How the right has exploited the working-class | Jason Williamson interview

Sleaford Mods' Jason Williamson came by JOE Towers to sit down and chat all things election.
During the interview we chat about the Labour party's creep to the centre, the right's co-opting of working-class politics, and the next five years.
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[@hg82met]

Imagine being a working class person and thinking privately educated millionaire ex-banker Farage is on your side and has your interests at heart.

[@freshwaterspaceman7194]

Amen! Farage has helped turn Britain into a basket case.

[@PastaSauce.]

Exactly the same as the working class in America thinking millionaire born trump had their back.

[@Nemo59646]

Trump and Farge are supposedly strong men, equates to Fascists.

[@jmaitlandthomas]

There's just so many of them though 😫 cambridge analytica may be gone but the tactics are still in full force

[@streetsleeper4]

When it comes to stopping illegal immigration, Farage is on our side

[@seebarry4068]

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” ― George Carlin

[@kingpig8732]

@Native_Man123voting for or against your own interests is about intelligence though

[@CB-dl1vg]

Conveniently enough the people quoting that statement never assume it includes them, only people who disagree with them.

[@seebarry4068]

@@CB-dl1vg I just put it there, I'm sorry it hurt you. Don't blame your parents, how were they to know cousins shouldn't do that?🤷🏻

[@CB-dl1vg]

@@seebarry4068 More amused than hurt. People who are intolerant to people who disagree with them are a funny bunch, they lord themselves as the most virtuous in the room but scratch the surface and you find just another hateful, bitter person who can’t stand the idea that people are different to them. In a spiteful persons world people who disagree with them are lower, less than, stupid. In a reasonable persons world, that’s just called democracy. What would you do with all these idiots who can’t see your genius, who are lesser than you, if you had all the power? It probably wouldn’t look too democratic would it my friend. You’re so smart you can’t even see your own festering resentment towards your fellow man, hence the derogatory insults that make you feel like you’re above, better than someone who simply disagrees with you.

[@seebarry4068]

@@CB-dl1vg so sorry.

[@alexwood3251]

I spent 20 minutes talking to the Reform candidate for Kensington and Chelsea. He had no idea about what illégal immigration is; how many ‘illegal immigrants’ there are. He wasn’t aware of the contradictions in the policies. He had no idea about benefits; which I advised him he should be receiving. He had no idea how public services they would be funded. I came away thinking why is this guy in that party? The thing he is supporting he knows very little about.

[@jimbowers8278]

"It is often noted, rightly, that fascism elevates the irrational over the rational, fanatical emotion over the intellect. It is less often remarked upon, however, that fascism performs this elevation indirectly, that is to say, propagandistically." ― Jason Stanley, 'How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them'

[@oneoflokis]

​@@jimbowers8278Quite. 💯

[@oneoflokis]

💯👍

[@whisperingleaves]

Fascinating, thanks for sharing

[@henrydemonfreid1985]

@@jimbowers8278 thanks for this quote! spot on.

[@Nemo59646]

Austerity has hit disabled people the most,along with single,mothers and the unemployed. I've cerebral palsy and worked for 35 years,until I was made redundant. Labour started Welfare Reform and Welfare to Work. The Conservative Party just doubled down on the misery with the Bedroom Tax. Benefits sanctions and the Two Child Benefit Cap. Now we have Keir Starmer and the retaining of the 2 child benefit cap, It's most telling that Angela Rayner, The Deputy Leader of the Labour Party was on state welfare! Yet she agrees with the Two Child Benefit Cap .

[@jasonharrison5765]

I don't think they agree with it. They have their hands tied by the right wing press who will never give Labour a break, and will use the economy as a stick to beat them with. Let's hope that within three years the two child cap is gone - it absolutely would not be with the tories 💩💩💩

[@Pobotrol]

I don't think they agree with the two child benefit cap. But they aren't saying they will remove it as an election promise.

[@Nemo59646]

@@Pobotrol The SNP took 300,000 out of poverty by getting rid of the 2 child benefit cap and giving each child £25 a week extra . It cost a few billion. In the same time period England and Wales saw an increase of 300,000 more children into poverty. Which is very shameful. It makes me want to cry for the kids.

[@Pobotrol]

@@Nemo59646 Yes, I certainly hope Labour will do it too, I certainly think the will is there, but avoiding Tory attack lines and scaremongering on welfare and tax during an election is the biggest decider of whether they can actually get the chance to do any of these things.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@Nemo59646 hear hear. The winter payment and the child payment are big reasons I'm going with SNP again for my constituency, even though I considered giving Greens my support to give SNP a warning over Forbes' conservatism.

