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Immigration, billionaires and Wetherspoons | LBC's best callers of the week
Jul 27, 2025
From immigration myths to cheap pints at Wetherspoons, LBC's callers didn’t hold back this week. 0:01 | Caller Laurie gives her view on the ‘outsider rapist’ myth and its violent history to James O'Brien 5:33 | Caller Raj in Manchester challenges Henry Riley over calling Corbyn a ‘useful idiot’ 6:54 | Caller Hassan in Cambridge tells Tom Swarbrick he’s found the ‘Schrödinger’s immigrant’ 9:21 | Caller Dominic in Reading argues we chase poor immigrants harder than billionaire tax dodgers 11:22 | Caller John in Woodford defends Wetherspoons as safe, cheap — and full of older men Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #jamesobrien #nickferrari #tomswarbrick #henryriley #ukpolitics #immigration #billionaires #politics #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
View Video Transcript
0:00
Condemning an entire category of people on the basis that one of them might one day commit a crime is the essence of prejudice
0:07
It's literally the definition of prejudice. It's prejudging an entire group of people
0:12
But secondly, this is a trend that we've seen in this country and across certainly the English-speaking world for a long, long time
0:20
I mean hundreds of years, certainly decades of using fear of violence against women and girls and children
0:27
to excuse demonization of outsider groups. And the great civil rights activist and writer Angela Davis
0:33
calls this the myth of the outsider rapist. She was talking then about the excuse of how many black men
0:42
in the American South were being murdered by mobs of white racists who convinced themselves that they were simply protecting their women
0:49
This was used as the excuse for lynchings. In the British occupation of India, we justified massacres
0:55
by saying we were just a retribution for rape, real or imagined attacks on white women
1:03
And the argument that black and brown men pose a unique threat
1:08
to white women and children is not new. It's a very, very old form of prejudice
1:15
And another group we see being targeted by exactly this kind of lie
1:19
is transgender people, and particularly transgender women right now. I mean, we had this discussion, you had this discussion on the show, you know, quite recently saying like, well, is this, you know, is this a unique threat to women and girls? Are transgender women some kind of unique threat to women? Of course they're not. But somehow, we can only speak about this kind of violence when we project it onto outsiders
1:40
is it i mean i don't i don't know if generous is quite the right word but is it because it somehow
1:46
feels so trying to deal with all male sex abusers feels like an unclimbable mountain but if you
1:54
break it down so i'm not coming from a place of sympathy but a place of seeking to understand
1:59
people that i find hard to understand i present it to you as as fixable we can deal with these
2:04
m&ms or these skittles there's no way we can deal with all the sweets in all the world but hey look
2:09
there's some skittles here that we can excise from our diet let's just do that and it becomes
2:14
a bit easier to understand perhaps absolutely and look there are quite a few women in some of these
2:21
racist and homophobic transphobic movements who have found you know one way in which they're
2:29
finally allowed to speak about real violence that they've seen and suffered in their lives about the
2:34
you know because you know violence against women and children is a real thing and yet somehow
2:38
you know finally by some miracle finally everybody who dismissed it for years and years and years
2:44
suddenly seems to care about it when we're blaming it on outsiders and yeah i think you're right it
2:50
it doesn't seem like it seems like so baked in you can't yeah it will always be there and i mean
2:56
people will produce statistics sometimes questionable that prove their right to be
3:02
more worried about these people than other people and they will talk about culture and they will talk
3:06
about how women are viewed in other parts of the world And there will be some truth in some of these points But will it ever be enough Why will it never be enough to justify treating everybody from that
3:19
quotes, culture, end quotes, with suspicion? Because we believe in innocence until proven guilty, I suppose
3:25
I'm not sure it's that. Go on. Unfortunately, I think that's a quite generous and optimistic
3:32
No, no, but one of the things, I mean, if you look at history, The crime of rape was first understood not as a crime against a person, but as a crime of property
3:42
You know, the crime was done by the other man against the man who technically owned that woman
3:46
