Fin vs History - Britain needs its Mummy: Jim Callaghan | Post War British Prime Ministers, 1945-1979

Episode Date: October 2, 2025

It's the finale of our Titanic series on Britain's post-war decline, and we reach Jim Callaghan and the Winter of Discontent. There are rubbish bags and corpses piling up in the streets. Everyone's on strike. Lads; it's time for mummy to come and pick you up. The show for people who like history but don't care what actually happened.  For weekly bonus episodes, ad-free listening and early access to series, become a Truther and sign up to the Patreon ⁠patreon.com/fintaylor 0:00 Bombay to Bombay Mix  06:28 Scum Valhalla  11:38 Chesticles 3000 15:19 Nationalise Porn  19:58 Callaghan Invents the Zebra Crossing 23:10 Two Toilets Meet 27:40 Live Laugh Love Pact  28:30 Trans Taylor  32:58 The Winter of Discontent 40:03 Crisis? What Crisis? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Terms apply. Welcome back to Finn versus history. This is part 10. This is it. We've done it. If you've made it this far, what the fuck is wrong with you? What the fuck is wrong with you?

If you're still with us, you've got nothing on in your life. This is in the fucking toilet. podcast is in a fucking state of emergency. Countries in the toilet. This is the final part of our podcasting ultramarathon, post-war British prime ministers 1945 to 1979. The long road to Thatcher.

Mommy, mommy, wake us up, would you? Well, you've shat yourself at nursery and now your mummy's come to pick you up early. That's where we're at. That's where we're at. We're two toddlers with shit in our pants. To recap, Harold Wilson's second. term, he is being... Grandad got pegged.

Don't peg your granddad. Leave granddad alone. He just wants to enjoy his worth as originals in peace. But he's been... The great Marcia... Great Marcia Williams is riding around around, like a fucking pony.

And he resigns in 1976. Out of just exhaustion. Having not sold anything, nothing's been solved. To be fair, no one's sold anything for maybe 10 years at this point. Yeah. No one has had any good ideas.

No. And so in comes James Callahan, Jim Callahan, who I think unfairly is often called the worst Prime Minister we've ever heard. Yeah. Because I mean, 74 is what sealed the fate that Thatcher's coming in, right? Yeah. But 79 he actually did all right considering. So 74's where actually properly went wrong. 74 to 76. Yeah. That was kind of when it properly got fucked. But he was kind of managing it all right considering. It just took a while for Thatcher's coming in. Yeah. But also, I think as big error as we'll get to is when he calls the election. That's what fucks it.

So he comes to power in 1976. So he's the most experienced man for the job, basically. He's maybe the most experienced man to ever get into... Prime Minister. He's the only person to have ever held all four ministers of state. But admittedly, he did get fired from one... From all of them?

Yeah, so he was... I think he was like Foreign Secretary and he did a bad job and then he got moved to Home Secretary. So like a sort of Catholic priest... Who's going around the parishes. Yeah, who's being moved around. Yeah.

You wouldn't say, you know, he's the best priest in the country because he's been to so many different parishes. No, you wouldn't. No, he was going to get caught as a paedophile on each of them. Different pedos and different area codes. To be fair, if you're about to get caught as the Home Secretary for a PEDA, and you moved to Foreign Secretary and everyone forgets that you're a Pido, that's pretty good.

He's not a Pido, he's not a Pido, he's not a PEDAW, isn't he? Where is the Home Secretary? Home Secretary was a Pido, wasn't he? The best place to hide if you're a home secretary on the run is Foreign Secretary. Foreign Secretary is the best job, they say. The four great officers of state for people who aren't British, If you've still listened to us and you're not British, Fairfax. Good on you.

Good on you. Foreign secretary, home secretary, Chancellor and then Prime Minister. Yeah. Four great officers of state. So it's money, it's domestic affairs, it's foreign affairs, and then the big job. James Callaghan, 1976, he comes to power. Now we should place this for the thickos, these listeners who are very, very ugly, thick, smelly.

I feel like one of them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We are slowly more, we are slowly becoming one. 976 176 this is should we place this we should place this shouldn't we 176 this is after

Brazil's great World Cup winning team of 1970 and it's before the Brazilian butt lift when was the Brazilian butt lift got to be later than 76 got to be developed in the 1960s oh fucking out hang on

popularity service in the 2010s yeah but that's popularity I never said it was when it was pioneered. I said it was before the age of the BBL. Fine, fine, it's before the age of the BBL. Kanye gave his mum a BBL and she died. Are you joking? That's how Kanye's mom died.

Kanye's mom died because of her side. But he didn't do it himself? No. It wasn't a back street BBL. No, no. He said, Merry Christmas, Mom. Don't get your ass sort of that, would you? Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

We were talking. I think this may be the unhealthiest anyone's ever be. Yeah. It's the 70s in Britain. I recently watched that, you know, the apprentice, that film about Trump. Yes. And he's very funny on exercise

because he basically was like, I want to stay trim without exercising. Yes, as we all do. So it's just like, as soon as he heard about liposuction when he'd just come in, he was like,

yeah, just suck it out. It's Trump had lipo? I think so, yeah, that's what they... It's not fucking works. I know, but he doesn't exercise. Because he has a view about exercise.

He genuinely believes that humans are like a battery. Yes. And the more exercise, you have a finite amount of energy. Right. And by exercising, you are running that energy down.

So you have less energy. So he thinks that exercise will make you more tired. He thinks basically you've got only a certain amount of energy. So if you go for like on a treadmill, you're wasting valuable energy. That you could be doing what? Grabbing Pussies. Okay. So at the start of this series, fuck, sorry.

It's been a big, it's been a big 10 episodes. But again, I'm trying to give the listeners, the viewers a port. Take us to the time. A vivid taste. What did it smell like? What did it sound like? For episode 10, we have open the whiskey.