[@Dunc74]

The Labour Party died 30 years ago in 1994 when John Smith died, they have been a different party ever since, they just use the same name.

[@juliewake4585]

And of course it became New Labour didn’t it?

[@Dunc74]

​@@juliewake4585Indeed, but that was at the time, a Blair ploy to get the Sun and the then anti Labour media onside as the Blair leadership still believed it was impossible to win unless they become just another globalist economically liberal party like all the others, and the country has gone downhill ever since.

[@summess5567]

We worked like stink to get it back again by 2015... But the papers told you not to vote for that but to vote to 'Get Brexit Done'. That was the chance. All gone now.

[@lukeamato423]

​@summess5567 fail

[@Dara-rv4pg]

Corbyn was the Labour Left going out with a whimper in England. Wore a dirty jacket to the Centotaph, called Hamas his friends etc.

[@silondon9010]

The Labour party left the British Working class along time ago 😢

[@evolassunglasses4673]

When it went for mass immigration/ millions and millions of cheap workers for international finance capitalism. It's a race to the bottom for the working class. Oligarchs love immigration. Our wages are suppressed and our public services are overwhelmed.

[@buntyjoy1800]

Yeh cos nobody was voting for them

[@sineadadamus2099]

💯

[@TheLucanicLord]

"a long", Ivan.

[@ajaysidhu471]

​@@TheLucanicLordwhat, you think he's Russian?

[@Willopo100]

The reality is labour isn't working class

[@jimbowers8278]

At least the elected Labour leader was raised in a working class household and went to a comprehensive, unlike the entire unelected leadership of Reform.

[@django3422]

​@@jimbowers8278Maybe so but he doesn't seem genuinely interested in policies to benefit the working class.

[@jimbowers8278]

@@django3422 I'm no fan of Starmer nor his cabinet and policies, but at least he isn't an anarchocapitalist who'd cancel all benefits and the NHS. Life just sucks, sometimes, and it's about making the best of crappy choices.

[@django3422]

@@jimbowers8278 Politicians counts on you thinking like that.

[@jimbowers8278]

@@django3422 Yes, I know. I'm not naive and I've probably seen far more general elections than you have. I'm as sick of the half century long failed neoliberal experiment as anyone else is, but *IF* it was a choice between the two, I know which one I'd opt for.

[@Minimmalmythicist]

I think one problem is the term "working class" encompasses a lot of people and it´s very loosely defined. For some people it is basically a synonym of "blue collar", other it´s your income, for Marxists it´s basically that you earn your living by selling your labour to a capitalist and once we take those things into account the picture looks different. Teachers are very much working class on the Marxist definition, for example, as are low ranking civil servants and they are some of the most progressive voters in the UK. Likewise, the Reform vote is to a large degree among the lumpenproletariat and the petty bourgeoisie, i.e the unemployed and the small business class. There´s a lot of evidence too that in many Western countries now, the city versus small town divide is the biggest divide in politics atm, it´s certainly true in the UK and it´s very true in France. Indeed, there is a culture war of sorts between the small towns and the metropolises.

[@gordonstrong5232]

Good post. I think it's crucial to recognize that the working class is an incredibly diverse group. Whenever we regard them as a monolith, we play into the hands of far right nationalists who try to homogenize the working class in order to facilitate a false "one true people" narrative, which is an essential lie necessary for fascism to take root.

[@Minimmalmythicist]

@@gordonstrong5232 I agree, and would you agree that often the term "working class" in the UK media is used to mean "poor Whites in left behind areas"? I think it´s a very very reductive definition of the term and is really silly.

[@gordonstrong5232]

​@@Minimmalmythicist Absolutely.

[@michaelrch]

The British class system has specifically been cultivated to create the idea of class as being about accent, school, pastimes, etc, rather than your relationship to the means of production. It's a deliberate way to avoid class consciousness in any way that could threaten capitalist realism.

[@Minimmalmythicist]

@@michaelrch I think there is an element of that for sure. It´s definitely true that one of the ideas of the ruling class to keep power was that you have a substantial middle class that looks down on the working class and becomes a bulwark of conservatism. That has kind of come apart in the last 30 or so years though. Indeed, the upper classes now just think "screw everyone".

[@tobyandertonstudio]

The whole situation is utterly soul-crushing. If you want to support genuine Socialism, you have to CHECK your local ousted Labour candidate, who is now running independently or vote for the Labour MP who has a proven track record of supporting the working class and not voting for more bombs and armaments instead of funding your NHS!

[@koala6016]

Great advice, Toby, but you simply stating the obvious.

[@tobyandertonstudio]

@@koala6016 I know, but the message is really not going in, for a large swathe of the country, is it?

