YouSaid · the spoken record

Tommy Sheppard

lines on the record: 40
first: 2018-06-22
most recent: 2018-06-22
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Oh, that's the other thing. I think I offended Mr. Ramsey with the description of my dish because I was running a theme for the competition, which was to try and, at that time, people were getting very up themselves, to be honest, and having very flouncy descriptions of quite simple food, you know, sticking in a French name or something to make it sound. So my main course was Meeting Seven Veg. Which was, and I can give you the fancy description for it, but that's what it said on the menu. And I think they were thinking, oh, he's taking a piss. He's not indulging us in our craft, you know”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, my judges, that was when the days when Lloyd Grossman did it, and Lloyd was Lloyd was fine. He was a really nice man. But he had two guest judges. You remember all this business about cogitate? So my two judges, one was Alan Lamb, the cricketer who had led the campaign against the boycott of South Africa. Gordon Ramsey, who I don't know what he is now, but at that time he was a well known conservative supporter. So shall we say we didn't really hit it off in terms of the green room banter. And then when they showed the little video piece about me and John Prescott walking in a rose garden somewhere, they filmed these things to give an impression. So this was just to say that I was a Labour Party official as a job. So you could see the red mist rising. I think it wouldn't have mattered what I had cooked.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We're going to do this. When we think we've got the best chance of winning it, I mean, that's the truth of the matter. So it doesn't need to be next week, next month, or even next year. So we will take the time to consider. But things are beginning to sell. I think by the turn of this year, by the spring of 19, things will look a lot different and people may be prepared to consider risk. And I think we've also got to say to people, look, it's in the nature of things being in the future that are uncertain.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And actually, although there's 45% of people say yes, they want Scottish independence, when you ask how many want it now, it's a lot less. For that reason, anything. I mean, I don't know what you think, but I've been at this game 40 years, and this is the most chaotic and turbulent political times I remember in the sense of there is so much uncertainty. I mean, literally, you don't know which route the country is going to take or would be taking in five years' time. So that level of uncertainty and chaos in terms of what the United Kingdom is going to become post-Brexit, that in itself makes it very difficult to get any traction on describing an alternative to what that might be. And I think there's that sort of ideological difficulty, but then there's a psychological difficulty as well. I mean, people want things to settle down a bit before they commit to making another big change in their lives.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it was a good political experience. And it has left Scotland as a politically literate country, I think, which is a benefit for the future as well.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Trying to say something more profound. No, no, I was saying that as an illustration of the sort of upbeat positive nature that the yes campaign was infused with and the fact that they never, it was the most unconfrontational political campaign that I've ever been involved in, which makes all of these allegations about...”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think people say that we really don't want this, okay? And there may be an uplift in the polls. And at that point, the Scottish Parliament, which already has a mandate, would approach the British government seeking an order to have a referendum. So I'd say it's 50-50 that that could happen. The alternative to that is that it would happen very soon after the Scottish general election in 2021 or the next UK general election.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't know. Sooner rather than later. Yeah, I mean, I think it will either come within the next 18 months or it'll come”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, a lot of their monuments aren't Them didn't vote yes anyway. But I mean, I think the SNPs, if it has a problem, the dynamics are not that different from the Labour Party because there's a left in the SNP, some of which take the view that the constraints that the European Union places upon an independent Scottish economy mean that it wouldn't be able to achieve the change that they would like to see. So they vote for Brexit on that reason. It's probably not as numerous as they are in England, but there's that contingent there as well. I mean, I would say to those people, of course, that when it comes to a yes-no vote in Scottish independence, where are they going to go? Because certainly it's better, surely, to take the powers of a normal government in Scotland so that you can at least make a choice about what sort of relationship you're going to have with the EU. And I think that's where it'll be couched next time, Nick, because probably Brexit will happen. Probably by the time we get to revisit the question of Scottish independence, we will be on the way out of Europe. So it won't be as...”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So in French, I don't think you'll find much in the way of a no contingent within the SNP, which you could describe as sort of fundamentalist nationalist in its about Scotland versus the world.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, sorry, that's one thing. There are others, of course. I mean, I think it has changed a lot of people's minds, but the net change isn't significant. So we still have 44 to 46% saying, yes, the Scottish independence. But within that, there are signs that some people who voted no last time would vote yes this time because of Brexit. Conversely, there are people who say, oh, well, the Scottish independence is all about staying in the EU. I don't like the EU, so I'm either going to vote against it or I'm not going to vote for it.