In 2008, O’Brien voted for Boris Johnson to become the Conservative mayor of London. “I just wasn’t paying attention,” he admits. He liked the proposal of an amnesty for illegal immigrants. “Ken Livingstone seemed to be going a little bit off the deep end, and Johnson seemed to be an affable, bouncy character.”

I did not find it intelligent. Infact the first 3 chapters and other places were instinctually-eye-rollingly bad and his writing style is what some would call 'verbal diarrhoea'. The sort of style you get when having a night in with the Lambrini. This improved in the final chapter however I will add – I'm not saying that about the content. This book should be a mandatory for all sixteen-year-old children to give them an understanding of the modern political landscape before they become legal voters. It might perhaps explain why they enter adulthood in very uncertain times. Bland, Archie (24 March 2015). "LBC's James O'Brien: 'You have to be a bit more sledgehammer than scalpel on TV' ". theguardian.com . Retrieved 26 March 2015. A very honest look at James O'Brien's personal views on a selection of topics, which he held passionately and insistantly and how he came to realise he was wrong and change his mind. There are some deeply personal, vulnerable and revealing things here, from his days at school to adult reactions to obesity and the legitamate confusion of trans issues. Yeah, no, of course it is,” he says. “I just thought somehow we might talk about how brilliant my book is for an hour.” Another impish smile. “Are you not interested in the thinktank stuff? I thought Guardian readers might want to know a bit more about that …”On any subject, people need to be able to make mistakes, ask and probably say the wrong thing, before people can be come to the realisation that we can be wrong. Often about things we feel very stongly and passionately about. We need to be open to having these conversations, with ourselves, with our friends, our families, our communities and society.

Everyone here is “awful” or “stupid”. Jeremy Corbyn is “pitiful”, Liz Truss merely “over-promoted”. Intriguingly, he seems almost fond of Dominic Cummings. “He’s clearly mad as a box of frogs, but I think he is driven by demons rather than defined by them.” I’ve read his other books and this part of the trilogy is very much a copy of those. He would of done a lot better to write about ‘How they broke Europe’.Media Monkey's Diary: TV writers, Eddie Mair, Gardeners' Question Time". The Guardian. 3 August 2014 . Retrieved 6 August 2014. Anne Karpf (28 January 2018). "We need to talk: why Britain loves radio phone-ins". The Guardian . Retrieved 8 February 2018. In the last 10 years or so, in the UK at least, we have become much more tribal in our thinking - footballisation as James calls it - not just wanting our team to win, but wanting the other side to lose badly in many other ways. This will never lead to anything good - we need to learn to listen, to understand, to agree to disagree, if we want to get on better and become a united kingdom in actions rather than just a label.. LBC's James O'Brien: "You have to be a bit more sledgehammer than scalpel on TV" ". The Guardian. 24 March 2015 . Retrieved 9 February 2018. Dominic Cummings is also present and incorrect, while Liz Truss is the sole woman to make the grade, though Nadine Dorries and Suella Braverman receive honourable mentions. Together, he says, their accomplishments are monumental: Brexit, financial crises, the mishandling of Covid, blatant xenophobia.

Perhaps surprisingly for someone who enjoys a bit of a row, O’Brien appears a little irked by my questions, even if therapy has taught him to be calmer in response. “If you’d asked me unfair questions 10 years ago, I would have responded to you in a much more aggressive fashion,” he says. The more comprehension there is, ideally, the less incoherent anger there will be’ … O’Brien at LBC. O'Brien is married to Lucy McDonald and has two daughters. [17] Politically, O'Brien prefers to be described as ' liberal' rather than 'left-wing'. [43] O'Brien was raised in the Roman Catholic faith and refers to himself as a Christian. He is a Kidderminster Harriers F.C. fan. [44] Books [ edit ] Every day, James O’Brien listens to people blaming hard-working immigrants for stealing their jobs while scrounging benefits, and pointing their fingers at the EU and feminists for destroying Britain. But what makes James’s daily LBC show such essential listening – and has made James a standout social media star – is the incisive way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning. James Edward O'Brien (born 1972) [1] is a British radio presenter, podcaster, author, and former tabloid journalist and television presenter. Since 2004, he has been a presenter for talk station LBC, [2] on weekdays between 10 am and 1 pm, hosting a phone-in discussion of current affairs, views and real-life experiences. Between October 2017 and November 2018, he hosted a weekly interview series with JOE titled Unfiltered with James O'Brien. He has occasionally presented BBC's Newsnight.

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James O’Brien: ‘relies almost entirely for his text on the hard labour – the investigations, and the thinking – of others’. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian Sony Radio Academy Awards 2010 – Best Interview Nominations". Radio Academy. Archived from the original on 14 September 2010. I still sort of believe the last, but over the years, I've been fortunate to be challenged by a number of people close to me, and my thinking on these matters and many others has shifted. Weird how, for a guy who quotes Emerson's "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" so freely in the classroom has spent so much time yelling "No it's not!" when clearly it was over the years. This book provides a useful commentary on the process of examining one's preconceptions and prejudices, without the crushing burden of ego interfering with a more clear-eyed analysis. When have we ever needed this more?