Episode 153: The ABC Dog Us & Brendan O’Neill

A giant week of news calls for a bonus episode! The ABC does some real journalism airing the IPA's new video, but taking out a key sentence. Boris Johnson is in the ICU with Coronavirus yet the tide is turning as more people, including medical experts, call for the protection of civil liberties. The EU is struggling to deal with what Merkel is calling the EU's biggest ever challenge - who knew a giant, creaking bureaucracy would struggle to deal with a crisis? Heroes and Villains this week includes Gideon Rozner (and the humble plastic bag), former NBA player Jay Williams tries to save sport, the Scottish Chief Health Officer flouting her own lockdown laws and the Victorian police officer who gave an L-plater a $1,600 fine for practising safe driving. Brendan O'Neill, editor of Spiked, joins the show to talk about the mood in the UK, the balance between public saftety and civil liberties, the class divides being exposed in Coronavirus and why he, an avowed republican, praised the Queen over the weekend (30:35-53:15). At the end of the show, we discuss Pete's newfound fame after last week's show promo went viral and John Hewson's creepy article in The Conversation.