บทถอดความฉบับเต็มของ Pull a Whitey

actually on the 58 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:53.399 daily Skeptic, pointing out that not only do local firefighters in Roads blame arsonists 59 00:04:53.560 --> 00:05:00.839 and local officials in Corfu, but actually the number of forest fires in Europe 60 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:08.000 in twenty twenty three is not above average and NASA's satellite data shows that between 61 00:05:08.240 --> 00:05:13.079 two thousand and one and two thousand and fifteen, global forest fires declined by 62 00:05:13.079 --> 00:05:16.519 twenty five. Yeah, yeah, it's all I mean. And you have 63 00:05:16.600 --> 00:05:21.519 to ask yourself, are these just is Corfu and roads full of these just 64 00:05:21.639 --> 00:05:27.560 kind of rogue actors who just can't help but start fires, or do you 65 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:31.519 reckon that they're maybe being paid by the climate lobby? And I wouldn't go 66 00:05:31.560 --> 00:05:33.439 as far as that. I can see what I can. Why not? 67 00:05:34.079 --> 00:05:39.600 Why wouldn't you? I don't think do you think that? I suppose it's 68 00:05:39.639 --> 00:05:45.639 possible that they could be kind of free agents who are climate alarmists and are 69 00:05:45.680 --> 00:05:48.279 starting fires in order to kind of advance their agenda. But I would have 70 00:05:48.279 --> 00:05:56.959 thought that for you know, the IPPC or other arms of the climate change 71 00:05:57.000 --> 00:06:00.079 lobby to actually pay any of these people would be very us because the moment 72 00:06:00.120 --> 00:06:05.920 that got out there because you've made it wouldn't be the IPCC that has done 73 00:06:05.920 --> 00:06:10.439 it. It would be it would be the people who are making money out 74 00:06:10.480 --> 00:06:15.839 of out of carbon credits, out of out of winterurbines, out of all 75 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:19.480 all the the green industrial complex. I mean, then there are billions to 76 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:25.000 be made if not getting all for trillions, and so where money is at 77 00:06:25.040 --> 00:06:28.519 stake, they would be absolutely ruthless. And and don't forget this is part 78 00:06:28.600 --> 00:06:36.399 of the World Economic Forum's agenda that that that absent a fake pandemic, they're 79 00:06:36.399 --> 00:06:42.040 going to be pushing the climate agenda because it serves their interests. So like 80 00:06:42.120 --> 00:06:44.639 money would be no objects. So of course they're going to pay in the 81 00:06:44.680 --> 00:06:49.160 same way that just our oil are paid and extinction rebellion paid. They're all 82 00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:54.399 financed by the same groups. Yeah, I would have thought that it would 83 00:06:54.399 --> 00:06:58.519 just be too great a risk for any of those groups to actually pay anyone 84 00:06:58.600 --> 00:07:03.199 to start a forest fire, because if that was discovered then I mean, 85 00:07:03.240 --> 00:07:08.879 not only would they be liable for tens of millions of pounds possibly more, 86 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:14.279 but it would just completely discredit their cause. And I don't suppose they they 87 00:07:14.319 --> 00:07:17.519 have to. I'm sure these things just just just happen organically. But terms 88 00:07:17.600 --> 00:07:21.319 that would presuppose that the we had a media capable of doing its job, 89 00:07:21.360 --> 00:07:26.000 whereas the media is actually not interested in uncovering this stuff because the media is 90 00:07:26.000 --> 00:07:30.040 part of the problem. And that would presuppose that the court system was working, 91 00:07:30.079 --> 00:07:35.000 which it isn't That that these people are are not prosecuted because because the 92 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:42.399 our legal system is brought and paid for. Two. I think, I 93 00:07:43.600 --> 00:07:48.600 well, I prefer to think that members of the climate are for the most 94 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:54.560 part acting in good faith, just as come on, opponents are acting in 95 00:07:54.560 --> 00:08:01.120 good faith. And you're often your your accusations sound a bit like when they 96 00:08:01.120 --> 00:08:05.959 accuse us of being paid by big oil um, which is clearly ludicrous. 97 00:08:07.160 --> 00:08:11.959 That but that that's that's projection to be. Of course, of course, 98 00:08:11.399 --> 00:08:16.639 criminals always accused their enemies of the things that they're doing themselves as part of 99 00:08:16.639 --> 00:08:20.839 their coverup. That's how it works. I just I just think you're your 100 00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:24.639 your faith in authority, in the in the system, be at the media 101 00:08:24.759 --> 00:08:28.839 or the courts, whatever is is your fundamental problem that you're never gonna I 102 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:33.720 mean, I ton'tally understand this because when I was, you know, like 103 00:08:33.879 --> 00:08:37.240 you, I used to have faith in the system. I thought that, 104 00:08:37.519 --> 00:08:43.600 oh, yeah, journalists they cover without fear and favor, that they speak 105 00:08:43.600 --> 00:08:46.240 truth to power. Yeah right, I don't. I don't believe any of 106 00:08:46.279 --> 00:08:48.799 this anymore. And that and until you understand that and introduce these to trust 107 00:08:48.840 --> 00:08:56.039 authority, you will always be stuck in you'll always bind to the propaganda you're 108 00:08:56.320 --> 00:09:03.519 I mean, the way you're framing it, you're suggesting that if that that 109 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:11.440 that that my thinking that if climate lobbyists were paying people in Greece to start 110 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:22.639 fires betrays a naive faith in journalists to expose that. And that's naive because 111 00:09:24.039 --> 00:09:28.080 it would only be naive. I think if you think that all journalists have 112 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:31.519 essentially been captured, bought and paid for, and there are no honest reporters 113 00:09:31.519 --> 00:09:35.840 out there anymore, yes, it would only take a

handful I think for 114 00:09:35.200 --> 00:09:39.519 that kind of crime to be exposed. And I don't think whereas I think 115 00:09:39.559 --> 00:09:46.960 I you know, I don't disagree with you that perhaps most journalists aren't willing 116 00:09:46.000 --> 00:09:52.559 to interrogate the climate change agenda. I think there are still a few honest 117 00:09:52.639 --> 00:09:56.480 journalists out there, not least you and I James, who are prepared. 118 00:09:56.679 --> 00:09:58.960 If we were given if we were given this story, I think we'd publish. 119 00:10:00.799 --> 00:10:03.440 Suppose supposed the word is these, you know, and let's let's assume 120 00:10:03.480 --> 00:10:09.440 that there are these one or two honest journalists, about where would they get 121 00:10:09.519 --> 00:10:13.879 their stories published? I mean, let me give you an analogy. During 122 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:18.879 during COVID, we know that even even within the BBC, or so they 123 00:10:18.919 --> 00:10:22.200 claim, there were people who were saying to their their editors, well, 124 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:24.799 I on a second, some of this doesn't add up. We should ortimately 125 00:10:26.120 --> 00:10:28.440 be reporting this. All that, and I know that there were one or 126 00:10:28.440 --> 00:10:35.120 two skeptical journalists maybe on the newspapers. Every time they got knocked back by 127 00:10:35.159 --> 00:10:39.519 their editors. They could not get their stories into print. I've noticed this 128 00:10:39.720 --> 00:10:45.440 in in Climate Change that I mean, don't forget I was writing about the 129 00:10:45.440 --> 00:10:50.519 stuff that you're writing about now at the Daily Skeptic, and you know, 130 00:10:50.559 --> 00:10:54.200 I'm glad you're doing it. But I was writing about this stuff fifteen years 131 00:10:54.200 --> 00:10:58.399 ago. And at the time I mentioned this before that you would get articles 132 00:10:58.440 --> 00:11:05.879 by to for Booker being published in the Mail, being published in the Um, 133 00:11:05.480 --> 00:11:11.320 the telegraphs on the Telegraph. Now you you you wouldn't get space for 134 00:11:11.360 --> 00:11:16.120 these stories. They're just they won't won't run them. They won't. I 135 00:11:16.159 --> 00:11:18.399 think you're don't think that's true. I mean Ross Clark for instances, Yeah, 136 00:11:18.480 --> 00:11:22.559 Ross Clark. But I've read Ross clarks Telegraph and the Mail. I 137 00:11:22.639 --> 00:11:28.399 read Ross clarks piece and they have to be prefaced by a disclaimer saying, 138 00:11:28.440 --> 00:11:33.000 of course climate change is real. So so they are hedged about with these 139 00:11:33.159 --> 00:11:39.200 disflamers of denying the fundamental fact about climate change, which is that it's not 140 00:11:39.279 --> 00:11:43.960 a problem. It's not happening in any dangerous degree. It's completely made up. 141 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.919 But of course they concede all that to the enemy, that

