Living the UK-US Special Relationship with Lord and Lady Elliott

24:40Shelley:where do you get that? But there's only one place to get it, actually. Yeah, and then is it yours, or do you borrow someone's? You each get one. You can either buy, rent, or borrow. What did you do? Well, we have our own. Okay, smart. I love how I said we. I know. It's not true that it has its own. No, but now can you give it to your daughter? Can she be a lady? Like, would it be the same thing? So, Grace and Lottie are both the Honorable. Right. They get the title, too. They get the title The Honourable, but they won't carry on this peerage like a hereditary. Like if it was a boy or just regardless?

25:22Shelley:Regardless. Okay, so they would need to be reappointed by someone else. They need to go kick butt in life and get the chamber on their own merit. Okay, and so who runs the ceremony? Is it the prime minister or, like, what happens? Is the king there? The king's not there. Okay. we're gonna get to the royals it's like they have about twice a month when people are introduced people of course sadly pass away so there are vacancies in there so roughly twice a month people are introduced to the house of lords it's the beginning of a work day just before question time each we have every day so the chamber is packed there are about 300 people in the chamber usually and it's right at the beginning and the gosh of arms comes in, the whole sort of notice is read out from the king and you swear on the Bible and sign something and then it's all done.

26:23Shelley:Wow. And who holds the Bible? Like, just finish the pageantry. It's important. So you walk in there in your robes with two supporters. You walk up to the front bench. You put your hand on the Bible. or a firm if you want to. There's no kneeling. You read out a pledge to the king. Once that's read out, you then sign a book, make yourself a member of the House of Lords. Then you walk out, you shake the hand of the Lord Speaker. And when you shake the hand of the Lord Speaker, the whole house is the key point. The whole house goes here. Oh, that's nice. It's basically the whole house, both sides.

27:03Right. Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem, Crossbench, all of them. affirming you as a member of the House of Lords.

27:09Shelley:Oh, that's so exciting. And then did you have to stay there for your work day or did you go find Sarah and the girls? So then you leave, you come back in to listen to a few questions. And then we had a bit of reception, didn't we, for friends and family and colleagues. I saw this on Facebook. Sarah's going to, oh my God, it was such a great picture. Your outfit, you know, that's what I cared about, was really gorgeous. The pictures were taken in the throne room of the king. so in the room where the king dresses before he opens parliament so it's a beautiful room which has beautiful murals painted about virtue all around the room and yeah you walk through the royal gallery I mean it was quite something next time you're London well I feel like London is all around me so I should be coming back hopefully this fall what would it be analogous to in the U.S.?

28:07Shelley:Is it like going to the speakers? Is it like being sworn in as a congressman, or is it more or less formal? I would say it's more formal. More formal. And it's very, like, the language they use is, like, from hundreds of years ago. So it's like listening to a Shakespeare play. The way they introduce you and the king and all of that. So it's a lot more tradition. but you know it's not super long it's very British in the sense that there's a lot of formality but you get to the point and you move on and then we had a big party and I mean it felt like a wedding reception afterwards really? well you were wearing white and I was wearing white but you know we had it catered, all of our closest friends and family were there who could make it Right, right.

29:01And that made it special, you know?

29:03Shelley:Does it blow your family's mind? Yes. I'm looking at Sarah. Yes. I mean, they just, but they all go, if anyone would have this happen, it would be you. And everybody has to see Sarah, which you will, but she has British, perfect British skin, eyes, blonde. Thank you, darling. Very sweet, Shelley. I'm not quite used to people in Parliament calling me m 'lady. Is that what they say? That's funny. But what I like, the American in me appreciates that Matthew received this, not because of hereditary, but because he earned it through merit, which is the American way. Exactly. It's much more virtuous.

29:50Yes.

29:51Shelley:Although either way is cool, but nevertheless. That is cool. Well, before we talk about politics, which I super want to get into, so are either or both of you obsessed with the royals? Are you more or less obsessed with the royals by living over there? And did you grow up loving them? Or what are your feelings about them now? I think it's probably fair to say. I know, and you're saying, I'm not obsessed. So use a different word if obsession is too strong. And the royal family's a key part of the UK. Right. And in a sense, and usually as a country, we haven't been through revolutions or gained independence from another country.

