The Two Matts Q&A: Is John Healey's big day going to be a nothingburger?

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1:22Go to mod.com to get started. That's M-O-D dot com.

1:54and bringing capital gains tax into line with the rates of income tax. And I agree, by the way. So what do you make of the apparently authorised briefing that John Healy will not raise capital gains tax in the budget? Is the Chancellor's big day going to be a big nothing burger? Well, thank you, Des. And it is, of course, the question of the weekend is what's it going to be then, John? um look uh in the last year i've sort of decided to adopt what i call the elliot page rule of politics which is over the summer there was this crazy ill-informed culture war mostly coming from america but not just about the odyssey and elliot page who's as you know transgender was going to be playing achilles shock horror and what a scandal this was for some reason and in fact when we saw the movie he was playing a completely different character called sign on he was brilliant and i think he deserves a best supporting actor when the nominations are announced uh nomination on january the 21st so you know in other words wait and see wait until you see the film in political terms let's actually wait and see what he says because he and burnham are very canny and they have, I think, done, I'm hoping, there are two ways of doing a budget.

3:17One is to do, or pre-announce it all desperately before, and the other is to handle expectations so you can do a big reveal at the end. And I'm hoping this is the latter, and there are some really big strokes in the budget. We'll see. I mean, there's no way to say at this point in the moment of recording whether that would be true. I am disappointed about capital gains tax. I think that equalizing capital gains tax has long been not a straightforward but a necessary move it would raise about 11.3 billion annually when you allow for the expected behavioral responses because there would be some changes where people keep their capital but it is it seems to me bizarre the cgt is 18 and 24 percent whereas it's 20 and 40 and 45 on income and um you know i don't what i don't want um and we we talked a lot on the thursday podcast about the sort of the the the declining days of emmanuel macron is a kind of steady as she goes centrism to come out of this we've had that we see we know how that movie ends not well it's not working it's not working anywhere and it won't work here and so i hope there is at least some shock therapy i understand that they can't do everything at once but what i don't want us to feel at the end of healy's speech is that it was just a little retail budget of here are a few goodies for the following day's press and the immediate opinion polls but not i mean i want him to make i want him and burnham by application to make some big demands of us as citizens as well as offer some really serious hope especially to the young um but it can't be uh it can't just be aimed at the markets it can't or and the and the plp it must be more than that i i agree i agree completely and i on the capital gains tax i was i was a little bit disappointed because i think there's to it's a bit too monolithic just to talk about capital gains tax you know because you know if the object you know try and think about the you know these are all tactical responses to what you hope is a is a wider strategy aren't they you know the wider strategy is in this instance to create wealth and to make make britain a safe haven for wealth creation i think that's the precise phrase that's been used well you can do that you know you in fact you can accentuate that position by increasing some capital gains tax and but then leaving exemptions for entrepreneurs, for exactly for the people who are building startups and, you know, all of this stuff.

6:00You can you can use that tactic to achieve your strategic aim. And just to say, well, no, we're not going to touch it. It seemed it seemed too blunt to me and to miss an opportunity. But we'll, as you say, we'll see what I'm going back to our conversation on the Thursday part. What I just really hope is that this isn't a budget that sounds like it's a budget that is generationally asymmetric and that you've got you get a swathe of young people thinking that they're being talked at about, you know, and lectured, frankly, by a chancellor saying we're going to chip away your welfare. but you've got you your part of the bargain is you're going to have to do that if if that's the headline that comes out i think that will be better received by our generation than it will be by the coming generation and i think the road to a truly integrated society has got to start with bringing those two generations together in in purpose and unity and um yeah i just think the language has got to be immaculate around how young people hear hear that budget so we'll see anyway we'll see and folks just to remind you um next wednesday matt and i'll do a um a two mats podcast special podcast yeah within an hour or so of the budget um finishing so do tune in to get our hot take okay next question from steve um why are the lib dems plotting against the most successful leader they've ever had well interesting question and and i think i don't know how active the plot is now but certainly there was um for a moment um the semblance of a coup against ed davy but the question is interesting you know is ed davy the most successful leader the lib dems ever had and in in one sense in the seats he's won he is 72 mps uh at the last general election which is the most since 1923 um so yes big success there and of course he did turn around the abject failure of nick clegg who left the lib dems in a pretty disastrous position um with what was it was it um 10 11 6 like that yeah a handful of seats so yeah he did do tremendously well there um uh clegg funnily enough and lloyd george only libs liberals to sort of have power in government which um which is um an interesting way of looking at it but i think i suspect the biggest grievance or sense of frustration is to be the most successful leader of a political party you've got to shape it and change it and make it more relevant to people i I don't know whether Ed Davey can sit there and say that.

