Russell Brand champion of the people?

[Guinness]

Love him or hate him for his hedonism, questionable films or comedy output, the stuff he wrote as guest editor in the New Statesman this week rings true with quite a few of us on this forum.

Russell Brand on revolution: ?We no longer have the luxury of tradition?

Can't be bothered reading the above..he pretty much says the same thing on newsnight to Paxman (Ignore the first 2 or 3 minutes of puerile stupidity until Paxman winds him up and he gets angry and serious)



Another comedian, Robert Webb joins the fray with an opposing view, stating that he has rejoined labour because of Brands musings.

Robert Webb rebukes Russell Brand for urging people not to vote | Television & radio | theguardian.com

For me..Brand has hit the nail on the head and although he has no credible workable solution, at least he has highlighted what most of us feel like regarding the current political system...i.e. it sucks! and it sucks big time! and it's all soundbites and done to pacify the plebs and get money from corporates or unions, depending on party, to continue the status quo.

He says 'don't vote'..don't give them the mandate, the argument against is 'if you don't vote you lose the right to argue'

This is nonsense...just imagine a general election and not one single person votes...would the system collapse? In all probability the law would be changed within hours making it illegal not to vote just to sustain this biased and unfair political system.

Webb argues that we have already had our revolution, the point he misses is that our current system is precisely what we revolted against...i.e. a few reaping the rewards whilst the majority sucked it up and doffed their caps.

Lets put that in the context of today...MP's rip us off with expenses for £1000's and are promoted to the House of Lords, a single mother takes £200 from the benefits system by working a few hours behind the bar and is given community service and has to pay it back, on the same day a banker illegally shares information and is sacked with a golden handshake and a massive pension. The next day he is headhunted by another corporate bank and put in a similar position.

Graham Jones has put a couple of pictures on twitter today..One of the Market Hall (which he describes as fantastic because it has free wi-fi thanks to the labour council) and one obviously set up, buying some fish and handing over the cash......well way to go Graham.....really getting to the heart of why most of us think you are ALL party and no people! And why we all think you are just another production line politician.

I've used 'we' and 'us' quite a lot in this rant...anyone disagree?

[Shurm]

I disagree, an MP paying for something that can't be right I bet he blagged it off Steve Bramwell is it ?

Everyone's fed up Guinness and have their own troubles at the moment whether it be money, jobs, bills etc people have realised it doesn't matter who is in power things are just getting tougher. Most people just don't have any interest in politics and although I agree with your examples of injustice there is nothing ordinary folk can do about it.

When you say pacify the plebs who do you mean ordinary folk ? Not you then ? I think you will find the 'plebs' see through it as well they just don't start a thread on here about it.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I have been saying don't vote for people that you can't believe in. I have been saying it forever!

And if they made voting a legal requirement, and we didn't do it would they jail the whole population?
Voting doesn't work...or no, voting puts people in power who have agendas other than the one in the manifesto...and that is the problem. We have politicians who have done no real work in their lives, they know nothing of the problems which beset their constituents, and what is more...while they are riding a rich gravy train, paid for by us, they will never know and care even less.

You will never get people in this country to with-hold their vote...there are too many people who are bound by the tradition of voting for the colour of a flag....even though there is so little difference between the parties now...the ideologies of the major parties are not what they were 20, 30, 40, years ago, but you try getting hidebound folk like C'monstanley to see this...you will be wasting your time.

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by Shurm

I disagree, an MP paying for something that can't be right I bet he blagged it off Steve Bramwell is it ?

Everyone's fed up Guinness and have their own troubles at the moment whether it be money, jobs, bills etc people have realised it doesn't matter who is in power things are just getting tougher. Most people just don't have any interest in politics and although I agree with your examples of injustice there is nothing ordinary folk can do about it.

When you say pacify the plebs who do you mean ordinary folk ? Not you then ? I think you will find the 'plebs' see through it as well they just don't start a thread on here about it.

It's an obvious 'kissing babies' photo, I have no doubt that Graham paid for his fish but that is hardly the point I was making. I should have likened the tweet to Nero putting on a concert and wondering how he could heat the theatre.

I'm a pleb and proud of it. As for not having an interest in politics and starting threads, I'll let another pleb called Plato answer that...'The penalty good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men'.

