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00:11hello everyone welcome to the myers report london reporting it is sunday uh june 28th
00:202026 or at least it is sunday depending upon where you are in the world and uh our subject
00:27today is going to be what is happening in the uk uh with the new prime minister that's apparently
00:33coming in what's the environment like what's the impact for the united states and with us we have
00:40paul mcgonigal uh a board member of the myers report uh he is a former diplomat and international
00:49banker uh we have james bennett he's a one of our two students from the london school of economics
00:56james is going to be giving us a briefing because he's very much politically involved
01:01we have robert young another student from the london school of economics and robert
01:08is reporting in from seeking india where he is teaching monastery monks english and we have
01:17mason hess um from north central college in illinois and alfonso roca who is uh one of our
01:29student interns from portugal and we also have sunny uh reynolds who is uh calling in and one of our
01:40people down in south africa okay so let's get started um james why should americans care about
01:51uh the u.s elections why should americans care about the u.s the u.s elections i mean the
01:59uk elections
02:00excuse me well we well we're not we're not we're not expecting to have a general election for another
02:06three years um but if we do obviously um the government of the united kingdom is very significant
02:12um for the american people because we do remain very close allies um especially in in areas like
02:19intelligence and and defense um through through nato which obviously we know um well it's come out
02:25today actually that kia starmer is now potentially considering going for um a position in nato
02:32um when he leaves number 10 um but you know hold it a second what kind of position in nato
02:39uh i don't know i i'm i'm not sure but i i believe that that is his his future that's
02:44his angling for
02:45um but but of course aside from the obvious historical ties um the britain and america are
02:51still very linked politically you know we call it the special relationship uh and so the state of
02:55westminster is obviously very important um for for those in america too
03:02well i i would tend to agree particularly since uh the uk will have it's going to be very interesting
03:09we'll discuss how the uk is going to react toward politics toward a foreign policy um so right now how
03:16do you see the uk um the results of the uk of this election and the changing of the prime
03:22minister
03:23impacting the us the uk's attitude toward u.s policies uh i mean the ideological tensions will
03:31remain but it will preside it will provide a bit of a reset at least on a personality level um
03:37the new
03:38prime minister will essentially have a clean slate with how he wants to interact um with the american
03:42government although it does seem like the ideological tensions will definitely be an impediment
03:47to those relations i mean we've already seen so far that um trump has said in a press conference
03:52that he views um the new prime minister to be to be quote extremely liberal um so there definitely
03:58will be that sort of tension there um he definitely uh andy burnham probably doesn't have the same
04:04diplomatic strength that kia starmer had um obviously kia starmer was very successful in managing the
04:10american relationship that's probably the the the number one area in which he succeeded as prime
04:15minister um so it's it's it's going to be it's going to be largely continuity although there could
04:22there is potential for an increase in tensions uh depending on on on how the prime minister chooses to
04:28handle it robert uh robert young you're in you've been for the past you've been in sikkim india for how
04:36how long have you been there right now you're on mute unmute yourself about 10 days i think
04:46okay what is have you seen what is your take on what james had just said uh is there any
04:52difference
04:53particularly from your perspective of being in india in the middle of nowhere
04:59well i'm i'm i wouldn't say the middle of nowhere but um i think james is right about most things
05:07as usual
05:08i i think he overestimates as i like to as well the influence of britain on the world and the
05:16us in the
05:17modern day while we would love it to be massive um it probably isn't so direct i i don't think
05:23even if
05:24you became a socialist but we already are increasingly socialist state or the complete
05:30reverse there probably wouldn't be a direct effect on u.s economics and that sort of thing however
05:36it's still incredibly important because there's such a cultural tie being the same people speaking the
05:43same language um that when trump was elected it changed uk politics and the uk politics most likely
05:53will affect the us i think that's something james blind missed out but beyond that he's right as usual
06:03um what were the key issues james that brought starmer down was it the economy immigration
06:10health care labor leadership the rise of reform what brought him down
06:18i mean well it was a combination of issues i mean i've been forecasting for a while that there
06:23was inevitable that that there was an inevitable problem that starmer was always going to face
06:28where he was dealing with a parliament that was um very ideologically to the left um but also a country