9:00You know, he did actually, that big number of seats was won on the lowest share of any of those sorts of big seat halls that the Lib Dems have had. 12 % he got in that general election. Clegg got 23 % in 2010. Kennedy got 22%. Ashdown got 18 % in the 90s. the Lib Dem SDP alliance under Steele and Jenkins got 25 percent in 1983 for 23 seats. So I think he's he's been a lucky leader in the sense that a small share of the vote has ended up giving him an enormous number of seats, relatively speaking. But he has he has he reshaped the party? I don't think he has really. And I suspect that there is a great hunger for liberal, traditional liberal Democrat voters to to feel that the Lib Dems are sort of making the weather a bit more than they currently are.

10:02I don't know whether you'd agree with that, Matt. I do. And I think that he, you know, he did play a blinder in the 24 campaign where, you know, it was clear that Starmer was going to win. and you know in a kind of in his very reticence Starmer played very well which was just not to allow any it was a zero it was a shutting down all possibility of mistakes um you know uh unforced error campaign which allowed Farage and Davey to be the two real stars of the campaign and and you know Davey's was the kind of it's a knockout strategy it was jolly stunts you know he was the happy warrior but since then I don't think he's really made much of a dent on public opinion and And of course, you know, it's a problem for him that and the Lib Dems generally.

10:46Two things really is that the party's poll position has been pretty parlous and they haven't made significant gains. And the other thing I think which speaks to what we were discussing on Thursday is that Davy has made a clear decision to stick with the older Lib Dem demographic, you know, defending the triple lock and so on. And that was why there was this brief kind of quasi coup with a couple of front benches. Alison Bennett and Charlie May not resigning didn't lead to a no confidence vote. So he's not in trouble now. But I do agree with him. I don't think he's he's he's there's no energy there and there's no future coalition voters in view, which is strange because there is, you know, picking up all the things we discussed on Thursday.

11:35There is this idea of generational integration, as you put it, and Lib Dems are good at that sort of thing. But also the Greens are in having kind of leapt over the Lib Dems for a while in the Polanski frenzy that seems to have come to a fizzling end or perhaps a decline. Anyway, there is now space for them to reclaim green issues and Europe, you know, and those two alone. And, you know, he is and hold Burnham's feet to the fire on social care where he is always been in a good space. And I'd like to see Davey be a bit more pugilistic on these things, actually, rather than I think he's worrying too much about about campaigns of the past.

12:23Like, oh, we need to go after One Nation Tories. I'm not sure One Nation Tories are meaningful category anymore. You know, they don't exist. Just go for voters, Ed. You know, don't don't overthink. the sort of tribalism aspect of it. Just go for the look at the things that are going to dominate the future and make the Lib Dems the party of that. Yeah, I agree completely. I do think he's got it within him personally. You know, he's I mean, he's a very decent guy. People like him generally. Really authentic, actually, funnily enough. Totally authentic. And in that way, you know, if you're sort of matching up, pairing up leaders right now, he's probably as aligned with Burnham as anybody in terms of personal sense of values and wanting to get things done.

