Welcome to another exciting edition of Plank of the Week as we try and wend our way through lockdowns, shutdowns, tears one, two, three. We don't really know where we're going. Nobody knows who's in charge. Luckily, Plank of the Week, we've got plenty of people to choose from. And today, I'm delighted to say, I've got two stalwarts, two veterans of Plank of the Week. Russell Quirk is here. Our friendly, what do we call you? PR, man of the people. PR guru, property expert. Jack of all trades, really. Jack of all trades. Dawn Nesham, journalist, extraordinary. So, I don't know where we're going to start today, but let's start with Dawn, given that you are the Queen of the Plank of the Week. Thank you very much. Right. I am going to go for Chris Bryant. Chris Bryant. Very popular choice. Up until yesterday, I wasn't 100% sure who or what it actually was. But evidently it's a Welsh Labour MP for Ronda. That's true. And it has been since 2001. Former Vicar apparently. A former

Church of England, Vicar, got into a bit of trouble with his expenses as an MP as well.

And I was working on your colleague, our Dan Wooten show yesterday, and Chris was on there having a debate.

Well, you call it a debate. Was it much of a debate? Was it? No, it was. Having a go rather than having a debate, I think. Honestly, I have never heard so much rude offensive stuff in my life. He came on and he was defending the lockdown firebreak, whatever we are, or calling it these days in Wales by saying it was a good thing, had to be done. and anyone that's agreed with him was either a crackpot or a nutcase which is great in these mental health days isn't it I'm not sure you can call people nuts cases it's all right if you if you don't agree with them and they happen to be not from the left wing as ever you can insult as many people as you like if you're lefties absolutely and these were all the are all the right Barrington Agreement scientists he was having a guy saying they were crackpots, they're coming up with the bad. Well, he called Dan a nutcase, didn't he called Dan a nutcase. He also called Dan Stupid, and I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. And all because people disagree with him. Yeah. And then, and then he compounded double down by lying. He lied about the comparison in the number of people in hospital, didn't he? Absolutely. But it's a tactic that we all see through now, don't we? So ever since the dawn of Brexit back in kind of 2016, where the left started repositioning anybody that was against them in any way, shape or form as, you know, nasty or crackpots or whatever. But I think we'll see through it now. The public see through that now, don't they? That it's not good enough just to label someone as an idiot or a crackpot rather than actually having an argument that might actually be based on some data and some back. But also, the people that he's referring to and calling crackpots are quite eminent medical experts. It's a matter. It's, there's 12,000. Yes. You know, but they're actually, you know, very highly qualified. Stanford University, Cambridge, Oxford. I mean, really? And if you're going to come on to live radio and be that rude and noxious to the host and to some of the world's most eminent scientists, at least make sure you've got your facts right. Local hospital, he said, was capacity, never been this much, double what it was last year at 75,000. And actually it turns out that that is what that particular intensive care unit is every year. Presumably he's labelling the World Health Organisation as crackpots as well, because they're also against lockdown. Who might have got a point though there?

Do you think?

Well, I'm not sure. I mean, the World Health Organisation is a very strange organisation. Yeah. But they're an eminent organisation along with the 12,000 other signatures of the boundaries. But a bit like Public Health England, right, which was run by people who didn't know anything about public health. The World Health Organisation is also run by people who are basically all appointed by the UN.

And no absolutely bugger-all about actual medicine. You know, they're not, they're a kind of administration more than they're a medical organisation, right? And I got very annoyed with him, so Chris Bryant is definitely a huge prank in my world. I think that is a very, very good addition. I mean, the funny thing is he was always quite a chippy character. And we used to get him in the tent of common sense from time to time.

And he got very good addition. I mean, the funny thing is he was always quite a chippy character. And we used to get him in the tent of common sense from time to time.

And he got very worked up when I said to him at one point, you know, well, I'm paying your salary. He went, no, you're not. I pay tax. I said, yeah, but you don't seem to understand. You work for me. I don't work for you. So therefore you have to answer the question that I'm putting to you.

And when you claim your expenses, I'm paying them.

Did you mention the 92,000 pounds of expenses?

I didn't really. I mean, the point is, you know, what people who work in a public sector don't get is that if it wasn't for the fact that the taxpayers actually fund their salaries, they wouldn't have any money. There would be no public sector. Yes, they pay tax, but they wouldn't have a job. but they wouldn't have a salary if we didn't subscribe to it. But, you know,

he's one of the, They wouldn't have any money. There would be no public sector. Yes, they pay tax, but they wouldn't have a job. They wouldn't have a salary if we didn't subscribe to it.

But, you know, he's one of these guys. I've found, actually, quite to my disappointment that an awful lot of MPs are just not very bright. I mean, he said Dan was stupid, right? Oh, yeah. And quite a lot of MPs that I've met as a result of what we've been doing for the last two or three years and being down in Westminster an awful lot.

I mean, there's some great... And quite a lot of MPs that I've met as a result of what we've been doing for the last two or three years and being down in Westminster an awful lot.

I mean, there's some great MPs and some terrific MPs and very intelligent MPs, but there's an awful lot of dross as well. This is what I find worrying and I think we're all realising it now. I think we realised it with Brexit, but I think we're realising it even more now with coronavirus,

is that the people that are supposedly in charge, you wouldn't trust around a bath.

No, you really wouldn't.

No. think we're realizing it even more now with coronavirus is that the people that are supposedly in charge you wouldn't trust around a bath no you really wouldn't and they have no idea an awful lot of them clear how ordinary people live absolutely this is why they bring you things like oh let's have a 10pm curfew you know it always reminds me of the story my dad told me once that when he was in uh in his youth and he used to go and draw in in courts you know because he was a cartoonist and he used to go and draw in courts, you know, because he was a

cartoonist and he used to go and draw, you know, for the paper. And there was a judge reminiscing

and remonstrating with some old drunk who had been done for a drunk and disorderly about the fifth

time in a week, you know, and he said, and you know, my dear fellow, you must not have any

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