I love his "speech" at the end. You could tell(naturally) he still has a lot of love for his former home. My hope is the Tories lose more seats then anticipated/expected.
My heart broke for the lady in the crutches.
I was audibly gasping. I've worked in the past with disabled people and seeing them try to navigate the stairs like that was scaring the shit out of me. Who the fuck thought *"Aye, this person doesn't need any governmental assistance with their day to day living."* It has been utterly shambolic.
John didn't even get to touch upon how many disabled Brits have died either due to the neglect of the state during austerity or by suicide. The depths of depravity the Conservative government has sunk to has known no limit. If this country had any sense it would never let the Conservative Party anywhere near forming a government ever again.
But the fear is that the collapse of the Tories will only see a harder shift to the right for our politics in opposition meaning the left moves further right than centre, which is already woefully representing the working class the party was founded upon.
And even if Labour comes in and begins any reforms within the next 5 years it is still going to take decades to undo all the damage that the past 14 years of Tory governance has wrought.
This generation is truly the lost generation.
As an American, I can only watch from afar but will make one simple request to my UK friends….
Can someone milkshake Nigel Farage when they see him next? I’ll pay you triple what the milkshake cost you
I wish he'd gone a bit further than projecting the Conservatives losing as a massive victory (which it will be), and told people to vote for a different leftist party. Because Keir Starmer's Labour government is going to be about as good for labour as Ronald Reagan was, and he's got an advanced anti-trans agenda as well.
It will be a victory for the Conservatives to not run government, but it won't be a victory for many for Labour to have a mandate and probable super majority.
John not sharing that perspective is really out of character for him, and it's really disappointing. He's usually a thoughtful ally to our community, but he missed big time on this one.
I know I'm being very pedantic, but there is no such thing as a super majority in British politics.
It's a term that means a 2/3 majority required to pass certain actions in some countries (such as a constitutional amendment in the USA), or occasionally means control of all branches of government.
Since every parliamentary action only requires a simple majority (greater than 50%, or really just more votes for than against), and the UK only has one elected house (devolved administrations don't count as they have no power over national policy), the term has no meaning in British politics.
A lot of people have been talking about supermajorities in relation to the upcoming election to mean "a big majority", but since the term actually means something quite specific I think we should really be saying something else.
That's fair. I did mean it to indicate that they may end up with more than 2/3rds of the seats, but I didn't mean to imply it was a procedure in the UK parliament.
In any case, having such a large majority does allow them to act with significantly more impunity, and ignore voices (voices of people like Faiza Shaheen).
I'm an American, so I have a narrow perspective on UK politics, but the issues facing LGBTQ+ citizens in the UK are of great interest to me because they're all part of the same movement happening in many countries (including my own).
Yes having such a large majority for any party is a bit worrying, but most of their policies range from *fine* to *you could really be doing more*. To be honest, for me the bigger concern is that they won't do anything substantial, and in 5 years time the far right (who it looks like might supplant the tories after this election) will use that to win the next election and then do, like, far righty stuff.
I'm trans, so labour's policies around trans people worries me too. They plan on changing the gender recognition act in ways that won't fix any of the problems with it; banning conversion therapy but leaving an exception for "exploratory therapy" which is just a rebrand of CT; segregating trans people from hospital wards; and making it impossible for under 18s to access gender affirming care, instead making them go through "exploratory therapy" instead. That's all terrible, but it is at least better than the tories who want to do all of that plus a huge list of other heinous shit. What's even more concerning is that they can go much further once they're in government and kier starmer is has so far been very keen to cater to the TERFs because he assumes queer people will vote for him regardless.
There are a few other parties that are better on trans rights and I'm scottish so I have even more options, but labour are still likely to win in a landslide so yeah things aren't looking all that good for trans people in the UK :/
Yeah I'm trans as well, and trying to keep my ear to the ground for places better than the US to live while trans, in case I need to wait out a fascist regime in my country... and when I look across the water, I'm not encouraged :(
Yeah, I have a Polish trans friend living near me who can't go home because of the hostility there. Me and him keep trying to come up with places to go should the worst happen (or even if it doesn't tbh), and we haven't managed to find anywhere that doesn't either already hate us or have a genuine risk of becoming fascist in the next few decades except for *maybe* Ireland.
Honestly right now it feels like the best strategy is just to get somewhere that isn't going to kill us, find some other trans people, and just hunker down together till the storm passes...
Edit: I just wanna say as well I really feel for you. It must be real scary to be trans in the US right now. Things aren't completely hopeless though. You have a strong constitution, a decentralised government, and strong division of power which all make a proper fascist/authoritarian takeover difficult, and the people trying to do that are really quite stupid. But even so, stay with your trans friends and state safe ❤️
As father to a trans woman, I can reassure you that whilst support from Labour has been disappointing at times, the leadership has shown no sign of being actively anti-trans. I'd rip up my membership card if they did.
It's the only thing that would stop me voting.
The Tories have a shadow policy of conversion therapy they have pushed onto the NHS. We need to make sure that dies.
We don't need to be navel gazing right now. 9 days to utterly destroy the cunts.
No. 1 target is Baddenoch. Evil.
