Piers Morgan Uncensored - Piers Morgan Uncensored: Supreme Court US gun rights ruling and the Summer of Strikes

Episode Date: June 23, 2022

On this episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, Piers discusses how the summer of strikes is headed for the skies. Piers also debates the latest US Supreme Court judgement that has struck down a New York ...law restricting gun-carrying rights. Lastly, Piers asks if students have become too sensitive. Watch Piers Morgan Uncensored at 8pm on TalkTV on Sky 526, Virgin Media 627, Freeview 237 and Freesat 217. Listen on DAB+ and app. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript
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Starting point is 00:00:00 I'm Piers Morgan, I'm censor. Coming up tonight, first trains, then planes. The UK summer of strikes now heads to the skies. The shocking US Supreme Court ruling that means America's response to recent gun massacres is going to be to make it easier to carry guns in public. We'll debate that. Have our students become a militant, herd of trigger crybabies? One man's journey to answer the question that's stumbling an entire generation. Please, if one person could tell me what a woman is. If you are not here for women, we ask you to leave.
Starting point is 00:00:34 What is that? Well, good evening. Welcome to Peersbogden, Uncensored. The UK Summer of Strikes is now heading to the skies, as hundreds of British Airways workers at Heathrow Airport, voting on strike over pay. I'm joined now by tonight's Piersback, Talk TV's international editor Isabel Oakshot,
Starting point is 00:01:11 political journalist, Ava Stina, and aviation analyst Alex Maturis. Well, welcome to all of you. We're starting with this. Alex, I want to start with you. You're over in the United States. Doha where there's a huge airline conference. And there clearly is general crisis and chaos across the world post-pandemic as these
Starting point is 00:01:28 airlines try and get through this. Alex can't hear me. We'll come to the two ladies said he would be now as well. Clearly, the airwaves are in turmoil. We know this. Through the pandemic, a lot of people got laid off. A lot of people left them work. And the result now is utter chaos.
Starting point is 00:01:46 People can't get on holiday. They're being cancelled at the last minute. not just here, but all around the world. Now British Airways staff, checking staff in particular, have decided they're going to go on strike, but it's particularly about one aspect. They say their pay was cut by 10%
Starting point is 00:02:01 at the start of the pandemic because of the huge losses the airline were making, that there was a promise they'd get it back. They're now being offered a 10% bonus as a one-off payment, but not the 10% pay cut restored that they had. And some managers apparently are getting the original cut restored to their pay packet.
Starting point is 00:02:21 What do you make of it? Well, what I make of it is I can see why they may well be aggrieved. I just think that the timing of this, just as it was with the RMT strike, is calculated to be as disruptive as possible. This is what they do. And, you know, for British people thinking that for the first time in two years,
Starting point is 00:02:41 they might actually be able to have a half-decent summer holiday, I think that's absolutely for the birds, because this isn't just going to affect BA. I'm sure that it will soon spill over. If it's true, and it seems to me, if it is the case that these BA staff had 10% locked off their salaries, we'll promise to get it back. Now they're not getting it back because it's getting the bonus. And other more senior members, managers included, have apparently had that money restored.
Starting point is 00:03:09 That seems to me very different to what's going on with the rail strikes. Well, they want another 11% on top of their current existing money. This is about restoring something they were told would be a temporary cut. Yeah, but the end of the day, you don't always have to, your default position doesn't have to be to strike. And I think that there must be other ways. What if they're refusing to give them the money? Well, then, you know, frankly, there may be other jobs that you have to look to.
Starting point is 00:03:32 I mean, how much can people take, you know, in terms of the great British public who have just put up with endless chaos here? If there's a choice to fly a different airline, that's what I would suggest people do just to avoid British airways. What do you think of this? I don't think it's about the workers. Sorry, I don't think it's about the British public at all. It's totally about the workers. I think it's obscene that we're even thinking about people going on holiday who are lucky enough to have a little bit of extra surplus money and can go on holiday. And we're not talking about the people who've had not only 10% of their pay cut over the last year, but they're also not getting a rise in their pay with inflation. I think that's frankly... At least they've still got a job. You know, given what everything that the country has been through, they are still in their jobs. Lots of people have had to take... They're not ever lucky to have a job.
Starting point is 00:04:18 That's ridiculous. No one's lucky to have a job. I think everybody's lucky to have a job. I'm lucky to have a job. I feel very lucky to have a job. It's not a right. It's not a right to have a job. You've got to earn your job.
Starting point is 00:04:30 Once again, though, the airline industry, like the rail industry, got massive bailouts from the government. Massive. A lot of the staff will put on furlough. So the government would say, look, we try to keep this industry running during an incredibly difficult time. And now, again, I think it's different to the Royal Strachers. It seems to be a very particular issue they're striking on.
Starting point is 00:04:51 And I think on the face of it, it seems really unfair. I've got a lot more sympathy with these BA workers for the issue that they're striking on than I have with Mick Lynch and his RMT gang who are, I think, holding us to ransom. No, but they're one and the same. They're not, though, are they? No, but they are the same. One group wants an 11% pay rise, which I think is a ridiculous thing to be asking for. Well, it's not a pay rise. It's them avoiding a pay cut.
