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Mark Butcher interviewed by Sean Ryan about the Reform party
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Mark Butcher interviewed by Sean Ryan about the Reform party
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Mark, a candidate for Reform UK in Blackpool South, credits Nigel Farage for the party's growing support. He believes people are tired of empty promises from other parties and want a common-sense approach. Mark's main policy focus is illegal immigration and he criticizes the lack of discussion on this issue by other parties. He suggests leaving the European Court of Human Rights to regain control of immigration. Mark also criticizes the Conservative Party for failing to deliver on Brexit and believes the people of Blackpool have been let down by both the Labour council and the government. Mark is hopeful for a strong showing in the upcoming election. UK all the way Sean. Well it seems to be Mark it really seems to be and from being such a tense situation here in Blackpool it's turned into a situation now where you seem to be getting a lot of people on board Mark and how have you done it and what is your, let's just say, how do you do it? Well let's just be honest for a minute I mean we're all riding on the back of the crest of Nigel Farage's wave aren't we? So that's been a massive, that's really give the campaign a big big lift. We couldn't have dreamed of having Nigel here really but yeah he turned up and we went to the arm field watched the game together I mean we lifted, basically he lifted the roof off the arm field. Let me tell you the fans, everybody was you know really engaged with him. He's such an engaging man, very charismatic and of course he's not the, when you meet him and get close to him he's not the ogre that people make him out to be. He's actually a really really smart, intelligent, friendly man. I do say, I would definitely say he's an intelligent man and he has definitely got a few hairs on the dog's backs up on in Parliament at the moment hasn't he? He's stirred the pot, he's realised that there is, there is something that the people in Blackpool need, not only in Blackpool but in the country. People are starting to wake up Mark, is this about right? Well Nigel did that, he woke a lot of people up and you know we are, we're running a campaign here in Blackpool South, of course that's the important thing for us, for me, is the 16 constituency wards that are within Blackpool South and I've just been doing my absolute best to get around and knock on doors in nearly every single, well in every single one of them wards. I notice, you've worked hard to get people to recognise the reform party. It's been 18 hour days. You and Abi, I've noticed Abi your partner. Yeah she's been brilliant, Abi's the campaign manager and she takes a lot of abuse from me. We get a lot of online trolls but look it's all part of the... You've heard it all before haven't you? You've heard it all before, you've had it before Mark, with hundreds and hundreds of different things and projects that you've done in and around Blackpool but... I'm trained up at it, yeah of course, I've become quite thick-skinned and I used to be very very sensitive you know about things being said about me but over the years I've, you know... Become immune. Yeah you do, you have to otherwise you just won't be able to get on. See some people wouldn't be able to do that, the first sign of abuse and they'd be like, oh my god I can't do this, this is too hard, I can't do it, I can't do it. But I think that's why people are scared to get into politics and again it's not really a good advertisement is it for politics because you know people are watching me getting into it, I'm not a politician but people are watching and there's, you know they're seeing all the abuse and they're thinking, well I wouldn't want to do that because... Let's just rewind slightly to what you just said, you're not a politician, okay? And I think this is why, this is why all the other parties are actually running scared right now because the people that have got a voice now are not educated at Eton, they're not from London, they're from all around the country and they are, they're seeming to come together to go reform and I've seen it myself and I'm not just going to be biased here, we've got other political parties coming in Mark, but that's what seems to be happening, it's just this massive push and you'll say it's Nigel Farage that's responsible for that then? Well he's responsible for a lot of people coming over to the party and supporting the party, of course it's not just Nigel, it's the policies of Reform UK and the other thing to say is people have just gotten fed up of the same old promises, politicians knocking on their door two, three weeks before the election making all of these promises and they just don't deliver, we never see them again and that's been one of the major reasons for me, because I know that if I make promises then I will deliver, like I always have, I've got a track record of delivering, I'm not being big headed but I do deliver the goods and that's... Your main policy for reform... Well there's more than one. Well the main one, the route that you're going down is illegal immigration and migration in that form of its... Let's talk about it, it's no problem, I've no issues with it, yes that is a policy... It's not about what it's to talk about, it's the lack of talking about it with the other parties is my concern, you know that for me is the biggest thing, two million people in the last couple of years locked through the doors, where are those people now Mark, are they just wandering the streets, have they got a job, they haven't got a National Insurance Number, how do we know where these people are? Well we just don't, the simple answer to that question is we just don't know where they are, but getting back to your first point which is yeah, it's an immigration election I suppose that's what we could call it, this seems to be everybody's top subject, when you're knocking on the doors, especially with the elderly, what I'll say to you Sean is the elderly really do think that it's the top of their important list if you know what I'm saying... Do you not think the younger people are seeing this? Well no the younger ones as well... I've