Russell Brand on Question Time

[The Liberal Media]

eloquent? hahaha. he talks like hes trying to communicate with 12 year olds.

If not for subtitles, I wouldnt have understood a word he was saying.
Sounded like he was in a manic phase

 

[Shambles]

Have long been partial to a bit o' Brand me. I totally get how he would annoy the living shit outta people but I really like him. If you can get past the Victorian chimney sweep/libertine persona and "quirky" speech affectations (both issues that I definitely don't suffer from myself at any time ever at all. especially not the latter. well, definitely not anything like that extent :D) then what he actually says is frequently very insightful and well thought-out. But I can definitely see the other stuff could be a deal-breaker

Am not quite in the drooling fanboy category though cos some of what he says I totally disagree with and his views on drugs are just plain wrong. And, given how he seems to have become the de facto Voice of Young People Wot Take Drugs amongst politicunts over the last coupla years, those wrong-headed views could be seriously harmful to many thousands of people. He's telling 'em exactly what they want to hear - that all addicts need is faith-based, abstinence-only treatment and they will be "cured". Most important part of that being the abstinence-only aspect cos that is precisely what politicunts want in their ideal fantasy world cos it plays well to the slavering hordes - being "tough" on drug users via the medium of faux caring. That most vile and oxymoronic of phrases: "Tough Love". Cruel to be kind and all that. The fact it's utter bollocks and that 12 Step programmes not only cost a bleedin' fortune but also - by their own figures - at best have the same longterm success rate as cold turkey sans outside help at all, and at worst actually halves the chances of breaking an addiction even compared with cold turkey with no treatment or support involved, just doesn't matter cos all they see is a potential drug policy that'll play well in the tabloids whilst simultaneously give the appearance of "doing something" to help addicts - "Look! We've massively increased funding for addiction treatment services since we adopted the Brand Approach!".

I've not watched QT yet but was going to later. I know without seeing it that his stuff on drugs is gonna piss me right off (again). I'd imagine his opinions on other topics would actually be pretty good though.

 

[ColtDan]

his use of words is amazing

shambles do you talk as well as you write, you should do some youtube opinion vids or something, you always talk a lot of sense in detail. get off your tits and have a babble

 

[Ceres]

ugh yeah he better not turn into something like jamie oliver trying to tell everyone what to have for school dinner.

 

[The Liberal Media]

[video]http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b02xb1lm[/video]

Shambles the whole show is also on audio there, as well as the post show phone in
phone in starts at 1hr 38


I found it better on audio as the first time around my blood pressure was rising each time boris johnson spoke

Drug law bit is at 2hr 6 min
Some drug charity worker comes on, forget the blokes name( Peter something from cannabis reform) and they talk about portugals law as well as the dreaded "skunk"

 

[Shambles]

^ Thanks, TLM

Although I dunno if I'm up for three hours so generally just watch the TV version on iPlayer. But as it's a topic of interest I might just give the extended version a whirl this time. Didn't know there was a longer version on radio so thanks for the heads-up

ugh yeah he better not turn into something like jamie oliver trying to tell everyone what to have for school dinner.

Hahahahaha! I can absolutely see him trying to do stuff like that. Maybe not school dinners, but definitely that kinda preachywanky stuff about whatever issues he favours. Most of his political opinions seem perfectly sensible to me. But no politician is ever gonna want to hear that stuff. He's only being courted by 'em cos he's telling 'em exactly what they want to hear and is popular enough amongst Da Yoof that they presume he speaks for everybody in a demographic they find impenetrable. He clearly doesn't - at all - but can see why they want to think that.

his use of words is amazing

shambles do you talk as well as you write, you should do some youtube opinion vids or something, you always talk a lot of sense in detail. get off your tits and have a babble

Ha! Ya, I should definitely try to take over the Ranting Loon crown from that cabbie bloke :D

Or maybe not, I have a rather dull and somewhat droning accent which does me no favours whatsoever. And no, I definitely don't talk as "well" as I write. I will happily talk the arse end offa donkey - especially if suitably foxxorrated - but is far more rambling and disjointed than even my textform. Actual speech has no delete or edit button. Plus, if I spoke too much like I write I'd've been beaten up far more often than I have been. Am a bit of an acquired taste me

Personally, I agree that Brand's wordplay is nothing short of brilliant sometimes. But I can also definitely see how it would drive people nuts.

