FT Journalist explains why Westminster breeds corrupt politicians | Simon Kuper interview

[@HometownUnicorn]

You guys seriously need to get a proper audio engineer

[@cheeseburgerbeefcake]

My ears are bleeding.

[@jessery475]

Gain on the mics has been too high for the last 2 or 3 bits of content they've put out. It's astonishing noone is monitoring the levels live. The mixer must be flashing red like crazy.

[@Celadonfae]

Yeah, this is really, really bad. I can forgive the stuff recorded live at location being iffy, but this is a studio interview and it's worse than the vox pops.

[@vorno102]

im glad it wasnt just me

[@ChuffedDom]

State of this audio

[@jamesanthony9316]

Such a shame how people have no respect for Gordon Brown. The last decent guy in parliament. Always thought it was a disgrace they made him apologise for calling that bigot a bigot

[@catherinehall4862]

Brown sold of our Gold!

[@jmcm8546]

Gordon Brown was paying his brother based back in Scotland for being a cleaner in London? Honest, my ass!

[@jmcm8546]

​@@catherinehall4862 Sunak not hedging the £400billion, borrowed for covid, resulting in £11 billion loss to the Exchequer

[@jamesbarbour8400]

​@@catherinehall4862 sold off just over half of our reserve at a rock bottom price ! Someone, somewhere, got one hell of a deal, since the value of gold went shooting way up again, shortly thereafter. Gordon Brown is also responsible for ensuring that we will hardly have a penny of Pension to live on, as retirees, thanks to his tax raid on Pension Funds back in the day ! Sour faced, miserable bar steward !

[@garethgriffiths1674]

"Last decent guy in parliament"? Jeremy Corbyn.

[@GaryHoward87]

Ah, some classic PolJoe audio quality.

[@Benjamin.Jamin.]

Oh! I thought it was my phone being crap.

[@derekmab7734]

Legal corruption is when a government with a majority make unfair laws that benefit themselves and their rich cronies. Sunak gave many government contracts to his in laws. This is what has happened by the Tories

[@ThatGuy-tx4vm]

All governments on earth then. Democratic system and yet politicians decide on ways to fill their pockets legally whilst not one single voter(that isn't a shill) actually supports them.

[@gonecddm]

Why even get him in studio? The audio quality would be better through a 2012 thinkpad skype call.

[@dkerr200]

This was filmed on Asus Eee PC but they bumped the ram up to 1GB.

[@francisstephens9828]

He seems to have forgot about Thatchers son . Mark getting 10 million on Saudi arms trade!!

[@beegnutz]

The same guy who was involved in a failed military coup? Surely not

[@Lynnpjjbdndji]

And Dennis Thatcher the biggest arms seller in Europe !!!!!

[@SarahTheNearlyInSP]

Came here to say this!!

[@edwardmaddocks2779]

plus African coop

[@lonelyone69]

Her husband was also involved in the welsh construction scandal, Mark also involved in various other scandals like the Oman's cement.

[@JackIsaacVideo]

Pleaseeeee get your audio workflow in order! Was looking forward to watching, but can’t. It’s not a live video. Do a sound check and make sure the peaks are at -12db, then compressor/limiter in post to bring them up to a consistent -6 or -3db (depending on the standard you want). The audio has been all over the place for so long. I’d be happy to come in and help you dial in your setup for free, and can improve the lighting + framing too 🙏🏻.

[@jh1544]

Audio is so good. The best.

[@M_Bamboozled]

I don't read the FT, but it seems like the last refuge for some of the remaining good journalists in this country.

[@ruthwhetsel3594]

Thanks. Great conversation. Simon Kuper's clear spirit and thinking helps us a lot imo.

[@helenchesterman5728]

Its my experience the line "they are all the same " regarding corruption is almost always tory voters defending their party of choice from a debate with a labour voter .

[@rockydopeydoge6730]

A fantastic interview. Simon Kuper is fair, intelligent and decent.

[@Lostmissionary]

Wish that interview had been longer. Another great piece of work Joe.

[@veganbarnsley15]

What an excellent guest. I don’t read the FT but I have read Simon Kuper on football before, he’s very knowledgeable and a good writer.