seen Nigel the other day on his speech in Birmingham where thousands turned out to see him and support his migration, but he seems to have the solution Mark to this? Well I think no it's just, the solution is there, it's just the leadership is spineless and they just won't use... Is there a way to stop these boats coming in? Yes there is and soon that could have done it... How's it going to do it? We need to come out of the ECHR that's for sure, and that way we can go back to our treaty rights... How do we come out of the ECHR? Explain to people what the ECHR is... Well it's the European Court of Human Rights and it's in Strasbourg, and they basically trump our laws... So everything we say they say no, is that what you're saying? Well we're told that we have to accept the immigrants that are coming in on the boats when they land on our shores, but what we're saying is if you read our treaties, the treaties that we have with France, if we come out of the European Court we can go back to our treaties and with a 12 mile exclusion zone return people back to France with a border force, that's what we used to do, that's what we would go back to doing. It's just that the SUNAC is a spineless leader and he's basically bowing to Europe. We voted to come out of Brexit, 17.4 million people, Blackpool was one of the highest northern towns for the Brexit vote and we voted to come out of Europe, and the reason that Boris got in with a big majority is because Boris promised to bring us out of Europe, get us out completely, and what happened was, the Brexit party, Nigel Farage said go and vote for Boris, and Farage stood back and didn't even get a thank you from Boris, stood back and said go, you know, so he basically endorsed Boris, so a lot of people went to vote for Boris in 2019, purely and simply for the one major policy which was getting us out of Europe, and he didn't do that, so again, false promises, lies from the government, the government have destroyed this country, this Labour party have absolutely brought our town to its knees, and these are the reasons why that, you know, Reform UK is doing so well. How well is it doing or not? How well is Reform doing? Let's be honest with you. You listen to the polls and it's not... Well you know, you've been out knocking on doors and you've seen what's going on with the people of Blackpool, you know, last year, not last year, the year before when we had Scott Benton into the studio, when I interviewed Scott Benton, he was of the same opinion about all these other parties, what makes it different, because people's heads are just banging with oh this is the same, that's the same, admittedly Reform is slightly different, their policies are slightly different, and in fact they're a lot different than what Labour and Conservative and other parties are banging with. Well it's common sense stuff, people want common sense, that's what they're asking for, common sense and due diligence, well the policies that the Conservative party have had, they've just let us down, they've not delivered, on the main one which was to get us out of Brexit completely, and the reason that people are disappointed with coming out of Brexit now is because we haven't benefited properly. In what way? It hasn't been able to benefit correctly, it's not been able to do trade deals, it's not been able to offer its services out. What about the fishing? It's not been able to do it, this is another one, another big one for Fleetwood, but just let me get to your point, the reason that people are voting for Reform UK, the reason the doorstep people are saying what they're saying is because they've been sorely let down by the Conservatives, and don't forget Blackpool has had a double hit, we've had 14 years of a Labour council, and we've had the same with the government, so the people of Blackpool, even more so, and I think areas where they've had Labour councils, I mean you look across the country, some of them have been bankrupt, and the one in the Midlands, you know, in Birmingham, Birmingham City Council went bankrupt, they're a Labour ran council, they're just a waste of space. So looking like, do you think you're second place, do you think you're going to get in as opposition to the Labour Party this year? Well like I said, at the... How are you feeling, what's your belly tell you Mark? Well last time I spoke about this, and I was asked about this at the Ann Widdicombe, I spoke there, and I was brought up in the house with three brothers and a sister, my dad was you know, quite a solid person, and what he, you know, he brought us up, we never, we was very competitive as young people growing up, and we was taught never to take second place, there was only one winner. I'm not in this election to take second place, and I said that at the by-election, and I'll say it again here, right now, in the general election, I'm here to win it, we're here to win this seat, I'm here to take this seat from the Labour guy, I'm not even going to mention his name, I'm going to take this seat from him, because quite frankly, the Labour Party don't deserve to have an MP running that seat. What the people of Blackpool want to see, is they want to see real change, and the only way to do that, and to get that change, is to go after the party that is committed to real change. Okay, we're still with Mark Butcher, we're going to stay with Mark for the next hour or so, he's here to talk about Blackpool next, and what reform he's going to bring to Blackpool if they get that chance to get in with your votes. Now, we have offered Labour, we've also offered the Tories to come in, as well as all the other parties, and only two, maybe three, have accepted our offer to have a chat just before the general election takes place, on Thursday, so do you know who you're voting? Are you going to vote in the right way, or are you just going to follow the crowd and vote where the crowd goes? We need you to vote what you think is the right way. However, there are many parties to choose from, Mark is part of the Reform Party, we will have Kim Knight in a little bit later on, she's going to be talking about her party, but in the meantime, we're just going to play you a song, we'll be back on the other side of this. Hello Blackpool, tune in every weekday morning for the Wide Awake Breakfast Show, from 8 till 11, on BCRA. It's