[Closed] Russle brand 'the trews'?

Could have made for a fantastic London mayoral election

Diane Abbott, Russell Brand or Jeremy Paxman

I heard Russ Abbott was gonna stand

OK... I'll concede that Brand could well be lining hisself up for the mayor's role just to tick a bucket list box, and I have no idea what the outcome of Brands election to office would be, but to my mind whatever his motivation, the side effect is turning out to be a pretty constructive thing

Nah, Russ Abbott is in standby for Tory Scottish leader

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Well he couldn't be any more of a clown than the present London Mayor

More importantly... all this nonsense better bloody well not be getting in the way of making Despicable Me 3 😀

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in my mind whatever his motivation, the side effect is a pretty constructive thing

Not sure - there's an opportunity cost to Brand being the spokesman for an alternative. In Spain the same need arose but, instead of some mouthy celeb with a penchant for long words, that need was filled by a [url= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Iglesias_Turri%C3%B3n ]young university lecturer[/url] who has actually formed a [url= http://podemos.info/ ]political party[/url] and campaigned for votes. And he's doing very well, his party has the two main parties running scared and forced them to up their game.

Probably all a bit too risky and too much of an effort for Brand, though - much easier to "ask questions" and "raise awareness".

binners - Member
As with many things in life, Noel Galalghers take on it is always worth listening too

“Well, I love Russell but he don't half talk out of his arse sometimes,”

“His fine, muscular, pert arse. He does talk a load of shit. I couldn't see him overthrowing a table of drinks. Do you think he's going to put himself in charge? Hmm, I wonder.”

“I was out with him the other night and he says it with a straight face. 'There is going to be a revolution.' And I'm like, '****ing hell, mate, give us a shout when you're going down The Mall with your pitchforks and that, I'll come and serenade you with my loot before we eat the Queen.

“He says, 'Come on mate, back us' and I'm like, 'If you make me the Duke Of Manchester then I'm in'.”

Holding up noel gallagher as an fountain of knowledge? 😆 sort yourself oot, next you'll be posting johnny rottens ramblings! 😆

@ mogrim that is the type of solution I would support.

instead of some mouthy celeb with a penchant for long words, that need was filled by a young university lecturer who has actually formed a political party and campaigned for votes. And he's doing very well, his party has the two main parties running scared and forced them to up their game.

Probably all a bit too risky and too much of an effort for Brand, though - much easier to "ask questions" and "raise awareness".

Fair point.. so perhaps then, some of the irritation with Brand is that he's not applying himself in the best way to get maximum benefit.. he's not fulfilling his potential..?

f you genuinely want to know about stuff like this, and keep yourself informed, but don't want to all the preachy, messiah stuff that goes with Brand, its not difficult! Read Owen Jones or Naomi Klein

If you want a witty humorous take on it then read Mark Steel

Are any of them getting lots of coverage on U.K TV and pissing off the establishment? Not at the level Brand is.

Also he talks about and interviews the people you mention, but then you wouldn't know that because you probably only watch him ranting on Newsnight and read shite in the papers.

Do a search for Russell Brand and Naomi Klein or Owen Jones. It's not difficult is it! 😆

And that's exactly where brand is going wrong

If he thinks he can mobilise large numbers of people who are turned off from mainstream politics to be more politically aware, then he needs to form a political party and take like minded people with him to challenge the establishment

Even Someone who spends most of his time talking inconsistent and contradictory bollocks can still change the political agenda and make the mainstream parties quake in their boots

Nigel has proved that 😉

mogrim - Member

Not sure - there's an opportunity cost to Brand being the spokesman for an alternative.

Seriously? Brand enters a vacuum and you blame him for the vacuum? His existence doesn't stop anyone else from doing things differently. On past form, he'd be quick to get behind anyone who did.

ninfan - Member
And that's exactly where brand is going wrong

If he thinks he can mobilise large numbers of people who are turned off from mainstream politics to be more politically aware

Personally, i actually agree his trews and the style he does then in can be annoying, but his general message is sound..

Seriously? Brand enters a vacuum and you blame him for the vacuum? His existence doesn't stop anyone else from doing things differently. On past form, he'd be quick to get behind anyone who did.

I'm not blaming him for the vacuum, or even for filling it. I'm just saying that his filling the vacuum [b]does[/b] make it harder for other voices to be heard.

This is where you are missing his point. Which isn't to mobilise behind him, his message is simple, identify your issues and get up off your arse and do something about it, no-one else will.

