Episode Details

Tonight I welcomed Paul on for a wide-ranging, lively chinwag that moved from local absurdities to much bigger questions about how Britain is run. We began with the everyday madness of councils, bus shelters, roadworks, cycle lanes and transport planning, before wandering into bikes, model railways, old machinery, handwriting, printing presses and the general loss of practicality and common sense in modern life. It was one of those proper pub-style conversations where the small irritations of daily life opened up into a broader discussion about what has been lost in our towns, industries and communities.

From there we dug into politics, power and ideology, including a clip about the Fabian Society and a long discussion about gradual political influence, the London School of Economics, banking, journalism, industry, national decline and the destruction of self-reliance. Along the way we touched on The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, John Pilger, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, old British manufacturing, coal, railways, community life, and why humour, satire and sharp language still matter when everything feels managed and overcomplicated. As ever, it was serious in places, daft in others, and held together by the belief that people still need to laugh while thinking clearly about the world around them.

• Food For Thought Radio: https://www.fftradio.com/
• Eric Von Essex on FFT: https://www.fftradio.com/djs/eric-von-essex/
• Paul English on FFT: https://www.fftradio.com/shows/paul-english/
• Paul English Live on Rumble: https://rumble.com/PaulEnglishLive
• Fabian Society: https://fabians.org.uk/about-us/
• London School of Economics and Political Science: https://www.lse.ac.uk/
• The Twilight Zone: https://www.rodserlingarchive.com/twilghtzone
• The Twilight Zone – The Eye of the Beholder: https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/video/pW_a7hyUEm76NQ0UYB2QjcYCPC8uOu70/
• Rod Serling Memorial Foundation: https://rodserling.com/about-us/
• Sturmey-Archer: https://sturmey-archer.com/
• Hornby: https://uk.hornby.com/
• Royal Mail: https://www.royalmail.com/
• Jon Lajoie: https://www.jonlajoie.com/
• John Pilger: https://johnpilger.com/
• Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/726382/confessions-of-an-economic-hit-man-3rd-edition-by-john-perkins/
• The Node Project: https://thenodeproject.com/about