I listen a lot during the week - not so much at weekends (agree it goes a bit weird).
Love Shelagh and Tom. I find Shelagh thoughtful and deeply humane, with a good mix of being open-minded and standing her ground. She’s a great champion of women and public services (due partly to all her contact with the NHS while caring for her mum). Tom I find calm, eloquent and rational, and even though our politics don’t always align he does make me think.
Used to think JOB was brilliant, mainly because he eloquently expressed everything I wanted to say about Brexit. But more recently I’ll feel I’ve seen behind the curtain a bit and I now often find him overbearing, egotistical and condescending to the point of cruelty towards the brave few who dare to ring in to disagree with him.
There seems to be a pattern where in each show they find one person (who’s invariably working class and not great with words) for him to belittle at length, which is then packaged up as a viral clip. They never seem to find anyone bright or articulate to debate him, so in practice it ends up him having a go at someone poor and ill-educated, which sticks in my craw a bit. He also seems to have a bit of a women problem (possibly the Catholic public school thing). So with him it now depends on the topic he’s discussing as to whether I bother to listen.
Can’t bear Nick Ferrari, who I’ve always found brash and boorish.