Political Impact And The New Government

Okay, welcome back to Gar's Economics. Today we have a very special episode for you guys. I am finally able to announce this week the release of my ninety minute channel four documentary All right, so this is something which I have been working on for I probably nearly nine months now. enormous amount of work, a documentary I have made with Channel four and Mind House Productions. And finally, finally it is coming out this week. It will be released on channel four This week, the eighth of July, nine PM Wednesday evening. There's a no World Cup that day, so you've got no excuse but to watch it. Today, I want to talk a little bit about what documentary is, why I made it What it was like making the documentary, how I feel about it now and most importantly how I think we can try to use this to create a moment to really push the new UK government at this really pivotal time to do something about inequality and the economy And without further ado, I will show you now the trailer for How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stevenson My proposal is a two percent tax on wealth of above ten million pounds. Absolute populous cat trap. People are having to make a decision on whether the whet they stayable. Why is' only rich people are supposed to not look out for their own interests? Is everyone else looking out for them? How to Get Filthy Rich with Gary Stehvenson on channel four. Wednesday at nine Allright, that was the trailer. First things first, let's get some technical details out of the way The show will air for the first time on channel four, which is one of the big UK channels if you're out of the country. This week, Wednesday, eighth of july nine PM We're really happy with that slot because there's no World Cup that day. so it means they've really chosen like. Basically the best possible slot for it. It's ninety minutes long It will be available here on YouTube on Sunday the twelfth Once it's come out on the eighth of July, you can also watch it online on four OD, which is channel four online on demand Tod are And I want to talk a little bit about it. so I've got a list of questions here. It's incredibly hot here in London today and I am a little bit hungover. so forgive me if I'm not quite as rapid as I usually am. but the first question is how we ended up making the documentary So the documentary came about basically because last year, people who' been watching the channel will know, I had my book out obviously, the trading game and It was just massive and I had this massive press campaign. there were billboards everywhere and we were just getting messages basically every day. from TV companies saying let's make a documentary, let's make a documentary. and Most of the time they were kind of time wasteres without any good ideas, but we reached the point where we were being chased by The BBC, ITV and Channel four, which is the three main free to air TV channel was here in the UK And me and Chris who is my agent were sort of like, well We're never going to get a better chance than having like all three of the main channels pushing for us So we met with somebody Fr all of the main channels, we thought channel four were the best. They suggested a couple of production companies and they sent Louis Rou and and his business partner to come and speak to us because they run a documentary production company called Mind House and that was pretty crazy We spoke about what we could do. I wanted to try and do something that would be really interesting that would just sort of cover The state of the nation, as it is right now, the state of inequality, the direction we're going in and really ham the question of like why are were not taxing it much moreore I turn a form a super key Lie through his company, mind house was super keen. they sent A director called Trevor Doxy who is from Button on Tin in his Stoke. downown to meet me and he was like fantastic right from the beginning. L he really wanted to understand my work really wanted to understand What we were looking to do And all of my ideas on the YouTube and is reading the book and really getting involved in it. and Basically, I was just really excited at the prospect of like obviously we've had lot success on YouTube, We've had a lot of success with the book It was this question of How we Do something that's different, that's like a bit more collaborative, that the creative voice is a bit different And can we reach more people with these ideas? and then can we use that? to really push the conversation. I think in this country As much as social media is In my opinion, like becoming more and more and more and more important especially in politics compete with mainstream media I think within the sort of The intelligenta elite classes that I talk about a lot, that have a lot of political power. They really put a lot more weight and a lot more emphasis on traditional media like TV So I'm just hoping it's a chance to reach new audiences who maybe are not so much on YouTube or Instagram and start to influence a little bit more the political conversation All right, question two is what was the experience like of making a documentary? The answer is Really difficult. It's you know these videos, you probably can't tell, but we normally