30:36So our constitution has evolved over many, many years. And, of course, we started off with having an absolute monarch who ruled the land and could say everything that happened. And now we've got a constitutional monarchy. where you've got the monarchy, but then the democracy underneath it, but with, of course, the king and the royal family playing a really important role in terms of our overall affairs. So it's a UK set-up. It's served us really well for many, many years. And, yes, I'm proud of that. I'm proud of that as a country. We've had centuries and centuries and centuries where we've had a very stable political system evolving over time, becoming more democratic, but one wishes withstood revolutions and so forth from that.

31:23Shelley:But how do you feel about the king and queen and the prince and princess? I mean, you're not an anti-royalist, obviously. Not so, no, I'm a big fan of the royalist. Have you met them? I've met some of them. Not the current king, but I've met some of them. Like who? The queen. Was it amazing? What? This is too much detail. So let's talk then just about politics in totem in the UK. So I work with Art and I also work with Steve Moore and he puts out something called the hotline every day. So I'm giving a shout out to the hotline. But in today's hotline, it was talking about demographics, which Steve and the Unleashed Prosperity folks love to talk about.

32:09Shelley:And apparently the birth rate in the UK and all of Europe, I'm sorry, is plummeting. In which case productivity, great productivity is going to be harder to achieve. And I know you're writing this book with Art and another gentleman, Michael Hintze, about productivity. So talk about, I guess, how you see UK and Europe doing. I mean, I hear all of these alarm bells. I'll give a very sneak preview. because it's actually still slightly under wraps, but I can talk somewhere about it. The key point, as you say, is that within Europe and the UK, Thank you, Madam. I'm the gentleman. GDP per capita has been basically flatlining since the financial crisis.

32:57So whereas if you look at the UK and the EU compared to the US, broadly speaking, if you go back to the early 2000s, roughly speaking people per capita had the same amount of money both in the EU, the Europe and the US. Fast forward 25 years now the US per capita is 40 % higher than the average European per capita. Now why has that happened? That's happened because of the tech boom, life sciences There's also the different things that happened within the US during that time. So people are wealthier. So really there's a big question about Britain and the rest of Europe. How do we make sure that our GDP per capita, our economic growth for every individual, goes up?

33:50How do we regain that economic growth we had before? So what the book I've written with Art Laffer and Douglas Williams and Michael Hintze tries to answer, which will come out later this year, is basically how do you get economic growth going within the UK with lessons for the rest of Europe as well.

34:09Shelley:And so what are your answers? I think Sarah could probably tick them off anyway, not having been an author of this book. But what are your answers? I mean, they're rather obvious, knowing art and steam. What we've come to, and what Arthur's done extremely well, is to work out that north star of economic growth. He says you need five things for that. The five kings of economics. There's basically low taxes, low spending, light regulation, free trade and sound money. And he basically goes through all of those areas to work out what are the key things you need. It goes back through economic history to prove that you need those to actually generate high growth.

34:54And then what we do in the rest of the book is to apply that to the UK and to actually talk about what do Armenian do in policy terms in the UK right now to get growth going. And then we also look at the political obstacles to higher growth.

35:08Shelley:In the UK or in all of Europe? In the UK in particular. And we've talked with five former prime ministers and 11 former chancellors to get their thoughts on basically how you get growth going within the UK and how you overcome those political obstacles. You're listening to Lunt with Shelley. I'm curious that you said that the Conservative Party was almost as responsible for the low productivity and growth in the UK as the Labour Party. Why is that? Good question. The key reason is because since the financial crisis, partly because of COVID, we've had a situation where government spending and taxation has gone up, which caused a slowdown in the economy.

35:57Shelley:Even under your party, you raised taxes? I'm afraid so. That happened. And also, of course, the population has increased. We've had very high levels of migration to the UK. So it may have sort of growth rates of, you know, 1%, 1.5 % some years. So very, very low growth rates. But the population is expanding faster than that. So you end up with having zero growth per capita. So what do you think that, well, I'll ask you, Sarah, you can keep eating, Matthew. What do you think the Conservative Party has done wrong? Or how do they right the ship? I mean, that's like saying Republicans raise taxes here, which would be a, you know, read my lips moment.

