what are the prospects and whether they are making any progress in negative and then we turn to the s. m piece. indefatigable angus. brendan mcneal, owner, 15 years after he held tony blair's speech to the parliament, to fire on the cash for honor scandal, he turns to the free with a new build on board us. johnson's enablement which will it make any difference this time, right. these key introduce later in the program, beg 1st to retreats, emails i messed up on last week that i just issue featuring a special interview with a stored in or in dudley edwards 1st from george brandon. he says a tonic to hear alex always positive and interesting. he frazer says another 1st class you thanks. edit it says as my medical history like her own dudley edwards. ricky ferguson messages we want more than scottish nationalism to survive. we want our country back to prosper. my career says scotland seems to be doing a lot of talking. the walking needs to come soon. otherwise boredom will arrive

before that. i'm finally to liam griffin says, and i don't mean to be a smart alec. i'm happy for the 30th of november to become scotlands national day, but the 30th of november was originally a holiday of obligation in the church calendar to celebrate the feast of saint i do not like many in the house of lords, the newly ennobled by been sick of has brought a wealth of experience as professor of accounting under university object field. he has immediately put this to good use and the cross party attempt to hold the government to previous commitments to pensioners. but will it make a difference? he's in discussion with alex, love sick a welcome to the alex. i'm unsure. pleasure to meet you and to be here. but you're a relatively new member of the upper house. the house a lot. you come on to the, the chamber with substantial outside experiences, a professor of finance and accounting and see how have you found the our cane

process is off the house a lot. well ok, just to amplify a little bit. i was professor of accounting and finance at 3 major u. k. universities. generally i was researching what i call the dark side of capitalism and now are confronted that fully in parliament. you can see that there is in build lobby of big corporations and the rich people and frequently legislation is modified to appease those interests. and those people who are really negatively affected by the dark practices, whether it is bribery, corruption, money laundering tax dodging. often there please are not really heard, and this is what i really want to represent in parliament unit advisor to jamie carbon, as leave a party leader this out law that a contradiction suddenly hooted, advisor, jeremy carbon seeing, let's cut out the tax dodge is the lobbying. of these big corporations coming in to

the non elected chamber of the house, a lot on appointed, undemocratic jim. i think you're absolutely right, and one has to face up to these are a contradictions i came in the house and i did say to john macdonell, when i won this issue was 1st discussed through the labor party finance treasure and he was the shadow chancellor. i said, look, i would, i would go to the house a lot on the condition that i can vote it out of existence and have it replaced by an elected chamber. but another issue is they're all kind of competing discourse as an issues. and they need to be amplified in all kind of institutional spaces. if i, for example, i'm not raising questions about tax avoidance, bribery, corruption, money laundering. chances are many of those issues won't get a good airing. so i am really here to represent what tends to be ignored and marginalized because that is, that is a key in a sense, the good life that you to tackle those issues had on. well, i been,

i was in the house of commons for 25 years wanting to vote it out of existence. as far as scotland was concerned, i am not one to talk no near short time in the lord's just stored a year. if a mouse is a, a champion of pensioners and this cross party alliance, which has been making some ground there, in terms of passing a dissenting voices from the lords, having them flung back in your face by the house of commons. but what is this cross party lines trying to do in the upper chip? i think people may have heard different perspectives on this, but essentially what we're concerned about is justice for our retirees. the eucharist age pension is the lowest as a fraction of average earnings in the industrialized world, it is about 24 percent of the average earnings. the e u average is about 60 percent, and some countries have it even higher, and nobody can live on around 8000 pounds

a year of the state pension. and there are about 2100000 pensioners who get less than 100 had a week. and the majority of those are women. women are particularly disadvantaged because there is no gender pay equality. and that then works his way through that they don't pay if he like, full national insurance contributions, they can get full occupational pay. so it is really people being condemned to a life of poverty, misery, an early death. and that is what we are really concerned about that that is wrong and that needs to be addressed. but it is not just an issue for the current retirees. it is an issue for future retirees as well. because current retirees are suffering from the past. misdemeanors of governments, so we want to make sure that the future retiree is, don't suffer from the same. so therefore you need a much, much higher stayed pension. now what does this triple lot a professor of caitlin? so can you hello views was as triple lot that was so concerned about it was really