But, you know, this, no other podcast is doing this. No other podcast is doing this. No other podcast is in the face of all knowledge and demands. Resolutely doing a month-long series on a period of British decline. Yeah. We started this series.

Normally a comedy podcast. Supposedly. But when you see the episode titled James Callahan, you do question. How funny can this be? We started this series from Britain. had Bombay. We're ending it

and all they've got is Bombay mix. That is essentially what Britain has gone through is it their empire has become pub snacks. That's all we have now. All we're left with

is trail mix. It's curry spice trail mix. Throughout this all we've been trying to explain how does Britain get into such a state that it elects a woman as prime minister? That's what this series is about. Ten episodes,

you know, relentlessly, definitively proving that we got ourselves into such a state that we need a woman to clean it up. So, James Cahannan, the last male Prime Minister for some time.

The last war... The last war veteran Prime Minister. Yeah. So it kind of actually the end of this era. This is the end of the era. And as I've said last episode, I think it makes a huge difference

that he... No one who fought in the war actually has the stones to end the consensus. It takes a young mummy. He's quite an unusual prime minister. Certainly, I mean, I guess Wilson started the sort of working class

prime ministers but he's very working class grew up in portsmouth uh he also didn't go to university yeah portsmouth's got to be one of the thickest places in the country we're talking about the portsmouth wedge the wedge woodrooms is a great venue but the crowds are thick as lamb mince um which in my head is the thickest mince yeah they portsmouth is close to yep spinnaker tower that's their that's their world trade center as it were near southampton which as we know from the titanic series has the highest proportion of paedophiles in the u At time of record. So, Portsmouth has got to be getting some spillover from that.

Have you ever toured Portsmouth? I haven't done Tored Ports. Have you? Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of my favourite shows. But, you know, you often have the best shows in the worst places. Right. Because they're so grateful for the slop that you're giving them. You know, if you don't throw slop at pigs for three days, on the fourth day,

you'll never have had such happy piggies. You ever mean to Portsmouth, Charlie? Yeah, my first love is from Portsmouth. Your first love? Christ, what's his name? She left me under the Spinnaker Tower. Oh, wow. She left you under Spinnaker Tower?

That's where she ended it, yeah. You got heartbroken under the Spinnaker Tower? Yeah. Why did she end it? She just had enough, I guess, and we were sort of fighting. We're good friends now. We're good friends now. How old are we?

I was 22, and I, yeah, I've never loved anyone since. Wow. Really? Yeah, she's amazing. She's still, I still love her a lot, but the pain's gone. Right, so you can Google search Spinnaker Tower, you don't feel sad. I mean, I don't love it. I'd rather go to, like, yeah.

know, uh, can't think of anything. Yeah, but she's amazing. She's from Turkey. She's from Turkey. Yeah. Yes, please. Um, so, no, thank you, my friend. No, thank you.

Oh, more. No, thank you, my friend. Did you get down on one inch? No, thank you, my friend. No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you. No, thank you.

Friends. Please, please. You are now my friend. My friend zone. My friend's on. Yes, please, my friend's on. Yeah. So, right, as ever this series,

let's see where the country are we are. House prices are rocketing to £12,000. In today's money, that's $96,000. That's a big jump. It's probably the biggest jump.

That is, frozen convenience foods are the most rapidly growing sector. Iceland. This is where... Bird's eye. Yeah, this is

scum. This is scum Valhalla. Right? I like how you skirted around that one. Yeah. Most people, they sort of insinuate some sort of classism. But you call frozen food

scum valhalla those people are like he shops at Iceland you're like Iceland is scum volhalla these people this is where they're coming these rats

are scurrying along the frozen food aisle filling their trolleys full of awful cardboard food do you know what apparently our classest view

of frozen foods is a mistake in France frozen foods are much more popular because it's it's actually worse having the chilled foods

yes because everything stinks everything stinks that you can have really high-quality stuff frozen. It's just we view it as carry-cotona, birds-eye stuff when it's actually in France and the Europe is way bigger. And we view the chilled stuff as higher quality, but it has to have more chemicals and preservatives in because it's chilled.

Over there it does. No, here. So the fact that we view chilled foods, so like, you know, we have like a chilled ready meal or anything like that as higher quality than a frozen thing because of Kerry Ketone and the birds-eye ads, you actually have to put more bad shit in it.

It's not just the ads, It's the people you see in the frozen food aisle. Yeah. What are they like? Huh? Like what? Pond life. I'm always like, I wonder who's going to try and dance around that.

No, you runs down the wicket. Tell us what you really think, Finn. Anyway, this is when the pond life really start to kick off. Britain in 1976, the Christmas number one is when a child is born. I don't know this. You know all of these. Elton John, the world's, Rod's Dior. Yeah, I'm from the 70s.

The spy who loved me were still in the era of Gabe, Bond. Bond's gone gay. Spidey Love Me's a great film. What a theme. What a theme. The Eagle has landed. It's fucking slaps.

Taxi driver. Maybe the definitive 70s film. American cinema is kind of mirroring what, the Brits are feeling. Definitely. I mean, to be, to be in New York, isn't it? What we left out, actually, is that America is in its most fucked period as well. Yeah. Because like, you know, the 20s in America was a boom, but the 20s was fucked here,

huge unemployment, et cetera, et cetera. A lot of the time we don't mirror the American. certainly the 50s, we didn't. But 70s, both America and Britain together, are completely fucked. We're not for you see what the slang potatoes is in 1970s. Go on. Lemons.

Oy, what are van drivers shouting at women in the 70s? Oi! Show us your lemons, love. Do you know why that is? It's because the amount of frozen food means there's no fresh fruit. There's no vitamin C. Everyone's getting scurvy. People are deprived of vitamin C. So like an oasis.

in the desert, you see a pair of chandeliers. You think, are those fucking lemons? I could sweat those lemons. Oh, I could squeeze them all over. It's apparently, if I just suck on a lemon, I won't get scurvy. Can I suck on your lemons, please? Also called dibs. Dairies.

