Across the UK, online, on DAB and on your smart speaker, the Independent Republic of Mike Graham, on Talk Radio.

Good morning and welcome to the Independent Republic of Mike Graham right here on Talk Radio.

I awoke this morning with a strange sense of foreboding.

There were messages on my phone from friends and family around the world,

and they were all about Boris, the genuine shock of the knowledge

that the Prime Minister had been taken into the intensive care ward

at St Thomas's Hospital in London last night has affected everyone.

And it's only natural.

As Julie Hartley-Brewer explained magnificently this morning,

Boris is not just our Prime Minister. He is a totem pole for the health of the nation. He is larger

than life. He is a character. He is a man who seems unassailable, a man who seems like he can

beat anything. The news that his life could be in danger was truly shocking. And I think we're

all affected in the same way. I've been following an awful

lot of you on social media. And many of you, some friends of mine, some people I don't even know,

are all exhibiting the same kind of feelings. But as you might expect, the show today will be

an oasis of calm. Of course we wish Boris Johnson well, and we are hearing that he is not on a

ventilator at this point, which is very good news.

We will monitor the situation, and we will bring you all the news and updates that you expect

from talk radio, as you have come to expect from talk radio, because we are here not to give

you the bad news, not to bring you down, not to be pessimists, not to be critical overly

of anything that the government is doing,

but to ask the right questions, to try and get information for you that you can use,

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