Transcripts For RT The Alex Salmond Show 20240713

Original guestimate that the conservatives will get an overall majority with Boris Johnson a little bit of figure on that im guessing a majority of 40 at the time you out of these these famous words are i think just once and was 5 to one against her to lose a seat so the 1st question was did you get money on the demise of the liberal democrat leader i didnt put anything on and i think that would have jinxed my predictions but i had one very good reason to think shed lose i did the same thing and i could sense the same things happening to her as happened to me in my seat in 2010 but nobody listened including the liberal democrats despite my repeated warnings that i thought shed lose by a small margin but as you say i was right and was just once an open. My eyes a liberal democrat problems or were the people difficulties for the liberals in the sky she was half the problem i said here in this very studio that she wasnt cutting it in the general election as she just didnt come across as credible and it seems that every time she appeared on television her support went down so that was half the problem and the other half and shes got to take responsibility for this too is a ridiculous narrative they were saying that they wouldnt have a 2nd referendum despite having called for one for 3 years they were simply going to scrap bricks if they became the government that would be. Me going to my old seat of commerce in saying we dont need to have another byelection to give people a chance to reelect me ill just carry on being the m. P. Anyway and so my democratic is that the new chief something fairly dramatic in the selection of me as the the rest of the country at least the rest of england was running towards bob as johnson you were busy running towards Jeremy Corbin what happened. Well i would do the same again i feel very proud of what i did said did i mean i exposed the one lie after another after another by johnson and one of the things about the next 12 months is were going to see whether how he deals with having lied to the British Public about breaks it above all but all serve a thing else. And as for version of mr corbin i thought it was the economic leigh sensible thing to do i thought it was much more likely to be Economic Security with mr corbins plan of a final say referendum after the choice between a soft brick sit and staying in mr johnsons plan of basically wes risking everything on a heart breaks at which he still seems to be encouraging but the great english public look the ball is just now said lets guys all cable to the customer for votes they did and. It was a phenomenal results it was the most important british general election id say certainly since 1905 maybe more important even than 145 because i think its going to change the nature of the country we are its an enormous experiment and i hope it works because of it doesnt the consequences will be very severe for all kinds of people who dont deserve to face those consequences but it is an immense a moments in our National History because williamson you ended up standing as an independent in your own seat against the labor party to which you devoted most of your life but im really into. Did you actually found out you had one comprehensively vote for the against labor party joining the Election Campaign and you kept it quiet so as not to embarrass you all passed the law tends to indicate to me theres something of a deep underlying a loyalty despite despite recent events why we still try to protect the labor party given 44 years of my life to the labor party i believe that labor policies been the best vehicle to deliver Progressive Social change in the country and when Jeremy Corbyn was elected as the leader of fell we had a genuine opportunity to to bring about a modest socialist program in the country to for the 1st time probably ever to deliver a jet a genuine ethical Foreign Policy so i think what our position has been and something i would bid arguing for was to say yes we accept the outcome of the referendum and we our position should have been it seems to me in the in the election should have been in it to say we will deliver a peoples breaks it that we should have in the on when not whether were going to have a referendum as i believe you there we made a huge error of judgment was in buying into this whole narrative that the labor party is a bigoted party racist party an anti Semitic Party and i think jeremy would have been far better to at the very outset to defend his own reputation is nobody in the house of commons got a better record on standing up to bigotry and racism the job because when he should have defended his own reputation the labor partys reputation as an anti racist party and i feel that we should have defended as i did numerous people that with one of those people like Ken Livingstone and many jewish members of the labor party have been specifically targeted left wing jews have been targeted for suspension and expulsion from the labor party its only salute as a developer thats about it itself was a failure in leadership not able to establish the labor partys reputation beyond pella venture as an anti racist party but im interested what you say but but i accept is that in your analysis the difference between 2070 good jeremy called. As labor leader on a fairly ambitious man affair still made up vast grown during the Election Campaign and 2090 who have jokingly called banana and the bushes leap of mana festal made how hard the only groaned a toll is bricks at the key difference in the oh yes absolutely convinced of that we should have been taking the position a stronger position than we took in 2017 and look in the end you know whether or not that European Union whether leave with or without a deal is kind of irrelevant we all the 5th biggest economy in the world we have our own sovereign currency we have our own central bank. We could therefore invest in a big fiscal stimulus to deal with any economic shock of leaving European Union and we couldnt say with other peoples breaks that were there we invest in the economy were going to invest the money fraction go invest in Public Services Renewable Energy renewing the infrastructure we could have appealed to people and given people hope so its been really puzzling me as something i said you said in a Previous Program when you were isolating the fact that Dominic Cummings was trailing johns to score to provoke an election i want a quiet f that the opposition parties fall into why did they deliver Boris Johnson the greatest Christmas Present hell ever have in his life a maturity of 80 a commanding