Starting point is 00:05:18 You can't give the entire country what is happening with inflation. You can't. We go bankrupt as a country. Well, then you can't let the people at the top continue to make profit and continue to reap money for their shareholders. Well, there are two issues. I agree that the people at the top should be also taking a hit on this. I agree with that. But that's not going to cover 11% pay rises for the entire public sector. No, but look. Or anything like it. People at the bottom are tired of having to make way for people at the top for a, 11, 12 years now since austerity, people under 30 grand have been shouldering the burden for people on the top.
Starting point is 00:05:52 And they're fed up of it. That's why they're striking. How would you feel if teachers go on strike? I would totally support them. Really? I would. Given how much time they had literally not doing anything in the pandemic. Would you mean not doing anything during the pandemic? That is obscene.
Starting point is 00:06:07 They were at home like making packets. They were sending home information. I assure you that a lot of the teachers were not providing that. They weren't doing it. Some were. I'm not denigrating all teachers. Some were, but a lot of them weren't. I had a son at a university who didn't do any in-person classes for an entire year and a half. Yeah, that's fine. But why is the conversation always, haven't the children suffered enough? Haven't the British public suffered enough? Yeah, but we never go. Why is the government allowing people to suffer?
Starting point is 00:06:32 Why are they paying people abysmal sums of money and expecting services to be. Because there also has to be a reality check, right? We are in an unprecedented period here following this catastrophic pandemic. Whatever the decisions and thoughts about the decisions we took at the country, in terms of pharaoh and so on, this costs a staggering sum of money. It's kind of money we haven't seen since World War II being shoveled around, right? To promise up. So once you take that position, these are extraordinary times.
Starting point is 00:06:58 I think the RMT, honestly, I'm not against trade unions. I support the idea of a trade union. I think a lot of time I do very good work for their workers. But when you are representing a group of people that includes train drivers, sometimes earning nearly 100 grand a year. Okay, but actually... And you're trying to get them all in 11% pay rise. That is not, in my view, that is not appropriate.
Starting point is 00:07:19 The people, a lot of the people who are striking, as Mick Lynch has explained, are on between 25 and 31,000 pounds. They're not at the top of the pay scale. We're not talking 60K salaries here. We're talking about people right at the bottom. But they're striking one of their main complaints and why they won't continue the negotiation at the moment is because they want an assurance that they're not going to be made redundant.
Starting point is 00:07:40 normal people don't have an assurance that they're never going to be made in the private sector, you've got a choice. You can leave. Well, I think it's outrageous, for example, that the government has given the wink to the bankers, as they clearly have to say, you don't have to have to cap your bonuses anymore
Starting point is 00:07:53 and how to come out in the European Union. That kind of thing really great to people right now. So we can probably all agree that that's wrong. We've got Alex Wacharist back now. He was truly cut off. So Alex, there's a slight delay on the line. Let me just ask you, tell me about the British Airway.
Starting point is 00:08:10 strike. Do you think from everything you've gleaned about this, it is a reasonable action for these staff to be taking? It looks to me like it might be if what they're saying is what happened. I think I share the same sentiment as you, Pierce, and that's partly because what that's striking about is actually pretty clear. The reality is that international air travel right now in terms of recovery is very much underway globally. That is the picture now. We are on track. Now, there's a whole load of disruption attached to that. But what the strike is actually about is the fact that these workers had their salaries reduced because of the pandemic, because the airline was sending emails saying that if we don't do this, we will not survive and we want to survive and you want your jobs. Therefore, this is the action we're going to take.
Starting point is 00:08:56 Fast forward now to 2022, you've got all of management having their full salaries reinstated. You've got some figures in aviation being given bonuses. But what we don't have is these workers who are on the first. front line every single day having their salaries return back to the levels that they were. And they even reject the term pay rise because they're saying this is not a rise. This is actually what we were paid in the first place. Right. And is it true that managers are apparently, they've had their money restored and they're getting a bonus? Yeah, that is true.
Starting point is 00:09:26 And, you know, this was just raised here in Doha, where I am now in Qatar, because over 150 airline CEOs were gathering for their annual general meeting. and there are many airlines that were discussing how they're profitable and therefore they're being able to do the things airlines do when they're profitable, such as rewarding staff with bonuses, rewarding those execs. Now, the picture at British Airways as to whether or not exactly that is happening remains a little bit unclear, but what is very clear is that these frontline workers haven't had their salaries returned back to what they were. And ultimately, that's something that I think they are owed understandably.
Starting point is 00:10:04 and I think a lot of people realize that. Rail travel is unlikely, I don't think, to ever get back to what it was like before the pandemic. Because many people have made change of life choices. I spoke to a cab driver down near my village in Sussex. And he said... Can you hear me, Alex? No.
Starting point is 00:10:21 You're going again? No. Okay, we'll come back to Alex. Sorry for the technical British years. It's interesting, you know, I just said local cab driver down in Sussex said to me that the amount of people commuting from Hayward's Heath State, as it is done in something big commuter line to Victoria, London Bridge, so on, has massively fallen off,
Starting point is 00:10:39 as has the work, of course, for the caps. Absolutely. Because people just aren't going about work in the same way they did. Absolutely. So I travel in from Oxford, station just outside Oxford, called Oxford Parkway. That has 800 car parking spaces. Before the pandemic, if you arrived after 9 o'clock on a Monday or a Tuesday morning, the whole thing would be completely full, no chance. Ever since the pandemic, we now have maybe a quarter of the car park is full.
