Ian Hislop reviews an insane year of British politics

I think Gary Neville thought that um no one would mention this and if they did it would it would just be sort of Fairly light-hearted it was just like he sort of lay down and said oh here's the goal I was slightly shocked that he didn't have anything I heard the news when I was in makeup about to go on and do have I got news for you we were literally about to do a recording at seven and then the BBC said at 6 30 the Queens died you're not doing it and part of me was Furious because I thought other was others got something to say and then part of me probably thought perhaps give it a week um and I might have something more sensible to say I think bottom of the barrel is my my theme of the year and and we hit the bottom the absolute bottom and uh it was it was just worse than everyone could possibly have imagined in his little pillow hello how are you um uh yeah well good yeah it's about as good as I can do no it's been quite a year really yeah pretty extraordinary um we are talking because enter the prompt the private eye annual the Private Island which is is meant to be a collection of everything that's happened in the year but given the speed of events I'm afraid we've missed some yes on the end three prime ministers to monarchs one recession yes European War yes and 24 issues of private eye uh no I think we did 25 this year 25. yeah no we kept going resolutely no matter how Grim the news soldiering on yeah it's like a bit of a Christmas Carol isn't it three prime minister yes and the Partridge Nate I don't know I don't even get that how do you think we should do this then chronologically thematically what do you reckon the uh the best way of approaching 2022 is um random yeah yeah I don't know what I would go for that was certainly the approach to the government so as a theme I don't know what would you what would you say hubris stick incompetent yeah I think bottom of the barrel is my my theme of the year I mean we've been going there for about 12 years of Tory government and and we hit the bottom the absolute bottom um and uh it was it was just worse than everyone could possibly have imagined I um as I Was preparing Zoo's interview looking over the years events and I think it's quite easy to fall into uh of conceiving or thinking oh well it's all Boris Johnson's fault or it's all this trust his fault or it's all richness and actually the key phrase though is 12 years this is a long you could go further than that can you but the decline and the kind of stagnation that we're seeing in the economy to all parts of British Civic Society they're long Trends aren't they it's not just started in the last few months no but I think it was accelerated and everything was made easier I mean if you take Boris Johnson as essentially lowering all the standards there are in public life to the bottom to the point where you fire anyone who doesn't agree with you you fire any standards you fire anyone who says it's not a very good idea you literally get rid of everyone who doesn't say yes sir um and particularly yes brexit uh then you've got one government and we think oh well it can't get worse than that oh yes it can just uh yes it can you finally get rid of the man who's a you know a major major liar um and is revealed as such and I mean I'm very keen that we get the narrative straight because people are always trying to build a new Narrative of well he was stabbed in the back because people didn't agree um with the policy it's nothing to do with policy he was stabbed in the front by all of his ministers almost the entire government in a day because they thought his ethical standards were embarrassing um it wasn't that he was a liar it was that he was a liability and that's when the Tories kick in and they think right we're going to lose now so suddenly I mean the letters of resignation were marvelous they were the funniest thing of the Year dear prime minister despite having supported you your entire life I've suddenly noticed yeah you're absolutely appalling so um oh in the the case in the space of 24 hours I've decided I am no longer the right person to be your education secretary exactly I mean zahari was fantastic literally being appointed in the morning in the evening saying no I think it's time you went what he just appointed you amazing um so yeah we had a wonderful um gift item of a pair of zahari flip-flops which literally you just don't know which foot's going down um so yes I mean you're right it's a long-term Trend but then it accelerated and we got Liz trust which Liz truss is like the apogee of student politics and student economics and her and her mate quasi saying isn't it great we debated this when we were 19. let's do it now and you think well no even 19 year olds would say hang on hang on I think this is a bit much but they they decided to listen to nobody I mean literally nobody extraordinary um interesting you mentioned there that narrative about stabbing Boris in the back um one of our journalists Ed Campbell goes around the country interviewing people and that narrative is starting to take hold in places one of the reasons people often give for disliking Rishi sunak is they say he knifed Boris Johnson he's you know he betrayed Boris Johnson and you're right it wasn't he maybe that was the most high profile regulation to start things off but I think it was more than half of the government well that just seems to me you know a real failure of short-term memory and um I've run a number of dementia adverts in private eye specifically aimed at members of the conservative party saying do you have trouble remembering the events of about three weeks ago because I can explain them to you and um Richie sunak betrayed Boris Johnson Too Late much too late that's his real crap he wasn't even the first um it was actually um Sajid Javid who resigned first and then Rishi thought blimey he's resigned I'd better resign on Prince Principle as well and then everyone else did I mean the the Betrayal narrative is nonsense um I mean the person who's good at betraying Prime Ministers is Boris um he betrayed Theresa May uh David Cameron and then himself um and now he's back on the back bench he's trying to create