Liam Halligan: Why Labour isn’t working | The Brendan O’Neill Show

Liam Halligan - columnist for the Sunday Telegraph, co-host of Planet Normal and author of Home Truths - returns to The Brendan O’Neill Show. Liam and Brendan discuss the early mistakes that will haunt the Labour government, how to fix the housing crisis and why the Tories shouldn’t try to chase the mythical ‘centre ground’.
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[@jamesmcdowell8742]

Liam is absolutely great, and GB news is much much worse without him

[@user-oi9iz9jr8y]

I’m from the U.S and I wish we had critical thinkers like Liam here

[@user-oi9iz9jr8y]

Have Liam back again!! He’s really smart!!

[@nickwoolmer5037]

Wow proper journalistic analysis. I have listened to the Brendan Liam combo before, more please .

[@catherineallinson8562]

Liam - I am a west London Irish Catholic girl whose Gumley House convent grammar school education was the making of me. The head nun had a chemistry degree and believed in science education for girls. There were many interesting side stories en route (ie how the head brought in an Indian lady as chemistry teacher because the alternatives were men - she was awful). I ended up, after a lovely Welsh physics teacher (I can still hear her talking about Boyleses Law with a Welsh lilt), going to Imperial and taking a 2:1 in Physics. Then converting to law (dad paid the fees) when I realised the civil service paid science graduates less than arts graduates(!). I ended up as a City lawyer and made (for my family) serious money. I'm not sure how much disgust I could express for Starmer and his government without being criminalised. But I do send a lot of money to Toby Young's Free Speech Union and hope to be able to continue to do so. Labour ain't working with the grain of human nature and needs to be voted out asap.

[@colinmacdonald5732]

And physicists only work in the Civil Service? It's a pity you wasted your degree to enter a mostly parasitic profession

[@jmccullough662]

Thank you for the clear and coherent analysis from Liam. Also, thank you, Brendan, for not interrupting.

[@judithmorganjudyteen]

Nice, Brendan is a good interviewer

[@carolinewalker3106]

Brilliant pod , Liam is so clear and uplifting , with him around we still have hope .

[@user-oi9iz9jr8y]

Great podcast Brendan!!! Keep them coming!!!

[@lorac5539]

These two should collaborate and do a regular podcast. Excellent discussion - thanks guys.

[@jonathancollard3710]

I’m close to tears listening. Liam you are 1000000% correct. My grandfather was a lorry driver, my dad worked on the market before retraining to be a teacher. My mother was a nurse. I am dyslexic and went to pretty poor Comprehensive school leaving at 16 to be an apprentice for British Rail. I knuckled down, got into technical college then university by the skin of my teeth. I’ve worked very hard and luckily have an entrepreneurial flair that’s helped me work all over the world and I ran my own telecom business for 16 years selling out 3 years ago. Send my boys to local prep and subsidy Catholic grammar because they they shy and would have been overwhelmed at my [very rough] state school. Currently building 2 houses that I was going to rent but the war on landlords by TINOS and now Neo Marxist Labour mean I will sell. I have seen 1st hand the scam of eco energy solar and ASHP systems which are mostly a box tick with zero real delivery 😮. I’m going to be shafted on tax (again🤬), and once sold I will do absolutely zero with my money other than extract it from U.K. and spend it. I am NOT alone…. “Why bother” is the message I hear weekly….labour are taking us back to 1974…. It wasn’t pretty then either..🤷🏻‍♂️

[@user-oi9iz9jr8y]

Love Liam!!!

[@petergardner760]

Never heard Liam Halligan so worked up. Un Bon Oeuf.

[@petergardner760]

Brilliant and even encouraging interview. We shouldn't despair just yet!

[@lawLess-fs1qx]

see Liam Halligan, I click. Didn't disappoint. WTFf do we always end up with Lammy's, Rayner's. Boris's. Has Liam got a brother or Sister interested in the PM role ? TY Brendan.

[@someoneelse1011]

You're boy Liam Halligan didn't just spit out Nicola Murray's "Ordinary people doing extraordinary things" from The Thick of It.

[@louishiggins8881]

Liam is absolutely brilliant, I basically agreed with everything he said for over an hour !!! I've stopped watching GBNews and didn't realise he'd left - his input was one of the things I missed. Guess I'll have to subscribe to his podcast 🙂.

[@robricketts340]

Great content. Puts mainstream media to shame

[@ml2799]

Liam is as usual, the voice of reason and common sense.