06:36and an electorate that was very quickly moving to the right um and it was always going to be a
06:42challenge for him to try to try and balance those two issues i mean even the um the conservative
06:47immigration reforms that he managed to get through um in early earlier this year i mean that triggered
06:54significant backlash um among his back benches um and the attempts of his of his ministry to try and
06:59cut welfare as well i mean that ended up falling through because the rebellion from his back benches
07:04um was too strong ultimately when parliament isn't he was he was a leftist that was trying to cut
07:11welfare well he's not really a leftist but yes he was trying to cut he did try to cut welfare
07:16in 2025
07:16um but he failed to do so because the the rebellion from his back benches was too strong
07:21um and ultimately what you have there is um far too significant ideological discrepancies between the
07:27electorate and between and between parliament um and that's also ultimately happens because you could
07:33argue the first pass the post voting system was inefficient um in what was essentially a a three
07:39or four party election in 2024 and you can also say that over the past two years since the general
07:45election um the overton window has significantly shifted to the right so there's that issue um there's
07:51also just you know the the the the weak economic growth um the continuing um sort of culture war if
07:57you
07:57like um the the rise of reform on the right and and labor's inability to control that and i think
08:04another thing that's getting overlooked is i think starmer ultimately failed to brand himself um when
08:12when he was running in 2024 he essentially won by default um because everyone the conservative
08:17government was incredibly unpopular and labor was just a natural opposition and it seems that he's
08:23failed to establish a clear narrative about what his government is about and and what he he came
08:29into office to do um he's he's achieved some significant um legislative reforms um through things like the
08:36renters rights bill um and the the workers rights act as well um but it seems like from a pr
08:43perspective
08:43he's not been able to effectively uh leverage those achievements um to try and you know convince the
08:49electorate that his government is succeeding so i think a large part of why he's ultimately um fallen
08:55now is because he's sort of similar to joe biden you could argue he's been unable to effectively um
09:02champion his achievements um and build a a a consistent narrative i consider a popular narrative
09:08about what his government are doing and what his government are about it's interesting that you say
09:14that when compare him to joe biden joe biden had no achievements none well joe biden achieved lots of
09:22significant legislative um accomplishments um you know the infrastructure package um the covid relief
09:28bill you know there there was a lot that whether you agree with that or not that joe biden was
09:32able
09:33to get done and i think a lot of people feel um that he didn't successfully um chapter like he
09:39didn't
09:39he didn't do a very good job of convincing the electorate that yeah the problem with joe biden in
09:44the electorate is that joe biden ran as a moderate and governed as a progressive so so people had a
09:51bait like including me had a bait and switch uh reaction to uh to his administration yeah as you
09:58point out he had a lot of very significant legislative achievements but you can say they all went in
10:04exactly the wrong direction depending on your perspective but we this is not we're not going to
10:08discuss joe biden today i guess the problem here with starmer is what he didn't do i mean he didn't
10:15do much and the uk's got a lot of underlying problems which he did not address or at least in
10:22some cases he tried to and couldn't um in in welfare reform would be a perfect example of that
10:29but by and large i mean it's there wasn't much going on right you know i mean you you could
10:36look at
10:36you can look at the emergence of the green party who are now calling about 15 16 percent and say
10:41that that's very indicative of starmer essentially doing the reverse of joe biden of campaigning as a
10:46as a progressive and you know when he took over the labor leadership in 2020 he he put out his
10:5110
10:52pledges of how he was going to try and continue uh jeremy corbyn's legacy those 10 pledges went
10:57completely in the bin um he's he's governed and went at least rhetorically he's governed very much
11:03as a moderate um so kia starmer in in campaigning as a progressive and governing more as a moderate
11:09he's essentially enabled the rise of this party um on the left which has essentially left him with
11:15no constituency um he's sort of been the the compromise candidate for both the sort of center
11:21right conservatives who really hate reform and also the um the more left-wing green supporters
11:26who vote labor if if they think that they don't have a chance of winning in the complete absence
11:31of any shred of charisma you know the one thing i'm surprised that you did not mention
11:38and i'm going to push this to uh robert in a second um is the immigration problem and the rape
11:47gangs problem well i mean that that's that's been obviously persisting for a while um and as i was
