Russell Brand Interviews Labour Party Leader: Vintage Video

Russell Brand

Last month, prior to the British Election, Russell Brand interviewed Ed Miliband, the Leader of the Labour Party in Britain.

The two discussed politics and issues, many of which are similar to issues facing Western countries.

Miliband mentions “zero-hour contracts.” What are “zero-hour contracts?”

According to http://www.gov.uk,

“Zero-hour contracts are also known as casual contracts. Zero hour contracts are usually for ‘piece work’ or ‘on call’ work, eg interpreters.

“This means:

-they are on call to work when you need them
-you don’t have to give them work
-they don’t have to do work when asked

“Zero hour workers are entitled to statutory annual leave and the National Minimum Wage in the same way as regular workers.

“You are still responsible for health and safety of staff on zero hour contracts.

13-Year-Old Took Part In Four-Hour Gang Rape In U.K.

A young schoolboy was involved in a violent gang rape with six older men which was all filmed on a cellphone, a U.K. court has heard.

An investigation was sparked and police launched a major operation after a 20-year-old woman told police she was raped in a house in Southampton, Hampshire, UK, in January, according to mirror.co.uk.

Earlier in the night the woman had been visiting friends before walking through a subway on her way home, according to The New York Post.  That’s where she met one of the defendants, Mihaita Palie.

The Mirror reports that she went back to the house, where six others were waiting, and was subjected to a horrifying four-hour ordeal, which was filmed on a cellphone.

“In this room were these defendants and they subsequently subjected her to rape and other sexual abuse as described in the indictment,” said prosecutor Simon Foster.

The court was told that the woman managed to make her way to a public phone after the attack and was able to call police.

“She telephoned the police. They came and found her. She told them about the address in which she had spent a few hours,” Foster added.  “The defendants were arrested and she later gave a three-hour account in interview,” he said.

Octavian Militaru, 37, Mihaita Palie, 33, Cosmin Nicut, 20, Radu-Florin Panciuc, 20, Nicolae Ghinea, 21, Ion Matei, 41, and the 13-year-old boy are facing a four-week trial. writes The New York Post.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boy-13-took-part-four-5858429

http://nypost.com/2015/06/11/13-year-old-took-part-in-filmed-four-hour-gang-rape-prosecutor/

Did Tories ‘Play Dirty’ With Media Tricks?

Recently, BBC journalists and executives told a Labour Party adviser that the BBC was threatened by Conservative (Tory) Leaders about “what would happen” if they didn’t fall into line over the election coverage.

The BBC gets funding from the government and other sources, something like PBS in the United States.

In related news, the British newspaper The Independent wrote that media owner Rupert Murdoch berated journalists at his papers for not doing enough to “stop the (left-of-center) Labour Party from winning the election.”

Murdoch “warned them that the future of the company depended on stopping Labour from getting elected,” writes The Independent.

Murdoch’s news outlets – including Fox News in the U.S. – tend to lean right-wing or have a conservative outlook.

After Mr. Murdoch paid a visit to his company’s The Sun newspaper, they devoted a two-page spread to the election – with the left-hand page containing a 10-point “pledge” to voters written by David Cameron.

Britain’s The Mirror published an article by Lucy Powell that gives examples of the Tory assault on the British media.

“The first was when John Major gave a speech on ‘The chaos of Labour with SNP pulling the strings,'” writes Powell.

“This marked the fourth day in a row of the BBC leading with that story even though Ed had already ruled out a deal with the SNP,” she writes.

“I could understand the Tory press parroting the Central Office line but I couldn’t understand why the BBC was pushing the story so hard,” she went on.  Was the BBC pushing the story because of implied threats from the government?

The Mirror article claims that scaring voters about the SNP was clearly designed as a “squeeze” message for UKIP and Lib Dem voters to encourage them to vote for the conservative Tories because they didn’t want a Labour government.

The second moment came The Tories took out huge wraparound (front page and back page) adverts in the weekly free papers in each seat.

The attack ads featured a famous note from a former Chief Secretary to the Treasury that implied that a Labour government would run the country to ruin by not controlling the budget.

Ads put out on Facebook, including some allowing users to hand over their email addresses, are costing the Tory party a “whopping £100,000 a month,” according to The Guardian.  That would mean one in every £17 pounds the Tories spent on the last general election campaign goes towards drumming up support on Facebook.