I like dairies. That's one of my favourite so far. Look at the dairies on that. Look at the dairies on that fairy. Bubbs is too cute. Fairies hate dairies. If it hates, if it's too cutesy, baby talk, I'm getting off the train.

right puppies bubs no dibs you want to you want to shorn die shit right yeah

root one lemons look at those lemons so actually in the last episode they were just called titties yeah

and now things have got so bad that it's fruit it's food it's cost the living stuff yeah it is it's cost

tits have become an essential cost of living right what's this so Charlie started Googling futuristic

food birds right this is in the techian sleep Chestercles 3,000s, data orbs, silicon nebula, quantum globes, holodomes. And this is the cyberpunk grit. Mekmounds, circuit cushions, neon boulders, heat sinks, augmentaries, astro jellies, plasma pillows, orbit buns, andro Mammerys.

You can't be using Mammeries. I think Mammery takes any of the sexiness out. Because again, end of the 70s, you know, this is when porn is. starts. Yeah. Linda Lovelace. Yes. This is...

What year was Lovelace? The 70s, isn't it? I think it's mid-70s, yeah. But what I find interesting about the 70s is, yeah, the economy in both America and Britain is fucked, but culturally, I mean, my favorite films of all time

or from the 70s. It's a darkness to it. Because it's a darkness, but also mainstream cinema, most people were going out to the cinema to watch some of the greatest films of all time. Yeah. You know, now the people,

what's selling the best is fucking Marvel films. But back then, you had Apocalypse Now, The Godfather, Taxi Driver. I recently watched Sorcerer by William Freak, one of the best films I've ever seen. And that bombed in the 70s because there's so much other good shit. But also people would watch like an evening of film. They'd go and watch like three films with intermissions.

But also, I also think people were so lost that they went to cinema to kind of try and work things out through art. Right. And I think in a way that's kind of changed. Yes. Because the 70s cinema compared to maybe the 80s cinema, because of Vietnam, because of the paranoia, because of the kind of self-hatred.

it meant that the characters were all anti-heroes and it was confusing and yeah I just think it's the best stuff and it's funny that's happening literally as everything falls apart but that doesn't always happen because now it feels like things are falling apart and art's getting shitter

and the films bad yeah so we went from chandeliers we're now at lemons yeah Britain's in 1976 um instant noodles yeah linda lovelace starts the tika masala the great British invention

finally we're at chicken teaka masala yeah frozen meals A fitter's woman. Barbara Batch. Barbara Bache. Oh, yeah, she's in Spire Who Love Me. Gorgeous. Oh my God, she's stunning.

Is she English? I don't think she's... I don't think she's English. I don't think she's English. She's too attractive to be English. She's American. Yeah. Yeah, makes sense.

I knew it. I knew it. We don't have any fit women at this point. We don't. Fitt is British women. It's not till Princess died at the first fit British woman. Yeah, she's the light at the end of the tunnel. Sorry to use that, sorry to use that expression.

Right, Callahan's cabinet, Michael Foote, who gets called Wurzel Gummage, because he does look pretty fucked. Let's have a look. He's got that very 70s thing where you have- Who is Wurzal Gummage? I don't know, some dwarf or something. Michael Foote's got that. Okay, right. You know that Lank. You know, that Lank yellow white hair that's greasy.

My teachers at school had it. Yeah. He's got that. Music teacher pedophile. Yeah, that makes sense. pedophile. Yeah. This is Weaselgummage.

That's Weaselgumage. Yeah. Dennis Healy, who ends up, these are all big beasts. Yeah, Healy's a big, uh, commie almost.

Yeah, he was a comie. He's got big eyebrows, Healy. He goes on to, he does the split. Yes, yes. From foot. The heel spits from the foot.

The heel spits. Yeah, lovely stuff. Yeah, it's good stuff. Yeah, it's good stuff. And there's Johnny Toes as well. The whole cabinet is just different parts of the fucking foot.

Uh, so Callahan, as we said born in Portsmouth. He doesn't go to uni. he's thick he's one of three prime ministers to not have a degree can we find out who the other two are John Major

Wow Major didn't have a degree Yeah it's fascinating That John is good In the war He served in the Navy Assigned to the Japanese section Yeah

So yeah did he fight in the Pacific Theatre I guess Yeah Not many Brits did actually So He's MP for Cardiff He's sort of on the left of the party He's a sort of CND

kind of vibe, but then he starts to get slight, he's sort of the least hated of the options available. Because he's pragmatist. Well, he's just, he's not really attached to any side of the party by the time he gets to the 70s. Yeah. Because it's got so factionalized. It has become so factionalized and it will completely shatter. I mean, Tony

Ben is the one, everyone thinks that the revolution that's coming in the 80s will be Ben's revolution. Right. Everyone thinks it'll be the ultimate work nonsense revolution. Right, right. Because Ben is writing articles about how he's going to nationalize like baby food. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Women own. He's going to nationalise women's own magazine.

You're going to take everything. Everything's going to be run by the government. So everyone thinks that's what's going to happen. It's going to be government introduced porn. Government porn. Yeah. Christ. You imagine. It'd be like, well, Keir Starm was going to be like, if anyone's going to be in the porn film, it's going to have to be me. Because that's nationalisation. Kitt Stam was like, the only way,

we need to take this back into national control. Do you have to be in it? Yes. It's the only way. It's the only way. The safest thing to do is for me. I can't trust that this ethical people. Unless I'm the star of it. You have to know that it's ethical. And I can only know it's ethical about it.

Bonnie and me are going to make a movie, a video. It would be Bonnie Red, wouldn't it? Wouldn't be Bonnie Redd? Have I got news for you? It's not started yet. I'm still here, by the way. Ian, Paul, I'm still here. I'm still here.

