#126 Ant Middleton: The Eradication of British Culture & The Rise of Violence
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Ant Middleton is a Special Forces veteran, author, and former SAS: Who Dares Wins star. He joins the show for a conversation about identity, violence, service, and what’s gone wrong in Britain. From his military career and time in prison to his rise in the media and now politics, Ant lays out why he feels a duty to serve again — this time as Mayor of London.
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Peter McCormack
Morning hunt, morning Pete, how you doing?
Ant Middleton
I'm always good mate, never a dull moment in my life. Mate, it doesn't appear so, right?
Peter McCormack
I want to talk to you about like, there's a lot to talk about, but you've lived a whole side of life. I haven't with your training with the army, with the Marines, etc. So I wanted to talk about that, and I wanted to talk about violence with you. And I saw this quote that came up on my Twitter, so I want to read it to you guys see what it goes. Okay? True peace is not the absence of violence, but the mastery of it. And I thought about it for a long like it was sat with me all day. Does that mean to you?
Ant Middleton
Violence? Creates freedom, believe it or not. Yeah, history books will tell you that the conflicts will tell you that fear is a great tool to implement control and control to implement peace. People want to be controlled in a bizarre type of way. You know, they want to be told what to do, where to go, to a certain extent. So violence is needed. It's essential in today's world. And you know, past lives, you know, you look back decades. It's always existed, but it's always been done in the shadows. I think they're two separate worlds. Well, I know that they're two separate worlds. And the ability to call upon violence, you know, violence is just undisciplined aggression when you teeter into the violent stage, there's no controlled violence. People talk about, ah, you know, controlled violence. There's controlled aggression. Once you hit that violence, that's undisciplined aggression. You know, it's kill or be killed. You know, you go into a state of mind and a state flow, if you have to consistently be in that headspace where it's you literally walk that line of life or death. You know, there's no gray areas here. You know, there's no complications. There's no bullshit that sits in between. It's either, you know, you take a step to the left, you're going to live, take a step to the right, you're going to die, and ultimately, violence equals euphoria, and this is what I realized in the military, when you're consistently in that mindset of extreme violence. At first, it's adrenaline that gets you through, the adrenaline drive that gets you through, but once you learn how to harness that adrenaline, it becomes euphoria. And let me sort of break that down for you.
Unknown Speaker
When I was point man in the military,
Ant Middleton
first time I was up against that door, ready to get you know, a high value target. Whatever it may be, it was, you know, the adrenaline that got me through the door, my drills and skills, and then, you know, room clear. Take a deep breath. Right? The room's clear. We're safe right now, let's go to the next door. Adrenaline in room clear. You're in and out of it, but because you're experiencing violence, extreme violence, on a constant state of flow, you learn how to harness that so you learn how to harness that adrenaline to the point where it becomes euphoric. And what I mean by that, the euphoria side is me having done multiple kinetic tours, you know, violent tours. Doors, multiple violent missions where that extreme violence I've learned to really harness it and control it to the point where when I go through that door towards the back end of my missions, everything slows down. I know how to harness it. I know exactly what I'm going to feel when I'm going to get to that door. I know exactly how I'm going to move. I know exactly how the enemy is going to react when I'm punching through that door. Because I've been there, I've taken multiple layers off. I'm talking about 50, 6070, layers off. You know, I'm in that constant state of flow and everything slows down to the point where you think you can control time. You know, it's so euphoric. It's the ultimate piece. And what I mean by the ultimate piece is it's so uncomplicated, it's the warmest and purest form of life. And there's two options, you're going to live or you're going to die. So a lot of people think that I'm an adrenaline junkie, but I'm not. I chase that feeling of euphoria being able to control time, control my body. Your body's functioning, you know, it's synchronizing every single cell, every single ligament, every single muscle, every single fiber within you, is firing at exactly the same time. No, it's perfect harmony. It's a perfect state of mind and a perfect state flow that the body experiences once you do it consistently, not just a case of, you know, when people say, oh, you know, My life flashed in front of me because I was in a car crash, or, you know, one instant incident in their lives. But then they never revisit that. They never want to, you know, never want to be in that, in that state of mind again, or in that situation again. I've been forced to be in that situation time and time and time and time again, and if you don't make it work for you, it will kill you. It will be the end of you. So going back to your question, and I know I answered it in a long way, but I think it was a great question to start off with. Violence is necessary, and once you learn how to ultimately, sort of move with it, you can't really control it. You move with it, you harness it. Then, yeah, that's what creates peace. That's what wins wars. That's what that's why you have the right to vote. That's why you have the right to a trial, to a to a fair judgment. That's why you have a right to walk the streets. And you know, do what you do is because violent men predominantly give you that freedom.
Peter McCormack
And so you think people don't necessarily understand that they can't critically think about those ideas, and hence why, I think one thing where we'll agree on the moment the UK isn't particularly where either of us would want it to be.
Ant Middleton
I don't think people should. That's a unique job to do. It's a unique takes a unique individual. You know, you've got the best in the world that go through this process, and they come out with PTSD. You know, the most finely tuned operators, the most finely tuned minds, the most you know, physical, physically robust machines that just break down because this pressure, this uncontrolled aggression, or undisciplined aggression just takes over, and their minds can't deal with it, their bodies can't deal with it. So, you know, it doesn't belongings in society. Violence does not belong in society. Aggression, however, that's a different category that's sort of like coming down a peg or two. You know, there's aggression, there's extreme aggression. And from extreme aggression, you teeth into violence. So aggression definitely needed violence.
Peter McCormack
Why the mastery? Going back to the mastery of it, yeah,
Ant Middleton
yeah, the mastery of it, yeah. And do you ever master it? You know, every situation is different. You know, every sort of situation just changes at the flick of a switch. You know, one minute, you might be hitting a room and there's women and children in there. The next, you know, you're, you're flicking, boom, you know, flicking that switch over to extreme violence. And that's what we're taught to do. You know, when I left the military and I found myself in prison after six months due to a violent situation or an aggressive situation, I wasn't violent because I was sort of in control. I realized that when I when I went to prison, and I sat down and I analyzed everything, I debrief myself about everything I don't overrun a lie that don't overthink. I just deep. Why am I in here? Right? Because you're extremely aggressive, right? Break that down. So in the military, I was taught and trained that if someone was aggressive to me, I counter aggression. In with extreme aggression. That's how I come out on top. If you're aggressive to me on the battlefield, I'll counter that with extreme aggression. I'll go into code red. Okay? Violence, exactly the same. If you're violent to me, I will counter violence with extreme violence. That's how I will come out on top. That's how I will live. That's how I live to fight another day, which is extremely important, because I'm an asset, you know, I'm a team member. You know, I don't want to be a burden, and, you know, be injured or dead, you know. So there's the whole sense of pride behind this violence as well. And I just realized, you know, I'm in city street now there's zero tolerance to violence. I don't need to be violent. Cut violence out your life. Boom. You know, don't need to do it. Aggression. However, I was like, you know, do I need to be in that code red? Aggression? No, what? What in society, you know, lends its lends its hand for me to get into that code red where I'm like a dog on a blood lust, and I'm just about to teeter into that undisciplined sort of aggression. I don't need to do that either, but aggression is a great tool, because aggression has got me up mountains. It's got me through certain situations. It's, you know, got me business deals. It's got me through certain situations in the media, you know, where they've come at me. You know, I love aggression. And when aggression is used correctly, it can be a very handy and powerful tool that can work to your advantage. However, I've just cut extreme violence and code of red, aggression out of my life and violence out of my life. So when I look back on society, I'm like, actually, violence isn't needed. You don't need to teach into that. However, you need to unleash the beast. Is better to unleash the beast, Beast, pull the beast in, than to not have the beast released ever at all.
