more fulfilling + easier job if the baseline salary isn’t high.
I’d rather we up their pay and destroy corruption.
I lived and worked in London in 1980s couldn't begin to even think of it now. Like the comment couldn't even afford the coffee mate!! Too right.
I did the same. Moved into a bedsit and got a job in the city. Lived in London and had a good standard of living. Could not do it now.
MP's pay is higher than you said:
April 2024 £91,346
April 2023 £86,584
April 2022 £84,144
April 2021 £81,932 ,
April 2020 £81,932
It hasn't been £70,000 for a decade.
Chairs of select committees, and even the most junior bag-carrier ministers get considerably more.
And then add the expenses that most of the rest of us can’t claim - not even self employed in self assessments!
Add the goodies and they're doing very nicely whilst they screwed the public sector salaries for 14 years.
Aaron was right when he said MP’s are on about £90k ((plus expenses.))
Simon has old info but he doesn’t live in the UK so probably just went with the figures he was last aware of.
Adam Curtis's The Mayfair Set, described an earlier incarnation of 5 Hertford Street. James Goldsmith was a member there.
Public corruption during the era of the South Sea Bubble and the East India Company make the current eras scandals seem pretty small. e.g. what is happening isn't unprecedented; it may be different in many respects (the degree of international influence, a departure from more recent decades), but it is not entirely new.
Yeah he said 350years thats a lie,India celebrated 75years of independence recently, not yet 80years
This phenomenal episode, ladies and gentleman, is the blueprint for a cleaner politics. Thank you, Aaron, and everyone at Novara.
In the USA politicians depend on the donations they receive from donors to fund successful campaigns. Corruption is just built in. As Senator Mark Hanna said in 1895: "There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money and I can't remember what the second one is."
Thomas Ferguson's book Golden Rule - The Investment Theory of Party Competition and the Logic of Money-Driven Political Systems is one of the best on this subject.
Craziness how deep the corruption goes. Money in politics is a tough one to tackle, I don’t think there’s enough of a definitive answer. Corrupt people will always find a loophole/ way out.
There may have been an absence of 'tragedy', but that might be connected to the British aristocracy's paranoia vis a vis what happened in France happening in Britain.
15:36 No, we allow lax, one circuit monetary policy and the chums from across the pond do it in spades.
One does have a double circuit on every modern NPP. Now, I am going to argue that this is a good comparison. There was once this slogan "Too big to fail = too big to be allowed into existence". Big money is radioactive in this sense, that an individual, beyond certain threshold value of financial assets, can not find any other implementation to it, but to inhibit activity of others. If these practices are confined to corporate entities, their proclivities can be controlled much more easily. This is achieved by separation of private money circulation from investment money(in a sense of true material investment in concrete, machinery, R&D, fundamental research, education and real healthcare - any omission not intentional). There is no such thing as isolated system (although they don't teach it even in some physics courses here), but there are weakly connected ones. Communism had, for a short while, such a system and adequate control was being introduced. Greed won. The system was stalled, slowly dismantled and when weakened enough - crushed.
It is a great leap, but, as they say in Russia, "jump from the cliff edge!". If anybody is serious about a Green Agenda as a tool for a more equitable Global System, then one can not build it on greed. So, again, different kinds of motivation must be applied; exactly these kinds of motivations which Simon Kuper mentions as the values of the Civil Service to then extend the idea from a corps of functionaries of state to an army of "people of good will".
(there is a lot of research to be done here and a lot more on the subject of destruction and perversion of this army of people of good will; a lot PHD dissertations of value can be written, but I don't hold my breath; for example: how did Israel come from the culture of parsimony and community [kibutzim] to a culture of unhinged hedonism?)
Is he having a laugh? His punishment for corrupt politicians is to call them "A very naughty boy (or girl)". Ooh. That will scare them.
Simon is much a part of the establishment as the people he is talking about, they wouldn't let him work at the FT if he wasn't; think about it.......