[@aleph8888]

The NHS doesn’t need more money, it needs reform. Because it’s not how much government spends; it’s how it spends it. Socialism is a bankrupt 19th century ideology. Adopt a non-profit healthcare model like every other European country instead of having the government run it.

[@MinutemenMInutemen-zi7sy]

The Sleaford Mods 2015 film 'Invisible Britain' says it all and in a very clever and engaging way. They deserve recognition for their politics as well as their music.

[@danmayberry1185]

I disagree with his cringing about lyrics. We didn't need a Bob Dylan to energize us at that age.

[@TheIkaraCult]

Nothing offends me more than Reform/Brexit/Ukip/NF people telling us that being authentically working class means being a massive \hole

[@Minimmalmythicist]

In practise in any group of people there´s a lot of variation too, i.e there are people in blue collar jobs who like art galleries and museums, there are people in White collar jobs obsessed with football.

[@gordonstrong5232]

Yep, they also think being working class gives people a free pass to be ignorant and racist, and so if you call that out you're somehow "against the working class" It's basically the bigotry of low expectations. Edit: I'm working class myself, blue collar jobs my whole life, dad a labourer, mum worked part time in a shop, lived in council houses and poor growing up.

[@Minimmalmythicist]

@@gordonstrong5232 I agree, and you also get it from people like the Guardian who think anyone who voted for Brexit is a borderline fascist.

[@maewest68]

@@Minimmalmythicist yeh but that doesn't count, Leftists are superior to everyone!

[@_Stroda]

@@Minimmalmythicist I don't recall seeing any articles in the The Guardian stating that. Attacks on the likes of Farage? Yeah. But that's entirely different. The most hyperbolic, idiotic, 'attack the other side' stuff seems, to me, to overwhelmingly come from right wing publications. They seem much more willing to attack ordinary, working people.

[@danmayberry1185]

The set is hauntingly like Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis.

[@bbrs925]

‘You know how the car works, but it’s largely shite’ - a great analogy for British politics in 2024

[@scoates9910]

Great interview, top man Jason ❤

[@kimberleyaxxxx934]

Hey Jason ❤ QUESTION ? how do we reach the Poor (and fearful) in the way the Right have. They pray on fear and raise hate. How do the "good guy" leaders raise hope...raise awareness of people being played...??

[@Stevies_Precog_Gym_n_Spa420]

I'll answer. Don't treat poor people like trash, speak to them about ideas, and do the hard work of not enforcing classism. Embed yourself with the people you want to reach. That's it

[@catherinemoore9534]

Excellent question. The answer seems as elusive as a black panther in the jungle... The truth is not palatable: life is going to be tough and tougher and that's hardly a good slogan. Selling lies is much better and more exciting and it is successful. Being rational is like having a handicap these days.

[@joetrent4753]

⁠@@Stevies_Precog_Gym_n_Spa420Part of the problem is that socialists say they stand with the working classes but when socialism fails to get anywhere in elections, the socialists start using abusive language towards all voters who didn’t vote for socialism. Insulting the very people they claim to be representing, rather than trying to figure out why the message didn’t get through is the inherent problem that is just repeated over and over and nothing is learned from it.

[@alextw1488]

just end austerity

[@Stevies_Precog_Gym_n_Spa420]

@@joetrent4753 so your complaint is that socialists don't have the patience of beaten wives I guess. Nothing about the ideas.

[@grayssportsalmanac85]

Sleaford Moderates. Where's all the genuine punk bands these days ffs? 🙄

[@Commonsenseprevails23]

They grown older and now vote reform

[@grayssportsalmanac85]

@@Commonsenseprevails23 Yeah, like Johnny Rotten. 🤮

[@lizzy6333]

local hardcore bands

[@grayssportsalmanac85]

@@lizzy6333 Yeah. Seems a bit of money changes them.

[@forestsunset9617]

Sit-on-the-Fence Mods

[@robynkeane1325]

Yay love Sleaford mods!!

[@RugbyLeagueisbest]

Reform Ltd proves emphatically the saying "where ignorance leads, stupidity follows". Reading their "supporters" posts only enhances it. Pareto was a wise man.

[@daniel18387]

Abraham Lincoln was pretty wise too. I suggest you study his quotes. Generalising millions of people is incredibly crass.

[@digitalbunker4463]

ignorant divisive arrogant snobbery

[@RugbyLeagueisbest]

@@daniel18387 Massive IRONY ALERT 🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

[@RugbyLeagueisbest]

@@digitalbunker4463 I agree Mr Farage fulfills those very well.

