Ev On Everything

It was Hanukkah! At least, when you hear this the 8 day Jewish festival celebrating a revolt in 167 BCE will be over. And when you hear this there will still be antisemitism, sadly. Today there was an attack on the home of a Rabbi, during a celebration. Five people were stabbed. Then in London, antisemitic graffiti was daubed on a synagogue and on businesses. Why?

People say Christmas is under attack. It isn't. But its place in the world is definitely in flux, as society moves away from the need for a great midwinter feast, and towards modern post 20th Century consumerism. Fortunately Christmas is well able for the challenge.

I'm in Dublin, where I'm from, and Lupo isn't. Because the fires in Australia are still going on today, we start there, and with Scott Morrison. Then we go on to talk about a spacecraft with a problem, and finally get to doing some culture with the Apple+ TV show "For All Mankind."

If you're in Sydney, Australia, you probably shouldn't breathe. New South Wales is experiencing the worst fire season in history, and Sydney is blanketed in smoke and rained on by ash. This is unprecedented, and appalling. And Lupo has conjunctivitis too.

We're back after a brief midweek break, and back outside at the river. And the President of the United States of America has been impeached! Only the third time ever, and the first time since Nixon that the impeachment hearings have been entirely legitimate. So why is absolutely nothing about to happen?

A quick after the weekend election catch-up accidentally turns into a chat about the hidden biggest impact and change of the election here in the UK, and then I get into the real topic of the show, sports washing and the case of Mesut Özil.

So yesterday was a disaster. There was an election and it did not go well. So I talk a bit about how bad it feels, and how the result turned out the way it did, counter to what most people expected. And I talk about how the Tories are still Tories, not Brexit Bogeymen. There's a bad simile and a squirrel, but no Lupo because he had to stay home.

It's Election Day! The people of Britain are voting and so am I. Lupo and I went to the polling place, but only one of us was allowed to vote. Listen to find out which of us it was! I talk about how much I love voting, and why this election is important.

The Prime Minister was hiding in a fridge, in a neat encapsulation of everything that's wrong with the Tories' engagement with the public. We talk about why the PM prefers LBC to appearances to actual debates, and thankfully get back out in the weather, after yesterday's boomy indoor recording.

What was really going on when Boris Johnson suggested he might remove the BBC Licence Fee? Was it just a simple case of deflecting attention from his bad press?