11:55saying before obviously the electorate would like to see significant change um on this issue um it's
12:01the reason why a party like reform is only able to exist and be as successful as it is because
12:05of the
12:06immigration issue and then the issues relating to it and to his credit kia starmer has done everything
12:11that he can to try and push labor to act on this but unfortunately he's not been able to do
12:17it
12:17because his backbenchers just won't allow for the necessary space to create the radical change that's
12:24needed i mean the the from a numerical perspective the migration figures are now significantly much
12:29lower than they were under the conservative government um but in doing that he's still you know
12:37they're still ridiculously high if you look at what they were 20 30 years ago and even to achieve
12:42what he has achieved he's had to significantly alienate a lot of a lot of the labor left um and
12:48and that's ultimately why the green party are as successful as they are and likely why he's um
12:52fallen out with his back benches and that's obviously contributed to his downfall
12:58alfonso alfonso roca in portugal are you having a similar problem is portugal having a similar
13:04similar problem with uh immigration uh yes yes definitely in our case i would actually say that
13:14it's worse because it was very sudden we had very small amounts of immigration until roughly 2016 2017
13:24which coincided with uh with the with the left wing party winning and we traditionally for the last
13:3450 years or so had the two part a fundamentally two-party system where we have the socialists which are
13:41really the center-left party and then the social democrats which are the center-right party they're
13:48called the social democrats because they used to be left-wing back in the 70s it's a long story i'm
13:53not
13:53going to elaborate on that but yes during that government there was a very sudden and sharp rise on
14:01mass immigration which which is causing a lot of social issues and that really that's that's
14:10actually what ended i would say under the two-party system and replaced it with a three-party system
14:16because now we have a more right-wing party that rose prime shaga that rose primarily because like
14:23reform because of the immigration issue because people were tired of receiving so many immigrants so
14:30quickly and we needed some and we needed some somebody who was able to really push back on this
14:40you know this seems to be a worldwide problem uh sunny sunny reynolds from south africa where isn't
14:49he's an american who's now living in south africa uh so we understand that sunny the zulus which maybe
14:58would be something of a bit of a surprise are objecting to illegal immigration and um that they're
15:07going against the cartels and they are against dei but how and how are they handling illegal immigrants
15:16they are having massive demonstrations and i would i'd call them protests i wouldn't really call them
15:22riots because it's not like what i would assume what i would think a riot would be they a lot
15:28of them are
15:28going in full traditional garb in in zulu garb like shaka zulu it's really impressive to kind of see
15:35and they'll go through the towns and they'll go through all these little spaza shops and the townships
15:42and like sueto and different places around major cities joeberg uh quazulu natal durban um some of
15:51the bigger places cape town and they'll find all these little shop owners taxi drivers and they'll ask
15:58them you know hey are you an illegal you know do you have a license for your business and if
16:02they have
16:03a license yeah i'm 100 licensed this is a legit business then they'll uh they for the most part leave
16:08them alone but otherwise they've been going through and if they're uh just recently they
16:15i think it was i don't know if it was indian or pakistani or something it was a business site
16:19up near joeberg and they they go in and they wind up if if they don't have documentation or paperwork
16:26or
16:26they're there illegally they'll you know loot the business they'll beat the tar out of the people
16:32they'll they've got buses going to nigeria and uganda and malawi evacuating people out of the
16:39country that are here illegally and uh they've a couple places they've set the shops on fire
16:46that sounds pretty tough uh but i think it's it sounds like it this is exemplary of at least the
16:53feelings of people that people are having in other countries though they're the zulus obviously are
16:59taking it into their own hands it seems like uh i don't know that it's the zulus it's not i
17:06mean
17:06they are tough people particularly fierce tribe but it's i laugh it's terrible for the people that
17:14are having to experience this but it's pretty amazing to see this this sense of you know you
17:20know they're all south africans and they they're all like we belong together we we're all working
17:25together and the zulu leader is not anti-white he's not anything like that because they told
17:30a german tourist i think yesterday the day before she was like well can i be zulu too and he
17:35says you're
17:35not german you're south african now you're part of us you know you're one of us we're one nation and
17:41it's really kind of interesting to see that rise of tribal nationalism does that make sense but um yeah
17:49they're going in there and cleaning house but in a way the government is pitting the migrants against