36:38Exactly. Well, thanks to campaigners like Grover Norquist, who made raising taxes a bad word in the Republican Party. Right. I think people are going to have to make an example out of the Tories now and read my lips, no more taxes. Well, I think they're being punished electorally for that. But the other issue is taking on net zero energy policies that just makes energy way too expensive for average day Britons. For example, the United Kingdom has the most expensive electricity in the Western world. Really? It's four times as much as the United States. It is sitting on all the raw materials to make steel, but it's not allowed to explore them or extract them.

37:25They have stopped drilling in the North Sea for the oil, all in the name of saving the environment. And what's happening is businesses can't operate. They can't pay the energy prices. They're fleeing. The electrical grid is very fragile. And the only reason it still can operate is because less people are using energy because of the prices. So it is not a recipe for growth or productivity or attracting investment. And people are going elsewhere. But they, you know.

37:58Shelley:When you say elsewhere, where are they going? Well, they're going to the Middle East. Oh, not people. You mean corporations or investors? People are leaving, too. The U.K. has the highest number of millionaires in the world leaving its country. Well, not yet. Wait till New York. Well, but that'll be like intra-immigration, right? All to Florida, Texas, right? That's true. Yeah, yeah. But the U.K. has lost over 17 ,000 millionaires in one year due to the taxation of the labor government, who's only been in power one year. And we have about three to four more years of this. My God. So I was, I think, pro-Brexit because I just was pro, well, I shouldn't say I think.

38:45Shelley:I was pro-Brexit because I thought it was very pro-Great Britain and my friends were pro-Brexit and it was such a hot issue. so I want to talk to you about that in your role but again in a somewhat more People Magazine sense there was a HBO movie about it and someone played you which was so cool so tell us about the whole thing, do you want to start or do you want Matthew to start? I think it's important to let's talk about the policy on the important parts and I'm not going to bore of these bits about the reasons why Brexit was a good thing. But an analogy I often use particularly to Canadian audiences, to be a bit controversial, is to say look, if you're in Canada there'll be lots of reasons why you should say why not join with the United States?

39:42Shelley:Well, that's what the President thinks. You share a border and you have the same geographic area and you trade a lot and you speak the same language and all these different points. So you could make the claim that basically Canada and the US should be one country joined up together. And, of course, if you're in Canada, you say, that's ridiculous, why should we have this? Because they said that very clearly in their recent general election. Yes, they did. Now, of course, with the UK being part of the EU, that's a very similar thing. People are saying that the UK should be part of, in a sense, Europe as a country, which has a European government and a currency, the euro currency, and laws made by Europe and pushed down to the UK level.

40:30So that's why it had that sense of unfairness from people. People thought it was unfair because why should people over in Brussels, in Belgium, make laws which are applicable in the UK and actually supersede UK law? Right. So that's the key reason. It's all like taking back control.

40:48Shelley:That was fundamentally, I think, what made the most sense to me. Yeah. So that's why I was for Brexit, take back control. That's why the UK voted for Brexit. It's about re-establishing our sovereignty, our sort of control over lawmaking in the UK. And that's what drove it all, really. And that's why we voted Brexit and why we won. In terms of the movie, you talk about that. Yeah, it was fun. The guy was cute. Oh, he was. And he's a really nice guy. His name is John Heffernan. He's a great West End actor. he came over to our house to have like a long liquid lunch oh my and it was very strange for the three of us to be sitting together I bet and me looking at him and then him studying Matthew and vice versa and I'm like did you have your hackles up like who is this guy of course I mean I know he's probably some left wing well yes and you're protective and smart but he was yeah Matthew gives people more of the benefit of the doubt initially than I but he's very no he was lovely he was a British gentleman and he was very he had kind eyes and I knew I looked into his eyes and I saw his soul but Matthew has kind eyes so I knew that we were in like good hands and he did a great job it was so funny because the opening scenes are with him in like the Tate Britain art gallery meeting up to have some secret conversation or something.

42:22And what's so funny is that when I first met Matthew's parents, we went to the Tate Britain in that same gallery, and Matthew buzzed off to go get a haircut, and I had to stay with his parents. I just met them.