you are 142 00:11:48.960 --> 00:11:52.080 invited to accept that climate change is a problem. It's just a question of 143 00:11:52.200 --> 00:11:56.000 how we address it. And maybe there are there are questions about this, 144 00:11:56.039 --> 00:11:58.240 and that that's how it goes. Well, I think you can. You 145 00:11:58.240 --> 00:12:03.320 can. You can be a climate contrarian, even a climate skeptic, without 146 00:12:03.440 --> 00:12:09.159 denying that climate change has taken place over the past. Oh yeah, I'll 147 00:12:09.159 --> 00:12:11.679 forget. Let's not even go that if if that's the game you want to 148 00:12:11.720 --> 00:12:18.639 play, if you are sure it's playing into that If even you are saying, 149 00:12:18.759 --> 00:12:22.039 if even you are trying to tell me that actually, oh there is 150 00:12:22.080 --> 00:12:26.879 something to this climate change thing, then fair for you as a genuine skeptic. 151 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:33.440 Well, James, surely it's playing into the hands of the climate lobby 152 00:12:33.639 --> 00:12:37.639 for us to say it's about think there's been any climate change over the past 153 00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:41.080 one hundred and fifty years. That enables them to call us climate change deniers. 154 00:12:41.320 --> 00:12:43.519 When the argument isn't about whether there's been any climate change. The argument 155 00:12:43.600 --> 00:12:48.960 is about what's causing it and will the reduction in carbon emissions argument? The 156 00:12:48.080 --> 00:12:54.080 argument is climate change a problem or not? And I A simple answer is 157 00:12:54.120 --> 00:12:56.759 if I change is necessary problem. But if you start out said if you 158 00:12:56.840 --> 00:13:00.840 start out by saying climate change isn't real, there's been no climate change, 159 00:13:00.840 --> 00:13:05.039 it's complete scam, then you're you're you're playing into their hands. You're conceding 160 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.799 too much. The issue isn't whether there's been a climate change. No one 161 00:13:07.840 --> 00:13:13.080 denies that climate change has happened. Average global temperatures have increased over the past 162 00:13:13.080 --> 00:13:15.639 one hundred and fifty years. The argument is about, well, what's caused 163 00:13:15.720 --> 00:13:18.960 that? How big a part does to carbon emissions play? How big a 164 00:13:20.039 --> 00:13:22.399 part do does the oil and gas industry play? That's the argument. The 165 00:13:22.480 --> 00:13:26.879 argument isn't about whether climate change has actually taken place. I mean that it 166 00:13:26.919 --> 00:13:35.799 always annoys me James when people who who defend climate alarmism refer to their intellectual 167 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:39.559 opponents as climate change deniers, as though it's a simple binary choice. Either 168 00:13:39.600 --> 00:13:43.799 you admit that climate change has happened or you don't. In which case you're 169 00:13:43.840 --> 00:13:46.559 a denier and you can be ruled out of court, when actually the argument 170 00:13:46.600 --> 00:13:50.799 is more nuanced and complicated than that. No one denies, but I don't 171 00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:54.320 think many people from a contrarian side denied that climate change has actually taken part 172 00:13:54.440 --> 00:13:58.399 that I wrote the book on this fifty getting on for getting on for fifteen 173 00:13:58.480 --> 00:14:01.600 years ago. Why are you falling into the tie and and I'm not falling 174 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:09.879 into any traplig you just just don't. It's really tiresome. I said in 175 00:14:09.919 --> 00:14:16.240 the book that that that post industrial temperatures have risen to such a small degree 176 00:14:16.399 --> 00:14:22.960 as it to be well within the bounds of normality. And yeah, on 177 00:14:22.960 --> 00:14:26.519 the trivial, on the trivial level, on the most trivial level, yeah, 178 00:14:26.759 --> 00:14:31.720 climate change is happening. But the climate change as it is soldiers, 179 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:35.720 climate change as a thing we should care about, is something altogether different. 180 00:14:35.120 --> 00:14:39.720 So yeah, I agree on the trivial point that yes, there has been 181 00:14:39.720 --> 00:14:43.320 a slight increase in global temperatures, less than that the temperature increased that between 182 00:14:43.399 --> 00:14:48.519 breakfasts and your mid morning coffee. It's not a big deal. Therefore, 183 00:14:48.600 --> 00:14:52.159 I am saying, no, climate change is not a problem. If you 184 00:14:52.200 --> 00:14:54.039 are conceiving that that territory to the enemy and saying it is a problem. 185 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:58.120 Then I think you are not a skeptic. Well, no, I didn't. 186 00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.159 I'm not looking at the facts. I'm well, we're talking at slight 187 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:05.159 Cross Pubs. Is I'm not as we are because because you because you're using 188 00:15:05.200 --> 00:15:09.399 climate change to mean any form of change in the climate whatsoever. And I'm 189 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:13.480 talking about climate change as this thing which has been sold to us as something 190 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:18.000 we should worry and care about, and it is not anything which you started 191 00:15:18.039 --> 00:15:22.440 out by. You started out by dismissing whatever. Toby, I've made my 192 00:15:22.879 --> 00:15:28.320 perfectly clear. Now you advise you revised your position, which is good. 193 00:15:28.399 --> 00:15:31.960 James, No, I haven't started out. I've got a book which says 194 00:15:33.039 --> 00:15:35.480 my position. They've written the book. You've clearly forgotten what you wrote in 195 00:15:35.519 --> 00:15:39.600 it. You started out by saying James, by dismissing, dismissing Ross Clark 196 00:15:41.120 --> 00:15:45.080 by saying that he prefaces many of his articles by saying, I don't deny 197 00:15:45.120 --> 00:15:48.480 that climate

change is real, which which in your because he was using it 198 00:15:48.519 --> 00:15:52.879 in the day of current sense, which is that climate change is a problem. 199 00:15:52.080 --> 00:15:54.679 I think it's help. It's now It's just a helpful bit of throat 200 00:15:54.679 --> 00:15:58.879 clearing before any argument about what the causes of climate change are, in how 201 00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:03.240 seriously we should take it, and whether it's a problem, because it means 202 00:16:03.240 --> 00:16:07.480 you spike the guns of those opponents who accuse us of being climate change denials. 203 00:16:07.639 --> 00:16:10.879 Our only duty, Toby, is to the truth. And what you've 204 00:16:10.879 --> 00:16:15.320 made me suspect is that actually your position is not is not really very skeptical. 205 00:16:15.399 --> 00:16:18.320 Because if if you are, if you were, if you were not, 206 00:16:18.399 --> 00:16:22.440 if you will not accept the point which every intelligent informed person does, 207 00:16:22.799 --> 00:16:26.519 that climate change is not a problem, then you have you have view of 208 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:32.639 given away that the territories of the enemy. It's as simple as that. 209 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:36.240 That's if you've just you've completely moved the goalpost, James, what we're are. 210 00:16:36.600 --> 00:16:40.600 Okay, that is my position. But that is my position. You 211 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:42.320 can ague with that, argue with the point I've just made. I think 212 00:16:42.360 --> 00:16:47.320 that's that's my position too. James. Absolutely, I don't think it helps. 213 00:16:47.320 --> 00:16:51.320 I don't think it helps the case for that position. If you start 214 00:16:51.360 --> 00:16:55.279 off by saying climate change isn't real, it's all a scamp, that just 215 00:16:55.399 --> 00:16:59.720 that that enables our opponents to brand as climate change denials and stop listening to 216 00:16:59.840 --> 00:17:03.080 us. Anyone listening, anyone listening to the anyone listening to this show will 217 00:17:03.080 --> 00:17:07.079 know exactly what my position is, and and that that you are quibbling over 218 00:17:07.200 --> 00:17:14.759 over nervoices. It's just anyway to get back to the original point. I 219 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:22.640 think there are plenty of decent journalists who climate change contrarians like Ross Clark can 220 00:17:22.680 --> 00:17:26.599 be right regularly, right regularly for both the Mail and the Telegraph. And 221 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:32.359 even if the Male or the Telegraph wouldn't publish a piece exposing the fact that, 222 00:17:32.960 --> 00:17:36.160 according to you, the climate lobby of paying arsoness to set fires in 223 00:17:36.200 --> 00:17:40.240 Greece and elsewhere, the Daily Skeptic could publish the piece. So I don't 224 00:17:40.279 --> 00:17:42.920 think it's it's I think you know, I think you're you're I think there 225 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:47.400 are still some good journalists and there are still some people willing to I mean 226 00:17:48.319 --> 00:17:51.480 this this, this, I guess came up recently, James, with the 227 00:17:51.559 --> 00:17:57.359 Conservatives surprisingly clinging on in the Uxbridge by election for the benefit of our American 228 00:17:57.400 --> 00:18:03.440 listeners. There were three parliamentary by elections last Thursday, and the Conservatives were 229 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:08.759 predicted to lose all three. There were all three Conservative seats with quite sizeable 230 00:18:08.799 --> 00:18:14.720 majorities, one of which was Boris Johnson's seat in Uxbridge and Ricelip. And 231 00:18:14.759 --> 00:18:17.720 they didn't lose all three. They lost two of them, but they clung 232 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:23.119 on in Uxbridge and Ricelip. And the hypothesis of the kind of commentariat is 233 00:18:23.160 --> 00:18:30.680 that the reason the Tories clung on is because there was a rebellion over the 234 00:18:30.759 --> 00:18:36.960 expansion of the Ultra Low emissions Zone, which is a traffic calming measure that 235 00:18:37.000 --> 00:18:40.640 the Mayor of London wants to expand to the whole of London, whereby, 236 00:18:41.000 --> 00:18:44.559 if your car, I think is older than twenty sixteen, you have to 237 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:49.279 pay twelve pounds fifty to drive within this zone anywhere in London. And that 238 00:18:49.279 --> 00:18:53.640 that that that that There's been quite a lot of debate since about whether the 239 00:18:53.839 --> 00:19:04.000 Conservatives should water down their commitment and at zero abandon the pledge whereby supposedly you 240 00:19:04.039 --> 00:19:10.200 won't be able to buy a petrol or diesel driven car a new one from 241 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:12.960 twenty thirty onwards. And there's been quite a lot of debate in you know, 242 00:19:14.720 --> 00:19:18.440 in the Telegraph and in the mail about whether the Conservatives need to row 243 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:22.960 back on their kind of green policy agenda, and quite a lot of you 244 00:19:22.960 --> 00:19:26.880 know, climate contrarianism, at least in those fairly mainstream publications. So I 245 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:30.680 don't think it's right to say that everyone is completely signed up to this agenda, 246 00:19:30.720 --> 00:19:37.359 and any newspaper would reject a story exposing a link between the climate lobbying 247 00:19:37.279 --> 00:19:44.240 as part of this illusion that all the parties are offering slightly different things. 248 00:19:44.440 --> 00:19:48.759 The Conservatives, which who have been pushing this agenda NonStop since they've been in 249 00:19:48.839 --> 00:19:56.200 office, And now you've got the absurd spectacle of Michael Gove, of all 250 00:19:56.240 --> 00:20:00.160 people, Michael Gove, who knows fully well that that this this whole thing 251 00:20:00.400 --> 00:20:06.480 is a massive line, a massive scam. Gove is now saying, oh,

