Absolutely fantastic interview! Alan Johnson is without question one of the most interesting MPs Labour has had since the Blair era. I was fortunate enough to meet him earlier this year and he was just an absolutely phenomenal person to get to speak with.
@JulianFifield
2 күн бұрын
Alan Johnson. What an inspiration. Labour needs him. Sadly gone now Will look for his novels now
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
He's one of the biggest horrors in politics. Horrible Blairite.
@belugamale2334
Күн бұрын
@@clivet3252 Whereas, from this comment and the ones I've seen below, you seem like a lovely person.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@belugamale2334 let me tell you, you trust me more than you can these three snakes
@neilstapley8255
2 күн бұрын
Always admired Alan Johnson. This has been a great interview
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
I always thought he was a puffy eyed Blairite tosspot.
@karenwalsh1844
Күн бұрын
I like Alan Johnson who speak on issues so passionate for his community. An great interview so far on your podcast. I could listen to Alan Johnson. Well done Alastair and Rory on doing an good interview.
@mowogfpv7582
Күн бұрын
Tuition fees are not only paid by graduates. They are paid by anyone who starts a uni course and then eventually reaches median earnings. And meanwhile interest is acruing. This is a big problem with tuition fees. It introduces an unreasonable penalty for failure (one which only applies to poorer students). I can see why lecturers complain that students feel entitled to a pass. They *are* entitled. They've paid for it and they need to be able to earn that money back.
@ladybird4015
2 күн бұрын
Excellent discussion with a brilliant guest. Thank you to the three of you.
@Mike20216
Күн бұрын
Great Episode, Could listen To Alan all day, fascinating life story, Great Minister of state, Lovely guy and you can see why with the values his mother and his remarkable sister taught him.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@Mike20216 a Blairite disgrace
@trevormatthews8192
Күн бұрын
Working class born in 56, but I had no idea such nice people existed in politics. Now blown away by these peoples warmth and intelligence and just can't understand why todays world is so messed up.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@trevormatthews8192 these are three of the worst
@trevormatthews8192
Күн бұрын
@@clivet3252 Some people's negativity astounds me. You don't actually know these people, so if you can't say something positive, don't say anything at all. Or to put it another way f*** off you don't know what you're talking about.
@MargaretFarmer-v2u
2 күн бұрын
Brilliant guest, interesting , funny and very knowledgable
@kathleenbrady9916
23 сағат бұрын
Great interview...what an amazing journey Alan's made from such humble and challenging beginnings
@matchfactoryman
2 күн бұрын
One of the last of the old Labour politicians who had a proper job before entering parliament
@backgammonbacon
2 күн бұрын
Whats a proper job?
@matchfactoryman
2 күн бұрын
@@backgammonbacon Alan Johnson was a postman, unlike most MPs today who study PPE at university become researchers for MPs in the commons, then become MPs themselves.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@matchfactorymanhe soon sold out and showed his true colours
@mikeashton4864
Күн бұрын
Politics needs quality people like you 3.....our country needs you!
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
They're three of the worst
@ewanwelsh4339
Күн бұрын
What a fabulous listen.
@juliancorlett2839
2 сағат бұрын
It's always a real pleasure to listen to Alan Johnson, as it was reading his memoir.
@KathWilliams-d7e
Күн бұрын
Alan Johnson has always been my hero . I have read and re read his autobiographies over and over . Wonderful I wish he was in government now 😕 🙄 😒.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@KathWilliams-d7e you're in serious trouble if Alan Johnson is your hero
@markliam9446
Күн бұрын
What a remarkable man. Great interview.
@stellatownson2737
Күн бұрын
Honourable Alan Johnson!!!
@michaelstewart3532
Күн бұрын
Great listen this. We need more Alan Johnsons in the world.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@michaelstewart3532 please stop the sycophancy
@davidklyne5134
21 сағат бұрын
I very much enjoyed Alan's first book about his childhood as although I am just a few years older it captured very well those immediate post war years, although for me in Southampton rather than London. It encouraged me to buy his next three books as well.
@buzzukfiftythree
Сағат бұрын
Alan epitomises what Labour is all about - social justice and equality of opportunity. A great interview
@mattwright2964
11 сағат бұрын
What a brilliant interview. God we need thoughtful politicians again. Instead we get populists who just say simplustic things voters want to hear regardless of facts.
@ndmukuk
2 күн бұрын
I've read Alan's three autobiographies. Brilliant.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@ndmukuk did he write one for each of his faces?
@miller2624
10 сағат бұрын
This story rings so true for so many people. What a good man alan is .