You'd love to go back on these days. I'd dress like this. I'd go on. Because have I got news for you watching it feels like we visually represented this and yet they're not they're trying to deny it that they're not completely fucked yeah yeah like they look like this but they're still like the empire has fallen yeah have i got used for you has crumbled yeah they're in denial but we we do give that a lot of shit i do i do want to shout at how it goes for you really yeah that's because

you've not been on it yet i've not been on it fucking shit you stark it was my first experience of comedy was up watching how i don't know who's you what a snake snake what was saying that i want to get on my goodness for you it's fucked it can't be on for nostalgia it was the first time i to be a comedian was watching a right a rye quip. A rye quip. You want to make a rye aside and be this one at 9 p.m. I have a right to make at least one rye aside for nostalgia sake.

I did it off in the bathtub. Well, you're only saying that because you've you've had your fill of rye ryeisides. Three times I've been on. I'm dropping ryeisides. Yeah, so now it's easy for you. They cut out all my filthy zingers. Yeah, but you're fucking pulling the ladder up on me,

judging me. Yeah, I am. Yeah, but you've already had your, you've already done your ryeicides. You don't want to do it. I do. No, you don't. I want to say Stama's boring.

You want your dad to say, I love you. That's what you want. That's all of I'm doing if I can use for you. Yeah, exactly. That's all it is. Yeah, but you've done that. Yeah. Yeah, you've got it.

My dad kisses me on the mouth. What? Because you've done how I've got his view? No, but you've done that before. So the only reason to go and have I got these views is so you can get with your dad. Genuinely. Genuinely.

So your father-in-law thinks what you do is respectable. Because if he's listening, into this and then you ask for his hand in marriage he would like, can I not shake your hand? Excuse me, can I not shake your hand? Can I spit in your mouth? Excuse me, can I just spit in your mouth?

Right. Anyway, right. Come on. We're so nearly there. Episode 10. I've genuinely made myself ill doing the series. All for you. You We've lost our voice from doing so many podcasts. Generally. In a heat way. Have you been at a festival? No.

I did nine podcasts. Three days. Ten podcasts. During a heat wave. What were we wearing? Suits. I have not stopped talking about post-war British prime ministers.

I'm great chat right now at a pub. Were you at fucking Redding? Screaming at the top of your lungs? No. No. I was delivering an important message. I was doing a Jamaican accent while talking about Douglas Alacquim.

There's not been many Jamaican accents in this series. It's not actually. It's not the time. It's serious. Calan. Calan hated women. I'm listening. We'll get to him, making women, actually.

We'll get to that. Callahan is Chancellor in 64. He fucks it over the devaluation. He resigns. This is what I mean. He is the most experienced man to end to PM, but he gets fired from every job. He introduces zebra crossings in 1947.

Fucking hell. Christ, that's Jim Callahan. That's who we've got to thank. So he was part of his government? Yeah, he was. Wow. I mean, to be fair. Callahan introduced zebra crossings.

Madness. Now, are Zebra Crossings used in any other country? Well, in some countries you get fine for jaywalking, don't you? Is the zebra crossing a British invention? Singapore, they bang you up. Did Callahan invent the zebra crossing? 9-51 in Slough. Yeah, he did.

That's amazing. Well, Fairfax. Fairfax. That's a great invention. Well, I think he goes straight to the top of the leaderboard, I think. That's amazing. Zebra crossing is a bit like Schrodinger's cat because when I'm on a zebra crossing and someone's not stopping, I'm like really passive aggressive, like, excuse me, I'm a pedestrian, excuse me.

You know you're right. and on my rights. When I'm driving and someone's waiting to go, I'm like, no, fuck you, I'm driving past. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm awful. And I'm a complete, I'm a complete hypocrite.

When I'm a pedestrian, I'm so past agate, anyone who doesn't stop. And then I'm in the car, I'm like, get out of my fucking way. I'm driving. What, Grand Death Auto? Genuinely. And also, now I cycle, I'm like, I'm still awful to cyclists when I'm driving. Yeah. I'm like, fuck you with your bike.

Yeah. And then when I'm cycling, people are driving past. I'm like, fuck off in your car. You could kill me. I'm just a narcissist, really. to some different different vehicles. He's credited with coming up

with the name for zebra crossings after seeing the black and white striped design saying it looked like a zebra. I mean, that's amazing. No, that's immediately less impressive because what he's then credited for

is he made the link between white and black stripes and zebras. Why did you call it a zebra crossing, James? Yeah, well, that's him on Parkinson. Because it looked like a zebra. But my greatest invention. I remember seeing black and white stripes

in the road and thought, I remember once summering in Kenya. Settling in for a long anecdote. Exactly. So that's his greatest achievement is naming zebra crossings. Yeah. 67 is Home Secretary,

Race Relations Act, Commonwealth Immigration Act. He doubles troops in Northern Ireland. In foreign... Now, when he's foreign secretary... Now, he's quite... What's interesting, even though he's like, I don't know, working class, left wing, a lot of domestic policy.

He's a bit of a fucking... He's a boy. He's a hawk. Yeah? Even when the Labour Party are against it, he supports nuclear armament. He supports renewing the subs. He's just...

His time in the... spent in the war, he's a bit of a fucking growling. Doubles Troutes in Northern Ireland. Yeah. Yeah. He thinks set at British women's growlers on the, on the IRA. If we'd set, if we'd set angry Scottish women's growlers on the IRA in the 70s. Or the Black and Dan's.

The Black and Dan's. It would have sold everything. Genuinely. Genuinely. Although. The Black and fans. I say that. I hate.

The Twatton fans. I hate to, I dread to think of a Belfast growler. Yeah. Trouble the troubles. Are you? What's say to Belfaster, are you from? And that's just the vagina speak. And then you open the, oh, Catholic I see.