Amazulu, taking you back to 1986, with Too Good To Be Forgotten. Too Good To Be Forgotten, Mark, is that you at the minute? That's the 80s, isn't it? I love it, mate, we love the 80s, one of my favourites, but I'm a fan of all music, to be fair with you, Mark. Right, so, there's a lot on, I'm going to ask this, I'm just going to put it out there, Mark, there's a lot of people saying on Facebook about you, and Amazing Grace, and the charity, do you want to put the record straight with that? Well, yeah, I think that's, yeah, I think it's... I think we touch on that, yeah. Yeah, I think, well, I'll be honest, Amazing Grace, the charity, in the by-election, came under a lot of political drudgery, so I decided at that time to resign my position there, so I stepped down from the charity, although they didn't want me to, and the board, the trustees was... Well, they love you there, you mean so much. Yeah, they were a bit... For you to step away from that, for you to step away from that, and for you to say to people, look, I'm going to do what I can do for Blackpool now, it's time for me, I've done this for the last 15, 20 years, it's time for me to step down, and see what I can do for the people of Blackpool. I didn't want to damage the charity, I know it has been damaged by the political things that I've gotten into now. I don't think it's damaged it. It's actually affected the... Has it affected the business itself, Mark? It's affected the donations, so, with all that in mind, I decided to step away from it back in the by-election, and, you know, I did promise the board that I would continue with the projects that I've got ongoing, which is the church upstairs, and also, you know, financing and buying... You've had a lot of help with that with people of Blackpool, haven't you? I have. People coming in to help finish the church off. It's been wonderful. It's been wonderful to... And the message you're trying to get across to people as well, in relation to what you're doing at Amazing Graze, and you stepped away from that challenge that you was given all them years ago, to become a political figure here in Blackpool, Mark. Yeah, well, I want to... You should be proud of that. Well, I'm not... Yeah, I'm proud of Amazing Graze and everything that it's done, and it's been difficult for me to step away, because, of course, that's been everything that I've been doing. It's been my heart and soul, to be honest with you. I've put everything I've got into that place, and to try and make it work so well. And it works without me there, so the volunteers are all very capable. They're all trained in their own part of it, so it works very well, and, you know, I thought it was fair to the board and fair to the people, only fair to them, for me to step away. Recently, I did a video. What I did is hide the room. We hired Amazing Graze, because it's a big room, and I needed a load of tables to lay out my letters and send them out. And I put a video out there, showing that I was putting them letters out, and because of that video, there was nothing on the video about Amazing Graze. There was nobody saying anything about Amazing Graze. The charity commission have all... Somebody's complained, and that's, you know... Do they have to look into that, when they get a complaint? They've got a position of complaint, saying that, you know, he's using the charity, again, to advance his political agenda, which is completely untrue. And I used the room for... So you can categorically say now, to the people of Blackpool, and the people in the world listening, that that is not true? It's a complete lie, and all you've got to do is watch the video to see that. And, of course, the charity's commission are going to have to come to the same conclusion. But the press, the Gazette, and the lead, local papers, have both shown their true colours They're almost like Labour activists, the Gazette. I mean, you know, I'll remember this. I won't forget this. And I also won't forget what the leader's been putting out, these terrible stories. They're all saying that the charity's commission are investigating Mark Butcher again. Well, that's false as well, because I'm not even, I'm not even, Sean, hang on a minute, I'm not even on the board. I'm not even a trustee. I'm a volunteer there, at Amazing Graze. So how can the charity's commission be investigating me? Do they believe you? This is the thing. Well, it's another lie. It's another... It's the opposition. They're getting worried, Sean. They're getting very worried. Especially the Labour Party. Especially, because we've absolutely destroyed the Conservative Party. I mean, you know, the Tories are finished in Blackpool South. Do you think you'd have stood a chance without Farage? Difficult to say. Would people go out and vote reform without Nigel Farage at the helm? Nigel Farage is a rock star in British politics. That's not the question, Mark. The question is, would people go out and vote reform if Nigel Farage wasn't the leader? Well, yes, of course, some would. But I don't think as many, and that's me being really honest, I don't think there would have been as many people. I mean, it's turned into the momentum since Nigel's come has just... It's not just here in Blackpool, this is right across the whole country. Everybody's talking about Nigel at the breakfast table. And Reform UK is the conversation that everybody's having now. Can't help but not see it. He seems to be everywhere at the moment as well. Not only are the political parties picking up on Rishi's down. Because Rishi Sunak, he seems to have faltered quite a lot now. He's floundering. Labour are rising. Reform are rising. Even the other parties are rising closely behind you, Mark. And what's your opinion on that? Well, I think the Lib Dems are the... I mean, they're the typical... If you like, it's a protest vote. You know, they're the typical protest vote Lib Dems. They're going to do well. Some of their policies make sense. Put it this way. I would prefer the Lib Dems or some of the other parties over Labour or Conservative. If people don't want to vote Reform, any of the other small parties, other than Labour or Conservative. That's what I'd say. So they're out of touch? Totally out of touch. I'll be out of touch with the people, the everyday working class person. You've only got to look at what Rishi did