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, loads of reasons. One thing is it hasn't happened yet. And hand on heart, I can't say for sure that we will leave the EU. Probably will, but there will be votes in November that might not go the government's way. Government collapse could be a general election. Who knows, right? I mean, things are very, very volatile, very chaotic. And unless the government can demonstrate, you know, that it's got a plan in place to deal with many of the problems it doesn't have at the moment, then I think people are going to say, well, this meaningful boat means we're not voting for it, which means we stay where we are and you go back and you take another year or another two years or whatever it is, by which time we may have a general election the country may get the chance to reconsider its view in a democracy people do have the right to change their minds.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I thought it was. I mean, I know, by the way, I know there are some people on the other side who thought that we were all a bunch of Moonies and joined some cult and that the fact that everybody was so positive and not because the campaign was so phenomenally positive. Three quarters of a million people voted yes in September 14 who hadn't felt that way two years previously. That's a phenomenal shift to go from 25% to 45%”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“All human, right So I think you can get seduced into believing things that really, if you were just going to base your views on evidence, you might not believe.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, yes, I was crushed on the night when the votes came in and it was, I mean, 55, 45, so that was fairly decisive one way. You couldn't describe it as knife edge. I thought it would be closer than that, to be honest. But, you know, that's part of you believe your own propaganda and you say you don't pay attention to the polls and then you see one you like and suddenly you change it you know”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People in the southeast of England who may not want that change. Shouldn't it be possible to actually move forward at a faster rate than that and perhaps provide something that they can look to as an alternative option?”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is, I mean, I think it's worth saying that even if I go back to 1979, where we had a devolution referendum, if you recall, I was very much on the pro-devolution side, even at that time. So I've always favored power being transferred to the lowest level possible where it can be exercised. I think what changed for me probably in the early noughties was just a realization that it was much more practical to try and achieve the change first in Scotland and then use that as a catalyst to achieve change elsewhere throughout Britain and of course to punch above our weight in Europe as well. So I don't know if that's clean sheetism but I think it's a matter of just going a bit further than I already was and that was driven in part by despair at having tried the alternative option which was to let me put it this way I don't see why if I'm living in Scotland and I want to change society in a certain way why do I have to go at the pace of”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And there are two broad options for someone on the left in Scotland. They either put their faith in the British Labour Party as being able to form a Labour government and achieve structural change in society and change inequality. And I spent 20 years trying to do that, and it got beaten out of me, frankly, with serial failures to achieve that. And I came to the view that a much better way to achieve change in Britain would be first to try and establish a self-governing country in the north of the country where the majority of the population were predisposed to these arguments about social equality. But having done that, I firmly believe that would be a catalyst for change throughout the rest of the island. And it would certainly change relationships between people in Scotland and England in a very, very positive way.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'm not turning my back on anybody. I mean, I want to see an end to poverty and inequality everywhere. I want to see it in Scotland and England, in France, in Egypt, Africa, everywhere. So I take a very internationalist perspective. But you have to ask yourself, how do you...”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely. My basic outlook on the world and the type of society I'd like to see has not changed since I was about 18 to be honest. People keep switching position all around me, moving in different directions. I think I've been pretty steady. It's just my vehicle for achieving the change.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What sort of, I guess. I mean, I was very comfortable in John Smith's Labour Party as well, to be honest. But I think my departure or my parting of the road with the Labour Party, it came, you know, with the Blair Revolution in the mid-90s when the Labour Party took a conscious decision to go in search of a centrist vote and thought that their core vote was expendable, which was a problem”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that was probably I had been around it for a while, but I think that's the thing that made me actually jump and take the plunge, yeah.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure, but I went to London in 1982 to become the sabbatical vice president of NUS, intending to go there for a year. And like many people got caught up in things and ended up staying for 11. So yes, I went to London and I got hooked into that. I mean, I had joined the Labour Party, of course, whilst at university. I joined the Labour Party just as Margaret Thatcher was getting elected in 1979.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, sort of. I mean, I had been through the National Unit of Students, I'd been the Aberdeen Area Convener then on the Scottish Executive. But you went on to be.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, so if we go back a little bit, of course, politics was my first love. You know, I left school at 18 and went to Aberdeen University having, so I was born and brought up in Northern Ireland in the 70s, where it's not easy. It wasn't easy to politically express yourself, particularly if you had a view that wasn't the mainstream in the community that you were a part of. And I sort of exploded when I got to university. I joined everything and got involved in everything. And I was already, I think, my basic politics had formed in my mid-teens in terms of being left of center and having a sort of view of how the world might change. I threw myself into student politics and I loved it and I was very active in it, which of course eventually took me to London to be vice president of the National Union of Students.