@chrisellicott2588
Күн бұрын
Great bloke.
@rhiannonhill
2 сағат бұрын
I was born in 1950 and we were very poor, we lived in Forest Hill, South London, but I don't remember anyone having 'gas lighting' and outside loos! Wow!
@Bfg12327
Күн бұрын
Currently, the NHS is running off slave labour conditions for the staff. The exodus of the next generation of doctors is well on its way. The Goodwill has run out , you’ll need to borrow a significant amount and write off some student loans in order to keep staff. And I’m not sure the public have the appetite for this given the reaction to junior doctors getting a wage restoration that was misrepresented as a wage rise. But that doesn’t even touch the sides of the lack of infrastructure and capacity. The level of investment needed is beyond anything anybody realises. The staff can see it, but that’s why they’re walking away, they know it can’t be fixed within a generation.
@gratiaDei777
2 күн бұрын
I remember at one point thinking we might end up with Alan Johnson vs Boris Johnson (possible if Alan replaced Brown in 2010 & won in 2015, leading possibly to Boris replacing Cameron in 2015, in turn leading to Johnson vs Johnson in the subsequent GE)
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
Who would vote for a man with a face like a bag of spanners?
@michaelwhelan7297
Күн бұрын
I’m labour through and through but I know the NHS only worked so well because we borrowed so much. Yes we implemented good policies but fundamentally it was based on borrowing more. The argument is whether we should borrow more, and I think we should. That’s where tories differ
@mikebeevers2416
2 күн бұрын
Fantastic.
@homeslice0195
13 сағат бұрын
Sad that the consensus is that a person that takes the time to appreciate music, art, books, theatre is somehow less equipped to be a political leader than someone who is all-consumed by the position. Seems to me that someone into the arts is exactly the kind of person ideally suited being a leader.
@cpuuk
5 сағат бұрын
I use to work in the Private Sector of NHS- we had a service that cost £9.50 per patient, per booking. This we then had to supply to Private NHS Middle Management group for £13 pp, pb (we had to make a buck on this). They then sold it onto the actual NHS for £80 pp, pb. And that my friends is why NHS has been so expensive (requiring cut-backs), not because of people's wages, but because of the middle management private sector inflating the price.
@lukedaniels7750
Күн бұрын
Univertity fees. Looking back, were they a great idea ? Putting a generation of young people into large amounts of debt. It now costs 50k to go to university, a small amount of people are going to be able to pay that off over ten years. An equal amount of people will have that debt hanging over their head their entire lives.
@rookierookierookie
8 сағат бұрын
You really do have to take into consideration that it is not "debt" in the usual sense. If I take out a 50k loan and don't pay it back, bailiffs will eventually come and repossess my home. That is "debt hanging over your head". My student loan is taken out of my earnings over a certain threshold. If I never meet that threshold or pay the money back in my lifetime, it's eventually written off. It's nothing like the stress of actually being in debt, if you don't have the money or don't use the degree you literally never have to think about it ever again. If you do find a medium+ paying job, it's an extra tax on your earnings. You can disagree with that tax, sure, but it's not helpful to speak about it as though people are being forced to start life with a £50k loan from the bank.
@lukedaniels7750
7 сағат бұрын
@@rookierookierookie It is not a tax, it is a debt. Attemptig to present it is such a way is an attempt at deception. I had my very small student loan pass to a debt company and they took me to court over it. Sounds like a debt rather than a tax.
@rookierookierookie
4 сағат бұрын
@@lukedaniels7750 This is absolutely false. Student loans since 1998 are income-contingent and repayments are only required if you earn at least £25000 a year, at which point 9% of the difference between your actual income and the income threshold is what you repay per year. If you are employed, this will be deducted automatically in almost all cases by your employer, in the same way as NI and income tax. If you are self-employed, you pay it as part of your yearly tax return. If you don't pay your taxes, avoid giving them information about your earnings and status, or try to hide your earnings, yes they can take legal action against you, just as with all tax evasion. They cannot take legal action against you or demand payment if you do not have the income to afford repayment.
@rapatoket
2 сағат бұрын
It gets better and better
@caractacus22
Күн бұрын
Alan Johnson has lived a wonderful life. Not pretty, but solid working class. I love him to bits.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
He's the very definition of a champagne socialist.
@benw582
Күн бұрын
@@clivet3252 Clive, do you need a cuddle?
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@benw582 do you need a slap?
