welcome to the alex salmond show we were right set done but call the grisoft and we'll look at the political year ahead the you have begun crisis will end in the muleteer and how will the political parties fear in this dude normal from the right we asked top commentator peter oborne obama's johnson be condemned for bungling the pandemic or will he be lauded for bringing the country flu vaccination and from the

left professor barfi we ask him well a subpoena start on those new labor party has the grit to cut through in these tough economic times ahead all that coming up in the show but notice me though with your tweet surely emails and your messages well we've had a tremendous response to vice 2 of last week featuring cambridge for all they just talk to chris smith and public health expert dr penn kamiya steve alter it says just watch dr chris smith on alex aventura best bit of information about cope with i've had said supine dynamic started follow the experts get advice steve bobby says i think saying it since august mosques should be compulsory there are much fewer disabled and people with underlying illnesses venturing out there are few people with a genuine reason not to wear a mask longer shot says so many amateur epidemiologists under all of this spreading misinformation hope. unintentionally i prefer to listen to experts and once more i

thank them for their clear summations and advice also i thank alex since nina for bringing us this is crucial it's much appreciated well thank you lorna god mccain t. says great show but to guess everybody should pay attention to too many people simply don't understand the facts relating to this pandemic kizzy says gray sure alex it isn't enough questions we're all asking thanks for some answers and maybe the 2 halves of the u.k. scotland and england will answer why we're behind other countries and finally i'm here with some good news who's had a vaccination says i let's see walked 10 minutes to my local hospital for mine today it seems like ilyse time ago but it's been a mere 13 months as far as johnson took the tories to a landslide general election victory in the christmas of 29 team now he has indeed struggled to supplant damage on the economy has collapsed but boris has got bricks it's done and the vaccination program is well underway but can tory supremacy

survive the new order in which we're living alex turns to top tory commentator peter oborne to faint light peter oborne by most accounts ballers johnson has been seen to of bungled the pandemic fisherman rhondda company can't get the fresh to the european market places so the brits that deal doesn't look particularly good but still the the level pegging with the liberal party in the opinion polls is a case of if the vaccination program goes ok then everybody's going to forget about everything else. well making him very good point despite endless mistakes the johnson government remains remarkably copula in the polls on the other hand i think there is a very difficult year ahead as far as the press and a pandemic it concerns we are just living in

a sort of phony war economic and there's going to be a moment when we enter a real economic situation we all know the level of unemployment the the amount of devastation which has been done to the economy and i think there is a moment to judge this government so are you saying when we all imagine blinking into the the sunlight when we've had a vaccination perhaps the summer and then people are going to tom or minds to what's happened in the past and whether the the government should have been doing a lot better that's exactly right the there are all kinds of questions about government performance and the vaccination is definitely going to make this government look better particularly when compared to continental the european union which seems to be making a right old mess of vaccinations letting roulade behind where britain is and of

course their government spokespeople will make the most of that but nevertheless there is an all further his goal to be an accounting for the way the government has conducted itself or more importantly still i just we just simply don't know the depth of the damage done to the economy and are you saying that the voters johnson's fate is largely in the hands of his chancellor of the exchequer who's the favorite to succeed him as prime minister is now a rather dangerous position to be him. i think that mr cena has a lot of questions to answer you know the the easing out campaign in the us ogust which is what while the phrase in the press turned out we can see that to be a great mistake is the initial reaction to the pandemic was a city fable he failed city to grasp it's it's man it's shit there are

a number of errors which he's made which he truly will become accountable for and bear in mind the will be slowly pointing them out it says some rethinking going on in the conservative party if traditionally the party of a stellar theory economics that perhaps their belief and fiscal balances shouldn't be as rigid this if they had thought hove to well you're an economist alex and what has happened in the last 12 months is completely unprecedented fiscally at any moment since the end since world war true when you know that a fight a world war just over the floodgates were looks and so national debt is soaring words this isn't just case of britain by the way it's true of the world and i think there is going to be an enormous fiscal reckoning once again as an economist you

will understand that all that tional debts run in the well we're already at historically high levels even before the pandemic so when i ask the question how do we deal with exploding balance sheets i'm noticing the the bond yields are starting to check out they start take up a bit more we're entering a very dangerous situation what should i stay mation of european assured him and listen doorsteps haunted the conservative party for the last half century has it finally been laid to rest. i'm not sure that the european issue is going away because the deal which was praised much in the press actually is look starting to fall apart there are whole kinds of issues involving business and the fisherman of course all kinds of issues which will need to be revisit every tiny these issues a revisit that will open up the the fishes inside the cigar see between those

