The

I'm going to be.

I'm going to be.

I'm going to Hello and welcome to rock and roll politics, the weekly podcast with me, Steve Richards.

Thank you so much for listening wherever you are in the UK and the rest of the world.

And as ever in our time together, we have got one hell of a lot to cram in in the rather sort of dark

context in which we are all gathering these days. If it's okay with you, I'll make some reflections on the global crisis

triggered by the situation in Ukraine and reflect on the potency of subjective views of the past, national identity, all the things that seem to come

together when war takes place in a sort of bleak, bleak situation. Going beyond Ukraine, I mean,

I've never been to Ukraine. So, you know, let's leave that to those who are there and who know

the area really well. There are a lot of people commenting on this situation from a distance,

including me. So I'm going to reflect on those broader themes, beginning with Putin, but widening it.

And then there's some fantastic questions

from all of you on a range of issues, of course, including what's happening in Ukraine.

So yeah, that's what's going to happen if that's okay with all of you. Before then, just a couple of

moments to thank those of you who've signed up to Patreon and for your election ideas. I've got a

big announcement on that front, which is the next bonus podcast. And it's going to be the next

one, the 1983 election, which some of you proposed.

And I've chosen it because, first of all, it gives me a chance in a way to combine two at the same time.

Because to make sense of the 1983 election, you need to look at the 1979 election. The seeds of 83 were sewn very speedily

in the aftermath of 79. And in my view, you know this talk all the time about, oh, politics now.

It's never, hasn't been like this for a long, long time. It's so seismic and Brexit and everything.

...