RB: identify your issues and do something about it, no-one else will!

The masses: what shall we do?

RB: I dunno, somefink!

The masses: like what?

RB: I dunno, that's not for me, it's for you, it doesn't matter what you do, as long as you do somefink!

The masses: any suggestions?

RB: Look, you're not getting me man, it's not for me to tell you what to do, you need to fink of that yourself like, as long as you do somefink because somefink is better than nuffink, innit! Now stop hassling me with questions, you're gettin me down and making my brain go all wobbly, Revolution innit, down wiv the establishment.

The masses: 😕

mogrim - Member

I'm not blaming him for the vacuum, or even for filling it. I'm just saying that his filling the vacuum does make it harder for other voices to be heard.

What makes it hard for other voices to be heard, is that we have a media and establishment committed to not letting them be heard. We have the perfect case in point here!

What makes it hard for other voices to be heard, is that we have a media and establishment committed to not letting them be heard. We have the perfect case in point here!

Spot on... Green Party a prime example

There is hardly a vacuum in the debate on housing, its actually quite a crowded space. London councils (Labour lead) are falling over themselves to sell of property to foreign investors.

Any a piece today on the gaffs Brand has made, I didn't remember he'd turned up to work at MTV 2 days after the 9/11 attacks dressed as Osama Bin Laden.

[url= http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/11273422/From-hero-to-zero-Russell-Brands-biggest-gaffes.html ]link[/url]

He's on Question Time next week with Nigel Farage.

Send in the clowns.....

Jambalaya - did you receive my email?

"Amanda was a strong, beautiful woman. After a string of infidelities on my part, she finally had the good sense to leave me. I just came home one night, and all her clothes were gone. I thought this a flabbergasting affront, and threw myself with ever more self-destructive intensity into my work, womanising and, above all, a renewed and increasingly all-encompassing relationship with heroin.

I thought, "Well, at least now she's left me, I can just take loads of drugs again".

Not content with damaging myself physically, I set about dismantling my career. Gritty was the main dealer I used to get heroin off when I worked at MTV. I liked the fact that destiny had allotted him the name "Gritty". Just as Ned Ludd, leader of the Luddites who opposed the Industrial Revolution, would have struggled to make such an eloquent case against the spinning jenny had his name been Fabrizio Zodiac, so the name Gritty seemed well adapted to the needs of his profession.

He seemed a nice sort of man, though. He had quite a caring side to him, for a drug dealer. I remember one occasion when I was buying drugs off him near Camden Bridge. Having just sold me my two £10 bags of smack and two £10 rocks of crack, he gave me a sincere look and said, "Be careful with that, won't you Russell?" I was thinking, "What do you mean, 'Be careful with that'? They're drugs. What does he think I'm gonna do with them? 'Oh no, I seem to have taken them. Why didn't I heed Gritty's prophecy?' "

One day Gritty asked me once if he could bring Edwin, his eight-year-old son, into MTV to have a bit of a look round. I said, "Sure, why not?" What could possibly go wrong? We could call it Bring Your Drug Dealer to Work Day.

The date that the inaugural BYDDTWD happened to fall upon was September 12 2001, the day after the destruction of the World Trade Centre. With typical restraint, I decided to go into work dressed in a camouflage flak jacket, a false beard and a tea towel on my head, held in place by a shoelace.

I had been aware of Osama bin Laden for about a year. He wasn't someone people of my age group generally knew about, but he'd been involved with some other bombings and he was top of the FBI's most wanted list, and I was fascinated by that sort of stuff. That day, I was going to present this programme called Select, where kids phoned in and chose videos for us to play, and pop stars would come on to flog their records. Our guest was to be Kylie Minogue. Me, Gritty and Edwin went into the toilet and the two older members of our party smoked some crack. Edwin didn't have any. He was just a little boy, and seemed quite upbeat about life anyway. Children don't need drugs, because they have sweets.

We blearily swaggered out of the disabled toilet. On the other side of the foyer - with its round console, banks of TVs, trendy turnstile and endless parade of beautiful young people of both genders and every sexual persuasion trundling in and out - I saw Kylie Minogue, all famous and everything.

Somewhere in my mind, the artist within me - the situationist within me - thought: "I can create a moment here. When am I ever going to get an opportunity like this again?" Before I knew it, I'd walked across that foyer, made a kind of "Woo-ooh" noise - in a mum-across-a-neighbour's-fence sort of way - and said: "Kylie, meet Gritty." Then I just stood back to watch it unfold.