The budget is “a long-term issue dating back to the crash, which the Tories succeeded very early in blaming on Labour’s economic policies, despite the fact they were signed up to them themselves,”  writes Powell in The Mirror.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/lucy-powell-how-tried-reassure-5699489

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/09/liam-byrne-apology-letter-there-is-no-money-labour-general-election

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/feb/06/tories-pumping-facebook-advertising-email-ukip

Party Leaders Resign In Britain

Russell Brand

Three political party leaders in Britain resigned after the British election on May 7th.

Ed Miliband resigned as the Leader of the (left-of-center) Labour Party after the worst Labour result since 1987.

After huge losses for the centrist Liberal Democratic party, the Leader of that party, Nick Clegg, resigned.

The Liberal Democrats were hit particularly hard, and the party has been reduced from 57 seats in Parliament in 2010 down to just eight now.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the smaller right-wing nationalist party UKIP (U.K. Independence Party) also reportedly will resign. The party only got one Member of Parliament into the House of Commons.  Farage has “wavered” on resigning and has not yet technically left his post.

Here, Russell Brand examines the resignation speeches of Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and Nigel Farage (who has now un-resigned) after last week’s election result.

(Updated article)

Does Rupert Murdoch Have Influence Over The Media?

Russell Brand

Rupert Murdoch is an Australian American business magnate, who became managing director of Australia’s News Limited, inherited from his father Sir Keith Arthur Murdoch in 1952. According to Wikipedia, he is the founder, chairman and CEO of global media holding company News Corporation, the world’s second-largest media conglomerate, and its successors News Corp and 21st Century Fox after the conglomerate split in June,2013.

Does Murdoch have a large amount of influence over the media?

21st Century Fox is known for possessing the media companies with the name Fox. That includes movie studio 20th Century Fox, Fox News, Fox (TV) Broadcasting, local Fox stations, and Fox radio. It owns other channels such as National Geographic. It also owns The Wall Street Journal and several other newspapers.

In 2014, Murdoch even made an offer to buy Time Warner, which owns CNN, the second largest cable news group in the U.S. (Fox News is the largest).

Does Murdoch have certain political views, or is he neutral?

Wikipedia states that News Corp papers were accused of taking sides in the 2013 Australian election.  Following the announcement of the Liberal Party victory at the polls, Murdoch tweeted “Aust. election public sick of public sector workers and phony welfare scroungers sucking life out of economy…”

British newspaper The Independent wrote that Murdoch berated journalists at his papers for not doing enough to “stop the (left-of-center) Labour Party from winning the election” in Britain.  He “warned them that the future of the company depended on stopping Labour from getting elected,” writes The Independent.  After Mr. Murdoch paid a visit to his company’s The Sun newspaper, they devoted a two-page spread to the election – with the left-hand page containing a 10-point “pledge” to voters written by David Cameron.

What if Murdoch decided that a war in the Middle East (against Iran or Syria, for example) would be good for him or that he could profit from it?  Do you think his news channels and print media would remain neutral, or would they push a pro-war agenda?

Murdoch’s News Corp owns several newspapers other countries as well. In England, he owns The Sun.

In fact, he seems to own everything under The Sun. Russell Brand talks about it in his “Trews” video.

(Updated article)

British Election Tomorrow, May 7th

CNN

Parliamentary elections in the U.K. will be held tomorrow, May 7th.

Below are the names of the different parties and leaders. The most likely candidate for Prime Minister would be David Cameron of the Conservative Party or Ed Miliband of Labour.

The Telegraph has The Conservatives and Labour polling neck-and-neck at 35%.

Leader, Party
David Cameron – Conservative Party (Tories)
Ed Miliband – Labour Party
Nick Clegg – Liberal Democrats
Peter Robinson – Democratic Unionist Party
Nicola Sturgeon – Scottish National Party
Leanne Wood – Plaid Cymru
Margaret Ritchie – Social Democratic and Labour Party
Natalie Bennett – Green Party of England and Wales
Nigel Farage – U.K. Independence Party (UKIP)
David Ford – Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

There may be a “hung Parliament,” where no party has an absolute majority. In that case, a bigger party such as Labour or The Conservatives will have to join together with a smaller party (and form a “coalition”) in order to govern.

CNN takes a look at some of the highlights of this year’s election.