shoot them pretty much in one take. You know, I have to spend a day or two researching a topic, trying to understand it as well as I can, doing like a little basic storyboard. And then we sit down and we shoot forty minutes and then the video is done. doocumentarary not like that. The documentary is nineteen minutes long. I think it's about seventy minutes without ad breaks I can't imagine how many hours of footage we had to shoot offtten out in the freezing cold because we were shooting a lot of the time in the winter So when you watch a documentary, what you probably don't realize is when you see sort of one So that the documentaryies me traveling up and down the country, talking to all kinds of different people, you know, Poorer people, richer people, we managed to get one billionaire on the show. peoplee who really think we should tax the rich more, people who really think we shouldn't tax the rich more One thing I think you maybe don't realize when you watch a documentary and you see a contributor you know, an interviewee on the documentary who maybe gets interviewed for five minutes offtten or at least in my experience, in order to get sort five minutes of footage from an interviewee Often I would have to sit with these people for three or four or five hours even. And because you know the nature of the documentary wanted to sort of show both sides, like show both arguments You know, I just spend a lot of time with a lot of people who are aggressively against taxing rich people. and personally I often found some of these people I didn't love spending three, four or five hours sort of in there energy as it were, and it was really, really draining and tiring. I had to learn a lot about how to be an interviewer instead of an interviewee I had recently Gabriel Zman on the channel. And I had a lot of really kind comments on like how I entered him and let him speak. and this is stuff which I was taught by, you know These guys at Mindhouse, Louy Through's company talking to me about the Louis Through started interviewing it was hard It was hard I remember in particular one veryer cold day U in maybe December when the Patrioty Millionaires, who is a fantastic lobbying group, of which I'm a member here in London We're driving a bus into Central London, saying tax is super rich. and I met one the millionaires. I did an interview in the Sleet under an umbrella, holding an umbrella for Brian Ino We were out there in the freezing, freezing cold for hours and to be loads of people. Probably I think the most touching moment For me filming the documentary and also like in the documentaries when I interview them an NHS doctor who was a guy I know a little bit called Andrew Myerson, who happen to be on this rally protesting for taxation of the rich. And You know, we'd just come from work, he wasn't really dressed for the cold. Big, big lad who works in the NHS, you know, you know, saving people's lives every day And he was cold and he was shivering and he pulled out a little pull that little piece of paper And I could see his hands like shivering as he went to get the paper And then he starts reeling off like the list of all of the things that have been closed, all of the health centers and all of the youth clubs and all of the football pitches and all of the police stations and everything. all of the things that Tw communities need that get shut down And I just remember being there and watching him shivering and me being cold myself. and it just came really emotional basically. It was It was difficult, it was hard work. they worked hard on TV, a lot of early mornings, a lot of long days, and a lot of really just emotional times because you know you spend hours with rich guys who don't want to touch the rich And then you go and you speak to people who are like feeleing the consequence of that, which is, you know, many cases, just ordinary hardwking young women and women who can't afford homes, you know, people who are seeing Vital public service is getting cut. So basically how was it? What was the experience like Yeah, bloody hard work, basically. but But that brings me to my next question here, which is how do I feel about the end product? which is I'm really proud of it. I'm really, really proud of it. You know this YouTube, the content is like one hundred percent me, it's entirely me and Sometimes I get a little bit sick of my own voice to be honest, doing this YouTube And I was really keen to just try to do some collaborative work with other people. So it was really great going around. There was basically a team of three of us every day, which was me The director Trevor Doxy and the producer, Irene Carter. Yeah, which is really nice like So working with these guys as a team and you know I tried my best to fight hard to get what I wanted in. Sometimes it's not easy because there's all legal problems sometimes, you know safeguarding problems. But I fought really hard and I worked really closely with the director Trevor Dxy to get something at the end that I was really happy with. I think it's got great movement, it's got great energy, like it's ninety minutes, but You can sit and watch it. it never gets boring. It's got great emotion, there's some funny bits, which there are a lot of moments in the screening at Sheffld where the