trouble for Rishi uh you know betrayal is not something he can accuse other people of doing um that really is too rich um so I'm very keen that we try and remember these narratives and I think I'm probably bored at you before but for Matt Hancock to now say well we put a we put a ring of Steel around the Care Homes really well it's the weakest deal that there's ever been invented you didn't put a ring of anything you let people out of um hospital to go into the Care Homes and they affected everyone I mean why collectively Britain wants to say yeah these people yeah yeah that's what happened I mean you were there it's also extraordinary that the kind of mechanism that the British public have had for reconciling with these things has basically been sort of a Corey actress asking him about it as the camel anuses together yeah and I don't know what that says about us as a society that our sort of cathartic National you know reconciliation of this deeply traumatic thing is basically sending him onto a reality TV show yes and I mean it is it's the Triumph of celebrity isn't it um but I I mean there is a slight problem with sort of trial by other celebrities around the campfire is they haven't spent a lot of time thinking about the problems of covid whereas you know boring as journalists are that's sort of what they do so if Matt Hancock would like to give an interview with some journalists who know what they're talking about that could happen or even and I know this is silly but he could turn up in front of the inquiry and explain himself I mean he is paid to do that and he was he was the health secretary so explaining yourself in a public forum we do have them and they don't involve others are available yeah they don't involve kangaroos artists that's good television yeah well television has got a very short you know attention span so episode one you say well you know what are you doing in here never so terrific I'll leave him alone yeah oh he's right you know he fell in love oh God I mean I found that more emetic than any of the bugs to be honest um let's let's talk big standout moments for you yes from this year yeah if you had to pick a few some of the most sort of momentous or interesting or things that you maybe remember what would you say well I'm in the death of the queen which was absolutely extraordinary um I'm not because a very old woman dies which isn't extraordinary but um the actual reaction to it which was terribly sort of um impressive I thought the public were rather marvelous uh because we didn't get that complete hysteria and we didn't get that um uh full-on it's a tragedy um because it wasn't a tragedy it was something everyone had expected what people were were very sad and then this big Britain they decided how we're going to focus that sadness we're going to queue up we're gonna queue up for something which they did and then I mean I was there in the middle of the night watching the queue like anyone else it was extraordinary sort of like a sort of Adam Curtis film or something mesmeric from scandi TV like a you know it was just quite extraordinary um and then uh the funeral itself I thought was you know um sort of beautifully done um you know unlike I should imagine a lot of people I thought gosh that first anthem is really good he's excellent uh that may not have been everyone's takeaway but uh you know one's allowed to like what one likes and I thought that music was terrific um and I did think there was a sort of a general reaction of consideration and of of what have we lost what was the point of this you know and people who don't want a monarchy fine um you know a bad moment was when the bloke who shouted at Andrew in the procession got hassled by the police um but then the backlash was phenomenal yeah you know people saying we're allowed to shout you're announcer prince Andrew that's that's pretty much what a constitutional monarchy means and uh I agree with that it's the first amendment first yeah right so that seemed perfectly reasonable um and a lot of it just seemed to me um rather extraordinary um so that was very standout um and sort of part of me I mean I I heard the news when I was in makeup about to go on and do have I got news for you we were literally about to do a recording at seven and then the BBC said at 6 30 the Queens died you're not doing it um and part of me was Furious because I thought other was others got something to say yeah and then part of me probably thought perhaps give it a week um and I might have something more sensible to say yeah um which what happened so yes I mean that was extraordinary and the and uh I mean Britain is the most peculiar place um you know which is one of the reasons I do rather like it um and I waste lots of my time trying to criticize it and analyze ways in which it could be um it could be run better um uh people always at you know Royal moments they say well you're not very patriotic are you and you go well I am but it's not expressed in the same way as you but that's all right so I was thrilled by Paddington um I thought that's pretty funny we've spent my adult life people saying no one knows what the Queen's got in our handbag you know everyone's parents will say oh nobody knows what's the Queen's ham she does the joke so he's got sandwiches in it I mean it's pretty funny the uh I think the truest the truest form of patriotism is um is a criticism of one's country because it comes from a place of wanting it to be better you know the the flag waving the pageantry all that has a place don't get me wrong but I think it's actually it's quite a shallow form of patriotism right versus criticism engagement ways to improve I think that's the place of of true patriotism um let's let's trust has a place in that story as well doesn't she because in the extraordinary 45 days that she was prime minister she announces the death of the queen outside Downing Street yeah at the funeral she does this incredibly lackluster reading and I look forward to the history lessons of the future school children sort of saying who's that teacher teacher who's that woman yeah oh that's Britain's shortest serving prime minister yes who is that that's Lady Jane gray that's that's the person you've forgotten was