Lived experience, housing & the things that make me think. Council tenant talking fair rents, private rents & working-class life. Still doing voices for fun.
Essex
Joined May 2010
- Tweets26.7K
- Following913
- Followers1.4K
- Likes35.8K
Pinned Tweet
The Plain Speaking of the Working Class. My take on why political communication no longer connects. open.substack.com/pub/stuart…
Glad to see the back of October, been a challenging month. But in a way since my dog George passed 4 weeks ago, at least he doesn't have to go through the fireworks that were going off last night. 16.5 years of great memories.
I just love this for so many reasons. When you look at speakers now its very clinical and lacking emotion or substance. Many podcasts and political commentary is much the same. Like they all bought the same book off Amazon on speeches. Add a gag here, bring in the slide here and lets all point.
One thing I learnt from doing stand up years ago and public speaking after my transplant. Standing there with a microphone and lived experience, will draw them in like nothing else does. Its real, its honest and no slides 😁
Ten million people have watched a comedian accidentally destroy the entire TED talk industry.
He filmed the talk once at TEDxNewYork in 2014 and openly admitted he had nothing to say.
Speaking coaches charge $5,000 to teach the exact tricks he used in 6 minutes to say nothing at all.
His name is Will Stephen. He is a comedian from Late Night with Seth Meyers who was invited to give a real TED talk and used it to prove the format is a costume anyone can wear.
Every TED speaker opens with a question, tells a personal story, cites a scientist, and shows a chart. Stephen did all four in six minutes with zero content.
His entire formula fits on a napkin.
Gesture with both hands. Ask the audience a question anyone can answer. Tell a mildly embarrassing story so they say aww. Point to a stranger on a slide and call them important. Flash a chart of random numbers. Wear glasses with no lenses. The audience will think you are brilliant.
That last trick alone has probably cost the public speaking coaching industry a hundred million dollars in sessions clients should have skipped.
"If you watched me on YouTube with the sound off, you would think I was a genius."
That is Will Stephen on the TED stage, three minutes into the talk he was paid to give. He wasn't lying.
Executives pay $15,000 for a keynote coach and still open with a joke the room never laughs at. Founders rehearse their pitch for weeks and still sound like Stephen at minute four, saying "wagga wah, gabba gabba" with authority.
The talk is free on YouTube. The method is written across every TED speaker's playbook for ten years.
Stephen still writes for Seth Meyers. Almost none of the ten million viewers have stopped nodding at empty slides since.
The formula is free. The willingness to actually say something before your next keynote, pitch, or townhall is the entire edge.
I reckon Poundland will become Coffeeland.
I will have a working class latte, a coffee that costs more than the min wage please 😉
“It is all very well and good complaining about the shutters going up on high street shops. But if you are not going down there...that’s what is going to happen.”
The Guardian's Policy Editor Kiran Stacey on the possible closures of high street chain Poundland and why it might be part of a “bigger shift.
#Newsnight
Here's what my character Timothy thought of his Conservatives chums and the budget. 😉 #Budget
My character Timothy is now available in the ElevenLabs library. He is an awfully nice posh man, who is quintessentially British.
What saddens me about this is its the same as last year, no lessons have been learnt. Labour have a large mandate and an opportunity to turn back what happened for decades. They talk about the last 40 years, but don't deliver.
With fair rents and council housing as a stepping stone to home ownership again, it will do two things.
1. Help the working class on low wages have more disposable income and stop the reliance on food banks. More money to spend on goods and services.
2. Help the younger generation who wish to leave home and find a way themselves. That will help them build up the resilience and become independent.
It saddens me to say this, but Labour has completely failed the working class in my view. Its as if they think they no longer exist. Yet they are all around them, quietly getting on with the jobs so many if us did, wondering what happened to the Labour party.
This is a big ambition – we know that. But we won’t back down from making sure everyone has the offer of a route off the streets this Christmas.