[@dvs21a]

Liam is right. The centre relates to where the people are, not where the Westminster bubble is.

[@thericster455]

Excellent stuff. Can Britain survive our politicians?

[@conrad152]

A really interesting discussion.

[@-DC-]

Liam Halligan is a Superb Journalist and Commentator, Labour are Farcical Currently.

[@liverpoolmary2860]

Really good discussion

[@CatesbyRuscoe]

Great interview. Love Planet Normal and the Spiked team pods. Thank you for sharing. Great point, Brendan, about the parlous state of journalism and independent thinking. I agreevwith Liam, I stopped watching GBNews but prefer straightforward, sensible and informative reporting not sensationalism.

[@brightflower144]

Great interview!

[@maureenbarclay2127]

I miss Liam on GB news a really astute reporter . They didn't get blinding support with 20% of the vote. Apathy is our worst enemy . The calibre of labour is scary.

[@stuartblandford2310]

Liam Halligan can run rings around any other journalist or MP for that matter.

[@loubieloujones5698]

Great show from you both but it breaks my heart to aee the country in this state. Liam described the private education sector perfectly. We were exactly those parents - on the margins, striving to do the best for our two girls, going without holidays and driving old cars, unlike our friends with children at the local schools. And as a former teacher in the state sector myself, the reasons people move into the private sector are not just for social status. State education has become infected with some bad ideas, low expectations and poor standards of behavior. I thank God our children are thru their education now but i feel for those who are affected by this resentful and damaging policy.

[@abazely2743]

And of course equal opportunity does not produce an equal outcome.Heretical stuff.

[@Ballas56]

Very good and informative discussion - thank you very much.

[@leeh9255]

Great pod lads.

[@papaann4]

Couple of 2nd Generation Irish Lads like myself.

[@patriciaoreilly8907]

2 interesting chap's I enjoy listening too 😊

[@jamesstat]

God Bless you, from Waterford. Sadly Ireland is on the same path as the UK. Being gutted by vacuous, WEF bureaucrats. Terrible.

[@jonathancollard3710]

Liam… the ultimate bloke I’d rather be drinking Guinness with down the local pub 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[@Cotictimmy]

I completely agree with Liam over GB News. I was hugely enthusiastic when it started up and hoping it would become a rational 'Telegraph on TV'. I was hoping it would become what the BBC was decades ago (before it lost its mind and became ideologically obsessed and a hotbed of identity politics.) I'm very disappointed that GB news seems to be becoming increasing tacky and trivial in it's output. I watched BBC Newsnight, and Andrew Neil's political chat shows for decades and I want to see rational sense-making back on mainstream TV again. If I don't get it then I'll abandon TV altogether for long-form podcasts (like this one) online.

[@joangrant5248]

I don’t think GB News is that bad. I agree it is a but same y But Liam and Andrew Neil felt it was not for them, then fair enough. But the Beeb is lost. Like you, I mainly now listen to Podcasts etc.

[@margaret8469]

The small independent prep school where I taught in has already closed in July

[@debbiewright8452]

He should be our Housing Minister. Fix housing you fix cost of living.

[@theoutsider6191]

Labour are highly likely to end their term in office as less popular than the Tory party are currently. Many of their activities show this to be the case. The handling of the various riots during the summer being one example with perceived (rightly or wrongly) difference in how different groups are being policed, the immigration issue is clearly going to continue to be completely ignored by the Gov, and constantly trying to pretend all the financial woes are nothing to do with Labour. This last point is clearly not entirely true as it is the job of opposition to do just that, be an effective brake on the excesses of Gov. Unfortunately you only need look at the COVID period to work out that Starmer et al are actually likely to waste even more public money than the Tory party did during that exercise of mass hysteria, being as they were calling for harder, faster and longer lockdowns. This kind of failure to be leaders rather than sheep following indocrination by pressure groups (like the COVID panels and the Climate Crisis posse) means they will end up being as useless as the previous administration.

[@stephenpotts832]

Many people won’t vote Conservative again because we all know there are two wings to the party. You can vote for one side but get the other. At least with Reform there isn’t a left wing side of the party.

[@scootertart]

Always liked Liam Halligan as a journalist, I've seen him pop up on Channel 4 news, the beeb and ITV over the years and was really pleased to see him on GB news. I didn't know he was laid off ( sort of speak) They have definitely made a mistake there and I agree on the Fox News take on the channel. I find ( for the most part) GB to be just reactionary about all the crazy identity politics and not really having any quality discussions. There are a few presenters who do ( Andrew Doyle being one) but for the most part its just tabloid type shouting points.

