In 1996 Tony Blair would tell Sue Lawley, host of Desert Island Discslike “In my life” by the Beatles reminded him of his father. “All positions of power are lonely places, how lonely are you finding yours?” she would reply. When Margaret Thatcher was “lost” to Roy Plomley in 1978, she would explain that music – Verdi, Mendelssohn – was a pressure valve from the “logical life” she was trained to lead.
Anyway, I just watched two hours of Rupert Lowe – Norfolk MP, reform defector, Farage-gadfly, leader of Restore Britain (4.5 per cent) – in conversation with Joe Rogan. At one point Rogan misused a quote: “If you’re not liberal at 20, you have no heart. If you’re not conservative at 35, you have no brain.” – for Winston Churchill. Lowe did not correct him. The conversation ranges from vaccine damage to the healing properties of the horse tranquilizer, Ivermectin.
We need a British Joe Rogan! Says anyone who has spent any time with Joe Rogan. Rogan — the world’s biggest podcaster (21 million YouTube subscribers) and something of a cognitive eater — might be the most loyal man in media. He talks on-air with master-conspirator Alex Jones about the notoriously interconnected Nazi aliens as gently as he listens to astrophysicist Brian Cox deep in quantum computing. And of course, if Rogan is defined by anything, it’s his honest-to-God belief in the idea that everything is worth hearing right.
And this applies to anyone, no matter how open to polite company. Lowe has moved to the right of Nigel Farage – with his banned, pro-death penalty stance. Elon Musk thinks Farage is too weak to solve a Britain on the brink of civil war. When Farage says “if you think I’m bad enough, imagine what comes after me”, he could be referring to Lowe, whose (late, executed) dog was called Cromwell.
In that spirit, Rogan spent a long time vociferously agreeing with Lowe on the Lowe Diagnosis for Britain – immigration, multiculturalism, too few deportations, statism and something to do with student loans. It takes very little to convince Joe. One wonders if Andy Burnham had been the guest instead, if Rogan would now be a great soldier in the cause of Manchesterism. Ten minutes with Tony Blair and we could see the pair walking through the central hall of Davos in January.
Rogan might be an easy interview — whose credibility is as valuable to Lowe as his reach. And it gives him a chance to connect Restore Britain directly to Elon Musk (thanks Elon for setting up the interview, Rogan tweets first) and indirectly to Donald Trump. What about the downsides? Well, when Rogan asked Lowe a question about the care gangs, Lowe responded with a long, rambling response about Schengen, Altiero Spinelli and the EEC, jumping through Napoleon. It wasn’t evidence of the clearest mind, regardless of the 68-year-old’s proper “based” internet credentials.
It doesn’t matter, that’s where the power is in the media now. What use is it Desert Island Discs for a politician when people exist on a free and unsecured internet? There is no longer any need for formalities like the BBC to enter the institution, or even the news. No, before the US election in 2024 it was a big deal that Donald Trump appeared on Joe Rogan but Kamala Harris did not. There you go, here’s your answer: the difference between the modern politician who finds the people where they are, and the establishment soldier who still believes in the power of CNN.
But Lowe—the self-appointed megapatriot—might want to be careful, becoming so embedded with the American media sphere. “I think America has always been a very sound, politically grounded structure…” he continues. The instinct here in the Old World, he says, is statism. Not like the US and its focus on the individual, the government de minimis. Rupert Lowe likes America, he likes the diagnosis of Britain by the American right, he really likes Elon Musk – this is starting to look like the Farage trap, pleasing a US president deeply loathed in the UK. Rupert Lowe talks about England, doesn’t he? Rupert Lowe talks to Joe Rogan.
(Further reading: Con. the Great)