Unknown Speaker
Some of your tweets would imply
Ant Middleton
slightly different from that. Some go ahead, go and see. Tell me how you interpret so no,
Peter McCormack
because I can empathize with it, like you talk about being ready. I haven't got the exact tweets in front of me, but like, ready for war, ready for I never I'd have to go. I don't have the exact words, but there are certain things to do. You know what I
Ant Middleton
mean? Gather the masses. Yeah, yeah. To cover the masses. Absolutely. We need to, we need to unite, and we need to gather the masses in order to get our voices heard, in order for people to really stand up, be seen, be heard. And we've done that. And I say we Tommy, along with, you know, a few other people that normalize that movement. I like to think that as ant Middleton as a motivator, as a former Special Forces operator, as a patriot, that I joined the freedom of speech rally to really help Tommy steer clear, or have that far right sort of analogy, when they look at me, they go, ants, not far right. He served his country. You know, there's a few politicians and a few celebrities. Let's call myself a celebrity, even I hate that word, because I certainly don't fit in a room for the celebrities. But we sort of normalize that movement from a far right movement to a, you know, freedom of speech rally to a festival to a, oh, actually, look at the people that they're they're not far right. You can call us far right if you want. But you know, people with their head screwed on or with a switched on mindset, which a lot of actual politicians done, they were like, No, that was just British people coming together, of all cultures, of all backgrounds, of all ethnicities. They come together and they want their voices to be heard. So this is why I'm very careful with what I say on x, because I don't want to create division and hate. I want to create division and hate between the extremists that don't respect our culture, that don't respect our way of life, that want to create division and hate within our British culture. But I want to unite the people that want to be here, the people that are proud, even if they're not British, people that are proud of this country for what it's given them, whether it's a job, whether it's a roof over their heads, whether it's food on the table, you know, to people to go Thank you, God, you know this is this is why I came here. This is what you know. This is why I'm thriving, and why I can be a family man and look after my family. They're the people that I want to unite. But predominantly, we are in a situation right now where we need to focus on us. We need to be super selfish right now. We need to focus on Brits, British citizens, British natives. We need to really go back and go, do you know what car these people that are now, ultimately, you know, second class citizens to illegal immigrant? Coming in to veterans sleeping on the streets to I could this could go on
Peter McCormack
that hotel thing must piss you off more than most people with veterans who are sleeping on the streets.
Ant Middleton
It's hard. It's a hard pill to swallow, but I know if I teeter into the aggression which I feel when I see this, then I know that I'm just falling into their trap. It's not so much aggression, it's mine. Comes a layer down, it's frustration, because what you do, you there's, there's a process to violence, okay? And it starts off with confusion. All right? You get confused. Lack of identity, suppressed culture, right? But if we're, if we're multi cultured country, that multiculturalism, it's not even a word. It doesn't that means nothing. You know, we're a British cultured country, yet with a diverse, cultured society, okay, very important that you realize that British culture, guess where? Guess what sits in our British culture, our law and order, you know, our principles, values and morals. That's what the umbrella is there. It will protect you. It will help you. It will shelter you. It will provide for you. You step into the rain, law and order, no matter your background, your your religious beliefs, your cultural beliefs. It you step into the rain, you're gonna get wet, and guess what? You're gonna you're gonna know it. It doesn't happen like that. But that's why that structure is so important, because in order, once that's in place, then Law and Order naturally filters under that. And this is what, this is the problem. We're not in a religious war. We're not in a in a in a in a bloody what's the word I'm looking for? Cultural? No, because it's law and order and culture. So it's not, it's not actually religion or race, so it's got nothing to do religion and race. It's culture and law and order.
Peter McCormack
I think there's another one go. I think it's money. Money. Yeah, yeah, of course, because money affects everybody, yeah, it does, yeah. And even the most, kindest leftists I know, some of them, are starting to break ranks and say, Hold on a second. I've got no money left at the end of the month. I haven't had a pay rise in two years. The government is cannot manage a budget. Rachel Reeves borough, more than ever after the Conservatives did the same. Think we both probably feel let down by the conservatives. I think we have issue of identity. I think we have an issue with money, identity and culture and law and orders downstream from that. For me, in that where we live in
Ant Middleton
bed, it's identity, right? You just said it right? Identity. So why? Why do we lack identity? What do Why do you think we lack identity? Pete, well,
Peter McCormack
I think that's subjective to who you are some people, because it's, I think for a young man, it could have been feminized out of them. It could have been shamed out of them. I think if you're a white male, you've been called a racist. I mean, I've been called far right and fascist all the time, and I'm nothing like that. But I also think, I think British the history of the history of British culture.
Ant Middleton
To you, if you go right back to British culture, what would you say British culture is, if I say to you, Africa, what? And you had to say, what culture would you say?
Peter McCormack
Again, I think it's always subjective to the person, though. So for me, British culture. I'm second generation immigrant. Dad's Irish welcoming to his family. Moved up to Blackburn. His dad got a job. My dad's done very well, worked hard, and it created a great life for us. So I say we are a welcoming, tolerant country, and that's part of our culture. Back to the beginning, but I mean, our culture was, you know, we were leaders, correct? We're leaders of explorers,
Ant Middleton
adventurers, inventors, leaders, inventors, extreme problem solvers, construction, trailblazers, educators, you know, you go back and, do you know where that all stems back from, if you go right back to British culture. And this is why I said, when I say Africa is black culture, go right back to British culture. And this is, this pisses off a lot of people, and them just stating facts, it's white culture. White culture is something that's been completely eradicated from British culture, the death by 1000 cuts, right, even before I was born. You know, growing up in the 80s and 90s, never did I hear, Oh, what's, what's white culture? You know, that whole thing was already gone poor. You cannot say that you're a proud white man. You know, it's like, but you look back on our British culture, it's British history. Look back on our history, it's white culture. And again, you go back to explorers, you go back to adventurers, you go back to innovators. You go back to educators, extreme problem solvers. You know, we built most of the world. You know, that's, that's who we are, that bit. Been cut off next. What they're after is our faith. You know, we're a Christian country, and I don't care what you say, you look back on our, on our on our history, which is British culture, we've that's our law and order is intertwined with Christianity, our calendar year, Easter, Christmas, intertwined with Christianity. Now you don't have to be religious. Pete, okay? To to believe that Christian principles, morals and values, are just, they work. They're fair. They give us they give us freedom, and they've worked for the last 1000 to 2000 years, okay? And I'm talking about it made a flourishing, thriving society up to what 2025, years ago, okay? And this is, and we talk about identity. It's the suppression of British culture, that if we are of all cultures, Pete, that means we are cultureless, okay? And if we're cultureless, that means we have no identity, right? And then the process starts when we have a lack of identity, which I had when I left the military. Confusion. This is where it starts off. You get confused. Where do I belong? Where's my purpose? Frustration is the next thing from confusion. Confusion, frustration, anger, violence, and I say this from a from a sort of psychological standpoint of how I understand people, and this process is really important to understand that lack of Identity they're after me. Yeah, that lack of ideas leads to that process, and we are in the anger, teetering into the violent stage of that process. We're way down the line now with society out there. And I think is a great point that you raise identity is huge. We have an identity crisis. We our culture is being suppressed all the way from our white culture, which I'm super proud of. You know, look at I'm a I'm an adventurer. I'm an explorer. And when I look at the people that mapped out this world, like your Columbus's and your Bies, you know, you kept them, blah. You look at them, you go, wow, you know that fascinates me, and but, you know, we don't, don't go there because that's already eradicated, that's gone. The next thing is going to be our faith, our beliefs, our values. I'm Catholic, you know, I was, I was, I was, I was baptized. I was christened, I was confirmed. My children have been as well. Our veered a lot towards Christianity in recent years because, you know, I've really studied the man himself, you know, Jesus Christ. And I love his. I just love his attitude. I love the way that he, you know, brought his, just, his demeanor, his way of thinking. I thought, is really advanced, you know, for hit, for his time. And I just think that's next, that's going next, right? You can see it going even with Christmas, Easter, you can't buy fucking easter egg nowadays without Evan, yeah, holiday, but it's the same with Christmas. What is it the festive period? It's like, that's going next. And then, you know, this whole multiculturalism is like, whoa, whoa, listen, that word doesn't even exist less. Let's reinstall our British culture as umbrella within that. It will preserve our law and order. And if we preserve our law and order, which has been compromised in turn. We preserve life, British lives, because we don't. We don't teeter off into this two tiering. Oh, but this is okay in their culture, not this. So this is why this structure is so important. Pete, it's so important to read because it will, it will, if you get this structure right from the top, everything else will fall back into place. Don't try and build from here up this. This has got to be reinstalled. And British does call it a British cultured umbrella, which in turn will preserve British law and order, which will in turn preserve British lives, which we see being taking every single day on our streets, and here's how they'd look if humans vanished. the right way, because the future depends on it.