Starting point is 00:11:04 So three quarters of that custom has disappeared. And I don't think it'll come back. If it's not back now, when will it come back? Whereas air travel, you might think, I think could come back just as strongly. But the problem is they don't have the stuff. I sat next to a pilot on a plane the other day. He was flying to go and pick up a plane to fly it. And he said it's been really tough.
Starting point is 00:11:25 He was a BA pilot. It's been really tough. Everyone's feeling it now. They've been working incredibly long hours to catch up with everything. A lot of people, you know, found it, And I think a lot of people resonate with this. He said it took a lot, having had maybe one job or month for months and months on end, suddenly they have to go back to full-time work.
Starting point is 00:11:43 And they've all found that quite a hard adjustment. I think a lot of people felt like that, right? We worked from home, very different pace of life. Suddenly you thrust back into normal life. These things shouldn't be underestimated, right? I agree with you. And it's funny that I still have moments of trying to get my head around, the fact that we've just come out of this thing.
Starting point is 00:12:00 I mean, it was a two-year hiatus in which everybody's lives changed for many people forever. And, you know, those adjustments, I think we're going to continue to see turmoil in a bunch of industries as everything shakes down and it may not go back to how it was. I mean, what we don't want, we don't want to return to the kind of 70s, 80s militant action by unions. Do we haven't been moved on for them? In those days, there were 12 million people were members of unions. People at Arthur Scargle had tremendous power because of the sheer a volume of people he represented. And they held the country a lot of the time to ransom.
Starting point is 00:12:35 Whatever the arguments that you take about it, and I'm not making a view about it, I'm just saying that we have moved on for most times, haven't we? We want unions to be more responsible. You want governments to be more responsible, and you want employers to be more responsible. We don't want to go back to a national total strike, do we? But I think the fever is there.
Starting point is 00:12:54 I think people are really fed up. People are tired of bosses taking massive surplus, taking massive pay, not doing anything about it, they're tired of it. So the fever is there for a summer of discontent. I mean, we've got, look, barristers now want to strike, we've got rail strikes, we've got teachers potentially going on strike. People are upset and they're rightfully angry.
Starting point is 00:13:13 And look, striking is never the first port of call. It's when you've tried to reach an agreement, which we are out with the teachers right now, that any you are trying to reach an agreement, which I don't think the government are going to even entertain, and we are therefore going to see strikes. It's the last port of call. Okay, got to leave it there.
Starting point is 00:13:29 It's, you know, it took me, I don't know, an hour to do a 20-minute journey today. I would imagine there's millions of people going through similar annoyances. And there'll be a tipping point where people get sick and tired of it, particularly if they feel the action that's being taken doesn't feel right or legitimate or is being overblown. And that's why I think you've got to take each of these things on their merit. The BA action to me seems appropriate and justified. Some of the RMT rhetoric they're using about what they want for the members
Starting point is 00:14:00 seems to me over the top. Whether that rebounds on the government or rebounds on the unions, I think is very much challenging. All the employers, which of course it may... Well, it will unfairly rebound on the unions, as we've seen over the past. I think it hangs in the balance. But Mick Lynch or the hood, as we call him on this show. By the way, that clip of me talking to Mick Lynch.
Starting point is 00:14:18 I loved it. It's now had 5.4 million... Yeah, 5.4 million hits. Just for those who's still a little bit confused, obviously it was a bit of a wind-up. I didn't actually think the hood's a real thing. You got a bit shirty, though, didn't he? He got very annoyed while saying he wasn't getting annoyed,
Starting point is 00:14:35 which is always the most amusing time. I thought he was quite calm, actually. I thought he was quite difficult. I actually think, to be fair to Mick Lynch, I think he's been handling his media duties with great aplomb. And I think he's rather enjoying all the attention he's now getting as this mastermind who is terrorising the media world. He is actually the hood.
Starting point is 00:14:52 Anyway, thank you both very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Sorry about all the terrible tech issues we've had with you over there. And don't help to keep up the good work. Unsett said next, trigger warning, safe spaces, preferred gender pronouns, restrictions on free speech. Are today's students the most intolerant bunch of crybabies we've ever seen? Debating that after the break.
Starting point is 00:15:22 Welcome back to Pierce Morgan, Alcester. So what is a university? What is it? I mean, it used to be a place that our bright young minds would go to to expand those minds, to be challenged, to take risks, to take place. part in rigorous debate with people who may implacably disagree with them. And then maybe reach a point of consensus and go and have a beer together, have some fun. That was what universities used to be about.