Do you really believe that if everyone had stayed quiet and not posted on local forums, newspaper forums and twitter, Cameron would have done anything else other than say he was 'disappointed' by British Gas??

There are hundreds of examples of 'ordinary folk' saying 'enough is enough' and doing something about it...Tolpuddle, Peterloo, Jarrow, Ghandi, Rosa Parks etc..etc..

It only takes a single act to light the blue touchpaper, I don't have the intelligence, skill or bravery to strike the match, I'm no Plato. But by posting, offering debate and constantly highlighting the injustice and failure of our current system... maybe, just maybe....it will reach someone with a viable alternative and a Zippo.

Gotta be better than just sitting around, saying nothing and abject resignation to the whims of the mandarins of westminster

[Margaret Pilkington]

As for Russell Brand...he is a hypocrite...he talks about profit...saying that where there is a profit, there is a deficit. He is a rich egotistical twit, who is looking for the main chance to get some publicity...and hey, it's working.

He isn't exactly a beacon to the huddled masses. to those people who struggle to make ends meet...he owns the great house in Hollywood Hills that used to belong to Laurence Olivier..and he has an estimated 15 million in the bank......not small change is it...and he isn't going to be wondering where the money is coming from to pay the winter gas bill.
No, all this political spouting he has done recently is to raise his celebrity profile to sell tickets for his latest tour(currently priced at £50 a pop).....more dosh into his bank account

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

As for Russell Brand...he is a hypocrite...he talks about profit...saying that where there is a profit, there is a deficit. He is a rich egotistical twit, who is looking for the main chance to get some publicity...and hey, it's working.

He isn't exactly a beacon to the huddled masses. to those people who struggle to make ends meet...he owns the great house in Hollywood Hills that used to belong to Laurence Olivier..and he has an estimated 15 million in the bank......not small change is it...and he isn't going to be wondering where the money is coming from to pay the winter gas bill.
No, all this political spouting he has done recently is to raise his celebrity profile to sell tickets for his latest tour(currently priced at £50 a pop).....more dosh into his bank account

Margaret, you'll get no debate from me about him being a rich egotistical twit, but....does that make his arguments wrong?

I'm going to be nice and warm this winter and I don't have to worry about fuel costs does it make me a hypocrit because I think the government should do more to protect the less well off than me?

[Margaret Pilkington]

No, it doesn't make him wrong, but his spoutings do make him a hypocrite of the first order.
He actually couldn't give a flying ferret for the cause of the common people..he only cares that this stunt has raised his profile, and this is good for his tour...making him yet more money...and before you ask...no, I am not against him making money. If people are daft enough to part with their hard earned cash to hear him spout his foul mouthed rubbish, then that is entirely up to them...but for him to portray himself/or get the media to portray him as a campaigner for the common people is at best dishonest.
He says he only took on the guest editorship of the New Statesman because he was asked by a 'pretty woman'...which suggests to me that he was thinking with his trouser snake.

As for your question about you keeping warm...no it doesn't make you a hypocrite.......you just have a big pile of wood ready for burning.
Russell Brand is a hypocrite because he is pretending to be concerned about the people who have less than himself...when he doesn't give a hoot about them....it is just a publicity thing to get him in the public eye...that is what makes him a hypocrite

None of us need to be informed by Russell Brand of the dire state of politics...and it isn't just in this country...neither do we need to be informed of what his opinion is that we should do to rectify it.
You have a brain, and I have a brain...we are both capable of cogent thought(as are many members of this forum...I won't say all, because there are some who I have doubts about, no names, no pack drill)......but whether we can influence others with out thoughts and opinion is another matter entirely.

[kestrelx]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

As for Russell Brand...he is a hypocrite...he talks about profit...saying that where there is a profit, there is a deficit. He is a rich egotistical twit, who is looking for the main chance to get some publicity...and hey, it's working.

He isn't exactly a beacon to the huddled masses. to those people who struggle to make ends meet...he owns the great house in Hollywood Hills that used to belong to Laurence Olivier..and he has an estimated 15 million in the bank......not small change is it...and he isn't going to be wondering where the money is coming from to pay the winter gas bill.
No, all this political spouting he has done recently is to raise his celebrity profile to sell tickets for his latest tour(currently priced at £50 a pop).....more dosh into his bank account

Yeh but he's obviously very clever - so what would you do if you were rich? Give it all the poor?