position in the west was the part of you an explanation it was one of the points i missed the tony blair was really right about he said i havent heard of the lection before brets it is source it is an act of madness and the reason it was obviously the case i do think this is that joe swinson started this she. Probably the worst leader of any well the party has ever been i think she was very poor that was and she took a very narrow perspective which was whats best for le liberal democrats not given that she claimed that her great thing was europe not what was best to keep britain in the European Union and so she was a disgraceful decision by her then coburn fell into the trap and thats what led to it and it was the liberal democrat self interest and she paid a heavy price for that so i wasnt just joe swenson was that. The whole liberal democrats were gung ho for an election f. What i think in complete idiotic delusion by the liberal democrats i know exactly why they did it because i was speaking to them they thought they could sweep up 48 percent of the vote 48 percent of voted remain and they thought that they would. Have a massive lift just once and her team may not have thought she was actually going to be Prime Minister but there was seriously thinking they were going to get 100. 00 plus seats and i think therefore that they were architects of their own to actually to do sing a seat going down to 11 seats more than gaining because weve said you are there as a member of parliament what the north voices behind the speakers chair saying after johnson was totally humiliated in the Supreme Court after they came back from america blustering even sweeping under his breath at the Prime Ministers question to look at this or say lets keep this guy hang on lets get in the speaker lets find a compromise can the what was of no voice is there were a few there were a few but few and far between regrettably i remember being on your show actually alec a few months ago when we were asking the question well that will be at a lecture before christmas i was absolutely confident there wouldnt be it makes no sense at all only for Boris Johnson not for any other Political Party i was well obvious about because they simply did very well its a bit want to be a saint peter said the league agencies but have lost that influence this was very true very very divisive in our minority exile and went to a huge victory of 47 of what i was 48 seats to nobody in the parliament were johnson ridden supreme but on this very show we were predicting Something Like this would happen Boris Johnson has played political chess par excellence the opposition parties have been in check continuously boris played a great game once not one stunt die had been cast then it was inevitable what the outcome was going to be and thats why i made my predictions or fended this half of the sure but i was forecasting some strong after us if that indeed were possible join us after the break we will start looking not of what has happened but the christmases yet to come. During the Great Depression which old mr remember there was most of the family were employed. There wasnt it was bed you know much worse objectively to day but there was an expectation that things were going to get better. There was a real sense of hopefulness there isnt today todays america where shaped by the turn principles of concentration of wealth and power. Reduced democracy attack solo doubt engineer elections manufacture consent and other principles according to no on. One set of rules for the rich opposites. Thats what happens when you put her into the. Narrow sector of will switch is dedicated to increasing power for just as youd expect one of the most influential intellectuals of our time speaks about the modern civilization of america. Well it finally happened donald trump has been impeached by the house of representatives in complete opposition to what the founders had even vision the articles voted on were along party lines it is highly unlikely the senate will vote to remove the president from office so what is the point of this entire exercise. Means being in some ways similar. To. The traditional jewish way of acting in other words if my dear in. The urban. Occupation the flips the bull physically for studious to kill it and so on and jews were going for. Modern schools that was their specialization. Welcome back now im going to ask a Prestigious Panel of political pundit to get their are forecasting boots on to tell us what no is going to happen in politics given the election result that theyre all book Boris Johnson master of all you surveys what happens to is must of all the surveys for quite a short period of time potentially. The big issue is is the the leave a prospectus for brets again to lead to prosperity and National Independence and so forth will and thatll take a little while to work itself out if it doesnt work i can see a real disaster for the conservatives because they will be splayed for having forced this outcome and then they will be blamed for having lied about it and cheated their way to an election victory which was a fraud on the voters if their perspectives were then here they will be hailed as conquering heroes it was the last we ever hear of the labor party and it will last forever here when the of the lib dems and it will he will have created a new political epoch alternatively in 5 years time we could be seeing a smashed to conservative party a demoralized party and Something Like. All the climate its all the commentators that noting that corbin is finished well i can see of the could of the tories have led britain out of the European Union and its been an economic and social fiasco with millions of lives ruined by it i can see this is the woman always saying this to my tory friends all along. The one where you want to follow a government which mr williams that might feel happy in his blog going for a hard bricks it because you create economic case the left can see can make really use that and so if that doesnt work then i think the whole Political Landscape could be very different in a few years time than it is now and it will be much more favorable to the left because one of us must be lucic to your use of in most of the analysts i know talking about back to 1803 were michael foot was so badly beaten on or a socialist manifesto but peter oborne seems to saying that the tories might muck up for youre not alone the labor party a route back well they might very well do i mean and this was the worst election result for the labor party i think since 1935 but remember 10 years after that we had the most reforming labor government in in