Starting point is 00:15:48 But look at what they've become. They've become these cotton wool bubble-wrapped hellholes, where the enemy is free speech, where there's a charge for safe spaces, where everyone gets triggered. What does that even mean to be triggered by something you, might read or hear. Certainly my generation doesn't understand what that means. So what is going on at our universities? Well, a shocking new report by the Higher Education Policy Institute, Hepi, revealed the dramatic and disturbing surge is support for censorship by students, safe spaces,
Starting point is 00:16:24 protection from alternate viewpoints. This is all among young students. And of the thousand who were surveyed, nearly two-thirds of them, 61%, were opposed to unlimited free speech, compared with just 37% in the exact same survey in 2016. 17% only said they supported ensuring unlimited free speech on campus, although offence may occasionally be allowed. And a staggering 86% of them endorse the use of trigger warnings so they can be protected from coursework that might upset them. More than a third of the students believe their teacher should be fired
Starting point is 00:16:57 for exposing them to any material they find offensive, which is double the number in 2016. 39% believe the student union should ban all students. speakers who might cause offence, and 76% were universities to get rid of any statues or memorials to historical figures they find problematic, which of course, by their Yardstick, is now pretty much everybody. You might remember the scenes in the BLM protest in 2020 in Parliament Square, where statues of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, and Mahatma Gandhi all had to be boarded up lest the mob come from them. So my view is this is all completely nuts. I've joined
Starting point is 00:17:35 by Larissa Kennedy, the president of the National Union of Students, who presumably, good evening to you, by the way. I know you've had a tough journey from Croydon, every journey from Croydon's tough, right? I'd say that joke was Cisna Ree. You're free to wish you went to the same school, Susanna Reid. I did indeed. Okay, well, I'll take that as a warning, a trigger warning.
Starting point is 00:17:56 Look, this report to me was incredibly damaging. You're representing of the National Union's students. What's going on at our universities? Why have you become the enemy of free speech? Why do you all get triggered by everything? Why have you all become such snowflakes? Interesting that you want to position students as enemies of free speech when it's the very opposite. In fact, this report shows that so many students are welcoming the idea of a free speech champion,
Starting point is 00:18:20 but also are welcoming the idea that we can hold multiple truths, that yes, we have to uphold freedom of speech, but we also need to put in place protections to make sure that our campuses are a safe space for the evolving people who are coming to them. What does it mean? And if you want to ask what that means, It means that when you've got someone who has views that are obviously going to spark outrage, that you give a heads up to the people coming. These are common sense kind of things that students are talking about.
Starting point is 00:18:45 And in fact, if I may finish my point, when you talk to people in local communities, when you talk to ordinary people and you talk about the real realities of these measures that students are suggesting, like giving a heads up to people or like, you know, helping facilitate protests and so on. People on the ground agree that these are just common sense things to avoid any. I don't know who you're talking to, but they don't. I don't know who you're talking to here. Most people think this is all completely crackers. What is crackers?
Starting point is 00:19:12 Well, let me go through. Let me go through. What do you need trigger warnings for about stuff you may read or stuff a professor may say? Why do you need trigger warnings? What happens? Do you literally have this sound? I think this is a pretty redundant.
Starting point is 00:19:24 Obviously you don't do that. I think what we're seeing here is actually what the report warns about. It's people like you who are creating these kind of inflammatory. Inflammatory headlines and responses to what is a pretty concept issue. No, no. No, you've said that there's going to be a sound played out in classroom.
Starting point is 00:19:40 That's not what's happening. No, that was a joke. If it was a joke, you may not find my humor funny, but it was intended as a joke. However, I do not understand the concept of a trigger warning for something you may read or hear at university. The whole point of university is to be challenged. It's to be critical.
Starting point is 00:19:59 And in fact, it's students who are, no, it's about learning to be critical of the things. things that you see and hear and absorb around you. And in fact, it's students who are standing up. And tolerant. The purpose of an education is not to produce. Here's what Rickad Javeh said about free speech. Tell me if you think he's wrong. If you don't believe in free speech for people who you disagree with and even hate for what they stand for, then you don't believe in free speech. No, you don't. But if you don't believe that freedom of speech has the legal limitations that it has always had in democratic countries when it comes to the Equality Act and other forms of limits,
Starting point is 00:20:34 that have been always put on freedom of speech, then you also don't believe in freedom of speech. You believe in freedom from consequence, and those are different things. I don't, I think you should be absolutely held to the fire, there should be consequences of what you say, and you should be challenged, and there should be debate. What I can't get my head round is that 86% of students now
Starting point is 00:20:54 want trigger warnings on course content, which might upset students. All we're really saying here is that it's going to note what's in the course. That's called a bibliography here. What would you find too painful? Are you against? Are you against... Let me ask you. Let me ask you. Let me ask you. What would you find too triggering to read? Give me an example.
Starting point is 00:21:13 I can't give you a personal example because it's not my personal opinion. This is students who are just saying, tell me what's on the course. That's what a course list is. That's what a book list is. That's what a book list is. That's what a bookography is. It's not a big deal. And the fact that you're making it into a big deal is exactly what it says in the report. What is a big deal? You have bad faith actors, if I may continue. You have bad faith actors who are stirring up. division around this when so many organizations, most of whom usually disagree, are saying this is
Starting point is 00:21:40 a non-issue. And then you have to ask the question, why do we have so much airtime on this? Why do we have so many people pouring money and resources, particularly so our government into talking about this? And when you see it in the context of the policing bill, of all of the other bills that are coming through that are incredibly draconian, you have to ask the question, who is benefiting from this conversation? Because it's not students. Because students are welcoming freedom of speech, and that's exactly what this report says. It said they welcome. It actually says the complete opposite.
Starting point is 00:22:07 If you read it that way, of course it does. No, no. The daily mails are. It was literally, actually I read it in the Times. There was the exact same survey done six years ago. Same questions and they published the results. It shows a massive increase in the number of students who want to censor free speech. It's about holding multiple truths and the fact that we've got such a reductionist.
