NEWSNIGHT - Paxman vs Brand. Full Interview.

Newsnight's Jeremy Paxman talks to Russell Brand about voting, revolution and beards...

Russell Brand who are you to edit a political magazine?

well i suppose like a person who's been
politely asked by interactive woman

I don't know what the typical criteria is

I don't know many people that edit political magazines

Boris, he used to do on, didn't he?

so i'm a person with crazy
here quite good sense of humor

don't know much about politics, I'm ideal

but is it true you don't even vote?

Yeah no i dont vote/

well how do you have any authority to talk about politics?

well I don't get my authority from this
pre-existing paradigm which is quite narrow

and only serves a few people.

I look elsewhere for alternatives that might be of service to humanity

alternate means, alternate political systems

they being?

well ive not invented it yet Jeremy!

i had to do a magazine last week,
ive had a lot on my plate!

but, i say, here's the thing that it shouldnt do:

shouldn't destroy the planet

shouldn't create massive economic disparity

shouldn't ignore the needs of the people

the burden of proof is on the people with the power
not people like doing a magazine

how do you imagine the people get power?

well I imagine there are sort of hierarchical systems that have been preserved for generations...

they get power by being voted it...

you wont even be asked to vote

thats quite a narrow
quite narrow prescriptive parameter

that changes within the...

in a democracy that's how it works

well I don't think is working very well Jeremy

given that the plan is being destroyed

given there's economic disparity of a huge degree

what you sayin theres no alternative? theres no alternative?

no im not saying that. im saying if you cant be asked to vote,

why should we be asked to listen to your political point of view?

you don't have to listen to my political point of view

but its not that im not voting out of apathy,

im not voting out of absolute indifference, and weariness, and exhaustion,

and from the lies, treachery, deceit of the political class,

that has been going on for generations now,

and which has now reached fever pitch

where we have a disenfranchised, disillusioned, despondent underclass,

that are not being represented by that political system

so voting for it is tacit complicity with that system

that's not something I'm offering up

well why dont you change it then?

im trying to!

well why dont you start by voting?

[laughing] i dont think it works people have voted already,

and thats whats created the current paradigm

when did you last vote?

never

you've never ever voted?

no, do you think that's really bad?

so you struck an attitude before what, the age of 18?

well i was busy being a drug addict at that point

because i come from the kind of socialconditions that are exacerbated

by an indifferent system that really just administrates for large corporations and ignores the population that it was voted in to serve.

youre blaming the political class the fact that you had a drug problem?

no no no i'm saying I was part of the social and economic class

that is underserved by the current political system

and drug addiction's one of the problems it creates

when you have huge underserved impoverished populations people get drug problems

and also don't feel like they want to engage with the current political system

because they see that it doesn't work for them,

they see that it makes no difference they see that they're not served.

of course it doesnt work for them if they dont bother to vote!

Jeremy my darling, im not saying... the apathy doesn't come from us the people

the apathy comes from the politicians they are apathetic to our needs

they're only interested in servicing the needs of corporations

look at what... aint the Tories going to court, to take the EU to court because they're trying to curtail bank bonuses?

Is that whats happening at the moment in our country?

It is, isnt it?

So why am i gonna tune in for that?

You dont believe in democracy, you want a revolution, dont you!

the planet is being destroyed, we are creating an underclass,

we are exploiting poor people all over the world

and the genuine legitimate problems the people are not being addressed by our political class.

All of those things may be true...

they are true!

but you took... i wouldnt argue with you about many of them...

well outcome I feel so cross with you,

it cant be because of that beard, its gorgeous!the cards because about be it it's gorgeous!

and if the Daily Mail dont want it, i do!

im against them! grow it longer!
tangle it into your armpit hair.

You are a very trivial man.

oh do you think I'm trivial?

yes!

a minute ago you were havin a go at me because i want a revolution, now im trivial!

im bouncin' about all over the place!

im not having a go at you because you want a revolution many people want a revolution,

but im asking you what it will be like?

well I think what it won't be like is

a huge disparity between rich and poor

where 300 Americans have the same amount of wealth as the 85 million poorest americans

where there is a an exploited and underserved underclass that have been continually ignored,

where welfare is slashed while Cameron and Osborne go to court to defend the right of bankers to continue receiving their bonuses.

what's the scheme? Thats all im asking, whats the scheme?

you talked vaguely about revolution, what is it?

I think a socialist egalitarian system based on the massive redistribution of wealth,

heavy taxation of corporations and massive responsibility for energy companies

and any companies exploiting the environment,

they should be tax...

I think the very concept of profit should be hugely reduced.

David Cameron says profit isn't a day word, I say profit is a filthy word

because wherever there is profit there is also a deficit,

and this system currently doesn't address these ideas.

and so why would anyone vote for it? why would anyone be interested?

who'd levy these taxes?

