| | Hi, my name's Phil. |
| | I like talking about politics and in this video I'd like to discuss how the Tories main attack line on the Lib Dems may need a little bit of work. |
| | Apparently it's absolutely vital to know that you should not vote for the Lib Dems because they're extremists. |
| | Which is an odd line because the Lib Dems are often actually ridiculed if anything for being the most beige, as Billy Connolly would put it, of all political groups. |
| | The Lib Dem rallying cry is what do we want? |
| | Moderation. |
| | When do we want it? |
| | Sometime. |
| | So what is it that makes Lib Dems extremists? |
| | Well according to the Tories it's because some of them eat vegetables. |
| | So yeah, that's what they're going for for this crucial local election campaign. |
| | But first for daily news and commentary please hit the subscribe button to stay notified. |
| | So Andrew Griffiths, the Tory shadow business secretary, he's had a hell of a weekend hasn't he? |
| | On Saturday he was there humiliating himself for the sake of his leader, Kemi Badenoch, by trying to argue that you don't write down proposals during negotiations with a straight face. |
| | Then, clearly not needing any downtime from his embarrassing turn on Saturday, he went on to the BBC yesterday to be interviewed. |
| | Part of this included an attempt to trash talk the Liberal Democrats. |
| | Now, this sort of makes sense. |
| | There's illocal elections coming up. |
| | Labour are mostly focusing their campaign on the positive changes already evident in NHS and community policing. |
| | You know, where they're throwing attack lines out. |
| | It's actually against Nigel Farge and Reform UK, not really so much the Tories. |
| | So it's clear where Labour see their major electoral threat right now. |
| | But the Tories have threats everywhere. |
| | Labour are a threat to them because they're fixing what they broke. |
| | Reform are a threat to them because to a right-wing voter they sort of look similar, but without the track record of failure. |
| | Although the Tories are struggling for some reason to attack Reform UK. |
| | But the Lib Dems are also a major threat to the Conservatives. |
| | And unlike with Labour and Reform UK like, the Lib Dems haven't done anything unpopular like Labour, nor have they any unpopular associations like Reform UK. |
| | But they are a major threat to moderate Conservative votes. |
| | So the Tories need to come up with something. |
| | Now, usually you would attack the Lib Dems for actually being a bit boring. |
| | I wondered if they might have attacked Davy for his suggestion we apply retaliatory tariffs on the USA. |
| | That has not turned out to be too good advice. |
| | Quite an easy line to attack, though maybe not a particularly big issue when it comes to local election voting, which is mostly about bins and potholes. |
| | But it seems Griffith had another idea. |
| | Let's label the Lib Dems as extremists. |
| | He called them extremists, which is an odd play. |
| | It's not unlike trying to claim that Gandhi, famous for leading the world's most peaceful protest, was a terrorist. |
| | But it's the nature of the extremism that was hilarious. |
| | He tried to say that the Lib Dems are extremists, partly on the basis of supporting four day working weeks, but mostly on the basis that some of them are vegans. |
| | Sorry, what? |
| | Veganism is extremism now, is it? |
| | So why didn't the conservatives, who remember, were recently in government? |
| | Why didn't they ban corn from sale if it's a threat to national security and societal cohesion then? |
| | How come they didn't list as a condition for being picked up by the Prevent Anti-Extremism Programme someone buying corn sausages from Tesco's? |
| | Because that would sound like an obvious policy to adopt if you really thought this was a matter of national interest, right? |
| | But of course they're not serious anymore, are they? |
| | This has been going on for a while, attempting to pursue culture wars with food. |
| | First it was avocados, then tofu, then it was chicken sandwiches. |
| | Then Badenoch decided it should be all sandwiches that awoke. |
| | Actually, she said they don't even exist. |
| | Kind of like Brexit benefits then. |
| | Now meat substitutes are fueling extremism. |
| | Griffith tried to link this to the local elections by saying, oh you see, what happens, yeah, yeah, is when the Lib Dems get control of local councils, they promote veganism. |
| | Now I have no idea whether they do or don't, but let's say it is. |
| | Let's say it is a fact. |
| | Do they force veganism on people? |
| | Are there councils where butchers and fishmongers have been forced to close, or even just charged extra business rates, or in some other way being targeted by Lib Dem councils? |
| | No, I don't think he made that claim. |