Starting point is 00:22:33 Hang on, hang on. There's such a right reductionist, diluted conversation around freedom of speech. Hang on. Larissa. I can never finish it. What's the point of asking me all? Listen, because I wanted to hear your view. So please let me share the view.
Starting point is 00:22:45 But if you say something, let me share the view. I know you're not used to debating universities these days. So let me debate it. Clearly, you're not used to debating because you're not letting me get in. You're always used to the same what you want to say, and no one's allowed to challenge you. That is not what happens in universities. Actually, we know this what's happening at universities. And my point is the last time you went to university, beers?
Starting point is 00:23:04 That was the last time you were a student. I was a student when I was 19. Oh, how old are you? That was a long time ago. That is a long last time ago. You're being ages? Can I say that? Are you being ages?
Starting point is 00:23:13 No, I'm just saying that that's a fact. It was a long time ago. Triggered. Can you not? No, can you not be? No, can you not be ages? You're not be ages. All I'm saying is how can you know what's going on our university?
Starting point is 00:23:24 I'm just reading this report. You're reading a report that says that students welcome a freedom This is the higher education policy institute. students want to make sure that, yes, there is freedom of speech, but also that we're enabling support for students who... Can I ask a question? Can I ask a question without you getting offended? I'm not offended.
Starting point is 00:23:41 You can offend me if you're trying. Okay, great. Great. Go ahead. I'm not right. I'm a black woman in this country. You can't offend me. I don't want to offend you.
Starting point is 00:23:49 I want to give you my honest opinion. Please give it. What is multiple truths? Multiple truth. Because last time I checked, there's only one truth. Facts are facts. That's it. That's not a very good philosophical outlet.
Starting point is 00:23:59 Maybe you should go to me. Maybe you should go to uni. But anyway, to answer your question, do you agree there's only one truth? To answer your question, what does it mean? It means that it's both possible to enable freedom of speech, as our students' unions do, day in and day out, but that it is also possible to make sure that we're hearing the voices of people
Starting point is 00:24:17 who, you know, our campuses and our communities of education are often the homes of these students as well. So when they're saying, I want to have the space to speak out about what's happening here, I want to have the space to protest, I want to have the space to share alternative views. That is them exercising their democratic right to freedom of speech too. That's all fine. But let me bring in Theresa Purcell.
Starting point is 00:24:36 She's the former president of the young Americans for freedom in Buffalo. Before we speak to Theresa, I want to just play a clip. This is what happened. She invited a prominent black Republican lieutenant colonel Alan West to speak at the University of Buffalo on a subject called America is not racist, why American values are exceptional. During the Q&A session, protesters began chanting and banging on the walls. West, who was the speaker, was escorted by police out of the event.
Starting point is 00:25:02 Protests continued outside. Teresa, you were with West and the police escort. You got separated. The protesters chased you into a bathroom where you had to hide for hours as they shouted, go get her. And we're screaming. We've got a bit of footage. We can't actually see you in it.
Starting point is 00:25:16 Here's a bit of the footage from what was an alarming experience. Now, Theresa, I remember this incident. I remember thinking, God, a young woman who invites a speaker is basically in fear of her life from a mob that is behaving in such a shameful manner. What was it like for you? And what do you think of this whole report that's come out in the UK
Starting point is 00:25:57 about more and more students wanting to censor free speech? Hi, Pearce. Thank you so much for having me on. The overall experience was really terrifying. I hosted Colonel West since a lot of colleges in the United States and it might be similar in the UK only host one side of the political spectrum. They only host speakers on the left. So with the help of Young Americans Foundation,
Starting point is 00:26:20 I wanted to bring a conservative speaker to campus to talk about these important issues of race and American exceptionalism. And I think that the report that came out recently that shows that college students are not supportive of free speech is very alarming. And I saw this on my own college campus by just trying to host a speaker that they didn't agree with.
Starting point is 00:26:37 They tried to run me off campus and tried to terrify me. And I was afraid for my life as over 200 protesters were chasing me. And as you said, I had to hide in a men's bathroom and call the police as they were shaking doors and screaming, go get her, go get her, capture her, capture her. We need to get Teresa. So overall, I find it really concerning that students don't value free speech as they seem to only value speech that fits their narrative and don't want to hear from the imposing side, which is what college is all about is having those debates.
Starting point is 00:27:04 Right. Well, thank you, Teresa. So, Larissa, come back to you. I mean, I presume you find that footage appalling, do you? What I find is that the ways in which we talk about footage like that is concerning and appalling. They literally chased a young woman into a men's wrestling. So what happened from my vision of that,
Starting point is 00:27:21 do you not find that bowling? From watching that, what I've seen is that a speaker spoke, and students also spoke. That's what I'm seeing. They physically manhandled the matter then. Man handled. And then threatened this young woman and chased her into a restaurant. They were chanting protestants.
Starting point is 00:27:36 They were chanting protesters. Do you think that's fine in their behaviour? I heard no justice, no peace, which is a very familiar. You think that footage and what happened to her is acceptable? I don't have a particular position on that footage because, first of all, it's not from the UK, and that's not my territory. But first of all, I would say it's a harmful to try and transpose an example from the US onto the UK, because here our students unions are regulated by the Charity Commission.
