Open letter to Russell Brand

beed84

I thought the letter was almost as self indulgent as Russell Brand himself.

thisisguitar

http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/russell-brand-jo-rbs-open-letter.html

Drew_TNBD

Another Angry Voice is a fucking shite blog that bends over backwards to come across as progressive, and in today's political climate every cunt with a voice thinks their opinion deserves to be given weight. It doesn't. Shite blog. Shite opinions. Don't give a toss. And you look like Jamiroqueef.

Clarky

I've always thought Brand was a nob…

when I saw him on Question Time he confirmed everything I thought..

Strat_a_tat_tat

Extract from a quote by Benjamin Disraeli regarding Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone...

"... inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself."

 

Does that remind you of any semi-popular comedian?

suspiciousminds

I used to really like him however for some reason now he really grates on me and i get wound up listening to him which is strange because,to be fair, i think he's got valid points about tax and wealth distribution but he just comes across like a hypocrite.

stickyfiddle

He's an idiot with a book to promote. He uses big words to try and sound clever, and has shown zero follow-through on his admittedly occasionally-good ideas.

As far as I'm aware he hasn't actually ever proposed any solution, only posed questions that essentially amount to "I don't like how things are". It's piss easy to provide questions. Providing answers is the tricky bit, and the thing worthy of praise.

Hertz32

Hello Jo, thanks for your open letter, I do remember you from the melee outside RBS and firstly, I’d like to say sorry for your paella getting cold. It’s not nice to suffer because of actions that are nothing to do with you. I imagine the disabled people of our country who have been hit with £6bn of benefit cuts during the period that RBS received £46bn of public bail-out money feel similarly cheesed off.

I can’t apologise for the RBS lockdown though mate because, I don’t have the authority to close great big institutions – even ones found guilty of criminal activity.

The locking of the doors and your tarnished lunch came about as the result of orders from “the faceless bosses” upstairs after I wandered in on my own while we secretly filmed from across the street – then security swarmed, all the doors were locked and crowds gathered outside. I must say Jo; it felt like RBS had something terrible to hide. But more of that in a minute.

Neither was I there for publicity, although you could be forgiven for thinking that; for many years I have earned my money (and paid my taxes) by showing off. If I needed negative publicity (and, believe me, that’s all talking publicly about inequality can ever get you) I could get it by using the “N word” on telly, or putting a cat in a bin, or having a romantic liaison with the lad from TOWIE.

I was there with filmmaker Michael Winterbottom making a documentary about how the economic crises caused by the banking industry (RBS were found guilty of rigging Libor and the foreign exchange) has led to an economic attack on the most vulnerable people in society. I don’t want to undermine your personal inconvenience Jo, I’d be the first to admit that I’m often more vexed by little things; iPhone chargers continually changing makes me as angry as apartheid – so I can’t claim any personal moral high ground, but a chance to make a film that highlights how £80bn of austerity cuts were made, punishing society’s most vulnerable during the same period that bankers awarded themselves £81bn in bonuses was irresistible.

The mob upstairs at RBS who exiled you with your rapidly deteriorating lunch have had £4bn in bonuses since the crash. Do they deserve our money more than Britain’s disabled? Or Britain’s students who are now charged to learn? Is that fair?

They were some of the questions I was hoping to ask your boss – but we got no joy through the “proper channels” so we decided to just show up.

Not just to RBS, but also to Lloyds, HSBC and Barclays. I know that the regular folk on the floor aren’t guilty of this trick against ordinary people; they’re like anyone, trying to make ends meet. As you point out though, it’s hard to get to the men at the top so we were forced into door-stopping and inadvertent lunch spoiling. The good news is that this film and even this correspondence will reach hundreds of thousands of people and they’ll learn how they’re being conned by the financial industry and turned against one another – that’s got to be a good thing, even if it makes me look a bit of a twit in the process and the national dish of Spain is eaten sub-par.

Hertz32

Now I’ll be the first to admit your lunch has been an unwitting casualty in this well-intentioned quest but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to ask new RBS boss Ross McEwan if he thinks it’s right that he got a £3.2m “golden hello” when the RBS is sellotaped together with money that comes from everyone else’s taxes. I wonder what he would’ve said? Or whether it’s right that Fred “the shred” (he shredded evidence of impropriety) Goodwin gets to keep his £320k a year pension while disabled people have had their independent living fund scrapped.

And it’s not just RBS mate. Lloyds, Barclays, Citibank and HSBC have all been found guilty of market rigging and not one banker has been jailed.