[@elias.knotman]

Anyone who describes Johnson as far right isn’t paying attention. The Tories are Blairites through and through. As for socialism, maybe come and tour Vietnam one day (where I live) and see how that’s working out. You wouldn’t be looking down on working class people so much.

[@trapset1539]

Bingo

[@crung8]

This the same guy who got so offended by a Palestine flag at his gig that the band stopped playing and walked off?

[@easytoassemble54321]

The keffiyeh cosplayers need to stop dragging a foreign war over here, where it has no business being.

[@keithparker1346]

​@@easytoassemble54321if we as a country we're not actively arming and helping the Israeli govt commit war crimes you'd have a point

[@PSYCHIC_PSYCHO]

The foreign war you're referring to has absolutely everything to do with the U.K., successive U.K. governments have been the root-cause of the conflict for at least 100 years.​@@easytoassemble54321

[@crung8]

@@keithparker1346 the country is run by Zionists so i cannot criticise it’s zionist constituents? what?

[@crung8]

@@easytoassemble54321 ignoring the obvious moral responsibility you have to oppose genocide, when our tax money is being sent over there - it is absolutely our business.

[@kev643]

Old Etonians and stockbrokers are, according to the English working class, are BORN TO LEAD. They will be voted in again and again.

[@SC-tl3px]

What absolute bollox

[@chippyminton8711]

I think the tide is turning and the 1% are sowing the seeds of division, Divide and Conquer, it worked for the Romans, it will work for the Capitalists. If we let them !

[@Om-ry4tb]

Really negative hopeless message when he could be talking about class solidarity and building alternative social institutions, people around the country are doing supper clubs and food banks, community food growing and gardens, mutual aid, housing campaigns, refugee removal resistance, trade unions wins. Doesn't it bother him that Labour are for privatising the NHS, they are sold out to big business, loads of them are professional lobbyists for global corporations. Its up to us to build the alternative. Starmer's Labour is dangerous. I get we go through political depressions but jeez he is pretty lost.

[@nicholasdickens2801]

I love as this isn’t a huge long video I haven’t got time to watch but this was brilliant. I find people like this or Ian Hislop are very insightful and smart. They’re certainly are “more clued in” as my dad would say.

[@farhadchaudhry]

Jason Williamson's a disappointment. Writing the sort of lyrics he has for a decade, then saying he'll vote for Starmer's Labour..... Just ridiculous.

[@HarryFlowerrs]

@@farhadchaudhry Why, should he follow you and vote Reform?

[@hypersynesthesia]

Well this was a bit painful. "Guess I'll just vote centrist, they won't really change anything but it's all shite anyway", "what do I know, I'm just a singer"... Cool, good for you, fella. Not like the Overton window has ever changed position, eh. Reckon I'll vote for a party that's offering some energy and ideas for change (Greens) rather than centrist-sleepwalking into fascism like the US and France.

[@yeldraym]

Didn't vote for the last few years; voting for Labour this time; moans about the lack of change on offer. Nice one.

[@jacksonvega7751]

Nice one Mr Williamson

[@thegeneral123]

Populism is very appealing to working class people with a poor educational background. I'm working class but I have a good educational background so I don't fall for the peddlers of lies and easy answers. I also feel a lot of frustration as a left wing socialist that Labour have moved to the centre right. However the UK seems so obsessed with the right, could a left wing agenda ever win again in the UK? So I'm forced to vote Labour just to get the Tories out.

[@laurencedavey3121]

Agreed, we're a very conservative country. Why else would we have put up the Tory circus for as long we did?

[@Fieldeluxe]

That's good you're smart enough to know importing millions of immigrants is actually good for the working class, they are too stupid to realise it!

[@GlennSmith-m2e]

Education isn't a vaccine against unpleasant social views. There are and always have been educated people with iffy political leanings.

[@ayten705]

It's unprincipled for a socialist to vote for New Labour, Starmer is to the right of even Blair.

[@rafd3593]

Well said Joe.

Thanks for speaking up,great band

[@michaelrch]

God knows there are enough politically ignorant people out there who are going to vote Labour because they aren't the Tories. The few people who are actually paying attention and understand how shite Labour are now have a duty to register their actual preference and vote for someone actually left of centre. As soon as the Labour neoliberal machine has your vote, your power to effect change is gone.

[@joetrent4753]

There are a lot of people who will vote Labour because other parties don’t stand a chance of winning. What’s the point in voting for a leftwing party if they aren’t going to win and that vote would more than likely just split the vote and give the Tories or Reform a chance? And you call Labour voters politically ignorant. All voters have been doing for the past 14 years is splitting the vote and gifting the Tories another win.

[@Yourismouter]

hear hear!