[@neilboote1287]

a man whose values are so sound. Thisnisnwhatbwe need in UK politics and Labour has a rare, golden opportunity to call out the corruption, establish clear rules formpublic life and diminish public cynicism in the process

[@glynnismcc4549]

I heard everything, so that's hardly an issue when you think of what is being talked about. Simon Kuper is great and has integrity and vision. Well done Joe, great choice of interviewee.

[@rockydopeydoge6730]

Not so great a choice when he interviewed Douglas Murray.

[@danielcraig4974]

Was the audio recorded on a potato?

[@chillinginthefrozennorth]

No. It was recorded on a shallot.

[@mongolmcphee7791]

Possibly the best comment on a KZbin video ever. Well done

[@Luddite-vd2ts]

An excellent, most informative interview. Thank you. I've not read The FT in decades. I'm surprised to hear this man's input, given his day job. 😮

[@MrDavey2010]

Thank you this! I’ve been monitoring this for years like Mr Kuper. He’s dead right. His book is worth reading.

[@evsm3923]

i can't believe! you even said corruption not a sleaze! finally we are coming to the actual problem of everything

[@huginnmuninn2155]

It's worth noting that FPTP has a huge impact on this too - By ensuring that you mostly have majority one party governments, you invariably weaken rules. And ensures that the strongest check, Parliament, is mostly pointless - So by using PR, you strengthen Parliament and weaken the Goverment/PM.

[@kirschitz64]

Countries with heavily coalition governments can be corrupt too. See Belgium as an example.

[@jamesbarbour8400]

The War Criminal, Tony Blair, whilst in office, tinkered with Legislation that effectively weakened Parliaments' ability to carry out its intended functions and by default, put more power in the hands of the Government itself - sneaky bar steward !

[@ip3948]

What a fabulous interview, eye opening how much common sense is totally absent in the regulation of our political system.

[@jg-t6518]

What have you got those mic plugged into?

[@Jojo-uc9or]

A toaster

[@thebagelsproductions]

A buskers Peavy practice amp attached to the car battery from a 70s Skoda?

[@emilycottrell4044]

A potato

[@beegnutz]

A DS2 overdrive pedal or a bigmuff

[@adamwalker4531]

Really good insights. I feel him drawing a distinction In xenophobia towards documented Vs undocumented migrants is a bit shallow, because Windrush shows that there’s no level of naturalisation that can immunise marginalised groups from the hostility of the state

[@crazyman8472]

Legalized bribery. 🤑

[@colinmacdonald1939]

Excellent interview.

[@GavinAtkin]

Great analysis!

[@andrewkerswell8657]

Great watch Joe. V interesting and good to highlight this now, in the hope that the new Govt will do something about this👍

[@tonymccann1978]

Why is the audio so bad?

[@erongi233]

With Cameron he went to war in Libya under the pretext of defending civilians which then evolved into regime change. Libya was a welfare state set up by Gadaffi second to none. If Gadaffi had gone to Eton Cameron wouldn't have gone near him. Cameron has a long history of leaving huge messes behind him which no one can clear up. He was the worst UK politician since Eden by far but Eden was a far better man. His local attempts at making himself a fortune are just irrelevant compared with the damage he has done .

[@supernoodles91]

Great interview Ollie!

[@urthface]

When the studio has PoliticsJOE at 9 but Julian Casablancas at 10

[@pifflepockle]

😂😂😂

[@MrStanBowles]

Gordon Brown - Bloody good chap

[@kalebdaark100]

One of those videos were I keep hearing the guy say something and I immediately think I've got to "like" this video, only to find I already liked it earlier.

[@pepperizedgaming]

god the audio is so bad in this

[@wynbaxi5910]

Why? What is the reason or the incentive for Labour to change the system, they are politicians too.

[@jagolago-bob]

They had better be squeaky clean, or they know Reform might take the next election. I'm sure they know that. Let's see if they care enough.

[@TheDave000]

You know the red lights on the audio recorder are a limit, not a goal.

[@garrickdarts]

D'you guys need help with Windows XP Sound Recorder?

[@oscartrain1151]

Thatcher was not corrupt in office at all, but her son?

