it is world book day when we are recording this episode. i hope you had some good costumes to hand. first of all, though, it is day two of what the daily telegraph is calling the lockdown files all those whatsapp messages between matt hancock, the health secretary during the early stages of the covid pandemic, and borisjohnson and rishi sunak and all their advisers and their pollsters and dominic cummings and patrick vallance and chris whitty and basically everyone who had anything to do with covid. where do you think that the story has kind of got to? well, it carries bubbling along, doesn t it? so, it s not quite, i don t think, necessarily yet at the kind of, the obvious comparisons for the daily telegraph is expenses, mps expenses the best part of 15 years ago. it is generating a lot of news, loads and loads of pick up in lots of different news organisations but it isn t necessarily the top story everywhere, every day for days and days on end but they have got shedload
others and basically everyone who had anything to do with covid. the weird do you think that story has got to? weird do you think that story has not to? , ., ~ got to? it s not quite i think necessarily got to? it s not quite i think necessarily yet got to? it s not quite i think necessarily yet at got to? it s not quite i think necessarily yet at the - got to? it s not quite i think necessarily yet at the kind l got to? it s not quite i think| necessarily yet at the kind of obvious comparison of the telegraph. generating a lot of news. loads and loads of pick up and different news organisations but it is not necessarily top story everywhere for days and days on end., but they have shades of stuff to reveal. i went to the headquarters of the telegraph today showing the bunker where they kind of describe this windowless room where about eightjournalists since the turn of the year come over to europe months, sitting in the room not much bigger than this studio, may be
appropriately, from the artificial intelligence summit at bletchley park. the other big story this week, though, has been the quite eye popping testimony at the public inquiry into how the government handled various phases of the covid epidemic. and, i mean, it has massively, massively taken me back to those scary, uncertain days in early spring 2020. and i spent a lot of those days sat in this very studio and the person sat across from me and being very reassuring at all times was laura k, who s back in the studio. not in the studio. no, i m not. but i m logistically distanced today, not socially distanced. and i m very pleased to hear that i was reassuring back in those early days of march 2020. you were one of the only people i saw! well, i m pleased. well, it was very nice. we were a tiny little band of people, carrying on, trying to do ourjobs as everybody wondered what on earth was going on. and it s been a very strange experience watching this, hasn t it? because i was
chris? the power of geography by tim marshall. very on brand. former sky news diplomatic editor, i think he was, foreign affairs editor. i must admit, doing thisjob, i can see how laura k liked a bit of trashy literature at the end of long days because i love tim marshall but it is a bit heavy going after a 17 hour day. and is geography powerful? i think it is. we are both geographers. oh, well. my brother is a geologist, palaeontologist, so he knows where things are, as well. mine is super on brand because i m reading an introduction to political philosophy for students and politicians. for a little project i m working on. you are going to write one yourself? potentially, yeah. stay tuned. makes the power of geography seem like light reading! michael, thank you very much for coming in. thanks for having me.
i really like it, we are bonking, we are bonking, we are bonking on the drains. it is not in the latest edition of that book. what is the new word? no, the whole poem came out. michael, what are you reading on this world book day? i am reading a wonderful book called i m black so you don t have to be. it s by a former colleague of mine, and yours, colin grant, who was the son of two jamaicans, and he is writing about his family. this is a beautiful, wonderful book, and he has used a wonderful device, each person in his family has a separate chapter, so you see the world through the eyes of that person in his family. great book. chris? the power of geography by tim marshall. very on brand. former sky news diplomatic editor, i think he was, foreign affairs editor. i must admit, doing thisjob, i can see how laura k liked a bit of trashy literature at the end of long days because i love