[@davidmchale5890]

A.B.C Anyone But Conservative

[@michaelrch]

@@joetrent4753 what was the point of voting UKIP in 2015 when they won no seats? Answer: they sucked millions of votes away from the Tories which caused Cameron to have a Brexit referendum to sure up support from that wing of his base. UKIP got their main objective without winning a seat. If you vote labour they will continue to take you for granted. If you want to be taken for granted and have zero impact on their policy, go ahead.

[@michaelrch]

@@joetrent4753 and no, the ignorant voters don't only vote Labour. They vote for whoever the tide is flowing towards. Tories most of the time because that's where the media leads them. Labour when the Tories are failing very obviously.

[@David-j9h9g]

love this dude and his music!!!!

[@Dylan-co2cl]

Screw tory blue red and yellow,vote Independent,Green,workers Party.

[@joetrent4753]

And gift the Tories another GE win? No thanks.

[@scottstevens78]

And so we continue then...

[@juliewake4585]

To me, if the Labour Party is so far ahead then a few people voting against the consensus won’t make any difference. But then if more people voted progressive then it might make a real difference.

[@summess5567]

'Workers Party' has no leftwing policies...and is suppoerted by the Right. They oppose real science and sexual liberalism... The clue's in the 'Workers' name... same as 'National Socialist' wasn't very pro-worker either.

[@digitalbunker4463]

@@joetrent4753 that absolutely would not happen. Voting for the smaller parties creates a stronger argument for PR and and end to this undemocratic 2-party system where we get the great choice every 5 years of voting for the other cheek of the same arse.

[@punky9301]

Brilliant Jason. As usual❤️

[@crookedhands2701]

I’m also from Grantham/Granthrax and he is 100% bang on about the town

[@subVersionband]

Got no time for a band that whinge about working class struggle whilst turning their noses up at palestine

[@slartibartlast968]

Yes, being working class is no excuse for being a div about Israel's crimes.

[@calzonelover3950]

Sure but if you want to foster working class solidarity you have to lose this zero sum approach. You can have solidarity with people that don't 100% agree with all your political opinions. Working alongside people in solidarity for a common cause is also a better forum to express your political opinions and have someone hear you out, rather than progressives moralising at arms length from working class people

[@summess5567]

Oh... THat's a bit silly of them isn't it.

[@subVersionband]

@@calzonelover3950 honestly, the amount of working class advocates i’ve come across who are all for class solidarity - yet fail to make the working class inclusive to all within it prevents any real class solidarity. Its seems to mostly be middle-class liberals rallying behind class solidarity whilst turning a blind eye to all other struggles faced by non-white working class, neurodiverse working class, disabled working class etc etc etc. Him being pro-class solidarity but “meh” about genocide kind of backs that stereotype up somewhat.

[@calzonelover3950]

@@subVersionband I get it and agree things need to be inclusive, it's just pragmatically how much time do you spend trying to get there before you can then mobilise. In the interim it feels like the best way forward is to create solidarity around issues that materially affect the entire working class (like housing for example) and build solidarity from that action, as different types of people work shoulder to shoulder for a common cause. Action on housing is good because marginalised groups disproportionately affected by the housing crisis disproportionately benefit when you start fixing it

[@ES-qm5hr]

Working class politics has always been a middle class pastime.

[@patcampton7163]

We need politics, history and economics to be taught in schools.

[@DJCoachCookie68]

I found this interesting, but a hard watch. I need some positivity and hope. At first I believed in Jeremy Corbyn, but then all his critics led me astray. IMO we should have voted him in, maybe I am wrong but I believe his heart was in the right place ❤ What is the answer to our Political System? And can we achieve it? I was impressed by Jason Volunteering at a local Centre, good for him and thank you!

[@colonel1757]

Great interview, an hour well spent.

[@channel-gt1cb]

His constant frowning must be tiring.

[@michaelgoodwin593]

It's a Yorkshire thing. Just how we are.

[@forestsunset9617]

@@michaelgoodwin593 I'm from Nottingham and I don't do this

[@oneoflokis]

Maybe we should MAKE room for socialism! 😏 And fight the ideas of Farage!

[@jameseastwood9673]

When an upper class lad interviews a meandering barely coherent working class lad "for the shits and giggles" because they vaguely share the same socio economical opinion. Christ I'm poor working class from the north West and I gave up on this interview 5 minutes in. 🤮

[@scottstevens78]

So sad to hear that. Some good points are made here and I think you could get something from it. Your voice is needed.

[@ppetal1]

​@scottstevens78 nah. Most of it a complete waste of time. "I dunno." and "I'm just a singer". Repeatedly.