in France. He left his veterans on the beaches. Well, that was disgusting. You've only got to look at that to realise just how out of touch he is. And then you can look at the other fella, Stormer, and think this guy doesn't even know what a woman is. And I just think that, you know, he's out of his depth. He's not connected. Every time he's on the camera, he looks like a rabbit in the headlights. I feel as though he's, you know... He's scared. Do you think he's scared? Well, I just... Yeah, I don't think... I mean, they're talking about taking the government. And unfortunately, we are going to be handing the keys to Number 10 to this Labour guy. And it's... Yeah, but for how long, do you think, Mark? Do you think in the next election that the Reform Party are going to be taking the keys to Number 10? Can you see Nigel Farage standing outside Number 10? Absolutely, I can. And who can you see as his Number 2? Absolutely, I can see Nigel Farage as our Prime Minister in four years' time. Because we're going to have four years of Labour nonsense. It's going to be... You know, people are going to see... They're going to reveal themselves, aren't they? And people are going to see, and they are going to be fed up. So you're going to sit back and give them a chance of four years? I don't think it's a good time to take the government, quite frankly, this time around. There's too much mess. I think that it's probably... How are you going to sweep it over? How are you going to sweep up the mess that they've created? There's a new party going into Parliament. How are you going to start... Apparently we're in so much debt. One of the biggest countries, one of the biggest wealthiest countries in the world, ranked in the top ten. And yet we are riddled with debt. How are the Reform Party going to pull us out of that? Well, I think that's a great question, Sean. And I think that in four years' time, we will be ready. I don't think quite... I'll be quite honest with you. I don't think we're ready to take the government yet. So somebody said, no, Nigel now, he's beaten the polls. It looks like Nigel's going into number ten. You've absolutely smashed it. So you've got no idea what you're going to do when you get into number ten. Do you need that time? That's what I'm asking you. Yes, of course we do. Yes, of course. That's a critical element of building a government that can handle being in number ten. But this Labour Party will make the same mistakes. They aren't ready. They won't be ready for what's coming. The policies that the Labour Party have got are just what the country doesn't want. And I'm speaking to the residents, and they're telling me the opposite. They want the opposite of what this government are going to give us. They're not in because they have got great policies. Labour are going to get in because the Tories have failed so badly. It's not going to be easy, Mark, is it? After picking up the pieces and stepping on the Lego of the Labour government, it's not going to be easy picking up the pieces for reform. And maybe it's going to take four years to change the country, but you've got four years for the Labour government. Apparently, you say that they're going to ruin it in the four years. Who's the opposition to this? That's the question. Well, it's got to be Labour, hasn't it? Well, it won't be Labour. The opposition will be reformed. That's what we will be, the opposition to the Labour government. But we're talking hypothetically if you got into government tomorrow. Oh, yes. If we got in tomorrow, well, we would be ready. If we got in tomorrow, if there was a miracle, but it would have to be a miracle of extreme... Extreme proportions. It would have to be something that we've never seen. We've only ever seen red and blue, haven't we? We've never seen any other party. As long as we've been alive, we've never seen any other party get into government. There's some suggestion that we might get over 20 million votes. Well, if that suggestion's true, then you'll do very, very well in the polls. We're going to play a song. We're going to talk about what your proposals are for Blackpool coming up next. Have you got a song that you want us to play? Wow. There's one, a real good song that I think I'd like to play this for both parties, the Labour and the Conservatives. It's out of touch. Ladies and gentlemen, a request from Mark. For the other parties, this is Hall & Oates, and out of touch. Good morning, and later on this afternoon we'll be with Ken Knight. We have offered every single party the opportunity to come in and have a chat with us here at Blackpool Community Radio. Not heard anything from any of the other parties, and I am not biased in any way. I am trying to be as impartial as I can to give everybody their opportunity to talk about who they want to vote for. Now, if you've got an opportunity to ring me, then please feel free to do so. We'll get you on the air, and if you want to speak to Mark live on the air, please feel free to do so. 038. So we're back with Mark Butcher from the Reform Party this morning, talking all about the election this Thursday. Mark's here with me now. The morning, Mark, again. And I think I've turned your microphone down. Try again. Hello, good morning. There you go. So a couple of people have got in touch and saying I'm being a bit impartial, Mark. Well, I think you were friends, so it always feels like that. It will come across like that. You always give me a hard time, actually. I do. And there's no way, I think, you know, I think it's just because we are friendly. Yeah, we're buddies. We've been friends for a long time, and believe me now, I do not always stand up to Mark and what he does. Sometimes I'm quite against some of the things that you do, Mark, aren't I? Well, yeah, I think you do. You do. Yeah, I mean, look, friends can criticise each other. Yeah. And, you know, it's about being accountable, isn't it? Of course it is. So you can't always agree with each other, and we've never really agreed on, we agree on a lot of things. We do, we do. We also argue, not argue, debate a lot of things. Disagree, we do disagree. And that's fine. And very, very political as well. So if you are thinking I'm being a little bit biased towards Mark this morning, it's because he's my friend. It's nothing to do with the political stance that he has in the