13:05And I just think that it would be a very powerful place for him to start aligning himself as the cooperative, the potential willing partner of Andy Burnham in the big social changes that he's got to make. And maybe in a coalition. Which is quite, quite possible. Who wouldn't like a Burnham-Davie coalition? I would love it. I think it'd be great. Well, the best thing about it would be that they could both Ed Davey could be the excuse they both want, which is to put fast track European entry back on the table. You know, he could say, well, there's the price I've got to pay. Andy Burnham could say and Ed Davey would smell like roses and I would build a statue to him if that was.

13:56Also, he has a Davey knows how to be part of a coalition. He was part of a coalition for five years which held together miraculously. But this would be much easier because there's much more ideological alignment. And he's also got the bitter taste of when that coalition can burn the minority party. So he's hopefully learned a lesson there. So, I mean, the potential is absolutely enormous. I just think, I don't know what's missing. You know, someone needs to, maybe this is the kick up the backside he needs, you know. Anyway. Yeah, absolutely. Right. Next question comes from Pablo. And Pablo asks, the BBC has announced that Radio 4 Extra and BBC Three will in future be online only.

14:38Why did they ever exist in the first place? It's a good question. OK, well, to steel man both and then we'll sort of talk about whether it's a wise decision. um bbc3 launched as a digital television channel in 2003 then went to online only in 2016 then went back to broadcast as well and now is going to online only well what is it it's meant to be a sort of um a big experimental lab for new um youth oriented not just youth oriented but um slightly more experimental drama and comedy and so on and to be fair it was where gavid and stacy and Fleabag started so it hasn't been a non-event but I think as Pablo implies it was always very odd that it was a channel on its own rather than a kind of branding a commissioning brand and I think that in the new BBC it's absolutely right that it should just be I mean I'm not even sure if it needs to be a channel in its own right online I think it could just be a commissioning part of the BBC that looks for new directors, new writers, diversify the voices and opinions, you know, and so on.

15:48That's a good idea. But whether you need to have a kind of linear online channel devoted to it, I don't see because that's just not how television and audio are consumed as much as they used to be. Appointment television, appointment audio is massively diminished. Radio 4 Extra is an even more, that's been closed. That was launched in 2002 as BBC 7 renamed radio. You know, sort of things you don't need to know. PubQuest stuff is renamed Radio 7 in 2006 and Radio 4 Extra in 2011. What it really was, again, good idea, not necessarily the right way. BBC has one of the greatest, if not the greatest broadcasting archives in the world.

16:36And it doesn't use it enough at all. and one of the reasons for this is that there is a whole problem with talent about repeat fees which they haven't resolved how do you do this in the online world and and that's a kind of good challenge to have right negotiate with deal with it but so they they've kept it as a sort of channel what they're going to do is put it onto bbc sounds i think what they should be moving much more towards is making that archive kind of a big part of why the bbc is a fantastic thing to have and giving the people and their um and their descendants a taste of the monetization of it and so on um which is tricky i understand but wow you know that archive is so underused and um but that was what radio 4 extra was trying to do so i think that that yeah i mean both of them have had their day um but there's an opportunity in both bits to keep some of the ideas to justify the universality that has to be at the heart of the bbc's future that's my kind of long-winded answer i think that's really really good and i didn't really know the history of radio 4 extra well it's not really i mean the history of radio 4 extra is really not that important you know you're a busy man no but but no exactly i mean there's lots of things for an editor-in-chief and fouler to do i think oh but what was it first call i must know you know but it is well that that knowledge now it does feel symptomatic of i think a sort of deeper you can hear the meetings can't you well well my god i'll tell you what i was in a bbc this is years and years ago about 20 years it was my first exposure to a bbc modus operandi and they i was at the daily mirror at the time running their digital business and we were talking about using um video clips the bbc wanted to offer video clips to other media i think in in a way to justify the cost of everything and you know to be able to say you know our output is spread across all sorts of different um all sorts of different media and there was me and my deputy in this meeting and the bbc brought and i am not lying They brought 13 people to this meeting of the Daily Mirror and then proceeded over the course of two hours to have an internal row about.