introduced in 201111. and the idea was that the state pension should rise in line with the highest of the 3 measurements that is either 2.5 percent or the rate of inflation or average earnings. and the government has decided this year that it really wants to suspend it. they say for one year, but that itself is catastrophic because that one years suspension means pensioners are deprived of about 5400000000 pounds of pension payments in one year. and the recent treasury forecast covers the next 5 years. and it shows that over 5 year period pensioners would lose spending power of $30500000000.00 pound. can you imagine what the consequences of that are? and pensioners tend to generally spend money in the local economy. so a lot of local economies would actually be decimated as a result. only chance that shattered got by so it would been for the this global

pandemic, we're still going through it. public expenditures increased massively to try and protect the economy, including pensioners. and actually just asking for one year of a lower rise, it is not asking too much on the chance to list it. well, that is what the government says until you borrow down into his claims. firstly, there is a 37000000000 pounds surplus are sitting in the national insurance fund account. and out of that, if he paid of 5400000000, that's not going to make a big dent. secondly, at the moment, we have a huge anomalies. for example, in the u. k, there is no national insurance on unearned income. just take one example. what is called capital gains, that is what people make who own 2nd homes are dabble in the securities market arts market commodities market. if you charged care and national insurance,

the current rate on the capital gains alone law, that would raise a about $8000000000.00 pounds. and capital gains are also taxed at a much, much lower rate than earned income. if you did that, that would raise another 17000000000 pounds. so in other words, the government can easily fund the rise for in the state pensions by simply dealing with tax anomalies or dealing well or eliminating the perks enjoyed by very few people. so capital gains, perks is just enjoyed by 263000 people in the country. whereas the government is disadvantaging about 12 and half 1000000 pensioners. now you put together along the fathers, se coding ex tore ministers a coalition to pass an amendment in the house a lot, but then it was flung back in your face by that the house of commons. the sat not illustrate that at the end of the day that the house of lords can huff and puff,

but you're not the blue the host. i think this is certainly some truth in that, but the fact that her, the house of commons is not willing to listen, also shows what is wrong with our political system. a political party with around 40 percent of the votes and have a huge majority. and the house of commons, and then ignore all reasoned arguments. so maybe what we need is a form of proportional voting so that her broader voices are heard and represented. and we also need lots of young people in parliament because it is their future. we're talking about not just about the retiree's interest. if you look at the last few weeks, i bought us johnson's government in desperate trouble on what's generally generically called salisa desperate trouble law on the the shift there at the national health service in terms of social care, a big rebut, vault and tony benches. and yet no real revolt on pensions, rather curious,

an issue like pencils which is effects tens of millions of people, no sign of revolt, whereas issues, lay sleeves and social care, important huge issues, but not perhaps affecting just as many people. why is this discrepancy between what is regarded as a political pressure a and why a pensions don't seem to be high in the government's agenda? the real issue is about poverty. now when the government says we can't afford it, what they are implying is we can afford poverty, misery, squalor, early death. and really that is the issue. the issues about equitable distribution . i mean commonwealth, it has nothing to do with the young versus old. and the media itself has been highly complicit in spreading that myth. and that is what we really need to debunk and hopefully we're deep on that in the parliamentary debates. but it is interesting when these things were debunked, the responsible are the ministers responsible for pensions had absolutely no answer

. they were unable to answer back and quote, any statistic about anything. and finally was hand so tragic reasons, sir. recently the death of sir david amos, the importance of consensus sentence even at danger to empties how to members of the house, the laws go about keeping in touch with the electorate. them in eden hold subsidies, presumably lately can peace of mind that you do it online. the people sealant listener. a have just speech, lord, speaker, you keep going on, pensions given your speaking for me, or do you take part in demonstrations for pensions? how to crab? amazon has the lawns, keep in touch with the people and issues that are trying to inflect. while recently, after the, or even during the debate about the state pension i received, i would say probably over a $100000.00 messages from our pensioners. somebody clearly felt that there was an issue which needed to be aired and neglected. i have many,

