We gave the boys the week off last week and told them to go enjoy themselves. Our bad. As we catch up with Toby and James after the holidays, they share their Christmas disaster stories – James got vertigo playing on a roundabout with his three year-old granddaughter, while Toby stayed in the Airbnb-from-hell in Cardiff. For 2023 they discuss the pros and cons of Veganuary and/or Dry January (one... Source

Family Christmas and Other Disasters

James Delingpole and Toby Young discuss and explain British and European politics and culture for their American audience.

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Politics

Now, where were we?Oh, yes. Time to catch up with old (and we mean old!) friends. Toby has a health scare and James is having more than a few regrets about missed opportunities and the loss of weekly get togethers.But, of course, if there was always one thing we all could agree one it was good books and criticising the telly. This month we take on the BBC's self examination in The Reckoning which has Steve Coogan playing disgraced BBC presenter and notorious pedophile Jimmy Savile, Isaac Asimov's Foundation (AppleTV), One Piece (Netflix) and The Boys spinoff, Gen V (Prime).Opening sound this week is actor Steve Coogan talking about playing Jimmy Savile on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg (BBC One)

Where Were We?

In 1935 Cole Porter penned a tune called "Just One of Those Things" about a love affair "too hot not to cool down." And so it goes.What started out as a podcast critiquing Game Of Thrones relaunched as London Calling on Nov. 6, 2015. We've been around for five Prime Ministers, three US Presidents, two Monarchs, Brexit and a worldwide pandemic. Our intrepid duo has broadcast from 11 different countries from three different continents with barely a week off. And now we're taking a break.This is not goodbye but "until we meet again." Toby and James will return in October with a slightly revamped programme and the plan (for now) is come to you once a month after that. Stay tuned.So goodbye, goodbye, bye, bye, goodbye baby and amen -Here's hoping we'll meet now and then...It was great funBut it was just one of those things.Opening sound this week comes to you from KHNL, Honolulu.

Just One of Those Things

Everyone is a little miserable this week, fueled by the rainy summer England has had this year.Or maybe because we're all getting a little bit older. James "celebrated" #58 this past weekend and Toby isn't looking forward to #60 due this October.Toby tells James about having lunch with Sean Langan, who’s just back from the Donbas where he’s been making a documentary about the Ukrainian war seen through the eyes of Russian conscripts.James pulls Toby up about last week’s episode, in which he thinks Toby “attacked” him; Toby assures James that no one put him up to it (not even our producer, Evil Brian) and, in Culture Corner, Toby praises Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and season two of Yellowstone, while James says how much he enjoyed The Chosen One, a new Netflix series from Mark Miller, and describes Anna Karenina as the best novel he’s ever read.

Getting Old

This week James and Toby open the discussion with James’ recent gig in Dorset and the division in towns like Bridport and Totnes between the woke and the awake, particularly over traffic calming measures like LTNs, Ulez schemes and 15-minute cities.They go on to talk about Yuval Harari’s calling for ‘conspiracy theorists’ to be banned from the internet and Toby ask James to respond to Harari’s claim that many conspiracy theories, particularly those that blame the world’s problems on an elite cabal of billionaires and their acolytes, have an antisemitic component and that leads to a bigger argument about whether James’s conspiracy theory about the ‘death jabs,' Paul McCartney and 'manufactured' bands.In Culture Corner, Toby heaps praise on They Cloned Tyrone, a new sci-fi conspiracy thriller (Netflix) and Lioness, the new Taylor Sheridan series (Paramount+), while James enthuses about Kohrra, an Indian police procedural (Netflix.)This week's opening sound is Yuval Noah Harari's appearance on The Lex Fridman Podcast #390.

The Fab 2

It's hot in the Mediterranean and James and Toby discuss the recent forest fires in Greece and whether climate change or arsonists are to blame. This triggers an argument (From these two? Really?) about whether there are enough honest journalists left to expose such wrongdoing and that, in turn, leads to a heated discussion about whether the journalist Ross Clark is a genuine climate contrarian because concedes that the world has got a little bit warmer in the past 150 years.We then segue into a discussion of their holidays this year, both those they've already had and those they are planning, with James saying he may go to Amsterdam which leads to agreement that cannabis should probably not be legalised.Finally, in Culture Corner, James discusses the new University Challenge, as well as having almost finished Anna Karenina – which he declares the best novel he’s ever read – while Toby gives a lukewarm review to Hijack.Opening sound this week is CapX editor discussing Michael Gove's backtracking on Net Zero.

Family Christmas and Other Disasters

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