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.

We've managed to survive yet another hot summer weekend without too much cause for a laugh,

which is surprising, is it not, as we are in the grip of the worst pandemic this world has ever seen.

Or are we?

As Greater Manchester Police declared a major incident in the area,

they then immediately said it was nothing to worry about. Apparently it's just a way of getting more resources to the

area. To see how this works. So they have all this new language that they've created. They

basically say, oh yes, it's a massive emergency. It is a massive major incident. But then they go,

but there's nothing to worry about. Well, then why'd you call it a massive major incident then? The coronavirus death toll meanwhile rose by. Get ready for it? Eight. I'll just repeat that for those of you who are at the back and who might not have heard. That's a big fat eight, as a beautiful South might have said. Compared to the number of infections,

which is currently running at 304,695, that amounts to 0.0003%. Are you worried about that? Because I'm not.

Meanwhile, families can't mix with one another. You can't mingle with people you don't know in the pub and civil servants who refuse to come back to work because it's too dangerous. At the weekend, there were even suggestions that everyone over 50 will somehow be graded for their own safety. Well, I, for one, don't believe a word of it. When on earth is this madness going to end? We'll be asking mail on Sunday columnist Peter Hitchens a little bit later on. I'm pretty sure I know what he's going to say about it. 0344-4-491,000. First up today, though,

it is the eminently sensible and recently ennobled former Labour MP, Kate Hoey. Congratulations are in order,

of course, and she'll be a very welcome addition to the House of Laws. But the honours list was not without its critics, as you might expect.

I'll be asking her what she makes of the current COVID policies and where we should be going from here.

0344-491,000.

We'll also be picking up where Nigel Farage left off last week

on the strange case of the illegal migrants

and the giant public service company, Circo.

How on earth do they manage to get so many government contracts

awarded to them in all sorts of areas, from the Ministry of Justice and tagging prisoners to

transporting prisoners, to running the Docklands Light Railway, to running ferries in Scotland,

...