42:37Shelley:Oh, God. And so we started talking, and I said, oh, you must have been really proud of your son. You must be really proud of your son for what he's doing. And they're like, what is he doing? And I said to them, like, in that room where they filmed that scene, I said to them, oh, Matthew's taking the UK out of the EU. And they were like, what?

43:01And the mother got all flustered. And she was like, that sounds very controversial. Right. And then I realized I had hit a button, like, oh, well, maybe he doesn't share everything with his parents. Right. But it was all fine Everybody supported you in the family God, it was such a divisive issue

43:25Shelley:How long ago was it? Nine years Because I remember being in Italy and watching European news Which is the best thing about being in Europe Is watching European news It's so different But it was calamitous It was expensive It was nail biting. I mean, in retrospect, it looked like it was a landslide, but it wasn't or was it, but nobody knew it was going to be. It was fairly close. It was on a very big turnout. Yeah. So it was, I think, a decisive result. And I think it was basically ahead of the curve. So if you look now at the U.S.'s trade policy, for example, with Donald Trump's Liberation Day.

44:11Shelley:Completely. It's very similar. The UK was able to do its own trade deal with the US. Rather than do the bloc with the EU and have many different interests in vying together to get a deal, Keir Starmer was able to sit down with Donald Trump and get a trade deal before anybody else. And also he came to the White House as just Great Britain for the talks about Ukraine. What I thought you were going to say was that the president's victory, recent victory, was decisive. there was a big turnout and it was a similar thing it was divisive but decisive and it was it was more positive than people assumed anyway i was making that analogy yeah yeah then i what was really uh surprising to me is that it took over three and a half years for the government to get behind the will of the people and actually implement brexit there were so many politicians who aren't even in Parliament anymore who were trying to overturn the election or turn over the referendum result.

45:16There was a whole political party formed called Change UK that wanted to overturn it and have a second referendum. There was, it was, I just felt like democracy was truly being undermined and it felt authoritarian. Yeah. And really you had the elites and the rest of the country. and I just thought everybody would learn their lesson and get behind the winner but that was not the case and yeah it was I'm glad Boris Johnson got the country over the line I don't think the UK is completely capitalized on all the opportunity that it can but it does have trade deals with other nations now that the EU is not a part of it has been able to make its own laws.

46:02The immigration law is the biggest challenge right now for the UK to implement its own agenda, which will come up in the next general election. That'll be an issue. You're listening to Lunch with Shelley.

46:17Shelley:So you guys were just at Royal Ascot. I saw the photos and you're all dressed up and I brought my hat but um you guys look perfect is my hat appropriate for royal ascot and tell us how it was and why would you do you did the curio not a big hat so our big hats like out of vogue or let's just talk all royal ascot so i wasn't there this year no you weren't there this year Oh, really? Oh, gosh. I was away in Dubai. I think you were in Dubai, yeah. Oh. Yeah, I went with friends. But last year, no, big hats are always in. Okay. You have to, you know, the more avant-garde and the crazier, the better.

47:07It also ends up being usually the more expensive option as well. So do you like my hat? I like your hat. And you don't love it. You need, no, you would need to ju it up. Do you know what I mean? And that's you. I'm sorry, you. Sorry, sorry. That's what I meant. Sorry. Why? Because it's too clear? It's a little casual for Ascot. Oh, yes, for Ascot. Would I put an Hermes scarf? Yes, you could put flowers, bows, whatever, but it is a good size. That's a proper hat. But they were very much against the fat of the fascinator with just the little dingy thing on the headband with a flower or something.

47:52Shelley:Who is they were most against? I would say the standard bearers of Royal Ascot. They're against it? Because that's what everybody seems to be wearing. Well, they can't fight the trends very well. But when they want a full hat, that's a full hat. Oh, good. A full headquarter hat. Yeah, I don't think I would look good in a curio. Yeah. Is that what it's called? A fascinator. A fascinator. Yeah. So I wore a big hat last year, the previous year. This year, I wanted to go for something. You had a fascinator. No, it was a boater. Oh, okay. So it was a boater that I tilted to the side, but I didn't want something that got in the way of me eating and talking and that sort of thing.