Starting point is 00:27:59 They have several measures in place that ensure that they uphold freedom of speech. We have speakers from across the political spectrum. One in ten students in this survey, said they wanted to ban... conservative speakers. Yeah, and countless students also, similar numbers, said that they also wanted to ban Labor and the Green Party and whoever else. Why are they banning any of them? Why are they banning
Starting point is 00:28:19 any of them? If we're going to be honest, peers, it's probably the president of the Tory society saying kick out Labour, the president of the Labour Society saying kick out Tory. The numbers are small. Let's not dwell on... Do you agree that nobody like that should be banned? You should be hearing all voices.
Starting point is 00:28:32 Who's been talking about banning? Who's been talking about banning except the people who are trying... 39%? But in reality, I'm not asking... Hang on, let me finish. 39. You said it, you asked me a question. I'm answering it. 39% in the survey believed the students' unions should ban all speakers who calls offence. Why don't you want speakers to come and be offensive and then take them on and prove them wrong?
Starting point is 00:28:53 Damn them with facts. Is that not what students were doing in the... No, they were chasing women into restrooms. No, they weren't. They were trying to go-getter. We literally saw what they did. We just heard it say what happened. She called the police.
Starting point is 00:29:04 So saying no justice, no peace... She literally had to call the police. Okay. So you're saying something I disagree with. I'm chanting no justice, no peace. Is that a problem to you? You can't what you like. What you can't do is chase a young woman into a men's restroom
Starting point is 00:29:18 and shout go get her in an intimidating, threatening manner. Both of those things are exercising freedom of speech. Let me ask you, what is a safe space at university? What is a safe space? Again, this is the kind of thing, this is the kind of language that gets picked up by the media and spun into something that it's not. Not really. It's your generation has come up in this phrase.
Starting point is 00:29:37 generation. You've already made an ageist joke about me being so old. I'm saying your, it wasn't an ageist joke, I stated a fact that you went to me a long time ago. Sorry, was it an age space? What does it mean? What does safe space mean? First of all, let's clear the record. Is this a safe space? It was not. How no. For either of us? No, this is not safe for either of us. No, please no. But first of all, I want to clear the record because I did not make an age's joke. I just said you went to uni a long time ago. You got pressed by it. That's you and yours. You triggered my aging.
Starting point is 00:30:07 anxiety, but I'm prepared to forgive it. Take that to your therapist. But what is a safe space? Are you suggesting I have mental health issues? No, I'm suggesting you should talk to a therapist about your issues with age. I think you're making a joke about my mental health. I'm not actually. I'm saying triggering. I'm recommending that you should talk to. All right. You are triggering a lot of things here. You see how easy it is to trigger? A serious question. Yes, I'm tired. What is a safe space? A safe space is about producing somewhere. It could be student led. It could just be a group of friends. It could be whatever you make of it, but where you feel safe. Period. This isn't the name.
Starting point is 00:30:39 Why do you feel so unsafe? You've just... In this country. Are you crazy? Of course I feel unsafe in this country. You just said that that woman who was literally barricaded into a men's restroom that you were perfectly fine with that finish. I did not say I was perfectly fine with it. You didn't condemn it.
Starting point is 00:30:53 You said that the people trying to no justice, no peace. You just literally talked about safe space wanting protection. When she wanted it, because she's a conservative. But the antithesis of something is not to support the alternative. That's not, please don't put words in my mouth. appreciate it. What I did is I said that students chanting no justice, no peace, whether that's in the UK, the US or elsewhere, is them exercising their freedom of speech? That's what I said, full stop. What is your idea of free speech? Final question.
Starting point is 00:31:19 My idea of free speech is people being able to express themselves, whether that's through speakers on campus, whether that's through protests. You know, students have always exercised freedom of speech, you know, whether it's the fact that NUS was the first organization, national organization in the country to come out in support of LGBT rights, wherever it's the fact that students now speak so proudly in support of trans rights and black liberation and climate justice. Students have always spoken about freedom of speech. Would you allow, J.K. Rowling, for example, to come.
Starting point is 00:31:47 On our campuses in our communities, if I may finish my point. You may. Last question you said, but now you're adding a number one. So when people are, you know, standing out on picket line supporting the RMT or UC or any other union, when they're doing that, students have always been at the forefront of experience. We've always faced backlash for it. and we're not going to stop.
Starting point is 00:32:05 In my opinion, you're the snowflake because you're so pressed about it. I understand. Would you allow JK Rowling to come to any university? What kind of question is that? Would you allow? As if I have power to stop people from coming to uni? Would you want her to? But what kind of...
Starting point is 00:32:17 You're the president of the NUS. Would you want JK Rowling... What kind of question is that? Should she be allowed to speak at universities? You answer it then? You tell me. What kind of question is that? You and I do not have the power to...
Starting point is 00:32:27 As you know, as you know, she's been the victim of a massive, relentless, vicious campaign... But I feel like there's a misunderstanding of how... violence have views about gender and sexuality. I feel like there's a misunderstanding of how these events run. Right. The vast majority of speaker events in the UK that are student-led are run by student societies who are elected. Simple question.
Starting point is 00:32:44 And they go to their students' union who supports them to facilitate events. I simply ask, how would you feel? So it's not for me to dictate who does and doesn't come onto campus. What's your opinion? Well, I'm representing my members. I'm not giving you nothing personal. This ain't personal. Okay.
