Hello and welcome to Not Another One and the second of our weekly episodes, we are going to talk a bit about the broader democratic landscape across the West.

We've had dramatic election results in Germany.

We've got the tumultuous second coming of President Trump at the White House.

We've got the rise of reform here in the UK.

We've got President Macron still pretending he's the leader of the Western world, even with Marine Le Pen breathing down his neck. What's going on? Is it a kind of terminal polarization everywhere? Or is there still common ground? And what's the next front in the culture war, I guess. I think before we dive in, though, chaps,

we should try and share with listeners what's cheering us up

because we had a lot of feedback after last week's episodes

that people are so depressed by the news

that they're kind of looking for chinks of light.

And, you know, we all spend our entire time thinking about politics

I've got one really great

chink of light from this week politically

Ian have you got anything cheery

no

nothing no okay moving

since on our WhatsApp group this question was posed

I've been traumatised by this question I can't think

I can't think of anything I'm really sorry

sorry okay it's hopeless. Have a,

have a ginger nut. That's a reason to be cheered. But they'll crunch it too closely to the microphone.

So apart from biscuits, which I also always find cheering, Steve, what can you find as, like,

political source of light? Oh, it's not really as political source of light?

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