17:57you know native south africans and i i really think i really hope they go after the anc i hope
18:05they
18:05start storming is there any significant zulu representation in the anc i think so i you know
18:12they they haven't come out and spoken about it um there's just one particular guy that we've been
18:19following on facebook that he's real active and he's kind of the one leading all this but i haven't
18:25seen you know the anc is saying oh we oh we can't have any violence oh we have to treat
18:30everybody you
18:30know i gotta be nice but i you know the government created a majority of the problem and they just
18:36got
18:36sick of it they're taking matters into their own hands it's it's kind of like it's kind of instead of
18:41citizen vigilante it's like tribe vigilante i don't want to focus on south africa today
18:49a special uh discussion on it uh but in the meantime robert young uh do you think that there
18:57do you think that a general do you or james think that a general election is likely to be called
19:03and if so how does it happen you're on mute robert um no is the answer it's i don't think
19:10it's likely to be called because that isn't the convention at all there's uh most prime ministers
19:16in fact come in this way rather than be elected well they are not elected mps are elected who then
19:21select the prime minister and while there are tools for a general election it's it's simply not
19:29how our political system works one less one's mp the only reason there could be a general election
19:37is because bernard did call for one where there's a very similar situation under the conservative
19:43party uh that was under when they're selecting rishi and then he said there ought to be a general
19:49election i think it was rishi sunak um and one can quite simply draw this comparison so if he became
19:57prime minister perhaps he would do so it wouldn't at all be in the labor's interest which they do very
20:02broadly and so they probably won't being a politician he can spin that and say the situation
20:08was different so almost certainly there won't be a general election um and if you'll forgive me i'd like
20:15to circle back and add to what james said earlier about why um starmer had to go uh or why
20:21starmer resigned
20:22and the reason is he had to because otherwise he probably would have been kicked out um and that's
20:29simply because eventually labor's going to a general election eventually the mps were going to be
20:34removed as was shown in the local elections labor's very popular under starmer and so he had to go
20:41otherwise the mps would go and so the mps would get rid of him and even with him out labor's
20:49not very
20:49popular so they won't be wanting a general election none of the mps would stand for that and if they
20:53knew
20:54that bernard were going to do so they probably wouldn't back him at the moment james do you also
21:00agree there's not likely to be a general an early call for general so that so there won't be a
21:06general
21:06election and there's no requirements or obligation for that to be a general election um prime ministers
21:13aren't elected they're appointed 650 mps are elected for a five-year term which they were in 2024
21:20and the king appoints one of them to serve as prime minister and the king appoints the person who can
21:26command the confidence of the majority of the house of commons for the last two years that's been
21:30king of starmer as the leader of of the largest party um when he's replaced as leader of the largest
21:36party by andy burnham andy burnham will become the man who commands the confidence of the house of
21:40commons and he will have every right to go to the palace and ask to form a government
21:43um so there's no requirement for there to be a general election the only reason why there might
21:50be a general well there won't but the only argument in favor of andy burnham calling a general election
21:56um is a um the early polling suggesting that he actually has a chance of winning if there wasn't
22:03a general election and it always helps for a prime minister to have a democratic mandate because even if
22:07even if they don't need one um when a prime minister comes out of a wins a general election
22:12um the internal power dynamics between them and their mps shift because the mps at that point they
22:18now all that their jobs to the leader whereas if andy burnham doesn't call a general election then
22:23the situation will be andy burnham owes his job to the mps for backing him and and allowing him to
22:29become leader of the party um also that there's some arguments to suggest that reform aren't ready
22:34for a general election um obviously you know they still need to find you know hundreds of candidates
22:39um presumably the ones have higher higher quality candidates than who they stood in in in the last
22:45general election where they essentially just had to um scramble to find hundreds of people to to
22:49stand because obviously that that general election was was called quite um quite early in in reforms
22:54development um so there is an argument to suggest that that burnham might think if he calls a general
22:59election the public might not have confidence in reform to govern yet and and that could shift things in his
23:04direction but if he were to do that that would still likely result in well over 100 labor mps losing
23:10their jobs and just after those mps paved the way of him to become prime minister that's probably not