252 00:20:06.559 --> 00:20:11.440 yes, maybe we're maybe maybe net zero is something we're pushing for too 253 00:20:11.720 --> 00:20:18.640 too hard and fast. Gove. Gove who appointed as that Are you aware 254 00:20:18.640 --> 00:20:25.519 of Natural England and a government quango as they're known, I mean that they're 255 00:20:25.640 --> 00:20:32.440 they're supposedly these arms length institutions which is supposedly acting independent of the government, 256 00:20:32.440 --> 00:20:37.119 except they're not. They're just designed to sort of advance government policy in the 257 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:42.119 under the pretense that they're they're thinking independently. Who appointed the guy who's in 258 00:20:42.200 --> 00:20:48.039 charge of Natural England, Michael Michael Gove. And do you know who the 259 00:20:48.319 --> 00:20:52.759 head of Natural England is? Is it Chris Packham? No, it's it's 260 00:20:52.759 --> 00:20:57.200 somebody, It is somebody of that ilk. It's a guy called Tony Juniper. 261 00:20:57.359 --> 00:21:03.960 Now now about twenty years ago, the sort of the hair shirt environmentalists. 262 00:21:03.960 --> 00:21:06.160 There were one or two of them. They all were sort of chunky 263 00:21:06.200 --> 00:21:11.480 knit sweaters and they all sort of talked at nauseam about the need to mend 264 00:21:11.519 --> 00:21:15.160 our ways and yadda, YadA YadA. And one of them was the honorable 265 00:21:15.200 --> 00:21:18.960 Sir Jonathan Porritt. I don't know what's happened to him. This seems disappeared 266 00:21:18.960 --> 00:21:21.960 from the scene, thank you. One of them was the was the incredibly 267 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:27.519 tedious George Monbiott. And and then of course there was Tony Juniper, I 268 00:21:27.559 --> 00:21:33.480 think was involved with with the eco fascist organization Friends of the Earth otherwise known 269 00:21:33.480 --> 00:21:38.839 as Fiends of the Earth, because that's such such eco loon radicals. Gove 270 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:45.480 appointed this guy to be head of this quango. Juniper has has recently said 271 00:21:45.559 --> 00:21:48.519 I'm not going to allow I mean as if it was in his gift, 272 00:21:48.519 --> 00:21:53.200 which apparently it is I'm not going to allow any developments of all these houses 273 00:21:53.200 --> 00:21:59.480 that we need to to house all these immigrants that we're importing. Willy nilly, 274 00:22:00.079 --> 00:22:04.680 Um, I'm not going to do this unless ULA's restrictions are imposed on 275 00:22:04.839 --> 00:22:08.079 the areas. And all these, all these these villages, all these all 276 00:22:08.119 --> 00:22:11.400 these communities that we that that I'm not I'm not allowing to be built. 277 00:22:11.799 --> 00:22:17.839 And Gove is the guy responsible for this, And now he was go asking 278 00:22:17.920 --> 00:22:22.720 us to believe that he somehow has decided suddenly that or maybe it's too far, 279 00:22:22.799 --> 00:22:26.920 too fast. It's just appalling, And you still think you still I 280 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:30.279 think he's a great guy. I think, um, I think you know 281 00:22:30.680 --> 00:22:37.880 our friend Michael um Off friend Michael often often cuts his cloth um to um 282 00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:47.839 absorb the um passing wins. But I think one of the reasons he's recently 283 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:53.640 made some made some more skeptical noises about the parties net zero commitments, um, 284 00:22:53.880 --> 00:23:00.039 is because it's been suggested that he might lose his job. That one 285 00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:06.839 way Rishi can kind of your dad adapt to these by election results, it 286 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:11.119 will be to sack Michael and to sack Jeremy Hunt and replace them with more 287 00:23:11.960 --> 00:23:18.720 robustly contrarian people like Jacob Ries Morgue. So, James, I got a 288 00:23:18.759 --> 00:23:22.599 nice letter from one of our fans, which I'm now going to read out. 289 00:23:23.240 --> 00:23:26.720 My name is MICHAELA and I'm twenty seven years old and my dad and 290 00:23:26.759 --> 00:23:32.599 I are huge London Calling fans. We've been listening to it since twenty twenty 291 00:23:32.759 --> 00:23:37.279 and absolutely love it. Thank you both so much for continuing with it. 292 00:23:37.279 --> 00:23:40.759 It's really funny. Could I ask, if possible, if you could give 293 00:23:40.960 --> 00:23:45.559 my dad, Jamie a shout out on Monday's episode. He turned sixty three 294 00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:48.720 on Friday, July the twenty first. You can also mention that me and 295 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:52.759 my dad a team Toby. We love James, but we two are also 296 00:23:52.079 --> 00:23:56.920 normalis thank you so much in advance, and also for keeping the podcast going 297 00:23:56.039 --> 00:24:00.839 well habitedly that MICHAELA consider this a shout out to Jamie. Happy birthday, 298 00:24:00.920 --> 00:24:06.160 Jamie. Anyway, we should probably hear from our sponsor, James. Let's 299 00:24:06.160 --> 00:24:10.920 see, let's start off with express VPN. I'm going to read this one, 300 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:12.799 you're gonna read the next one. 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device and the 308 00:24:48.279 --> 00:24:52.319 Internet. Hackers can't steal your sensitive data. It take a hacker with a 309 00:24:52.359 --> 00:24:57.200 supercomputer over a billion years to get past Express VPNs encryption. Fire up the 310 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:00.440 app and kick one button to get protect did and it works on phones, 311 00:25:00.559 --> 00:25:03.960 laptops, tablets and more. So you can stay secure on the go. 312 00:25:04.599 --> 00:25:11.960 Secure your online data today by visiting Express vpn dot com slash London. That's 313 00:25:11.039 --> 00:25:17.680 e x p r ews vpn dot com slash London and you can get an 314 00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:22.079 extra three months for free ExpressVPN dot com slash London. Now, James, 315 00:25:22.119 --> 00:25:26.079 I have to tell you about my scare. I thought I had been hacked 316 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:32.720 in the way that Express vpn warn us about. So when I was in 317 00:25:32.799 --> 00:25:40.599 Spain, I bought a Spanish simcard from a slightly Dodgy shop in the mayorcan 318 00:25:40.799 --> 00:25:45.920 Airport and I replaced my simcard with this Spanish SIM. I do that as 319 00:25:45.920 --> 00:25:48.920 a matter of course when I go to a new country now, because I've 320 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:55.519 had my fingers burnt too often with being overcharged by my English carrier, even 321 00:25:55.559 --> 00:26:00.440 when supposedly yeah, I think actually in Spain it probably you can prove just 322 00:26:00.640 --> 00:26:03.359 use your English SIM card without being charged an arm in a leg. But 323 00:26:03.400 --> 00:26:07.680 anyway, I'm paranoid about it. So I switched to the Spanish network and 324 00:26:07.720 --> 00:26:12.160 then on my way home, I swapped out the cards and put my old 325 00:26:12.200 --> 00:26:18.359 SIM back in and I couldn't connect when I arrived in London, and I 326 00:26:18.359 --> 00:26:21.680 couldn't get phone service. And that's actually, as you know, that's kind 327 00:26:21.680 --> 00:26:26.680 of that's that's that that that's incredibly m It makes your life incredibly difficult. 328 00:26:26.680 --> 00:26:27.880 You know, you try and pay for something, your bank can't send you 329 00:26:27.920 --> 00:26:32.160 a confirmation code. If you get pinged out of Twitter, you can't get 330 00:26:32.160 --> 00:26:34.480 back on because it wants to send you a confirmation code. You're you're almost 331 00:26:34.519 --> 00:26:41.720 helpless without without without any phone service. And I spent this morning trying to 332 00:26:41.759 --> 00:26:45.559 get back, you know, get back online properly get my get it all 333 00:26:45.640 --> 00:26:48.880 up and running, and I ran these various you know, I was googling 334 00:26:48.920 --> 00:26:53.319 it, and I asked the question on Twitter, and I contacted you know, 335 00:26:53.480 --> 00:27:00.319 the support the kind of the kind of freelance support service that we employ 336 00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:03.480 at