town. We can't be biased as a radio station. And like I've said to you a muntin times, we've invited every single person in, including Chris Webb, the Tories, we've invited all the other parties in. But the only two to get back to us was Mark and Kim Knight's party as well, which we'll be talking to around about one o'clock. Right, let's get back to it, Mark. I wonder why they haven't shown up. Have they bottled it, or what? I don't know, sorry. It's an opportunity to get on the radio and talk about your party. And if it was me running for any of the other parties, I would have been here at seven o'clock this morning knocking on the door. Yeah, I took the opportunity straight away. I don't see why they wouldn't want to be here. It's a media opportunity, and there's not many of them in it. There's not many companies in Blackpool, let's just say, or radio stations within the Blackpool and Fylde and Wye communities that want to get hold of these stories from the parties because they're just too scared to get involved. I thought Blackpool Born and Dreaded would be banging on your door. Enough of that. Right, Mark, going on about your policies now, what are you going to propose for the people of Blackpool? If you get in, if you get in as a party leader here in Blackpool, you did mention something about a movie, a film studio for Blackpool, and obviously the Blackpool Airport, amongst other things. What's your priority? Well, there's local priorities, and the three local main priorities that I'm going with is health and well-being, which we know our town is suffering. We have a 10-year, less than the national average, life expectancy. Some of our wards, eight of our wards that reach the top for all of the worst things, especially around health and well-being. So we are particularly going to be focusing on that for the residents of Blackpool as a whole. And affordable housing is something that we really... Let's talk about that, the affordable housing. How are you going to propose that now? You were saying that we need to build more houses. How are you going to do that? We do need to build more houses, but we also need to build those houses proportionately. So at the moment, what happens is the planners, they agree with the developers to put 70-30. When I say 70-30, that's 70% market value houses and then 30% affordable homes, and they get their plans passed under those regulatory stances, and that's what the developers are used to doing. What I'm doing is negotiating right now with the local developers, house builders and stakeholders around that to change that mechanism to a 50-50 split. What we don't want to do is go back to the 90s and build council estates. But we built council estates already and then sold them all off, didn't we? Is that not what we did back in the 1980s and 1990s? We don't want to go back. We want to build modern houses, modern estates. We like that particular model and building 50-50 splits. Local builders, local trades building these houses, Mark. Well, there's another big issue that the council... Let me get to that in a minute, but let me finish this question. So the council are giving big contracts out to out-of-town builders, but that's another whole different story. Going back to the local developers, talking to those individuals and making it clear, giving them a business... You would have to give them a business incentive to be able to develop housing projects where they're 50-50 split. And at the moment, the council are hostile to these developers and hostile to local businesses, hostile to small businesses. What's going to change the council if you get in? They're going to have the same staff, the same attitude towards what the council of Blackpool do. Do you not agree that Blackpool's doing well at the moment? Do you not think with all the construction, the building, the money being spent on this new leisure complex for the town centre, we've got so many good things going on, Mark, that we're not talking about these good things. We're talking about the bad things about Labour. Can we maybe talk about the good thing about the Labour council and what they've achieved over the last year? Okay, that's fair, that's fair. So, yeah, I think, you know, the town centre is not finished. They've spent over a billion pound there on projects that they feel are what the town needs. Well, I happen to disagree with that. I think that that billion pounds should have been spent around the town, certainly in Blackpool South as well. I think the university should have been built in South Shore. I would have put the big building, the civil servant building, the hundred million pound building, I might add quite ugly as well, that building, I would have put that in Blackpool South as well. You know, everything that's been focused on the town centre, all these vanity projects, are all a billion pound plus. You know, that's a bit unfair, Mark. I don't think they're all vanity projects. You know, when you look at it, in hindsight, we are a tourist destination. We do need tourism. And with 20 million people coming here every year. Well, hang on a minute, Sean. No, wait a sec. They do need facilities to come and enjoy themselves. You know, it should be about, not only the people of Blackpool, people of Blackpool that live here, yes, I agree, 110% that they should get the cream on the top of the cake. But also, we survive as a tourist town, Mark. So these tourist things that are being built, I've got to agree with the council. You've only got to compare it to Liverpool 1. Have you been to Liverpool 1? I've never been, no. Right, so Liverpool 1 was built on 920 million pound. And you could eat your dinner off the floor there. They've got pianos out on the streets, Sean. I mean, the shopping centre is absolutely incredible. Big shops are there. It's buzzing with restaurants. It's buzzing with small businesses. It's working. Now, you look at Blackpool town centre. They've spent over a billion pound. Over a billion. Not a million. Now, listen, Sean, it'll take you 31 years to count to a billion. If you started counting right now, it would take you 31 years. That's how much a billion is, OK? Big money. It's a lot of north. Right, so they've spent 920 million at Liverpool 1. They've spent over a billion in Blackpool. This is what frustrates me. When I look and compare it to that, and