23:15going to be something that the labor mps would be happy getting behind so um long story short there
23:22doesn't need to be a general election there's not really any reason why there should be a general
23:25election and so there probably will not be a general election do you think that uh the next general
23:30election is scheduled for 2029 uh do you think that that's enough time for reform to get uh high
23:39quality candidates uh in place yeah three three years another three years will be will be enough
23:46for reform i think i think there's an argument to suggest that there could be a general election in
23:50maybe 18 months it's probably that's probably the earliest that we would that is possible for
23:55there to be a general election i think by then you could you could reasonably suggest that reform
23:59reform will be ready um but three years will definitely be enough time
24:05uh robert young are you uh in the same political perspective as james
24:14yes i i think reform actually i while i wouldn't support them myself i'll give them a bit of a
24:21hard
24:21time about whether they're ready for governance they have run a lot of elections already they're
24:26ready sort of put together they don't screen their candidates very well neither do the greens because
24:31they haven't had enough time three years is certainly enough 18 months is probably enough too
24:39so do you so but do the two of you both think that uh the next prime minister
24:45if the next general election in 2029 will probably be a reform prime minister
24:55james i don't know i'm not sure at this point um
25:01i think it's possible i think reform have a decent chance of winning the next general election
25:06i also think labor have a decent chance of winning the next general election and i actually think i think
25:11the conservatives are probably a bit underpriced as well um i think kemi bay knock is is definitely
25:15improving she's becoming a lot more confident and if the economic situation worsens then that will be
25:21very fertile ground for the conservatives because they um you know whatever you think of them last
25:25time they were in government they still have their reputation as being the the economically successful
25:29party so i think the conservatives also have probably have a decent chance of winning the next general
25:34election uh three years is a very very very long time in in british politics i mean if you think
25:39what british politics was like three years ago um rishi sunak was prime minister nigel farage was still
25:45retired um and no one really ever thought that he was going to come back and everyone thought that
25:52labor were going to win the next general election and be in power for 10 15 years so a lot
25:57can happen
25:57in three years so i'm probably not ready to make a confident prediction who's going to win the brits
26:04have had what six prime ministers in the last seven years um no i think it's it's five in ten
26:13years
26:14five prime ministers that's still a lot of turnover yeah so teresa may was prime minister from 2016 to
26:222019 then boris johnson from 2019 to 2022 then liz trust for a few weeks then rishi sunak from 22
26:29to 24 and
26:30now keith starmer from 24 26 so in terms of completed premierships your five completed premierships
26:36in 10 years okay now so with the new prime minister coming in uh do you think that there's going
26:44to be
26:45any significant change in foreign policy toward the u.s and how is the uk going to react uh to
26:53the
26:54u.s policies of what we're doing in iran uh there'll be no significant change it's actually it
27:00it probably won't happen but it's even been floated around that the the keith starmer could
27:05even serve as foreign secretary um in a a burnham cabinet um now this is probably not going to happen
27:11because i don't think keith starmer will want um to essentially relegate himself but the fact that
27:18that is being suggested shows that um the the the anticipation is is that the the new government
27:23will not veer from um the current foreign policy especially towards america and the reason is is
27:28because that's the only thing that people actually like about keith starmer that that is very popular
27:31when it comes to his foreign policy i understand james that next week um burnham is going to make a
27:39is going to make a policy speech is that right next week yeah he'll be making loads i mean um
27:46unless
27:47someone comes forward he's going to be prime minister on the i think it's the 20th of july
27:51but between now and then he's effectively sort of the pm elect i mean obviously that's not how it works
27:57but in terms of how it's perceived yeah everyone in the country knows that he's going to be the prime
28:01minister so it makes sense that he's going to start acting like it and he's already given several
28:05speeches essentially speaking as a prime minister um or someone who's standing to to lead to lead the
28:11governing party so um yeah he he's already beginning to set up his team we keep having
28:17press press briefings coming out about who might serve in his cabinet how he's going to differ on
28:21policy so it's very much a case of we know who it's going to be and it's just a matter
28:27of time
28:27and i think these next three weeks are essentially his transition periods that's a very american-corded
28:32term because it doesn't happen in britain you know the prime minister resigns and then the new one comes in