19:00And me and this other guy from the Mirror just sat there and listened and listened in as this extraordinary thing unfolded where you saw laid bare all the competing influences and positions within the BBC. and the punchlines of the whole thing is they went and nothing of course ever bloody happened so there is a sense of overwhelming bureaucracy within the BBC too many competing interests a lack of focus and purpose and a sprawl as well you know just because you can doesn't mean you necessarily should and I just think that interestingly there was there was one station BBC Scotland which also got caught up in this round of cuts and I think is going to be online only and that's where i thought well actually i can really see the purpose of bbc scotland in a way that i could never justify the purpose of radio 4 extra or bbc 3 or bbc 7 or whatever it might be but i do think there is a sort of tendency in the bbc just to because they're so big to sprawl out and of course sometimes the commercial consequences for other organizations not least local media or other commercial broadcasters, national media, old-fashioned print titles, establishing digital properties.

20:26It's profound, you know. I mean, the BBC has no other news market in the world has to compete with such a well-resourced, well-funded and bloody brilliant broadcaster and title as the BBC. It makes things very, very hard for everybody else. Now, I'd say that's probably raised everybody's game. You know, we've all got to be great to attract attention and to get subscribers and to see our business models win through. But some moderation somewhere, I think, is useful. You know, I did hear the argument from somebody saying, you know, why does the BBC pay for stuff like, you know, Strictly Come Dancing or Match of the Day or National Highlight?

21:13And Jess Cecil, who wrote for us and is brilliant and used to work at the BBC, wrote a great piece saying, look, the point is it needs to be universal to give weight to its audience. in the places where... Or it's just PBS. Exactly, or it becomes PBS. So I completely get that. But I don't think in the past they have been mindful enough about the ancillary effects that their model has on other business models. And maybe Matt Britton, the new director general, has got a bit of that in mind as he's making these decisions to sort of contract. And very imminent, by the way. I mean, this is going to be a big story in the next year or so.

21:56Definitely. All right, let's take a quick break and come back with more of your wonderful questions to listeners.

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25:28Welcome back, dear listeners. This is the Two Matts Q &A podcast every Sunday morning brought to you by the wonderful subscribers of the New World magazine. So the next question from a friend End of the show. Tim Bale. And Tim asks, I haven't yet managed to think of a new word to add to the dictionary, but I would like to add another example of Matt Dancona's suggestion, euphemoclasm. That's getting rid of euphemisms, folks. Great word. This is Tim. Media outlets reported the Children's Commissioner, Rachel D'Souza, talking about the extreme difficulties many children are facing across multiple fronts as, quote, a postcode lottery.

26:08Sorry, but it's not a lottery. If the link between how hard things are for kids and where they live isn't random, but is largely a function of how well or badly off the area they live in actually is. Do the Matts agree that our tendency to describe all sorts of differences in the provision of public services as a postcode lottery, while it calls attention to problems, nevertheless obscures an inconvenient truth, namely that life isn't fair for a reason? Do you reckon, Matt? Well, so, yes, on one level, I agree completely. It is if it lets people off the hook by just sort of saying it's a it's it's just tough.

26:47It's it's just chance. Well, there are different kinds of lottery, I guess, is what I would say in response to that. There's the sense that there is it's not a lottery because actually it's baked into a bad system. Right. That there's there are the there are differences within the system. So if you think about councils and their attitude towards children's services, for instance, right, some councils run children's services brilliantly, some councils don't. Now, so it's a lottery whether you happen to end up in one of those councils. But the fact that it's not, you know, a lottery is is about randomness.

27:30Well, there's nothing random about that. That's a that's a fault of structure and an organization and the appliance of policy. But I think if you look at it from the other point of view, from from the subject point of view, well, it is a lottery in the sense that, you know, you don't decide whether you are born in a well run area or a badly run area. And so I think from that point of view, if you look at lottery in the sense of of it being helplessness, then it's it is an it's an accurate thing or even though it may be statistically sloppy, it is an accurate description of how it feels to be on the receiving end of bad services where where I think it's it's bad.