‘Grandad Hooligans’ Terrorizing British Soccer

Soccer (football) club chairmen in Britain are warning of a new threat of football hooliganism from retired grandfathers.

Dave Doggett, boss of the soccer team Cambridge United, says a hardcore of around 10 men in their 50s and 60s are trying to relive the 1980s by arranging fights with rivals on match days.

“Club chiefs say ageing thugs who took part in violence during the 1970s and 80s are returning to the terraces,” according to the Daily Mirror.

Mr. Doggett warns the violence has increased recently as the men return to the club in their retirements after being distracted by years of having a career and raising families.

Doggett says there is a danger that they will spread violence as they try to encourage younger men to join their “gangs,” states The Telegraph.

Writing in his club’s latest program, Mr Doggett says: “Unfortunately football clubs still attract an undesirable element of society that appear determined to ruin the enjoyment of real supporters of football clubs.

“Our promotion to the Football League appears to have encouraged our ‘risk’ from the 1980s to come out of retirement.

“Many of them are grandparents trying to encourage the next generation to join their ‘gangs’.

“It sounds pathetic but unfortunately it is reality.”

Doggett states they are working closely with police on the matter.

More:

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/grandad-football-hooligans-coming-out-5493256

Russell Brand Looks At British Election Debate

Russell Brand

The national British election will take place on Thursday May 7th, as decreed by the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which was enacted on September 15th, 2011.

Recently, there was a televised debate that failed to give any party a decisive boost, according to The Week.

The “slugging match” that came afterward was over Trident nuclear submarines and the tax arrangements of people living in the U.K. who have a foreign residence, or “non-doms.”  The debate appeared to have put the Labor Party on top of the heap.

Then came the “Challengers Debate,” which included the five main opposition leaders, but neither incumbent David Cameron of the Conservative Party nor Nick Clegg, leader of the Liberal Democrats, was there. Most pundits suggested that either Ed Miliband of the Labor Party or Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish National Party (SNP) came out on top.

With three weeks to go, the British election still looks as unpredictable and unusual as ever.

Conservative and Labor are the two main rivals, and they remain neck and neck in the polls. The race between them has not looked so tight since 1992, states The Week.

Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats continue to trail Ukip, the Greens are still a factor, and the SNP’s position appears if anything to be growing stronger.

In this video, Russell Brand discusses the Challengers Debate.

More:

http://www.theweek.co.uk/election-2015#ixzz3XuBfwOVq

London Chelsea Beats Man. U., Only 2 Wins From Title

In England, the soccer team – er, football team – Chelsea moved to within two wins of reclaiming the Premier League title after player Eden Hazard’s goal gave them a narrow victory over Manchester United at Stamford Bridge stadium in Fulham, England.

Victory in the coming games at Arsenal and Leicester City will return the title to Stamford Bridge for the first time since 2010.

London’s Chelsea were pushed all the way by a resurgent Manchester United, looking toward a seventh successive victory.

Manchester United player Wayne Rooney and the recalled Radamel Falcao came closest for Man. U., but once again they fell victim to the resilience and defensive strength that is Chelsea’s trademark under manager Jose Mourinho, assisted by the brilliance of Hazard, states the BBC.

(Updated post)

Manchester Football (Soccer) Club’s Sexist Chants At Medic Called ‘Horrible’

There have been a number of high-profile sexism cases in British football (soccer) in recent years, according to the BBC.

The Football Association is calling on fans to report sexist abuse at games after being shown disturbing scenes of women officials and staff being subjected to obscene chants, according to BBC Sport.

Footage obtained by the BBC shows Chelsea’s female medic Dr Eva Carneiro and a female assistant referee Helen Byrne suffering taunts during recent matches.

FA board member Heather Rabbatts described the abuse as “horrible”.  She said it should not be tolerated, adding: “We are absolutely encouraging people to report incidents like this.”

The footage was taken at Chelsea matches against Manchester City and Manchester United, as well as a game in the Football League.

More: http://worldsoccertalk.com/2015/03/05/chelsea-medic-eva-carneiro-subjected-to-sexist-chants-by-manchester-united-fans-video/#RgXo12VDZUJrtbC8.99

Update:  two videos of this incident have been removed from the internet.

Edited version:

Big World

The original video below has been removed.

(Updated post)