This is a Global Player Original podcast.

It's three minutes after 10.

And thank you for choosing James O'Brien on LBC today.

I hope that I live up to the confidence that you are showing in me.

And I mention that because I am poised, I think, to annoy pretty much everybody with the

introduction to this programme. I've been thinking about footballification, which is a word I think

I invented, but it's certainly not a concept I invented. It's just a slightly layered way of saying

tribalism. The difference between tribalism and footballification is that in

football there are only two teams on the pitch, whereas tribalism can accommodate a myriad of tribes.

And I was thinking about the Keir-Starma Peter Mandelson vetting story, which is no longer the Keir-Starma, Peter Mandelson vetting story, which is no longer the Keir Stama, Peter Mandelson vetting story,

is it? It's the Keir Stama, Ollie Robbins, sacking story. And I think I'm fairly confident

that the sacking of Olly Robbins is now a bigger problem for the Prime Minister in the perceptions

of most importantly many of his colleagues, never mind the public or voters or his enemies, but many of his colleagues, the sacking of Ollie Robbins, is now looking more problematic than the supposed alleged failure in vetting of Peter Mandelson.

But I was thinking that footballification doesn't work at the moment,

does it? Because there aren't two teams. It's quite a moment for me this. I've found

footballification to be an incredibly helpful key with which to unlock almost all of the big

political movements of the last few years.

In fact, it's probably worth reminding ourselves Brexit, right?

Utterly binary.

Entirely footballification.

I think there was a little bit of dabbling around in the shallows at one point with, you know,

left-wing levers, the Lexit idea or the, we're not going to leave everything we're only going to leave this

...