| | Just that they promote certain eating habits. |
| | Maybe. |
| | Assuming he was even telling the truth about that. |
| | Apparently people shouldn't vote for the Lib Dems because too many of them are vegans. |
| | Frankly, I don't really see their problem. |
| | Keeps the price of steak down, doesn't it, if there's less demand. |
| | I thought Tories claim to understand about market forces. |
| | And Griffith was saying all this with a straight face, just like on Saturday. |
| | Now the way I'm discussing this may sound like I'm ridiculing the Tories, but there is also like a semi-serious point here. |
| | What it's showing is that the Tories, they sort of understand some elements of the political game, but not how to play it. |
| | It is normal for conservatives around the democratic world, not just in the UK, to build their electoral offer around the scaffolding of protecting society from some threat. |
| | Really very common. |
| | We certainly saw it with Trump. |
| | The threat tends not to be real, which is why they get a monopoly on it. |
| | It's why more sensible political groups generally don't make a big deal of these policies. |
| | Usually this perceived threat will be the poor or those who are too few in number to be an electoral risk by attacking. |
| | It could be unemployed people, it could be people with brown skin, it could be trans people, particularly over the last few years. |
| | It has been in the past in some countries, groups of people who don't even exist. |
| | You know, the Tories have chosen food. |
| | Possibly because Labour have blocked them off with their own immigration policies and other general rhetoric, I'm not sure. |
| | Labour have certainly made a big pitch to voters who are economically left-wing, but socially not that liberal. |
| | In fact, quite illiberal in some cases, as a way of encroaching on the territory of the Tories, as well as Reform UK. |
| | And of course, Reform UK themselves have definitely captured the socially illiberal ground on the right wing. |
| | So I can sort of see the problems the Conservatives have. |
| | They've been blocked on left and right on socially illiberal issues. |
| | They often have to draw support on social issues rather than economic ones, because their economic policy is where most of their lies and double dealings are hidden. |
| | Like if you ever look at a winning Conservative manifesto and you compare it with what they actually did in government in the following Parliament, it's often the economic policies which is like, oh, they didn't seem to do that. |
| | But they do frequently follow through on a lot of their social policies. |
| | Now, I don't know how many votes the Tories are really going to attract by blaming the Lib Dems for keeping the price of bacon down by not putting it in their own shopping baskets. |
| | I mean, it's not like they're going with Trump's tried and tested line about people eating cats and dogs, is it? |
| | There's no suggestion that the Lib Dems are eating newborn babies or anything. |
| | No, I once saw a Lib Dem councillor eating a salad. |
| | Could you imagine? |
| | The vile monsters. |
| | I'm not really sure that generates the sort of fury which traditionally blinds voters to the damage the Tories wish to inflict on their living standards. |
| | Like the whole point of these culture wars is to anger the people into voting against their own interests on the promise that, yes, their life will get worse, but some other buggers' life that they are conditioned to hate will be even worse. |
| | And I know the Tories have managed to get people to feel threatened by all manner of nonsense. |
| | I think it's a challenge and a half to persuade voters to feel threatened by a meat-free sandwich. |
| | You know, when I brought this up in the post section of the channel earlier today, I think my favourite response was the recollection of Sweller Bravman attacking the tofu-eating wokurati. |
| | Do you remember that? |
| | Only to then be outed as a vegetarian herself. |
| | And someone else pointed out that actually a lot of the tofu in Britain is made in a conservative constituency. |
| | So the usual joined-up thinking there for the Tories, attacking a product which is made in a conservative area. |
| | So attacking jobs in a conservative constituency. |
| | Yeah, I'll be about right. |
| | Still, if they insist on forming their master plan around this concept, it will at least provide material for the next generation of political scientists. |
| | Not that there's any shortage of new areas of study right now, from all directions. |
| | But there we are. |
| | Those are my thoughts. |
| | Let me know yours in the comments below. |
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| | Thanks for watching and until next time, I'll see you later. |
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