Peter McCormack
Do you think this is this has come from a lack of discipline, then do you? Are you able to see it as somebody who has been disciplined about their training and their job and requires a discipline and a lack of discipline? I mean, I was watching one of your shows this morning where a guy just lost his number, and you gave him a hard time. You asked him before, I need his number back. He did, then he didn't. And but it was the discipline around that there's, there's, there's no compromise on the discipline. And do you think that's a problem that we have in this country, is that we've just lost discipline as a country, as a nation? Yeah, discipline is a huge part of it,
Ant Middleton
and just being the hard part to discipline is being consistent with it. That's, you know, that's the hard part because a lot of people can't do that. Discipline is doing the things that you know you should do that you don't do. You know you should be doing them. You know, you know you should be getting up half an hour earlier just to hit a walk or hit a circuit or workout, but you don't do it, but you know, you should be doing it, right? So it's a great idea in your head,
Peter McCormack
but is it also to say the things that are maybe unpopular?
Ant Middleton
Yeah, I think, I think now more than ever. You know, I'm a super positive person. You know, I refuse to engage with negativity. Well, actually, I lie. I do engage with negativity in order to flip it into a positive. I love, you know, I love taking on that challenge. But we're in a day and age now, or in a time the last couple of years, where me giving you positive quotes and speaking positively to you people are like and are you fucking blind? You not see what's going on. So right now, my dialect has gone a lot more I wouldn't say negative, a lot more truthful. When I say to people, you are not safe on the streets, traveling groups, find a way to arm yourself legally. You know, it's like, at the moment this, you know, I'm telling people this, and they're like, Wow, fans gone from his Hey, stay positive, guys. You know, the world's, you know, you'll find your way through it, or whatever it may be. But that's not a negative, no, it's not a negative. It's just, it's honest. It's needed. Yes, at this there's a time to really step up and tell the people are just fed up of being fucking lied to. Yeah, right there. Then again, they get lied to. They frustrate into frustration. There's no confusion. They're frustrated straight away, anger, violence that holds it. And the more you lie to people, the more that frustration then flicks into anger, flicks into anger, into violence. And accountability as well. You know, you talk about discipline. Accountability is the key to it derives from discipline. If you are disciplined, you can hold yourself accountable and be honest with yourself and go, do you know what? Actually, I messed up there. I didn't get this right. You know, for example, static, calm, being questioned, and he and instead of going, you know what? We do have a problem, I know exactly what you're talking about. Susan, we do have a problem with grooming gangs in London. It's been going on for a while. We're going to do absolutely everything in our power to make sure that we eradicate this problem, not, not try and subtle that as zero tolerance to this behavior in my city. But then when he sort of, oh, I don't know what you're talking about, he's almost condoning that behavior. He's almost giving people free reign to go out and sexually abuse people and rape people and and even murder people, right? He's almost to laugh that often go, I don't know what you're talking about. When he to play dumb with children's lives, young British girls lives. Let's call it as it is, young white British girls like, let's, let's go even further. Let's call it a spade a fucking spade. When that happens, that's when I'm like, because I'm thinking, if I was in your chair and you told me that, you know, I'd be like that. What this is going, even if I didn't know about it, but this is going, I'm going to find out, I'd be straight to the to the superintendent in the Metropolitan Police, going, what is happening here? However, he cannot do that because of the whole inclusivity, political correctness, diversity and inclusion policies that they've spent billions on, billions on over the last 2025 years that project can. Not be seen to fail. One, because they spent billions of taxpayers money to make it happen. Two, because they think that this multicultural idea, this new narrative, or multiculturalism, is, is the fantasy world that they live in. It's a failed
Peter McCormack
concept. So people don't admit they're wrong, but it's really hard
Ant Middleton
discipline, going back to discipline, right? Going back to discipline and accountability.
Peter McCormack
It's really hard. Some people find it really hard to say sorry to their children or their partner, let alone a nation like, I fucked up. I got this wrong.
Ant Middleton
You're gonna fuck up to the day you die. You know this is failure, right? A lot of people are scared of failure. One, if they see a project that they think is going to fail, then they won't take it on. Two, that fear of a failure, if I fail, I become a failure, right? People are petrified of that. But failure is everyday part of life, right? You're gonna fail Pete to the day you die. I failed up to now, and I fail to the day I die, hopefully less and less on a smaller, smaller scale, because I live, I learn, I evolve. I've got bit more knowledge, a bit more wisdom, and I know how to make failure work to my advantage, but the moment you shy away from it is a moment that accountability has a huge dent in it. I can't say that. I'm actually fond of this. And then discipline, going back to you, what you said about discipline, that's when discipline just goes out the window. But
Peter McCormack
if you go to Silicon Valley to raise money, yeah, if you want to make a startup, and you're going to raise millions and millions of dollars of pounds. One of the things, the things they want to know, what are we what were your failures? What did you learn from it? Yeah, they know because they understand the market, understand money, they understand investment. They want to know your failures. You know. You want your kids to fail. And what did you learn from it? Yeah. What did you change not to do it again? Yeah. You want
Ant Middleton
to give them enough ropes so they trip up on and, you know, but you're there at their side, they trip up, hypothetically, graze their knee. And you go, what would you take now, son, yeah, it's like, Oh, I'd go, you know, yes, exactly. I'm here behind you. Obviously you won't give them enough rope to, you know, hypothetically, hang themselves, but you give them enough rope to trip up on through life. If you don't make mistakes in life, mate, you don't make anything. But that's where we have this kind of
Peter McCormack
weird paradox in life, in that there's a part of society that wants us to be sympathetic and empathetic to everyone, every one of their mistakes, but we are anyway, but, but also, if you put your head up there, if you say, I'm gonna run for mayor, they're gonna find a mistake yours and go and they're gonna hit you with it daily, here you go. What about this? What about this? And so there's like, I don't, yeah, but there's but what I'm saying, You're you're fine, you've got the discipline. You're okay with this. I am like, I've like, you. I thought about running for office. I've had the conversations, but no, and I might, but I have a past in drugs. It's gonna come up now. I had a drug addiction. I lied on a mortgage application once.
Ant Middleton
Fucking hell, you're human, Yeah, fucking hell. But that is, that is
Peter McCormack
one, I think one of the battles now, which is quite interesting in the world of politics, is there is a battle between the imperfect and the perfect. And I think, man, I think, I think it's shifting. I think people want the imperfect because it allows them to be imperfect.