history of water in the middle there was indeed and it will depend on whether or not you know the tories do make a complete mess of it and create a real a real crisis in the country but of course the other thing is if the labor party is going to benefit from that i think a lot will depend on who they choose as their leader we have now a membership which is overwhelmingly left of center a Progressive Socialist outlook in that sense and so i think the next leader has to absolutely buy into the whole narrative i think they also have to repudiate this absurd witch hunt which the labor party has subjected itself to because if we are going to be in a position of the labor party going to a position to take advantage it needs a mobilized infused inspired grassroots membership to take the battle to to the wa to general public doesnt that also need a leader with credibility the only carbon who are not as well as you have known for your 50 years and more never really convince as a political leader other people available within the Parliamentary Labor Party who can provide certain. Well as a show its not sure about that but i think the evidence does really bear that out when you consider the fact that in 27 seen labor achieved the biggest increase in vote share since 945 and also remember even in this election germany achieved more votes than tony blair did in his last successful election in 2005 i think is a say whether comes forward as a leader needs to go as ive already said except a progressive peoples breaks it make that argument repudiate this hold on since of the of the which and and infuse the members bring the Party Together and frankly Boris Johnson actually gave a muster cause class in how to be a strong leader because he dealt with his mouth contents by removing the whip problem and i said to jeremy the biggest battle for the labor party the most important battle for the labor party was to win the civil war inside the labor party and the mole contents of very small in number he had the overwhelming majority and i think if it had done that we could have made a lot more progress level of leadership contest in the liberal democrats that theres not going to be too large a fielders absolutely right theres no point in getting rid of malcontents in the dance because 1st of all theres no leader to get rid of them and secondly if you got rid of the malcontents thered be no one left basically theyve got a huge problem the fact that those fence and lost her position could be good in the long run she wasnt going anywhere shes a nice person good constituency m. P. She was but she was no leader so thats probably a good thing that she lost her seat there was no quick way back for the lib dems that decimated around the country so i think i know who should be the leader and that person then needs to be inspirational but i Charles Kennedy really the kind of person that the general public want that liberal democratic will think what this person is all right the name im thinking of them around i was going to share know it because if youre forecasting regular be your prompters road the country will be anxious to get the money on as quickly as possible and get a lot. Other of i should say other liberal democrat leaders unavailable but perhaps not too many of. If i could turn to whatever flies we can find the ball as john says. How have a mother on the morning happy christmas we must think of course that my haunted in the new year no delivering a successful brecks is key challenge but how about the celtic for each habit scotland and home but Northern Ireland other movements there that make the Prime Minister awake at night well absolutely and one of the many lies which mr johnson repeatedly came out with during the campaign was no broader issues in trade between britain and Northern Ireland and he just said there will be no customs checks nothing and he kept on saying of course there are going to be alone and it caused all kinds of issues at the moment the land border d but that the sea border and i can see it causing resentment and disaffection and a move towards a United Ireland as well and i and i feel that that i think he might have real trouble and do you see Chris Williamson in the was forced in the Northern Irish dissolves do you see it the cations that perhaps the the ice is breaking in terms of the political formulation a lot and is a are we closer to a United Ireland than any poll i think and i think i think the election of the tory election Boris Johnson does bring the a lot closer frankly i think probably now though theres a majority in Northern Ireland and we saw in the Election Results of the u. P. A. Losing ground in the s. T. O. P. Gaining ground in northern ali it seems that you know that there is a move now in that direction so i think were closer now to the breakup of the United Kingdom than weve ever been i think intended to scotland is now a step closer a United Ireland which is something i strongly support is a step closer to i think that is something that could very. Boris johnson awakened linux for years and you were shot a set to stay for. One time with during the peace negotiations a process what if we should analysis of the Northern Ireland results its not the problem the nationalists for the 1st time ever had more seats than the unionists but when you look at the actual vote the unionist vote was far in excess of the nationalist or the republican side and in that sense i dont think that Northern Ireland is unstable its gone a little bit closer towards a United Ireland but thats not going to happen for at least 10 years which is at least 2 general elections great so lets claim mikes our program of just a brief indication for me on my favorite subject whether scotland you forced labor. Boris johnson cannot afford to do scotland if he has a allows a referendum and if the referendum goes in favor of independence that will cost him his credibility that will be his legacy much more than bracks it so the big question is number one does he allow a referendum and he only do that if he thinks he can win it or number 2 does he take the heat by not allowing a referendum by saying well that was meant to be a once in a generation thing my guess is that hell resist the referendum and if he can sort scotland out or goes far say he can win the next general election because you look at the union together he will deliver bracks i dont agree with peter on that and as far as the skeletons in his closet concerned there are so many of they dont fit in the closet so hes not in any danger at his personal level either. Williamson it can be a deal with scotland but a stance im not sure he can i think he