This is LBC from Global, leading Britain's conversation with James O'Brien.

Three minutes after ten is the time. Come on, one last push, and it's the weekend.

Thank you for choosing LBC this morning. We've got quite a lot to get through.

And we begin with a story that I'm not entirely sure that it doesn't deserve to be described as

very emblematic of our age. Julian Assange hailed as an absolute hero by many who now consider

him to be close to a disgrace. And the facts of his alleged crimes in Sweden, of course,

haven't changed one jot since he was hailed as a hero.

It might sound a little bit odd.

But it reminded me at the time of Roman Polanski and the apparent ability of certain people to turn off their moral compass

when dealing with somebody whose work they admired so much,

so that what you might describe as personal moral transgressions allegedly get dwarfed by the public performance.

Do you know, I get here every morning. I sit there. I have chat with colleagues before we come on air.

And obviously I go through the newspapers with a fine tooth comb

and spend a little bit more time than I should probably on social media.

But I never know what's going to come out of my gob until the night goes on.

Where the hell did Roman Polanski just come from?

It works, though, doesn't it?

Because, and I stress, Julian Assange denies all the allegations of sexual assault and, et cetera,

that have been levelled against him.

I stress that completely.

But Roman Polanski, of course, convicted and yet given a free pass by many of the great and the good

in the, I suppose we'd have to describe it loosely as the liberal establishment on the grounds,

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