many online meetings. and last week i participated or indeed led a demonstration by the national pensioners convention against death of senior citizens due to a cold. many people discount afford to choose between a heating and eating, or they have to make the hard choices and the result is early death. so certainly i have attended many online meetings, also meetings in person. i also been involved with some of these activities before i came to the house, for example, amico, founder of texas justice network. and where we particularly brought the public's attention all over the world to organize what i would call corruption and sleeves, which is tax abuse. and we organize all kinds of activities against giant corporations and indeed government departments as well. so i am quite at home with these kind of things. and i really would encourage people to come out to the streets, make their voices heard because unless their voices are heard,

very little will change. laud seek out more strength, your elbow is a competing peer. thank you so much for joining me and they'll examine show. thank you, alex, join us after the break where alex turn to the political storm, which is in gulf the johnson government in recent weeks. joint a thing ah ah, ah, ah, a

there is no pinnacle of evolution. everything's a bacteria, isn't product to 4000000000 years of evolution in a specific environment. so we, so in that sense where we, we are still a few survivors at the end of a long, long process you. so as in to the springs at yellowstone, we will not do very well. bacteria will do much better than welcome back. the boys johnson governor has become accident prone issues as diverse as northern real, the form of social care and government sleeves. the consistent message which emerges is that the prime minister has lost his grip. johnson came a copper last month when he tried to overturn the standards committee lobbying

decision on former cabinet members. and he won the vote. but the soon and headlong puts critique and ignited the whole issue of n piece. i'd say engine however, is the big issue, the clean sailing of peter, just and other owners, for political pro. but as a young m p, there isn't these angles many aff one the government into chaos in 2006. can you repeat the trick with the johnson governments? alex speaks to him night. i'm just brandon, you're welcome back to the alex salmon show. thank you. good to be back. let's take a look at the, the question your questioning of the prime minister a couple of weeks ago. and the liaison committee, which is a huge challenge for committee chairs like yourself to to us the prime minister in a succession of questions. lowest take a look of, i have to say do you think yourselves look yours down and shit. and so then d, we should stop sending big volume donors to those, the lords, a commonly known as the cash for the owners, and seen as a very cut up to practice internationally. how could you,

at any rate that would be on your own today? yes, i'm looking for, i'm not. well, it was actually, my colleague is jonathan edwards. i happened to be sitting beside him by pass right on, i think, you know, with, to the purchase and to the answer to that is, ah, lisa a bond dodge by the women who contributed huge brought to public. i 3000000 nurses and either in italy to be what it did, even get rid of the system by which the trades you, you barons, fund other parties or we have to. we have to go ahead. oh, will you have with us or you haven't completely taxpayer funded system of politics? we submitted it. so if we need to continue, i with a system by which a public spirited people are give donations. now what interested me about that was almost an implicit admission from the prime minister that the reason for people

going to the lords was there were donors to the party beneath kmiec. or you asked the question, he started talking about a union bobbins giving money to the labor party is such a thing. legal is not legal and factors and explicit acts. the 1925 honors are provincial of abuses. act that is meant to say that if you buy or if he sell an owner, you'll get 2 years in prison. i have a lot that is just not taken very seriously, but law of you case, not taken very seriously at all. i think it was really interesting about the way the feminist answered was he went straight to the fact that this was something he had to do there for funding because the liver party, he was old and i will get their money from the trade union. so therefore, the only way the conservatives similarly could get money was for 3000000 pound owners to end up in the house of lords. 1925 act open and shut case me. you got foreman this of earth in use that term and back as a young m p and 20052006. you hurried tony blair,

then prime minister on exactly the same issue that may yourself popular with tony blair, but that seemed to make much difference to the the voters did it. well, i think by the time the given 2010, i think that was maybe plato might have less labor, shorter funds for the 2007 scottish election. the didn't quite of the coffers fluid may have played a role in the election of a, a certain individualist 1st minister, claiming the credit for the roughly yes. for that guy, simon. when you get done with me, the serious point for i guess we, those us the despite the fact that the met interviewed boy and has onto us and caused him huge inconvenience. and i remember sitting in the commons that he wasn't his favorite pass. and let's put it that way. mean if looks could kill, you'd have been 6 through under it, but it's different at the end of the the lead to anything. so if you couldn't