28:14there's clearly ambiguity and i think that is bad um and something like a postcode penalty would be a yes yeah yeah a better way of framing it than this kind of object or the or the premium you pay for when you buy an expensive house i i mean the the pushback i would say to tim's question the the end of it where he says there's an inconvenient truth that that life isn't fair for a reason well it that feels a little bit fatalistic to me and it's not it's not just a natural state of affairs this unfairness this lottery this penalty you know it's it's it's policy driven and i'm hoping that that's where burnham is where where he's straddling both senses of that of that phrase which is that every area is unique and has its own challenges and opportunities and must be given the resources and the wherewithal to optimize and to fulfill its potential.

29:13But equally, within each postcode, there shouldn't be levels of unfairness just based on that bad luck that Tim refers to at the end of his question. But that's, you know, that sense of life just being unfair. I don't think that is the cornerstone of any good policymaking. Yes, I certainly agree, Tim, in the sense that if it's used as a means of acquitting people in power for this variance, then it's a very lazy and misused term. But I mean, I think to your point, Matt, we are now in a fascinating area, as in so many respects with Vernon, because his concept of politics of place and his emphasis upon devolution is, or at least should be in principle, central.

30:02And it's the idea that the rising tide of local accountability lifts all boats and more power, more transparency, more control over resources encourages broad improvement across the, you know, across the piece. Fingers crossed. Of course, and this is this is and it's always been the the the problem, not the problem, but the the bit of devolution that people don't like when it happens is that it also inevitably can compound problems. Because when you elect, and I suspect some people who've elected reform councils may be feeling this now, when you elect people who are not fit to rule and govern, it compounds the problems.

30:45You know, I very much I mean, I actually do think that it may be that by the time of the next general election, those areas where reform has been in local government may be very fruitful as a sort of case study. Well, do you really want these guys to be in charge of or even more better represented in parliament? And I so I think there's that. But there's also another bit about the postcode lottery analysis, which is and again, it's raised by Burnham, which is there's a paradox in Burnhamism, which is that, yes, he's all about politics of place and localization and so on. But if you look at a lot of what he's saying, social care, housing revolution, it actually means a shit ton of centralization.

31:28right yes i mean you know you don't have a housing revolution to be honest through devolution you have it by telling town halls sorry or nimby's sorry but we are just going to build a lot of houses for the younger generation so there's a tension there which um i mean look at least we're now asking the right questions i mean i'll take that definitely but it but you know he's right tim is right the postcode law i think we should retire that phrase to be honest i think i think I think that's right. And I think Tim's 100 percent right on that. And I think what I'm hoping is with Burnham's overarching philosophy is that it's yes, you're absolutely right that a lot of this is is down to central government to to fix policy and to to fund improvements.

32:11But there's a restoration of a sense of agency within the postcards where people no longer feel that, you know, I mean, I'm totally conflating two different political phrases now. but doing so knowingly trickle down economics you know this within that phrase there's an absolute absence of agency at the people who are being trickled down upon you know it's all also up and down up and down you know it's like you know the very phrase is so fucking patronizing level leveling up this whole leveling up yeah up to me it's it's there's an absence of agency And I think, you know, we've talked about, you know, people saying that the real change in social progress has got to come from the grassroots.

33:01It's got to come from our attitudes towards our communities. And I think every time you say that, you sound like a Boy Scout, you know, going out, you know, it's all about being neighborly and improving your street and all of this. But I think there's huge truth in that and that we've, you know, especially in metropolitan, big metropolitan areas, I think we've lost a real sense of where agency exists and its control over our local areas. And so I think if maybe the real revolution, as much as the central government impetus is important, the real revolution is going to have to come from local councils and their attitudes towards their communities and ownership of those postcodes from the people who live in it.

