I always thought of free speech as a left wing liberal ideal and very very quickly when I was talking about free speech and being an advocate for freedom of speech and expression, which by virtue of being an advocate for it you are advocating people's right to say things that you might fundamentally disagree with.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, that was a controversial position and that really surprised me and to be an advocate for free speech, something that has become a right wing or perceives the right wing position.

Tom, with Jonathan Pi, are you playing yourself?

No, no.

Because some of the best actors are playing themselves, aren't they? Sometimes.

Well, all right. Let's put it that he is a fictional character. He doesn't exist. He's not me. I am.

Do you say that in the mirror every now and then?

I am not. I don't work as a BBC political reporter. I never have a blah, blah, blah.

But let's be honest, I mean, at the best of times, I'm not exactly what you'd call a method actor, right?

I don't have to, before I play him, go, you know, let's step into it. I put a tie on. I don't change my voice.

You know, we're pretty comparable, right? And our politics are comparable.

I think he cares a bit more about politics than I do, because he's a Politico. I'm not a Politico.

I think he sees himself as an intellectual, whereas I don't think for a second that I am.

But I understand that the line's blurred sometimes, particularly on Twitter,

because sometimes I'm sort of playing in character. Sometimes it's me just going,

the fucking bus was late, like everyone else, do you know what I mean?

So I understand that there's that sort of, excuse me, that sort of difficult people don't get it.

But I still find it weird, like, seven years, eight years on people are like, you know, people call me Jonathan.

And that's totally fine in the street, or Jonathan, you know, they know what my real name is.

But I still find it weird that people can't get around their head, you know.

What I do is I fictionalize, I fictionalize a certain viewpoint and put it in the mouth of this character.

How people can't quite work out that its fiction is absolving me.

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