Ant Middleton
People want progression. Yeah, right, this because the perfection doesn't exist. And this is where I come in, and I really see myself. And I think this is key time. I think the timing couldn't be better. Politicians are so divided from the grassroot survivors and thrivers, yeah, like us, okay, maybe I'm in a lot better financial position than I was, you know, 567, years ago, and maybe I, you know, I can teeter into both worlds. Absolutely I can, but I can't ignore the grassroots that I've come from. I can't ignore when I joined the military at the age of 17. I can't ignore, you know, the shit that I've been through when I've been in prison. I can't ignore the failures that I've had that every day human survivor and thrive and makes even politicians, which they have, a very good thing of hiding it and locking it away and not holding themselves accountable. But this is where I come in, mate. So I very much see myself as the mediator between the grassroots and the politicians. Yeah, I can sit down a table full of politicians. I've sat down with Nigel, I've sat down with Zia, I've sat down with key politicians. I can sit down with these people, and I can talk sense from a grassroot perspective and vice versa. This is what's really important. It's actually taking this political sort of spiel and this political agenda, dissecting it in a way that people understand it. So when I talk about restoring our British culture, our identity, you know, so important because, you know, it restores it puts our law and order. To account it then preserves life. You know, multiculturalism doesn't exist. You know, if we're multicultural, that will means we're of all cultures. We've got no culture, got no identity. People understand that, but politicians don't speak like that. So people are actually gagging mate, gagging this wise to do it run for office, for people like us to actually fucking step up and go, do you know what I'm going to be, the immediate mate, the mediator here for the people. I'm going to listen to you, and I'm going to bring what you tell me and how I see you, because I see them. I hear them. I hear the screams. I hear that their chart, you know, they're they're desperate calls for help, you know, and being that a mediator in the middle. What I can give them at the moment is hope, right? So, is it a duty? Do you see service in return to service? Yeah, and that's exactly what it is. I had a conversation last night. I sat down in 40 Dover Street with a with a lawyer. Barrister said, and why did you want to come back and dive into politics is, you know, I am my brand you know, I earned seven figure annual salary quite comfortably. You know, I've been learning that for the last seven years. You know, that's my brand value. I never earn under that, you know, worst case scenario, I'll take a million quid, oh, a year. You know, that's come through. I can do that probably with my eyes shut. That's my brand value that I've built up. I said, Well, why do you want to go back? You live a lovely life. Your children are, you know, children have got beautiful schools. They're loving life. I'm, you know, I feel like I'm really providing as a father and as a husband. And why do you want to, you know, jump into this shit pit? Why do you want to jump into? And my exact reply is, it's my duty to serve. I remember when I signed, and I remember it's clear as day, and I think, you know, and I was a bit shocked after when I spoke to a few people, let me take you back to that moment when I signed my oath, when I joined the military at the age of 17. Just turned 17, I actually signed up at 16, back end of 16, and then joined when I was 17, and I signed the I put my hand on the Bible, swore to the oath, swore to protect Queen at the time and country, and I can remember when I signed away, and we were in a room and all saying I wrote and reading it, you know, putting our hand up, and when I signed this sense of pride, rather 17 year old. Just, I remember it so vividly, and I was just like, What responsibility I'm I'm serving my queen and my country, you know, patriotism, just, and I remember after that, and I was a bit sort of not let down by saying to the guy, oh, that was amazing. And they're like, What was amazing? And I was like, just signing that, did you not feel goosebumps? And they're like, No, they were just going through the motions and, you know, but that moment of, I always go back to that, and I think to myself, wow. And I had that goosebump moment again when I decided, You know what, I'm going to run, because rather than serve my Queen and Country, now I'm going to serve my capital and my people. You know, this is a whole different category now I've sort of suppressed this community, and, you know, I feel like it's a lot more manageable. I feel like it's a lot more feasible. I feel like, you know, I'm not just a cog here, you know, now that cog has grown throughout my career, but now I can, you know, I'm ready to penetrate London. I'm ready to really make a change, and to prioritize our culture, to prioritize our capital city, and to prioritize the people within it, whether they're visitors, whether they're, you know, citizens, whether you know, whether they're looking to work there. You know, it's I just feel this sense to serve. And I said this to my wife, and she's so supportive. She's the backbone of our family. I said this to my wife, who said, I'm not gonna convince you that I haven't seen that look in your eyes since you went to Afghanistan. And she what she said to me, because I was, you know, scagging to get out to Afghanistan. I get back and I just like, I need to get back out there. And why? I just because they're out there, Emily I need to get if they're out there, I need to be there. And I've been trained to the highest order. You know, I'm, you know, in my head, I'm a shit hot operator, you know, you know, I'm a point man. I'm, you know, I'm first man for the you know, no one, I believe, no one can do that job better than me. So why is? Why is? Why are other people putting their lives at risk and maybe not wanting to do that job, get me out there, right? And it's exactly the same when it comes to London. It's just like, right? And the sacrifice that I'm making, and, you know, and again, it goes back to making the sacrifice of giving the ultimate sacrifice for Queen and Country. I still feel that same sacrifice now, because I'm going to have. To sacrifice a lot in order to take this position
Peter McCormack
well, so you got you're going from in the army, where you were risking your life, now you're going to risk your way of life, absolutely. And I, yeah, I've had a similar conversation my girlfriend recently, on my birthday, we went out and she was saying, Why do you want to do it? Get similar? I'm a couple of years older than you. Probably similar ish financial position. Don't need to do this. And she was saying to me why I was like, I don't think you understand, in some ways, it's like a burden on me, and I feel a duty. And I said, I kind of feel like I don't have a choice, because, if not me, who? So what was it saying, If not me, who? And
Ant Middleton
I know that there's no better person to do this from a leadership standpoint, because people are, yeah, but you're not a politician. I'm like, that's one of the things I need to do, is strip politics out of that position. Now, the Metropolitan Police are being used as a political tool our law and order, you know, political tool our justice system is, you know, it's all coming out of London. Let's be honest. Where is it coming out? Where's the example city of the UK? What did everyone look to London?
Peter McCormack
Fix the country? You thinking, That's London becomes the signal. 100% it does. Yeah, 100% it does. And when you don't need the money, yeah, that's you don't need the money. It's like when you said earlier, you said violence and freedom, like having Fuck you, money puts you in a position where you don't have to compromise your values. Because a lot of these politicians, they want to work their way through the benches, and then they want to get their board position afterwards, or they become a minister. They need the money. If you lose your if you lose your seat in politics, you're in a very sticky, tricky situation, so you can't always operate with integrity, but if you don't need the money.
Ant Middleton
But also my wife, you know, she's a great sounding board, and you sort of hit the nail on the head when you said, you know, talking, why do you need to do it? It's not a case that I need to do it, but I believe that the next mayor of London needs to be a leader. Not so much a politician. Needs to be a leader. We're a team of SMEs around him or her, as in subject matter, experts, you know, a team of individuals and myself as a leader when it comes to safety and security, which I think is the primary sort of property that everyone wants you make. You make an environment safe and secure. People start to enter that environment. They start to trust within that environment. They start to bring their families, they start to bring their businesses, they start to spend money. And the reverse is true, and the reverse is 100% Well, the reverse is happening, right? You know, you look at, you look at the three points of trust that a government should give you right. Three points of trust that government should give you is, you should trust the government with your personal safety. Do you trust the government your personal safety? Yeah, there's the answer. Do you trust the government with your personal
Peter McCormack
health? You can just start with me and just say, do you trust the government?
Ant Middleton
There's three pillars, but there's three main pillars here that you want to be working on in London, right? Pete, which is really important. Do you trust them with your personal safety? No. Okay, so you went to the camp, you can help. You don't even feel safe in the camp. Do you trust them with your personal health, knowing that if you get injured, if you get you can't even, can't even get a doctor's appointment, you know they're forcing shit into your bodies. When it comes to vaccination, when it comes to fucking prescribed medication, they're fucking making zombies out of us. The third one, do you trust the government or your personal finances?
Peter McCormack
All right, three easy answers of that, personal finances? No, I keep my money in Bitcoin health. I have private healthcare because they're so fucking useless and safety. And we've just finished a pilot project where we live in Bedford. We put private security into our town center. I know if you heard about this, but every Saturday for three months as a pilot, which then extended to some Sundays, we put 10, I paid for 10 security guards to be in the town because we had drug addicts, alcoholics scattered around the town. They were shoplifting. They were screaming at shoppers. They're making everyone's life a misery. Like, I think I have personally been the sovereign response to the failure of the state where I live in my life. I don't fucking trust them with anything. Like, I think you go, I think every part is a question I keep asking to people because I went through a journey of being somebody who would defend the state. You know, we need government. Blah, blah. I now think of it as a natural monopoly, but I come across status who argue back, we need the government. I say name, just give me one thing that's got better because of government. In the last 25 years, I still haven't had one person give me anything. There's no answer. Education has got worse. I mean, do you see this stuff this week about one of the school trusts they were teaching kids that, if that reformer or fascist party seen it? Yeah. So they've. Have gutted the defense, which obviously would be something that bother you. They can't control the borders. The NHS is a complete failed sacred turd. Every single thing they aim control of they failed. They failed every single direction. And it's the Conservatives and the Labor Party. So I don't trust them in anything.