[@Hamishmcbeth]

Boris Johnson’s legacy is being the benchmark upon which to base limits and regulations on what you can and can’t do in office. Some legacy! 😂

[@rattylol]

Great interview

[@NickPittom]

Come on guys, please don't go on about audio quality all the time. There's way more content here to discuss and comment on like *LOUD BASS CLIPPING NOISES*

[@nukkuminen]

3:18 Gerhard Schröder literally did accept a job offer from Putin the day after leaving office, despite Germany having had a constitution drafted by the occupying powers with keeping Germany civil in mind. As someone who comes from a European democracy, whose rather well-drafted constitution has been recently violated with little consequences domestically and only some internationally (guess which one), I can assure you that the rules are nothing without the culture to uphold them across the board. In that sense, the "good chap theory" is as good a bulwark against corruption as any set of rules, as it ultimately depends on all actors respecting them. Most Latin American constitutions were modelled after the U.S. one, in the hope that they would become boisterous democratic republics; the U.S. itself has to deal with controversial reading of the constitution by the Supreme Court in the service of one political faction. tl;dr To eliminate the sleaze in British politics it will take much more than simply enacting the rules.

[@mrschneebly2438]

I blame the audio on Oli.

[@lancebaldock6233]

'Withdrawing in disgust is not the same thing as apathy' springs to mind.

[@jonathanknight3298]

I've just syringed my ears.

[@Mincher]

Please put a compressor or a limiter on your mics.

[@JudgeShred84]

Or just turn the gain down!

[@jonen2]

In post-War Germany you could criticise the Third Reich; now today in UK, you can also criticise the Third Reich, you just can't mention Brexit. "Don't mention the Brexit. I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it."

[@stpd1957]

Great interview, a pity about the quality of the audio.

[@PriHL]

It's simply not true that when you're black or whatever else, you'll be accepted as British even though you're a British citizen. It may still be worse in France but the silent undercurrent of "you're not from here, you're not one of us" is still there. The fact that this is not being openly stated doesn't mean it doesn't exist, you can see it in body language, attitudes, what people say to you, whether you will be able to be accepted into certain circles, whether you'll get the employment you desire etc. If you have the wrong accent (whatever this may be for different classes in British society) you're basically done. Even worse when your skin colour is not white. This mindset is a very big part that causes economic inequality in this country. Class society is a toxic society and it doesn't matter how much someone would like others to think that everything is "diverse" - it's not. And then society complains about crime rates skyrocketing, it didn't come from nothing, it's of your own making and your insular, xenophobic mind. I'd say the difference is that the Brits try to hide it (some of them are actually tolerant but it's not a rule) while the French are very outspoken about it.

[@Britishempire-hv6rb]

😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@PriHL]

@@Britishempire-hv6rb fyi: the empire is long over, deal with it :)

[@Britishempire-hv6rb]

@@PriHL 😂😂😂 it's now called the British commonwealth you 🤡 get over it 😂😂😂🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧

[@blazzz13]

@@PriHL What I find amazing is those same rules don't apply to nth generation Europeans eg Trump

[@PriHL]

@@blazzz13 Unless you're for example from Poland, Romania etc. (everything east of Germany basically), the countries considered to be the "lesser Europe". But if you're Dutch, German or even French, you're most likely going to be fine.

[@octaviamcdougall7170]

Thatcher was well corrupt mate our grannies arent liars

[@Britishempire-hv6rb]

😂😂😂😂😂 is that right can we have prove

[@octaviamcdougall7170]

@@Britishempire-hv6rb our men are dying in thier 50s and our women are grannies before 40 and all the kids are on drink n drugs n sweetie flavoured vapes ands thats not getting into the lack of anything to live for other than work and gettin on it

[@catherinemartin6258]

We expect it from the Tory’s

[@scooble]

Is it corrupt to ignore the hierarchy of racism, threaten barristers who exposed it in reports as well as pursue alleged whistle blowers through the courts?

[@Stevies_Precog_Gym_n_Spa420]

Yes it is.