Couldn't agree more, while he is one of the better ones operating inside the mechanism, he's still a subtle shill in all sorts of ways - to paraphrase what Chomsky said to Marr, he wouldn't be working where he's working, if he believed something different (to the prevailing establishment orthodoxy).
So, my reply in agreement has been shadowban deleted for no apparent reason - ffs, youtube; give over!
I'll try again. Couldn't agree more, while he is one of the better ones inside the mechanism, he's still a subtle shill in all sorts of ways - to paraphrase what Chomsky said to Marr, he wouldn't be working where he's working, if he believed something different (to the prevailing establishment orthodoxy).
Couldn't agree more. While he is one of the better ones operating inside the mechanism, he's still a subtle sh.ill in all sorts of less obvious ways.
To paraphrase what Chomsky said to Marr, he wouldn't be working where he's working, if he believed something different (to the prevailing establishment orthodoxy).
So, after rewriting and posting it again, three times in total, it's finally been allowed to stay visible (at least as far as I can tell) - but it seems even mentioning the word sh.ill in this context is verboten here.
So much for even the notion of free speech! 🤦🏻♂️
Their outrageous corruption, is no secret.
With virtual immunity from being arrested, being an MP must be one of the most attractive professions for anyone with criminal intent.
Please fix the sound. It should be mono. This panned audio is really bad.
Yeah wtf hahaha, mono audio please.
Not only is the stereo mix sort of weird in itself, its backwards. Aron is on the right but coming out the left speaker. WTF?
London was fun to visit in my teens and twenties (late 80s, 90s) and to a degree in my early 30s but you couldnt pay me to spend time in "That Lahhhnnnddaaaahhnnn" these days. I hate visiting it and get the hell out AQAP.
Horrible city, Horrible mentality, Disgusting greed...
Keep it Bristol/Manchester/Nottingham kids....
*Isn't corruption part of the British political system.*
😂😂😂
_'Part' ?!_
German politicians have the sense of seriousness? What bollocks
Not just the politicians. I think all German people are serious also the Dutch are quite serious...I wish our politicians were serious. Pm questions is a joke...make them wear clogs that will help them think about the quality of life the people they represent are in. Bit silly but might work
@@thepm3972 anaelaena Baerbock, Habeck, von der lyen are serious? Delulu
I think it's more the idea that they have a tend to sense of civic duty, especially when compared to UK's leeches
If there were more MPs that didn't come from private schools, I'm sure £70,000 would be a more than adequate salary.
The British response to political corruption has always been to simply find a way to make it legal.
when theymakethe rules
"Most people in the country can afford £50 donations" WTF?
On the question of why British politicians are so cheap - I believe that it’s because you aren’t exactly buying the politician, you’re paying an entry fee - like joining a country club.
If you can pay then you’re ‘one of us’.
The sound is really bad on this one
The look of bemusement on Kuper's face as Bastiani develops his bright ideas about Labour politicians getting involved in private business ventures was quite amusing
That would be good. The Houses of Parliament would be handed over to the National Trust or English Heritage, and a new legislative centre would be established somewhere, maybe in the north. I would vote for that.
Why would any ex mp open a shop now, thats not how you make money, you make cash with your connections or in property, do honestly ever see the Blairs becoming shop keepers and having to interact with normal people?
Love Simons FT column, brilliant guest!
If Thatcher wasnt corrupt, I'm not sure I trust your definition.
This channel is so much Bee ...ess
@@borisnegrarosa9113 actually I appreciate them getting in guests from different positions. Disagreeing about stuff is good for critical thinking. I'm also interested if people consider her completely ideological (however messed up the ideology).
@@t_b_c MT was a fierce neoliberal and had only contempt for working people.
Yeah when you think of the dirty tricks during the Miner's Strikes...
@@scallamander4899 absolutely - there's no way going to war with the unions didn't serve Tory donor interests.
As if MPs and PMs serving the interests of the big media conglomerates, of the City and of industrial groups in exchange for support wasn't already corruption. Too much exceptionalism, too much nostalgia for the "old good days" when everyone was immaculate...