What were these two going to talk about? It's the day after 9/11, and Kylie and Gritty are having a sort of awkward chat, with Gritty trying to be polite and Kylie asking, "What do you do?" sort of like the Queen would. And there's me standing beside them, still dressed as Osama bin Laden.

I thought: "It don't get any better than this."

And it didn't, cos they sacked me about two days later."

He's on Question Time next week with Nigel Farage.

Send in the clowns.....

And the rest of the panel? Certainly could be entertaining. Informative? Not so sure 🙂

@yunki, I appreciate that we need better spending on NHS but legal aid as a priority ? He did say correctly at the end of the piece we need more social housing but a lack of it isn't due to the banking system, its due to successive governments both Labour and Conservative continuing to sell social housing instead of building more. IMO the government should identify town center sites (it owns many as did the post office which shouldn't have been sold its property/land portfolio should have been sued for social housing development) and the develop these into social housing, the government could provide loan guarantees (meaning cheap cost of borrowing) for the construction and subsequent management of the properties. These properties would be let on the basis of need / key workers and means tested - no council house for life security of tenure.

@yunki - yes, I actually replied just after posting.

One of the greatest political thinkers of our generation

I'm sorry, I'll do anything. I wore a condom. Put the phone down! Oh what's going to happen. Look I've got a mental illness. Do you think that made it better?
...
Andrew Sachs, Andrew Sachs. I said something I didn't have oughta, like I had sex with your granddaughter. But it was consensual and she wasn't menstrual, it was consensual lovely sex.
...
We can keep ringing, and even after the show's finished, kick his front door in and scream apologies into his bottom.

Great post Northwind..
I think it's stuff like that which goes some way to explaining why he's got such a dedicated fanbase..
That's the sort of thing that gen X can identify with.. He's lived a normal lifestyle (not a joke btw) and that gives him an integrity.. He's trustworthy..

EDIT: Ace - thanks Jambalaya

That's one of the things I like most about Brand. He is so far from perfect it's ridiculous.

He doesn't carry on as if he is holier than thou (Like most politicians and members of the establishment) or tries to hide his flaws.

The human element is what makes him likeable IMO, compared to the two faced muppets who pretend their shit doesn't stink.

I bet this weekend, quite a few bankers, politicians and the like, will be visiting a brass house and snorting lines off a hookers back 😆

or a little boys, they seem to have a reputation for THAT type of thing too (like the Clergy).

I did smile at who leapt in to defend Russell from allegations of hypocrisy

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/nick-clegg-defends-russell-brand-over-the-sun-hypocrite-claims-9903236.html

Northwind's quote is exactly why I think Brand lacks credibility as a political commentator and is extremely dangerous "role model" for the young. Here is a man, open drug user, womaniser, who gets hire and fired, encourages people not to vote. So the young look and listen and think, its OK to be like Brand, it's cool even and he's rich .. so if I behave like that it's OK, cool and I might OK financially too.

The fact he pays £76k pa rent in Hoxton is exactly why there is a housing crises in East London, it's renters like him which are driving up property values there encouraging charities like the one who owned Era to sell up and reinvest elsewhere. I rent in Chelsea, you can rent a spectacular place here for £76k pa, the sort of place Jose Mohrinho used to live in for example on Cadogan Square (Chelsea/Belgravia). That's not cool though for Brand is it, would be a bit off message for his street cred eh ?

Northwind's quote is exactly why I think Brand lacks credibility as a political commentator and is extremely dangerous "role model" for the young. Here is a man, open drug user, womaniser, who gets hire and fired, encourages people not to vote. So the young look and listen and think, its OK to be like Brand, it's cool even and he's rich .. so if I behave like that it's OK, cool and I might OK financially too.

The fact he pays £76k pa rent in Hoxton is exactly why there is a housing crises in East London, it's renters like him which are driving up property values there encouraging charities like the one who owned Era to sell up and reinvest elsewhere. I rent in Chelsea, you can rent a spectacular place here for £76k pa, the sort of place Jose Mohrinho used to live in for example on Cadogan Square (Chelsea/Belgravia). That's not cool though for Brand is it, would be a bit off message for his street cred eh ?

Visiting a brass house this weekend Jambalaya?

jambalaya - Member

open drug user,

[i]Recovering addict[/i], is the term you're looking for there, clean and sober for a decade.

