What most people think.

Hello and welcome to this week's episode of what most people think.

And last week we had a stunning debut from Scott Capuro to do check out that episode. But this week is what most people think royalty is Simon Evans. Welcome back to the show, Simon. What most people think is royalty? That's me, is it? I think it's both those things. You've definitely got the voice for it. And it's a real shame that people, I mean, on YouTube, they might be able to see it. but your bookshelf up in the corner, I can't, it's very, I'm seeing.

Hang on a minute. I'm going to get it for you. I'm suspecting that there might be some problematic books in here. So can you talk us through what we can see here? Okay. I mean, it's extremely, it's extremely heavy. So I'll talk you through. That is my

specially selected problematic bookshelf, and it consists of Simon Heffer's biography of Enoch Powell,

like the Roman, Sir Oswald Mosley's own autobiography. Fascinating, read that one.

Strong choice. We are doomed by John Derbyshire, a trenchant right-wing reactionary in America. The Age of Entitlement by Christopher Caldwell laying the blame for America's present woes at the feet of the civil rights legislation in the mid-60s. Okay, so I'm getting a flavour. I'm getting a flavour. So is this that you're kind of hoping that people will notice?

Well, there was a few years ago, I don't know if you remember there was, I think Michael Gove did a Zoom call and somebody zoomed in on, was it Archaeo Futurism, one of the sort of new right, a French author can't remember his name. But yeah, everyone became very interested in what books you could isolate in a mainstream

politician's bookshelf that would show that they had a bit of a dark side to them.

There you go, so I deliberately curated one for that purpose.

I'm going to put it back now because it's extraordinarily heavy.

So I would say that if you're new to what most people think, we have a range of guests on. And one thing that somebody said, there was a really nice review, but somebody said not all the guests are my cup of tea. But that's what I like. I like the fact that people are listened to this are challenged. There's far too many podcasts that are the same two people every week having a cozy little chat about minor disagreements between

them, whereas this one, it's a bit of like one of those mystery boxes. You know, like, the kids like now where you get a prize and you don't know what the fuck is in it. I've gone against all the podcast rules, and you never know, you might have a Simon Evans this week. You might have a Mark still the following week. I would say as well, Simon, is the, you know, I was sad to see that the headliners, the GB News show, is that now finished, is it? They have officially cancelled it for the time being at any rate. We are working out our notice period, those of us who had contracts there. Some people were on a sort of gig basis and others. I had a contract. So I'm still employed by them

until November and they introduce us into the final hour. It's now Patrick Christie's has three

hours from nine till midnight and they bring a headliner on most nights and send one of the previous

guests home. So he normally has three people on his panel from 9 till 11 and one of those goes home

and a headliner is slotted in. So there's still a little bit of a headline of flavour on the show.

So you're sort of doing that kind of chat that I do on the Jeremy Vine show, just the sort of like

the right wing version of that panel type news chat? Yeah, well, of course, obviously they, you know,

they aren't quite balanced to be fair, Patrick Christie. Normally, has a right and a left, and it's left on. Nina Mishko, for instance, I've been on every time against her. The first time, there was a bit of a collision, a bit of a flare up over her friend Esther Ranson, who I mocked gently. I can give you the details if you want, but. Yeah, I'm totally looking for gossip and duty.

That's what I brought up. Well, no, it was exactly. It was, to be fair, it was probably more to do with the headline writer, but when they passed the assisted dying bill or when it seemed to, it was heading off to the lords and it had the window, it's back. And the mirror headline said, this is a wonderful present for Dame Esther Ranson, who celebrates her 85th birthday this week or something,

a birthday she had feared she would not live to see.

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