who want to have nothing to do with europe and those who want to strike a pragmatic deal and so now that hasn't gone away there peter robert mueller a long term watch and of the conservative party probably know more about it and the workings the threat of the journalists what issues do you expect to mess with in the party of the ideological issues which are going to match or is the path to peace with itself. i have written about the conservatives for 30 years 3 to cats. and it's important to understand this party we have now is almost unrecognisable from the party which existed until only 5 years ago. instead of the pragmatic arcee of going to little souls rates and your major you've got a sense and interests

a sax much more in common actually with all band sitters in hungary it's all too right party in many ways same night macit you a shit of course the republicans in the united states and the trauma and so it's almost not a concern city but it's almost a revolutionary movement captured by the vote leave people now is that sustainable given that they've driven up boris johnson quite deliberately consciously drove the old fashioned traditional tories that rory stewart was like dominic grieve like can trot all of these people the middle ground tories have gone and so that's left a whole sort of millions of voters without representation and the big question is what happens to them and thinking about their events across the atlantic does the

demise of donald trump it does that present issues for the prime minister that they do by the administration may have memories that boast arsenal is less than complimentary and helpful to president obama is that going to be a big issue for ballast johnson. there are a number of leaders around the world who go very close to trump probably too close for comfort one of them is the saudi leadership one of them is benjamin netanyahu in israel another would be field marshal sisi in egypt and another would be boris johnson in britain and boris johnson has now got suit re choreographed and selfies and be the united states and it's quite obvious that the by the administration doesn't like rex it and he's very skeptical of johnson where the can get back on track there i don't know i think it's

a difficult one for the british prime minister in may actually it's important to notice and remember that a change in american politics followed by changes historically in british politics sydney and i wonder whether the departure of trump from the stage actually the presence of media mediums and threats of boris johnson. but might that be why the johnson administration seems to have the scum of the the virtues of women polar nubile energy do you think that certain tests appear thing that that climate change in the threat from the planet might be more compatible with the politics of the new american president i don't think it's fact to say that the rhetoric about when is the era results of president biden because they've been talking that language for some time now has a surly because they believe it because britain is hosting this great environmental summit and i think that this is

a message which they want to get out there and they are conscious they this is a way or softening rather hard right image in other areas though if you were to look at the at the coming year after the extraordinary a year of nightmare that every single one of us on the planet has experienced if you were to look at the political canvas for the coming year from the conservative perspective where would you see the the pitfalls ahead and kenya dent to fire an issue perhaps not on anyone's radar that by this time next year will think was really important the one issue which i think is most uncertain in the coming year is the scale of debts of internet not just britain's debt international debts this has the capacity in the collapse of national balance sheets suit in tribal bond yields to try to up inflation and really send the world into

a major crash in law happens it is a very fierce sense thing and then you would see all kinds of a fast not just in britain but in moving very the right probably a far left far right political movements across across europe and america. and finally people obama someone once said that the conservative party should be the party of sound money and sharp sentences if potus johnson can manage the sign money do you think you money's the short sentences i remember listening to willie white go on the radio about 35 years ago when he was regime leader of the conservative party being interviewed it is a scottish radio and he was asked what can only choruses the conservatives had various sound economic courses. seeds are certainly questionable but he handled the south isn't an early policy is that we are entering

a period it is impossible to predict its and it's quite frightening doesn't just apply to britain it applies everywhere. peter oborne thank you very much for joining us once again on the island sun and show the huge pleasure alex thank you for having me on. join us after the break where we look at the prospects for secure star miss river party with professor richard murphy with see that. gerberding right now there are. people who are overweight or obese it's the forceable to sell things that he's crazy and sugary and salty and addictive it's not at the individual level it's not individual willpower and if we

go on believing that the never change this obesity epidemic that industry has been influencing very deeply the medical and scientific establishment listen to what's driving the obesity epidemic it's corporate profit. welcome back what will this year hold for secure stars liberal party and well the

