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

It's three minutes after ten, you are listening to James O'Brien on LBC. It's Thursday,

so acts of God permitting. We will be indulging our weekly dive into the shallower waters of our time together with Mistria from 12.

I'm very drawn to the tale once again of regional inequality and why a few stops on a train line

can see an astonishing collapse in the life expectancy of the people who live there.

I've learnt a lot about that over the years from talking to you,

but there is always room to learn a little more.

That curious contradiction of victim blaming

that Nick was just talking about a moment ago

continues to fascinate me.

The simple fact that warning people to avoid risk can be construed in the event of that risk turning out to be true.

It can be construed as a form of retrospective victim blaming.

Strange times. And speaking of victim blaming, I actually would quite like your help with something this morning.

There is a naive optimism on the liberal side of social politics, or if you want to be a little bit more inflammatory,

on the liberal side of the culture wars. And by liberal, we simply mean a sort of do unto others,

as you would have done unto yourself, or live and let live.

For me, in its purest form, it simply means that you will be assessed or judged,

or your value will be determined by your actions, not by your ethnicity or your gender

or your sexuality or your financial status or your title or your inherited privilege or

or the robes that you wear or whatever it may be. We are far from creating that New Jerusalem at the moment, but that is, for me,

what a liberal is. It means I will judge you by the contents of your heart and your history.

I will not judge you by the color of your skin or the gender of people that you fall in love with.

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