leading Britain's conversation with James O'Brien.

Hello, three minutes after ten is the time, and you have made the frankly impeccable

decision to listen to James O'Brien on LBC this morning, where we will, among other things,

be discussing the curious state of British politics,

the importance of grouse shooting to the UK economy, and the complete absence some six or

seven months after this nightmarish pandemic began, the complete absence of tests, or the

profound shortage of tests, which in normal circumstances, that's probably going to be the phrase of the

week, isn't it? In normal circumstances, I think it would be a resignation issue. Perhaps I'm wrong.

But to not have it in place now, it's not as if you could claim to have been taken by surprise.

Talk of the second wave was in place long before the first wave ended. And the

reliance upon an effective and efficient testing and tracing regime, well, has been clear for months.

You need to have strong testing and tracing in place in order to safely return to school or return to

work or get on to public transport or do any of the things that we are mostly desperate to

start doing again on a scale much greater than we currently are. But we haven't got the tests.

Astonishing piece of journalism by Ben Kent. I've got to tell you at the moment that those of us who are

paid to pontificate upon our

programs, we are standing on the shoulders of giants when it comes to journalism.

Rachel Venables's work on the cladding scandal that continues to blight this country and leave

people in the unimaginable financial and social pain.

And yesterday, Ben Kent is leading the field on the shortage of these tests.

The 10 most acutely affected areas, all utterly unable to offer tests to people concerned that they might have coronavirus.

We will return to that topic, I think, after 11 o'clock today. I'm also keen to talk about mingling.

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