succeed in toppling 20 bliss, why do you think it's worth putting, bought us johnson? well, the current, the coalition, that was 1000000 pounds depletion large, the correlation knows 3000000 to prisoners laws. and i'm sure, and the answer is inflation on the conservative. but you know, at the point it was decided that on the balance of probabilities, that wouldn't be a successful prosecution. so that didn't continue. i did think that getting some of those characters at the time and the witness box would've been a very interesting situation. indeed because there were some cards going to post the bargain. but the other bargain that's going on at the moment is that the opposition leaders say so pierce dom or that i'd be don't want to talk with it. and i've written to all 3 of the party leaders who send people to those of lords to say they will not send donors at those of lords. the response has been silence. you know, they could come out, know, david could come out here, stamina could come out and say, we will not send the donors. there's a lot of pressure on the prime minister not to do the same,

but they're not doing that. this is in the context of load oak shots and in 2014, when he stepped down, as i think it was liberal party treasure, to the practice of cash for donors to somebody failed to put an end to scotland yard them at the bottom. please don't have the investigative capability of capacity to seem to go very far with this. something's very strange. explain to us about the bill that you've presented to your hub bushing, the sale of photos. again, despite the fact it's already the law of the law. what purpose does that bill this technique and introducing that parliamentary bill or highlight it gives it a focus. and it's a very simple bill that basically says anybody who needs more than 50000 pounds to any political party cannot be appointed or no bold earn those of lords for peter to 5 years. of course, the perfectly free to give 5000000 or 10000000 or 25000000. just don't expect to find yourself in those of large for 5 years. and i think that the, the linkage between the cash i donors,

which is very clear in the united kingdom would be severely curtailed. and because who knows what the political weather will be in 5 years time. and it's a risky investment to make for, for, for some vanity, vanity position that let people sometimes feel they need. but yes, i can see that the media is fascination with issues like cache for autos as a, as an important issue for, for ordinary focus. let's say pensions and the ending of the triple lot, the money that's been taken out of the pockets in the past as a pension. we know what you're doing, but that sort of thing. well, i think a fish right from the headed off and said, and i think the problems with this government are multifaceted. this is one positive. it depends on the another passage of it. i think you know, some of the things ease in action on pensions, positive an action and pages as it made the mistake. of course that gordon brian made when he was chancellor, was almost 12 years ago when he fancies by somebody. and i said, he's 70 expense,

but still we're living in the u. k with the was pensions in europe. all the independent countries and a bonus take for instance, the threat scotland, iceland, ireland, norway, an arc facility if you will, said ending scotland have higher pensions. this cuts through definitely, but it cuts doing various different ways and each facet gets its own time to be highlighted. the liaison committee, this is like a almost unprecedented opportunity for a back bench and i'll be a senior lamp back benchers, but she had a committee. and if you get the prime minister in front of you over a long period of time, unlike primers, those questions, obviously you can swap you away, you've gone and you very much and your cross. yes. yeah, we get 6 minutes and just have it. and then ended up in 6 minutes by the, by the gym and occasionally come in when the prime minister is waffling. when you try and come to that. yeah. and on, there's not motivated by the speaker either you're almost you don't, chairperson. when you have your 6 minutes. busy on you can and did up the prime

minister, not a problem as discretion. so you ask your question, you sit down and he's done. so as long as he wants this time, you're both sitting. if you want to interrupt you ended up wanted to let him hang himself, let him himself describe square, go and glasgow palms, particularly of course, as a pretty much the squid as go. you're going to get with the prime minister and the to be nina and the entire for them of westminster. yes. last few weeks, the prime ministers come under a lot of pressure on the genetic issue, sleeves on the social cale. and. and then with how much trouble is paula johnson. now, in your estimation, boris johnson's box benches have crossed a sort of rubicon to become the sort of duty, the prime minister as a semi deity before. no, they're very much see defeat. and indeed, the legs of clear that the prime minister has good, and they've not only felt to be themselves, can criticize, but they've had others and colleagues criticize. and that moment a sort of,