leadership change in scotland a lot of scottish labor to make a dead in the stranglehold of the. retiree to professor richard murphy to discuss. professor richard murphy from the labor party perspective how will they be feeling about their political balance at the outset of the year i've been drawn to those why bungled the pandemic blacks as done by coming apart were fishermen can't getting fresh to market and yet there would be a level pegging in the opinion polls will that be an encouragement on a disappointment to labor i think his stammer has achieved a goal he has become imaginable as a prime minister for some people at least and if that was what he was trying to achieve that people could in the phrases closure eyes and imagine him on the doors of number 10 could you do that and the answer is yes some people can on the other

hand what he has not done and this is very clear he has not delivered any sound reasons why anybody should vote for him and i think there's a massive amount of disquiet inside labor about that so at the beginning of this year labor is not a happy party but many people are surprised that these departed the new leader secure starmer from the the carbon era of such a competitive ease even expelling suspending the old leader from the party and yet there hasn't been any sign of widespread before that just a symptom of the pandemic suffocating normal politics or are people just come to accept that times have changed i think what we are actually seeing alex is a symbol of the current state of u.k. politics which is intensely top down the leadership is in control of every

political party in the u.k. and we're seen at creating problems right across the spectrum i think you know this and my point is that he turns his back on the party once he's elected in he's out there to deliver his message to the people beyond the party he's now ignoring the base. now it's the hope of the labor party leadership that once the imagine say as subsiding once people are vaccinated then hard questions will start to be us the both the johnson government's handling of the pandemic and the crisis in the care homes the farce of it out to help the the christmas relaxation that people start to ask very hard questions about how the pandemic was handled and why so many people are dead the truth is that once you actually look at the overall a good position it has been very much follow my leader in the sense that they were saying that support the government in any initiative that was required it's almost been national government territory in

a sense and that's pretty uncomfortable to defend because they can't go back and say for example they had a distinctly different policy on many occasions i don't believe that overall people are going to hold a significant number of people enough to tip the balance of an election are going to hold enough anger against the government to actually make coded the critical issue if this government suffice to 2024 what really matters now is what is lady going to do about some of the other issues for example those that because russia is putting forward the way in which those who are hard up are being treated what is the policy with regard to managing the post coronavirus economy where already we are seeing some very old decisions apparently being trialed trailed rather by the treasury with regard to council tax increases and so on what is labor really going to say on those issues when i think become much more significant i'm afraid than the absolute mess up that the government has made on kogut where far to many people

are fancy the giving of the government's position so is that a case for saying that markets last for the 22 year old manchester united an ignorant football up has been the unofficial and successful leader of the opposition. i'm not sure but marcus trafford has been the leader of the opposition what is undoubtedly true is that he has caught the populous eye geist on some issues much more effectively than the conservative party did and to be candid more effectively in terms of the opposition raise than the labor party did he has realised that there is deep ian place it in this whole issue of kind of it another 2nd question which is about the balance of economic wellbeing within the economy so what we're seeing is the coded crisis creating a 2 part society somehow done very well out of this crisis those who care stayed in work you haven't had to travel to work you've seen their cost fall as

a consequence have actually been able to either save will pay off debt those who have actually been in the most vulnerable jobs who often were already on 0 hours in other contracts or seeing a significant cost and labor is not shouting hard enough for the most fun rable and leaving it to marcus rash that and that's a negation of their traditional responsibility. so as their population does vaccinated and blinking into the sunlight and to hard economic times as a question as to whether labor has the neglect to cut through and that environment what we're seeing from later on the economy has been best summarized by annaliese of dogs in the last week or so in a lecture that she gave in london and the keynote aspect of that lecture was labor is going to be prudent it's as if we're going back to $997.00 and hearing gordon brown get back there again now there's no evidence of any need for and after all

the conservatives spent money as it is going out of fashion in the last year something like $400000000000.00 and they are going to run deficits over the next 3 or 4 years up to an election in my estimate of well over $150000000000.00 pounds a year and so the idea that somehow or other labor has to prove that it isn't the money of big spending is absurd because actually the conservatives will be what labor has to prove is it's the money of sensible spending so rebalance the economy and address the really big social economic and of course green issues that we face but that was not really what was heard so the moment i'm still worried that we're living or labor is living in a car stereo where it believes it's got to reassure people about things that actually are not the areas where reassurance is any longer required there is little sign of economic vision coming out of labor in that sense oppressor. but why assert that people should hang on to economic offer doxie when we've just experienced the