Terrifying. You know how British porn is just sort of awful? Yeah. You don't want local pornography. No, it's a prescapism. You don't be reminded of how thick people is in the country. I mean, shop local maybe for your butchers or your fish. Supports more businesses with your dicks and your trousers.

Yeah. Your pinovig's out, go abroad. Do not support small businesses. do not go local. Go big. Go big. Even the only fans is a British

company. Do you know that? Yeah. It's one of the few things we've got to be proud of this. No, it's true. But I mean, think about British tech innovations

that are international. Yeah. Only fans is one of the few things. So I have subscribed to a lot of only fans as I am a patriot. You're a push triot. Anyway, blah, blah. When he's foreign secretary under Wilson

in the 70s, he has a run-in with Idi Amin who's trying to execute a British lecturer for writing a critical book about him. Type in Idi Amin's view on free speech. I mean on freedom of speech says There is freedom of speech But I cannot guarantee freedom after speech

Which is, he's a funny guy No, but that's what the, that's what the fucking left say It's not, it's not you call it, it's a cultural pushback Yeah It's, you know, you want freedom of people You can say whatever you want No, but he's saying the same thing It's like you say what he wants

It's just there's consequences Yeah, it's literally the same as what he's said It's consequent culture Yeah, it is He cancels people Yeah, if they slag him off Yeah, exactly It's just, you can say what you want

But there's consequences But I'm gonna cancel your head from your neck I will chop your head off Yeah Anyway, let's get to him as Prime Minister. 76 is unelected. But look at that. Sorry, it's Callahan and Carter.

It's Cuck Central, isn't it? Look at that. The West has never been weaker? That is probably, yeah. That's the least powerful looking partnership of UK, America. Yeah. Like, that is the most... No one knows who Callahan is.

Yeah. Everyone forgets Carter. The peanut farmer and the thick guy from Portsmouth. That's as irrelevant... That's what the West is doing with. While this is happening, the Iitol has taken over in Iran. And weird fucking... We've got nothing.

We've got absolutely nothing. We're in the toilet. Yeah. That's two toilets meeting. That's a photo of someone flushing a toilet down a toilet. When he comes to power, he starts... Do you come to power? Do I...

No. I know, I come to weakness. I find weakness very deeply sexy. And then I get hungry. No, power's not sexy. Weaknesses. Victims. That's what I find...

Um, anyway, sorry, as I was saying, when he's prime minister, uh, he, uh, his time in office begins with the economy is about as bad as it's ever been. Yeah. There's a massive global recession. And after a few months in office, basically, Dennis Heedy, the chancellor has to go to the IMF. Yeah. The international monetary fund and ask for a loan of nearly four thousand million pounds. Is that a bit four billion? I don't know. I don't know. Because I've never heard anyone say thousand million. Four thousand million. That's how he says it. That's how he says it. I want a loan of four thousand million pounds.

It sounds more than four billion. Four thousand million. It is four billion. So it gazillion. Four thousand gizungas. So he asked for four billion pounds because the country's in such a fucking fucking state. So he gets this huge loan. But then it turns out that the treasury's made like an accounting error and he doesn't.

don't actually, actually, the sums are actually fine. They don't need that much money. What does that mean? I don't know. They've added it up wrong. But someone's handed it up wrong. Everyone's, they're pissed all the time. They're liquid lunches. They're nailing fags. No one is compensated at all in the seventies.

So they beg for the IMF, they go and suck them off and then they get five, four that four million, whatever, four billion. Spending was then cut from five billion to one point five billion, making the loan completely unnecessary, gets paid back. And the country begins showing

some economic improvement in the spring of 708 in 77 Callahan forms the lib lab the lib lab pact lib lab love the lib lab love the lib lab lab

pact which is obviously live laugh love for deaf people yeah lib lab lab that's what a deaf influencer would be like

lib lab what would the hand signals be lib lab lab Well, you think sign language, this is love. Genuine, Bill Clinton's sign language, is this. What do you mean? Bill Clinton?

Yeah, that's how you say Bill Clinton and sign. B.S.L. Yeah, official. B.S.L. What if you want to talk about a blowjob? You talk about, you call it a Bill Clinton. It's like Courtney Rymie slang. Hello, I'm Doreen Linsky. And I'm Ian Dunn. We're the hosts of origin story, the podcast about the history that shapes our political discourse today. Our eighth season is all about the story of socialism,

from its earliest experiments to the present day. From Marx to Mao, Lenin to the Labour Party, Gramsci to Gorbachev, we'll be exploring the people, the events and the ideas behind socialism and communism. So please join us as we journey through an idea

that has changed the world. You can listen to us or watch us on video on Spotify, your regular podcast app or now on YouTube. So he creates a pack with the SNP,

there's nationalists starting to get more power. Now, in 78, Callahan has an opportunity to call a general election because Labour are quite high in the polls, because this is probably the best

the 70s has ever been, actually, is the 78. Okay, so it has really picked up. Yeah, it's picked up, you know, frozen food, the scum are happy, they're eating their frozen pizzas, you know, they're watching what they're watching on TV, watching fucking Top of the Pops. They're watching, Jim will fix it.

And Jim's fixing it. Yeah, he's fixing it. If it is children's assholes. You got it. I got it. Did I get it? Did I get it? I think you're looking for a more delicate way.

saying it. I was. Then you just went. Well, I just, it's a part 10. I'm not, I'm not a poet.

I'm not a poet. I wasn't a poet in part one. Part 10. Part 10. Nice whiskey, though. It is nice whiskey. Callahan chooses to wait, which is the same disastrous decision

that Gordon Brown makes 30, 40 years later. Go on. He doesn't have an early election and then the crisis hits, you know? Right. So, during Callahan's time,

As Prime Minister, Mommy, Buby, Maggie, is leader of the opposition. Yeah. She they? She they? She's not she they.

