Lone Starmer State

Alex Andreou and Naomi Smith welcome special guest LBC host James O'Brien to discuss Starmer's trip to Washington. What is the best he could come back with? And was raising defence at the expense of aid worth it? And of course 'Wokey Dokey' and 'Grin And Share It'. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** “The idea that history was over, because the Cold War was over, the Berlin Wall had come down, and liberal democracy had prevailed over the extremes of fascism or communism, was irresistible in 1989. So, this isn’t just about Ukraine. It’s about recognising we’re returning to an unsafe world.”  “This defence spending announcement is a signal, an in-principle decision, that we are entering an era where hard power matters more than soft power. It is difficult to disagree with that assessment of the world right now.” “The bottom line is: the world changed last week in ways that nobody could have foreseen. And Starmer has done the thing that Starmer is quite good at - when the facts have changed he’s changed his mind.” “Badenoch channels the worst of Penny Mordaunt and Liz Truss. It’s 50% Mordaunt shouting ‘stand and fight and stand and stand and fight and stand’ and 50% Truss going ‘we’ve got 10 and 1/2 minutes to save Western civilisation.” “The problem is many of the benefits of soft power are intangible - you can’t easily put a dollar value on a population not being displaced or someone not becoming radicalised. But it feels instinctively like it must be cheaper than hard power.” “Yes, using a logical train, in light of everything Trump has said and done, NATO is over. But using logical trains, when it comes to Trump is pointless. So until someone makes a compelling case of why it is in Trump’s personal interest, even NATO is subject to his caprice.” “It’s so hard to look at everything not through a lens of normality bias. I’ve caught myself so often, lately, thinking: this can’t be as bad as it looks, because I am biased towards believing that the danger cannot be as great as it appears.” CALLS TO ACTION LINKS: Click to find out more about Help for Heroes. An old - but still extremely useful - Charity Commission guide on choosing the right charity to support. Grin and Share It on the CBI report about Britain's Green Economy. James's encounter with Charlie, the farmer. Our bookshop featuring many of the books we have featured can be found at uk.bookshop.org/shop/quietriot. Kick your X habit, finally, by using one of three Quiet Riot Bluesky Starter Packs. With one click, it will hook you up with, among many good accounts, Alex, Naomi, and Kenny. ***SPONSOR US AT KO-FI.COM/QUIETRIOTPOD*** With Naomi Smith, Alex Andreou and Kenny Campbell – in cahoots with Sandstone Global. Email us at [email protected]. Or visit our website www.quietriotpod.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices