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In this week’s London Calling, James and Toby discuss the QPR’s failure to reach the Championship play-offs, last week’s local election results (“Boring,” snorts James), Sinn Fein’s success in Northern Ireland and what that means for the future of the United Kingdom. Then there’s Keir Starmer’s announcement that he’ll resign if the Durham Police conclude he broke the rules during Beer-gate and Simon Kuper’s new book about how all Britain’s ills can be laid at the door at Toby and James’s generation of Oxford students.
They briefly take on America’s turmoil with the leak of the Supreme Court’s likely decision to reverse Roe v Wade, in which James thinks was a manufactured distraction of the Pfizer document dump.
In Culture Corner, we praise Slow Horses, condemn White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch and Toby continue to bang on about Ozark, but allow that it has probably come to the end of its natural life.
This week’s opening sound is of Labour Leader Kier Starmer promising to resign if cited.
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I beg to differ! Some of us are interested in the potential results of the UK elections.
It’s the main reason I listen to this podcast.
James is making me weary, though, with his dismissal of all things “normie” without ever justifying his POV with facts or an outline of who is doing what to keep us from seeing “what’s really going on.” But his approval of Putin is beyond understanding. He’s turning into a woke scold with his socks turned inside out.
If people aren’t interested in British politics at a pretty granular level, why on earth would they be listening to a show called London Calling?? I am in Australia, and it is why I listen.
I couldn’t agree more. I actually want to hear a considered explanation of what all these alternative explanations of the way things are. but the more time goes on, I feel like James knows that if he tries to explain it to a literate intelligent audience, it will sound ridiculous.
While I think everyone enjoys the banter between James and Toby, this week it felt more than usually like James is just being gratuitously insulting and disrespectful. There is a way to have a robust exchange of ideas, and then there is a jerk.
The former is entertaining and enlightening, the latter just makes me want to unsubscribe.
There’s granular and then there’s granular. For Americans the idea that local council elections portend changes in national politics is unheard of. Does that hold true in Australia?
I’m happy for LC and Ricochet that e-Snail is a sponsor (yay, capitalism!) and the story behind the company is indeed lovely. But, I mean, can’t you just, you know, mail a letter?
/curmudgeon
You know how it is these days; everything’s a hybrid.
Good to see you commenting Charlotte. I suppose just mailing a letter to too old-fashioned along with reading a print book and driving stick shift. Cheers!
I had not heard of “beergate” even though I listen to the BBC Newshour pretty much Monday through (or should that be thru) Friday. Somehow even though I’ve heard report after report about “partygate” I hadn’t heard anything about this on the BBC. Why could that be??? Good comments all around.
Perhaps not. Local government elections in Australia are less party political than other levels of government. Candidate aren’t able to identify their party affiliations.
This is not the case in the UK. It is reasonable to take the view that local government elections are much more informative than opinion polls, and therefore of interest to political boffins.
Because, if I wanted to send a letter to a relative in the UK, for example, it would take more than a week to get there. With services like e-Snail it could be there the next day. I think it is an excellent idea.