33:46That's the that's the key point. Totally. Right. OK. Next question comes from Amy in Bournemouth. A lot of the talk about AI is very abstract and intellectual, and I guess that's fine up to a point. But shouldn't there be more emphasis upon what this all means for energy and water consumption? Instead of agonizing about deep philosophical questions, shouldn't we first focus on whether we and the planet have the resources that this whole new industry will gulp down? What do you think, Matt? I think Amy raises a hugely important point and one that really does signal a corrective everyone, political class, media class and so on, need to adopt when we're looking at this revolution, which is not coming but upon us.

34:34I mean, it's happening now. um and and i i i i count myself in that you know because it's very easy and and to a certain extent necessary to get drawn into the big questions about what it's doing to our cognitive abilities and is it ever going to be conscious and then the whole doom of stuff but park all that for the moment go back to amy's question yeah you know what is becoming increasingly clear as the you know because this only really started in 2022 when um open ai launched chat dpt as we now know it it's only yesterday and it but it is already growing at 10x you know a rate of expansion that i don't think has ever happened in technological history and it is going to have and is having already unbelievably significant real world effects and not just on jobs so there's a sort of to use uh the phrase adopted by our colleagues on their brilliant podcast touching grass as a touching grass dimension to this which is always think about what's going on and on the the planet and to real people as well as in the you know on the kind of abstract level i mean if you look at the uk i looked it up um already uh we are on ai consuming five to seven billion kilowatt hours of electricity over a year now to put that in perspective that's the annual electricity consumption of between two and 2.5 million typical british homes in a year already so that's a lot um and that's i mean that was in 2025 26 or it will be 10x more and you know keep looking up the graph so this the energy consumption alone is going to be huge in the u.s it is off the charts um in 24 it was already equivalent to 4.7 percent of all u.s energy consumption that's just they are in 24 think where it'll be in the by the end of the decade yeah so how i mean that leads to how do you match the demand for compute which is growing like crazy you know people talking talking to one academic last week who said that in his field people are asking not for grants but for tokens for their ai because the demand is now so great scarcity of tokens yeah um and what you're seeing is the international energy agencies put some numbers to this and they reckon that by 2035 on current trends which will definitely be higher than this so it seems this is a conservative minimum about 350 million tons of carbon in 2035 that is about half of um what the whole of britain emits in a year from ai okay and assume it's going to be more and we haven't even got to water use because the problem with water use is it's localized so it tends to and this is already happening to farming lands especially in america the data centers are swallowing up data swallowing up water from farmers who need it and farms are going bust you know so the real world it's massive this um and i think it may lead to a real world backlash by the way totally and i think what's dangerous about it and scary is as you've just pointed out is that we talk about these global numbers but the effect actually the actual effect is actually felt in in small localized places absolutely and it tends to be places where land is cheap where energy is cheap you know so you've got places like arizona for instance right you know and and they are gonna they're on the on the brunt end of of a water crisis if that's what this leads to you know so look i think um amy's question is absolutely right there are lots of abstract conversations going on around ai but this real world impact for certain communities is is enormous and and we're not factoring it in Yeah.

38:37And I think that, again, we need to keep an eye on not making the same mistakes again, which is I notice with some alarm that in America, there's an unholy alliance of well, not Bernie Sanders isn't like Steve Bannon. But what I mean is, is a cross party alliance between Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon, the MAGA, the former chief strategist to Trump over this, because they're saying this is letting down ordinary Americans. Now, I think Bernie Sanders comes from a place of decency. I think Steve Bannon doesn't. But my point is, if we don't do something about this, the populace will lump that, you know, they'll make robots.