the Free Speech Union, and eventually I figured out what I'd done, 337 00:27:03.519 --> 00:27:07.400 which was I put my Canadian So when I gone to Canada earlier this year, 338 00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:10.880 I bought a Canadian SIM card and I put that in the same place 339 00:27:11.240 --> 00:27:15.000 that I put my gift Gaff SIM card when I replaced my gift Gaff SIM 340 00:27:15.079 --> 00:27:19.279 card with my Spanish SIM card, so i'd instead of putting back my original 341 00:27:19.599 --> 00:27:26.200 British SIM, I'd inserted the Canadian SIM Absolutely unbelievable stupidity. So I hadn't 342 00:27:26.200 --> 00:27:30.559 been hacked, nothing had gone wrong. I just made it was just bog 343 00:27:30.599 --> 00:27:34.039 stadded human error, user error. I'm started to worry, you know, 344 00:27:34.079 --> 00:27:38.599 with your reference to get to Canada and you've been to New Yorker. I'm 345 00:27:38.680 --> 00:27:41.240 right that you're racking up more air miles than me. And I don't like 346 00:27:41.359 --> 00:27:45.720 it because I feel that it is my moral duty before they closed this down 347 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:48.720 all together, which of course is the plan. You know, you and 348 00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:51.440 I are not going to be if we're alive by then. I mean you 349 00:27:51.519 --> 00:27:53.519 might be, but I won't be. By twenty thirty, We're not going 350 00:27:53.559 --> 00:27:57.559 to be allowed to travel anymore, and they'll they'll gradually bring about the closure 351 00:27:57.559 --> 00:28:00.240 of all our airports and stuff, and they'll do it in the name of 352 00:28:00.279 --> 00:28:04.359 climate change, etcetera, etcetera. Um, I want to get some traveling 353 00:28:04.359 --> 00:28:07.680 in before it's too late. I'm feeling I haven't even got a sung holiday 354 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:11.160 books yet. So where have you been this year? I've I've, I've 355 00:28:11.200 --> 00:28:17.799 I've I've I've actually been to Spain or Spanish territories, to three different ones 356 00:28:17.799 --> 00:28:21.720 this year. So I've been to Malbaya, i Bitha and Mayorka. But 357 00:28:21.880 --> 00:28:25.200 apart from that, I think I've only been to Canada. Or I think 358 00:28:25.200 --> 00:28:29.599 you've been more further afield I've I've been to Malaysia and Hong Kong. Yeah, 359 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:33.839 I suppose so in terms of distance covered, I might be going to 360 00:28:33.880 --> 00:28:37.599 Amsterdam at some stage. I've been invited over by by one of my one 361 00:28:37.640 --> 00:28:44.039 of my heroes, Cheery Bode. If you know him, he's the He's 362 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:48.880 one of the few politicians anywhere in the world who've fought tooth and now not 363 00:28:48.920 --> 00:28:53.680 just against the lockdowns but also against the death jabs. Um, so I 364 00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:57.920 might get The thing is it's not like I don't smoke nearly as much weed 365 00:28:57.920 --> 00:29:03.480 as as I used. And surely the only point about going to Amsterdam is 366 00:29:03.480 --> 00:29:06.359 to smoke loads of weed, isn't it. Well you don't have to go 367 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:07.839 to Amsterdam for that, now, do you? I mean plenty of you 368 00:29:07.640 --> 00:29:11.759 why you don't. And Canada legal and the whole of Canada was shocked to 369 00:29:11.799 --> 00:29:17.799 discover. Yeah, yeah, I don't think it's good for I mean, 370 00:29:18.519 --> 00:29:19.960 despite having once been one of those people who said, you know, if 371 00:29:21.000 --> 00:29:23.799 only man, if only people you know, drink less and smoke more weird, 372 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:26.720 there will be a better place. Yeah, I mean, I think 373 00:29:26.759 --> 00:29:30.640 that it's all part of There's a reason why that marijuana uses was financed by 374 00:29:30.680 --> 00:29:37.240 George Sauros. You know why why he campaigned for this all this um legalization 375 00:29:37.279 --> 00:29:41.119 all around the world. It's because they want us to be these kinds of 376 00:29:41.200 --> 00:29:48.240 stone zombies. Um yeah, um yeah, I'm I'm I feel a bit 377 00:29:48.039 --> 00:29:53.599 certainly more ambivalent than I used to about the legalization of marijuana. Partly because 378 00:29:53.759 --> 00:29:59.519 it's so much stronger now than it was when we were young. M. 379 00:30:00.079 --> 00:30:02.440 Well, do you know what you know what that is? It's it's actually 380 00:30:02.519 --> 00:30:07.319 it's it's it's actually more complicated than that. It's it's them. There are 381 00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:12.799 two there are two things in in two active ingredients in cannabis. There's the 382 00:30:14.160 --> 00:30:18.839 CBD and there's the THHC, and they are the kind of the yin and 383 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:22.920 the yang of the They're meant to work together so that if you want a 384 00:30:22.960 --> 00:30:30.640 sort of harmonious, pleasant um high, then you need decent levels of CBD 385 00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:33.680 and THHC to balance each other out. And what's happened is that is that 386 00:30:34.400 --> 00:30:38.400 that a lot of the CBD has been bred out of the stuff that the 387 00:30:38.480 --> 00:30:44.319 kids smoke, so they just get this kind of razzy, nasty, aggressive, 388 00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:51.160 not relaxing, sort of tense, nasty high um and they're on edge. 389 00:30:51.599 --> 00:30:56.079 And that's that's the real problem with weed. So you want to get 390 00:30:56.119 --> 00:30:59.200 the I mean, it's one of the ways actually of you know, but 391 00:30:59.279 --> 00:31:03.319 if you have a pull whitey, yes, yeah, okay, so when 392 00:31:03.359 --> 00:31:07.000 you pull a whitey, the reason the way to cure that is to have 393 00:31:07.160 --> 00:31:11.200 to hand a bottle of cbdal and drip a few drops in your tongue. 394 00:31:11.920 --> 00:31:17.920 That will that will sort of ease you down. Okay, But when you 395 00:31:17.920 -->

00:31:18.880 go to one of these, I mean, I've never actually been into a 396 00:31:18.960 --> 00:31:25.119 kind of marijuana emporium, but I'm assuming when you enter one, you know, 397 00:31:25.200 --> 00:31:30.279 it's like being at a kind of artisanal chocolate tear. It is, 398 00:31:30.079 --> 00:31:34.440 and every kind of high is kind of catered for. So if you wanted 399 00:31:34.480 --> 00:31:41.000 something quite mild and not too nasty, something quite kind of you know, 400 00:31:41.160 --> 00:31:47.119 relaxing, then presumably that's available. It's been a very long time since I 401 00:31:47.160 --> 00:31:52.559 went to I went, I mean we're talking about when I was at Oxford. 402 00:31:52.119 --> 00:31:56.839 I went on a trip with my friend James Ferguson, a pilgrimage. 403 00:31:56.400 --> 00:32:04.680 Pilgrimage with James Ferguson. We took the ferry from the one that goes to 404 00:32:05.240 --> 00:32:08.000 Hook of Holland, I think, and we went to Amsterdam and we went 405 00:32:08.039 --> 00:32:12.160 to the Bulldog count I don't know whether even Bulldog even exists anymore. Went 406 00:32:12.200 --> 00:32:14.960 to the Bulldog Cafe and it was fantastic, and you know, you went 407 00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:17.599 in there and you looked at the menu and you could talk to the guy 408 00:32:17.640 --> 00:32:22.200 behind the counter and he would he would take you through all the different options 409 00:32:22.240 --> 00:32:24.240 and you go for really strong or really weak. I don't know, I'm 410 00:32:24.279 --> 00:32:28.440 presuming it's like that now. I mean it's it's quite civilized in its way, 411 00:32:28.480 --> 00:32:30.720 and that you don't feel like a criminal. You just feel like you 412 00:32:30.759 --> 00:32:35.039 know that it's that it's a normal thing. But yeah, things may have 413 00:32:35.119 --> 00:32:37.319 changed. I mean, I know, I know Amsterdam, like a lot 414 00:32:37.359 --> 00:32:45.920 of countries like Portugal, is regretting it's it's liberalization, liberalization of its marijuana 415 00:32:46.000 --> 00:32:50.480 laws because people now just smoke in the streets and you get this whiff of 416 00:32:50.559 --> 00:32:52.240 skunk, don't you. And it's kind of not really what you want in 417 00:32:52.279 --> 00:32:57.359 the daytime when you're going from walk down the street. I have to say, 418 00:32:57.400 --> 00:33:00.119 in West London, it's quite hard to get away from smile. Oh 419 00:33:00.240 --> 00:33:04.759 but it is, yeah, I'll bet it is. Yeah. When you 420 00:33:04.799 --> 00:33:07.720 said, James Ferguson, that that I thought I got, I momentarily confused 421 00:33:07.799 --> 00:33:13.720 him with Alex Renton. Was well that his cousin his cousin. Okay, 422 00:33:13.799 --> 00:33:17.039 yeah, um we ever a friend of Alex Renton's. Yes, I like 423 00:33:17.079 --> 00:33:27.160 Alex very much. Yea. He wrote a book recently called Blood legacy reckoning 424 00:33:27.240 --> 00:33:31.680 with a family's