audience were sort of laughing out loud. I wasn't intending to be funny, but apparently sometimes I can be And really, you know I just I want you to watch it. Be I worked really, really hard on it and I'm really proud of the product. brings me to the last section here, which is how do I feel about it now Wishing you could be there live for the big game, soaking up the atmosphere in the crowd Too often, life gets busy or the price hld you back Priceeline is here to help you make it happen With millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars, you can go see the game live. Don't just dream about the trip. book it with P prriceline. Download the prriceline app or visit priceline. comot Actual prices may vary, limited time offer I'm Mrch Manning.'madison Skinner, I'm Ev Yovich. I'm Coria Moore. W want to train like a Red Bowl athlete? Tell us your fitness goals this summer to enter the Red Bowull Athlete challenge. You'll get to try each of our workouts for a chance to win an ultimate Red Bull experience. D you have what it takes Not only am I proud of it, but I really think and I hope that this documentary can have a massive political impact. You, any of you who are not watching from the UK may not be aware. We are about to a new Prime Minister here in the UK. We all know who it's going to be. It is almost certainly going to be Andy Berham And we have a moment here Wh You know, everyone is, you know, turning to one another and saying, how we're going to do things differently? And it's crazy to even hear myself say this But we have never, in the history of my life had had a better chance of getting wealth taxes in this country Then then now, you know, we have a real chance of winning this here But it's not one. You know I'm not the only person lobbying the Prime Minister. There's lots of much, much richer people than me that don't want wealth taxes, and they're going to try to convince him not to listen to me One thing that was quite frustrating about this documentary was and it's frustrating about working in TV was I didn't find out uillil quite late not was exactly when it was going out. I thought it was going to go out in April initially, which is why I started the channel in April because I wanted to just like have all my energy going so that YouTube could work alongside The documentary Obviously now we can see it's not come out u tntil July I'm coming ort to the end of my energy I'm getting pretty exhausted at the end of a long season. I'm going to have to step back and finish this season quite soon And we really, really need If we want to get these wealth taxes, if you want to get something on inequality, we need this documentary to start and start to drive a national conversation. And I'm going to work my tits off in the next couple of weeks. By the time this comes out, you might have already seen I'm going to be doing tons of press. If I'm totally honest, I'm too exhausted to be doing the amount of press that I've signed myself up for And I'm a bit scared about that because I don't like you know, walking into the lion's den with not m full energy But I'm gonna do it anyway because I know That this is our last chance really. This is our last chance to get this. If we don't get we taxes now Th Burnham will fail on living standards, he'll fail on the economy for arge and reformal win the next election. They will cut tax on the rich, living standards will fall And it will be a massive iss basically. So Even though this is coming up later than I'd anticipated, I actually think In the end, this has worked quite well because we've had I'm filming this before. So Gabriel Zuckmann, as you may know, is the French economist who I interviewed a few weeks ago and I pushed really hard foril him to best you by the rest of politics, which is those who don't know the most popular Political podcast in this country is watched by a lot of the political classes. They agreed to interview him. They have interviewed him. By the time this goes out, that should have gone out on I believe, Monday, the twenty ninth of June. Um, you know, just a week later This is coming out and the documentary is about to come out. aren'm going to be doing tons of press I think this is such a chance for us to create like a massive media splash on this and have everyone all across the country ask Andy Burnham, whyy are you not doingal m taxes? We're never going to get A better chance at least Okay, so while this is happening, while this documentary is coming out and while I make these YouTube videos, one thing which I've started to speak a little bit about more recently on the channel is that I have I've been absolutely lobbying my tits off recently I'm filming this on twenty sixth of June and in Monday I spent a full day in parliament meeting MPs, which has led to a lot of very exciting rumours on the Rumour milk at the moment. Listen, I'm working incredibly incredibly hard to try and get us this. I'm tired and I'm going to have to stop soon because I'm going to burn out if I don't stop So I need you guys to take over. I need you guys to do whatever you can to drive this into the conversation. And I think right now the big opportunities for that are Watch and share the documentary when it comes out this week on Wednesday Watch and share Ukman's interview