Transcript
A (0:00)
Do I think the British state has become the enemy of the electorate? I do. I think they have.
B (0:05)
Is there something darker going on here which is outside of the control of even both those parties that's allowing this to happen?
A (0:12)
The British people have realized that actually they've been hoodwinked by thinking they had a choice for change, when actually you've had what we often call the uni party. Peter, when you look at the contracts that we've uncovered and we're just starting to get, get our minds around them and you look at, you know, look at what happened with COVID you look at all of the misdirected contracts and all of the printed money that went, went missing, what do we find? We find waste everywhere.
B (0:40)
How much waste, Peter?
A (0:41)
I mean, billions. Billions and billions and billions. You've got to ask yourself, I know the state's gone wrong, but the question I ask myself is, is, is the British state in the hands of organized crime?
B (0:53)
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A (1:18)
Hi Peter. Good to be back. This is my third trip into your studio.
B (1:23)
Yes, and we are, we're in very unusual times. You've been doing a lot of work within Whitehall. You've been doing a lot of work questioning people. And I think, look, I think a lot of people can be excused for thinking there is incompetence coming from the state. But you've been in the machine now for about 18 months and you started to uncover some things. When people will give you the data, they don't always answer your questions. But I'm starting to question whether this is incompetence or is the state now actively working against the British people in the country?
A (2:02)
Well, first of all, I should say it's not just me. I've got a team of incredibly dedicated and very able young people who are helping me. I think my 68 years of knowledge and experience in various businesses allows us to home in on where we need to be. But they play a big part in it too, because you can't simply do this on your own. But in answer to your question, do I think the British state has become the enemy of the electorate? I do. I think they have. And I think when I Look at, and I'm, as you know, on the Public Accounts Committee, which is uncovering all sorts of incompetence and waste and lack of respect for taxpayers money. As I said yesterday to one of the treasury officials, it's very easy to spend other people's money. It's easier to spend other people's money than it is to spend your own money. And literally, Peter, that's happening everywhere. So I think we've got, obviously now it's not just Labour, but Labour, as you know, have an incompetent front bench. Most of them are members of the Fabian Society. You probably saw, you know, Sadiq Khan was addressing the Fabian Society and that is ideologically driven. That is basically against everything that you and I would stand for, that is pro statism and anti the individual, which they want a dependency culture. They don't want a thriving, independent, self reliant state. So I think labor are driven by ideology. But the question one has to ask oneself is how did the Tories let this happen over 14 years where they had 2 overall majorities? Obviously they had a Lib Dem alliance, but they had one overall majority when Cameron had one and then a huge overall majority when Boris had one. And actually a lot of the problems do, I'm afraid, emanate from Tory legislation. So I think what's happening is the state's got bigger and bigger, it's got less and less respect for the electorate. And you saw that with the 2016 result, they didn't want to honor the decision of the British people. And that was a decision if you strip out the main cities, you had a huge majority for Brexit, not for economic reasons. I think people did it because they wanted their country back. But the bureaucrats didn't agree with that decision, so they frustrated it, which is largely why I'm in Parliament now. So you've got the head of the beast, I think, has no respect. And then you've got this extraordinary situation where you've got hmrc, who yesterday were described as cutting edge by somebody on the Public Accounts Committee, which I found extraordinary. So what they're doing is they are basically rolling through Britain with their 22,000 pages or whatever it is, of statute and collecting taxes that are then being spewed up against the wall by a state that's got too big, is hugely inefficient and has no respect for taxpayers money. And I see this literally every week, twice a week at the Public Accounts Committee. And so, yes, I think we need a complete change of the way in which we're governed. I ascribe the problem to the undermining of the sovereignty of the MPs. The power of the MPs has been undermined largely by Blairite legislation, as you and I have discussed before. So you've also got all sorts of parliamentary bodies, like the Independent Complaints and Grievance Scheme, which is used to clip the wings of any mp. It's effectively a layer of extra employment law. Between employment law at the top, in the middle, you've got this sort of sandwich of ICGs, then you've got the MP. So the MPs are supposed to be omnipotent, they're elected representatives of the people. They're supposed to be holding the government or the Civil Service to account to ensure that they deliver for the people. But they've been neutered, Peter, by a house that's been selected incorrectly. It doesn't have the skill set. It's got people who rely on the 93,000 a year, which, as you know, I give my salary, my parliamentary salary to charity. I consider it to some extent dirty money and I'm very delighted to give it to charities lodging in Great Yarmouth on a monthly basis. But most of those people rely on that salary, therefore they're controlled by that salary. And I think the whole basis upon which our unwritten constitution has been undermined is now not working for the people. So to your point, yes, I do think government has become the enemy of the British people.
