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

from the shaky state of the special relationship to the polling bounce for the Green Party,

and whether you could survive, being physically attached to a stranger for 24 hours a day.

Oh, wait, sorry, you weren't meant to have started already.

Clasped together in journalistic solidarity. It is Charlotte Ivers. Hello, Charlotte. Hello, Hugo. How's it

going? It's good. And on the other half of the handcuffs, it's James Marriott. Hello, James. Good morning. How are you? Yeah, all right. Fine. You don't, you don't sand it. Just when you say that. You know, you kind of, that was kind of like, no, I'm coping. I'm coping. Yeah, I'm sort of in the final

stages of, the final interminable stages of book writing,

so I'm feeling slightly traumatized.

You can say that for like two months. I know, it's because the final stages keep dragging on into, there are always worse final stages to be dragged into, I'm discovering. Just, it's not going to, it's not going to get any better. just like a conflict in the Middle East.

You need a clean break.

You need a clean break.

You're going to be dragged into the turmoil.

You want to take inspiration from Nietzsche, who ended one of his books just with not going to get any better. It's like a conflict in the Middle East. You need a clean break. You need a fruit on the ground. You're getting dragged into the turmoil.

You want to take inspiration from Nietzsche, who ended one of his books just with the word, or question mark? I'm not sure how happy my publisher would be. Or? No matter. Let's crack on with some news, because there's a hell of a lot of it. we're going to move to the Middle East and Donald Trump in just a moment.

I want to start in the House of Commons yesterday when Keir Stama told MPs about his decision to let US forces use military bases after all. Tom Peck sketches this very well in the times today. Stama insisted it wasn't a U-turn saying first we took a decision that we should not, then we took a decision that we

should, which apparently isn't a U-turn.

But then, Ed Davey made what Tom Peck says might be the worst contribution to any debate

in the House of Commons that I can recall in the past decade.

Let's have a listen.

We rightly expect our brave armed forces to protect British citizens around the world in crises

like this. But that includes tax

exiles like Isabel Oakshot and washed up old footballers who mock ordinary people who stay in the

...