It's about, I mean, the word is chauvinism. It's an out-of-fashion word. But you see people talking about our women
3:53
You know, those people aren't allowed to attack women, our women. Only we are
3:57
It's about territory, about property. Who is allowed to, honestly, this is the attitude I've seen
4:03
They've been doing activism in this kind of area for a very long time
4:07
And that would explain why, I mean, I don't know if anyone ever dug into how disproportionate it was
4:12
but there were certainly many cases of people in the EDL being found guilty of precisely the sort of crimes
4:19
that they claimed to exist to resist when they were committed by people of different backgrounds
4:24
I mean, that's horrible. I wish I could push back, but I don't have the knowledge or experience to push back
4:31
And you do, as you say. The idea that, no, no, these crimes are fine when they're committed by one of us
4:37
Hey, look, if it's a powerful, rich white man boasting about grabbing women by the vagina
4:41
then that's just locker room talk, even though, you know, we've got no reason to believe he was lying
4:47
But if it's somebody who's just come over here on a small boat doing it
4:51
then let's just set fire to his home and stuff all the people in it
4:57
It certainly fits the facts as they are available, but it's very, very bleak
5:01
A fascinating call, Laurie. I hope you ring me again. Thank you. Hi there, Henry. How are you
5:04
Very well. Thank you for calling. No, it's more of a splooper
5:09
Henry, you know what? I was just driving in when Ian's show was still on and you sort of introduced what we're going to talk about
5:14
at sort of 10 o'clock. Yeah. And you sort of called Corbyn a useful idiot
5:18
I said, does he risk being a useful idiot? Well, and I don't understand. Why would you call him an idiot, though
5:24
Because... Because I don't quite understand why you're calling somebody an idiot who's in a politician for so long and an MP for so long
5:29
No, I don't think he's an idiot. It's an expression. Yeah, I'm not calling him a useful idiot, though
5:35
He's not an idiot, though, is he? No, I'm not calling him an idiot. I'm calling him... I said I'm questioning whether he's a useful idiot
5:41
Well, if you're still calling him an idiot... Stop saying I called him an idiot
5:45
I'm not calling him an idiot. It's using terminology like that, like you said beforehand in the media
5:51
that always makes Corbyn look like he's the devil or something. And it's terminology like that
5:55
You didn't have to use that sort of terminology either, did you, by referencing Corbyn, though
5:59
No, but it illustrated a point by what I was making. It's not, you're putting the phrase
6:04
it can't be an idiot in the same phrase, in the same paragraph, in the same sentence
6:09
Let me read you, Raj, are you going to let me finish? Let me read you the definition of useful idiot
6:13
A useful idiot or a useful fool is a term of a person describing
6:17
that the person thinks they're fighting for a cause without fully comprehending the consequences of their actions i he might be doing it for the right reasons doing this party but he would be a useful idiot if he let Nigel Farage into number 10 Yeah he could be but you saying that he
6:31
But what I'm trying to say is it's usually that sort of terminology in that sort of sentence where you're calling Corbyn, using the word Corbyn, an idiot in the same sentence
6:38
I don't know how many times I can explain this. I'm not calling him an idiot. He's far from an idiot
6:43
Exactly. So there's other ways you could describe that, but you didn't. And I think that's a bit unfair on how you describe it. Okay
6:49
That's the point in front of me. We're not going to agree on that. Let's move on. Well, that's because I'm right
6:54
Hi, Tom. You've discovered the Schrodinger's immigrant. He is both too lazy to work
7:00
but taking all our jobs. So, look, I think... I'd like to make a couple of points
7:05
I think Macron is being very disingenuous. He knows why people are coming here
7:10
And the biggest draw is our language and our colonial history. And he knows it because the French also attract
7:18
a lot of French-speaking immigrants from all across the world, from the colonies that they dominated
7:23
Why is our colonial history inviting a Brazilian man to come and claim asylum here with his wife
7:29
I agree. I think the Brazilian guy is a unique situation. I'd rather not talk about him
7:34
But for a vast majority of people, the pull is the language of English
7:40
which is spoken much wider. And if you're a desperate immigrant, you think that the best hope for a better life
7:47
is in a country which speaks the language. I understand that, I understand
7:51
But of course, that better life would not be possible, particularly if you didn't have the right to be here at all
7:56