[@iamg07]

What is it you aspire to exactly? You’re visualising the interviewer as “upper class” and the interviewee as”working class” and immediately creating a division just for the sake of it. I get the impression most of your problems are your own creation.

[@asquietas]

Inverted elitism positing a critical angle on words unheard

[@RandallSlick]

Don't talk to me about heroes, all we now is honest brains.

[@axelbruv]

Very intelligent man.

[@tersecwalsingham5778]

Good interview. I don't think Williamson is spot on but definitely a good egg.

[@napalmslayer]

They should call the reissue divide and Brexit.

[@AliceWatts-d3v]

I’ve Just watched Gary’s economics show & this illustrates the problem with this country beautifully. What we need to do is Unit with the new media platform, the tTrade Unions & other campaign lead groups & Independant Socialists groups & the Greens, & Liberals for proportional Representation Voting 🗳️ To be about responsibility for everyone & equality also for everyone not the few 🙌🗳️✊

[@paulronalddoe4548]

Top man

[@Jj-ff9vq]

😂 Properly funny

[@stephencruickshanks3794]

Free Palestine 🇦🇪🇦🇪🇦🇪

[@Mrgingerdread1]

How about diverting some of the billions given to the arms industry.

[@danielwebb8402]

How about being thankful but not talking for granted you live in the 70 years with lowest proportion of humans dying due to conflict in all of human history?

[@Mrgingerdread1]

@@danielwebb8402 ?

[@adr-denzel]

Very worthwhile discussion on a serious subject, but I couldn't help but thinking the whole time: Is this guy Christian Bale playing a part?? :)

[@BowserLucaTheThird]

I want to hear more from this guy on politics, the honest reality. Its got so hard to say to people 'protect the NHS' without something about wokism and immigration taking over the conversation and it will break country if we dont straighten that out

[@1pauljs]

20:35 I think you are trying to minimize what they’ve done. ‘You’re not a thinker’ what sort of thing is that to say to a person.

[@Tommy-jl9dm]

Socialism requires consent but all main political parties have ignored the will of the majority especially on immigration and green energy stealth taxes and that to me is true fascism.

[@Tonino_O]

So we moved over to the "between 2 ferns" studio 😂😂

[@leonkeogh8554]

Great interview thanks again Politics Joe. Keep this up and I'll be forced to contribute financially.

[@lerx5799]

they're bankrolled by millionaires, they don't need you

[@benadams6019]

Sleaford mods. Sleaford mods. Sleaford mods ❤❤❤

[@Sankara561]

Well he didn't have anything interesting to say

[@iamg07]

From what I’ve seen over the last 30 years many working class people want higher status and to become wealthier and not be working class anymore. This is appeal of parties like Reform. That's what they sell. The truth is that someone will always have to do the menial work. The question is what are menial jobs really worth and who will do them?

[@MxLee192]

This is one of the most depressing interviews I've ever seen.

[@redmed10]

What did you find depressing about it? Or is that all you wanted to say?

[@grayssportsalmanac85]

We lost the only chance to change things with Corbyn.

[@trapset1539]

😂

[@cehaem2]

@@grayssportsalmanac85 Corbyn had one massive issue - he didn't have a power base within the party.

[@alphadraconis9898]

Seems to be a demographic thing, lots of younger people are suffering and are entirely open to classical socialism (with or without the modern liberal elements), but it takes a special kind of boomer to be genuinely leftwing, and not just an ‘inset beverage’ socialist.

[@farhadchaudhry]

Most people are social democrats of some variety. But they don't vote that way. If at all.

[@Ireallylovecheddar]

Palpatine looks so tired these days.

[@holdmusic_]

People that don’t understand politics and haven’t actually read Labour’s policies will come in here and say that Labour and the Tories are the same. Usually poor education, misinformation or pivoting on a single issue. This country is experiencing a brain drain.

[@72rmboyd]

No it hasn't, its going to go independent rather than party focus. The ultimate protest vote.

[@radjew]

not longer political, probably need to tell the gig goers.

[@SkinnyEMedia]

I'd rather have Jason for Prime Minister rather than Keir Starmer. Anyone agree?

[@zidermakesispooky]

'Landfill indie' ouch!