story of slavery. Um and and it was all about his 425 00:33:31.720 --> 00:33:40.759 own somewhat aristocratic, wealthy family's links to the Transatlantic slave trade. Um and 426 00:33:42.359 --> 00:33:45.519 and you know, and he kind of, you know, struggles with this 427 00:33:45.599 --> 00:33:52.000 and tries to figure out whether he should make a man and so forth, 428 00:33:52.200 --> 00:34:00.200 and um and I gather that he hadn't told many members of his large then 429 00:34:00.279 --> 00:34:04.519 did kind of dynastic family that he was intending to write this book, and 430 00:34:04.559 --> 00:34:09.000 a lot of them are absolutely furious. Would profer, Yeah, you know 431 00:34:09.079 --> 00:34:12.840 what I think you should do. If I were him, I would employ 432 00:34:12.960 --> 00:34:17.000 a butler and make sure he was black and pay him a really good salary. 433 00:34:17.280 --> 00:34:22.320 I think that would ease his conscience. Great. He may not see 434 00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:24.000 it that way, but I think I think you should suggest that to him. 435 00:34:24.039 --> 00:34:29.480 James Still, maybe someone someone, someone will will will say, Alex, 436 00:34:29.559 --> 00:34:31.440 you were mentioned on this podcast, and James, because he likes you 437 00:34:31.559 --> 00:34:36.840 very much, came up with this very helpful suggestion. I think. I 438 00:34:36.880 --> 00:34:43.639 think, I think probably what he has in mind is acting as acting as 439 00:34:43.679 --> 00:34:49.199 an unpaid butler to a wealthy black family, possibly for the next twenty five 440 00:34:49.280 --> 00:34:53.159 years. Oh dear, Yeah, it's it's the problem with with with these 441 00:34:53.159 --> 00:35:00.800 sort of liberal liberal the very very rich liberal people, with all their sort 442 00:35:00.800 --> 00:35:04.360 of self hatred and guilt and stuff, and you just kind of think, 443 00:35:04.400 --> 00:35:07.440 deal with it. Well, it's it's sort of you. It is self 444 00:35:07.480 --> 00:35:09.079 hatred and guilt. I mean that that's certainly a component. But it's also 445 00:35:09.119 --> 00:35:12.400 a form of status signaling, isn't it. It's a way of kind of 446 00:35:12.440 --> 00:35:17.239 advertising your membership of the Brahmin class. I feel guilty about benefiting from the 447 00:35:17.239 --> 00:35:22.920 Transatlantic slave trade. Behold, I'm now going to self flagellate in front of 448 00:35:22.960 --> 00:35:28.920 you, because that's what posh people do. You know. Yeah, I 449 00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:31.320 was going to mention this actually in the context. But maybe is this more 450 00:35:31.320 --> 00:35:37.039 of a culture corner thing? Have you? Have you watched the New University 451 00:35:37.119 --> 00:35:42.400 Challenge? Yeah, I know, we large. Let's let's let's get onto 452 00:35:42.440 --> 00:35:45.679 that in culture corner. No, I haven't. I haven't, but I 453 00:35:45.719 --> 00:35:47.880 do. I do. I do quite like him, So yeah, I

454 00:35:47.920 --> 00:35:53.039 probably should. So should we should? We? Should? We hear from 455 00:35:53.079 --> 00:35:58.679 our next sponsor, Jake, Let's let's it's good to our old friends. 456 00:35:58.679 --> 00:36:02.800 That Indeed, when you sponsor an indeed post in the US, you aren't 457 00:36:02.840 --> 00:36:08.599 three times more likely to get a higher According to indeed Data, Indeed is 458 00:36:08.679 --> 00:36:14.159 the hiring platform where you can attract, interview, and hire all in one 459 00:36:14.199 --> 00:36:17.519 place, instead of spending hours on multiple job sites searching for candidates with the 460 00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:22.000 right skills. Indeeds a powerful hiring platform that can help you do it all 461 00:36:22.559 --> 00:36:28.159 with instant match. Over eighty percent of employers get quality candidates who CV on 462 00:36:28.320 --> 00:36:32.159 indeed matches their job description the moment they sponsor a job. 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Right now, we have a special offer for our America and listeners. 469 00:37:00.599 --> 00:37:05.519 Start hiring now with a seventy five dollars sponsored job credit to upgrade your 470 00:37:05.599 --> 00:37:08.800 job post at indeed dot com slash London offer good for a limited time. 471 00:37:08.960 --> 00:37:15.599 Claim your seventy five dollar credit now at indeed dot com slash London. Just 472 00:37:15.639 --> 00:37:19.400 go to indeed dot com slash London and support the show by saying you heard 473 00:37:19.440 --> 00:37:22.800 about it on this podcast Indeed dot com slash London. Terms and conditions apply. 474 00:37:23.119 --> 00:37:28.480 Need to hire you need indeed. Okay, Well, shall we move 475 00:37:28.519 --> 00:37:31.159 on to culture? Yeah? Yeah, so yeah, okay, tell me 476 00:37:31.199 --> 00:37:37.519 about the tell me about the mL presented. So we ought to explain, 477 00:37:37.639 --> 00:37:45.000 oughtn't we to the Americans? Anyway? That University Challenge is this is the 478 00:37:45.119 --> 00:37:50.079 dwy n let's say, of quiz shows in the UK, and it's quite 479 00:37:50.519 --> 00:37:57.440 it's quite highbrow and it every week a team from well there's normally one Oxford 480 00:37:57.519 --> 00:38:02.480 or Cambridge College and one so called Red Brick University Manchester for example, I 481 00:38:02.519 --> 00:38:09.280 think one more more titles than any other other institution, and they compete against 482 00:38:09.360 --> 00:38:14.639 each other and they want to win some sort of trophy on University Challenge. 483 00:38:14.679 --> 00:38:16.760 It's it's a quiz show, but it's a high brow quiz show where you 484 00:38:16.800 --> 00:38:22.280 got I think in America it was called College Bow. I don't know whether 485 00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:25.760 it's still going, but predated University Challenge. Yeah did it really? Yeah? 486 00:38:25.800 --> 00:38:34.119 Okay, okay? In the UK It was originally hosted by a man 487 00:38:34.360 --> 00:38:40.000 called Bamber Gascoyne who had an impeccable pedigree. He was eaten, I mean, 488 00:38:40.199 --> 00:38:46.159 even more impressive than yours, Toby. He was eaten Maudlin, Cambridge, 489 00:38:46.159 --> 00:38:50.800 which is one of the sort of smarter Cambridge colleges. Then he went 490 00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:55.199 into the Grenadier Guards, and then he got a scholarship to one of the 491 00:38:57.480 --> 00:39:02.320 Ivy League universities, and then he established himself as a playwright. He had 492 00:39:02.320 --> 00:39:06.840 a hit in the West End. He was an historian. He was just 493 00:39:07.880 --> 00:39:10.159 and and he was stinking rich. I mean, he was absolutely loaded. 494 00:39:10.519 --> 00:39:15.840 And he was descended from all manner of of toffee toffee families, and he 495 00:39:15.920 --> 00:39:20.679 and and he Bamber always gave the impression that he knew the answers to every 496 00:39:20.679 --> 00:39:22.880 single question, and that he was a bit He was quite donish in his 497 00:39:22.960 --> 00:39:30.599 approach to universe, to to to the Grotti undergraduate charmingly condescending, charmingly condescending. 498 00:39:31.039 --> 00:39:35.880 And then and then after that you had Jeremy Paxman. I think was 499 00:39:35.920 --> 00:39:40.760 there an interim candidate. I don't know. I think that bambered in it 500 00:39:40.800 --> 00:39:45.320 for years, didn't he. So Jeremy Jeremy Jeremy Paxman two was was really 501 00:39:45.360 --> 00:39:52.119 quite impatient with these scrotti. Yes he's charmlessly condescending. Yes, yeah, 502 00:39:52.239 --> 00:39:55.679 And and Paxsman two gave the impression, I think, sometimes falsely, that 503 00:39:55.800 --> 00:40:00.679 he too knew the answers to all the questions. Now, how we've got 504 00:40:00.719 --> 00:40:04.000 a guy called Amal Rajan who, like you, I means, whenever I've 505 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:07.360 met him in real life, I've always found him perfectly affable. But he's 506 00:40:07.360 --> 00:40:12.159 a complete spiv. I mean, his his, his, his his his, 507 00:40:12.159 --> 00:40:15.320 his delivery man all right, all right, he drops his he drops 508 00:40:15.320 --> 00:40:20.480 his h's even though he's came with educated you realize. And when he went 509 00:40:20.519 --> 00:40:22.480 to not necessarily one of the grandest Cambridge colleges, he went to Downing, 510