ever on the throne that's the person no I mean it was I think we will remember it as a bad dream um and my overall impression of Liz trust is that she couldn't believe she was prime minister you know the the rest of us shared uh that particular problem but it was um it was delusional um and you know I mean quite staggering in watching how in a modern economy how fast um the theory of British exceptionalism Falls over by people who are its proponents someone who spent her adult life saying ah you've got to trust the markets oh my God the markets they've shafted us yeah they have yeah um and they said they would and the idea that you know we act as a sort of separate state that has um no bearing and no interest and no relationships with other people is crazy I mean my my problem was that everybody I know who knows anything about anything said this won't work you know not left Wingers right Wingers and just anybody yeah anybody who does a bit of money who has a vague idea about this stuff sitting with a Fiverr in their pocket yeah no you can't do that uh so what labor says we tax um and spend you now say we spend and then we give away tax so that is new how do we just borrow so would we just borrow right and who who lends us the money oh people are the other no no you see those other people are abroad a lot of them and they look at Britain and think no no I don't think we will lend you the money it's not hard I mean it's just so not hard I think the key word I think one of the key words you use there was delusional yeah there's for me anyway there's this ever widening gap between reality and sort of well either political I guess you call it fantasy fantasy role play in the case of Liz truss I don't know but yeah she spends the summer talking about this radical policy program it was Radical right you know the ideas that she was talking about changing the economy and all the rest of it and then they come into contact with reality and just fall apart yeah and I wonder how what it says about our politics that someone is allowed to or able to espouse those ideas and actually progress you know to the top of the pile yeah in British politics and it's as if no one's ever stopped or at least anyone who could stop her getting there and said actually this this just won't work yeah they've like bought into the fantasy of it well I think that's right and I think it's just structural failing in that they managed to whittle this um race down to two people it's Rich you see now and Liz truss and you know the this this tiny conservative party electorate so most people have no say on what goes on but there's two conservative candidates right one of them is saying um I can do all these marvelous things and I can borrow money and whatever the other one is saying it's going to be a disaster and it'll go very badly wrong now the one of them who's saying it's going badly wrong is a Goldman Sachs Bankers who's known to be quite right-wing in his brexit he's not a raving libtard uh woke liberal North Londoner Rishi sunak is he really that's all so for the conservative party to entirely ignore the views of the person who is sort of pretty much um their man in order to go for and I think it's trumpian I think it's a sort of I I would like to believe whatever I want now so I'm going to vote for what I think no not even what I think what I feel it's whoever said it was and Trump is an assault on reality that's his politics and I think we imported that briefly and decided that reality the conservative party decided reality wasn't important but unfortunately and actually I think maybe fortunately um reality came back the feel is so important because like you said Rishi sunak Silicon Valley guy hawkish you know a brexiteer since day one yeah as right basically his right wing is right wing can be in British politics and also one of the richest men that's whoever have sat in the house yes on the other Liz truss student lib Dem campaigns as a remainer and yet for some reason the conservative party comes to conclusion that she is she feels more right-wing than even if you just put their credentials down on paper yeah separately you've got all that guys obviously the leader of the conservative party yeah obviously but it was just almost about The Vibes of the two of them where he kind of projects perhaps more Metropolitan energy than Liz truss yeah and I was sort of I I was interested at the time I thought is this a racism um problem but then when sunak became British prime minister it it almost passed without comment yeah you know it was Diwali uh so he gave kids headed out so that was about it I mean I found that terribly cheering I have to admit that it didn't seem to be a big problem and the one person on the radio who shows who says you're not British followed it with the sentence saying you're American um because he looks a bit you know there was the problem with his green card and he did he did look as though he'd rather be an American at one stage of his life but the the racism element didn't seem to be there so I think what voting for Liz trust meant for them is you are exactly right it was a fantasy of a right-wing person should look like this and the rhetoric should be this and if you want silly then you got silly I mean she she she was a silly figure from putting on the Thatcher clothes and putting on the fur hat and and um riding a tank riding a tank and saying we'll fight Russia to The Bitter End you know a we're not fighting them at all we're not in this war you know we're helping out and we're going and doing the photo ops and uh doing our best but we're not we're not fighting in this war it's not really up to us when it ends um all that posturing was I found embarrassing and then from foreign policy where posturing is embarrassing but it wasn't absolutely um critical she did it in the economy and there it there it um comes up against this brick wall yeah um so I do think we had a we had our big delusional moment we started talking about uh Liz trust because yes you were talking about the queen I've got a few more questions about small family one is the broader role I guess of constitutional monarchy because I think the death of the queen wants and I think we probably haven't actually