Ant Middleton
And this is, you know, this is why myself as a team leader, you know, you know, going back to what I do, team building, team bonding. This is team building, team bonding. 101, you know you I'm almost, you know, coming to my camp, right? Do you trust your safety? No. Trust you your health? No, do you trust me with your personal finance? No, what you're gonna do? You're gonna leave the fucking camp, right? Hence, you know, let's talk about the money that's coming, the eye watering, astronomical amount of money that's leaving London, right? Of course, you're going into the camp. Well, what? No, do I feel safe here? No. Normally two out of those three. If you get two out of those three, and you go, do you know what personal safety? I feel sort of safe here, personal health, not really, but I can go private, personal finances, yet, two out of those three, these three pillars of trust, which is really important, you can go, do you know what? I'm gonna stay in this camp, and I'm gonna make it work, because I'm gonna flip that third one into a positive they're failing on all three of these metrics, that builds communities, that builds trust, that builds unity, that builds, you know, businesses, that builds families, you know, you name it. So did you see real family? Keeping it simple like this is what people understand and what I will implement within London. First and foremost, I want
Peter McCormack
to talk to you about cape. Now. We're all taking security seriously in these modern days. Not only do we lock our front doors, but we're all using VPNs and encrypted messengers, but our cellular carrier still knows everything about us now AT and T Verizon and T Mobile, they've all been caught selling or leaking our data. Now this is where Cape comes in. Cape is a privacy first mobile carrier built by experts in cyber security and national security. Now they're not going to ask you for your name, your address or your social security number, whatever little data they record about you, they delete it anyway. Cape protects you from SIM swaps, location tracking and even voicemail hacking, and with features like sim swap protection, enhanced signaling security and encrypted voicemail, it is privacy from the SIM card up. Cape is a premium cellular service without all the surveillance. Now, if you want to try Cape out, you can get 33% off for the next six months. All you have to do is head over to Cape dot CEO, forward slash Peter cape, the carrier built for privacy. Do you see what Rio Ferdinand said yesterday? He was on yesterday, he's moved to Dubai. Moves to Dubai. He's on LBC, yeah. He just came out and said, Yeah. The reason people like me are leaving is not to just avoid tax. People think it's that is that our tax is going towards everything. Nothing's working. And that's what our taxes is being pissed away. And that's every wealthy person I know. They mind paying tax. Do you know what if this country was pointing in the right direction and things were getting better, and Rachel reef comes out and said, Look, we need to have two people more. I'd hate it, but I pay it. I double my council tax. I'll pay it, but they're pissing it all away. It's just what he said. But things, yeah, that's what Rhea said, but things have fallen apart, going wrong. Did you sit there and go, Well, I'm paying all this tax, but it's really in going towards the things that benefit the people that live here. And that's a big question that needs answering. I think a lot of us need the answer to that.
Ant Middleton
I mean, they say speaking to the people, that's high level, sort of generalized, this is what you This is, yeah, this is why, you know, it's but then you obviously dig a lot deeper into that. It goes, you know, but people are breaking shovel that down, yeah, of course, yeah. But they're doing it because of those that's an element. Of you know him giving his money away, paying his taxes and working Rio would have done he's got a big family like myself, and he would have done what I done, day on day off for the government, working day for the government, day off, 50% plus tax. You know, when it comes to day on day on day off, I don't mind working. Let's say I have a working week. Pete, I don't mind working one day for the government, paying 20% I would quite happily swallow that up and go, do you know what? I'll work a day for the government. I've got five kids, got a big family, I've got business to run. I do a day for the government, and I work four days for myself and the family that I don't mind doing. Corporation tax, it jumped from 20% to 25% not didn't go up half a percent, 1% no one fucking murmured a word. There were no protests on the streets. There was no uproar. There was no being the tolerant. Going back to what you said the tolerant, accepting Brits, you know, we just swallowed that up. I was looking around going, it's gonna kick off. It's gonna they put the corporation tax up 5% this isn't one nothing. And I was just like, well, if we, if we've lost, but you know, why? Lost the internal fight for our businesses and for our families, because ultimately, that's what it is. And for, you know, for our homes, then we're so distracted. We must be so distracted with external bullshit, and it all is all external, you know, again, pro Palestine, working Ukraine. We're so distracted with external bullshit that went that they come in and they go, boom, put the dagger in your side. We'll have that blood out of
Peter McCormack
you. But you know, what? Do you know why there wasn't a massive uproar on that? Tell me 20% because it goes back to what Reagan said. There are no corporate taxes. Every every increase our tax on a company is passed on to the consumer. And so when they put 5% or five percentage points on corporation tax, they just raise their prices, and we end up paying more, but our wages never keep up. And so that's why they did the National Insurance rise, but that gets passed on to the consumers, correct? Okay, if it can be, you know, you might be a small business owner. I can't fucking do this. My customers can't pay anymore, but they always get passed on to the consumers. So there's no, there's no real Corporation taxes.
Ant Middleton
But also, you look at, you look at just those percentages, you know, people say, Oh, I own a company. I'm like, No, you don't I say, the government own a quarter of your company. They own a quarter of Yeah, but I'm the majority shareholder. When we break it down into business lingo, I'm the majority shareholder. I said, I think you'll disagree with that. What you do? You raise and you work your whole year. You raise an invoice to your silent partner, who then takes the invoice and goes, No. Rework that. That's not enough. You then resubmit an invoice to your silent partner who owns a quarter of your company. And if you don't pay that, they can take your whole company, you know, so they actually own the company. They can take your whole company with all of your assets that's attached to that company. So from a business perspective, you don't own, you're not the majority shareholder of your company. You're not You're not the overruling voice, you're actually working for a government, you know, busting your balls. That's the single most stressful process, is tax returns. But that's what destroys businesses. That's what destroys families, arguments within family, the stress of, I mean, the accountants, the accountants are there just, you know, fucking to raise that invoice at the end of the year, and then to throw it back at you, then to pay it, and then to go, Oh, no. Actually, you are a small Well, I can't pay it. Well, listen, I'm gonna take all of your fucking company. I'm gonna take all of your assets. That's what I say to people. Do you realize what you're signing up to when you start a business in the UK? So not only have they got fifth of your business, now they've got a quarter of your business. It doesn't matter if they had a 10th for your had attempt for your business. They would be the overall deciding factor, whether you keep your company in your assets, you know, if you, even if you get something wrong, I said, now they're going right. We've got caught the business. Soon it'd be bloody 30% as soon it's just a breakdown of that is just, you look at it and you go, from a business perspective, you go, fucking how I've got, I've got a raw deal here. So no wonder people are going as well. People are like that. Well, listen, I can go and literally own my own company abroad, pay no tax or lit very little of and which everyone, any decent businessman, Pete, wants to contribute to society. They actually don't mind paying tax,
Peter McCormack
but it's there's multiple taxes where people don't even realize. This is why, when I get in the argument with the socialists, I say this, we're a socialist country. Say, No, we're not. It's not like China. It's not like Soviet the government doesn't know I was like, it's backdoor socialism. They own us. They own us through regulation and tax. Station but there's multiple essential taxes. I consider the amount I spend, over 100 grand a year with my accountants, across my businesses. That's a tax. Is a tax because 100% because I have to do it, to provide it, the HR money I now have to spend, that's another tax because of all the employment regulation, the energy costs we're paying is a tax, because the energy costs are a choice. We have the highest energy costs in the world, so we'll be being hit in every direction. I mean, so hard to make money. Something like this is easy bottom but when you're running a hospitality business, you're just scraping by. You're literally scraping by to pay for the government. And and this is what a lot of people actually missing. It's why I'm like you just need to understand that all this too much government, it's not working for any of us.
Ant Middleton
But then you use the you use your limited company to your advantage, which 1000s of companies did, 1000s of companies did during the pandemic, liquidate them, which you're in your that's why you open up a limited company. That's, you know, you can, you can do that legally. You can do that in your favor. Fuck me. You do that against the government, then you're alienated. You are car it's like, well, no, that's why I got a limited company. That's why I didn't put stuff in my name. Because I've got the ability that if things go wrong, if there's a global pandemic, even though we wouldn't even think about that beforehand. But if something goes wrong and I can't afford to, then I have the legal right to liquidate a company and to go through the process of shutting that company down, paying off a bit of the tax, and then a way fuck me. Try going through that process being in the limelight. It's almost like, no, I'm legally allowed to do it. So you're legally allowed to take everything from me. That's absolutely fine, and then I'm in the bad anyway. But when I make the company work to my advantage with the legal routes and policies that I'm allowed to implement, I'm alienated anyway. Yeah, exactly. So you're on to a lose situation when you when you open up a business here in the UK.