Sorry, I don't say she they. She was not. Although she is kind of masculine, isn't she? If she was posthumously found out to be trans. Well, everyone would be like, make sense. Yeah, that makes sense. My granddad's half-brother did that as well.

He transitioned kind of when he was 60. Amazing. I think for retirement, why not? Yeah. Go for it. chop it off you know your retirement find a new lease of life yeah fair play you live longer didn't you yeah yeah women live longer don't they yeah so get to 60 go fuck it i won't next just five years it's madame taylor um it would be fucking awesome if you went trans do you think yeah i could

do it i think you wouldn't change anything about how you are i'd put a wig on i think you still dress like that yeah i'd be livid if you just got misgendered well that that's the funniest thing to do excuse me excuse me it's madame taylor but that's what is it one of LCD sound system or it's one of hot chip one of them is trans

but has kept their maybe their name's like Gavin but she is trans but she's called Gavin or something like that but that's the funniest way to do it it's like yeah I'm trans

start writing reactionary articles for the telegraph Mrs Finn Taylor I know I shouldn't be allowed in there I shouldn't be allowed in there I'm gonna rape don't let me in there I'll rape everyone

I'm horny I'm a trans woman um it would be quite funny. It would be funny to be an anti-trans mole in the trans community. Three-piece suit. You can't let me in there. I'm going to rape everyone. What are you doing? You're mad? You're mad? I'm wearing a three-piece suit and a wig. Yes,

my name's Sheila, legally. Anyway, Callahan doesn't call for the 78 autumn election. Thatcher branded the party. Chickens. You can't call me it. And a woman calling Callahan a chicken. So he definitely underestimates Thatcher.

He also speaks down to her. he's calling her love and stuff like that I love this yeah so he calls her shrill yeah which is a class that's a classic dog whistle misogyny

he implies that whatever the leader of the opposition said was made even sillier by the fact it was said by a woman oh yeah this is it he calls her a little woman that little woman at the dispatch box yeah that's like the Cameron

saying calm down dear yeah do you remember the Ferroarie to who did he say it to calm down dear that Michael Winterbottom or Michael winner, whatever, I don't fucking know. But he's now a GP.

He says, oh, calm down, dear, come down. Oh, Christ. Yeah. He doesn't even, like, he doesn't know he's referencing that. It's great when they're also, they're walled by two other blokes.

Yeah. You know, the ones sitting next to them it's just another two white guys. I do miss Cameron in the comments. He was always one for a, like, he always had the set up jokes. Yeah. He'd go for like the kind of,

the long structured kind of. But he had a bit of a, he had a bit of a lean-in-in-in-in-in- He was quite like an Edinburgh Fringy sort of way of. So, but he, yeah, he brands that she was a little woman, and then she obviously fucking hates that. Yeah, yeah.

So we get to the winter of discontent. Despite the IMF loan, things have actually been okay. Yeah, well, it wasn't even alone because he gave it back. No, he gave it back. Because they looked and they're like, oh, we added a zero. Sorry, one of our accountants was drunk, so we can have it all back. But he could have called, could and should have called an election in the autumn of 78. He doesn't, and this proves to be his great mistake,

because we enter the winter of discontent, which is the worst the country ever gets. do you think yeah it's fucked right so he still hasn't sorted the uh the pay packet for the unions unions are still running the show uh and it's essentially a general strike is kind of what it is public and private sectors demanding pay rises greater than the limits calahan had imposed to control inflation what's interesting because now we've got strikes and it's like everyone's making there's so many people making so much money in this country yeah we want a bit of it yeah why is there so much income inequality. But they're making strikes

when no one had any money. No. That's what's kind of different about it. We don't have any money. We don't have any money. But there's like there's such, there's so much income inequality in the country today.

And it's getting more and more. There's billionaires. There's fucking Qatar owns half of London. Yeah. When they ask for strikes, it's like surely there's a way to remanage this. But then it's like literally no one had money.

Everyone's like the Spider-Man being like, do you have money? I don't have money. I don't have money. So let's go through the strikes. Bin men, January 22, they're off. January 22. It's still a mess.

Have they not picked up rubbish and less than square since? No, they haven't. It's absolute disgrace. The strikes went on so long that local authorities began to run out of space for storing waste. Right. They used parks. They just turned parks into bins. Rats obviously become commonplace.

It gets rebranded as Festa Square. Right. That's pretty good. NHS workers strike. They're blockading hospital entrances. So all hospitals shut down apart from emergency departments. Teachers go on strike. Wait, so there's a picket line.

And there's people, they're just checking. What's wrong with you then? Yeah. Back crash. Fuck off, fuck off, mate. Come back when you got a broken leg,

can't. Skin cancer, what is it? Stage two. Nah, you're all right. Fuck off. Fuck off. Come back when it's stage four, mate.

Teachers, nurseries. I cannot fathom my nursery going on straight. The rat infestation, isn't it? The kids are running free. The kids are running.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, imagine rats, toddlers, yeah. Bindbags. Hellish. Yeah.

Train drivers go and strike. And it's the coldest winter since 47, right? Yeah, it's also, fuck there's no lorry drivers so there's no petrol council workers who cares they can go fuck off Jackie weaver's on strike

yeah they don't do anything anyway and this is when it gets really really bad yeah in Liverpool there's an unofficial strike by grave diggers Christ you forget that they exist sometimes I guess someone does need to dig those graves but you know the country's fucked when you're remembering jobs you didn't know exist

well it's like what they say about on football like a good referee you don't notice he's there yeah but you really know it's when a grave diggers doing a bad job One report mentions that an average of 25 bodies were added to the backlog Daily. No one was burying or cremating bodies. So they just... Imagine your fucking nan getting added to the backlog.