[@forestsunset9617]

skip rat rap

[@rop4167]

Pointless interview! "I don't know, you know"; "I'm only a musician" - guess what show you're on (again?!). He made his career presenting his USP as "politics, poverty, and the life of the working class in austerity-era Britain." it's not like they've ever challenged that descriptions. I wish he'd been asked about his Palestine diva-fit "“Don’t be asking me to pick sides for something I ain’t got any real idea about, at a gig. I’m a singer. My job is music. The only real thing I know about War is that I’m sick and tired of premature death like we all are. Of the murder of anyone, under whatever fucking belief grid.” 76 years of ethnic cleansing and you realise Sleaford Mods are just a thinking mans Chas & Dave... Don't have on people who don't have opinions - you have artists in America at their level who are at risk of losing everything for political view and this guy who hasn't a fully realised view of the world

[@jamesdunn8968]

We are all voting Green Norwich. ❎❎❎❎❎❎

[@juliewake4585]

I’m not Norwich but I’m still voting green. It’s the only way for me. Political parties need to persuade me, and everyone else, to vote for them, and most of them have offered nothing.

[@juliewake4585]

@Native_Man123 why?

[@henrydemonfreid1985]

@Native_Man123 is that your entire logic for voting reform? come on, what about their polices.... which policies of theirs can you get behind, other than their view on immigration....

[@pt17171]

"Working class", "red wall" lol. Why is this subsection of the electorate treated as the most important people in the country? Why are they seen as more worthy and important than the middle class? Endless discussions about how to make racists happy lol.

[@DuanRussel]

i dont understand why SDP arent more popular. they literally hold the anti globalism views of reform, but the socialist views of old labour.

[@cehaem2]

@@DuanRussel Reform isn't "anti-globalist" and never has been. Reform ltd. hates the immigration but loves the unchecked flow of money.

[@hariowen3840]

And where did that happen before eh???

[@nicknewman7848]

Interesting chat guys.. Slightly depressing but a Shit sandwich is never going to taste good, so.....

[@forestsunset9617]

there is a choice but we don't get somewhere new by eating the same old smelly sandwich

[@nickxcore74]

Both of them are just as disillusioned and pessimistic about the future like me. I’m sure we’re not a minority either.

[@peterjoslyn1]

One thing you have to do if you want the Tories out is to vote. You must. Not voting is exactly what they want you to do! Be apathetic! That’s cool! No. You want purity and perfection from Labour? Sorry that’s never happened. But there’s a chance you’ll get something, something that will enable you to live your life with more joy. Maybe that’s all we can ask for. But not voting, no way.

[@StephenMerchant-up8sg]

Do you seriously think that the Labour Party are standing up for ordinary people Jason? Really?

[@TheDreadfulCurtain]

Everyone please vote out the Tories. Forever. Bring back the left in the Labour Party. Vote Green Party.

[@kayedal-haddad]

What about The Workers Party?

[@cehaem2]

@@kayedal-haddad You mean George "I have scars on my head but no one has seen them" and his bunch of nutjobs? Good to see that clown is gone.

[@mrmeldrew693]

'The far right'...... Basically what we had in the early 1990s.

[@craig7248]

Ah, Jason. The man of the people. The voice of the oppressed. Unless it's speaking up for dead Palestinian children. Then he's ok with that.

[@TheBurdenOfHope]

RIP The Chameleon ❤

[@TheDreadfulCurtain]

Makes sense for a punk band revival tbh. Because we have been fucked by Tory government for so long seems like the logical response.

[@juliewake4585]

Oh dear: maybe it’s my age and the fact that I don’t really do popular music and I’ve never heard of this guy. I do like what he has to say though.

[@easytoassemble54321]

It's utterly patronising to say that working class voters are "easily swayed" by rightwing rhetoric. Perhaps a better theory is that liberals - for far too long - have accused any reservations about immigration, as being "dogwhistles", when in fact they were literal, actual concerns, playing out in areas where those people actually live. It must be nice to have luxury beliefs around migration, when your home or job or status will never be affected by it. Additionally, liberal/leftists' lack of trust in the working classes ability to be non-prejudiced, is no longer our concern. You called us racist, gammon, privileged, and all the rest. But, the old slurs aren't working like they used to. It's truly amazing to watch liberal media concoct theories as to why the entirety of Europe has swung Right. Missing the most vital piece, which was that they didn't listen from the start.

[@wofutokerati]

I think that the overarching point is that Immigration doesn’t have nearly as detrimental an effect on your quality of life as a Government asset stripping (re: rayping) the country to line their own pockets does. Crumbling infrastructure? Underfunded public services? It’s too difficult to take that fight to the corridors of power, so the right says “Quick! Look over there! Someone with a different skin colour/religion and he’s coming to take all your stuff!” That’s where the naivety lies. Look at the PPE scandal post Covid as an example, was that corruption the fault of Yusuf who washed up on the shores of Kent? If we had a Government that didn’t use us like a collective fleshlight then immigration would be a complete non-issue.

[@tylermadsen6596]

what happened to this man

[@MxLee192]

Made his money and probably got tired of it all.

