Welcome to The Spectator Podcast. I'm Isabel Hardman. On this week's episode, we'll be talking about the myth of the British decline, the 12th of July parades in Northern Ireland, and the regrettable rise of the manhug. First, Britain seems to be relapsing into another bout of declineism, writes Professor Robert Toombs in his spectator cover piece this week.

From terror attacks to the Grenfell Tower disaster, election upsets to our looming Brexit, the news is being seen by some as a sign of Britain's downward trajectory in the world.

It's time to snap out of it, says Professor Toombs, who joins me now, along with

Fraser Nelson. So, Robert, lots of British people, if you ask them, would say that this

country is going through a really miserable period, and you list in your piece some of the

examples of that, but then hold it in tension with the idea that Britain is actually not declining.

Well, I guess the main thing is short and long-term

changes. It's clear we're obviously in a bit of a pickle at the moment, and it's happened very

quickly and unexpectedly. Personally, I think that's part of a much more general political volatility

that's hitting the whole of the Western world. In that sense, we're in rather a similar position

to our French friends and neighbours, the Americans, of course,

and a lot of other countries who suddenly found

that their political situation is far less stable than they thought,

and that the outcomes are very much more unpredictable

and change much more quickly.

So I think we have had that in the last election campaign clearly,

and things that were simply unfortunate coincidences have added to a sense of short-term difficulty.

Now, if you think that this is part of a long-term trend, that's what I'm really criticizing.

After all, things that are sudden shocks are rarely, of course they can be, but they're rarely of huge importance. We get over these things,

and usually anyway, but what is much more important, I think, a long-term change is. And there,

I think, we're in a much better and more solid position,

economically and politically. You know, you don't change the nature of a country, its society,

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