Peter McCormack
So how do you win? Because I know a lot of no question, mate, there is a large group of people who likes it, he can't. There are large group of people who stand the guy
Ant Middleton
who's the large group of you that likes it. Can't tell me, because I fail to, I fail to see
Peter McCormack
it. A lot of leftists like him. They will vote for him as a leftist because he's a leftist. But there's also, I think what's more interesting, what I'd like to talk about more. There's a lot of people who cannot stand him correct, who can't understand what's happened to London. I mean, I was watching a video the other day, and it was some young lad who jumped the barriers. Somebody filmed him jumping the barriers and not paying his to get on the underground. And the guy started filming him. The kid was talking, you know, are you mad? Are you mad? And there's a lot of people just fed up with this shit, just absolutely sick of it. But winning is hard. You know, you're going into a battle to win against a tough guy, like a well supported guy here. Like, how do you win? It? Is it as an independent? Is it with a party, as an independent? I mean, I've considered that as hard as an independent. Like, how do you go and do this out it is,
Ant Middleton
but the time is right for it. Mate, don't know if you looked at the stats, but I think, like 55% even up to 60% of Londoners did not vote. So it's getting people voting, so it's getting people out. And also, there's, there's a level of corruption. You know, everyone on top of the table, but you got to fight fire with fire, there's a level of corrupt, the level of dealings that happen under the table that I'm fully aware of from a voting perspective. I'm fully aware of from a from a balloting you know, there's, there's a gameplay. So the campaign isn't just about, oh, this is, these are my policy. This is what I'm going to do. You know, it's about throwing a fucking shit ton of money certain angles, certain aspects of the campaign, which you go right? Talk about delegation, right. Talk about a leader bringing SMEs on board, you know, subject matter experts to in whatever field that is PR, you know, voting. It's about having the finances, the back, financial backing and the support to be able to go, right? You go and deal you're working under the table here. You know, these three groups, you're working under the table, right? These two groups you're going to work with me on this. There's, you have to be really clever and strategic. Let me tell you what politics is. Politics is military strategies. But instead of weapons, they use words. But the strategies that I see, that I see them so clearly, Pete, and when I mean so clearly, I'm like. That's a smoke and mirrors strategy, that's a distraction strategy, there's a fucking explosion gone on over there. Do I look over there? Do I fuck I'm over there? I'm on the other flank. Because I know what's happening. I know all these tactics. I know all these strategies. And when you look at politics, it is military strategies, 101, but just, they've taken the weapons out, and they're using words, and they're very clever with their words. And this is, this is the battle as well that I'm going to have to fight, because I'm used to fighting battles. Let's call it with weapons right now. I have to actually fight my battles with my words. And I'm probably, you know not to finesse at the moment, let's say you've got to be more precise, more precise and more but also you got to keep your cards very close to your chest. A lot of people are saying, what your policies then I'm like, I'm not going to tell you. My policies are so good. I believe they're so good that if you go, Oh, here's my cards all of a sudden when it comes to campaigning, oh, we're doing this, we're doing this. We're doing them like, you know, I don't want to give the game plan away, but you're talking about playing the game. Then, no, because you'd be seen to play the game, is what you got to do, right? You've got to be seen to play the game absolutely and again, without giving too much away. But the game is underneath the table, the fights going on underneath here, mate. This is, this is the game. This is the stage. This is the, you know, this is the theater. This is what we're doing. These are all the prim and proper words. These are all the proper tactics. These are all the political policies that are going through underneath here. That's where the fucking battle is. But a lot of people, they don't even think about that. They think, Oh, I've got to work on the table here. I've got, you know, everything. It's like, trust me, 80% of it, even more than that, is happening underneath the table. So if you're, if you're cute, and you're aware of putting out Splinter Cells underneath the table to work simultaneously with your show that you're doing on this theater here, on the platform, on the stage, then that's that's what needs to be done. That's what I'm going to implement. And if the opposition, or, you know, the enemy know about this, then they're going to be, trust me, you got to stay one step ahead, not necessarily here. You just got play the game here. You got to stay one step ahead underneath there, because their counter was something I guarantee I know already, a smearing campaign has already started with myself, right? The word is out there. I'm running for Mayor of London at the moment. Independently, you mentioned a political party. Is there a strategy along the way that will boost my campaign? Is there political alignments that I could jump onto? Absolutely. Am I going to tell people about that? No, because I'm going to fucking hit them with it hard. I mean, I'm all in, mate. I'm all in. Do you know
Peter McCormack
a guy called Curtis jarvin? No, we interviewed him. Sorry. We released two episodes with him, but that's not the one. I'd recommend. He did one with Tucker Carlson. It's worth a watch because there's a couple of things that you've said I think, mean, you would find that interesting. So he's, he's kind of anti he's an anti democracy. He thinks democracy he thinks democracy has failed. I don't understand. Agree with him, but from that, he moves forward and talks about, government should be run like a company, and you essentially need a CEO, and when you've talked about you with your SMEs, yeah, it's similar, a similar language. But the other thing he talks about is, and again, certain
Ant Middleton
extent that's correct. Yeah, absolutely. Subject expert, absolutely.
Peter McCormack
But the other thing you mentioned earlier is when you talked about you don't want to have division, which I get, and I question myself and then sometimes. But he said, politics is not about compromise or debate. It's about power. It's just about power. You have to go out and you have to like, almost like what Donald Trump has done. It was all about power and dominating your opponents and winning through power. I think you'd, I think you did. I think you certainly enjoy the interview.
Ant Middleton
I think power is a wretched thing. It distracts, it's,
Peter McCormack
he's not talking about the abuse of power, yeah, one yeah bit that was a tool to dominate your opponent to win.
Ant Middleton
Yeah, I can understand that, but you haven't really got true power until you're in that position. So it's almost being smart and clever to work your way towards power. Because if I was going to tell you everything that I would implement when I'm in power, there. And that would probably ruin my campaign, or it would, you know, create division where people go, Oh, that's, you know, so and again, you're only as powerful as you want to be when you're in that position. And this is what was really sort of intriguing about power, is like, right now, I've got zero power, you know, I've got I'm talking to the people. I'm voicing my interests. I'm voicing certain policies. It's passion right now. It's passion, it's patriotism. It's, you know, people can see that what they do is that it's hope. At the moment, people are hanging on to hope. If I could tell you the amount of messages that come through saying and you've actually, you're giving me hope if you get in and I'm going to move back to London. So hope overpower right now, and I think that's really important how you how you manage that hope. Because ultimately, what you're doing is you're you're manipulating and playing with people's feelings and mindset, and that can never be mistrusted or misguided. But when they see that you're passionate about it, regardless of your knowledge, when they see that you're passionate and you know, it's coming from the fucking heart, right? That's where you touch people's hearts. That's where hope fucking really comes to the forefront. So at the moment, I can see what you mean about power. But at the moment is, it's mine. Is quite a pure approach. It comes from passion. It comes from patriotism. It comes from you know, people. You know. This is another thing as well, mate like you. My feet, my ears on the ground, my I can hear the screams. I can hear the fucking cries for help. I can feel the fucking vibrations of the vibrations getting more and more violent. We're on tender hooks right now, and people say to me, I'll be close to a civil war. And I'm like, No, we're close to sit we're in civil unrest to a civil war? No, because you know that needs to be managed in a way and done in a correct manner. However, it could be easily structured in a way where civil war could be implemented with the right people backing it. So again, you know this is, this is another territory that is very vulnerable at the moment, but with the right orders given to the right people, to the right crowd, then that where that could be a lot more easily implemented right now as we sit here face to face, and it would have been a year
Peter McCormack
ago. Well, like I said, I mean, I'm only a couple of years older than you. I was born in 78 I've never known a time like this.
Ant Middleton
Yeah, it's, it's crazy, yeah, but it's crazy. Mate is crazy, but it's needed. I think we had, we needed to get to this in order. If I would have said 10 years ago, I'm running for Mayor of London, they're going fuck off and stick to your fucking filming, right? You know your next special VA Great. What you do, teamwork, team building. You know positive mindset. You know your mindset, sort of mentor. Stick to that. Stick to what you're best at. But now you know, 10 years on saying that I'm running for Mayor of London, that's and people supporting and backing and actually going, actually, this could work. That's where we've got to in such a short amount of time. Do you think, for you so that speaks volumes for itself about the fragility and the change the dress is Not just change, the drastic change that people want.
Unknown Speaker
You very
Unknown Speaker
Do you think for you so you
Peter McCormack
had, you had, you had your period, we were in the forces, then you had your period where you're making TV, and now you're in this period now where you're going to run for mayor. Was there almost something missing during the period where you're filming?