Can you find some photos? Yeah, sorry, there's no room. She's fucking right there. Sorry, love, you're like, sorry, love, there's no one. She's fucking rotting there. That's my nan. So luckily it's so cold, so the whole nation's kind of a big chilly. Yeah, fine.

So it's keeping the bodies cool. to ease the strain on funeral homes Liverpool City Council hired a factory to store corpses until they could be safely built Fuck me! Christ! I think that might be it. Is that it? Yeah, that's it. Is that the factory? Just a warehouse with bodies. How are they keeping it cool?

Christ. On one day there were over 150 bodies stored in the warehouse. Thousands of bodies went unburied during... It's a two-month strike. Local men support of the spread. I bet they did. Well, bin men, I mean, you know, you basically just a big bed. bin men, aren't you?

Yeah, but also, yeah, the grave dig is that's just, that's bin men at their ultimate bin men. If you're playing the Sims, right, on the bin men career ladder, you get promoted as a grave dick. You know how you're saying bin men are looking up at gravedig saying, oh, fucking one day. If only. If only I, if only I, if I, if only I'd listened at school.

Yeah. They're fucking chucking away fucking nannas. Yeah. I'm chucking away fucking crisp packets. How come we haven't run out of, um, grave space just nationally? I mean, graveyards are often full. Because you can't, you can't have a grave or. on top of a grave.

It's not, you can't... It's not like council flats, you can't build up, really. No. You could, you should though. Yeah. I think you should have, grave high rises.

How could we possibly not have just run out of space now? I think soon would start doing like a Pol Pot kind of massacre thing. Well, most people, most people are getting cremated and then... Most people. I think so.

I think cremation's more popular now. Trendy. It's trendy. It's woke. Yeah. Yeah, I think, yeah. Yeah, I think me and the hub are going to get cremated.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're right. Yeah. 75%? Yeah, yeah. Is it because it's so expensive to get a funeral plot? I think it is expensive. Probably, yeah.

Where's the national morning going to be at my gravestone? I'm getting buried. I'm like bin Laden it. Fuck that. I'm in the sea. I'm done. Really? Yeah, yeah.

No, we talked about this. I can't be a martyr. I can't be a martyr. No, I'm embalmed. Of course, you're going to be embalmed. Oh, well, they're going to drop you off because otherwise you've become a shrine. I'll become a shrine to the smelliest people in the country. No, I'm going to be embalmed and I want a national day of mourning.

No, I want to be like North Korean leaders where people would just cry at my statue. Right. Like twice a day, they need to. They're going to fuck the statue, though, like Ronaldo, I reckon. No, not in this country. Yeah, they will. They're going to make your statue really.

Oh, right, well, my face? Cross-eyed, yeah, yeah. Well, it's already pretty fucked. So, bin men support the strike. MP Anthony Steen called it repugnant and outrage to human decency. The strike offends against the dignity of man, horrifying examples of man's indifference

and inhumanity to the dead. A vicar speaking in 79 said, when grave diggers will allow corpses to mount up rather than carry out their duty, I detect the undermining of the whole structure of our society. And after 10 days, the grave diggers returned to work, settling for a 14% pay rise.

I mean, how many great diggers? Is there a lot of grade diggers? Is it a big fucking union? But there's probably at least 10. Thanks, God. It says 60 to 80 when on strike. Is that all it takes? So 80 people grind in the fucking country to the whole.

So give them a pay rise? What's more sinister, grave digger or abattoir man? Graved digger's more sinister, because abattoirs work with animals as opposed to. I'm actually quite, I'd quite like to do a butchery course. Yeah, I bet you'd love that shit. Yeah. Live butchery, though. You're killing the animal.

No, live butchery. That's what's what an abattoir is. What, like a boiler who set live? Fred are getting a cow. Yeah, I guess abattoirs, they're the fucking... Yeah. You got to kill him somehow. Hang on.

No, I'd like to be a butcher. Maybe not abattoir. I'd like to butcher an animal. I like all the different. I like those paintings where you see the cross section of the cow and all the joints. I'd like to know, I feel very satisfying. I feel very satisfied, you know, like deboning a fish I really like.

So the winter of discontent is the longest and most comprehensive strike since the 20s. 30 million working days are lost over 4,500 industrial disputes. So by the end of January, 90,000 Britons are on unemployment benefit. And the weather is the coldest in 16 years. obviously the energy prices are rising because of the minor strike there's like severe frosts there's a 40 mile section of the M6 that's closed because of the

snow I mean this country in the can't do it anyway starts down so Callahan calls the actions of the strikers collective vandalism and the worst thing about it is that Callahan the entire winter or for at least a month has literally been on his fucking

holly bobs in the Caribbean there's a G7 summit we get a picture of Callahan in the Caribbean he goes to a summit to discuss the Iranian crisis. Right. And he gets a lesson from the Shah. And then he tags a holiday on in Barbados.

I bet to Barbados is brilliant. Yeah. Absolutely that. I loved it. What? It's funny to describe Barbados as brilliant. It is brilliant. Brilliant.

That's probably what James Callender was saying. This place is bloody brilliant. This place is brilliant. It is absolutely brilliant, man, do it. Went to a fish, went to a fish fry. Saturday night fish fry. On the beach? Yeah.

Lovely. Great. There it is. Look. Batty out. With batty out in the sea. and Callahan returns with a glowing tan into Heathrow and the press come up to him

and they're like, you know, where have you been? There's bodies everywhere, this is fucked. And he basically goes, oh, I don't think it's that bad. Yeah, you can't be gone a whole day at this point. Oh, he gives a press conference. And to his advisor's dismay, he was, you know, jocular, talks about swimming in the Caribbean and how lovely it was.