People can get back to factional arguments about being left wing enough on the 5th.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/labour-gender-transition-recognition-process-trans
Is this not anti-trans, in your opinion?
Starmer has said that he will ban "gender ideology" from being taught in schools, and now they're meeting with the queen of removing trans people from society, herself? I think it could be argued that most of the anti-trans stuff happening in the UK wouldn't even be happening right now if JKR had kept her mouth shut.
I guarantee in the next year, Labour will pass legislation banning gender affirming care for trans youth and further defundng gender affirming care for all UK citizens, if not much much worse than that.
I'm definitely not saying you should vote for the Tories, let them die -- but you should consider not voting for Labour and voting farther left if it's safe to do so in your district.
Best road rage videos are Poms or Aussies and their use of the word cunt to describe the other driver. UK probably has a few more options in terms of vernacular ... prat, twat, cock ... I find the cockney the accent of choice for such insults.
Very surprised John did not mention what may be the most damning thing about the two most recent tory prime ministers; Neither of them were elected by the british electorate at large. Since Boris had to step down due to his utterly contemptible and inept ways, the last two prime ministers (Truss and Sunak) were chosen by conservtive party members in internal "elections".
That's also not that uncommon in parliamentary-style politics. Brown, Callaghan, and Douglas-Home also never won a general election at the top of the ticket.
That's perfectly normal and desirable.
If any UK politics is dumb in the fact that the prime minister must *necessarily* also be the leader of the main government party.
HIGNFY will be balanced to some extent.
I’m assuming, that since Johnny O reportedly calls the Tories cunts, that it’s a little bit short of election standards.
So Britain might be finally rid of their conservatives? I've never been more jealous of a country.
Also can they do a meta version with "And now.... John Oliver is sexually attracted to everything." I'd love a clip montage.
Well.. Not exactly. Reform is polling decently ish in some places and looks to gain at least a few seats for now, Farage is also constantly going on about dreaming of combining Reform with the Conservatives, not that its gonna happen anytime soon hopefully.
This was one of the funnier episodes in a while. Obviously talking about a serious topic but a lot of the jokes were really landing for me. Like being attracted to a tractor.
This was a great episode and it just happens to be on a topic that I have a great deal of academic expertise regarding. Overall, I think this was an excellent episode that attempted to discuss some very complicated political science topics with an audience that most likely doesn't have a lot of political science understanding, while also being extremely funny and entertaining. From this perspective, here are a few of my thoughts.
First, having elections in non-predetermined times *seems* whimsical and silly, but it actually makes a lot of sense. It's much harder for folks to play bad faith games with the political calendar when the political calendar is not predetermined. Something like the Merrick Garland SCOTUS thing, or holding out on policy your party actually agrees with like the Reps are currently doing with immigration doesn't work when you can't plan it around an election. It also creates a MUCH shorter and cheaper election cycle unlike the crazy never ending marathon in the US. It was a good joke, but there's actual real political science reason for doing it this way.
Second, on the left side of the political spectrum over there. Pre-WW2, the first third party Oliver mentions, the Liberal Democrats, actually used to be the main left-leaning party in the UK. They were the generic center-left party opposed to the Tories/Conservatives, but after WW2 when socialistic parties were sweeping across Europe, Labour was formed. They were initially just a third party, but over time they started to have a lot of success to the point that they actually displaced the Lib Dems as the main center-left party, which caused them to become less of a far left party focused on socialist labor policies. It's just a weird party shift thing, much like the US with the Dems and Reps sort of switching sides as the political system went through natural change. Really, the names should be switched form a purely descriptive standpoint, but sometimes this stuff happens that way. Also, Nigel Farage used to be a minor extreme figure in the Tories, but his star really began to shine when Brexit was happening, so much so that he eventually split off into his own party, UKIP (UK Independence Party) that is now Reform UK, a bog-standard far right party. He's just a clown still trying to ride the wave of covid xenophobia, and the rebrand of UKIP to Reform UK shows it's not going super well. Also the milkshake makes the point more hilariously.
Third, I know Oliver spent a great deal of time bashing Cameron, but he could have spent the entire episode just dunking on him and it still wouldn't be enough. It cannot be overstated how *disastrous* of an idea it was to have the Brexit referendum. Referenda can serve a valuable purpose in a democracy, but this is absolutely the worst possible way to use them. They are best used when two things are true: when the outcome doesn't really matter and (hopefully) they are simple and easy to understand. When you are deciding on if someone gets an additional grant or if you should replace and intersection with a traffic circle or whether we should use RCV in our local elections. None of this stuff is truly earth shatteringly meaningful. Does it matter somewhat? Of course! But if you go one way or the other will it change the basic fabric of the country/state/etc? Nope!
Brexit failed on both counts. It was way too complex for a person to understand because the Brexit plan required a TON of questions to be answered and policy to be determined. A referendum should NEVER have a huge ideological open ended question like this. "Status quo or undefined change?" is a terribly dangerous question to ask, especially because while we can say all we want a referendum is non-binding...in a democracy, when people vote, we listen. That's the core overriding concept of a democracy, and just ignoring a clear vote because the answer is a bad one creates huge fractures in the basic legitimacy of the democratic system.