48:34Shelley:That's the thing about that hat. Yeah. It's like having an umbrella. But do you know what the men... The men have to, whenever they are standing up, they have to wear their jacket no matter the weather. They have to be in a full morning dress, tuxedo with a vest. This is American terms here. What would he call it? A waistcoat. A waistcoat. So a waistcoat, a jacket with tails, a cavat. But they can only take their jackets off when they're sitting. And when I went, it was 80 to 85 degrees all day. And the men had to wear everything. And they did make the exception when the weather got above 80 degrees that men could take their jackets off standing up.

49:24Really? But it's a great parade watching what people wear. It's the place where you can be the craziest or you can be the classiest. Really? Yeah. Is it like the Met Gala? I mean, kind of for like, you know, for Ritz.

49:43Shelley:But it is like the Met Gala. I can't remember. I know you look beautiful, but you looked also proper. Like you can't go crazy. I mean, I can show you some pictures of some really big discs on people's heads and flowers and things. But you have to be in that for like close to eight hours, eight to ten hours of the day. So you have to think about that. And it's hot, and there's a lot of walking involved, too. Did you say hot or posh? Hot. Okay. Yeah, so it was hot. I mean, it's beautiful. The best time to visit the U.K. is June to mid-July. Really? The weather is just stunning. Not the fall. The fall is beautiful, but you get the real sunny, long summer days, and it's warm, but not too warm usually, although we've had several heat waves this summer.

50:31Shelley:Yeah, Europe has been on fire, I heard. And we don't have air conditioning in the homes. You actually, you personally don't have air conditioning? No, no one does. Oh, my God. No one does. They're illegal to have the window units inside. You can have a little unit with a plastic tube to stick out the window, and that's per room, and they're mobile. Even in a commercial building, if you go to a shopping, a shop or something, the air conditioning will not be of, like, U.S. standards. Oh, my God. So it is intense, yeah. You're listening to Lunch with Shelly. Both of you take turns. I don't know who wants to go first, but if you could have lunch, since we are a lunch podcast, if you could have lunch anywhere in the world, where would it be and what would you be eating?

51:20Shelley:Anywhere in the world. So we've just come back from the Algevacs. Right. North Carolina. Right. Where we go for a year. Right. And we tend to go for two weeks and take a beach house and go there. I know, I was under strict directions not to reach out to Sarah until the 18th. Yes. And on this latest trip, because I love going there, it's a place where we relax every year and we end home in there and we sat at a special place. You really relax? We love it. Yeah. And I'm going to go very sort of down market. Yeah, that's fine. Anywhere in the world. In Kerala, opposite the food line, there's a very, very good barbecue.

52:00I went there three times, three or four times What do you eat? I love my pork barbecue I love my beef barbecue I just love barbecue

52:09Shelley:You love ribs Do you put it in a sandwich? Do you use hot sauce? I use the traditional North Carolina or bitty bitty sauce with a beer That's a perfect answer What about you? I think I like this because it's unique to the region and brings back memories. But I love picking blue crab. Ooh, yeah. And being my mother was a Marylander. Right. And we grew up with it, being that I went to high school in Maryland. I'm glad we're bringing her up, yeah. Oh, thanks. So Phillips Crab House in Baltimore. Oh, right. And pick some blue crab and then go to Baccaro's, if it's still there, in Little Italy for cannolis afterwards in Baltimore.

52:58Shelley:Fabulous. Excellent answers. Everybody, isn't it so exciting that I've had a lord and lady and a couple on today? This was really good. I mean, it really is very easy because each one of you gets to talk while the other one gets to eat. So this is very novel, and I think this could be a good system moving forward. But anyway, thank you guys so much for flying all the way to the United States for the Lunch with Shelly podcast. But anyway, it is so, so great to see you. It is lovely to spend time with you. We're at the amazing Cafe Milano, I think I've mentioned, with the wonderful Candido and Cleavon and his gorgeous fiance.

53:46Shelley:And anyway, we very much appreciate you listening to this episode. Please check out other episodes at www.lunchwithshelly.com or wherever you get your favorite podcasts. And as always, in the meantime, peace, love and lunch.