00:40:22.800 --> 00:40:27.800 which is Georgian. It's not it's not a medieval institution, but it but 511 00:40:27.960 --> 00:40:30.159 but it's it's, it's it's pretty, it's I think it's probably a hearty 512 00:40:30.280 --> 00:40:34.199 college, isn't it. And he didn't. He did only get a two 513 00:40:34.280 --> 00:40:42.480 two in English. But nevertheless he's now got this job as the Chrismaster on 514 00:40:42.599 --> 00:40:47.519 University Challenge. And he's completely unlike Bamber Gascoyne or Jeremy Paxman. And he 515 00:40:47.800 --> 00:40:51.360 doesn't give the impression he knows the answer to every question. He looks like 516 00:40:51.400 --> 00:40:55.159 he's plums. But the pronunciation of all the complicated foreign words, he pronounces 517 00:40:55.239 --> 00:41:01.360 his h h um and and he gets really excited when when when one of 518 00:41:01.360 --> 00:41:07.559 the one of the teams spots something actually pretty obvious. I mean, they 519 00:41:07.920 --> 00:41:12.800 had they had an excerpt from Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra, and they 520 00:41:12.800 --> 00:41:16.679 had to demonstrate which two composers were involved. And somebody got it very quickly. 521 00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:22.760 It was Purcell and and and Britain. But actually he was he was 522 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:28.039 really impressed because she was very quick. But actually, any even halfway educating, 523 00:41:28.079 --> 00:41:30.000 I mean every every everyone who attended my prep school, none of them, 524 00:41:30.039 --> 00:41:35.199 necessarily that bright would have known because because you got played it in musical 525 00:41:35.239 --> 00:41:38.079 appreciation classes, it's not an obscure piece of music. So anyway, Amos 526 00:41:38.119 --> 00:41:44.239 really you know, he's like Amos by these by these students. Anyway, 527 00:41:44.519 --> 00:41:46.800 So I wrote, I wrote a review about this in the It's a long 528 00:41:47.000 --> 00:41:51.280 long wind of webcout coming to my point. I wrote a review about this 529 00:41:51.320 --> 00:41:54.599 in The Spectator, and I said that it would be nice to think that 530 00:41:54.679 --> 00:42:00.679 Bamber Gascoyne was turning in his grave about what has happened to University Challenge. 531 00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:06.239 But I'm afraid he'll be rather applauding it because you know what bound mcgascoin despite 532 00:42:06.440 --> 00:42:10.760 eaton Cambridge, the guards Ivy League University blah blah blah and loads and loads 533 00:42:10.800 --> 00:42:15.000 of money. I know from people who were friends with him that he was 534 00:42:15.039 --> 00:42:19.960 a he was a raging liberal. He was raging libtard. That they all 535 00:42:20.039 --> 00:42:23.280 do it, they all, they all betray their cause by embracing these horrible 536 00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:28.360 causes which don't affect them because they've got so much money they didn't care. 537 00:42:28.679 --> 00:42:30.800 But for you and me, we

get affected by it because they are pushing 538 00:42:31.119 --> 00:42:37.119 the wet squidgee liberal agenda. It's hard. I mean, if you were, 539 00:42:37.559 --> 00:42:45.000 if you were a kind of BBC commissioner James, how would you modernize 540 00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:47.199 how would you woke ify University Challenge? Because it's quite hard to get away 541 00:42:47.239 --> 00:42:52.239 from the basic premise, which is that you know they've done it. Actually 542 00:42:52.360 --> 00:42:59.199 committing facts to memory and and acquiring knowledge about you know, the romantic poets 543 00:42:59.280 --> 00:43:05.960 and classic or music and the complete works of Shakespeare is actually useful. How 544 00:43:06.000 --> 00:43:09.000 do you get away from how do you kind of they did it? They've 545 00:43:09.000 --> 00:43:13.199 already undermined it. I mean, University challenge has already fallen long ago. 546 00:43:13.599 --> 00:43:21.760 I think it. I would date it to sometime perhaps after when Ted Loveday 547 00:43:22.079 --> 00:43:28.400 was was the start of the show, which I think was Was it about 548 00:43:28.400 --> 00:43:31.599 contestant? Yeah, yeah, he was. He knew what happacks ligomenon meant? 549 00:43:32.199 --> 00:43:37.599 Okay, do you know what it means? It's it's it's where a 550 00:43:37.760 --> 00:43:43.679 word only appears once in the entire ov of a writer. So there might 551 00:43:43.719 --> 00:43:46.320 be a word that Shakespeare uses but once, or a word in the Bible 552 00:43:46.360 --> 00:43:52.119 that appears but once, and that is happacks legomenon. Anyway, what they've 553 00:43:52.159 --> 00:43:58.480 done is that they've they've changed the nature of the questions. So instead of 554 00:43:58.639 --> 00:44:02.480 that phrase I often hear you is the greatest there's ever been thought or written? 555 00:44:02.880 --> 00:44:08.840 Um. Instead of being about genuinely celebrating greatness, what it now does 556 00:44:09.079 --> 00:44:15.880 is celebrating greatness but as long as they are black, female, or otherwise 557 00:44:15.119 --> 00:44:22.440 ethnic or gender impaired. UM. So so when you get when you get 558 00:44:23.199 --> 00:44:27.719 a question about scientists, you know that at least one of the answers is 559 00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:32.519 going to be married curie um. When you get a question about novelists, 560 00:44:32.679 --> 00:44:37.519 you know that Tony Morrison is a pretty good bet for one of the answers. 561 00:44:37.119 --> 00:44:43.119 When you get a question about Renaissance art, it's a shoe in for 562 00:44:43.360 --> 00:44:49.760 Artemisia Gentileski and so on. So so the answer questions have all been taken 563 00:44:49.800 --> 00:44:55.440 over by these kind of slightly woke answers them the science, so the geography 564 00:44:55.519 --> 00:45:00.880 questions, it's it's no longer what's the capital of of of of Mongolia or 565 00:45:00.519 --> 00:45:05.679 where is the you know, where is land battle or whatever it's about. 566 00:45:06.039 --> 00:45:10.960 It's about climate change, and it's also about you'll get questions about kind of 567 00:45:12.480 --> 00:45:16.719 organizations like the IPCC, so pushing the same agenda. So it's it's it's 568 00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:22.159 it's shifted from being about genuine sort of intellectual excellence into pushing an agenda. 569 00:45:22.199 --> 00:45:24.920 I don't watch it anything. The only reason I watched this episode is I 570 00:45:24.960 --> 00:45:30.280 wanted to see how Spivy and or Ragin was and you didn't disappoint Okay, 571 00:45:30.480 --> 00:45:34.840 okay, well you haven't. You haven't sold it hard, but I may 572 00:45:34.920 --> 00:45:37.679 check it out. But it sounds like has it become I mean, give 573 00:45:37.719 --> 00:45:42.159 it given the kind of then the wokerification of it and the way you describe, 574 00:45:42.280 --> 00:45:45.519 has it become easier to guess the answers than it was twenty five years 575 00:45:45.519 --> 00:45:50.480 ago. No, because the science questions are still as abstruction boring, and 576 00:45:50.519 --> 00:45:53.599 the mouth questions are still as relentless to tedious. It's just that that only 577 00:45:53.679 --> 00:45:59.400 fun might have one might have had knowing the answers to the arts questions is 578 00:46:00.199 --> 00:46:06.280 dissipated with one's by one's fury and having these all these kind of you know, 579 00:46:06.400 --> 00:46:10.639 work work figures being being celebrated, right, okay, um so, 580 00:46:10.800 --> 00:46:17.000 um, I mean, I think I think we discussed the Tulsa King last 581 00:46:17.039 --> 00:46:22.159 time because I just finished it when we did our podcast. Since then, 582 00:46:22.320 --> 00:46:27.400 I've I've watched very little apart from I've watched two more episodes of Hijack the 583 00:46:27.440 --> 00:46:32.639 series on oh Plus, and but I've continued I didn't but I should I 584 00:46:32.840 --> 00:46:40.159 Yeah, Well, the entire series, well at least i've seen episodes one 585 00:46:40.400 --> 00:46:46.239 through six don't live up to the promise of the first episode, right, 586 00:46:47.039 --> 00:46:54.360 and it's it's um it all takes place almost in real time, I think, 587 00:46:54.480 --> 00:47:00.159 possibly in real time. Um So it's a sort of um it starts 588 00:47:00.159 --> 00:47:04.880 with the plane being hijacked. That happens sort of midway through episode one, 589 00:47:05.280 --> 00:47:07.239 and then the remaining I don't know how many episodes there are, possibly ten, 590 00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:12.119 but so so the next nine episodes all seemed to take place on the 591 00:47:12.119 --> 00:47:14.880 plane, at least I'm assuming they do, because we haven't were any over 592 00:47:15.119 --> 00:47:20.920 I mean episode six and we're any flying over hungry it's any Pera's any about, 593 00:47:21.000 --> 00:47:24.440 you know, halfway home from Dubai to London. So I

think it 594 00:47:24.480 --> 00:47:30.440 all takes place on the plane, seemingly in real time, and so they 595 00:47:30.519 --> 00:47:34.960 have to kind of invent I mean, it's quite it sort of stretches the 596 00:47:35.079 --> 00:47:42.719 capabilities of the scriptwriters to come up with a sufficient quantity of drama to fill 597 00:47:42.760 --> 00:47:46.239 this kind of eight hour flight with or seven hour flight with. So yeah, 598 00:47:46.400 --> 00:47:51.800 it feels sometimes the dramas feel a bit manufactured, and you know, 599 00:47:52.239 --> 00:47:58.360 the hijackers seems sort of slightly implausibly stupid, and Idris Elba seems to constantly 600 00:47:58.360 --> 00:48:00.920 get the better of them, even though he's caught getting the better of them 601 00:48:00.920 --> 00:48:02.920 over and over again, and yet somehow that doesn't stop him from be able 602 00:48:02.920 --> 00:48:07.119 to get get the better of them in the next episode. So it's it's 603 00:48:07.159 --> 00:48:09.119 sort of yeah, it's all right, quite entertaining, and I'll probably watch 604 00:48:09.119 --> 00:48:15.440 it till the end, but it's it's it's certainly not a kind of class 605 00:48:15.440 --> 00:48:20.599 A thriller. I'd say it was a kind of class C thriller. Ah, 606 00:48:20.719 --> 00:48:23.239 right, have we found out yet why did they hijack the plane? 607 00:48:23.599 --> 00:48:27.920 No? Not yet. Well we have hints at it. Yeah, but 608 00:48:27.960 --> 00:48:32.320 it seems it's it's so sort of implausible that that that it's it's it's hard 609 00:48:32.320 --> 00:48:36.719 to credit that that's the real reason. But yeah, I won't, I 610 00:48:36.719 --> 00:48:42.719 won't no spoilers, but yeah, that that's gradually emerging. Um by the 611 00:48:42.719 --> 00:48:46.360 time you get to episode six. So have you seen Barbieheimer? Have you 612 00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:52.559 seen either Barbie or Oppenheimer or Mission Impossible seven urbs. It's a nightmare. 613 00:48:53.239 --> 00:49:00.440 My wretched family all want to go and see Oppenheimer. You know how long 614 00:49:00.480 --> 00:49:05.199 it is? Three hours? Three hours of just kind of made up shit 615 00:49:05.800 --> 00:49:12.480 about about made up nuclear bombs. It's just I don't believe any of the 616 00:49:12.559 --> 00:49:17.719 narrative about about Oppenheimer. I don't believe that that when he when he witnessed 617 00:49:17.719 --> 00:49:22.320 the first nuclear bast that the thought came into his into his head. Um, 618 00:49:23.440 --> 00:49:29.000 whatever it was that quote from from that Sanskrit um you know, I'm 619 00:49:29.039 --> 00:49:31.599 become death, destroyer of worlds. I just think that was just kind of 620 00:49:31.639 --> 00:49:37.920 made up to kind of ratify this this non event, which obviously you'd expect 621 00:49:37.920 --> 00:49:42.920 this take from me. I listened to this really good Germ Warfare podcast, 622 00:49:43.719 --> 00:49:47.599 UM talking to a

