To 'get on' in this country, you must be a 'healthy recluse', says Conservative-critical caller
6 September 2023, 16:26
Shelagh Fogarty draws parallels between this caller's Conservative critique and Niel Kinnock's anti-Thatcher speech, highlighting the party's vulnerability in elections.
This caller opened her conversation with Shelagh Fogarty asserting, that the UK's population "can't and shouldn't" take more from the Conservatives.
Continuing, the caller said to Shelagh: "You posed a question at the beginning of the show, 'How much more can we take?
"And I’m thinking, how much more should we take?"
The baffled caller added: "I can't articulate it."
She then revealed to Shelagh that as a retired teacher, she was "so shocked" with the RAAC crisis schools are currently facing.
She added that she was worried about whether "hospitals" and "other public buildings" are built with the material.
The caller then said people in this country could only "get on" if specific restrive criteria were met.
The caller continued: "You need to be a recluse.
“You need to live in the middle of nowhere.
“You mustn’t need to go anywhere and you mustn’t have any health problems.”
Concluding, she stated: “You’ll probably be okay if you can live within those constraints, at the moment.”
Shelagh drew parallels between the caller's short soliloquy and Niel Kinnock's speech, which warned the electorate against voting for Margret Thatcher.
Roughly quoting the speech, Shelagh immited Mr Kinnock: "'I warn you, don’t get old, don’t be sick, don’t need housing', or whatever."
Shelagh then explained that people can sense what they've lost and that is "the Conservatives' biggest weakness" when it comes to elections.
She said: "People know what they’ve lost when they look in their community, they can see it."
The caller agreed: "Yes, Yes I see it, I feel it".
She concluded: "You know, I'm okay but I notice the difference and I wouldn't want it to get a lot worse."