on the rest of pololitics, which will have come out Last Monday I'm Just talk about it. talkalk about it as much as you can. talkalk about your friends, your family, usese the documentary as an entry weight, send it to your friends and family, send it to your mum Start these conversations, you know, callall up the calling radio stations and say, listen, have you seen this documentary? you know, I think it has to be W' taxes. But you also need to understand, as I say again and again and again, you need to understand how to deliver the most simple, compelling arguments. So I've got a few here to remind you what I think are the most compelling arguments at the moment This an incoming UK government and increasingly all governments across the world have three options and I guarantee you they will do to some considerable degree, one of the following three things. taxation of the super rich. taxation of ordinary workers and shutting down further shutting down of the welfare state That's where we are. The reason why the government has to do, one combination of those three things is because they are losing their wealth very quickly. that wealth is being transferred to the super rich and who are not being taxed If you don't take action on that You only have one of these three options. If you do not tax the super rich, then I absolutely guarantee you, this new Berham government will do some combination of shutting down the welfare state and or raising taxes on ordinary working people. If you don't want those things or if you don't want either of those things, your only option is to aggressively campaign for taxation on the super rich And I send that message also to Andy Burnham and Andy Burnham's team and Labour, If you do not do anything on taxation of the super rich, you will, just like Starma, just like Sunax. be forced to raise taxes on working people and shut down the welfestate. and this will make you very unpopular very quickly J like what happened to Starma, just like what happened to Sunak. It's important to remember that when Starma and SunNak came in, they were both relatively popular and their popularity collapsed relatively quickly because the bad financial situation forced them into making bad decisions for ordinary working people. The only way you can avoid that is to tax the super rich I think one of the thing which I think is really useful is to as much as you can use that tax wealth network slogan. I'm not wearing my t shirt today, but I think you can see this sticker.ot the stickers which which you can buy or you know, make your own stickers, make your own posters, put them up. but just say it again and again Why are ordinary people paying fifty percent while billionaires pay twenty ten percent or even zero percent? If you don't deal with that inequality is going to get worse and worse alth we be squeezed out of ordinary families and inevitably living standards will fall One thing that has really amazed me in the last couple of months is the aggressive penetration of the slogan taxw Network into the political debate Basically every single politician has to say in some form or another, tax wills not work. This slogan has become bigger than this channel. It has become bigger than really any other argument. Say again and again and again and again, Working people pay fifty percent tax, billionaires pay twenty, ten, even zero percent tax, That is unfair It will lead to increasing inequality, it will lead to falling living standards Stick to the message You do not stop top one percent inequality from increasing Livving standards will definitely decrease It's as simple as that Say that message again and again and again and let everybody know that if Bernam does not take action on that then he will be repeating the exact mistakes of Sonak and Stalm All right, Listen, I'll be honest, I'm worried right here right now. I cannot describe to you How hard I've been working in the last few months because especially the last like month or so I'm doing the YouTube videos I am lobbying so aggressively as hard as I can behind the scenes and I've also got prep for this documentary and all of the press for this documentary as well as other things that I've been doing like the TV adaptation of the book And I'm trying as hard as I can To get the new government to do something on wealth taxes, I can't see them succeeding Economically I can't see them exceeding from a comms or an electoral perspective if they don't do anything on that. But it's my job and it's our job to convince them that they have to do it. But the truth is I'm coming towards the end of what I can do this year. I'm really I'm the closest I've ever been probably since I You know, for more than ten years to burn out And I can probably only last maybe another couple of weeks. So I need you guys to pick up the rope and start pulling. And that means if you can, watching the documentary this week, sharing it, sharing it with all your friends shharing it with the family doing everything you can to drive this into the public conversation. Watch Gabel Zuckman on the R of pololitics last week if you can Talk about it, talk about it, share it, share it. I wna see A couple of weeks when I'm doing as much press as I can where this is what everyone in the country is talking about