Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics with me Steve Richards. Thank you so much for tuning in after a dramatic few days since we all last gathered together via this podcast. Who would have expected it? Well, actually, maybe we might have done. A coup or an attempted coup in Washington, instigated by the president himself, and more U-turns from the government on the pandemic since we last gathered together.

Thinking about it, both highly predictable events, but there we go.

So we've got a lot to cram in.

If it's okay with you, I'll reflect a bit on those two dramas, but very much from the British perspective, you know,

the special relationship. I think it raises questions about that special relationship,

which I'll reflect on briefly. Then we'll come to your questions. Fantastic questions,

a lot relating to some of the things we explored last week, the use of referendums, whether

they're any good, the situation in Northern Ireland compared with the rest of the UK, Johnson

and how he is performing, loads of brilliant questions, and of course, what you do while you

listen to the podcast, more variations on that theme.

I know some of you don't like it when I reveal what people do listening to this podcast,

but it's becoming a well-being podcast as well as a politics one, sort of.

Well, you know what I mean.

The running and the press-ups and the, I don't know, ironing,

all those kind of things that go on during our reflections together.

So there'll be a bit of that, bit of well-being, but I promise you, for those who don't like

hearing that people are running marathons listening to this, that it will be fleeting.

And the bulk of it will be reflecting and trying to make sense of extraordinary political developments.

So where do we start?

Well, I guess if it's okay with you, let's reflect on Trump and the drama in Washington.

It was cinematic on so many levels,

just obviously the immediate drama of protesters or the mob

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