guy I think he's German who talks about the Hiroshima and 623 00:49:49.039 --> 00:49:52.599 Nagasaki bombs, which were you know, we're told fat Man and little Boy, 624 00:49:52.639 --> 00:49:57.079 you know, all about the crew that took part in this and stuff. 625 00:49:57.960 --> 00:50:02.400 Um. I am persuaded having listened to the very compelling evidence that they 626 00:50:02.440 --> 00:50:08.199 did not have nuclear bomb technology ready between August the sixth and the ninth, 627 00:50:08.360 --> 00:50:12.400 nineteen forty five. But that was just that they were actually just far bombing 628 00:50:12.639 --> 00:50:16.880 raids which which were which rebranded as nuclear nuclear bombs. And the reason we 629 00:50:16.920 --> 00:50:22.559 know this, by the way, is the remarkable lack of nuclear or whatever 630 00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:29.000 it is, nuclear efficient, or that the things you would expect to be 631 00:50:29.039 --> 00:50:35.199 there indicating a nuclear bomb had gone off in Hiroshima and Nagasaki are not there. 632 00:50:35.840 --> 00:50:39.719 So I'm thinking that the release of this film is very suspicious making. 633 00:50:39.880 --> 00:50:43.920 I don't buy into anything it's going to tell us. Even though I haven't 634 00:50:43.960 --> 00:50:46.000 seen it yet, I'm sure it's going to be lies because Hollywood is the 635 00:50:46.119 --> 00:50:51.480 lie machine. I mean, it's one of the main reasons that it's the 636 00:50:51.519 --> 00:50:54.639 main ways that they control us. That it is just a massive, massive 637 00:50:54.719 --> 00:50:58.559 style. So no, but I'm going to have to go and see it, 638 00:50:58.559 --> 00:51:01.760 and I'm going to bloody hate every moment I know it. I'm going 639 00:51:01.800 --> 00:51:06.679 to have to I'm probably going to try and see all three, probably not 640 00:51:06.800 --> 00:51:09.840 on the same evening, but I need to go and see Barbie. I've 641 00:51:09.840 --> 00:51:14.760 already been asked James to to Well to write one piece on Barbie and to 642 00:51:14.920 --> 00:51:17.639 come on, I think, to GB News, possibly someone else, to 643 00:51:19.000 --> 00:51:23.000 Channel five that's right to talk about Barbie. And I keep having to confess 644 00:51:23.039 --> 00:51:25.960 that I haven't actually seen it yet. So I'm going to try, I 645 00:51:27.000 --> 00:51:29.880 think, and go and see it tonight, so next time I get a 646 00:51:29.960 --> 00:51:35.840 kind of Barbie request, I'll be able to fulfill it. It's clearly kind 647 00:51:35.880 --> 00:51:39.679 of stoked the culture war in America because I mean, I don't know if 648 00:51:39.719 --> 00:51:46.559 you've read a summary of Barbie, but apparently Ken is portrayed very unflatteringly, 649 00:51:47.360 --> 00:51:53.000 and hell, he wears pink. And he goes off to Los Angeles and 650 00:51:53.039 --> 00:51:58.280 discovers something called the patriarchy, which he's absolutely delighted by because it means he 651 00:51:58.320

--> 00:52:04.599 can then predate on vulnerable women and exploit them. Meanwhile, Barbie, who 652 00:52:04.639 --> 00:52:09.079 thinks that she's an empowered working girl, discovers that nothing's really changed, so 653 00:52:09.280 --> 00:52:15.960 leads a kind of revolt to actually genuinely empower women. And it's just it's 654 00:52:16.000 --> 00:52:22.679 just kind of reheated feminist propaganda of the most kind of banal kind, supposedly, 655 00:52:23.320 --> 00:52:29.800 and lots of Republican movie girls who've been forced by their demanding daughters to 656 00:52:29.800 --> 00:52:34.719 take them to see it in the Midwest of very cross that they've been bombarded 657 00:52:34.760 --> 00:52:39.239 with this kind of anti family propaganda. So I think I do have to 658 00:52:39.239 --> 00:52:43.000 go and see it so I can I can talk more eloquently about it. 659 00:52:43.840 --> 00:52:50.360 Have you heard, by the way, the AI AI I think it is 660 00:52:50.400 --> 00:52:58.079 AI has done this thing where it has got Johnny Cash singing I'm a Barbie 661 00:52:58.079 --> 00:53:04.519 girl in the Barbie World to the tune of of um you know, I 662 00:53:04.519 --> 00:53:07.159 shot a man in Reno and I watched him die that one, right, 663 00:53:07.440 --> 00:53:13.559 um, and it does sound like Johnny Cash singing I'm a Barbie girl in 664 00:53:13.559 --> 00:53:19.800 the Barbie world. Well it's really spooky. So so you don't know anymore 665 00:53:19.920 --> 00:53:22.920 that the technology is sufficiently advanced. You don't know whether I am actually an 666 00:53:22.000 --> 00:53:28.239 AI bought here not to celebrate James Danningpole, but to bury him, right 667 00:53:28.559 --> 00:53:30.679 right? Could be that would explain a lot, James. Maybe maybe I 668 00:53:30.719 --> 00:53:34.719 say, I've to say all this crazy ship because I'm not the real James 669 00:53:34.760 --> 00:53:37.199 Danningpole. The real James Dannypole is in a seller, and the real James 670 00:53:37.280 --> 00:53:43.079 Dannipole complete tit that he is. He's still teamed Toby. He still agrees 671 00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:45.000 with everything Toby says, but he can't say it because he's locked in the 672 00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.639 cellar. I knew the term would come when you'd come up with a theory 673 00:53:49.679 --> 00:53:53.159 about yourself. So yeah, that's I'm surprised it's taking you this long, 674 00:53:53.239 --> 00:54:00.519 James. I've also I've now very nearly finished Anna Coronina. I found out 675 00:54:00.599 --> 00:54:04.599 how she dies spoiler alert, sorry, she does die, and of course, 676 00:54:04.719 --> 00:54:06.719 as soon as I read it, I remembered how she died. I 677 00:54:06.760 --> 00:54:08.840 was getting confused. I thought that it was Madam Bovary that died like this, 678 00:54:08.960 --> 00:54:14.920 not Anna Corona. Anyway, I am now I can say absolutely that 679 00:54:14.960 --> 00:54:17.000 this is the best novel it's ever written. And I

don't know where to 680 00:54:17.000 --> 00:54:19.920 get well, I know where I'm going to go next, because I was 681 00:54:19.920 --> 00:54:24.280 halfway through Gogol's Dead Souls and I haven't finished that yet. But I would 682 00:54:24.280 --> 00:54:34.119 say now that my top three novels I've I've read are number one Anna Karnina, 683 00:54:34.360 --> 00:54:37.119 number two Warren Peace, and I think I think number three Crime and 684 00:54:37.199 --> 00:54:42.840 Punishment, probably edges it over Brothers Karamtsof, which is which is sort of 685 00:54:42.920 --> 00:54:45.239 unwieldy and kind of yeah, I think I think it's a more perfect book 686 00:54:45.280 --> 00:54:50.159 crime punk. What are your top three? Let me chack The Destroyer Men 687 00:54:50.239 --> 00:54:58.199 one, destroy two and Deathly Hallows. I think I'm I don't think I've 688 00:54:58.239 --> 00:55:01.840 even read the Deathly Hello's, so um well, I could certainly recommend the 689 00:55:01.880 --> 00:55:06.519 Destroyer Men books, so I think there's fourteen of them internal possibly even more. 690 00:55:06.960 --> 00:55:09.679 Um yeah, the artillery Men the sequel isn't quite as good, but 691 00:55:10.079 --> 00:55:15.559 I think my favorite novel of all time, James is um David Copperfield. 692 00:55:17.360 --> 00:55:24.840 I'm a huge Dickens fan, and I struggle to um rank David Copperfield Great 693 00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:31.679 Expectations, Um, Hard Times, Bleak House, little Dorit. I love 694 00:55:31.719 --> 00:55:37.920 them all, but I think David Copperfield just just pips it um. And 695 00:55:37.360 --> 00:55:43.559 I'm also a big Jane Osten fan. Um. I like you know, 696 00:55:44.320 --> 00:55:47.480 all of her novels, but probably Pride and Prejudice the best. She was 697 00:55:47.519 --> 00:55:54.639 a woman. Yeah, and I guess either Vackeray's Vanity Fair or George Elliot's 698 00:55:55.039 --> 00:56:00.599 Middle March. You don't like, nobody likes I do like I do like. 699 00:56:00.679 --> 00:56:07.280 So a crusty old vicar called doctor Kasaba Kazabon spends his time in his 700 00:56:07.360 --> 00:56:13.920 dusty tone and what's her name, Dorothea is married to this dry old stick 701 00:56:14.280 --> 00:56:17.320 and they hang around the Midlands. And it goes on for about how many 702 00:56:17.360 --> 00:56:21.719 pages? How can you love that boring book? No? I didn't find 703 00:56:21.719 --> 00:56:24.880 it boring at all. Life and it completely bewitching and absorbing. And I 704 00:56:24.920 --> 00:56:30.000 always stopped by George Elliot's grave when I visit my own parents grave in Highgate 705 00:56:30.119 --> 00:56:35.280 Cemetery, And people have always put pens in the grave. That's their way 706 00:56:35.320 --> 00:56:39.280 of paying tribute to George Eliots. So it's like a sea of pen stuck 707 00:56:39.280 --> 00:56:44.800 into the ground. How how very how very very tarsome. Now, I 708 00:56:45.360 --> 00:56:46.920 don't I don't think that's