moved out of it yet but once the kind of the period of mourning and the dust has settled inevitably it's going to lead to questions about the role of the monarchy in our society perhaps not necessarily in Britain I think Australia very definitely they're going to start asking that question do you think uh her death and perhaps even Charles as monarch increases that increases the likelihood of Britain moving towards perhaps becoming a republic how do you think it changes our relationship with the monarchy it reminded people how a constitutional monarchy had been effective in certain ways particularly with the personality of the queen and um uh it was the longevity the sense of security the sense that even if our polit politics is terrible um at least we have the queen and that was a that was a bull walk and that's one of the things that you know constitutional monarchies can do um and when Johnson tries to parole Parliament or suddenly you notice the executive power getting completely out of hand in Britain uh there is a feeling that well at least the queen is there at least the arms forces um uh have a an oath of allegiance to the queen and not to Liz truss uh you know these things can be very comforting when you put it like that it's very comfortable and I do put it like that and I think yes that makes me feel better so I think now we will get to a period And I think the Commonwealth um I think a lot of members of the Commonwealth will decide that you know uh that period of history is over and they will go their own way and I'm you know I'm sure that will happen and uh you know fine um whether Charles can maintain the case for a constitutional monarchy and pass that onwards it's slightly up to the Next Generation I think um and uh at the moment uh I think he's in a honeymoon period he's in a period of Grace as it were to see see what happens and the coronation will be multi-faith and he you know I mean compared to a lot of people of his generation he was very green very early um and he does say a lot of those um things I mean had he been allowed for example to go to the cop Summit I think that would have been good because you could have the Tory party could have sent someone who believes all this what they call Green crap he could actually have gone and meant it and that might have been quite useful so I still think there are things that could be useful I don't know how the um soap opera with the younger generation will play out that row you mentioned there about the cop conference will he go won't he go is illustrative I think because um the way you always thought the queen was that she was kind of above those sort of squabbles or if there was any Prospect of that discussion happening in you know the national press action will be taken to stop it from happening because I think she was very clever in trying to engineer herself to be above these things at all times do you sense that there's a change there with Charles because he is becoming involved in discussions like that and and they are happening publicly I think yes I think there is a change but I think if he's sensible he will restrict it to one thing yeah uh and that being the one thing that that really might matter um and I think I think he would get away with that um I think being a green king would be um a very smart move for the future uh a king who's really interested in low traffic developments in cities though no don't bother with that who's really really interested in in onshore versus offshore no don't do that but you know generally being learning laws yeah don't do all that uh certainly don't take you know bags full of cash um from uh Arab donors to fund your projects I don't think we want to see any of that um uh you know those things are fairly right like a handbook couldn't you yeah no no first day in the shop these things are never very hard um and uh and uh you know deal with the the Harry and Andrew problem yes Andrew was um your first cover this year wasn't he was he yeah oh here we go yeah he was that well yeah can you find out somewhere consult the annual oh yeah no I've always consult the annual was it was this the giving up yes yeah right yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah that's how I remember this was the start of the year you know we're kind of covids PPE contracts VIP Lane all of this stuff going on photos of the parties yeah and then Andrew uh yeah Andrew announced his titles the next day and yup were you expecting that to be a story I don't know you've had your pigs in blankets and you put down your mince pies and your first editorial in the private eye first editorial meeting in the private offices this year were you thinking Andrew's going to be a big deal what was kind of on your mind what were you picturing or how did that meeting go yeah and I I think it's because um traditionally at that dead New Year period um the story is usually the you know the queen goes to church or Kate wears a coat to go to church what's your favorite genres yeah no I mean you know these are Big stories but this year it was what are they gonna do about him um and that remained a problem um and it remained a problem right throughout the year you know in the Jubilee you know big church service well there's Andrew and he's he's helping his mother down the aisle making himself Center Stage that's not what anyone wanted um so he became a real problem and then you add in Harry and they're they're put together um it's probably a bit unfair uh you know yeah the Gary's done you know he's had a few court cases with the mail on Sunday but it's not quite the same uh and so there's that other problem which won't go away because there's um and I do like the idea and the media can't get enough of this but you know um Family squabbles you don't need the press as we all know if you want to have a fight with your siblings for 30 years lots of people do it yeah if you want to be really crossed with your parents your entire life you don't need the Press help uh so the Netflix camera crew for that one yeah yeah no that is all going on um I don't see how you end it certainly from the the sussex's point of view because they have one commodity which is um unhappiness uh bitterness Grudge