How They Broke Britain

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How They Broke Britain

How They Broke Britain

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And that is what the book is about. It is about how it is not only allowed, but right that we should re-examine our settled positions, and be free to change our mind when someone else persuades us we are wrong. He points out that this is a sign of youthful thinking, which I think was spot on. And it is not limited to young people. It is a matter of mental fitness that we can be persuaded to change our opinion on a matter. His recounting of his corperal punishment as a young boy at boarding school are honestly heartbreaking and it's a very interesting look at how that experience lead him to support the concept of beating children for many years, against what would be thought of as clearly rational and obvious reasons. The complexity of how we protect ourselves emotionally from trauma plays key roles which then inform our lives onwards. In 2023, O'Brien's fourth book How They Broke Britain was published by Penguin Books. In the book, he "reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals". Each chapter focuses on each "particular person complicit in the downfall", such as former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, News Corporation founder Rupert Murdoch, former UKIP leader Nigel Farage and former UK prime ministers, David Cameron, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. [13] Broadcasting [ edit ] O'Brien distinguishes between "winning" an argument and having a more honest, productive exchange, and he lays out his own shortcomings over the years as an LBC broadcaster to provide evidence and context. The book has eight chapters, each of which dives into a singular issue or issues and shows transcripts of O'Brien fumbling the ball when talking to people on his program about issues he says he is "well meaning but ill informed" about. Probably I was most interested in the chapters on attitudes concerning traditional marriage because I too am susceptible to some of society's prejudices about wedded vs. nonwedded couples (though I didn't realize it until I read the book), and O'Brien's admission of his own hypocrisy concerning meat eating is one I share as well. (Like him, my diet is a "work in progress.") The one issue, I think, he is careful to point out he's not completely sold upon is transgender rights, and his admission that he holds two contradictory points of view on the subject, and therefore must be wrong somehow (he isn't sure how yet) is fascinating to look at. (It's summarized a bit in the midst of this exchange he had with Piers Morgan last October, when the book came out.) 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.

Most of the arguments are trendy ones, such as 'how to punish children', 'white priveldge' and 'vegetarianism'. Some of the arguments were ok, like the punishing of children, it seems the author had a lot of quotes for that, however , often the sides are ill-represented , probably to allow the author to win his argument easily.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. a b "James O'Brien: "On radio, people still talk like no one is listening" ". The Guardian. 8 January 2017 . Retrieved 8 February 2018. He tends to write like some kind of prophet of doom and is blinkered to the history he doesn’t want to discuss if it means he is to admit his mistakes in judgement. Notably the ‘Carl Beech’ fiasco among many.

How James O'Brien became the conscience of liberal Britain". www.newstatesman.com. 3 February 2017 . Retrieved 2 August 2018. 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.” 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. You can’t have your face on the cover of your book and not be a brand, and his requires him to be firmly on one side – the other side – when he must know that aspects of the current politics of the left are just as muddled, fractious and potentially dangerous as those of the right. A man can’t fall out with everyone! Personally, I’m as suspicious as he is of the Mail’s newfound support for freedom of speech on university campuses. But this doesn’t mean that free speech isn’t a real problem, or that some liberal-left men haven’t abdicated all responsibility for asking questions about it, particularly as it pertains to women’s rights, the better to have an easier, more saintly seeming life.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. O’Brien: ‘Both sides will find it very hard to forgive me for being right.’ Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian a b Dorian Lynskey (3 February 2017). "How James O'Brien became the conscience of liberal Britain". New Statesman . Retrieved 22 September 2019. Wearing a baseball cap and trainers, O’Brien is quiet and looks a little dazed as we wait for pre-interview coffee. He has come straight from his show, three hours of frenetic talk radio on LBC, which “can be tiring”, he admits. Somewhat incredibly, he has been doing this now for almost 20 years, although many listeners only started paying attention in the lead-up to Brexit, which is when O’Brien became a household name.

This book aims to encourage us to do the same: to examine the most steadfast of our opinions and ask why: to examine the other viewpoint open mindedly rather than with the intent to rubbish it; to listen to that little voice that sometimes talks inside our head; and to actively listen to other people because their personal opinions have drawn them to a different conclusion., and it's interesting and enlightening to find out why. He asks us to be aware of our unconscious biases and try to look outside our usual reading material. We all surround ourselves with friends who have similar opinions, and read media that aligns with how we think about the world. We could do better: to read other media, to see the other side of the story may lead to a better understanding of why people think differently. It may also lead you to change your own opinions at times - not a bad thing! We have all listened to James O’Brien on LBC and he can sound very much like a Labour client journalist so I bought this book hoping there was some balance to his book. These are the people at whom the book is primarily aimed – not Westminster anoraks but the politically curious who realise something has gone badly wrong in this country but haven’t fully joined the dots. “Something’s broken in Britain, and what it is is the fundamental relationship with objective truth,” says O’Brien. “So I hope this book becomes some sort of Rosetta Stone, or at least a compass to navigate the oceans of bullshit.” O'Brien has stated that he voted for Boris Johnson in the 2008 London mayoral election, though he now regrets his vote. [41] It strikes an opening chord with me when I realise it’s our passivity that has allowed us to get here. We stopped noticing it, we just kind of accepted the incompetence.

I’ve certainly held views in the past that I am now ashamed of and the thought of doing what James has done here would absolutely terrify me, so much respect to him for that. 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 worst part of the book infact -given he is an upper class public school boy from a boarding school - is reading his letter that he wrote to his school masters. Just name calling. Verbal diarrhoea postive. Its so bad... not bad, but BAAAAAAAAAAADDDDD – I had to *breath* slowly - a lot- though these chapters to get through(1-2)... a b "Frank Lampard's call to LBC: The full transcript". The Independent. 24 April 2009 . Retrieved 25 April 2009. O'Brien was born to a teenaged single mother and was adopted, at the age of 28 days, by Jim O'Brien, later a journalist for The Daily Telegraph, and his wife. [3] [4] At the time of James's birth, Jim was working on the Doncaster Evening News. [5] He was educated at the Catholic independent Ampleforth College, and later read Philosophy & Economics at the London School of Economics. [6] Journalism [ edit ]There's no point in having a mind if you're not going to change it," LBC broadcaster James O'Brien says at the very end of this excellent rumination on how to examine what we think and shift it when necessary. Hear hear.



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