Ant Middleton
Yeah, no, do you know what? Because when I was doing, when I'm doing my filming, so I'm still very much in my filming, you know, I'm filming a new series of, let's call it SAS Dubai. So through my own production company in the UAE. You know, we're 10 years in now, since the first. Series. So, yeah, sort of like a 10 year anniversary, and that's it's going to blow in the UAE, like it did in the UK when I was involved, like it did in Australia when I was involved. But now, you know, I own a brand new, revamped format running for my production company is going to be OSN. Have commissioned it, our center, like the biggest sort of platform in the Middle East, is going to go out to 22 regions across the Middle East. So it's a big commitment. But when I look the reason why I love doing SAS and why I always go back to it, even after the channel four sort of nonsense that happened. And, you know, people like and just separate yourself from the franchise. It's obviously gone really toxic, really woke, really, you know, you know, that sort of whole sort of era of when wokeness sort of just landed on the table overnight. I was like, no, because what the recruits get out of that, the tools that I give them to for them to come become a better version of themselves, and then for them to change their lives, that's I'm providing a service, you know? I'm giving them my knowledge, my experience, yeah, through tough love, if you look at it, through me just running a boot camp, and you just see me screaming and shouting as a disciplinarian, then you're you're probably just watching mundane TV. You know, you switched off from work, and you're just like, this is sort of, you don't have to think about it. People are just getting thrashed. But when you look deep into that show, and what I do as a as an instructor, as a mentor is, I make people realize what they're capable of, right? And that's a powerful tool. When you make people realize what they're capable of, and the proof is in the pudding. You know, look at all the recruits I've taken through. I challenge you to go and find one of them that says that I haven't changed their outlook on life. You know, the people that have got towards the back end of the course. And it's that service mate, it goes back to that service, serving people. And this is, this is the biggest calling, is going back to serve the people, my people, of my country, of my capital. So there's nothing missing in between, because it's great to revisit that.
Peter McCormack
It's all service, so isn't it, but it's all service. But there's an interesting contradiction with what we've got from our political elite over this last 2030, years in that you're you spend a lot of time kind of not accepting bullshit, calling people out and making them, as you said, realize what they're capable of. We've kind of done the opposite in our country. We've we've made people realize what the they can complain about. And we've kind of done the opposite,
Ant Middleton
yeah, it has gone we are in, like, victim culture, decline, victim culture, victim mentality,
Peter McCormack
like, how would you deal with someone coming in with a victim mentality? To you,
Ant Middleton
I put them through a process, a process of accountability, yeah, being honest with themselves. I'd sit them down first and foremost, and I'd hear them out. And what I take from that conversation is, oh, poor me. This happened to me, you know, it's because of this. It's because of that. And then I'd completely flip the next session into tell me what shit about you, because I'm gonna do it if you don't, what? Well, tell me your faults, because all you've told me about is how your heart done by you know, you're entitled to this. This has happened to you, not because of you. There's a whole process that I would go through and again on SAS, it's great because I've got them for 10 days, I see that straight from the off, right? Their attitude, their demeanors. Hence why we get them in talk to them is, if you can be completely honest with yourself, which is the most courageous thing you can do? Pete, people say to me, what's the bravest thing that you've ever done? And I go back to a moment where I just tore myself apart, you know, I found myself isolated. No one wanted to work with me. No one wanted to be around me. This was when I was very young, when I first joined the military, you know, I just wanted to be the best at everything, and I was, I got best recruit, best PT, but I tread over your fucking head to get to that fucking trophy, right? So ultimately, then when I got to my unit, and still, like, you know, front of the runs, I wasn't pushing people behind me, you know, it's just like, boom, boom. Thank you. Medals, medals, trophies. Then you find yourself isolated. No one wants to work with you, no one wants to be around you. Then people feel threatened. And you know, so when I sat down, I remember sort of sitting down the step, thinking, why are fucking people getting promoted over me? Why are people going on the courses that I want? Why am I sat by myself and I strip. Myself because you're a fucking egotistical twice. You want to be the fucking best at everything. You're willing to fucking you know you're in you're in the army, and there's meant to be the ultimate teamwork, the ultimate unity, the ultimate coming together, but yet you're willing to fucking tread on everyone, to fucking push them out the way, to get to the finish line first. And I remember ripping myself apart and going, fucking hell, need to fucking get my ego in check. Maybe don't be the best at everything, but try and be the best at your job. You know, try and be the best, best teammate you can be. You know, when I ripped myself apart and it was so hard to do because you want to bat it off and you want to, but the problem is right there, right there, in front of you to be solved. And if you can go through that process of every now and then, and you have to do it consistently, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. You subconsciously do it. I debrief myself all the time, fucking. I could have done that. Yeah, maybe I was a bit harsh on that, or I didn't listen to him. I should have listened to him, because actually, he's right about what he said there. Now, you know, my ego took away all my, you know, my pride of being a leader sort of came into play. But I need to get that in check. I need to put this in check and when you can do that to yourself, you know what the flip on that is, you have no problem being calling people out and doing it to other people, because I know they can come at me. Then I can go, yeah, do you know what you're right about that? Yeah, I did. Did did approach that one? I get it all the time, man, you voiced that a bit wrong. And I look about, I go, Yeah, do you know what I did? What do you what do you recommend? Maybe talk, you know, do it like this and this and this? Or your approach towards leadership and where you were going? No, let's just get through it. It's like, whoa. Take a step back. Listen to listen to your, to your muckers. So like an excellence with our ego, yeah, next, but ego now, the ego is really important. It's needed. The excellence with your ego in check with you and check, yeah, yeah, that's it. And it's all almost as well as that. You know, the people talk about the pursuit of excellence, you know, you get to that excellence. And then, because, I think it's very important that you realize that it's not just a pursuit of excellence. You can get to that excellence. You know, people who function high function operators of whatever they do, they've reached that excellence, hence why they're in the top tier of what they do. Then after that, it's just about fine tuning, it and it's the fine tuning there's not as next stage the fine tuning is that, what have I learned today? How can I do better? How can I be better? How can I take a 0.1% out today and put it in there to progress in a way that that's working, where the trajectory is just on a slight incline and not on a not on a downward slope. But can that bring it in a piece with it? No, it. Bring it. Brings it in a in a motivation, okay, yeah, and in a motivation to be better. So my but what,
Peter McCormack
I'm sorry, can I just go back to that? Because what I mean by that is, when you talked about your early days, you wanted to win everything you know. And you kind of ended up isolated, yeah. If you, if you can avoid the isolation, it becomes a more peaceful progression of excellence, rather than a,
Ant Middleton
I don't know, it does. Then a burden, no, it does. But then you're sort of, you know, you're having to put in the hard work to change those aspects of you know, because that's they're just naturally been, you know, whether you how you've been brought up, how that, you know, that's been ingrained into you. So you're going against that fucking grain. So it's, you know, and I'm thinking, I know I've got to do this, but I want to, I want to be the first through that finish line, you know. So it's, it's, there is an element of peace once you succeed as a team, as a collective, as a group, and but there's always that fight against who you naturally are, what's naturally in your DNA, you know? It's almost like there's a little grind on the on the stone, if that makes sense. So it's, it's, you know what it is becoming at peace with that, I suppose. Yeah, so there is, when you look at it like that, but it's fucking hard work, mate. It's but then I look at things that are hard work, and I think to myself, well, going back to the old saying, you know, if it was easy, everyone would be doing it, right? And this process that I go through, people talk about, you know, what's your purpose? And you know, I don't have an external purpose. I have external goals, and I have external milestones that I want to get to, but my internal purpose, which I absolutely love, that I will never achieve is to become the best version of who I can be, knowing that I never get there, because the moment you get there, you reach perfection, and that doesn't exist, doesn't exist. So I'm constantly chasing that fucking carrot, you know, take. Little near knowing that I never be able to grab it on becoming a better version of who I am, and that's a lifelong process that will never end until I take my last breath, but I never get there.
Peter McCormack
Has your wife ever like, just have a day off?