about what happened in the the brief period when they're a member of the royal family and and then Harry extends that to the rest of his life if that's all you've got to sell um then the argument is going to go on and on let's talk uh Russia and Ukraine yes um something perhaps slightly more seriously yeah yeah than those guys um February March time you know we we wake up in the morning to hear the sound of Tanks sort of Crossing into Europe oh my God what is going on how's it got to this point I was surprised by it um again I'm not the most observed of uh Russian observers but it felt like I wasn't the only one it felt like a lot of our well policy makers government journalism we're taking by surprise about this happening why do you think there was some kind of strategic weakness there structural problem I guess this ties into the conversation we're having more broadly about Decline and whether or not Britain is the place that it was once on the world stage but what what is it about Britain if there is anything that made us blind to this weak spot that this was forthcoming in Russia because with hindsight it seems pretty obvious that was almost about to happen yeah I mean I think we're back to um uh believing what you want to believe on both sides and I think um on Putin's side he has convinced himself and been advised over the years that the West isn't interested um uh it's been weak it's been pathetic Russia can um act as it wants to it can act boldly and his dreams of going back to a sort of zarist Russia um and um re-establishing a the second front is the greater Russia are viable now the people have been telling them him that must have known that the the Russian army is not up to that uh they must have known that those tanks would break down uh but most of the people wouldn't fight um that the stuff wouldn't work um and that this three-week rollover um in which no one died and everyone raised the flag and the ukrainians were thrilled I mean you know you say Western intelligence failed well let's have a look at Russian intelligence literally he believed complete garbage and he told complete garbage um to the Russian population so you had that going on on one side on the other side we had the West believing what it wants to believe which is that Russia isn't a threat that oh God crime areas it was a bit of a one-off um and uh basically we want to carry on in the way we are doing particularly with Nordstrom and particularly with um the dependence on Russian Fuel and it's a modern world you don't have tanks across borders you're not going to have people shelled in their houses in Europe it's not going to happen so I think both sides believed entirely the wrong thing about themselves and it's you know it's a tragedy it ties into some of the talking points that we're discussing here the systemic Decline and also the fantasies because you know the UK previous to the situation right now we had 10 years to borrow cheap money to invest in let's say nuclear power plants but instead the British government has just gone around mixing them vetoing them stopping them from being built or you know like you said the the fantasy of or gas storage yes completely why do we have no gas storage oh yeah yeah oh that was wise then um you know liquefied fuel plants I mean all these things um were not invested in because we thought you know life Without Borders I'm the same fantasy that says Britain must stand alone and must be self-sufficient uh goes hand in hand with a view then no no we'll import food we'll import fuel it's fine that's how it works now and then it all jutters to a halt I was the terrifying aspect of it for me was that war in Europe who who do the people of Western Europe look to for leadership you know and and it's Boris Johnson is the one on the helicopter to Keith oh dear God what on Earth is going to happen here and I thought for a period of time as well it could potentially have saved him when you know all the all of the party gate stuff was swirling around him and there's nothing like a good wall right uh yeah yeah to boost yourself in the polls and you know he more or less Whenever there was a problem at home um he got on a plane uh and you know I I don't blame zielinski you know he shaked his hand says you're marvelous we love Boris and then you know when Liz trust turned up shook her hand said yeah you're great uh soon act turns up great you're great yeah you know he needs some allies um and I would have to say that you know Ben Wallace who was the defense secretary um did do a good job early on we were um ahead Britain in terms of um commitment particularly in those sort of um specialist missile areas and the things that Britain still can do quite well so I mean I don't think there's in any embarrassment in it um it's just just the idea that somehow we're leading the free West um you know we're there um but zielinski sort of single-handed I mean it is an extraordinary performance from any leader really anywhere um to turn himself around from a from a comic figure who wasn't even that popular uh beforehand to someone who has made Putin look a complete fool um but that's that that we learned over the course of the year um and uh I mean I've been watching Adam Curtis's absolutely brilliant um series on um Russia um and I have to say as usual I find that my recommendation for everything would just be more history uh you know once you've watched them I'm going into chechnya in a war that everyone said don't go there uh Russian mothers ended up going to the front trying to get their sons back off the recruiting sergeants for this totally pointless devastating hopeless ill-equipped uh which I mean they've already done this once in living memory um and the The Faults and the problems and the arguments are are all the same and again I think we just just didn't note what was going on that uh Curtis documentary is fantastic and actually I would encourage viewers of the channel as well to check out our interview with Adam uh from a couple months ago fascinating oh right yeah no he is brilliant but is it called traumatology uh trauma Zone trauma Zone yeah is just fantastic and if you're going to watch one very very long documentary about Russia that's the one making