[@Will-gn5id]

The real corrupt person is the audio engineer you paid for this video

[@ricktownend9144]

Great interview. Might you do a continuation where you address corruption at party level (rather than individual politicians). Parties are run by people who are not actually politicians, but they handle the money, most of the policy stuff, and - importantly - are the gate-keepers who choose who can become an MP. Phil Moorhouse ('A Different Bias') has said - convincingly - that what parties want is not intelligent, highly ethical, committed people, but 'useful idiots, who will vote as they are told'. I've heard a story that, before they take you on as a prospective MP, you are made to get your hands dirty by joining in some grubby scheme (e.g. claiming unlikely expenses) so as you won't then split on the rest, and so that the whips have something to hold over you. I'm sure that not all parties are as bad as one another, but it does seem to me that cleaning up the parties and having some clear rules for them is necessary before going into anything like changing the voting system.

[@segue2ant395]

Great interview, but peak leftist audio quality as always. Please, please get help with this. There's no reason for a quiet conversation in a staged room to be clipping. I've heard better audio quality on a Skype call.

[@The_We1rd_W1zard]

We need to change the policy of calling people in the commons. The small print should be you can only call someone out with empirical evidence and if it is found that they did lie, there is a press release of MPs that had attempted to misled the public released to the public via news or certain public domain.

[@adistraction2668]

Its has to get worse before it will get better. I believe you can vote for change, vote for anyone but the main three parties.

[@CarolHaynesJ]

Interesting conversation but sound quality is TERRIBLE

[@MontyCantsin5]

The audio is also pretty awful in the Novara interview with Simon Kuper. What's going on?

[@richardjames1939]

Appalling audio, what went wrong Joe... Pardon.

[@andrewwilton5017]

sound is awful

[@jnielson1121]

I imagine the "Good Chaps" theory goes back much further to the idea of the Gentleman - where in the 1600s scientific results were assumed to be truthful if collected and recorded by a Gentleman scientist, but if their servant (a commoner!) had collected some of the data, it could immediately be underminded on that basis (from the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge). Gentlemen were de facto fundamentally honest. Might go back even further to notional ideas around chivalry but that's a bit beyond what I remember.

[@alan_davis]

I believe you imagine wrongly.

[@jnielson1121]

@@alan_davis you think that established truth standards relying on class and gender had no influence on those in the House of Commons or you think the "Good Chaps Theory" was a specific coinage made in response to a very different set of circumstances?

[@charlottelanvin7095]

the audio quality is shite. made this hard to listen to

[@superyachtchef]

🌟 I'm really glad Ollie is back from his suspension. Clearly, his governors found him innocent of all chargers , or is it real he received a final written warning ⚠️ #numptynonsense #datswatsup

[@moonman62]

Mhh some nice crunchy audio on this one lads.

[@thebagelsproductions]

The FBI has a cleaner signal from bugs embedded in the Social Clubs of New York 😳

[@dave9997]

As a Civil Servant, I'm not quite sure why Simon is dragging me and my colleagues into this discussion about corruption... There may well be no rules about what politicians do after they leave office, but that's not the same for Civil Servants. I can't go and take a job with Putin like he suggests.

[@samhunter1205]

There are very good reasons to drag civil servants into this. Just about anything from the career of David Hartnett would be a good example of why, but my highlight would be when he was Director General of HMRC and reached an agreement with HSBC bank that effectively insulated them from any prosecution resulting from revelations concerning their Swiss banking arrangements . . . and wouldn't you know it, he them went to work for HSBC in 2013. Hartnett should be in jail and is the most obviously venal and corrupt (other highlights include letting Vodafone off of an estimated £6 billion in tax when they were managed by a close friend and former colleague), but even at a low level I have seen compliance officers at HO and SO level quit their jobs and go and work for agents representing the exact businesses they were regulating a month ago, so whatever rules exist are definitely either not enforced or are not strong enough.

[@elftax]

Which is exactly what an ex-civil servant in the employ of Putin would say...

[@alan_davis]

Just because there are rules doesn't mean people aren't corrupt. There is way more corruption in local government (and I include civil servants) than in Westminster. Rules or no rules.

[@SO-rq3pm]

Labour is not much better - Tony Blair's received huge amount of money from China and the middle east the last two decades after leaving Downing Street.

[@janetmalcolm6191]

Forgot how Cameron, Prince Andrew etc cosied up to China? It got friendlier and friendlier with that lot. Look today. Made in China stuff everywhere to this day. What do we make? Very little.