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I said at that time, you will find in time that we will be good parliamentarians and we have tried to be that. What happened with the walkout was exceptional and we only got to that point because if you actually don't get the chance to speak, if you're not allowed to say anything inside the building, then you might as well take advantage of walking out so you can say it outside the building. And we'll press our case any way that we can.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think a lot of people were upset when this nice bunch of middle class people turned up in there. Try to make their procedures work, and actually they seem awfully reasonable.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Do you know what we thought we were doing something? You can really feel in that place that you just, it's like swimming through porridge. You just never seem to get anywhere. But we felt good about it. And I know some people didn't agree with the tactic, but I'll say this, we're discussing it now, aren't we? And, you know, we went across the road to the green outside the building here where all the cameras are. And in about two hours, we got more publicity than we had done in the previous two months. And suddenly the world was alert to the fact that, oh, there's another Brexit problem. There's something bad about Brexit to do with Scotland that hasn't been sorted out. I think we got our case up the agenda.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's the nod on your way. Genuinely. So we're all sitting there on the benches, and this banner is going on between Ian Blackfoot and Theresa May and between the speaker and being told to sit down and all the rest of it. And the temperature is going up. And we're all thinking, we've got to do something. And we're just looking at each other. I wonder what they're doing. And it was, I think the cure was Ian walking to the door. And we just go. And I mean, you know.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sorry to disappoint, but it really wasn't. I mean, to be honest, I genuinely didn't know I was walking out until I was walking out. And that goes for my colleagues, I think.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, some of them are not very good at it. So, and then I just eventually, we started as a hobby when I went back to live in Edinburgh because the Edinburgh Festival, of course, even then was the biggest collection of stand-up comedians in the world, but yet there was no comedy club year-round. So we started one as a hobby, and then it became a business.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, well, but I don't have to travel to do it now, and just because I'm my own club, kind of. So you can go to the stand in Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Newcastle. Well, a different night each week, but you will see what we call Red Raw Show, which is people doing it for the very first time.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Alternatives to the giveaway. Yeah, so that attracted me. The idea that you could, the entertainment could be a means of communicating ideas, but also, of course, that you could watch a performance at all of the skills and obligations of the theatre, as far as the stage was concerned, but in a pub where you can have a drink and a chat in a nose days or smoking, you know, it was a real hybrid experience, which I loved. And I spent a lot of time going to see the people who then became famous.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and Mark Thomas, and well, Ben Elton and people like that. So, ironically, the people who went on become the mainstream of BBC Light Entertainment a decade later. But at that time, you know, in the midst of the Thatcher government and the minor strike and all the rest of it, there were little impromptu gigs happening and pubs all around where I lived in London. The thing that really attracted me to it was that these people were Not just making you laugh, but making you think as well. And most of it was pretty left wing, I suppose. I can't remember any Tory alternative comics. It's sort of a bit of an oxymoron. Yeah, I was going to say.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So I'm useless with the jokes. That's why I've always paid other people to tell them. This starts when I came to London in the early 80s. I think you're old enough to remember, we were at that time in what was called alternative comedy at that stage.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Welcome. Oh, sorry. I don't know why I said welcome. Thank you very much. I'm delighted to be here. Yeah, good to be here, Nick. No, should we do that from the top again? I thought it was a gag. I thought it was one of your company lines.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it would have enough doctors and nurses to deliver, for example, maximum two-week waiting times would be the sort of assumption that we've built in. It would have good accommodation in hospitals that the average age of hospital would be much smaller than it is now. So those practical things will be there.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Boost But I believe it is right that when everyone, employees and employers benefit from the insurance provided by the National Health Service, everyone who can should make a fair contribution.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But nonetheless, what I can say is that a lot of thinking has gone on at the Treasury to make absolutely sure this can be afforded. We are clear that there will be an increased burden of taxation.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And then when they showed the little video piece about me and John Prescott walking in a rose garden somewhere, so this was just to say that I was a Labour Party official as a job, you could see the red mist rising. And I mean, I think it wouldn't have mattered what I cooked.”
2018-06-22 · Political Thinking with Nick Robinson · The Tommy Sheppard One · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source