How can he maintain that immigration isn’t an issue for British voters given the swing to Reform?
Because 4 million people voted reform
We have a population of 67 million
@@ChristineHunter-tm6wv Thanks for this context, the media give them far too much airtime
@@ChristineHunter-tm6wv True, but only 60% of the electorate voted, Labour won with 9 million votes, while reform got 4 million, that’s pretty terrifying. My point is that, even if it’s down to racist scaremongering, the issue of immigration had a huge bearing on the election, and the only reason Reform’s 4 million votes didn’t establish them as major force in the House of Commons is because of FPtP.
Saying that German politicians are serious is a joke. They are even more pathetic than our politicians. Didn’t they just ignore the fact that America blew up Nordstream. Going to have to switch off on that comment.
Very good analysis on political funding in the UK.
This was delightful. Really enjoyed it. Looking forward to the new book about a totally different subject. Just one doubt-would sending someone to Coventry work better to control corruption than sending him to prison?
Politics at all levels has always been corrupt .
Actually quite a few politicians have been arrested over the last 15 years, usually for traffic and expenses offences, low level corruption etc. But it is certainly true to say that the high level corruption always goes unpunished.
Thank you.
Maybe only my PC but... host's voice is in stereo, but guest's voice is left earphone only.
Think this is the best video from you guys I’ve seen. What a fascinating man
Capital city should have moved ages ago. Bradford please
It had been intended to move to Birmingham.
Superb show, thank you NM. A thought on retirement: there is age-related retirement from work, the kind we all generally understand…but there is also income-related retirement from anxiety; the point which many of the PMC class and so-called disrupting entrepreneurs reach which indicates a soft landing for them even if their living standards fluctuate .
Fascinating, NM one on ones are a joy to listen to and reach parts that other peers don't.
Thank you for suggesting ways to stop the sleaze. I hope it can be done.....soon!
Yes minister ?
Finished his book the other day. I totally agree with the idea of a dishonourable discharge. Think the regulations and more red tape will slow things down for a time but it’s a step in the right direction.
(Note re sound: Extreme panning is a tad annoying)
Production feedback: Didn't enjoy the mono mic playback. Annoying on headphones. Aaron in one ear and Simon in the other.
I’m from Walsall, you can use your card on public transport
I don’t think they’re paid enough, hence the corruption. Living in London is very different from the rest of the country.
Frank Hester is quite the character lol.
We are watching this, but haven’t change my mind, but really enjoyed it.
The audio is terrible in this, can't listen to it when one speaker is panned away to one side. It's just irritating. Pan the speakers a wee bit to keep separation, but full pan is just wrong.
How can they have this discussion without knowing that an MP is £91,346, plus expenses, from April 2024?
Novara Media. Putting the STEREO in the stereo.
A unique audio effect in an otherwise thoroughly insightful and engaging interview.
An imprimatur of the Aaron Bastani experience.
It started with Blair and then was fine tuned by Cameron... and has developed from there. There is no doubt Cameron was and is crooked....
I really liked the idea of conferring dishonourable discharges.
There is a political/economic metaphor of the mikes here:
With Jackanory Blair and his Think Tank ( original ideas for a fee of course ) then the left is rarely heard re: its ideas and I'm pretty sure that the Mail etc will never venture outside the
given capitalist political and economic parameters and The Sun will never have an 8 page pull out of Lenin's speeches.
This guy wants rules of how to operate politer capitalism - I'm afraid that will only work one way and one way only.
In fact as an ante microphone metaphor it's like John Major's megaphone being small but extremely loud and the left's megaphone has no speaker or power.
Over and out.
Microfone is off. Sound is horrible.
i thought it was just my computer LOL
Yeah, I'm not sure why they panned the guest into the right and Aaron into the left.
Post production. Adjusting the balance, getting rid of "wooden sound", swapping channels, creating "depth" of the acoustic environment can be done in any modern video editor.
More than three and a half million Londoners, including one million children, have an income below what is needed for a basic standard of living.