@benw582
Күн бұрын
@@clivet3252 Clive, you’ve left about 10 comments on this video, all of which are heavy on vitriol and light on fact. Perhaps it’s worth switching the computer off and heading out for a walk.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@benw582 perhaps it's worth Alan Johnson keeping his trap shut and the likes of you stopping fawning over self-serving nasty pieces of work.
@phueal
Күн бұрын
Talking about "The Left" in the 60s and 70s, and how young left-wing radicals won't necessarily stay that way for ever, I used to work for an organisation called "The Winch" in North London - it started in the early 1970s when some young left-wing radicals squatted a derelict pub and turned it into a community centre - among them a young Peter Mandelson.
@henner1231
2 күн бұрын
How the new government could do with someone like him. Their front bench is shockingly bad.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
It is but he'd make it even worse
@advocate1563
Күн бұрын
Isn't it just. A business secretary who's never worked in business. What could possibly go wrong?!!! Fortunately we left uk last year. Writing was on the wall with both parties.
@macsmiffy2197
Күн бұрын
@@clivet3252explain.
@DSTH323
2 күн бұрын
It's difficult for us Americans to understand British politics. Rory seems to suggest in various places that today British MPs mostly spend all their time talking about themselves and their greatness or the loathsomeness of others (or walking) and getting into all kinds of trouble because they know nothing or very little about their arbitrary public assignments while the Civil Service actually runs the whole government: that it's all kind of a facade. What kind of farce is British Politics then? It's perfectly understandable that more and more British politicians these days spend a great deal of their time doing or appearing on podcasts talking, talking, talking, no?
@Alexander-yb1zc
2 күн бұрын
That's exactly how it works 😂
@robertdavidson8028
2 күн бұрын
These are ex -politicians who would only be getting up to mischief if they weren't spending their time making, in particular, podcasts. I, like many others, believe that Blair (and some others, quite possibly including Campbell), should be indicted for getting us into an illegal war - one started at the instigation of one of your presidents, I might add - so don't get cheeky with us, letters and numbers only guy or doll. Our politics has only become closer to the same sort of farce that yours has been for even longer, as far as I can tell. Not that we are exemplar in the least - we were busy doing skull-duggery of a scatalogical nature when there were still plenty of indigenous North Americans building tee-pees, wig - wams etc. and only killing bison "responsibly". It is certainly true of Tory, and probably true of the present, nominally Labour Government, though really, in my and many others' opinions, the Labour party, for the most part, has moved so far to the right that it is scarcely distinguishable from the Tories now (a bit like Democrats and Republicans have been for an even longer time), and there is some speculation how much influence Blair and some others, perhaps, of his entourage, may be exerting over Chairman Starmer. It may also be true of Labour, as it was of the Tories, though to a lesser extent I hope, that some of the ministers know less about their brief than they should, or in which other mps within their party might have more expertise. When that happens, as it did a lot in the previous Tory Government - which Rory was particularly outspoken about, and which affected his career (and which might have jaundiced his opinion a little) - it is, I suspect, down to human venality and ambition, and brought about either by jealousy, or insecurity that someone's superior expertise might show others up as being not on top of their brief. However, moving and eye-opening though Alan Johnson's story of his youth was, which it was, when it comes to choosing between Wilson and Blair there are some of us who have no difficulty in choosing. In 1965-6, when LBJ was trying to force Wilson to send British troops to Vietnam, Wilson had no difficulty in saying the N word ( even though my private suspicion is that it may have cost the Diego Garcians their homeland), whereas when George Dubya was looking for allies in his war on terror - misdirected (as well as misguided) though it was, TB was only too ready to jump on board, and spread any myths that needed spreading in order to give Dubya his vengeance - (I might add in retaliation to the US for some of their previous crimes). So - No Contest then. Also, though Wilson was a right winger (at a time when the party was less to the right than it is now) he fostered, and was secure enough to welcome a debate, and allowed the left wing of the party to contribute meaningfully to that debate, which many thought, gave rise to better legislation being brought forward, and a more democratic party. 'Shame we've lost all that, imo.
@bb2021
2 күн бұрын
😁😁😁 I know what you mean - but really? Talking about farce! Pot and kettle I think! 😁😁😁
@baronvontrap3325
Күн бұрын
Dead right. British politics is now the fiefdom of middle class people who did PPE at Oxford or something similar and rapidly moved into politics or 'journalism' while avoiding realities even a mile away in South Ken. They are as surprised as Rory at the realities of the lives of ordinary office cleaners and countless other folk who keep the wheels turning. Thanks Alan for being you and thanks to Linda. More power to her and young men and women like her.
