The

The Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the weekly podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thanks so much for tuning in, wherever you are in the UK or around the rest of the world.

And as ever, in our time together, we have got a lot to cram in. If it's okay with you, I'll reflect on

two or three things going on at the moment. Boris Johnson's speech in which he linked Brexit

with Ukraine, the P&O crisis, and the testimony

from the Foreign Office whistleblower about the exporting of animals from Afghanistan.

They're all connected. Everything connects in politics. We've got some fantastic questions from

you. One of the joys of this is that you kind of get an example from Australia of say how there's been a proliferation of independent candidates. And then you get today, from Ireland, another example of where there are a lot of independent candidates, but with a very different view, more on tuition fees from those absolutely in the field, so to speak.

And, of course, lots on Ukraine and what's going on in that ongoing dark nightmare.

So, yeah, tons.

So get rowing, running, baking and all the things that you do during the walking by a river.

It's a very popular one whilst listening to the podcast. Thanks those of you who tuned in to the Kingsplay stream or came to the live show.

We crammed in a lot that night. I reflected also, I'm going to return to this theme, and it's very topical in the week of

Rishi Sunak's big statement, the destabilizing impact of inflation. And we went back to the 70s,

you know, the decade of Slade and Bowie in his pomp and so on, but looked at the kind of,

that wasn't just about Bowie and Slade,

although it could have been and maybe should have been. But we looked at the kind of destabilising

impact of inflation, not only on people's lives and the economy, but within governments,

who find they can't plan ahead and constantly change policy as a result. And we're in that world.

It's nowhere near as bad. I mean, in the 70s, inflation went up to kind of the late 20s, percentage-wise

at times. And there was a point I mentioned it at King's Place where I remember my history teacher

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