Russell Brand.

doofer said:
If only you had written it yourself..
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Haha, brilliant.

D.P. said:
With observational facts you have to look carefully at the caveats. An observation is a fact when considering our ability to measure and the observation is only valid under the conditions of measurement.
E.g. someone drives a car and the speedometer reads 70MPH. That reading is an observational fact even if an external observer using different instruments measures a speed of 67MPH. Both are valid observations, the difference explained by differences in instruments.

An accurate scientific model of each instrument would prove both instruments are measuring the same observed speed.
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Well I wasn't being Comteian in my definition.
 
Fuggan said:
Why doesn't he stand for MP if he has all the answers?
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A. He doesn't have any answers to any of our social or economic ills.

B. He wont stand to be an MP because an MP earns a pittance compared to what he is accustomed to. He is only interested in himself and increasing his own wealth and popularity.

Anyone who is taken in by this charlatan, I implore you to have a long hard think about his actions and who he is.

People say he is very clever and i agree: He has learnt to be extremely good at manipulating the public and the media for his own gains.
 
Hello Jo, thanks for your open letter, I do remember you from the melee outside RBS and firstly, I’d like to say sorry for your paella getting cold. It’s not nice to suffer because of actions that are nothing to do with you. I imagine the disabled people of our country who have been hit with £6bn of benefit cuts during the period that RBS received £46bn of public bail-out money feel similarly cheesed off.

I can’t apologise for the RBS lockdown though mate because, I don’t have the authority to close great big institutions – even ones found guilty of criminal activity.

The locking of the doors and your tarnished lunch came about as the result of orders from “the faceless bosses” upstairs after I wandered in on my own while we secretly filmed from across the street - then security swarmed, all the doors were locked and crowds gathered outside. I must say Jo; it felt like RBS had something terrible to hide. But more of that in a minute.

Neither was I there for publicity, although you could be forgiven for thinking that; for many years I have earned my money (and paid my taxes) by showing off. If I needed negative publicity (and, believe me, that’s all talking publicly about inequality can ever get you) I could get it by using the “N word” on telly, or putting a cat in a bin, or having a romantic liaison with the lad from TOWIE.

I was there with filmmaker Michael Winterbottom making a documentary about how the economic crises caused by the banking industry (RBS were found guilty of rigging Libor and the foreign exchange) has led to an economic attack on the most vulnerable people in society. I don’t want to undermine your personal inconvenience Jo, I’d be the first to admit that I’m often more vexed by little things; iPhone chargers continually changing makes me as angry as apartheid - so I can’t claim any personal moral high ground, but a chance to make a film that highlights how £80bn of austerity cuts were made, punishing society’s most vulnerable during the same period that bankers awarded themselves £81bn in bonuses was irresistible.

The mob upstairs at RBS who exiled you with your rapidly deteriorating lunch have had £4bn in bonuses since the crash. Do they deserve our money more than Britain’s disabled? Or Britain’s students who are now charged to learn? Is that fair?

They were some of the questions I was hoping to ask your boss – but we got no joy through the “proper channels” so we decided to just show up.

Not just to RBS, but also to Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays. I know that the regular folk on the floor aren’t guilty of this trick against ordinary people; they’re like anyone, trying to make ends meet. As you point out though, it’s hard to get to the men at the top so we were forced into door-stopping and inadvertent lunch spoiling. The good news is that this film and even this correspondence will reach hundreds of thousands of people and they’ll learn how they’re being conned by the financial industry and turned against one another - that’s got to be a good thing, even if it makes me look a bit of a twit in the process and the national dish of Spain is eaten sub-par.

Now I’ll be the first to admit your lunch has been an unwitting casualty in this well-intentioned quest but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask new RBS boss Ross McEwan if he thinks it’s right that he got a £3.2m “golden hello” when the RBS is sellotaped together with money that comes from everyone else’s taxes. I wonder what he would’ve said? Or whether it’s right that Fred “the shred” (he shredded evidence of impropriety) Goodwin gets to keep his £320k a year pension while disabled people have had their independent living fund scrapped.

And it’s not just RBS mate. Lloyds, Barclays, Citibank and HSBC have all been found guilty of market rigging and not one banker has been jailed.

Trillions of public money lost and stolen and no one prosecuted. Remember in the riots when disaffected youth nicked the odd bottle of water or a stray pair of trainers? Criminal, I agree. 1800 years worth of sentences were meted out in special courts, to make an example. Some crime doesn’t pay, but some crime definitely does. My school mate Leigh Pickett, a fireman is being told that he and his colleagues won’t be able to collect their pension until five years later than agreed, five more years of backbreaking, flame engulfed labour – why? Because of austerity.
Put simply Jo, the banks took the money, the people paid the price.

I was there to ask a few questions to the guilty parties, now I know that’s not you, you’re just a bloke trying to make a crust and evidently you like that crust warm - but again, it wasn’t me who locked the RBS, I just asked a few difficult questions and the place went nuts. The people that have inconvenienced homeowners, pensioners, the disabled and ordinary working Brits are the same ones who inconvenienced you that lunchtime. They’ve got a lot to hide, so they locked the doors. You said my “agro demeanor” reminded you of school. Your letter reminded me of school too, when the teacher would say, “because Russell’s been naughty, the whole class has to stay behind”.

I’d never knowingly keep a workingman from his dinner, it’s unacceptable and I do owe you an apology for being lairy.