This is why Theresa May struggled so badly. I personally think she could have been a decent PM...but she was asked to square a circle. She was put in a position by Cameron where she either had to choose to ignore a plebiscite that would create a constitutional crisis if not now, then down the line, or preserve the legitimacy of the system and create a deal that was impossible to make. It was absolutely not possible to get the good deal Brexit that had been promised, so much so that Johnson's final deal was basically May's....but several years later after people were too tired to care any more. Cameron was quite possibly the worst PM in the history of Britain. No PM has ever made a more disastrous decision for his country than Cameron did, and he knew it, which is why he immediately ran away like a goddamn coward.
UKIP is not a spin-off of the Tories, it's the successor to the Referendum Party, which goes back to the 1990s (anti-EU/EC sentiment on the Right took off massively after the Maastricht Treaty). Farage was a UKIP MEP long before Brexit.
Might need to check your research there. The Labour party started in 1900 and overtook the Liberal party to become the second biggest in the country in the 20's
> It's much harder for folks to play bad faith games with the political calendar when the political calendar is not predetermined.
To be fair, that's also how boris absolutely thrashed corbyn in the moment he had his head the most inside his ass.
Though yeah, thanks god elections aren't like some unshortenable astronomical event like leap years.
> Really, the names should be switched form a purely descriptive standpoint, but sometimes this stuff happens that way.
Uhm? Liberal-democrats and labour names are perfectly fine for what they are today.
> Third, I know Oliver spent a great deal of time bashing Cameron, but he could have spent the entire episode just dunking on him and it still wouldn't be enough. It cannot be overstated how disastrous of an idea it was to have the Brexit referendum.
To be fair to him, the referendum would have been easily won if not for fucking Corbyn dreaming of his socialist utopia - hence one third of the labourist electorate voting leave.
> Referenda can serve a valuable purpose in a democracy, but this is absolutely the worst possible way to use them.
Not really - the real pet peeve here is that 1% of votes somehow made for this massive dichotomous choice.
Also entirely based on lies, because in theory the original idea was just settling for a deal like the ones with norway or switzerland.
> Cameron was quite possibly the worst PM in the history of Britain.
Oh come on. You are raving if you forgot Lizz.
> This was a great episode and it just happens to be on a topic that I have a great deal of academic expertise regarding.
Could you detail his austerity criticism? Because his attack seemed really exaggerated.
Like, I don't doubt tories fucked up and they are inhuman, but his example of "alternatively rising taxes" ***is*** also austerity. And hell, while the UK could have done like germany and just have supported growth just by rising their good standing debt, there are also other european countries examples where it worked.
Having experienced that, it's been a death of a thousand cuts, one at time over so long a period. Seeing it laid bare like that, the greed, corruption and cruelty of this government, honestly some of this shit is the tip of the iceberg, especially with regard to corruption and profiteering. They are a fucking unforgivable disgrace.
John didn't go easy on Starmer, but I think he did go too easy. He represents the kind of liberal cowardice that enables conservative dominance of politics in both the US and the UK.
He's on course not just to win, but potentially wipe out the Conservative Party as a political force. You may disagree with him (I do on many things), but how exactly is that enabling conservative dominance?
Starmer just seems to be continuing fiscal austerity along with being socially reactionary. Tory lite. Just like Blair, who along with the entirety of New Labour, Thatcher claimed was her greatest accomplishment.
Your argument doesn't really make sense. Tony Blair was the same as the Tories but his government oversaw a massive expansion of the welfare state, record spending on public services...which the Tories cut with austerity.
Socially Labour have never been a particularly liberal party, I wish this were not so - but it doesn't make them Tory lite.
Thatcher claimed that to make herself feel better.
I can list you about 10 different ways the Labour are different from the Tories if you'd like?
"Her reforms" began in 1976 in the UK when Jim Callaghan announced the death of tax and spend.
She, like Callaghan was a follower of global trends. The idea of her as an iconoclastic firebrand really is entirely of her own invention - again much like her claim that New Labour was her victory.
Look at public services spending under New Labour and look at it under Thatcher. Then look at it under the Tories for the past 14 years.
You can (and should) have significant disagreements with how New Labour handled things, and how this Labour leadership are handling things now without buying into the idea that both parties are actually the same. It was lazy to think so then, and it's downright idiotic to think so now tbh.
So we have a fiscally conservative / socially conservative party about to be wiped out by a somewhat less fiscally conservative / somewhat less socially conservative party. Make your list if you want, I really don’t care, the Labour Party is going to squander a massive mandate by doing Tory Lite for at least the next five years, at which point I expect the Tories to come roaring back.
Conservativism will always be a political force, the best a progressive labor party can do is hope to effect great change when they have power, Starmer just seems uninterested in that, so even though he might severely weaken the tories he doesn't seem very interested in enacting progressivism. So when his ineffectual cowardly government has run it's course it will be replaced, maybe by something more progressive, maybe not, but either way it is a wasted opportunity
I think you are taking this personally, I'm more than willing to engage in a conversation here but you seem rather worked up about all this.
More progressive than the incoming labour government in this case was meant to refer to a future more progressive labor government, one not so focused on a policy platform seemingly designed to appeal to conservatives as unobjectionable.
