Transcript
Hi there, it's John here.
I'm going to steal 10 minutes of your time trying to experiment and see if we can do a podcast on the sub stack.
I don't know if it's going to work, but I'm not well this week.
So I figured what the hell I got some sort of skin infection above my nose or below my nose, above my lip and then on my lip and I've been scrofulous.
So we've got that out of the way.
The other thing is too, and I have to always keep on asking for this, but it is important, subscribe, subscribe, subscribe if you can.
And if you can, do it with a monthly or yearly subscription or if you can't, just do it for free and try to spread the word of Harry's Last Stand.
And it is important for so many reasons and
Some of it is to keep me going and keep me housed and others is because what my father and I did for the last eight, nine years of his life does have meaning outside of our own relationship.
It was a fantastic, wonderful odyssey I took with him to try to deconstruct his past
with his assistance, with his guidance, and make it something palatable to other people so they could understand how important socialism is, how important it is that we get rid of neoliberalism and return back to our working class roots, which makes everyone count in the economy rather than just the 1%.
And getting to that, I want to talk about
the first year of Harry's Last Stand when it was being written and how that relates to Russell Brand, arsehole that he is, was, and shall always be.
Because my dad never met Russell Brand but he was a thing in 2013, 2014, and the years before that.
He was the person
that somehow was connected to left-wing thinking, even though this man couldn't think his way out of a paper bag.
Having said that, he, Russell Brand, wrote a book called Revolution, and it was at the same time that Harry was doing Harry's Last Stand and getting it ready for the publisher, who had paid him a reasonable amount of an advance, which I think was about 13,000 pounds, the most he ever received.
It was, it's not a great sum, but it showed that the publisher had faith in the book to at least hit $20,000 in sales, which is pretty impressive for somebody that was not connected to the publishing world, was not connected to the political world, was not connected to the entertainment, sports world, or any other world except his little patch.
And because I had helped market my dad
with his with his help and his guidance again to talk about the destruction of the NHS and all of this stuff sort of exploded and people got excited by it and he got the book deal after having written three books before then which although were wonderful brilliant books
had no traction because they were not backed by the big publishing houses or by the big news media conglomerates.
Anyways, in Harry's Last Stand in the first drafts for the publisher, Harry was much more negative to Russell Brand than in the final print edition.
and it went back and it said you know like are you really you know there are suggestions always made and it was like are you sure Harry you know like he's popular and he does care about working class people having come from the working class now my dad thought it was bollocks I thought it was bollocks but it was not a deal breaker and that's what happens in publishing because no matter what your idea is you will make compromises to get that book out there
and or or to help sales and all of this stuff and it's dilution of the messages all the time so it was diminished slightly and that was just so that it would not be flagged up or make him the antithesis of Russell Brand even though I did suggest that he was and should be because Brand's ideas in Revolution that book are bullshit and they're bullshit from somebody that's a false guru
and they feed into a narrative you're going to make me rich and I'm going to give you faux ideas about how a revolution should be won because there will be no revolution but I will get a continuous stream from spouting non-revolutionary talk
and pretending it's revolution, which is centrism at its best.
And it's also what the right wing does, although the right wing really does want a revolution.
And they did get it because this is why we have fascism today.
But generally, most people that are publishing stuff for the left don't want any serious transformative change, because a transformative change on the left means that these people that have a considerable amount of wealth
for writing about politics and wanting change will then not have an income stream.
They will have to find other employment if utopia comes.
And that's the absolute joke about most things, that in my opinion, most people, politically speaking, that are writing about politics are loathe for that change.
And that's how they get their books published in the first place, because most of them are not for radical change.
These are not the Communist Manifesto.
These are how to put a smiley face on neoliberals and act outraged.
And the same thing is too is that when he was doing this book, there were suggestions of saying, you know, just read some more Pauli Toynbee essays, and that will give you the idea of the Zeitgeist of the times.
And we knew that this was bullshit.
We knew that Polly Toynbee has been selling out workers and ordinary people since she was born because she does not come from a class that has any understanding, even if they are pretending to be left wing, about what being left wing is about.
Because it means you need to lose all of that wealth and become like us, or you need to raise everybody up like you.
And they want to do neither.
So,
Russell Brand was there and it was this entire idea in 2014, you could see it everywhere because he was in the Guardian, he was on television, he was doing his trues and all of this stuff and it was just forcing it down that people started to collaborate because that's what they do because they want that fame and fortune, that stardust to fall onto them to sell more books and whatever.
So I'm very pleased that with my dad and
anything to do with Russell Brand, he generally politely told people to fuck off.
And that he would complain about Russell Brand saying people shouldn't vote.
And at that time, people should have voted.
Because even with Miliband, and his setup, it would have been a farsight better than what came afterwards.
And the other thing is, at that time, Labour still had left wing politicians in it.
so that it had some hope of change but that all ended and this comes to my final point which is when my dad was forced to do things or compelled or argumentatively asked to do some things it always ended with him going I told you so because after he gave that speech at Labour
It was suggested by the Guardian that he write an essay saying that Ed Miliband would save the NHS and was a Prime Minister that would be good for Britain.
My dad at that time, seeing his speech there, having met him, didn't think he was up to the job.
but to have said something like that at that time would have completely disallowed him from participating in the election and being known by a greater group of people.
So the decision was made yes we will do this but this is how everybody collaborates in politics and in publishing and in journalism and all of this stuff to the detriment of
The Greater Good, in my opinion.
And I think he felt that too, which is why after he did it, and this is what I loved about him, he went and he did it in an interview with the International Business Times, where he completely said, you know, if Ed Miliband does become prime minister, he's going to backtrack on most of his pledges because he's a centrist and a neoliberal.
at least he was right there because had Ed become Prime Minister I am quite sure that he would have broken most of his promises as he is now by working for Starmer because the point is is that there is going to be nothing done in my opinion and I think the opinion of anybody that thinks through this by Starmer on the environment and they're just using Miliband as a beard right now to pretend that they will be effectively different
than the Tories on the environmental front.
Because they won't.
Because look at where they're getting their money from.
And it's from big business, the 1%, and giant energy consortiums.
Having said that, I have talked for over 10 minutes, and I'm going to leave it there, and hopefully this entertained you, or made you think, or made you like me a little bit more.
I am wanting you to subscribe to my sub stack, because I really do need your help.
I appreciate it and I will be back in the next day or two with an essay because I prefer those to speaking.
Anyways, have a good day, take care, and thank you again.
Harry Leslie Smith vs the faux guru of revolution Russell Brand.