So Jo, get in touch, I owe you an apology and I’d like to take you for a hot paella to make up for the one that went cold – though you could say that was actually the fault of the shady shysters who nicked the wedge and locked you out, I’d rather err on the side of caution. When I make a mistake I like to apolgise and put it right. Hopefully your bosses will do the same to the people of Britain.
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The way the media and sections of the public have reacted to the original letter amuses me, ignore the actual reason Brands kicking up a fuss and instead focus on the extremely important fact that one person couldn't have lunch and that Brand can be a bit of hypocrite (like everyone). Just like clockwork all the easily influenced daily mail reading idiots start foaming at the mouth and launching personal attacks trying to discredit him. Textbook. Thinking about it i honestly wouldn't be surprised if the original letter was written by someone working in the media.

Anyway... who cares if he's a "champagne socialist", at least he's using his position to try and bring important matters to the publics attention. Do the reasons why he does it matter more than the actual issue at hand ? It's a shame people can't look past their personal dislike for someone even when the issues they are raising are of great importance.
 
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Fuggan said:
Why doesn't he stand for MP if he has all the answers?
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There is an excellent episode of Gilmore girls that captures this, when fed up with Taylor's tyranical reign as town selectman Jackson spontaneously agrees to stand against him. At the voting ceromony he says:

5.04 - Tippecanoe and Taylor Too - (91)
JACKSON: Well, jeez. That was, uh... quite a welcome. Uh, thank you all for coming and supporting me in this... thing here. As I stand on this stage, looking at you all, I can't help but think... I have a job. I have a life. [Sookie glances at her husband while continuing to grin at the crowd] I don't have time to be selectman. [Sookie does a double take as her smile stales] I have a business. I have a kid. And Sookie and I are trying to have another one. [Sookie glances nervously at the quiet crowd] And the doctor has us on this schedule, and it's not flexible. And -- what was I thinking? What the hell am I doing here? I don't want to be selectman.
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Nobody, nobody in their right mind would want to take on a political office - it is not normal. It is a sad truth that often those that seek power are the least suited to it while those who have it thrust upon them make the best leaders.
 
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Jaynos said:
the way the media and right wing public have reacted
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The hypocrisy of the reactionary narrative is astonishing. Unforunately, they know the majority of the British public 'skim' the jist of a media item which means they get to set the tone, content and context. By decrying brand as a personality detractor, they get to IGNORE the issue and set the hypocritical narrative.


'History is written by the victors' except in this case, the victors are the media conglomerates who have the loudest voice that reaches the most plebeians.
 
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BunnyKillBot said:
There is an excellent episode of Gilmore girls that captures this, when fed up with Taylor's tyranical reign as town selectman Jackson spontaneously agrees to stand against him. At the voting ceromony he says:
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But RB has none of that, he's a bum and nothing to do all day but be a ******* to everyone who wants to get in with there life. It was a lame excuse on QT and he doesn't have any real answers
 
robgmun said:
But RB has none of that, he's a bum and nothing to do all day but be a ******* to everyone who wants to get in with there life. It was a lame excuse on QT and he doesn't have any real answers
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lol what? Would you like to declare which political party or corporation interest you represent mate? You sound like a broken record.

Oh, and GeT in, back of the the net, Lol
 
robgmun said:
But RB has none of that, he's a bum and nothing to do all day but be a ******* to everyone who wants to get in with there life. It was a lame excuse on QT and he doesn't have any real answers
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You don't really believe that do you ? the guy comes from a working class background and was doing pieces raising awareness of social issues long before he was mega famous. I've no idea how you think he's a bum either, just because he was good enough in his field to make a living without having to work 9-5 every day somehow makes him a bum ? these are the kind of terrible reactionary strawman points you see all over the internet. Personal attacks with literally no interest in the points he's trying to bring to your attention. It's hilarious reading through the earlier comments where everyone is just dissing him, name calling etc. It's almost like reading the comments section of the Daily Mail.

Just because he doesn't have the answers to everything doesn't mean he's wrong to bring awareness to the issues and just because some people are already aware of the issues doesn't mean that there are many who aren't ware.
 
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I find it amazing the columns inches that are being devoted to this when the bankers he is railing at have just pressed through some serious measures in the US due to Obama's weakened position that have removed some of the few constraints placed on them after the financial crisis. The price of success rewards the institutions the price of failure penalises the wider public.
 
Xordium said:
The price of success rewards the institutions the price of failure penalises the wider public.
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I like this and being oh so true will repeat it when having a discussion with my executive banker stepson.

As for this person Russell Brand, he comes on the TV I reach for the remote and have always done even before the BBC decided his political ramblings are worthy of broadcast.
 
WillyNelson said:
No it wasn't, it's full of misrepresented 'fact' and non sequiturs.

I'll bet that whenever Russell Brand does a dot-to-do puzzle it's always a picture of himself.
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Sorry I have to disagree. Did you like the blog he was replying to because that bloke never actually addressed anything did he.

It's always easy to attack a person. And he does set himself up for that but the fact remains he has a valid point here. If he himself is detracting from that point is another issue.

But the fact remains the banks have just got legislated the removal of the limited stipulations placed on them in the US and the media and the public care more about what happens on X-Factor or some comedian turned humanist than the fact society is once again being threatened by the biggest bunch of crooks on the planet.
 
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