if enforcement of the rules that exist to protect the country from having lots of people who shouldn't be here
8:01
were actually enforced. And that, to me, is the story of this. It is not a Schrodinger's immigrant of
8:06
well, they don't work, look at them, they're now working too hard and taking our jobs. I agree with you, that could be the hypocrisy
8:12
at the heart of this story. For me, it isn't about this Brazilian man, necessarily
8:16
it's about the apparently unenforceable, uncheckable rules that are meant to exist
8:22
to protect the country from having lots of people here working illegally. Yes, look, I think our rules should be tightened
8:30
People should be required to pay taxes. I think the focus of this grey economy or this black economy discussion
8:38
should be on the big companies that are avoiding taxes. the big billionaires like Ecclestone and Nadeem Zahavi and others who steal millions from all of us
8:50
Steal millions? Yes, of course, through tax avoidance, again and again. You call it stealing? It's legal
8:58
Exactly. And that is what we should be looking at. Rather than sort of begrudging or chasing down a poor immigrant who's working 12 hours a day to just make ends meet
9:09
That is the tragedy, right? that you should be using your platform to go after Amazon and after Google
9:15
and others who use massive lobbying pressure to make sure they don't pay their fair share of taxes
9:20
in this country. It's just different to every other pub. Tell me why
9:25
It's modern. As somebody said earlier, it's clean. That was your lady doing the finance
9:31
It's clean, it's tidy. You can go in and you safe What do you mean you safe As in it not full well actually it is full of older men generally But then if you go
9:44
into a standard pub quite often, and I do that as well, if you're a single woman on your own
9:49
two ladies on your own, and then everybody just leers at you, you know
9:54
Yeah, I bet, I bet. Okay, people have mentioned the price. Both of my daughters, when they went
10:00
to university, that was Nottingham and Leicesterby, one of them. first thing they do
10:06
they discover an Asda because that was seen as the that was 17 years ago
10:12
because Asda was the cheapest food then because we didn't have all the Aldi and Liddles at that time
10:16
and they try and find the local Wetherspoons at the university because they can afford it and they can go in and it's safe
10:24
and of course birds of a feather flock together if a number of young women go there
10:28
more young women will be attracted to go there because everybody feels safe together Exactly
10:33
I mean, I'm pretty old. I can remember the days of no women in the public bar
10:39
Oh, gosh. Only in the lounge bar. God, yes. Do you remember that
10:43
I think so, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and it was strange, you know
10:48
But, I mean, the only thing about Wetherspoons is they're entertaining. After you started talking about it before H, wasn't it
10:57
Yeah, about us. I googled Wetherspoons just to see where the branches
11:01
were going to be. I haven't read where they're going yet because I called you. Well, I'm grateful
11:08
I'm grateful. But there were little things. I mean, one I knew about is every
11:13
single branch has different patterned carpet. Seriously? No, is that true? That is absolutely true
11:21
Well, it's quite obvious, really. Nobody's actually mentioned it. Tim Martin is
11:27
the working man's capitalist. He buys his stuff in very reasonably, and he passes it over
11:36
to his public, who are mainly a lot of elderly people like myself, because
11:41
we can buy, I mean, I don't know if you know that the price of Carlsberg is £2.37
11:48
I think, or £27. Sorry, is that a pint? Yes, a complete pint
11:53
and it's the same taste, so that's just an example. but what, see I don't drink beer
11:58
what would a pint of Carlsberg be in the horse and groom or the cricketer's arms
12:03
probably about 6 pounds oh yeah, there's a hell of a difference
12:08
and of course his food he must buy in, he must have deals
12:12
with companies all over and he's a nice man because he used to, one of his
12:17
best pubs, which is a shame was in Wanstead, which was a George
12:22
and that has now been brought over by Alan Sugar, who also was a working man, working class man
12:28
What's he doing with that then? Well, that's just now, I don't know, I understand it
12:32
It's just, what do they call those places where they get... I don't know. It doesn't matter, but it's not..
12:38
Is it a pub? Is it a pub now or not? Oh, it's the same, yeah
12:42
Oh, OK. And I went, I used to go, and Tim Martin actually used to come in
12:46
and I actually spoke to him once. And he's a very approachable chap. He is, I've spoken to him on the radio many times
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