hello and welcome to the programme that brings together the foreign journalists who write, blog and broadcast to audiences back home from the dateline london. it s been a convention busting week, this one a queen s speech delivered for the first time in 70 years by a royal other than the queen. two countries strictly neutral for 80 years, preparing to take sides. in northern ireland, a party in favour of reuniting the island of ireland topped the poll for the first time in the centuries since ireland was partitioned. to discuss all that and more, in the studio are brian o connell, former bureau chief in london for the irish broadcaster rte, eunice goes, portuguesejournalist and university lecturer and newly created british citizen, and jeffrey kofman, who s been both a war correspondent and news anchor in canada and the united states. good to have you back with us. jeffrey, let s start with nato expansion. sweden and finland, finland s president, sauli niinisto, said on f
more anxious and less confident as people, but there have been gains, too. we listen to the birdsong more, we speak to neighbours that we didn t previously know, we are more connected to our surroundings and our communities. for some, the pandemic has meant new roots. sam walker and family moved house for more space. when we were in london, we lived in an upstairs maisonette. we were inside the flat, you know, with no outside space apart from a really small balcony that we had, so that really was the motivation to get a house with a garden. sam is a make up artist who s seen all her work disappear. it s changed her as a person. before, i had a lot more focus on my work and my career, and that has flipped 100%. you know, so now i realise, you know, where i get my values from, my family and my home. did you feel lonely? a little bit, because i didn t have as many people around me, - because i was used to, like, as we were going to school, i was used to having quite a lot of p