Russell brand

Tonight Russell Brand took part in a live Q&A to celebrate the launch of his new documentary The Emperor’s New Clothes. The film looks into the effects of capitalism and it has been widely noted that its release is timed conveniently close to the election. During the Q&A Brand was surprised and initially very pleased to find that Brian May from Queen was in the audience. May, who began by professing his love for the comedian, even had a question for the revolutionary: BM: I have a campaign called Common Decency which is about trying to change the system radically from within. I’m proposing that we form a strategy on May 7th

If I had a penny for every time a politician or a journalist insinuated that of all the issues facing Britain in the 21st century, public transport was the thing that affected my life the most, I would own a bus company. If I had a penny for the amount of times someone asked how angry I was about Clegg and tuition fee rises, I would have no student debt. But this is the political climate we currently live in. Modern politicians have well and truly shafted young people, and not just through policy changes or obvious attempts to bribe their older, greyer core vote. I’m talking about Westminster’s desire to

Go to a branch of Whole Foods, the American-owned grocery shop, and you will see huge posters advertising Whole Foods, of course, but — more precisely — advertising how virtuous Whole Foods is. A big sign in the window shows a mother with a little child on her shoulders (aaaah!) and declares: ‘values matter.’ The poster goes on to assert: ‘We are part of a growing consciousness that is bigger than food — one that champions what’s good.’ This a particularly blatant example of the increasingly common phenomenon of what might be called ‘virtue signalling’ — indicating that you are kind, decent and virtuous. We British do it, too. But

Russell Brand and Johann Hari were once the revolutionary dream team, working side-by-side to produce the comedian’s YouTube series The Trews. Brand hired the self-confessed plagiarist last year to help with his videos. Now, alas, Mr S hears it is the end of the road for the like-minded pair, with Hari quitting. The writer apparently wants to focus on his next book. Hari had previously worked with Brand while also working on his most recent release Chasing The Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs. Their working relationship had been an amiable one, with Brand even acknowledging the discredited journalist in the credits for his book Revolution, calling him a ‘tireless, brilliant, adrenalised busybody’. Mr S

As an environmentally-minded model who’s not shy of a student protest, Lily Cole would appear to be an ideal recruit for Russell Brand’s revolution. Alas, Cole, who has a double first from Cambridge, has taken issue with the ‘pound-shop Ben Elton’s’ choice of wording. ‘He scares me when he uses the word revolution. I’m not a big fan of the word revolution,’ Cole says in an interview with the Radio Times. ‘I prefer evolution. If you look at history, revolution has always been… usually not very good.’ Cole does have something in common with the comedian, she has also been accused of promoting idealism while having great personal wealth, something

My children have a phrase called ‘fomo’ — which stands for ‘fear of missing out’. It is a constant, mildly paranoid anxiety, exacerbated by social media, that all your friends are having a much better time than you are. There is a related problem in government, I suspect, called FODM — or ‘fear of Daily Mail’. The effect of FODM is to limit the range of political discussion and opinion to a narrow range of predictable, non–controversial possibilities for fear anything more interesting might allow the media to manufacture a scandal. This is where, unexpectedly, I sympathise with Russell Brand. In fact it was from a Brand podcast that I

In case you hadn’t heard, Russell Brand was on Question Time last night with Nigel Farage. It was explosive to say the least, with Brand and Farage clashing over pretty much everything. The most electrifying moment – see above – came when a member of the audience rightly pulled up Brand over his throwaway remark that Farage didn’t care about disabled people. The fellow pointed out that the Ukip leader had ‘never criticised the disabled’ and told Brand ‘if you’re going to campaign, then stand…you have the media profile for it, do it.’ Yet instead of his usual reasoning that parliamentary democracy is broken and not fit for purpose, Brand offered a mealy-mouthed pitiful excuse for his incessant shouting from

‘Any system for chatting up women is in itself questionable’ says Russell Brand today in response to the Julien Blanc scandal, that has seen the Home Office ban the controversial American ‘pick-up artist’ from touring in the UK. Brand continues: ‘any (system) that’s sort of based on objectifying or undermining women I would never, never, never, never, never endorse.’ Which is odd, because here is Russell Brand endorsing a book that is purely about how to pick up women: Neil Strauss’s writing turned me from a desperate wallflower into a wallflower who can talk women into sex.’ Russell Brand       Mr S can inform you that the content of