Okay, we're live. Hi, this is William Ramsey. Welcome to William Ramsey Investigates. On today's show, I have a very special guest. He comes to us from the UK. His name is Paul Embry. His last name spelled E-M-B-E-R-Y. And he published a book in November 2020. Title of the book is Despised. Why the Modern Left Loads the Working Class. And right now in the u.s it has 444 5-star

reviews i've read the book in its entirety really well-written fascinating book from his perspective

from the UK but he can talk more about that so paul embery are you there good to be with you

awesome well thanks for agreeing

to the interview. You have a kind of a background in the left or the labor of the UK. Can you talk

about kind of your background and how you grew up and kind of you used it Barking and Dagenham,

which are kind of Easter of London for people in the US just so

they know that they might reference that but can you talk about your lifestyle growing up there and

how things have changed and what led you to write this book yeah so I grew up as you said in

the London borough of Barking and Dagenham in East London, very much a working-class area, very much a

blue-collar community, very much saw the Labour Party as the vehicle by which they could

advance their own material and economic interests, the party that spoke for them.

Like many working-class communities throughout the UK, actually returned Labour MPs, members

of parliament and local councillors at election time.

And whilst there were always some working class conservative voters, the Conservative Party,

large seat Conservative, they were in a minority really in working

class constituencies such as mine. And it was a very stable community. It wasn't particularly

affluent, but there were good employment levels and there was very much a sense of

community. People shared a similar culture, a similar background, had similar economic status.

And I became an active member of the trade union movement in Britain,

labour unions to you in the US, of course, about 16 years of age.

I've been an active member of the Labour movement in Britain ever since.

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