 

[ColtDan]

have a talk anyway, that would be very interesting to see. and people love watching interesting people have a babble. get the ket out and say a long drawn out wordddddddddddddddddddddddd

 

[Doody OD]

The thing is addiction is a subjective condition, yes there are a lot of similarities between addicts; but there are also differences. 12 step treatment seems to have worked for brand, as it does for other people.

However, that does not mean it works for every addict, we can see the two polarities of treatment here 12 step/abstinence Vs MMT/substitutive treatment. Both have saved lives, but neither is the answers to all addiction. Brand comes across to me as what I call a 12 step Nazi, what worked for him has to work for everyone, but if another addicted can recover anyone other way; it challenges his own recovery. Abstinence works very well for some people, great, just don't think it will work that way for everyone.

I have no time for extremists or fundamentalists on either side of the treatment debate and Brand is one imo. Yes we need people seeking treatment to be treated with respect, compassion etc. For me that respect includes not forcing only one type of treatment on a person, recovery is subjective and treatment professionals need to start understanding that.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

I hated Brand at first, but i felt is if i began to 'get him' later on. He's very intelligent and witty IMO. Graham Norton - Ive always found unbearable to watch or listen to.

Boris Johnson, yes i know he's a Tory but i was really taken with him at one point. No one can deny he has charisma. He was filmed making a conference speech in Manchester, and he opened with "MANCHESTER !!!! The last great city I have yet to offend!" Roars of laughter and applause. There was a BBC documentary about him a month ago that seemed to have the agenda of destroying him and his reputation. Far too many "quality" BBC documentaries seem to make their programs with an agenda already in mind, and then present a totally skewed, one sided, unbalanced account of things. Only the facts that fit the agenda are presented; the ones that dont get left out. I thought proper reporting was supposed to be well balanced, objective and unbiased.

The documentary they did on Cannabis and mental illness a couple of years ago almost had me shouting in rage at the TV. Without using false modesty it is a subject I know quite a lot about. The program was incredibly one sided and the "facts" they presented were just wrong/untrue/lies. A drugs naive person would have come away from that program thinking anyone who smokes cannabis is gonna get schizophrenia. I dunno what the real % is, but less than 5% i would guess. Scientific research reckons these people had underlying latent conditions and the cannabis just triggered them off. The program did not mention this.

I've lost all faith in Panorama since then. It doesn't do balanced reporting. I fear all BBC documentaries are heading that way. "The BBC is the most respected broadcaster in the world". Not for much longer if it carries on like this.

 

[The Liberal Media]

Even Horizon which used to be good is pretty much wank.
Gave up on Panorama ages ago, that scientology one was the last straw

Very rarely watch BBC nowadays unless its something on BBC4 . The recent Mothers, Murderers and Mistresses was very good

Boris can do one, charisma my arse, more like Bufoon.
Would prefer Red Ken to him as mayor and thats saying something

 

[ColtDan]

the BBCs rep has gone tits up every since the peado thing. and apparently recently they paid out 50 million to silence people over something, bunch of cunts

i didnt like brand to start off with either. much like the keith lemon character

 

[mydrugbuddy]

^^^^^Did you mean from the above that you do like him now ? He takes a bit of getting used to doesnt he.

asides the use of mate and wicked and whatever he says,

God help us if David Cameron, George Osbourne, Ed Milliband et al start speaking like that.