that one yeah yeah it is long um no it's interesting you you talk about chechnya because I think you can interpret Putin's um behavior in if you look at you know chechnya or Georgia or initially in Crimea lit vignenko Salisbury he takes these extraordinary gambles yeah you know whether it's invading countries or using chemical weapons on the streets of another nation and until now he's broadly gone away with it yeah you know what you know with the Salisbury poisoning it's really serious repercussion but a few sanctions nothing massive he's poisoning Britain's on the streets of our cities and it's so I think you can understand how emboldened he was to do something like roll the tanks towards Keith yeah because up until that point he'd been able to do basically whatever he wanted yeah and if you just think well what sort of a world power was Britain where you know Putin could murder our citizens on the streets I mean even just knocking off um sort of uh uh oligarchs who he didn't approve of I mean this was just murdering people um and sort of taking the piss I'm the rush Russian foreign policy doing jokes about poisoning yeah uh you know live on telly uh it's as though they literally didn't care because they thought what are you going to do about it and the answer is we didn't do anything at all and you know the I mean one of the uh you know main um thrusts of our jokes in the annual really is you know um is saying should we allow oligarchs to buy houses like number 10 Downing Street maybe they shouldn't be allowed to buy that particular property in Britain um because you know it'd be better if we owned that um and that that was a running theme I mean the conservative party took a staggering amount of money and allowed the Russians extraordinary Liberties in in London um in the city and then threw up their hands and said you've no idea what's going on have you seen London I've been the place it's a wash with money yeah yeah it is do you think London's role as sort of like a laundromat Butler it's been called Butler to the world but look at Russia do you think that influenced the way we treated Russia or were kind of caught sleeping a little bit the way that you know they they store their cash by buying London property the way they send their children here for an education all that they donate to our political parties do you think that was one of the reasons why perhaps the conservative government was more relaxed about Russian and perhaps it should have been yeah I love your questions which just the answer is yes of course it's really easy I really like coming on this I mean and I suppose that's the problem because it seems so bloody obvious to everyone you know one of my you know sort of mine and Richard Brooks who writes all our stuff about that his main point is why do you think they give all this money uh just they do it for fun no they do because it works if you have a whole strata a British society which is involved in processing Russian money and doing well out of it then the pressure will be to leave them alone and that's what happens and then you know for all of us journalists it's um they then sue when you point this out and you know it's a very good and very bold um uh journalists and people who've written books about Russian money laundering had to fight them off yeah um you know they don't have to now because everyone's oh yes Russia yes yes of course yes we know that they're very bad um but that wasn't the view it's one of the things that attracts Russian money to London so it's so popular is because we have some of the most restrictive libel laws in the world where there is this standard of living we have some of the most restrictive liberal laws and it enables them to basically use their money and resources to sue people into silence yeah for sure um one little quote from Boris Johnson straight off the plane from Kiev which I thought well it touches on many of the things we're talking about today um we have made the long-term decisions including on domestic energy Supply to ensure that our bounce back can and should be remarkable and that our future will be golden which just displays as this Detachment from from reality isn't it that just kind of seems to permeate all the way through yeah this year and and again it was it's what they used to call boosterism uh which was isn't it great Boris talks everything up at a certain point um it isn't great it's because it's what they call a lie uh it's not it's not an optimistic view it's just something that isn't true um and the British public you know are not children I mean I suppose this is half the irritation of living here is people are saying to you um look things are really really bad but there'll be no pain for any of you and we'll cut your taxes and you'll be really happy you know if things are really really bad they're going to be bad you know nobody said um during the 50s yeah austerity it'll be over very very quickly it wasn't uh you know because we just come out of the war it's not as though there is there's never a period where you say to the British people um the this is what's happening I mean they have noticed there's a war on and um people say oh well you can't blame the war and everything but I think most people had no idea that for example you know the grain Harvest you know huge amounts to the world are dependent on this country who we haven't noticed much having a big Harvest um and this kicked into everything food prices everywhere so it is important um you know in the cost of living crisis started with fuel bills um you know that's where it comes from um we Dominic Cummings suggested that Liz truss was a trojan horse for Boris Johnson that she was going to go in self-imlate and then obviously clear the way for him to re-contest the Tory party leadership yeah first of all do you think that's credible and second of all what do you think it says about Boris Johnson that he might entertain an idea like that um I think that's probably exactly what Boris thought I mean his utterly graceless and remorseless um uh resignation in which he didn't say sorry um he didn't apologize for what he'd done he said that the party were heard who just move about uh he was rude to everyone and