I think we do need like... there needs to be a centralized administrative system...

a government?

well maybe call it something else, call it like the AdminBods so they dont get ahead of themselves...

how would they be chosen?

jeremy, dont ask me to sit here in an interview with you in a bloody hotel room,

and devise a global utopian system

im merely pointing out that the current...

you are calling for revolution!

Yeah! absolutely! I'm calling for change I'm calling for genuine alternatives.

there are many people who would agree with you...

good!

the current system is not engaging with all sorts of problems, yes,

and they feel apathetic really apathetic,

but if they were to take you seriously and not to vote

yeah they shouldnt vote, thats one thing they should do: dont bother voting

because when it reaches... theres a point...

you see these little valves, these sort of like cozy little valves of recycling and Prius and like, turnups somewhere...

it stops us reaching the pit point wherre we think this is enough now, stop voting, stop pretending,

wake up! be in reality now. time to be in reality now.

why vote? we know it isnt going to make any difference, we know that already.

so you know I have more impact out West Ham United, cheering them on,

and they lost the city, unnecessarily, sad.

Now you're being facetious.

well, facaetiousness has as much value as seriousness

I think you're making the mistake of mistaking seriousness for solemnity.

We're not going to solve world problems by facetiousness.

we're not going to solve them with the current system! at least facaetiousness is funny.

sometimes

yes sometimes Jeremy

so listen, lets approach this optimistically

you spent your whole career berating and haranguing politicians,

and then when someone like me, a comedian, goes "yeah theyre all worthless, whats the point in engaging with any of them?"

you sort of have a go at me because im not poor anymore.

im not having a go at you about that

I'm just asking why would you take you seriously when you're so unspecific ...

will II firstly I don't mind if you take me seriously

I'm here just to draw attention to a few ideas I just wanna have a little bit of a laugh.

I'm saying there are people with alternative ideas that are far better qualified than i am,

and far better qualified more importantly

than the people that currently doing that job

because thyere not attempting to solve these problems

they're not. they're attempting to placate the population.

Their measures that are currently being taken around climate change are indifferent,

will not solve the problems

it's possible as human beings they're simply overwhelmed by the scale of the problem

not really, well, possibly it might be that, I mean but that's just semantics really,

whether they're overwhelmed by it or tacitly maintaining it because it's habitual...

make I was is when I in now to the parliament

is decorated exactly the same as Ian is decorated that the same as Oxford

so certain type people guys and if it's all this makes me nervous and another

time have been gonna go

this is how it should be and I think that's gonna change now

we can no longer have peronist duplicitous systems held in place

unless it's for the serbs only systems that serve the plan and said the

population of the planet

can be allowed to survive not ones that seven lakes be they political

or corporal and this is what's currently happening you don't really

believe

I completely believe it doesn't mean very reliable wi-fi side

a life that you had me at Miller

we wear the same prime and promised with boris identity but he then went to a

conference in school in North London's

that's all well and good on but what i'm saying is that within the existing

paradigm the change in a dramatic enough

not radical enough so you can well understand public disturbances and

publicize faction

when they're not genuine changes and genuine alternates pilfered I say women

is a genuine alternative

a genuine option invoke that until then

Obama why pretend like be complacent in this ridiculous illusion

because by the time somebody comes along you might think it worked voting for it

may be too late

I don't think so because the time is now this movement is already occurring is

happening everywhere

wit only communication is instantaneous and their communities all over the world

the Occupy movement made a difference in even if only in I introduced to the

popular public Mexican

the idea of the one percent that is a people for the first time

in a generation are where massive corporate and economic exploitation

these things and not nonsense and these are subject are not being addressed

they have no one's doing anything about tax havens no one's doing anything about

their political affiliations and financial affiliations at the

Conservative Party

-bit was addressing the actually real

why would not be facetious what would I take it seriously why would I encourage

a consistent pictures young people back absolutely indifferent to vote

why would we aren't you bored on you more bored than anyone

you been talking on year after year listening to their lives they're not

then if this one gets in then is that one getting but the problem continues

why we gonna continue to contribute to disperse are

I'm surprise you can be facetious when you're that angry about it yeah I'm

angry

I am angry because for me it's real

me is not just some peripheral thing not turn up once in awhile to church by

for for me this is what come from this is what care about

to see any member that yep totally there's gonna be revelation is probably

going to happen

I did not know you i think i Flickr about this is the n

this is time to wake up I remember I see you in that program

way look at your ancestors and you saw that way your grandmother

we're at a process l got fucked over by as the cracks you wanna

gap you cried because you knew that it was unfair

and I'm just not what was essentially got that's happening to people now just

come from the woman is being treated like that

has been talking to women today is being treated like that

so im if we can engage that feeling said have some moment a black Remo

sentimentality played out in a TV for people to pour over emotional porn

if we can engage that feeling and strange things why wouldn't we will use

that naive

why is that not my right because I'm act power I me i i picking the right

I don't need the right from you but only the rubber anybody I'm taking