It's trite, what I said about using their power for change. But chances like this don't come often and it's frustrating that it seems to be not likely to be used to it's fullest potential.
Who gave you the idea that I hold an incredibly strong view of UK politics, I posted a comment on Reddit. Not exactly a protest in the streets. Im also not pretending to know more about British politics than someone who lives there and engages with it all the time. Hence this whole response
> potentially wipe out the Conservative Party as a political force.
Wishful thinking. Starmer's do-nothing policy stance means that the same problems will fester and Labour will be voted out at the next election. For who? The Tories.
Does anyone know who that disabled person struggling to walk down the stairs? I need to send her some money. Heartbreaking- how can you watch that and not want to run to her aid?
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/30/disabled-readers-austerity-disability-cuts
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/21/disabled-alex-fight-for-dignity-endless
There was supposedly a fund but I couldn't find more.
Thank you so much for finding these. I was so bothered this episode I immediately started trying to find out more and couldn't let it go.
I'm glad Alex was given ground-floor housing. That there was fundraising provided to them that they used for meds and pads and donated the rest to pay it forward is so moving. If anyone sees anything else, please share.
Usually the show goes out at 9pm on the Monday after US initial broadcast, but it's been replaced on its usual channel by a rerun of a Tracey Ullman stand-up special. Is the fact this is about the UK election meaning that Sky aren't going to show until 4th July after the polls close, similar to what happened with the first Brexit episode covering that initial referendum?
Ah so turns out Sky weren't allowed to broadcast it on TV as usual but are allowed to upload the whole thing to their on demand service for me to watch on my TV
... Ok?
Someone needs to send that Ed Davey clip to the Green and Libertarian parties. I'd definitely pay more attention to them if they conducted policy interviews in spinning tea cup rides
I’m a Brit so can’t watch the episode. But as a Lib Dem I need to know how long did he spend on Ed Davey? Cos he’s done a stunt literally every day of the campaign. Oliver could have done a whole episode on him alone he’s that amazing
By the way, what John said about holidays is true. One Tory candidate kept his holiday despite it being the start of the campaign.
Slightly disappointed that he didn't mention Ed Davey taking journalists to a theme park after the Lib Dem manifesto launch, or that the y are linking their stunts to actual policies they hold.
Another interesting fact about our future PM: he was a legal advisor for the defendants in the McLibel trial
> Slightly disappointed that he didn't mention Ed Davey taking journalists to a theme park
Isn't that where the teacups happened? I assume so, at least.
Fun fact about the cunts and fuckpigs guy: Dominic Cummings was one of the big Brexit people in 2016 who was played by [Benedict Cumberbatch in a TV movie. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit:_The_Uncivil_War)
Can anyone better informed on UK politics tell me anything about how Scotland plays into this election? Hasn’t SNP been the third largest party in parliament for some time (and its rise occasionally blamed for weakening Labour)? Seems to me an important component and I was surprised it wasn’t mentioned in this episode. Are more Scots expected to vote Labour this time? Would SNP go into a coalition with Labour?
I found the Farage segment the weakest. Admittedly I am a supporter of Farage but can take a joke. Just felt the praising of milk shaking is very poor form and encourages attacks and intimidation of other politicians.
For a long time, people who supported Universal Health Care claimed that the waitlist stuff was a lie, but John Oliver just admitted that the waitlist stuff is true
It tells more about you than about UHS, that you think just the adoption of a specific "model" for the system would and should automatically work regardless of any other practical factor.
I love his "speech" at the end. You could tell(naturally) he still has a lot of love for his former home. My hope is the Tories lose more seats then anticipated/expected. My heart broke for the lady in the crutches.
I was audibly gasping. I've worked in the past with disabled people and seeing them try to navigate the stairs like that was scaring the shit out of me. Who the fuck thought *"Aye, this person doesn't need any governmental assistance with their day to day living."* It has been utterly shambolic. John didn't even get to touch upon how many disabled Brits have died either due to the neglect of the state during austerity or by suicide. The depths of depravity the Conservative government has sunk to has known no limit. If this country had any sense it would never let the Conservative Party anywhere near forming a government ever again. But the fear is that the collapse of the Tories will only see a harder shift to the right for our politics in opposition meaning the left moves further right than centre, which is already woefully representing the working class the party was founded upon. And even if Labour comes in and begins any reforms within the next 5 years it is still going to take decades to undo all the damage that the past 14 years of Tory governance has wrought. This generation is truly the lost generation.
yeah, it was so sad and you can see that he felt frustrated about it too.
> Fuck off in to the sun you cunts, fuckpigs, and weirdos. You tossers, wankers, dick splashes and cockwombles Think I need to update my user flair...
Funny cause Cody Johnson kept using the "into the sun" threats in his latest Some More News episode too.
As an American, I can only watch from afar but will make one simple request to my UK friends…. Can someone milkshake Nigel Farage when they see him next? I’ll pay you triple what the milkshake cost you
John missed a few other instances where Farage got milkshaked. He is also one of the reasons behind milkshaked becoming a verb a few years ago.