everything um and behind the scenes attempted to stop uh Rishi sunak um getting the job and he supported Liz truss and that gives you some idea of boris's judgment and perhaps he did think you know because he is you know a fantasist um and one of those irritating fantasies whose silliest Dream came true you know they're the worst type of fantasists um you know they really really are Grim um but anyway he probably thought yes I can do it but for me one of the pleasures of the year was was his return from holiday um you notice he was on holiday yeah I mean he's sitting MP he couldn't possibly have actually been doing his job no no he was on another holiday comes back from holiday to say I've made it I'm taking over it's all go chaps let's go oh no it isn't thank God for that and then he says I've decided not to go ahead because it'd be better for the country well when you're on the plane on the way back it was fine and now it isn't what's changed oh you're gonna lose uh literally the self-interest is overpowering um and as I say uh just a very brief fit of sense seems to have overcome the conservative party you mentioned uh the 50s just a second ago and I think there's parallels as well perhaps now to the sort of 70s winter of discontent you know Mass industrial action the economic situation that we find ourselves in do you to what extent do you think what Bryn's experiencing now as a cycle do you think it's you know we've been here before and there'll be another boom after this bust how much how do you read if you're trying to put a bit of historical context on this um well I do think we're I do think we are in the middle of a very specific set of circumstances and you know the Ukraine war is is a fairly extraordinary one and the pandemic which again um is quite easy to forget was a sort of unbelievable major world event which is still going on which had enormous economic absolutely vast um and it also had psychological um repercussions because the government essentially this was conservative government said this is a major problem we will pay for it not you will pay for it uh we I mean obviously they've got to pay for it eventually but we will sort this out um and then once you've said we will sort out the fact that you're not working due to a pandemic it's very hard for them when the next economic cycle comes around to say we will not pay for your electricity bill we will not pay um for the fact that your wages haven't gotten so they got themselves into a psychological position you know with the public where being old-fashioned conservatives almost impossible I mean Tories in my lifetime would say look the state doesn't do everything if your bills have gone up we don't pay we're not coming to the you know the supermarket with you I mean we don't do that that's big state that's that's socialism that's um that's that's not what we do we're now in a position where they can't do that and you've also got a generation of people who seem to have forgotten how industrial action works um My Generation obviously we saw the 17 results of the 80s so people go on strike and they say we like 15 and you go that's absolutely appalling uh you're not going to get 15 then you go away and a few weeks later oh they get 11. um and then it's over the current generation uh they say we won 20 and then the generation of conservative politicians say well you shouldn't be allowed to strike um uh and that's it they seem to have no idea that this is part of the history of not only Britain but the world negotiation negotiation people ask for more money you don't necessarily give them all the money but you give them some of the money and it just seems to be completely Bonkers that they've forgotten how this works it's it's almost yeah it's that world of the 70s of or the 50s or the the world that all World kind of satirizes in 1984 right everything smells a bit of cabbage nothing works we just kind of get drunk and that's it and yeah and you get booted in the face over and over again yeah by the country and it it does feel yeah repetitive I mean looking forward then let's yeah let's cast our eye forward yeah what what is there to look forward to is there anything to look forward to for you or for for us more broadly in 2023 um um too um uh and um yeah uh um the next issue of the Private Ryan yeah absolutely I mean they're again I think the the opposite of boosterism is gloomsterism um and uh I mean in the very last issue of private eye Craig Brown wrote a very funny um parody of a program called you and yours which is incredibly depressing on BBC and it's a commentary saying so how bad is your Christmas going to be and someone's saying well it's quite fun we've got the relatives no you're you're going to be utterly miserable aren't you you're going to be uh eating uh cardboard and you're gonna have an utterly no well no actually we're quite looking forward to it and we're you know we might go skating and then they were gonna do and it was quite a useful piece uh to remind people that um public life isn't the only life everyone knows about their own lives um uh and that um the failures are repetitive um and not not exceptional um and living in times where uh um Things Are Grim economically um for you know a lot of people are depressing but not overwhelming and that finding um things that are done well things that are still um generously and competently managed still possible and the fact that if we've hit the bottom which I think we are bottom of the barreling um no I think we've done bottom of the barrel we're just just a bit up for it I think it might it might well Ascend uh Ukraine wasn't defeated and um its major cities don't now look like Syria that's good I mean that seemed to me incredibly positive uh the failure of Putin's uh efforts seemed to me pretty good um there are things that are not terrible um and a bit of realism in British politics that sounds good uh coming back attempts to um sort that out that that that seems okay I mean I don't I don't want to to sound sort of um panglossian but I think it is part of the point of I think it is part of the duty of anyone who as I does spent a lot of time saying this slots are pretty ridiculous aren't they um is to say um uh but uh that's