Russell Brand as future Mayor of London Noooooooooooo !

@Knowsley =- What DOES that mean? I keep seeing reference to it when Brand is under discussion...

"Parklife" indeed Knowsley

Do you know the Blur song "Parklife" feetlebaum?

It is a reference to the way Russell Brand rambles on in that same Cockney style.

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/the-inevitable-russell-brand-parklife-full-video-is-here-9841699.html#

Just asking, Ana, didn't know he was reformed...

@feetlebaum - On the Blur album, actor Phil Daniels delivered a few rants which were punctuated by the 'Parklife' word. Brand seems to rant in a similar fashion to Phil Daniels so his detractors shout 'Parklife' every now and then to brighten up the delivery, much to Brand's annoyance. I am not a fan of Brand, so I added my own 'Parklife' to this debate.

Well ... very often, despite his manic ways- if you peel the layers you then realise he does talk a lot of sense :

youtu.be/UwqwWg32TJU

granjura Thanks for that. If anybody else bothers to watch it, they'll see that RB makes a lot of sense and communicates his ideas in an amusing and accessible way.

It's the "layers" that are so irritating!

Besides, don't we know all that about money spent on elections already? And does the fact that money could be better spent (it always can! even money you spend could be better spent most of the time; hardly profound) mean that the democratic process isn't working? No, it doesn't. It matters politically who has control of Congress in the US. Why else would so much money be spent to win votes? And the political 'colour' of Congress affects what can be done in the US and what can't. And that often affects other parts of the world and attitudes in other parts of the world, including the UK.

In short, democracy, however badly done, is still democracy and it's still the best form of government human beings have discovered. RB, even under all his bloody irritating "layers", just doesn't get this. Why? I suppose because he is politically immature, as has already been mentioned.

Amusing and accessible to whom? Not me. I find his manner, sorry, his "layers", extremely tiresome.

Which is not to say I'd shut him up. Free speech and freely with democracy in all its shades is what I believe in so he's welcome to carry on with his layers for whomsoever likes it.

It'd still be irritating if he were only fourteen. I've heard fourteen year olds debate in a more "amusing and accessible" way than that.

For the record, he is an active campaigner too for recovery from drugs and alcohol, and for maintaining abstinence from drugs. This is a film where he talks about that, it's rather long but in the first few minutes his mum comes on. Now in this film there's no exaggerated Cockney-speak, he comes across as quite ordinary. So perhaps he should stick to that. He hasn't seemed to have quite worked out what he wants to be when he grows up.

m.youtube.com/watch?v=T9tyaJv01io

Sorry I should have added, it includes scenes of injecting drug use (the film).

Once again, it's amazing the amount of angry indignation this chap generates for just putting forward an opinion.

Of course, we all know that "money talks" but I for one didn't know that in the US it is always the party that spends the most on its election campaign that wins. I don't quite understand how that can be described as a "democratic" process, particularly when, as RB says, those that donate the money do so in order to push their own agendas.

Well there are many sleek politicians out there with just words- meaningless words. As much as RB's manner irrirtates- if I look beyond his mannerisms, he so often does talk a lot of sense- and I'd rather have that. Glad we agree eloethan.

When it comes to stop taking drugs- kids are much more likely to listen to someone like him- because a/ he's been there and knows what it is like and b/ because of his looks, personality, manner, etc- and for that I am very grateful.

When we used to do drugs education at school- and teachers would stand at the fron saying things like 'if you take an e you will die' - many kids would snigger at the back, knowing full well from experience it was NOT the case- teachers would only preach to those who had no experience of drugs- and it was all totally pointless.

Thanks for that info, gknot. Good for him and I too think he should stick with stuff like that instead of trying to be such a Cockney smartarse. Perhaps he's addicted to the attention it gets him though.

This article www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/11/stuff-your-revolution-if-it-doesn-t-include-treating-women-people raises a good point. As a woman I'm not too interested in his idea of a revolution if the end-game features exploitation of women as a highlight.

Came across this partial defence of RB this morning.

Very good article. Spot on and not only about RB.

This is a joke - right?<checks date on calendar- no not April1>I read the bit about "left-wing anarchist tendencies" and then that Nigel Farage "gets" Brand So that makes 2 good reasons why not. But hey he's entitled to put his name forward and Londoners are free to exercise their democratic right. Hope common sense prevails however though

I dont think I am alone in being very fed up of main stream politics.
So RB and others like UKIP may well get further than we think in politics today.
There is a gap in the market.

People probably were saying similar things in Germany about that nice Herr Hitler pre-1933. In fact I know they were. Mainstream politicians, if by that you mean the major parties, may face a challenge next May but heaven help us from the kneejerk reactive "protest" vote. It's very easy for looney parties like UKIP to pander to the voter by stirring up dissent and division but what are they actually offering? What on earth does a sleb like Russell Brand know about administering a great city like London? It's a wind-up.

Soutra I don't know if you watched Channel 4 News last night, but there was a very interesting report about Boris Johnson and the granting of a contract for the development of the Royal Albert Docks to a Chinese company. The former Chairman of the government's Committee on Standards in Public Life said "It [the deal] has the smell of as semi-corrupt arrangement."

This is the way London is being administered at the moment - and it's pretty worrying.

www.channel4.com/news/boris-johnson-london-propery-deal-china-albert-dock