[Margaret Pilkington]

What I would do is immaterial...I am not the one standing up pontificating in the media.

As for being clever...well there might just be someone at the back of him pulling the media strings...so I will reserve judgement on that.
As far as I am concerned, he is an odious man with little to recommend him.

[Guinness]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

None of us need to be informed by Russell Brand of the dire state of politics...and it isn't just in this country...neither do we need to be informed of what his opinion is that we should do to rectify it.
You have a brain, and I have a brain...we are both capable of cogent thought(as are many members of this forum...I won't say all, because there are some who I have doubts about, no names, no pack drill)......but whether we can influence others with out thoughts and opinion is another matter entirely.

Isn't that the point though...you and me do not need educating on the ills of the party political system or the failings of thatcherite yuppie capitalism, we know it doesn't work. But the majority of young people do not. It's not because they are thick, its because they simply don't care, their only interest is the next concert or the playstation 4 release date. When a popular youth rebel celebrity opens his mouth, they listen. As evidence, you need look no further than how much money poured into Live Aid in the hour after Geldof made his infamous foul mouth rant on live TV.

We're not going to agree on this, but I think Brand has been quite open and honest about why he's done this, he admits it was first and foremost to impress a girl, as was his comic relief trip to Africa. But then he has sat down and thought about the issues and made some compelling and cogent arguments. He came away from a Paxman roasting much better than quite a few politicians have. He admits he has no answers, but he has more chance of reaching that kid with the viable alternative and Zippo than you or I do.

[Margaret Pilkington]

So, aren't these youngsters going to make the connection that this guy has money, but is talking about the politics of not having money? Of having a morally decayed government and political systems...when they can see that this man has absolutely no morals at all.
Russell Brand is no better than the political systems he is having a pop at.
Do you think that they won't see the cynical ploy that he is using to manipulate his audience, the media and anyone who plugs into this......?
I think there are many young people out there who are smarter than you give them credit for...or is that just my vain hope?
They may be interested in the things you have cited, but these may not be their only interests.
So Guinness, I guess you are right...we are never going to agree tha Russell Brand is a champion of the people...now I'm just going to go and have another of my anti-cynicism pills...it seems like the last one is wearing off right now

[davebtelford]

Voting should be compulsory - with a box on the ballot paper for 'none of the above'.

[accyman]

voting should not be cmpulsary

what should happen is if that there is a less than %75 turn out atteh polling station every single MP should be dragged out to the side of the Themes and shot in the head and a fresh lot put in to see how they manage to inspire the electorate to vote

soon weed out them in it for themselves and them in it to do good for the country

maybe thats a little harsh and it could be done per sonstituancy so that them that perform well can keep alive and only weed out the poor performing ones

that wa soff teh top of my head so iv beat brand at coming up with a solution already

all i need now is his millions

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by davebtelford

Voting should be compulsory - with a box on the ballot paper for 'none of the above'.

I have gone along to the polling station and I have written on my ballot paper.
This is just to show that I am not too lazy to go and vote......and that it isn't
apathy on my part......but a lack of suitable candidates that warrant my vote.

If voting were compulsory and there was a space for 'none of the above' I would have no quibble, but to make voting compulsory without that.....well, I would continue to spoil my vote.

I always thought that your vote was secret anyway......so would compulsory voting mean that the authorities could determine how you had voted?

[dotti34]

Have been reading all the comments re compulsory voting and thought I'd put my pennysworth in for what it's worth, even though my comments don't apply to the U.K. Thought you might be interested to know that in Australia voting IS compulsory. If it wasn't there would be a lot of people who wouldn't bother to go to the polling booths because they feel one side is as bad as the other. All promises until they get in and then.....
At the last Federal Election quite a number of disillusioned voters tended to vote for alternative parties as a protest. Bit of a shambles. Have to vote or pay a fine, not very democratic.
Compulsory voting doesn't make for a better Government. Maybe if it wasn't compulsory here then politicians would have to really prove themselves to warrant receiving votes from an otherwise disillusioned public.
Btw, voting is not compulsory re Local Government and not many people bother to vote - even though Councils send out voting papers complete with a reply paid envelope. The result is a bit pathetic really.