it's been a new book for them. they felt stronger as a result on the, on the, not as cold as do it as something we're going to see more of that. because once that genie is literally the bottle, that's very hard to present sort of a reverence or, and fear back in the hearts of those m. b 's. previously had that when the ministration runs into trouble, as the johnson administration has done, the people like yourself and the, the back benches. let's call it the of the common. so be a committee chair of course. and people in the house a lot like a lot of seca pensions initiative is that when you come into your own is that when you, you say blood you think to yourself, i'm good chance of make an impression here. well, it's sell the time when other people, so to pay attention. even the, the spell that bought as johnson could cast over the media sort of goes as well and the media to cast round and look at what else is going on. they're no longer focused themselves and the sort of semi deity, quarter deity,

perhaps view of the prime minister. that spells broken and they're looking as do what's going on. and whereas the next piece of trouble coming from the prime minister. and there's probably quite a lot of trouble coming from the premise of, you know, the sort of things he is doing and on kid in england is, is something that's definitely going to bite him because you can't tell people that black is white and, and white is black, unexpected to suspend disbelief in the way that bodies johnson is hoping they will . but when you go, when you get back to bata, the weekends, the talk of the steamy and bottom that the prime minister might be selling all of them in the saw thing, didn't topple lloyd, george didn't topple stanley bulb and it didn't topple. tony blair is going to knock over bullets, johnson. it could knock over, but johnson, but i think that would depend on, on police force keeping up with the law. who knows who bought as johnson has done, and said about the to the player to for instance, back,

can you got your receptionist working on that? no, i did. yes. it's something, it's something worth seeing because i'm, but it is you bought as johnson would have at the time, surely would have called it as he saw it. the honors are being sold. a question is, did he say anything about it? and he said as an imprint, perhaps some of the viewers of your program might be the ones who will find those very words somewhat at other. i was interested to go back to that clip showed at the start of this interview. finally, i was interested in the primary expression for you stop the class thing. there was a mixture of he'll be go again and what's coming now. what did you take out, the prime minister's glance at you when you, when you started on your line of questioning. well, i think the play melissa was hoping sort of go away at the same time. he said, trying to make a friend of you the same time he's he's, he starts to go to roberto's and i told him you heckling yourself. he makes up things himself. i mean, i was in the chair,

tight ended up me of the committee said he's waffling. so i have to, i have to ended up the prime minister plays for time. it's probably the biggest thing he just thing. and i want that over with this is an unusual angle. this guy comes from it's not one i understand particularly well. i don't even he understood the words laundry for instance when i, when we were talking over for the love slant vital word and for the most important word in the gallic language for some national years. what a slides mean. i mean the health, pretty good health when you've got a drama scotlands finest in your hand. i guess bradley neal, thank you so much for joining me once again. on the alex simon, show. great pleasure. thank you. a doesn't majority of 80 in the house of commons. doesn't make it noon from political pressure. the own paxton debacle. what the prime minister ellison on the limits of political power? he couldn't save his friends. but the same time the government successfully fended off a house of lords boards to protect the incomes of millions of pensioners. it may seem

remarkable that the mainstream media invested so much effort into the issue of empty financial dealings and so little into the income of heart priest, pensioners, what issues threaten long term damage to the government's position? no dates in there. we small hours of the morning, the prime minister news is underworld, without troubling parliamentarians such as lord secor or anger smith. he is, however, unlikely to get one but no from alex myself and oh, at virtue is good by. stay safe and we hope to see you all again next week. ah ah.

oh, what else should seem wrong when all, please just don't need any room that you have to fill out. disdain becomes the attitude and engagement equals betray you. when so many find themselves worlds apart, we choose to look for common ground. again, there are rumors of war. there are rumors of invasion and again, the country is ukraine. their allegations of a russian military build up within the countries borders. though it is a fact, crane is receiving legal aid from nato countries who benefits from this strategy.

german chancellor anglo merkel announces harsh curbs on the unvaccinated as rallies continue against mandatory knock elation. amid a surge in coven cases and worries over the new on the constraint. as rush of top diplomat notes and the u. s. has torn up practically every treating with moscow. sergey la, rob warns that the kremlin won't take kindly to even more harsh sanctions threatened by his american counterpart that talks in sweden and a trove of documents appears to show the u. s. government of failed to prosecute cia employees suspected of child sex abuse, and ah.