But if you think that anecdote is glorifying drugs you're off your head. And he's done a huge amount to talk about and help with drug abuse and mental health issues from his experience, it's really where he started writing.

Ironically, when he does so, he gets this sort of "But he's an addict! We shouldn't listen to him!" but when he talks about people losing their homes he says "But he can afford his rent! He's a hypocrite for talking about things that don't personally affect him.

jamby is right; how very dare brand rent in hoxtn, the rich should only be allowed to live in the royal borough?!!?

northwinds nailed it, his popularity is partly because hes admitted that he likes sex and drugs and hes been very public about his addiction and recovery

and to be honest now thatthat the Sun has launched one of its extensive hate campaigns against him, we know hes definitely on the side of good!

Nick Clegg's remembered he's a liberal democrat! Bit late, but still. Maybe some day I'll defend him for being a recovering Tory, clean and not a **** for 10 years, and he'll have started a charity and written a series of articles on the lessons he learned from his darker times.

I didn't call him a hypocrit, but I am not surprised someone has, he could have avoided all this by having a sensible answer to an obvious question.

Hi @kudos, that's too obscure/clever for me I'm afraid

Typical gentrification would have involved Brand moving into such an area and buying big property, again I imagine that didn't fit with his "right on" image of himself, so he just rents at a costs of 6-8x what flats rent for in the ERA block. The flow of such money into such an area is exactly why the value of property there has jumped so much. ERA is a private property, even the local council is selling off the social housing / land for big profits and redevelopment.

As an aside I live near a very famous London Social Housing Project / Trust right in the center of SW3. Its well maintained, no issues at all, adds to the area. However the lease was 100 years and it is soon to be redeveloped. That was the deal setup 90-odd years ago. The ERA project, as social housing, is coming to an end too. Brand should be focusing his energy on why the local council won't rehouse these people ad why they and the government aren't building more social housing.

Northwind's quote is exactly why I think Brand lacks credibility as a political commentator and is extremely dangerous "role model" for the young. Here is a man, open drug user, womaniser, who gets hire and fired, encourages people not to vote.

I disagree, that's exactly why he is a good social commentator, and why he is a good role model for the young. he's been there, done 'it', and come out the other side a changed, enlightened man. politicians would look down on a kid that had an opinion, but was a smack addict, brand would listen and offer the kid a hand up.

I agree, that at times he is misguided, but don't forget he was Hollywood a list, he could still be there, making shit films, shagging Katy perry etc, but he's not, he saw he needed to change, and he is trying to make a difference. God knows why people see that as a bad thing.

Hi @kudos, that's too obscure/clever for me I'm afraid

It's tongue in cheek.

The idea that brand isn't credible because he is ex addict and likes kinky sex is laughable.

That is a major part of the reason he [i]is[/i] credible, unlike the vast majority of the establishment, who lie through their teeth for a living.

It's a good job we have had such wonderful people in the public eye, like Jimmy Savile and Max Clifford.

I got that, I just couldn't understand the joke/jibe 😐

Perhaps I need a copy of the Russel Brand Urban Dictionary ?

I understand the comments above about Brand but i reiterate that if he cared about social housing he would be chasing the local authority and the government to build more / stop selling. It's not the private sectors role to provide social housing. I don't give him an ounce of credibility on this, this is just part of his personal agenda against "the establishment" and a good chance to be on TV

I got that, I just couldn't understand the joke/jibe

Perhaps I need a copy of the Russel Brand Urban Dictionary ?

Try watching the Trews 😀

I'm just glad none of our tory overlords take drugs! 😆

jambalaya - Member
I understand the comments above about Brand but i reiterate that if he cared about social housing he would be chasing the local authority and the government to build more / stop selling. It's not the private sectors role to provide social housing. I don't give him an ounce of credibility on this, this is just part of his personal agenda against "the establishment" and a good chance to be on TV

with over 1/3rd of MPs being BTL landlords and a chancellor hell bent at propping up the housing bubble at any cost, blaming renters(however much they pay) is churlish, Id say Brand going after the establishment is exactly the right thing to do
I dont see this raising his tv profile either, taking on the press is a good way to get yourself booted out of the limelight and end your career

look the chancellors an ex- junkie, burn him!

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jambalaya - Member

he could have avoided all this by having a sensible answer to an obvious question.

He did- it's just not an answer the journalist wanted to hear, because he went there to write a story attacking Russell Brand. Sensible answer- that's not what we're here to talk about.

Strange that this was the day before Gideon's gurn bonanza:

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