'Milibrand' interview: taps, cockney accents and fighting for airtime
Russell Brand quizzes Ed Miliband on tax evasion and media ownership, but manages to steal the spotlight

Russell Brand has released his much-anticipated interview with Ed Miliband – an encounter David Cameron had already dismissed as a "joke".
In the "relatively tame" 15-minute interview that was broadcast on Brand's YouTube channel, the Labour leader was quizzed on tax evasion, media ownership and what he could realistically change if his party won, the Huffington Post reports.
Miliband said he was seeking "real, deliverable, concrete change" but conceded that: "Change is hard. Change takes time." He also rejected Brand's view that voting doesn't matter.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Commentators were quick to point out that the interview was as much about Brand as it was about Miliband. The comedian took 46 seconds to ask his first question – only stopping when Miliband interrupted – and spent more than half of the interview talking.
"At times, Miliband came across as an enthusiastic student interjecting in someone else's lecture than a candidate for future prime minister being interviewed," said the Huffington Post.
Miliband "also appears to put on a Cockney accent," at one point calling the NHS the "national 'ealth service," Buzzfeed reported.
Although conceding that Miliband didn't "mess up", The Spectator called the interview "depressing."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
"It's simply not very enlightening. Brand comes across as the mad man cornering the boring person in a pub because he thinks he might agree with him."
On social media, Miliband was widely praised for taking a risk and using alternative media in an attempt to appeal to disenfranchised young voters.
But not everyone was convinced.
And all some could focus on were Brand's kitchen appliances.
-
Trump officials reinstating 2 Confederate monuments
Speed Read The administration has plans to 'restore Confederate names and symbols' discarded in the wake of George Floyd's 2020 murder
-
'This is a coordinated campaign of harassment'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Trump nominates Powell critic for vacant Fed seat
speed read Stephen Miran, the chair of Trump's Council of Economic Advisers and a fellow critic of Fed chair Jerome Powell, has been nominated to fill a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors
-
What difference will the 'historic' UK-Germany treaty make?
Today's Big Question Europe's two biggest economies sign first treaty since WWII, underscoring 'triangle alliance' with France amid growing Russian threat and US distance
-
Is the G7 still relevant?
Talking Point Donald Trump's early departure cast a shadow over this week's meeting of the world's major democracies
-
Angela Rayner: Labour's next leader?
Today's Big Question A leaked memo has sparked speculation that the deputy PM is positioning herself as the left-of-centre alternative to Keir Starmer
-
Is Starmer's plan to send migrants overseas Rwanda 2.0?
Today's Big Question Failed asylum seekers could be removed to Balkan nations under new government plans
-
Has Starmer put Britain back on the world stage?
Talking Point UK takes leading role in Europe on Ukraine and Starmer praised as credible 'bridge' with the US under Trump
-
Left on read: Labour's WhatsApp dilemma
Talking Point Andrew Gwynne has been sacked as health minister over messages posted in a Labour WhatsApp group
-
New Year's Honours: why the controversy?
Today's Big Question London Mayor Sadiq Khan and England men's football manager Gareth Southgate have both received a knighthood despite debatable records
-
John Prescott: was he Labour's last link to the working class?
Today's Big Quesiton 'A total one-off': tributes have poured in for the former deputy PM and trade unionist