Trillions of public money lost and stolen and no one prosecuted. Remember in the riots when disaffected youth nicked the odd bottle of water or a stray pair of trainers? Criminal, I agree. 1800 years worth of sentences were meted out in special courts, to make an example. Some crime doesn’t pay, but some crime definitely does. My school mate Leigh Pickett, a fireman is being told that he and his colleagues won’t be able to collect their pension until five years later than agreed, five more years of backbreaking, flame engulfed labour – why? Because of austerity.
Put simply Jo, the banks took the money, the people paid the price.

I was there to ask a few questions to the guilty parties, now I know that’s not you, you’re just a bloke trying to make a crust and evidently you like that crust warm – but again, it wasn’t me who locked the RBS, I just asked a few difficult questions and the place went nuts. The people that have inconvenienced homeowners, pensioners, the disabled and ordinary working Brits are the same ones who inconvenienced you that lunchtime. They’ve got a lot to hide, so they locked the doors. You said my “agro demeanor” reminded you of school. Your letter reminded me of school too, when the teacher would say, “because Russell’s been naughty, the whole class has to stay behind”.

I’d never knowingly keep a workingman from his dinner, it’s unacceptable and I do owe you an apology for being lairy.

So Jo, get in touch, I owe you an apology and I’d like to take you for a hot paella to make up for the one that went cold – though you could say that was actually the fault of the shady shysters who nicked the wedge and locked you out, I’d rather err on the side of caution. When I make a mistake I like to apolgise and put it right. Hopefully your bosses will do the same to the people of Britain.

bingefeller

Col_Decker;448055" said:

Bit long winded though wernit? Ironically my cup of Earl Grey got cold while I read it.

You're so posh!

Best bit on Question Time was watching Brand getting flustered when a proper working-class man challenged him and made good points. Russell thinks using the word "mate" a lot makes him working-class and gives him common ground with the people.

In the words of Bob Geldoff: "Russell Brand, what a c*nt".

iseverynamegone

Bob Geldof and his clan can either pay tax without avoidance or fuck the fuck off . That dickwad has no right to call anyone out.

p90fool

bingefeller said:

In the words of Bob Geldoff: "Russell Brand, what a c*nt".

Geldof's another one. It would be interesting to know how he got to be worth £32 million. His music career comprised of a few hit singles in the 70s followed by cancelled tours and being booed off stage every time he tries to revive it, so it can't be from that.

The only other thing he does is "charity work". How on earth did he get to be a millionaire many, many times over doing that?
I don't suppose we'll find out until he croaks, though I have a feeling he may not be as untouchable as Savile was, the public mood has changed a little since then.

DesVegas

GO BRAND GO!!! you're way better than your sister Jo.

Fusionista

Was looking for a winner for Rant of the Year and this is now the front runner, which pisses me off slightly as I was the front runner before. The only difference is I write my rants to my MP and the Police Commissioner and other useless overpaid toe-rags whose JOB it ostensibly is to do something about SH*T, but who actually do JACK, instead of to an obscure forum for guitar nerds like us.

Also he specifically states he is NOT an RBS employee...

beed84

The letter mentioned Russell so many times.  Does he fancy him or something?

Jalapeno

stickyfiddle said:

He's an idiot with a book to promote. He uses big words to try and sound clever, and has shown zero follow-through on his admittedly occasionally-good ideas.

This.  In a nutshell.

Don't get annoyed, he's plugging his book !

Jalapeno

p90fool said:

bingefeller said:

In the words of Bob Geldoff: "Russell Brand, what a c*nt".

Geldof's another one. It would be interesting to know how he got to be worth £32 million. His music career comprised of a few hit singles in the 70s followed by cancelled tours and being booed off stage every time he tries to revive it, so it can't be from that.

The only other thing he does is "charity work". How on earth did he get to be a millionaire many, many times over doing that?
I don't suppose we'll find out until he croaks, though I have a feeling he may not be as untouchable as Savile was, the public mood has changed a little since then.

He founded and then sold a TV Station for many millions - that's where he made his big dosh, and good luck to him !

And I saw him & Boomtown Rats reunion in concert this summer, snakeskin suit and all, he was bloody marvellous.

ICBM

Geldof wrote Rat Trap, Like Clockwork and I Don't Like Mondays, after which it doesn't matter what he did... one of those would have been enough to make him a great songwriter.

Fusionista

Geldof is pretty da**ed intense and impressive in the flesh. I wouldn't like to argue with him.  

That said money talks - which is why Brand is given credence he doesn't warrant. Nobody stands up to money.  Someone should have told Bob another  f***ing Xmas song was a bad idea.

But wadoino ? I'm not rich so my opinion is worth s*d all.

bingefeller

beed84;448764" said:

The letter mentioned Russell so many times.  Does he fancy him or something?

I think he's showing Russell that he's not afraid to use his name. Sounds a bit patronising too, which I think is what he was going for.

I wonder if Russell and Jo are sitting down to some fancy paella and a nice glass of San Pellegrino natural sparkling spring water?