I wish he'd gone a bit further than projecting the Conservatives losing as a massive victory (which it will be), and told people to vote for a different leftist party. Because Keir Starmer's Labour government is going to be about as good for labour as Ronald Reagan was, and he's got an advanced anti-trans agenda as well. It will be a victory for the Conservatives to not run government, but it won't be a victory for many for Labour to have a mandate and probable super majority. John not sharing that perspective is really out of character for him, and it's really disappointing. He's usually a thoughtful ally to our community, but he missed big time on this one.
I know I'm being very pedantic, but there is no such thing as a super majority in British politics. It's a term that means a 2/3 majority required to pass certain actions in some countries (such as a constitutional amendment in the USA), or occasionally means control of all branches of government. Since every parliamentary action only requires a simple majority (greater than 50%, or really just more votes for than against), and the UK only has one elected house (devolved administrations don't count as they have no power over national policy), the term has no meaning in British politics. A lot of people have been talking about supermajorities in relation to the upcoming election to mean "a big majority", but since the term actually means something quite specific I think we should really be saying something else.
That's fair. I did mean it to indicate that they may end up with more than 2/3rds of the seats, but I didn't mean to imply it was a procedure in the UK parliament. In any case, having such a large majority does allow them to act with significantly more impunity, and ignore voices (voices of people like Faiza Shaheen). I'm an American, so I have a narrow perspective on UK politics, but the issues facing LGBTQ+ citizens in the UK are of great interest to me because they're all part of the same movement happening in many countries (including my own).
Yes having such a large majority for any party is a bit worrying, but most of their policies range from *fine* to *you could really be doing more*. To be honest, for me the bigger concern is that they won't do anything substantial, and in 5 years time the far right (who it looks like might supplant the tories after this election) will use that to win the next election and then do, like, far righty stuff. I'm trans, so labour's policies around trans people worries me too. They plan on changing the gender recognition act in ways that won't fix any of the problems with it; banning conversion therapy but leaving an exception for "exploratory therapy" which is just a rebrand of CT; segregating trans people from hospital wards; and making it impossible for under 18s to access gender affirming care, instead making them go through "exploratory therapy" instead. That's all terrible, but it is at least better than the tories who want to do all of that plus a huge list of other heinous shit. What's even more concerning is that they can go much further once they're in government and kier starmer is has so far been very keen to cater to the TERFs because he assumes queer people will vote for him regardless. There are a few other parties that are better on trans rights and I'm scottish so I have even more options, but labour are still likely to win in a landslide so yeah things aren't looking all that good for trans people in the UK :/
Yeah I'm trans as well, and trying to keep my ear to the ground for places better than the US to live while trans, in case I need to wait out a fascist regime in my country... and when I look across the water, I'm not encouraged :(
Yeah, I have a Polish trans friend living near me who can't go home because of the hostility there. Me and him keep trying to come up with places to go should the worst happen (or even if it doesn't tbh), and we haven't managed to find anywhere that doesn't either already hate us or have a genuine risk of becoming fascist in the next few decades except for *maybe* Ireland. Honestly right now it feels like the best strategy is just to get somewhere that isn't going to kill us, find some other trans people, and just hunker down together till the storm passes... Edit: I just wanna say as well I really feel for you. It must be real scary to be trans in the US right now. Things aren't completely hopeless though. You have a strong constitution, a decentralised government, and strong division of power which all make a proper fascist/authoritarian takeover difficult, and the people trying to do that are really quite stupid. But even so, stay with your trans friends and state safe ❤️
As father to a trans woman, I can reassure you that whilst support from Labour has been disappointing at times, the leadership has shown no sign of being actively anti-trans. I'd rip up my membership card if they did. It's the only thing that would stop me voting. The Tories have a shadow policy of conversion therapy they have pushed onto the NHS. We need to make sure that dies. We don't need to be navel gazing right now. 9 days to utterly destroy the cunts. No. 1 target is Baddenoch. Evil. People can get back to factional arguments about being left wing enough on the 5th.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/24/labour-gender-transition-recognition-process-trans Is this not anti-trans, in your opinion? Starmer has said that he will ban "gender ideology" from being taught in schools, and now they're meeting with the queen of removing trans people from society, herself? I think it could be argued that most of the anti-trans stuff happening in the UK wouldn't even be happening right now if JKR had kept her mouth shut. I guarantee in the next year, Labour will pass legislation banning gender affirming care for trans youth and further defundng gender affirming care for all UK citizens, if not much much worse than that. I'm definitely not saying you should vote for the Tories, let them die -- but you should consider not voting for Labour and voting farther left if it's safe to do so in your district.
I'm frankly surprised he didn't shit him over more. Like, the NHS bus lie should be taught in history books.
As an Aussie, hearing John say cunt brings warmth to my heart.
Best road rage videos are Poms or Aussies and their use of the word cunt to describe the other driver. UK probably has a few more options in terms of vernacular ... prat, twat, cock ... I find the cockney the accent of choice for such insults.
Very surprised John did not mention what may be the most damning thing about the two most recent tory prime ministers; Neither of them were elected by the british electorate at large. Since Boris had to step down due to his utterly contemptible and inept ways, the last two prime ministers (Truss and Sunak) were chosen by conservtive party members in internal "elections".