39:18The new migrants is that will be and they'll get hate out of it. And instead of a reasoned conversation about what do we do about data usage, there will turn there'll be the data center destruction. And, you know, Danny Tomo and his thugs will turn up at data centers next. and we don't want that to happen and i do think and we've said this before on the podcast i really think that um you know he he burnham needs to give there needs to be a cabinet secretary with cross park cross white hall uh responsibility on ai okay right we've got one one more question i think right and this is from the uh intriguingly named um we don't get so many of these wonderful name that they're really fun from grouchy geezer 2003 if that's your date of birth you're a bit young to be a grouchy geezer are they getting younger and younger these days like the policeman and grouchy geezer i'm assuming it's a e hymn sorry if that's wrong uh now that burnham is taking action against quotes headphone dodgers who play loud music on public transport thank god again unusual from a 23 year old but there we go what minor but seriously anti-social form of behavior would the max like to see banned yeah it's a good one i've got a very specific i thought long and hard about this because as you'd imagine my cup runneth over with with things i'd like to see banned but the one that i would really like to see banned would be and the legislation would be called the supermarket queue payment readiness act would be what i can't stand what i cannot What stand is people who get to the end of their shopping, they bagged it up, and then it seems to come as a surprise to them that they're going to have to pay for it.

41:00The woman says or the man says at the cash desk, you know, it's£57.40. And they go, oh, right. And then they start rummaging around for the purse or the wallet and then they start digging it out. Get your bloody card out. Get your notes out ahead of time. be aware that you are going to have to pay for all of that shopping in those bags and stop holding up the bloody queue honestly I would I think I think a suitable penalty would be a doubling of whatever is in your shopping trolley if you can't pay for it within 60 seconds is where I'm at on that so there you go that's my I can't I can't I endorse this message folks um I like you Matt I mean there there are so many and because I'm 58 rather than 23 you know I think it's Again, 10x is the relevant phrase.

41:50Well, I think I've said this before, but I'm damn well going to say it again. Talking at the movies. OK, just been through actually a really fantastic London Film Festival, folks. And congratulations to the organisers. It just is an awesome event. I love it every year. My younger son and I, my younger son studying film. So we went along together to a lot of things. It was just joyous, wonderful. It's a great sort of jewel in the crown of London life. um but even there talking at the movies there was a preview of mark mcdonough's new film wild horse nine which i'll review in the culture notebook quite soon when it comes out fantastic movie but even there the performance i went to which was a big one at the festival hall there was a couple um in front of me talking through it and i thought even at the lff it's now you know and this makes me this does not bring out the best in me matt let's just say that Do you say anything on it?

42:49Yes, yes, I do. I mean, you know, it is my normally, you know, moderate and easygoing temperament gives away something a bit different. And I kept saying, please stop. You know, it's a great movie. We're all here to enjoy it. And they go, yes, I'm sorry. And then they'd carry on squawking and laughing. And it makes me want to join the Taliban or an order of crusaders, which I don't want to do. right i'm not let me exercise folks and to anyone should be live streamed are anyone on yes anyone from prevent is out there i'm not actually going to do that okay so don't worry i'm not actually going to join the taliban or indeed the crusaders though they do do very nice t-shirts um uh but you know i don't and it really i think this is becoming a bit of a theme really which is i mean one of the problems i have with this because i go to the movies so much is is something you said on the thursday pod which really made me think oh christ yeah is i don't want to sound like that guy right you know even though i am that guy right i don't want to sound like him i don't want to sound like a sort of ancient centrist dad saying now look here right we've all paid 15.99 to come and see indiana jones and the crocodile of doom right could you just shut up for two more because it's it makes you sound too much like you know you are um but i'd actually don't understand why people pay to go to talk to the movies and if any of the listeners can enlighten me i'm i'm all ears because it baffles me and troubles me but i i would like to um introduce massive asbo like fines and maybe to your point matt even worse if they take a second defense good very good thank you for that excellent question on which we end this week's podcast we could do a whole series really on it that could be a special definitely um do subscribe to the new world folks get a free copy of alastair campbell's per civilians when you do so signed by the man himself go to thenewworld.co.uk forward slash two mats and that's a offer waiting just for two mats listeners um ready for you there um do send in your questions for next week's q a to two mats at tnepublishing.com thank you to all those who sent in questions this week and sorry if we didn't get to answer yours questions about the budget by then yes yes well indeed much else to that point we'll be doing our special on wednesday afternoon after the budget so please tune into that uh and until then uh have a wonderful weekend and thank you matt and oh excuse me thank you matt with us the third matt indeed

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