@edwardkenworthy7013
Күн бұрын
Yes it's a farce, and our awful civil service needs scrapping, but at least it isn't the US. A choice between Harris or Trump: talk about Hobson's Choice.
@PaulHooton-w8w
5 сағат бұрын
Pleasure 😍
@beatonthedonis
2 күн бұрын
The man who led the Home Office when the key decision that led to the Windrush scandal was taken, who refused to investigate MI5 torturers, saying he greatly admired them, and who led the disastrously complacent Remain campaign.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
He's an absolute horror. One of the worst of a bad lot.
@elliottbrice281
8 сағат бұрын
The Problem with the NHS which barely anyone speaks about is not that it hasn't got enough money it is that the wastage is that high from overpaying for basic supplies, contractors and loads more things.As its all public money so no one cares.
@RichieKeane
2 сағат бұрын
True gent, may not agree with all of is politics. Rory please can we have a 3hr Militant special by Alistair for xmas... so great footage on yt
@ged999
4 сағат бұрын
Nice to see someone normal on the podcast, rather than the usual warmonger
@FireflyOnTheMoon
Күн бұрын
I didn't even know gas street lighting lasted into the 1950s. His childhood sounds pretty literally Dickensian - 100 years after Dickens not much had changed for those slums.
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
He's certainly made up for it since
@heartofoak45
2 күн бұрын
How the current Labour Government fairs with the N.H.S. remains to be seen. They have started with as they see it sorting out the Junior Doctors' Dispute. But have they? I would remind them of Aneurin Bevan's response when asked how he had managed to persuade the then-independent medical profession to join the nascent N.H.S. He replied, 'I STUFFED THEIR MOUTHS WITH GOLD'.
@advocate1563
Күн бұрын
Well they clearly aren't happy with Reeves hitting the 25% tax free lump sum.
@elkpaz560
7 сағат бұрын
A potential leader who was genuinely from the working class. Resigned because of marital issues. What a waste.
@TheBananaLoverorignal
Күн бұрын
Oh my god. This man thinks he did not benefit from higher education? Look, our society is unequal, but it has very little to do with higher education.
@unknown_error5484
22 сағат бұрын
Based on the thumbnail, I initially thought you had booked Sir Alex Ferguson.... but alas
@steve6121
Күн бұрын
So no ideas on how to fix the NHS then. Just one idea (PPP) on how to attract some capital investment. Thanks for that. Big play on extended hours as a win back in his day. But has anyone noticed the “out of hours’ terminology? Out of hours! Nice that the GPs are doing us such a favour by deigning to see us when it is slightly inconvenient for them. Did anyone notice that the big funding injection back in the day led to huge increases for GP incomes, so much so that many starting working part time? More money to go up the wall is not the answer, and can only be a short term sticking plaster since, as Rory has previously said, continuously increasing the health budget as a share of government spending is not a plausible long term plan. The last time I looked, hospital consultant face to face follow up with a patient accounted for 4% of the hospital budget. Could this be done in a different way at half the cost? Obviously. There’s a couple of £ billion. You’re welcome.
@tmcb2000
Күн бұрын
Johnson came across as good as Davies was bad, which is saying a lot.
@mikebeevers2416
2 күн бұрын
And Clarke didn't lose his seat. He chose to stand in Plymouth again.
@mikebeevers2416
2 күн бұрын
Wrong about Heath offering Thorpe Home Sec. He considered it, was advised otherwise.
@lighting7508
2 күн бұрын
the social media age isn't fun :( the only people who make it to the top nowadays are Tiktok clowns.
@mikebeevers2416
2 күн бұрын
Meant not to stand in Plymouth again.
@PaulDenison-r7r
Күн бұрын
Fix the NHS my rear end they did quite a bit of damage starting with removing a Coronary care unit at Llandudno General hospital. It's over centralising hospitals by them that has ambulances lining up waiting to get to an A and E!
@scooby1992
Күн бұрын
There has been a push to regionalise Cardiac Units and Major Trauma Centres and research shows this is right even though it does mean patients travelling further to hospitals . Ambulances werent lining up to get into A and Es when Labour were last in power and satisfaction with the NHS was at it's highest .
@clivet3252
Күн бұрын
@@PaulDenison-r7r they put a Costa in reception and tarted up the day wards
@PaulDenison-r7r
Күн бұрын
@@scooby1992 They set the scene for the ambulances lining up to happen. I told them back in 1998 that eventually the ambulances wouldn't cope in the long term and traveling further makes the difference between life or death and people have died as a result and I doubt they or their families satisfaction was measured accurately at that point!
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