Good morning. It's three minutes after ten and you are listening to James O'Brien on LBC.

A quick word of thanks for all the extremely kind words about the remarkable achievement of this radio program

in the most recent listening figures, but onwards and upwards.

Onwards and upwards, thanks most of all, of course, to my crack team of producers, Keith, Eleanor and Shivani, most obviously.

Four minutes after ten is the time.

You are listening to James O'Brien on LBC.

As you just picked up there in the news bulletin, the situation in Northern Ireland is now

escalating.

We won't be taking calls on this, I don't think, today, because we need to wait for some of the dust at least

to settle. But we will reflect briefly upon one simple fact. Northern Ireland voted to remain

in the European Union. And yet the Agriculture Minister, Edwin Poutts, who comes from the DUP

party, is today, or has

today broken international law by breaching the terms of the Northern Ireland protocol

put in place by British and EU negotiators to protect the Good Friday Agreement, which, of course,

the DUP were also opposed to.

So you'll remember when some people whispered in your ear that warnings about the threat to the peace process in Northern Ireland were Project Fear. And of course, the list of the people that did that

is almost identical to the list of the people who bear responsibility for the escalating scandals

at the very heart of British politics,

you'll realise now they were lying to you. We'll get more detail on that later in the programme.

Unfortunately, they are also the people in charge of the country as we lurch towards what looks

like being one of the nastiest cost of living crises in living memory. The looming rises in

fuel prices are eye-watering. Even for those of us lucky enough, not to have to think twice

...