Deep Disillusionment in This Country (with Stewart Lee)

Deep Disillusionment in This Country (with Stewart Lee)

From Strong Message Here by BBC Radio 4

April 8, 2026 · 28 min

About this episode

Armando and Stewart discuss the disillusionment in the country and how political language affects public perception.

This week, Armando is joined again by Stewart Lee to look at how political actors use language. Wes Streeting says there is a 'deep disillusionment in this country', and says there is a “growing sense of despair about whether anyone is capable of turning this country round". Why is that? And does politicians speaking in that way confound our misery? We look at Sarah Pochin's comments about black and asian people in adverts, and the responses across parliament to that. We also look at how much news is just speculation, and how politicians use speculation to further their arguments. We also look at how we get our news - is it exhausting to have to keep fact checking things ourselves? Is it preferable to the alternative? Armando shares his confusion at Immersive experiences, and Stewart invents a new word, and we hear about Starmer's charm offensive. Got a strong message for Armando? Email us on strongmessagehere@bbc.co.uk Listen to Strong Message Here at 0945 on Radio 4, and an extended version is available on BBC Sounds. This programme has been edited since first publication, following an adjudication by the BBC Executive Complaints Unit. Sound editing: Chris Maclean Production…

People in this episode

Host: Armando Iannucci

Guest: Stewart Lee

Topics covered

  • political language
  • disillusionment
  • media speculation
  • advertising representation
  • news consumption
  • fact checking

Keywords

  • disillusionment
  • politics
  • media
  • advertising
  • fact checking
  • speculation
  • news

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: BBC Radio 4, BBC Studios

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