This is LBC from Global, leading Britain's conversation with James O'Brien.

Three minutes after ten is the time you're listening to James O'Brien on LBC.

If you're having connipions about a vegan pasty, then wait till you hear later in the program about the fellow who wants veganism to be treated with the same respect and regard as religious beliefs. And I have to tell you, I don't know if you went to church or mass this Christmas, but when you sit in church contemplating the articles of faith that, for example, Christianity

promotes, it's probably easier, easier to justify

veganism than it is religious faith. But we shall get on to that a little later in the program.

It's Thursday, first show of the year, happy New Year,

means we can start with the mystery hour. That's fantastic. I don't think that's well. It must

have done by the simple law of averages, but I don't remember that ever happening before.

And the story I want to start with today is it's a fascinating human story.

It's political, it's environmental, it's, it's all of those things.

And yet, in many ways, it doesn't immediately lend itself to the time that we spend together

every morning because it doesn't, I don't know, can you teach me something I don't already

know?

Or can you bring to the table something that

merits a heated debate? Pardon the pun. I'm not sure you can. I'm not being rude to you. I'm not

sure you can because I'm fairly confident that I can't. The situation in Australia is quite incredible. I don't know how helpful it is,

but one of the things that really brought home to me, the scale of this crisis, there are

currently, for example, about 100 blazers in New South Wales alone. But if you superimpose a map of

Australia onto a map of Europe, it gives you an idea of just how epic the destruction is.

There are now stories of people being bust out by boat, if that's not a contradiction in terms.

Being encouraged to pack up and leave by boat, and what will they

return to? Chard carcasses of their homes is the short answer. The figures are, I mean, genuinely

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