[@ajrh82]

Outside of two bamboo with Ollie Dugmore

[@forestsunset9617]

7:53 IT'S DARE!

[@TheHippocrocapig]

Great music. Terrible politics.

[@BananaBananaBanana-y3k]

He's a bit of a non-event. Sleaford Mods are performative nothingness & the politics seems to just be 'we represent working class views' without actually advocating for a better life for the working class - it feels very much like class-porn. Why would this guy want a better deal for the working class after all? It would be a threat to his art. I mean, christ, look at the absolute state of the east midlands and what has this guy really done except leach off that decline?

[@NaomiOjok]

Musicians don't profess to know the answers, they just express things and people are either enthused by it or not. But practically if anyone volunteers locally, as he says he does, especially in this economy I would think they contribute something and do good

[@JayGriffinblaze]

@@NaomiOjok Charlotte Church

[@GlennSmith-m2e]

The appeal of the Right to the working classes is massively overplayed. If you actually look at where parties like Reform pick up votes it's in already Conservative supporting areas. I used to be in property. In my experience Farage is very typical the kinds of people I used to work for and sell to. The middle-classes are projecting. You can see it in comedy, in the press and other areas of the media. Stop pretending that the rightward drift of the Conservative Party and the likes of Farage reflect an awful lot of middle class people political values.

[@GlennSmith-m2e]

I should have said "the likes of don't reflect". I'm terrible typist. But, really, I'm pretty certain that I'm not the only person who grew up in suburbia and did not find the middle class locals to be beacons of enlightened liberalism, unity with the down-trodden and concern for the workers.

[@farhadchaudhry]

The danger is them picking up people on the margins. And that can mainly happen because the centre-left shirks its responsibilities and goes chasing the centre without an solid foundation. Like we see happening in France.

[@GlennSmith-m2e]

@@farhadchaudhry France has a very different voting system. It's much harder for smaller parties to breakthrough under first past the post. The danger from Reform isn't that they will pick up people on the margins. It's that they may become a bigger influence on, or even a respectable wing of, the Conservative Party. Personally, I just get fed up with this demi-demonising and outdated version of the working classes , when the actual potential problem is mostly from angry and disgruntled, already Right-Wing, Tories in Tory seats. The working classes are not an amorphous blob with a hive mind and nor are what some people think of as the marginalised. I think the Left sometimes as a problem admitting that some people are just not very nice and hold dodgy socio-political views. I think concentrating on appealing policies that puts money in people's pockets, boost confidence in the future and improves infrastructure is more important than fretting about how some individuals might vote.

[@farhadchaudhry]

@@GlennSmith-m2e France has a two round voting system. And for so long, had a 2 party system. It only broke down more recently. Mainly due to a LOT of dodgy money pouring in for both centre and far right. I think the left has a lot of problems. One of which is sticking too rigidly to dogma. This is how you get a lot of rhetoric that's alienating to small businesspeople / sole traders / self employed. The exact sort who have migrated to the far right across Europe. These are who claim to be working class, the press call them "white working class" but they're really not. These are the people at the margins of th political system. RE views, honestly, I find most people go along with what they're told. This is why the press is so important. It's not an amorphous blob. It's just how people deal with these things because they don't have a lot of time or tools to self-reflect.

[@GlennSmith-m2e]

@@farhadchaudhry I don't think Reform represent the marginalised. To me disabled people, travellers, ethnic minorities and the unemployed are marginalised. Reform represent the Telegraph, Mail and Daily Sceptic. Mainstream, rightist, wingfilberts. These are the plonkers who claim urban youngsters who are being squeezed by debt and rent slavery are a metropolitan elite, whilst championing the rights of landlords, bankers and asset owners. IMO, they're not marginalised enough. But, there you go. That's me.

[@lessparks8553]

They think we are simply toys

[@getthoseskills4451]

This guy is so woke and with all the middle class liberals. He is clueless when it comes to the working class.

[@billypaisley6211]

Urine mate!

[@richwilliams1863]

Not a very interesting conversation

[@MarkTaylor]

Between two.........bamboos

[@Novella47]

Pro islam labour. Looks at Bangladesh ... Yeh thisll turn out well labour 😂😂😂 all the scientists and engineers will leave in 30 years and the uk will be Lebanon - 2.

[@martynbonanza]

Never ceases to confound me when someone so incredibly inarticulate and Ill-informed is held up as some kind of spokesperson. What a waste of half an hour! Good advert for upcoming, re-hashed product though. “Smashed it mate!” 🤮 🤑🤡

[@jackcarterog001]

Nonsense

[@lose8447]

Anyone but labour lib dem tory