most dramatic demonstration of why economic often don't think can't meet a crisis of the scale of what should be an underdog. i am staggered that people still think that the all orthodoxies existing economics it is still as though people believe that the only way that government is funded is by taxation and borrowing when we have convincingly proved since 2009 that there is a 3rd element in this equation and that 3rd element is the government's ability to create money on its own account through the bank of england over 800000000000 pounds has been created over the last decade to fund government deficits within the bank of england without any requirement for repayment being made at all this money will never be repaid it's actually the cash that now underpins the economy we live in and you literally could only repay it by tearing up money we don't want to tear

up money we don't want to destroy that well being we don't want to remove the liquidity that is keeping our markets going so we actually have a new economic power in the land which at the moment no economist of any most economists certainly many standing and certainly the conservatives and labor don't want to recognize as being relevant you don't have to be a modern monetary theorist which is dismissed by many to realise that this exists you've just got to look at the fact that quantitative easing has created all this money has put it into circulation and has liberated governments to manage debt and at the same time free themselves from the clutches of their money market and keep interest rates low to realise that new economic policy is now entirely possible what we've got to have a record of government advised my colonists to understand is that as yet we're not getting that and that really worries me because with sticking to the oldest. or are austerity narratives when we don't need it and terms of scotland labor leadership

is changing repton plan of god neither monica lanham nor on a sour is going to come in and has said it was ok i stammered think that might solve his problems not from the bottom but if care things that changing the leadership isn't of the labor party in scotland is going to change is who fortunes in scotland then i'm afraid to say he's in my opinion grossly naive you know i follow the scottish political seeing quite closely labor is what was running 5th and if it's lucky it might just be the tories now only because the tories have been so diabolical but the reality is labor is not even asking the questions that as far as i can see scottish people want to address when the leadership candidates are saying things like well inequality is the issue of big issue we face in scotland and independents isn't and the future of hollywood and devolved pounds is not the issue that we don't have on the agenda and frankly to just missing the point the

reality is that labor has to either face up to the fact that a massive devolution program or frankly independence is going to happen or scotland is of absolutely no relevance to them and nothing they say in scotland will ever count again with any significant part of the population or frankly they just walked away i mean you know labor is just wasting its time if it doesn't listen to what people are saying in scotland and their assumption and i know so many people in scotland think that this is true that the labor party of scotland is just a branch office of the labor party in london when actually the labor party in scotland has to say something very different indeed to be relevant in scotland from what it has to say elsewhere is just wrong but we saw or can star obviously very angry that the labor party in scotland on bret's it said something very different from what he was saying in london when the bracks it votes arose just after christmas and stamping down to get his way i'm sure that's why richard leonard was forced to leave i don't think he went voluntarily i think he probably was forced to

leave and if that's his attitude labor in scotland is dead. finally a professor at a buffet care starmer same stuff abandon the possession on europe even noise or convinced your opinion is that just because of trying to attract votes back in the in the red wall i can only presume that this is political positioning for opportune reasons he might be trying to appease the red wall the reality is he's alienating very large numbers of people who wonder how can i vote for a labor party that won't talk about positive relationship with europe that won't talk about anything but a policy in economic terms that looks like austerity that isn't embrace in the fact that we need clear constitutional reform in the u.k. not just great to devolve power independence for those parts of the u.k. that want it but also 1st past the post to make sure that there is the opportunity for opinion a wide range of opinion to be representative parliament when the labor party is seen as an obstacle to all those things what is its future what is the future of

political choice in england in particular when frankly the options for the person arriving in the ballot box next time around again to be decided limited i'm worried about it professor john maher fair thank you so much for joining us on the alex salmond show thank you. if a week is a long time in politics than a year in the template and never has that been more true that through the long slow night meal of 2020 what was johnson's beta of the pandemic and these european deal with fishermen struggling to maintain their markets looks at best mediocre it is a common is a majority of 80 bulls who has plenty of trying to regain his module so key a style most liberal party has come back to the suspect ability but is that enough to get back to power there's a real question mark over whether he has that cut through to cope with the harsh

economic times ahead and then for both major parties that are the restless natives of scotland are we going to settle down but are we going to settle up this coming year promises to be a very long time in politics indeed so from tells me to myself and all of the shores goodbye for no stay safe we'll see again next week. welcome to max kaiser but as a survival guide. looking forward to that in a down. yanks this is what happens to pensions in britain

delegates and watched as a report. riots in several u.s. cities just. between democrats and republicans we must end this war. since if you notice he gets a response from the mainstream media we look at whether the enthusiasm is just the . worst tackling.

coming up on the program.