will absolutely resist a referendum because i think he fears that he will lose it however what the government has got the my do is just organize their own referendum another catalonia situation i caught zebra johnson sending in the you know the troops and the police in the way which we saw in spain so i do believe that the likelihood of an independent scotland is a significant step closer now you know what do you think peter how would a traditional tory deal with the scottish situation i will blow this johnson deal with lets just look at it from a scottish point of view for a little while i mean there are so many issues about. Scott the leaving its largest Customs Union britain is leaving the Customs Union thats going to cause a bit of trouble of scotland leaves that customs its own Customs Union is because a good market thats going to be very difficult the issue of the currency your familiar as a great economist your you know but all of these issues is not as simple as all of that for scotland dependence and i must say as a unionist i sincerely from the bottom of my heart they were of course one of the very few things we disagree on but im going to actually really know what next election Boris Johnson wins yes or no and scotland independent yes or no your 1st bitter ball is just as you win the next election no Boris Johnson will not win the next election and i hope that scotland will not going to pendent no it wont chris i think no bars johnson wont win the next election and. Probably yes scotland will have going its independence or certainly voted for anyway limit Boris Johnson will win the next election whether or not scotland leaves the United Kingdom is scotland doesnt leave then he has been a successful unionist leader and i dont see anyone seriously being able to teach him but the scotland does leave thats 50 feet opposition politicians to reduce his majority he can lose well there were a 101st and given these last forecasts someone on the panel is by going to be right so next year i expect to be playing back at least one of these forecasts which will look all the more likely to come to pass. This was to be the election which decided the United Kingdoms European Future it has but hasnt reopened the question about the feature of the United Kingdom for the 1st time since 1983 the tory party has come out of an election having destroyed both of their main westminster opponents and the like Margaret Thatcher Prime Minister johnson has the bonus of having eliminated his internal opposition at the same time but in politics there are always clouds which accompany the Silver Linings and there are 3 storms ahead for johnson 1st he has promised to get bricks done not only in the withdraw the payment by the end of january but the future trading relationship by this Time Next Year the 1st will not be plain sailing the 2nd looks Like Mission Impossible 2nd few have looked to the irish results the losses for the democratic unionist mean that for the 1st time ever nationalists outnumber unionists and westminster m. P. s elected the s. T. L. Pure back in parliament having crushing finnan deady now the e. U. Have agreed to admit Northern Ireland into the union with no formality whatsoever if that is what is voted for a United Ireland is now probably closer than at any time over the century since partition. 3rd the joint arguments against the further Scottish Referendum on independence are way for thin the s. N. P. Perhaps to their own surprise ended up with a bigger landslide north of the border than johnson achieved such as border johnson has been anxious to stress that he will govern as a healing one nation tortie even if the campaign itself was divisive even at this moment of triumph he may well in the quite of the night feel that he might end up covering but one nation is so hell be remembered not so much as a Winston Churchill but more as a lord north the Prime Minister who lost the american colonies i was just about scottish dimension will return in the new year when we ask the s. N. P. Whether they have a plan b. To answer the inevitable johnson refusal of an official independent sport but 1st we embark on a mini series on finland this candidate in country has just about the best Education System in the world and has just appointed the youngest Prime Minister in santa maria at the age of 34 and has just been designated by the United Nations as the happiest place on the planet the capital it is the home of sad top where could be better for the show to spend the festive period so until we see you for our christmas shoe is goodbye for me alex and all of the team i love very Merry Christmas thank you andy. Argentina this country is phantasmagorical the people are extraordinary the government and the central bank much. Bank but lets get into this a little bit more detail. What finally happened donald trump has been impeached by the house of representatives in complete opposition to what the founders had in vision the articles voted on were along party lines it is highly unlikely the senate will vote to remove the president from office so what is the point of this entire exercise. Most people think to stand out in this business you need to be the 1st one on top of the story or the person with the loudest voice of the biggest race in truth to stand down the News Business is just the right questions and demand the right answer. Questions. In the troubled 19 seventies a group of killers rampage through parts of Northern Ireland that was coordinated loyalist attacks on the population of belfast tens of thousands were forced to flee their homes and what was striking to put these attacks was a p. R. You see the Police Actually took part in the attacks so instead of preventing it they were active participants in the burning of full streets in belfast at the time more than a 100 innocent civilians were unloaded as the review can seniors and we found out more i was surprised about the extent and of the currency which the collusion was involved in some of those cases the killers would later be named goodwin and gang i think it went to the very very top i think if the process there was here where all the patients you thought was going on and give the go ahead. One person is killed in a shooting at the federal Security Service building in central moscow witnesses have described the attack. There and you had 5 to 10 minutes past 6 the gunfire began and it was not just a few shots it became an bursts we saw this is taking cover behind because. This footage reportedly shows the shooter out of moments of the attack and police say the attacker acted alone in the shooters identity has still not been confirmed