[@markgollop3726]

Must say I was very impressed. One of the best interviews I think Brendan O'Neil has done IMO. I too have always been a floating voter, although maybe centre left on economics while being socially conservative. I too voted Labour this time around and I too want them to succeed. But I am concerned about them imposing further and more draconian restrictions on free speech. Not to mention certain other policies that have been poorly thought through.

[@chieftandriver703]

One less Independent School means one more building that can be turned into migrant accommodation and some playing fields to build a few crappy Bellway homes on.

[@marumaru6084]

Oligarchy it is important to destroy education Labour have been excellent at that! 15 Million immigrants and then to talk about house building and there is no infrastructure!

[@derekwagstaff3044]

He said there are some decent labour politicians but didn’t name one.

[@robinlambert3917]

I like most of what Liam states Net zero longest suicide note in Manufacturing history

[@GeniusWithAFlaw]

Wow! I've just had a lightbulb moment. Politically, I'm homeless, and I've just figured out why this is. The discussion between Liam and Brendan reveals the extent of mismanagement when ideological motives drive public policy. As they say, the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and ideologies always produce bad outcomes in the name of ideological virtue. So the question is this: is it possible to have a governing corpus that holds pragmatism as its core belief system, or is ideology so embedded in the body politic that the public will be stuck with competing ideologies, along with their propensity to produce adverse outcomes, forever?

[@MrCameronian]

The most sensible comments re VAT on independent schools I have heard.

[@andrewbryan359]

Oh! If only we had more swing voter journalists!

[@nigeldix4841]

Labour green policy with make it impossible to build houses , Wales isva case in point

[@derekyounger2021]

Agree with a lot of this, I've voted for every main party at some point, anyone who says " I always vote ......." is someone who doesn't use their brain.

[@joangrant5248]

I have always liked Liam. Liam’s analysis is worrying. Fairly clear things are going to go badly wrong.

[@phillipneale5256]

Why, oh, why doesn't the government use Liams great talent and ideas.

[@nigeldix4841]

We need farm land to grow food

[@MrUnmutual2014]

Liam again talking absolute sense. I differ though in one point he made. I want the Labour/Tory axis dominance ended. On GB News, it's becoming a bit pantomime dame at times. Too many serous figures have gone.

[@boothie15]

Great chats, lads, much appreciated. As I understand it, investors who are invested in assets can borrow against their assets and their earnings, according to affordability rules, to raise cash without selling the underlying asset. If the US Fed Rate drops to 3% by Dec 2025, then the BOE base rate will likely match the US Fed. With easing monetary policy, lending becomes looser, easier and more affordable, not tighter, more difficult and less affordable. I would expect a finance graduate NQF level 8 with assets that can act as collateral to simply hold assets and borrow at relatively cheap interest rates instead of disposing of them thus deferring any crystallisation and therefore potential future CGT which may be well different under a new regime.

[@MrFarmax]

Perhaps some of the BBC license fee should be distributed to alternative news channels like gb news? From a plastic paddy

[@louiseparker1915]

Corbyn nearly won in 2017 actually! He frightened Teresa May. By the way I can’t stand Starmer, but you must be honest!

[@poesie6279]

It was perfectly obvious, that it wasn’t going to work under the hands of a Judas

[@kay2kin92]

Keep Um Poor . Keep um Down . Keep um voting ❎ Labour ...!

[@dobs862]

Labour will.not be able to build more houses because there are not enough tradesmen. To more than double house building you need double the workforce.

[@markkavanagh7377]

Please, PLEASE, get Liam to do his Scooby Doooooooo impression! 😀

[@secretarchitect288]

I don't know where this figure of 2% of land being occupied by houses comes from. Is it just the building footprints added together? One only has to look at London, using Google Earth, and it alone occupies more than 2% of England once gardens, roads, shops, parks, railway lines are included.

[@robinlambert3917]

59% 2024 general election turnout..My constituency X4 spoilt ballots

[@unblessedcoffee1457]

Panglossian?

[@alexdavis1541]

This guy thinks there is some kind of possibility Labour could "succeed". Oh dear. He even uses Labour's lead up to the 2008 financial crisis as an example of Labour's "reasonable" handling of the economy. Hasn't spotted the mainstream traditional parties have, along with much of the rest of the establishment, had their day

[@Mitjitsu]

30:05 - No, they think they have a monopoly on morality and wanting to help people.

[@belson65]

😂😂 spiked are devastated