Starting point is 00:32:57 Well, I'm about to debate in a minute this issue of what is a woman? What is a woman? What's I got to do with the price of bread, peers? I literally told you I'm about to debate this movie. I'm not on that segment. Bye, ask the next guest. What is a woman? What do you mean?
Starting point is 00:33:10 Ask the next guest. I said ask the next guess. You don't know what woman is? A woman is someone who defines as a woman, period, done. Anyone? Next guess. Anyone? Okay, I'm a woman.
Starting point is 00:33:18 Is that, yeah? I said next guess because that's not my segment. If I say I'm a woman. I know you're trying to trap me and I'm not falling for it. Sorry. Do you agree I'm a woman? I said next guess because I'm not falling for it. Bye.
Starting point is 00:33:30 You're not getting your little clue. out of me, your little audio clip out of me. Without realizing it, you may have just given me my little clip. That's the point. That's wonderful for you. That ironically is the clip. That's wonderful for you. Because when young women can't actually say what a woman is, I think it's mad. I am a woman.
Starting point is 00:33:45 I'm a woman. I'm a young woman who's very proud. Am I if I say I'm a woman? I'm very proud to serve a membership of students who support free speech, who work hard to make sure that our students unions facilitate free speech. You said anybody who says they're a woman's a woman. Who exercised their democratic right to protest and do so in a way that is in a
Starting point is 00:34:01 with the law. Larissa, great to see you. I wish I could see the same piece. Goodbye. Well, I'm sorry it wasn't such a safe space for either of us, but we got through it. It's okay. It's over, thank God.
Starting point is 00:34:11 All right. Enjoy your trip, bad to call him. I'm censored next. The US Supreme Court expands the right to carry firearms in public across America despite a recent shocking surge in gun massacres. We'll discuss that after.
Starting point is 00:34:37 Well, the US Supreme Court has today struck down a New York law that would have restricted people carrying guns in public less than a month after the Texas school shooting. It comes as a furious row Brocapto, a Georgia representative and a British Channel 4 news journalist after she was questioned over American gun laws.
Starting point is 00:34:51 Marjorie Taylor Green became aggressive when Chavonne Kennedy questioned her on the validity of a gun law of gun laws at a press conference in the States. It's our job to defend the Second Amendment. But I understand that we don't have guns in the UK, that is true, but we don't have mass shootings either. Children aren't scared to go to school. You have mass stabbings, lady. You have all kinds of murder and you've got laws against that. Nothing like the same rates do. Well, you can go back to your country and worry about your no guns.
Starting point is 00:35:16 We like ours here. Well, I'm joined now by Washington correspondent for Channel 4 News, Shavone Kennedy. So, Chavon, I think you experienced what I experienced when I was at CNN is that when someone with a British accent starts to go after Americans about guns or gun control constitutional rights, it's a very hot potato and they get very angry very quickly about it. And in a way, I guess we might feel the same if it's the other way around.
Starting point is 00:35:45 I don't know if that's the case. But certainly there was an element of surprise for me, for her immediately picking on where I'm from my Britishness, for daring to ask her about her views on gun control when it was the story of the day and legislation is passing through the Senate. And she had some very strong opinions and she was hosting an open press conference. So I was within my rights to ask her. But interestingly, the week before I'd asked similar questions of Senator Ted Cruz on the day we had one of the, parents of the Yuvaldi victims crying out, begging, she said, to act now. I doorstepped him. I asked him the same question.
Starting point is 00:36:26 I said, Senator, will you act now? And again, the conversation came around to my Britishness. Where are you from? he asked me. You're not from here. So both of them interestingly used my Britishness as part of their defence to throw the argument back at me rather than answering my simple question, which is, what are you going to do about it? Right. I mean, I used to have people screaming at me about 17.
Starting point is 00:36:47 and all the rest of it. So I've been on Miss Rodeo. I mean, just from a pure factual point of view, the allegation she put to which is basically we have as many mass gun massacres, knife massacres as they have gun massacres. Obviously, the facts do not add up to that. They've had more than 277 mass shootings in America this year, more than one a day.
Starting point is 00:37:09 We've had 235 homicides using a knife or sharp instrument in the year ending March 2021. So there's simply no comparison. You know, 90-odd people will die of guns in America today alone. Exactly. There are more guns than there are people in this country. There is no comparison. But she lashed her out using that example,
Starting point is 00:37:31 which is what President Trump had done once too, trying to immediately deflect and say, what about all your stabbings? We simply don't have people going into supermarkets, peers, do we, or into schools, and taking out 20 people all at once. That doesn't, of course, downplay the terrible incident in London Bridge where still only a very small number of people were killed.
Starting point is 00:37:53 But that was the argument. And obviously, I had to say to her, the two are not comparable, I'm afraid, Congress. And they're not. They're just clearly not. Shavon, thank you very much for joining me. I appreciate it. Well, I'm joined now by Conservative, author, and lawyer, and Coulter. And great to talk to you, your first appearance of Piers Morgan Unsensor. Congratulations. Thank you for having me. Very nice to be here.
Starting point is 00:38:14 We couldn't be more implacably opposed on this issue. And I sort of over the years worked out that a British accent screaming in Americans about guns never goes down very well. But I am curious about what is going on with the Supreme Court today. Because although it wasn't a direct response to what happened at Evalde and Buffalo and these recent horrendous mass shootings, clearly the juxtaposition of what the Supreme Court has announced today, basically making it easier for Americans in states like New York and California to conceal carry guns, does seem to the rest of the world to be completely bonkers as an apparent response to what's happened. Well, Supreme Court cases aren't responses to what was in the news last week.