the way you're looking for. It won't be doing, 709 00:56:47.039 --> 00:56:50.599 can't be doing with Georget, It can't be doing with Dickens. There's 710 00:56:50.679 --> 00:56:53.800 only one Dickens book I enjoy because it is so unlike Dickens that it feels 711 00:56:53.800 --> 00:56:55.760 like you're not reading a Dickens book. Do you know what that one is? 712 00:56:59.159 --> 00:57:01.880 A Tale of Two City. Yes, it's it's so weird. It's 713 00:57:01.960 --> 00:57:06.599 so unlike Dickens. It's like reading something that I don't know what was it? 714 00:57:06.679 --> 00:57:09.239 Really? Yeah, It's like it's like a yeah, it's more of 715 00:57:09.239 --> 00:57:14.280 a kind of historical adventure story, isn't. It's more like Bernard Cornwall than 716 00:57:14.599 --> 00:57:17.239 Charles Dickens. It's almost like he had an editor for a change that he 717 00:57:17.280 --> 00:57:22.599 ain't being paid by the word. Yeah yeah, now, I yeah, 718 00:57:22.599 --> 00:57:27.239 I see. I enjoyed that. I think the least of all his novels. 719 00:57:27.320 --> 00:57:31.480 I much prefer, you know, classic Dickens. It is unlike the 720 00:57:31.519 --> 00:57:37.519 others. Yeah, yeah, oh well so um yeah, so I'm I'm 721 00:57:37.599 --> 00:57:45.639 I'm still working my way through Framley Parsonage. Um, And it's funny you 722 00:57:45.639 --> 00:57:51.000 should mention the death of Anna Karenina, because the heroine of Framley Parsonage, 723 00:57:51.000 --> 00:57:57.440 who is delightful girl called Lucy Roberts. I've just where I'm about three quarters 724 00:57:57.440 --> 00:58:04.280 of the way through, and she's so selfless and saintly that she is just 725 00:58:04.800 --> 00:58:12.039 embarked upon. She's moved into the house of a poor Vicker's wife who's got 726 00:58:12.079 --> 00:58:15.320 Typhus, having moved the children out to protect them, and she's moved in 727 00:58:15.320 --> 00:58:22.800 in order to nurse this ailing woman. And I'm now terrified that Lucy Roberts, 728 00:58:22.840 --> 00:58:25.960 who I've obviously come to love, is going to die of Typhus, 729 00:58:25.960 --> 00:58:29.760 and it's going to have a tragic ending which would be quite untroulliped like. 730 00:58:29.880 --> 00:58:34.000 So I'm reasonably confident it won't happen, but I guess you know, I'm 731 00:58:34.039 --> 00:58:38.039 now caught up in the drama and terrified that she's going to catch Typhus and 732 00:58:38.159 --> 00:58:44.360 die. Well, exactly, I think he dangles these prospects before you to 733 00:58:44.440 --> 00:58:46.800 frighten you, and it's all it's all about. It's like a conjurings trick. 734 00:58:47.119 --> 00:58:52.519 It's all about misdirection. And actually the trajectory novel has been obvious from 735 00:58:52.559 --> 00:58:55.920 the start, because one knows what kind of moral arc that his novels tend 736 00:58:55.960 --> 00:59:01.079 to follow. And we know, for example, I'm guessing that Phineas Finn 737 00:59:01.599 --> 00:59:06.079 has to marry the nice the nice girl from Ireland rather than you know, 738 00:59:06.199 --> 00:59:12.000 the millionaires or or whatever. In the same way, I feel quite strongly 739 00:59:12.000 --> 00:59:16.360 that Phineas Finn should somehow be made to abandon his career um if you can 740 00:59:16.400 --> 00:59:22.880 call it that, in parliament. What I what I've noticed that that Trollop 741 00:59:22.000 --> 00:59:28.079 and told story that they're not often compared because they don't have much in common, 742 00:59:28.599 --> 00:59:32.039 but they both seem to be at this point in their career, is 743 00:59:32.159 --> 00:59:38.599 quite skeptical of the of the kind of the state of the of the parliamentary 744 00:59:38.599 --> 00:59:43.480 system. You know, there are characters who point out really how appalling it 745 00:59:43.559 --> 00:59:47.880 is that that somebody with no discernible talent talents should be given a job and 746 00:59:49.039 --> 00:59:54.679 paid um from the public purse from the taxpayer to make legislation which is probably 747 00:59:54.719 --> 01:00:00.239 deliterious to the taxpayers interests. And I think it's fair clear that Trollop is 748 01:00:00.280 --> 01:00:05.239 of that party. Tolstoy certainly is. I mean, I wouldn't like to 749 01:00:05.239 --> 01:00:08.639 have lived in Russia in that time, because either you had to have massive 750 01:00:08.679 --> 01:00:14.199 inherited money or because there was no little class where it was, or you 751 01:00:14.320 --> 01:00:19.960 or you had to work for the States somehow. Get that's certainly true of 752 01:00:20.159 --> 01:00:24.360 Dickens too, who actually worked as a parliamentary reporter in the kind of that 753 01:00:24.639 --> 01:00:28.920 was the sort of first writing gig. I think, Um, yes, 754 01:00:29.119 --> 01:00:37.440 So the equivalent of the circumlocution Office, which is dickens kind of parody of 755 01:00:37.559 --> 01:00:43.760 how Whitehall operates in um friendly parsonage, is the office of the petty Bag. 756 01:00:44.360 --> 01:00:46.880 So the Office of the petti Bag is a kind of obscure Whitehall department 757 01:00:46.880 --> 01:00:52.119 which essentially gives out grace and favored ball balls to kind of favored creatures of 758 01:00:52.159 --> 01:00:58.719 the government. Yeah. Yeah, well good, So novels, novels aren't 759 01:00:58.719 --> 01:01:04.000 aren't totally destructed? No, actually no, well they weren't. They weren't 760 01:01:04.039 --> 01:01:07.079 then anyway, Right, Well, I suppose we should go and do our 761 01:01:07.119 --> 01:01:08.920 things. Yeah, so hopefully next week I'll be able to talk to you 762 01:01:08.920 --> 01:01:13.440 about Barbie, and maybe maybe we'll both be able to discuss Oppenheimer as well. 763 01:01:13.760 --> 01:01:17.960 Yeah, I know, three hours, it's quite grueling prospects, three 764 01:01:19.000 --> 01:01:22.400 hours of acting, actors doing acting. It's it's going to be, isn't 765 01:01:22.440 --> 01:01:24.920 it. Yes? And I'm sure, I'm sure it has a kind of 766 01:01:25.039 --> 01:01:32.239 anti nuclear subtext, which is, you know, reach across to nuclear energy 767 01:01:32.320 --> 01:01:37.840 as well. We've essentially unleashed this demon and we've condemned ourselves as a consequence. 768 01:01:38.760 --> 01:01:43.599 Anyway, maybe I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong. But it was 769 01:01:43.599 --> 01:01:46.199 interesting. Actually, it's just before we go, Matt Ridley, I'll opposed 770 01:01:46.239 --> 01:01:52.239 the question how many films actually celebrate innovation, science and technology compared to how 771 01:01:52.280 --> 01:01:59.760 many portray innovation, science and technology as kind of mankind undoing. And I 772 01:01:59.760 --> 01:02:02.079 think he's certainly right. There are very It's very hard to think of many 773 01:02:02.119 --> 01:02:07.239 films which are kind of optimistic from a kind of sci fi tech point of 774 01:02:07.320 --> 01:02:09.960 view. About the Top Gun Top Gun one and two, Yeah, and 775 01:02:10.280 --> 01:02:14.840 the Star Trek films of course. But but but they are the exceptions. 776 01:02:15.079 --> 01:02:21.880 Mostly they are kind of they portray the future as kind of techno dystopias. 777 01:02:22.440 --> 01:02:27.920 Tech noir is a much more popular genre than films celebrating tech like Star Trek. 778 01:02:29.440 --> 01:02:37.119 Yeah, right, okay, James, next week, this is London, 779 01:02:37.239 --> 01:02:57.199 fully Ricochet join the conversation.