 

[mydrugbuddy]

Plus, if I spoke too much like I write I'd've been beaten up far more often than I have been. Am a bit of an acquired taste me
.

Do you mean you'd come across as far too articulate, intelligent and knowledgable (not brown nosing that's just the way your posts appear) and thus piss a lot of less gifted people off. In general I think most people post in the same way they speak. (As for me I think I write more correctly and 'posher' than i speak) But you're right, the difference is there is no delete or edit function in real life conversation, and you don't get all the time you want to think about what you're going to say, and there is no easy way to edit some ill advised comment if something sounds stupid after it's been spoken out loud.

 

[ColtDan]

God help us if David Cameron, George Osbourne, Ed Milliband et al start speaking like that.

indeed. speaking of ed miliband, he gets right on my tits

 

[tambourine-man]

the BBCs rep has gone tits up every since the peado thing.

I think the watershed moment was the way it handled the Andrew Gilligan/David Kelly episode.

...but that's another story.

 

[The Liberal Media]

indeed. speaking of ed miliband, he gets right on my tits

Mines as well, not the fact that he always sounds like he has a cold or looks like he is the bloke from sesame st

But the fact that he has no fucking clue or viewpoint on any fucking policy !!!

If someone like Andy Burnham had been voted leader I think Labour would have had a chance and he would have been my choice as leader, but all you can really see is another hung parliment in 2015 with this twat ed who is basically spineless

 

[mydrugbuddy]

I dont get the way parties often choose an apparently weak person for their leaders. Ed Miliband over David Miliband (a far more likeable person), John Major ovr Michael Heseltine, I mean WTF, Major was clearly never born to be a PM, but Heseltine would have filled the PMs shoes and offered real leadership. I can only guess they elect apparently weak characters who will try to please everyone.

Sorry, gone way off topic now.

 

[ColtDan]

theyre all full of shit. we need somebody like george carlin in power

david camerons face reminds me of ham

 

[Shambles]

I actually still have quite a lotta time for the BBC. They've definitely been outed as being far murkier than they were once seen as - and of course they have their own agendas just as any other media organisation does - but compared to many other mainstream media sources they ain't too bad at all, I'd say. The BBC channels are still the ones I watch most often (admittedly mostly only BBC4 and a bit o' BBC2). We had to write an essay on the licence fee and BBC Charter (which was up for renewal at the time) many years ago when I was doing one of those mickey mouse media courses. I kinda surprised myself that I ended up coming down quite firmly in favour of the Beeb and how it's funded. It's far from perfect - very fukkin far from perfect sometimes - but compared to purely advertising and sponsorship funded media it definitely has its place. They still make stuff that nobody else could or would do cos it just ain't commercially viable enough. Some stuff they just do extremely well, other stuff - news and current affairs included - is far more hit and miss. Like all media sources you should never trust a single source cos every source has its biases.

Do you mean you'd come across as far too articulate, intelligent and knowledgable (not brown nosing that's just the way your posts appear) and thus piss a lot of less gifted people off.

Ha! I couldn't possibly comment

I do find that in reality I tone it down a lot. Patronising it may be, but plenty peeps really are put off if you talk too wankily so I do tend to tailor to fit whatever company I'm in. But this thread is about Russell Brand on QT not about my proposed career in intrawebz ranting and/or public speaking

david camerons face reminds me of ham

Bwaaaaahahahahahahahhahaaaa!!!

 

[Ismene]

I dont get the way parties often choose an apparently weak person for their leaders. Ed Miliband over David Miliband (a far more likeable person), John Major ovr Michael Heseltine, I mean WTF, Major was clearly never born to be a PM, but Heseltine would have filled the PMs shoes and offered real leadership. I can only guess they elect apparently weak characters who will try to please everyone.

There's a fine line between being likeable and demagoguery tho. If Blair had been a "weaker" leader he could never have conned the nation into going to war on Iraq for example. I like policies not leaders.