Chris Johns

And that's what Burnham is doing.

And Burnham is saying Tony Blair is completely and utterly wrong and that the problem facing the UK is inequality.

And I'll come back to that.

But what happens is, you know, that old Jean-Claude Juncker comment about we all know what the right thing to do is, but we don't know how to get elected if we do it.

So that breeds a certain degree of cynicism amongst everybody, particularly the politicians concerned, but also the people that they're asking to vote for them.

Because one of the peculiar things that happens, I think, to people who say to themselves at some point in their political careers, I think this happened to J.D.

Vance in a way, actually, the U.S.

vice president, is that they say to themselves or to their spouses that,

and J.D.

Vance actually did say this, you might hear some really weird shit coming out of my mouth on the campaign trail.

Don't worry, I don't mean it, and I won't follow through when I get elected.

But then something weird happens to them, Jim.

I think they end up meaning it, or at least they end up believing it and acting upon it.

and they get corrupted in some way, mentally, emotionally, intellectually, don't know.

But all of the young idealism of these people, the centrist dadism of Sunak and Blair, seems to disappear once they get their hand on the levers of power.

Maybe having fooled all the people with all this extreme stuff to get elected, they feel that they can't really go back on their promises.

Or maybe, like a lot of people, they say something often enough and they end up believing it.

It's very depressing.

I think you're looking at one here, to be honest.

I think I'm looking at one as well.