I look at our town centre, it's a patchwork quilt of adjusters. No shops there. It's run down. What's going on with all these barbers? And that wasn't brought to my attention up until recently, Mark. How many barber shops are in Blackpool? How many cafes are in Blackpool? How many people are using these facilities in Blackpool? This is quite surprising to me, if I'm being honest. Well, there's some, I mean, it's controversial. But some of the barber shops aren't actually trading as barbers, are they? Well, we don't know. They look like barbers. Like the chicken shops in Manchester. You know, there was all, you know, trading and turning over a lot of money. Have you got proof of those allegations that they're not what they say they are? Well, there's no allegations. I'm just making a point that some of those barbers have not been trading. Well, what are they? What do you think they are? I don't know. You know, some people are saying that they're money laundering. Who's saying that? Well, it's rumours, Sean. That's how we hear things. Okay, well, speculation doesn't always work. But the thing is... You brought it up. I know, but the fact is that there are a lot of them about. And that's what I'm asking. There's more barber shops and street shops. There's two Premier shops and another shop just opened up on the same street right next door to each other. Just round the corner here. Why? Our town centre is a patchwork quilt of just vanity projects that just, you know... Let me just say this. There's £23 million spent on the tramway connection. Worth it or not? Not worth it. Not worth it at all. Why? Why not worth it? Why? Not one single job created, Sean. £23 million. There's not one single job being created. Now... That's a good point. And also, look at the hotel. The Holiday Inn is owned by Blackpool Council. That's not owned by the Holiday Inn. That's actually owned and bought. Are you sure about that? Yeah, I am sure about that. And it's owned... So the council, Blackpool Council, are now going in direct competition with the residents. What about all the hoteliers, the bed and breakfast? What we're known for is the famous thing about Blackpool. You come and you... B&B. You go in a B&B with a landlady who makes you breakfast and they talk to you and they make you feel... That's where they're going in competition with those people who've been trading in Blackpool for 60 or 100 years. These hotels... They're opening hotels. They've also got... They've got a cafe in town. The council have got a cafe. What about all the other cafes? They've got architects. They've got estate agents. They've got letting agency. Why are the council... My big question to Blackpool Council is why are you going in competition, direct competition, with your residents in business? And you seem to have an advantage over all of the other businesses when you open, you know, for example, a cafe. Have you got anything good to say about Blackpool Council? Well, I've been frustrated for the last 12 years. I know that person. They've, you know, I hear the voices of the people. I think that I've got connected to the people and I hear a lot of painful stories. I get a lot of emails and letters. People who are struggling, especially businesses. People who feel that the council are hostile towards them. What, they're being hostile towards the residents of Blackpool? No, to local businesses, small businesses. You know, I've got many complaints in my entry already. At least 30 complaints about Blackpool Council being hostile to developers. People who want to make buildings very nice. You know, you've got the heart building on Bond Street. Just down the road from here, yeah. Mr Plant, a very nice local business. We're going to get Howard in to have a chat about it, actually. And it's terrible what the council are doing with that building. Is it 18 months he's had that one? Five years. Five years? Five years. And then there's another developer come along in the last three months. And bought a building, reduced it to a car park. Put the car park up, opened it and had it all up and running in 10 weeks. And there you are with a local businessman. The council are just languishing, making him languish. You can see the frustration. Hostile towards developers. We're with Mark until 10 o'clock this morning. We're going to play another song now. Thank you very much for joining us this morning, Mark. We're talking everything about the reform. But we are talking to the other parties today as well. Everybody's been invited into the show to have a chat. Sort of like a little hustings, if you will. Without everybody being here all at once, Mark. Can you imagine that in the studio this morning? I'd be happy with that. Listen, Kim Knight's a great local lady. Yeah, she's always been a very, very pleasant lady. I know she's popped off at me. But I don't see, as far as I'm concerned, she's a wonderful lady. There's no threat to her whatsoever, is there? She's doing what she can. No, not at all. It's all a big game, isn't it, Mark? It's a two-horse race, this. It's all a game, though. Well, it's not a game. It's a serious game. It's a serious game. The politicians look at it as a game. This is a two-horse race. It's me and the Labour guy. We'll see. Tell your friends and family you heard a great news station today. Blackpool Community Radio, BCR. This is Dua Lipa and Physical. She was great at Glastonbury, wasn't she? Did you see her over the weekend? Some new tracks coming your way as well. We're speaking to Mark Butcher until 10 o'clock this morning. 