Today’s summit is about bringing every part of society together behind that mission. We’ll keep working together to tackle the root causes of homelessness and end rough sleeping for good.
bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3n0…
Really saddens me when exercise or the gym is seen as a magic bullet. You don't built up resilience and independence in the gym, its comes from life experiences. Many will be stuck at home, unable to leave and get a flat, because private rents are too high. Nowhere near enough focus on housing and private rents for them. They need what we had so we could build up that resilience. Many will get all the exercise they need from work, which will in turn build independence and help them long term.
Levels of anxiety and depression are soaring and ADHD prescriptions have risen to record levels - but experts believe wider use of exercise could help some young people
Read more: trib.al/50mlfXo
What clear message is that exactly? I have no idea what the Labour party stands for. No large numbers on council houses. No tackling high private rents and keeping right to buy. The only thing that is clear, is that Labour no longer see the working class.
It’s been an honour to serve as your Deputy Leader for the past year.
I promised to take back the political megaphone and set out a clear message about what we stand for and whose side we are on.
That’s exactly what we’re doing: being boldly, confidently, authentically Labour.
mirror.co.uk/news/politics/l…
Has anyone used Grok voice? Just joined for a month to get access and wondered if people use it? Just trying some new things.
You cannot simply rely on a GP though. How is eating too much and getting fat a medical condition? I ate too much because of sugar addiction and food was my comfort. That for me is what you need to deal with, why? Why I am eating so much and why am I carrying this much weight. You have to help yourself as well where you can.
All this will do is widen the poverty gap. Why Labour are wrong to focus on home ownership like the did under Blair. Of course most will want to own a home, no issue with that. But all jobs are important and Labour are ignoring the working class who rent. Why fair rent and council housing is so important for those on a low wage.
Exclusive:
John Healey is poised to make the government’s revived Help to Buy scheme more generous in a boost to middle-earners
The chancellor was set to exclude households earning more than £90,000 outside London and £110,000 in the capital from the “Your First Home” scheme
It offers first time buyers a 20 per cent equity loan to help them buy a new-build home, with an initial interest free payment and a minimum deposit requirement of just 2.5 per cent
However, the initial earnings cap would have meant young couples with relatively modest incomes would have been unable to access the initiative. The median pay for a teacher is £51,048 and for a nurse the figure is £44,053
The Times was told that Healey recognised these concerns and decided to instead set the cap at £110,000 outside London and £140,000 in the capital
thetimes.com/uk/politics/art…
Many of us have talked about modular homes due to construction costs and worker shortages. But its like they think everything will be fine and ignore the problems. They are doing nowhere near enough, just spinning build numbers as the highest for years. They can say that because so few were built. In reality its 7000 a year over 10 years.
Housing Secretary Angela Rayner defended Labour’s target of building 1.5 million homes over the parliament, admitting it was always ambitious and had become more challenging due to rising construction costs.
Andy Burnham made social housing a priority when he became prime minister and promised the largest expansion of council house building in the post-war era.
But with more than a million people on housing waiting lists and record numbers in temporary accommodation, do the government’s plans go far enough?
A lot of speculation about who is the next James Bond. Personally my pick is Aaron Taylor-Johnson. We may and I emphasis maybe seeing them divert people to other actors and I may well be wrong. But I have been convinced for some time now. For me he just fits.
Go back 25 years you could take a job for £5 an hour and pay the rent and live within your means. No top ups, no UC or tax credits. But many now seem to be suggesting min wage is to blame.
I would argue its the changes that have happened around housing, private rents, buy to let market. People can no longer do what we did, largely because of rental costs.
Is the minimum wage to blame for falling youth employment?
In our latest substack Nye Cominetti digs into the youth employment stats, and gives his recommendation for minimum wage uprating
➡️ buff.ly/cqnDY99
Stuart Smith retweeted
Companies exploiting welfare system by using residents as 'cash cows,' BBC finds bbc.in/4k2ze9M
Leicester has always been a hard place to grow up in. But because we had fair rents we could help ourselves That is also true when we become parents and face challenges. Focusing on data and not listening to a wider perspective is only skirting around the issue.
'Postcode lottery' driving children's inequality in England, commissioner warns bbc.in/4Bwx7ld