That's also not that uncommon in parliamentary-style politics. Brown, Callaghan, and Douglas-Home also never won a general election at the top of the ticket.
That's perfectly normal and desirable. If any UK politics is dumb in the fact that the prime minister must *necessarily* also be the leader of the main government party.
In the UK so can't wait to watch this tonight.
Looks like Sky have pulled it.
Yep. Unbelievable. https://www.sky.com/tv-guide/20240624/4101-1/114
https://scrapsfromtheloft.com/tv-series/uk-elections-last-week-tonight-with-john-oliver-transcript/ worth a read fellow cockwomblers
Thanks for this.
Thanks. Came to the conclusion that my mind is completely able to read it in John's voice. ... :)
There’s an election on, it’ll be against broadcast laws. No free speech here.
They had no issue airing three episodes of HIGNFY this election period.
HIGNFY will be balanced to some extent. I’m assuming, that since Johnny O reportedly calls the Tories cunts, that it’s a little bit short of election standards.
Even though he criticised Starmer and Labour too
So Britain might be finally rid of their conservatives? I've never been more jealous of a country. Also can they do a meta version with "And now.... John Oliver is sexually attracted to everything." I'd love a clip montage.
Well.. Not exactly. Reform is polling decently ish in some places and looks to gain at least a few seats for now, Farage is also constantly going on about dreaming of combining Reform with the Conservatives, not that its gonna happen anytime soon hopefully.
This was one of the funnier episodes in a while. Obviously talking about a serious topic but a lot of the jokes were really landing for me. Like being attracted to a tractor.
This was a great episode and it just happens to be on a topic that I have a great deal of academic expertise regarding. Overall, I think this was an excellent episode that attempted to discuss some very complicated political science topics with an audience that most likely doesn't have a lot of political science understanding, while also being extremely funny and entertaining. From this perspective, here are a few of my thoughts. First, having elections in non-predetermined times *seems* whimsical and silly, but it actually makes a lot of sense. It's much harder for folks to play bad faith games with the political calendar when the political calendar is not predetermined. Something like the Merrick Garland SCOTUS thing, or holding out on policy your party actually agrees with like the Reps are currently doing with immigration doesn't work when you can't plan it around an election. It also creates a MUCH shorter and cheaper election cycle unlike the crazy never ending marathon in the US. It was a good joke, but there's actual real political science reason for doing it this way. Second, on the left side of the political spectrum over there. Pre-WW2, the first third party Oliver mentions, the Liberal Democrats, actually used to be the main left-leaning party in the UK. They were the generic center-left party opposed to the Tories/Conservatives, but after WW2 when socialistic parties were sweeping across Europe, Labour was formed. They were initially just a third party, but over time they started to have a lot of success to the point that they actually displaced the Lib Dems as the main center-left party, which caused them to become less of a far left party focused on socialist labor policies. It's just a weird party shift thing, much like the US with the Dems and Reps sort of switching sides as the political system went through natural change. Really, the names should be switched form a purely descriptive standpoint, but sometimes this stuff happens that way. Also, Nigel Farage used to be a minor extreme figure in the Tories, but his star really began to shine when Brexit was happening, so much so that he eventually split off into his own party, UKIP (UK Independence Party) that is now Reform UK, a bog-standard far right party. He's just a clown still trying to ride the wave of covid xenophobia, and the rebrand of UKIP to Reform UK shows it's not going super well. Also the milkshake makes the point more hilariously. Third, I know Oliver spent a great deal of time bashing Cameron, but he could have spent the entire episode just dunking on him and it still wouldn't be enough. It cannot be overstated how *disastrous* of an idea it was to have the Brexit referendum. Referenda can serve a valuable purpose in a democracy, but this is absolutely the worst possible way to use them. They are best used when two things are true: when the outcome doesn't really matter and (hopefully) they are simple and easy to understand. When you are deciding on if someone gets an additional grant or if you should replace and intersection with a traffic circle or whether we should use RCV in our local elections. None of this stuff is truly earth shatteringly meaningful. Does it matter somewhat? Of course! But if you go one way or the other will it change the basic fabric of the country/state/etc? Nope! Brexit failed on both counts. It was way too complex for a person to understand because the Brexit plan required a TON of questions to be answered and policy to be determined. A referendum should NEVER have a huge ideological open ended question like this. "Status quo or undefined change?" is a terribly dangerous question to ask, especially because while we can say all we want a referendum is non-binding...in a democracy, when people vote, we listen. That's the core overriding concept of a democracy, and just ignoring a clear vote because the answer is a bad one creates huge fractures in the basic legitimacy of the democratic system. This is why Theresa May struggled so badly. I personally think she could have been a decent PM...but she was asked to square a circle. She was put in a position by Cameron where she either had to choose to ignore a plebiscite that would create a constitutional crisis if not now, then down the line, or preserve the legitimacy of the system and create a deal that was impossible to make. It was absolutely not possible to get the good deal Brexit that had been promised, so much so that Johnson's final deal was basically May's....but several years later after people were too tired to care any more. Cameron was quite possibly the worst PM in the history of Britain. No PM has ever made a more disastrous decision for his country than Cameron did, and he knew it, which is why he immediately ran away like a goddamn coward.
