Hello, I'm Hugo Rifkin, and now we're going to be unpacking the politics of the day.

From the risks and rewards of a closer relationship with China, whether the Gorton and Denton by-election will be our most divisive yet,

and whether the problem with social media is not the nasty content, but the addictive algorithms.

And joining me today, the deeply addictive Times columnist, Juliet Samuel. Hello, Juliet. Good morning. How are you? Very well. Good to have you here. And Matthew Paris. Matthew, how are you? Good morning. Just come down from Cambridge. Oh, really? How was Cambridge? Pretty good, sunny. Really? I've hardly, I was at Cambridge. I've hardly seen it in the sun before.

Really?

Not even while you were there. It's so pretty. We had some nice summers when I was at Cambridge. It's the sunniest pass of the UK, don't you? Can't be. No. No. People only say that about places where you never see the sun. They always say that in five. Everything's relative. It's like, come on, guys.

Yeah, really?

I'll take your word for it.

Did you punt?

No, no, not this time. Not the time of year for it. No, no. Well, I hope it was lovely. Let's talk about China. Kirstehmah and Xi Jinping have reflected positively on their meeting in Beijing, where Kistamba sought to negotiate a better deal on trade and migration

and secured a deal on visa-free travel to China for UK citizens, isn't this? The relationship is in a

good place, a strong place. And what I'd say to everybody here is that I always act in our

national interest. And therefore, the question for me is, how does this accelerate and deliver back at home?

I know that whatever's going on in the world, the most important thing to the vast majority of people is the cost of living.

So opening up access to business, opportunities, seizing those opportunities, which then gets reflected

in better businesses, in jobs, in price reductions at home, really, really matter.

Well, Starmus says he raised concerns over human rights, including the imprisonment of the British

citizen Jimmy Lye, and he says the two of them had a mature discussion about those kind of issues.

Matthew, there's a dance here, isn't there?

There's like, Starman needs to present himself as a strong, upstanding leader who goes to

Beijing to defend British interests and also strike a great business deal. Whereas it does look a lot

like the leader of a smaller country, visiting a bigger country, and hoping that they treat them nicely. Yes, that's exactly what it is. And of course, China not being a democracy, she doesn't need to say what he's got out of this. Yeah, sure. I mean, the one thing they've been talking about is visa-free travel to China, UK citizens. You know, we'll be able to go there for 30 days without a visa I'm not sure that's going to make a massive different to a lot of our lives

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