Fascinating
And the debt slaves keep dying for the rich bankers
When Ray Crock died - the McDonald's guy - his widow donated 400 million USD to NPR and ... it almost destroyed the American public radio because it created a habid of simply spending money that almost got NPR bankrupt.
38:00 How does forfeiting the sovereignty of ones country to foreign bureaucrats in a foreign country be better than an independant truly democratic nation.
Surely a genuine democratic nation is quite capable of making it's own regulations. You know like all the EU States did before the the EU corporatocracy existed.
sound is messed up
What was Bamford's da's politics? He did the work and made the money.
Whoever hard panned the mics Left/Right made a mistake I think. Need to be centred a bit, or it’s a little unnatural sounding.
Can you fix the high-pitched noise in the background for next episode, please? ☺️🙏🏻🙏🏻
Really interesting interview and the push back between arron and simon is really insightful. I would only say that simon is a bit insouciant about the political impact of immigration. As per usual arron excellent choice.
Ive 100% witnessed this with the gradual death of volunteerism. Its only started to return with Gen Z.
Thank you Arron 😊
I walked past the Conservative club in Carlisle when I was there a couple of years ago.
CoE is the richest institution in U.K.
Asset rich but cash poor, very in debt. They can't exactly use their property for commercial profit on a large scale, though more and more dioceses are unfortunately degrading themselves by doing so and degrading our historical buildings in the process.
I’m not acquainted with their finances, but CoE owes residential properties all over U.K. which they lease out. They owe streets upon streets in London. Not much different from Duke of Westminster. In history, they’ve only put the hand out. There is a saying in my culture; Priest was drowning in the river. A man came to his help & said; priest, give me your hand. Priest declined & drowned. The man said to his friend what happened. The friend told him, you should have said: priest, take my hand.
@@miraforeman7567 They do have commercial property but their non-commercial property is so large it sucks up all the money the commercial property makes. It's very expensive maintaining old churches and ancillary buildings. Even the heating bill for those places is astronomical, let alone all the repairs. Personally I think those historical buildings are worth keeping. Due to the nature of the Church they are also in effect a public asset and as the Left we should be against the creeping privatisation of them.
@@ValQuinn I just had a look at CoE accounts for 2022. Total funds; £1 ONE pound. How did auditors managed it, it blows me away.
Few years ago, I can’t remember exactly how I came across this information, but they have billions invested in various funds & shares. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have offshore accounts. They are collecting money for 100s of years.
Excellent Aaron.....
The audio is a bit messed up. My left earphone sounds funny
This has been remarkable!!!!
His comments on migration in the last two minutes were just 24 hours from being demolished by events, sadly.
Excellent ❤❤
For anybody brought up to think that integrity, honesty, probity, a sense of social responsibility and hard work all matter and should continue to matter, listening to Simon Kuper's resume of what he declines to call "sleaze", and indeed reading his two books (Chums & Good Chaps), is distressing and potentially worrying. Yes, we are dealing with corruption here, on both sides of the political divide. But haven't we always had evidence of corruption at the heart of the British state since the days of Sir Robert Walpole? Dodgy dealings is a leitmotif that stretches right through centuries of British politics. The South Sea Bubble in the 18th century and many other speculative dealings? The railway building mania in the 19th century and preferential treatment in exchange for the exchange of cash? Lloyd-George selling peerages and other honours straight after WW1? Though I welcome everything that was said in this podcast I do miss one key insight. Into human nature. We've always had and will always have greedy, opportunistic and criminal individuals. Remember John Stonehouse? We just have to make life very difficult for them if they try their hand at politics. And, if necessary, as Simon Kuper suggests, ban them from plying their trade.
Any Political donation above 100 pounds be deemed a BRIBE to corruptly influence Government & punishable by up to 15 years imprisonment with hard labour. - That'll fix it.
REAL issues like the invasion need to have bi-partisan solutions.
I am of the belief that the administration of Camden is a regular " Braan envelope " dept .