1 o'clock, Kim Knight's coming in. Nice to meet that one. Right, let's have a look at your weather. We're with Mark Butcher up until 10 o'clock. Ten minutes left. Talking about the Reform Party, how well he's going to do in the elections this week. Are you going out and you were voting? Have you done a postal vote? Whichever way you're going to do it, get out and do it. You've not got long left, OK? Right, let's have a quick look at your weather. And coming up after this, we're going to continue our talk with Mark. The weather is proudly sponsored by the Blackpool Community Hub. How's your mental health? Right, this morning is going to start mostly dry with sunny spells. However, areas of cloud will drift in from the west throughout the day, potentially yielding the odd isolated shower. In places, it's going to be breezy. Tonight, this evening is going to turn over. Castor showers becoming more frequent overnight. Outbreaks of rain will push eastwards, giving some heavy downpours at times. Tomorrow morning is going to remain largely cloudy and wet for a time, but rain will tend to turn lighter and patchier as the day progresses. A breezy day with westerly winds. Thursday looks to be windy with sunny spells and showers drifting in from the northwest. These bring in a slight chance of thunder in places. After a dry start, Friday will become overcast and wet as an area of widespread rain sweeps through the west. Saturday looks to be drier, variable cloud and some heavy showers to start. These dissipate later on in the day, looking to be a brighter weekend this week. So that's your weather. The weather was brought to you by Blackpool Community Hub. Find us on Facebook or Instagram. It's 9.51. It's Blackpool Community Radio. So we are here with Mark Butcher this morning. So we are here with Mark Butcher this morning, talking everything reform. What his policies are and what he intends to do to change the town around. We have invited every other political party into the studio, but only two have confirmed so far, one of those being Mark and the Reform. And Kim Knight and her party as well, which we'll talk about a little bit later on this morning. Feel good in the morning, with the Wide Awake Breakfast Show. News, weather, morning papers, celebrity guests and great music. News, weather, morning papers, celebrity guests and great music. News, weather, morning papers, celebrity guests and great music. News, weather, morning papers, celebrity guests and great music. News, weather, morning papers, celebrity guests and great music. Well, celebrity guests we have and a celebrity in your own rights at the moment. I was with you the other day when we went down to Coral Island and saw the veterans. Yeah, it was a great afternoon. It was a great afternoon, it was great seeing the veterans and a hundred year old lady. Who'd give you a kiss and she stuck a tongue in your mouth. Joy Killip, she's a wonderful lady. Dee Day Vetson. Yeah, she was a lovely lady as well, wasn't she? She was lovely. Very healthy still, she's still going good. She's a hundred years old. She looks amazing as well. Yeah. Right, so we're talking reform this morning, we're talking politics. I know a lot of people are sick and tired of it now, they are really tired of it. But it's about their future, Mark. It's about what people, in which way people vote. Now, I want to talk to you about your idea of this movie studio, this film studio that you've come together to propose to Blackpool. Just tell us a little bit about that, Mark. Well, that's about, that's jobs, that's jobs and more jobs. That's creating work. That's all year round jobs, that's bringing industry, brand new industry into Blackpool. And we are, we're famous after all for producing stars, we've been doing it for many, many years. We have. We've got a great film studio actually already built, Sean. If you look at the promenade, you've got three piers, the tower. Oh yeah. Seven miles of golden promenade, you've got a seascape. There's always something to see. You've got Fleetwood, you could, you know, Fleetwood's a beautiful village. You could turn that into a Scottish fishing village with, you know, with the right people, producers. You know, there's lots of things you could do in the movies, in the movie industry with regards to the setting. Where would you put it, Mark? We've already got. Where would you put it? Well, we've got three locations. My idea would be, let me just be clear, it's to the, at the moment, the Culture Secretary, their budget is £40 billion. £40 billion, take you a long time, over 100 years to count that far, but £40 billion. And what we're looking to do is just get a small piece of that budget. Yeah. And at the moment, they've continued to build in the North and West London. They don't build any of the film studios really outside of the North and West London. There's got to be a reason why they don't. Well, it's a North-South divide. And you think it's down to that? Well, it's a political, purely political, and what we're going to do is push hard to the Culture Secretary to take some of that budget so that we can build a £1.5 billion, million pound studio right here in Blackpool. We've got three locations in mind. Who's going to finance it, Mark? Well, that would be financed by the Culture Secretary. Okay. So, it's not coming from any of the money in town. That's where we're going after the money. And also. You think Blackpool wants that? Well, we need, what we need is jobs all year round. We need high-paid jobs. We need to stop exporting our talent. At the moment, we're sending all of our talent out to London. That's where you've got to go if you're in that industry. You train here. You go to university. What about Manchester? Well, Manchester's TV. There's Media City in Manchester as well. That's TV. That's not film, Sean. They do TV. And anything good, actually. I'm just pointing that out. Anything good that happens at Manchester gets exported to London. I'll give you two explanations. The one show was created in Manchester at Media City. That's in London. Yeah. And Good Morning Britain. That was created in Manchester, started there. That's been exported to London. Anything good gets exported there. We don't get, and in the north, we get basically punished in the north. Anyway, so the idea would be to create midway film studio, a major film studio for hire right here in Blackpool. There's three locations that we're looking at. One's close to the airport. The other one is the old site on the back of the, near the motorway. And there is another one locally that we're looking at as well. So we've got three sites in question. Really, really good sites. We would prefer the Squires Gate site, because that's connected to the airport. We're going to push hard to open the airport, because this will be connected to the idea of the great film studio. You know, there's a lot of mention about the airport, and they're asking for quite a few. Well, let me tell you a little bit more about the film studio first, Sean, because you've asked me. So the film studio would be a film studio for hire. You would bring in people like