28:37um there's there isn't really a transition period but because there is so little doubt over who's
28:43going to succeed keir starmer we do essentially get a sort of three-week transition period
28:48you guys have something the americans don't have you guys all your major ministries have permanent
28:55secretaries yeah they tend to endure across administrations they do yeah i mean helps smooth
29:02the transition from one to one party to another from one regime to another so to
29:07speak yeah i mean there's a saying there's what like tens of thousands of people who work in the
29:12civil service but a general election only 100 or 200 people lose their jobs right
29:19and because so how long does a uh a cabinet minister i presume that's what you're talking
29:25about how do they have any term limits no how long do they last no the
29:30as long as they're civil servants they're civil servants oh the permanent secretaries yeah yes yes
29:38cabinet ministers are all appointed directly by the prime minister right
29:43alfonso alfonso you have a question uh no not really
29:50okay well i'm gonna ask you one how it's is what is going on in the uk having even being
29:57noticed
29:57uh in portugal and does anybody care uh i will not say so because there is a lot going on
30:06right now
30:06for one there's the world cup and the portuguese are generally fanatic football fanatics so everybody
30:14is distracted with that in general uh political politics wise there has always also been a lot of
30:22uh a lot of political let's say happenings lately internally uh basically there was this uh this labor
30:33package recently that the government tried to pass which was going to the the plan was effectively to
30:42try and stimulate the economy by relaxing some labor laws that effectively make firing people very difficult
30:51among other things so yeah that that became an entire controversy with the effect the left was
30:58obviously against it and the and generally the more liberal right was for it both the governing party
31:06which which is the center-right party and the liberals were in favor and then the more right-wing
31:13anti-immigration party actually went against it because they because it was quite unpopular under their
31:20under their electorate because their electorate is primarily populist so yeah that that failed
31:26ultimately but yes a lot of things have been happening in the country itself so we're not thinking too much
31:32about foreign policy right now okay um mason and charlie do you guys from your perspective as being
31:41students in the united states do you do you see anybody really caring no and
31:51the only the only people that i know that care about british politics are myself and a couple other
31:58guys in tp usa that follow it a little bit um most people don't really i don't think care too
32:04much
32:04about british politics mason same here i don't see anyone that cares yeah but that's not a comment
32:13about britain i don't think because you could ask the same question to the or to your your student
32:18colleagues about germany or france or indonesia and they say the same thing yeah i think i think in the
32:26u.s we're very u.s centric right i think they are in all the countries and this is one
32:32of the things that
32:32we're going to be trying to do over the next year and two years with our gatherings is uh comparing
32:40and contrasting what is happening in different countries to help put them in context it does seem
32:46like the one unifying factor going on right now is the world cup and afonso uh portugal i guess got
32:54into the uh 32 round 32 team knockout yes we did we we did make it uh i don't i
33:04don't think we're
33:04going to get too far because the team isn't playing that well i do if i i'm not here to
33:10talk about
33:11football i'm not because or soccer or however you want to call it but yeah in general i don't think
33:17that keeping ronaldo there is a good idea because he's frankly too old and he's just there to
33:23drive up ticket sales because people want to see him he's not actually he's no longer capable of
33:29actually playing at the level that is required for us to actually win and yeah our performances
33:37haven't been that good we only won one game so far and it was against uzbekistan then we tied against
33:43the congo and we also tied against colombia so yeah we're we're surviving but it's not looking too good
33:52and james england is doing rather well it seems what's your record all right uh we we came top of
34:00our group um we beat croatia 4-2 drew with garden nil nil and last night we beat panama 2
34:05-0
34:05um so we're playing uh the congo in the round of 32 and then if we win that um we
34:12play either mexico
34:13or ecuador so it's highly likely we'll be playing mexico in the round of 16 um in mexico city so
34:19looking forward to that okay guys folks this has been as usual very interesting we were going to
34:27keep this up and i know we're going to have some discussions about the commonalities of attitudes
34:34of young people in different parts of the world that seem to be moving in the same direction so with
34:40that i want to say thank you be well god bless portugal and it's good luck to portugal and south
34:49africa for trying to right its own ship and good luck for the uk and england excuse me in the
34:57world cup
34:58and god bless america
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