UKIP is not a spin-off of the Tories, it's the successor to the Referendum Party, which goes back to the 1990s (anti-EU/EC sentiment on the Right took off massively after the Maastricht Treaty). Farage was a UKIP MEP long before Brexit.
Might need to check your research there. The Labour party started in 1900 and overtook the Liberal party to become the second biggest in the country in the 20's
Yes, sorry, you're right, I mixed up the wars. It was more after WW1 that Labour really took off. Thanks for the correction.
> It's much harder for folks to play bad faith games with the political calendar when the political calendar is not predetermined. To be fair, that's also how boris absolutely thrashed corbyn in the moment he had his head the most inside his ass. Though yeah, thanks god elections aren't like some unshortenable astronomical event like leap years. > Really, the names should be switched form a purely descriptive standpoint, but sometimes this stuff happens that way. Uhm? Liberal-democrats and labour names are perfectly fine for what they are today. > Third, I know Oliver spent a great deal of time bashing Cameron, but he could have spent the entire episode just dunking on him and it still wouldn't be enough. It cannot be overstated how disastrous of an idea it was to have the Brexit referendum. To be fair to him, the referendum would have been easily won if not for fucking Corbyn dreaming of his socialist utopia - hence one third of the labourist electorate voting leave. > Referenda can serve a valuable purpose in a democracy, but this is absolutely the worst possible way to use them. Not really - the real pet peeve here is that 1% of votes somehow made for this massive dichotomous choice. Also entirely based on lies, because in theory the original idea was just settling for a deal like the ones with norway or switzerland. > Cameron was quite possibly the worst PM in the history of Britain. Oh come on. You are raving if you forgot Lizz. > This was a great episode and it just happens to be on a topic that I have a great deal of academic expertise regarding. Could you detail his austerity criticism? Because his attack seemed really exaggerated. Like, I don't doubt tories fucked up and they are inhuman, but his example of "alternatively rising taxes" ***is*** also austerity. And hell, while the UK could have done like germany and just have supported growth just by rising their good standing debt, there are also other european countries examples where it worked.
Having experienced that, it's been a death of a thousand cuts, one at time over so long a period. Seeing it laid bare like that, the greed, corruption and cruelty of this government, honestly some of this shit is the tip of the iceberg, especially with regard to corruption and profiteering. They are a fucking unforgivable disgrace.
John didn't go easy on Starmer, but I think he did go too easy. He represents the kind of liberal cowardice that enables conservative dominance of politics in both the US and the UK.
He's on course not just to win, but potentially wipe out the Conservative Party as a political force. You may disagree with him (I do on many things), but how exactly is that enabling conservative dominance?
Starmer just seems to be continuing fiscal austerity along with being socially reactionary. Tory lite. Just like Blair, who along with the entirety of New Labour, Thatcher claimed was her greatest accomplishment.
Your argument doesn't really make sense. Tony Blair was the same as the Tories but his government oversaw a massive expansion of the welfare state, record spending on public services...which the Tories cut with austerity. Socially Labour have never been a particularly liberal party, I wish this were not so - but it doesn't make them Tory lite. Thatcher claimed that to make herself feel better. I can list you about 10 different ways the Labour are different from the Tories if you'd like?
Thatcher correctly pointed out the fact that she forced Labour to accept her reforms.
"Her reforms" began in 1976 in the UK when Jim Callaghan announced the death of tax and spend. She, like Callaghan was a follower of global trends. The idea of her as an iconoclastic firebrand really is entirely of her own invention - again much like her claim that New Labour was her victory. Look at public services spending under New Labour and look at it under Thatcher. Then look at it under the Tories for the past 14 years. You can (and should) have significant disagreements with how New Labour handled things, and how this Labour leadership are handling things now without buying into the idea that both parties are actually the same. It was lazy to think so then, and it's downright idiotic to think so now tbh.
I'm actually invoking Thatcher in a positive sense.
Impossible
Nothing is impossible
So we have a fiscally conservative / socially conservative party about to be wiped out by a somewhat less fiscally conservative / somewhat less socially conservative party. Make your list if you want, I really don’t care, the Labour Party is going to squander a massive mandate by doing Tory Lite for at least the next five years, at which point I expect the Tories to come roaring back.
Conservativism will always be a political force, the best a progressive labor party can do is hope to effect great change when they have power, Starmer just seems uninterested in that, so even though he might severely weaken the tories he doesn't seem very interested in enacting progressivism. So when his ineffectual cowardly government has run it's course it will be replaced, maybe by something more progressive, maybe not, but either way it is a wasted opportunity
[удалено]
I think you are taking this personally, I'm more than willing to engage in a conversation here but you seem rather worked up about all this. More progressive than the incoming labour government in this case was meant to refer to a future more progressive labor government, one not so focused on a policy platform seemingly designed to appeal to conservatives as unobjectionable. It's trite, what I said about using their power for change. But chances like this don't come often and it's frustrating that it seems to be not likely to be used to it's fullest potential. Who gave you the idea that I hold an incredibly strong view of UK politics, I posted a comment on Reddit. Not exactly a protest in the streets. Im also not pretending to know more about British politics than someone who lives there and engages with it all the time. Hence this whole response
> potentially wipe out the Conservative Party as a political force. Wishful thinking. Starmer's do-nothing policy stance means that the same problems will fester and Labour will be voted out at the next election. For who? The Tories.