Netflix, Amazon, Universal Pictures, Paramount. You know, they would be very interested in coming, because what they look for is, there's Elstree and Shepperton at the moment. Very expensive. We would cut the cost. We would make it cheaper. We would be more relevant for anything outside of London. That film studio, if you had it available with a soundstage for hire, that would be booked out solid, Sean. You would get people. You would get the likes of Netflix coming into Blackpool, 100%. Now, that's what we know would happen. The jobs that's created from it. Architects would start it off. You've got accountants, white-collar, blue-collar. Then you've got your plasterers, plumbers, joiners. You've got your stage setters, your movers and your shapers, people involved in removals, everyday businesses, make-up artists, nail techs, plasterers, plumbers, joiners. I could go on and on and on. Computer experts. This brings money, investment. Once you've got your film studio, then you can start applying. Very exciting, this, Sean. You can start applying to the Lottery Commission, then. Big, big lottery money for building big films and small films. At the moment, we're not even in the game. We can't apply for lottery funding for the films because we don't have a film studio. My point is, we need to get in the game, claim the lottery money, claim the money from the Culture Secretary, and then, Sean, on top of all that, you would get your private investment. Massive private investment. People would be very interested in investing into this industry. And it's taking off all over the country. It's not just happening in North and South London now. What I have noticed is there is plans in Scotland, in other areas of Slough and West London. This is beginning to happen everywhere. I think you could see, in the next 20 or 30 years, see a film studio every 50 miles, right across the whole country. There's a real market for this, and it's very, very exciting. Just know, this brings jobs. This brings security. It brings gentrification. It brings inspiration. And it brings beauty back to our town. It puts Blackpool back on the map the worldwide map. And we also have... Okay, just one second, Mark. Right, so we are running out of time. It's 9.58. I just want to talk very quickly now about knife crime, crime in general in Blackpool. We've got a couple of minutes to talk about that. Before, unfortunately, I'm going to have to let you go. But it has been great having you on this morning, Mark, talking about everything that you propose to Blackpool. Just one more. Before we go, just talk to us about the crime. Knife crime, not just in Blackpool, in general, and how you propose to tackle that, and the behaviour of the people of Blackpool. We're talking about the issue. The big issue is the bikes on the back wheels. Well, we're talking about e-bikes. We're talking about knife crime. We're talking about a mixture of both. Okay, so I'll just be clear. I've done some real research on the e-bikes. You've got two minutes, buddy. Okay, I connected with some of the e-bike riders themselves, and I've been speaking to them. I found out something terrifying, Sean, and it's a little bit like the girls from Rochdale. They were treated like perpetrators, those girls, of crime, and they should have been treated like victims very early on. And the same is happening here with these young people on the e-bikes. What I found out, Sean, is the drug dealers are grooming them by giving them these bikes, these £2,000 bikes, and then they go out selling drugs on the back of that. Basically, these young fellas are victims of crime, and we need to be treating them like that. We need to be connecting with young people. We need to be putting knife bins out all across the town. We need to be connecting with parents. So you're saying we need a knife amnesty? Yes, we do, and we need a big one. We need to put knife bins everywhere, and we need to make it so parents can get rid of these knives. So accessible, though, aren't they? It's so easy, accessible knives nowadays. You know, they don't need what they call the zombie knife. Well, we want a ban on them. We want a ban on any knife that's not a kitchen knife, but even so, they'll grab a kitchen knife. If you're going out to purposely hurt somebody with a knife, you're going to use whatever knife's possible, no matter if it's a zombie knife, a machete, a sword, or whatever it is. Anything, if you're caught with it... Sean, Reform UK, the only party that is committed to dealing with this problem, we're going to put 40,000 new police officers on the front line. We're going to get rid of these stupid positions within the police force, and we're going to put all of that money into putting police officers on the front line, and we're going to fight crime. We're going to come down hard on it. We are the party for change when it comes down to crime. Well, we're out of time, Mark. We're out of time. I could stay here all day, Sean. I know, we could chat all day. You can come back any time you want. But listen, that's it from Mark today. Thank you very much. It's been an absolute pleasure having you in, Mark. Thank you, Sean. We will put the recording on our socials for other people to listen to, as well as our YouTube channel as well. Mark, we've got Kim Knight coming in at one o'clock. She's going to have a chat to us all about what she's doing and her proposals and what she's going to be doing here in Blackpool. Thanks very much for joining us. It's been a pleasure. I hope people don't think I have been biased towards the reform. I'm just trying to get you to get out to the people here what you're proposing, and I think you've done a good job of it this morning. Go out and vote for Reform UK. If you want to see real change happen right here in Blackpool South, then get out and vote for the party that is committed to change. That's any party you like. Any party you like you can vote for. It's entirely up to you. You can vote Reform, Labour, Conservative. It's what you choose to do. You've only got a day to do it, Mark. If you want change, vote Reform UK. I'm going to turn your microphone down now. Thank you very much, Mark, for joining us this morning. We'll get Mark back in the studio at some point, maybe just after the election, after the results.
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