Ant Middleton
Yeah, she does, but it's, it's one of those, you know, we've got such a good relationship myself and my wife, because she's like, you know, she loves just being with the children and, you know, watching them grow, and really, you know, looking after the family unit. I love when I finish working. Now I'm fully in with the family, but she's very good at looking me in the eye and going, like the Mayor of London stuff. She said to me, this is like being back in the gonna be like going back in the military? And I said, Yes. And she went, Well, you do realize, you know, when you're in the military, you prioritize the military. And I did, no. I hate to say it, I'm being honest with myself now I prioritize the military over my family, and I had to, I had no choice. They told me I was going to Afghan I'm going to Afghanistan, even though I was volunteering for shit as well. But you know, if my wife said, Oh, come home now, but no, I've got to go, you know, so the priorities were with that, and it's last 10 years, I've managed to prioritize my family. And yeah, I just looked at and I said, Yes, it's bigger than, bigger than us, darling, it's bigger than the family.
Peter McCormack
Yes, it is. Looking at my son,
Ant Middleton
it's, it's, it's bigger than, is bigger than, than us. And she but she's so good and support, and she's like, go and do what you need to do. You we're here is and is it because, one,
Peter McCormack
you've got a great wife. She's great mother. You know, the kids are going to be fine. Yes, mate, so important. But is it? I'm wondering if it's a similar thought I've had, it's all those other kids who aren't going to be fine, who haven't got it, they're not set up. They might not have a dad around. They their parents are struggling to get by. There's like, you know, your kids are fine. It's those millions of others that maybe you can help shift part of the world, part of this country, to make it better for them. 100 and
Ant Middleton
yeah, also the screams and the cries, yeah, 100% screams and the cries and the calls for help that you hear, or the lack thereof, when you look and you go, do you know you're not even asking for you? This is just normal for you. It's like, No, this is where. This is where. Again, I could sit on my hands and live my lovely life, but my moral compass does not allow me to do that, and that's why I know that regardless of the outcome, yeah, I will, I will put my everything into this, and it's coming from a pure of heart, and again, not of power, not of, you know, getting greed, not of, you know, Revenge, of wanting to get my capital back or service? Service?
Peter McCormack
Yeah, I'm so wondering what's going through your head at the moment. Connor, do you think your dad needs to go do SAS? That's for sure.
Ant Middleton
Yeah, mate, Listen, come over to Dubai. I'd be tempted thrash you in the desert. Yeah, I need to get rid of this mate that will get rid of that for you.
Peter McCormack
Yeah, I need to. I need a little bit more discipline in my life. I think I've had it too easy, mate. Listen, it's one of those
Ant Middleton
when you know, I say there's no growth in comfort and when you feel you know when you feel comfortable. You know when you when you're you know when you're getting complacent, you know when you're putting on weight. You know your body is a fucking phenomenal fucking computer that can answer every single question if you tap in the fucking white information, I be honest with yourself, and you can just boom, it's phenomenal. It's like, I wake up sometimes, you know, right? I need to go for a run. Just run up the stairs and be out right clear the lungs. You know, I listen to my body. People go, what's your training regime? I'm like, whatever my body tells me. You know, I go through moments of running. I go through moments like, right now, yeah, I've shifted 10 kilograms, and I'm, I'm looking skinny as hell. And I'm going through the process of, like, doing military circuits, of sweating out every morning, of, you know, CV cardio. I'm not worried about muscular build or, you know, then probably in, you know, in a few months time, I'll get out. I'm looking a bit skinny now. I'm gonna start hitting the big weights again. You know, I just listened to my body because it cannot. The beautiful thing about the human body mate is that it can. You cannot lie to yourself, right? You can lie to yourself, therefore you'll live a lie. But you cannot lie to yourself, because the truth is here and you. You know, you can ignore it, you can fucking bat it off. You can try and suppress it, you can try and hide it, but it will always come to the fucking forefront. And if you don't fucking deal with it, manage it and again and action it, then you know you're just gonna live on fucking autopilot and you're gonna live a lie. That's what I say to people. Lie to yourself. You're gonna live a lie, and the only person that can find you out
Peter McCormack
is yourself. Yeah, and the older you get, the more true that
Ant Middleton
becomes fucking true, mate. Listen, don't get me wrong, there's something that I got off, but, you know, I've got to a stage in my life where I'm just, if I if it, if I fucking dread doing it, then I'm just like, fucking do it. And because it's like, you know, just get it out the way. Get it done. You know, you know, you can put it off as much as you can, but that fucking dread, you know, is still going to be there, still going to be there. And that's when you ultimately, if you ignore that's when you live with regrets.
Unknown Speaker
Yeah, anything you want to ask
Peter McCormack
on man in the moment, I think you should do. SES, can't get that fucker out of the bed in the summer mornings. He's good. He's good. He's a hard worker. You know, he keeps me in check more than most people.
Ant Middleton
Yeah, do you know what? I've got a son. I've got three sons and two daughters. But my son, he's 16. He goes to Millfield. He's a keen school, yeah, and he's five foot 10, you know, my, you know, he's like this. He's, you know, he's just an car, you know, where I've been training him for the last sort of three to four years, when he's 13, so, and just seeing that development and, you know, and you say about keeping it, yeah, them keeping you in check. He's like, he's getting to the point now where I'm like, Dad, you want to hit the gym? And I'm like, do you want to go for a run?
Peter McCormack
Well, you wait till I mean, yeah, Connor's in his 20s now, and he it really, it really gets to me sometimes, because I'm not very good at handling it, but he keeps me in check. Yeah, and he will say, right now, this is probably sound like patronizing, but it's actually a compliment, like he's probably, there's nobody more honest to me than that, and then him, that's what, that's what.
Ant Middleton
You know, he's you, he's you got, you got DNA is all through you. It structures you know you're gonna have that fucking bond for the rest of your life. Yes, it's and it's, again, holding each other accountable is the purest and most truthful form of life. It's fucking brilliant. I love it. I love it. It's uncomfortable. But then you fucking embrace that uncomfortableity And you make it work for
Peter McCormack
you. Well, maybe we'll come out and do SAS.
Unknown Speaker
Be careful what you wish for, mate, be careful what you wish
Peter McCormack
for. Probably need it look good luck, man. Thank you. Yeah, good luck with the running for mayor. I think Sadiq Knoll is a fucking moron. I think is an embarrassment of this country. I think he lacks courage conviction. I think it's bullshit accountability. I think it's a bullshit ability. I think I love, I love London. I think it's the best city in the world. And I know I'm biased, and I'm not from London. I live in Bedford, but I love it.
Ant Middleton
That's a motivation mate. I don't feel the energy that I used to feel when I come into London. I don't feel the motivation. There needs to be a mindset shift, and there needs to be, you know, I need to re motivate, which I'm good at, right? Talk about team building, team bonding on a bigger scale, right, which we spoke about. But the motivation is, well, I need to, we need to motivate Londoners. You know, where does the motivation come from? Where does it come from? Business, family, goals, milestones, whatever you want to call them. So that's something that we spoke about, that I'll implement. But just, you know, Remember the old saying, you know, the streets are paved in gold. Yep, I don't fucking feel that anymore. So I'm gonna bring that back, and bring that back through the energy that London once had, and through the motivation of wanting to be in London, that we once had. So, you know, this isn't just a case of making London safe and secure. I'm gonna fucking bring back the energy, whether that's through nightlife, whether that's through, you know, you just bring in, you know, that motivation that people go, God the moment I step into London, because I don't feel that anymore.
Peter McCormack
Well, if you talk to tourists coming in and their experience, it's not always great. I went out to Paris recently, and I was chatting to an American lady, and she'd come over, and she was off to Paris. She said, London doesn't feel like it used to. She said, I had a great time. I went shopping and went to the restaurants. But she said, Something's off. And so look, I wish you the best of luck. I hope you do it. I really do. And if we can do anything to help you, just reach out to us and come back on and talk to us when you're ready to talk about policy.
Ant Middleton
Absolutely, we'll be back on once. So once I get good traction, so I'm going to start hitting the ground running. You know, a couple of years out, Mayor elections aren't till May of 2028, so you know, you'll see me hitting the streets hard May of next year, two year run up to it. Obviously the last year is really scrutinized. That's when the budget scrutinized and everything that you do. So I'm going to make some good groundwork, putting some good ground groundwork before then, and just let people know that I'm there for them. This is, you know, I want to open up London back to its people. Want to make it affordable. Want to make it accessible. I want to make it safe. And I'm going to build the best team of SMEs around me to ensure that.
Peter McCormack
Well, good luck, man. Thanks, Pete, you're genuine. Cheers, man. Thank you. Thank you to everyone for listening. We'll see you all soon. You.