not the only story and that's not the end of the story Ian towards the end of this year um obviously the World Cup in Qatar has uh has kicked off yes um England's going very well in the tournament fantastically um other people going less well in the tournament would probably be the migrant workers um that built the stadiums a group of death as private dials puts them in yes they were very definitely in the group of death or indeed some of the women in Qatar or indeed any of the gay people in Guitar your thoughts first of all really on the World Cup being there and how the tournament's gone so far well um the fact that it was in Qatar is extraordinary and and we have repeatedly pointed this out I mean there was a wonderful journalist called Andrew Jennings who basically um spent his life putting the boot into FIFA and pointing out how corrupt they were and how ludicrous this particular appointment of a very very small non-football playing country that you have to move it to the middle of the winter because it's so hot there I mean everything about it you know was corrupt and smell and uh you know that that is extraordinary but that said um yeah and again this is going to be me um um finding optimism but the World Cup suddenly turned into a place where real stories were being played out and I thought this was extraordinary first there was sort of um The Rao over um you know uh whether you should take the qatari's money and I I bumped into Gary Neville on have I got news for you uh who who hadn't hadn't seemed to entertain many of these dilemmas before so I I tried to help him uh with with a few of them what was do you think do you think he honestly hadn't entertained or engaged with the concepts he can't have been surprised by you asking him those questions I think he was actually I think the trouble about being very very famous and and people loving you is that nobody ever says really um I mean not just any old broadcaster the Qatari broadcaster what so you've made a documentary saying Qatar behaves very badly towards migrant and then the state broadcaster um says would you like to come and have a huge amount of money I mean there is a conflict of interest I mean I I I was trying to say no more than that uh but um no I don't I don't think he'd he'd thought this was going to happen I think Gary never thought that um no one would mention this and if they did it would it would just be sort of Fairly light-hearted um and the subject came up and um I thought well this is a bit cozy why don't we just ask you uh what your defense is and he didn't have one you know and this is my footballing knowledge I thought brilliant I've used the word defense uh you see that's pretty pretty good and just nothing at all it was just like you sort of lay down and said oh here's the goal um uh it was I was slightly shocked that he didn't have anything he said the the situation was binary you either made a fuss about human rights and did it while you're over there or you stayed at home and I said well you could stay at home and make fuss about human rights while you were here um again which didn't strike me as being terribly sophisticated as an argument but it hadn't occurred to him we'd had a year where it's what you talked earlier about just people not noticing anything until they do so the fact that the Saudis own Newcastle despite having murdered khashoggi one of the the journalists who you know fell foul of the prince yeah that's all right one of our major clubs owned by them that seems okay ant and decorate the the black and white people who who are particularly owned by the prince I mean that seemed to me fairly extraordinary and uh we do much the same um you know with with other figures but suddenly Qatar focused the minds and then I really like the fact that um you suddenly got this incredibly Brave Iranian team refusing to sing their own national anthem because of the hijab protest and you suddenly thought I mean hey God you're brave you know your families are literally at home this isn't just putting on an old ban this is you know this is really uh important and uh then lots of other countries issues suddenly came to the force so people were making protests using football so and I think probably football purists would say oh they're mixing Sport and politics and I'm thinking they're mixing sport politics this is really interesting that argument I just it holds no water for me whatsoever that Sport and politics these two separate things they're inextricably linked you know from the nature of of football as a game as a you know as a working class sport all the way through to wherever you want to take it look at the highest level the process you mentioned at the World Cup to try and suggest that politics has no place in sport or that sport has is irrelevant support it's just it's a nonsense argument in my eyes yeah and I mean it's happened before I mean you know um there was a Olympics where um no one went at all because the Russians had invaded Afghanistan and that was before we'd done the same thing so obviously the next Olympics that was a real yeah problem it was yeah yeah it shows how much anybody learned absolutely in his op thank you very much for your time I really appreciate it private eye annual available now go get it

Channel: PoliticsJOE

Views: 1,477,143

Keywords: Politics, UK politics, British politics, Parliament, Government, Westminster, ian hislop, have i got news for you, hignfy, ian hislop interview, rishi sunak, boris johnson, private eye, interview, adam curtis, james o brien, oli dugmore, dugmore

Id: ENC5c73ETLM

Length: 52min 5sec (3125 seconds)

Published: Tue Dec 06 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/casusbelli16]

Have I Got News for You; Private Eye, no! Private walking Eye, with monkey proof welding.

Ian Hislop not only looks the part he has been Quiz-Boying for over 30 years!

[u/ProudHommesexual]

Holy shit, I’m a Brit who loves Hislop and The Venture Bros. and I never put this together. Good observation!

[u/WinterWontStopComing]

Oh man Paul is no Pete but still hysterical. I love the thought of Hislop as the quiz boy. Thank you for sharing!!

[u/MeatConfident1875]

This begs the question: who is his Augustus St. Cloud?