Starting point is 00:39:00 I mean, this is a case that's worked its way up, and everyone knew the court was going to come out this way. It may be a shock in other places. It wasn't a shock to anyone here, because the court has repeatedly held, recently anyway, that the right to bear arms, it is in our Constitution. is a personal right that belongs to all Americans. Yes, of course, there can be limits on that right, but one of them is not that you go to the government, and the government says, well, you have to tell me why you need this gun,
Starting point is 00:39:35 you need a special need, and we will, in our subjective opinion, decide whether or not you can exercise this constitutional right. So this is simply a restatement of the last, Supreme Court decision on the second amendment, which is their personal... When you go and buy a car, when you go to buy a car or something, you have to go through all sorts of checks, and you have to get insurance,
Starting point is 00:39:59 and you have to wear seatbelts, and you can't drink and drink, all sorts of restrictions Americans quite happily go along with for driving a vehicle. Why would you object to people who, if they want to carry a gun around New York or California, that they simply have to go through various checks to get it? Well, a few things.
Starting point is 00:40:19 Number one, would that guns were regulated as lightly as cars are, you can buy a car and drive across the country in it. You can't do that with your personal constitutionally protected right to own a gun. You have to go through checks, including... You do go through checks. You do. You do have to go through checks to get a gun. You have to have a number of restrictions. To get a gun, you have to go through checks, and you have to pay an enormous amount of money.
Starting point is 00:40:44 And I hadn't finished your first point. We also don't have a constitutional right to have. have a gun, which is kind of important. This is a constitutional right. It is more akin to voting. And you do not have to prove the right. You don't have to take out insurance. You do have to do all kinds of things to get a gun in this country.
Starting point is 00:41:02 We do have essentially universal background checks. You're being lied to about that. Even a gun dealer who's selling guns out of his kitchen. If he sells more than one gun, essentially, he has to have a federal license. And to have a federal license, you have have a federal license. to have a background check. We're talking about a very few sales, basically, you know, a widow selling her husband's gun to her cousin or her nephew or something. This is, um, to get those private sales between a single gun between two private individuals, and by the way, this
Starting point is 00:41:38 has nothing to do with today's Supreme Court case. What you're talking about is universal registration. But they're lying about this. And as for your argument about, oh, it's right after are these mass shootings. Well, you know, a couple things about the mass shootings. Obviously, they're very dramatic like shark attacks are, but they're less than 0.1% of all shootings. 90% of violent crime in this country does not involve a gun at all. We do have a very demographically different country than England.
Starting point is 00:42:10 And in fact, the crime rate, the murder rate, the shooting rate would be far worse if we didn't have law-abiding armed citizens. People using guns in self-defense successfully happens at least five times more than people using guns. I totally accept there are completely different cultures. When we got rid of all the guns after Dunblane here, most people didn't have guns to start with. It's a completely different situation to America where there are 400 million guns in circulation. I do get that. Let's have a short break.
Starting point is 00:42:41 Come back and finish this. But also, I want to ask you a very simple question. What is a woman? We're back after the break. Well, Butler, a conservative author and lawyer and Coulter. And one thing I wanted to talk to you before we move on to the big question of whether you're a woman or not, and if so, what is a woman? I just wanted to ask you finally about, on the guns thing, the thing about the Avalde massacre, which seemed interesting to me, was a lot of the cries from the right after these massacres is if only everybody had a gun, if only there were more armed security at the schools, these things wouldn't happen. There you had 19 heavily armed police officers literally standing outside the classroom and they let 19 kids get annihilated.
Starting point is 00:43:37 So that argument, if you take it from what happened at Evaldi, it doesn't work. I think it works very well. It is exactly the opposite. What's stunning to me about the Evaldi policeman and look, the few things I think the government should be doing it is protecting us. having policemen, yet and still, these are unionized government employees. Can you imagine if this were the ace security company, a private company, you have to protect the school, and they behaved this way? Every single one of them would have been fired, they'd be bankrupt. But this guy has been kept on, kept on, kept, it's just assumed, oh, well, he's a government worker, we can't fire him, which proves the point we can't rely on the police.
Starting point is 00:44:24 And no, we are not saying everyone should be armed, but those children, teachers who are armed, who have concealed carry, who can walk around grocery stores and restaurants with their concealed carry gun, they should be allowed to have them in schools. And I would like to point out that of all the mass shootings in the last few decades in this country, 94% have taken place in gun-free zones. Right. Well, that certainly, oh, right. But he's looking at humans like a lobster tank. Running out of time, that wasn't a gun-free zone. It was a place with 19 heavily armed police officer, he did nothing. And they were gutless and count.
Starting point is 00:44:59 No, it wasn't. But anyway, very quickly. Very quickly. Absolutely false. Very quickly. It was a gun-free zone. Let me move quickly. We're only at time.
Starting point is 00:45:05 Do you identify as a woman? Yes, because I can't open a pickle jar. And Coulter, what a lovely pleasure to talk to you as always. Thank you very much for joining me. Good to talk to you. Come back soon. That's it from me. Whatever you're up to, make sure you keep it uncensored.
Starting point is 00:45:24 Good night.

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