He's not chiming with the mood of the country when there are dead bodies rotting in the streets and rats in Leicester Square he's then asked about his approach in view of the mountain chaos and he says, I don't think some strikes and bad weather amounts to mountain chaos

well yeah they do yeah and then the son says quotes him and there's the headline crisis what crisis which is that that is the sort of the thing thatcher seizes on like a hungry dog that's the bone that thatch latches onto

crisis crisis he says thatcher gets a fucking dog chops around a big bone gets her growler out and sets loose on the Labour cabinet That just sets loose her growler on Callahan

Thatcher's growler is loose in the streets I mean there's books about him called Crisis What Crisis So I guess that's the sound He also He looks very, very, very bloated

By this point He's very, very fat He's got a 70s face Your face gets so puffy If you're constantly drinking The Conservatives are quoted As saying Britain was being run by little Soviets

Right So catch a call for a vote No confidence I don't have any confidence and your ability It's all about the confidence You've got to be confidence Yeah, got ones, yeah

It's the runway Callahan's lost it Callahan loses the confidence vote by one vote Sir Alfred Broughton didn't vote Isn't there something About during this period During the 70s

Someone drags in an MP Who's dying To vote through the lobby Right, just makes it uses his face idea Literally that I think there's something about that But Callahan's wants to hold on

For the election still Well he should have done it earlier Yeah But this is the last moment that you can do it. Right. So after losing by one vote, Callahan calls general election stating that it will take our case. One vote. Yeah.

So he lost it by one vote because a guy didn't vote because he was ill. So basically that takes us to the 1979 general election. Yeah. Where the rest is her story. The rest is herstery. The rest is hers for the first time in British history. For the first time in British history, Callahan ultimately resigns, becomes a farmer. Does he?

Yeah. Dyes at 93, Britain's longest living prime minister. And so the great mistake he makes is the winter of discontent Rather than calling an election before it He goes on his olive bobs And then comes back and Thatcher uses it to get into power essentially

So I guess in retrospect on Callaghan He's often viewed as the worst prime minister Because of the country's so fucked And the winter's discontent But then there's been a lot of like retroactive things saying he wasn't that bad Yeah But then if you look at it properly he was pretty bad

But he was just another another guy who just didn't want to think about solving the actual problems because it was too different. He didn't have many new ideas but he seemed pretty pragmatic considering. They're war veterans, all of them. Traumatized war veterans. They're traumatized. They're drinking to forget.

They're constantly smoking. They can't, how they can focus on anything at all is beyond me. Yeah. And so that's perfectly set up for mummy to come save us. Should we do the final rankings then? I think we need to, we need to rank these. We've finally reached the end of the series. where do we think

I mean in this period you'd probably have to say at least the only one that does anything so at least number one number two could be Wilson Wilson's first term yeah or McMillan Wilson's first though

because McMillan just managed the economy didn't really do anything new even a cut for 30 years it's got to have some credit in the bank for that what just for being a cut the fucking nerve of the man to watch his wife get railed for 30 years so you go at Lee

you go Wilson's first term McMillan yeah sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry are we not are we not are we counting out of the top three I think you might have to the titan the giant

well he's so politically controversial I guess he's too divisive isn't he he's too divisive isn't he's too strong of flavour it's like Blair it's like Thatcher it's like yeah you can't we're going to split our audience in two it's Marmite he's Marmite

um Douglas Hum is Marmite Atley Wilson's first term McMillan Churchill's second term I think because he didn't really do anything I mean, he didn't do anything bad, I guess. It didn't do anything. And then in that pocket, Douglas Hallekew,

no harm was done. Hang on, he has to be mid-table. Yeah, where are you putting Heath? So I think you're going to have to go. Wilson second, Heath, Callahan. I mean, these are all fucking disastrous. Callahan isn't, well, Callahan isn't that bad. So then it goes Callahan.

Callahan Wilson-Second, Heath. So you're saying Wilson Second's better than Heath? Wilson Second actually tries to do something Does it? With the unions. but I'd just given them exactly what they want Heath joins the European Union Yeah, I don't know

I mean they're all Wilson's second Heath And then the last one I don't think I don't think it matters I mean I'll say Eden last Really? Yeah

Eden's worse than Heath Yeah Suez Heath is an active paedophile An active pedophile on campus An active pedophile I think you'd have to say Eden did nothing but Suez and Suez was

the biggest disaster One of the biggest disasters But what else How else could he have done it? what, if he hadn't retreated, but that's McMillan, that's McMillan the snake. I don't know, I think you'd have to say, because Eden had a good career apart from being a prime minister.

Yeah. But as an actual term, the way he went out, you're right. It was just a fuck up. And Heath was dealt a terrible hand, did some, did some, you know, joined Europe in Europe, yes, yeah. But in general was terrible,

so I do think it probably has to be Eden. I think, are my ranking. Even though he's the biggest smoke show. In terms of fun. Him and trust at the bottom and top of those two tables. In terms of how funny they are. Okay. Humor-wise. Heath, Macmillan.

Wilson. Oh, sorry, Wilson. Heath and Wilson are up top. McMillan, Eden. Yeah. Douglas Hume. I mean, Atley wasn't that funny. No, it's not funny.

No. The real question, though, is who had the fittest wife? I don't think any of them. It's the long road to Sherry Blair. Oh, my God. Thank you so much for staying with us. If you would like more... More!

You are greedy than Ted Heath at a buffet. We do a bonus episode every Friday. sign up to the Patreon to get access to that the only real way to end this is that we are Britain we're on our knees The Winter of Disco Tents

and we're begging for Mummy Mommy Mommy We fucked it Can you wipe my bottom Mommy? Mommy There's old lemons over here

Mama Mama Come on boys Let John That's it to mom Mommy's here now River of Discord, Mary Big Harmony, Mummy's here.

Mamma is here. Are you tired of starting your day with pointless political arguments, superficial summaries and lukewarm hot takes on the radio? Then switch to the bunker, where we look at the news without the nonsense. Every weekday morning, the bunker brings you a brand new,

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