[@adrianfielding4678]

Blair wasn't better but that was then. Let's hope that this fresh Labour Government rises above the examples given by past Governments; perhaps they will instigate the sort of changes suggested by Kuper in this interview.

[@mongolmcphee7791]

Wes Streeting has had £175,000 from the U.S private health care industry just prior to the election. Legally but Jesus, shall we have a good luck at it.

[@paulharvey4403]

May be the state should be getting a commission from these ex priministers.

[@tzey1]

woah who decided the sound was fine to upload - was it 4.50pm on a Friday and you wanted to go home

[@Dere2727]

Easiest way to make things run properly is to stop shuffling the cabinet all the time. There’s no way one person can have enough expertise to run the nations education, health, defence, etc. at various points.

[@shirwajama2066]

Ministers don’t run departments; civil events do!

[@brianevans2819]

Dodgy Dave, tried to con the Treasury out of £50 plus, during the Pandemic for his Australian con man mate, Lex Greensill, while we where at war against a Pandemic, the opportunist all took the opportunity, to line their pockets, their friends, their families etc etc

[@clarecollins2547]

The Tories must never get in again!

[@LimeyRedneck]

The US also seems to rely on the good chaps theory, even with a written constitution.

[@pmartin54BB]

bit of clipping on the audio?

[@khaoscero]

its like you dont even need an audio engineer to see that levels are clipping. its not rocket science

[@ColinProcter]

Who set up the sound on this???? I thought maybe my phone dodgy, but even when I turned the volume right down, there was still distortion & clipping on the audio!!!!

[@jasonuren3479]

I read the title of the video and the first word that came into my head was 'oxymoron.'

[@davidparsons7929]

Fisher Price microphones or an audio engineer that consists of air?

[@applepye87]

Didn't Theresa May give lucrative contracts to her husband's company?

[@alan_davis]

Don't think so, but she may have removed some barriers to their progress. Maybe.

[@AirborneInsightsUK]

Interesting that a Laurence Fox ad for “Reclaim the Media” was shown during this interview.

[@rextable2000]

Audio... again. C'mon guys.

[@mattym8038]

from the team that brought you Flat Eric.

[@samlawrence2239]

I love how most videos since the start of the podcast have had audio issues that get raised in the comments, and the team has never mentioned it haha. I feel like they're doing it on purpose 😂

[@rattylol]

People on here moaning about audio maybe should donate more.

[@turbokadett]

Great interview, awful audio.

[@christopherwatson7570]

I feel like it took more work to get audio this bad than if you actually just winged it used a smartphone mike. How many months of bad sound has this been now?

[@elftax]

Great interview, now you need to get a one on one with Mbappe

[@RankinMsP]

Zidane went through the same thing in having his Frenchness questioned - as were a lot of the players of that team that weren't white.

[@clarecollins2547]

Not all women would be like Thatcher!

[@Kriken_]

I'm glad it wasn't just my headphones

[@supernoodles91]

Snap! I know my earbuds are cheap but they ain't shite!😂

[@robinjgreenwood]

Liked the video but, dudes... the sound quality.

[@LionPaw.Rastafan]

we are extorted and exploited by highly organised gangsters that we like to call government.

[@thebagelsproductions]

French racial attitudes today = 1970s in the UK. More or less.

[@thepoliticalgardner]

Hes describing fascism. Using the state for private gains. The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerated the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than the democratic state itself. That in its essence is fascism: ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or any controlling private power. 32nd US President Franklin D Roosevelt

[@nicksmith1415]

'Speaks to' is the political pundits version of the football pundits 'derisory offer'.

[@johnlaw7190]

John Major was an advisor to the venture capitalists the Carlyle Group.

[@hotmortyyy254]

Doesn't Theresa May's husband have a large vested interest in the medicinal marijuana production in the UK? How can you say she isn't corrupt?

[@shyft09]

Chap is a word we still use unfortunately. I still hear "thanks chaps" at the end of a meeting with a minority of female attendees (and this is coming from 20 something males). Large multinational company, that presumably should be employing people who know better 🤷 I assume they are Andrew Tate devotees, no idea (I'm late 40s)

[@keithparker1346]

Labour should acknowledge they don't have a mandate

[@richardjames1939]

I was looking forward to this but the audio is appalling....