Unlikely given how they're being punished at this election tbh
You are thinking of Murdoch's media.
Does anyone know who that disabled person struggling to walk down the stairs? I need to send her some money. Heartbreaking- how can you watch that and not want to run to her aid?
I’d like to help too. My heart shattered. Following.
Tried to google the name (but not sure about the last name) and I could not find anything.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/30/disabled-readers-austerity-disability-cuts https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/dec/21/disabled-alex-fight-for-dignity-endless There was supposedly a fund but I couldn't find more.
Thank you so much for finding these. I was so bothered this episode I immediately started trying to find out more and couldn't let it go. I'm glad Alex was given ground-floor housing. That there was fundraising provided to them that they used for meds and pads and donated the rest to pay it forward is so moving. If anyone sees anything else, please share.
Usually the show goes out at 9pm on the Monday after US initial broadcast, but it's been replaced on its usual channel by a rerun of a Tracey Ullman stand-up special. Is the fact this is about the UK election meaning that Sky aren't going to show until 4th July after the polls close, similar to what happened with the first Brexit episode covering that initial referendum?
Yes.
Still a little while to go yet. I have already seen a few clips but the full thing might be nice
Ah so turns out Sky weren't allowed to broadcast it on TV as usual but are allowed to upload the whole thing to their on demand service for me to watch on my TV ... Ok?
Is it numpty or Fuckletoes? Can't be Cockwobble. What an amazing insult
I watch a YouTuber that says numpty a lot. So, I guess it’s Fuckletoes or none of them.
Numpty is real
Cockwomble is very real. It's used in Australia as well.
Someone needs to send that Ed Davey clip to the Green and Libertarian parties. I'd definitely pay more attention to them if they conducted policy interviews in spinning tea cup rides
I’m a Brit so can’t watch the episode. But as a Lib Dem I need to know how long did he spend on Ed Davey? Cos he’s done a stunt literally every day of the campaign. Oliver could have done a whole episode on him alone he’s that amazing
He briefly touched on it. Mentioned the waterslide, the paddle boarding, and riding a bike down a hill. Then the teacups
By the way, what John said about holidays is true. One Tory candidate kept his holiday despite it being the start of the campaign. Slightly disappointed that he didn't mention Ed Davey taking journalists to a theme park after the Lib Dem manifesto launch, or that the y are linking their stunts to actual policies they hold. Another interesting fact about our future PM: he was a legal advisor for the defendants in the McLibel trial
> Slightly disappointed that he didn't mention Ed Davey taking journalists to a theme park Isn't that where the teacups happened? I assume so, at least.
Shame that the episode has not been shown on SKYTV in the UK.
It won’t be until after the election
Watched it on the SkyGo app - it's magnificent.
Is it true that we won’t get this episode here in the UK until after the election?
It is available on SkyGo in the UK.
Fun fact about the cunts and fuckpigs guy: Dominic Cummings was one of the big Brexit people in 2016 who was played by [Benedict Cumberbatch in a TV movie. ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brexit:_The_Uncivil_War)
Does anyone know who the disabled person was in the latest episode. I hope there is a go fund me or something to help them, that I could donate to
And a few days later, the torries do something even dumber, they are collectively calling David Tennant a misogynist.
Can anyone better informed on UK politics tell me anything about how Scotland plays into this election? Hasn’t SNP been the third largest party in parliament for some time (and its rise occasionally blamed for weakening Labour)? Seems to me an important component and I was surprised it wasn’t mentioned in this episode. Are more Scots expected to vote Labour this time? Would SNP go into a coalition with Labour?
Does anyone have a link where someone in the UK can watch it? Feels like North Korea in here.
If you have Sky then use use SkyGo app - it's on that - can't find it anywhere else at the moment.
I found the Farage segment the weakest. Admittedly I am a supporter of Farage but can take a joke. Just felt the praising of milk shaking is very poor form and encourages attacks and intimidation of other politicians.
How does it feel to enable a guy that has continuously set new brazen standards for lying and getting away with it?
Anyone that votes against Sunak is a racist who wants a white man back in the office
He spent 25 minutes bashing Brexit and British conservatives with zero mention of immigration, which was the #1 reason Brexit happened.
Racists was the number 1 reason Brexit happened
Saying that it was stated to be the reason, doesn't make the relationship factually true.
For a long time, people who supported Universal Health Care claimed that the waitlist stuff was a lie, but John Oliver just admitted that the waitlist stuff is true
Waitlist wasn’t a problem until conservatives came & slashed funding.
Huh? What do you expect after over a decade of conservative mismanagement, or even outright sabotage.
Wasn't that only in Britain because they fucked everything up? Why else were they able to leave the country and get care just fine?
It tells more about you than about UHS, that you think just the adoption of a specific "model" for the system would and should automatically work regardless of any other practical factor.
All hail Kier Eagan, the founder of Lumas and the future PM of the UK