Economic stakes and Hormuz leverage

You can watch this episode on Youtube: https://youtu.be/B0VweeU7QlA

This week on Planet Normal, your co-pilots navigate their way from the high-stakes geopolitics of the Strait of Hormuz to the local battlegrounds of the South London Waitrose middle aisle, they examine whether common sense has gone to die - and whether the UK is becoming ‘Blighty no-mates’ on the world stage.

Pondering the paradox of a superpower that can send the Orion spacecraft to the far side of the moon while struggling to control a 20-mile-wide sea passage in the Middle East. Allison shares her fuzzy memories of the 1969 moon landing.

They ask if the sacking of 54 year old Walker Smith for intervening in a shoplifting incident is capitulation to HR and if the policy of non-intervention is undermining the fabric of society. 

A Tug-of-War emerges as your hosts clash over Reform UK’s pledge to guarantee the state triple lock, with Liam arguing we are living beyond our means, whilst Allison defending it for those nearing retirement.

Strapping in this week is former UK ambassador to Iran, Nicholas Hopton who tells your co-pilots how the continuing war is affecting politics within the Iranian regime…

Sign up to our most popular newsletter, From the Editor. Look forward to receiving free-thinking comment and the day's biggest stories, every morning. telegraph.co.uk/fromtheeditor |

Read ‘Allison Waitrose’s sacking of a hero employee sums up Broken Britain’:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/07/waitrose-sacking-hero-employee-broken-britain/ |

Read ‘I was asked out by a Richard Gere look-alike, but you won’t catch me getting a ‘Mounjaro Divorce’’:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/04/08/fat-jabs-fuelling-divorce-boom/ | 

Read more from Allison: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/a/ak-ao/allison-pearson/ | 

Read Liam ‘Britain’s vulnerability to war exposes need for fundamental reforms’: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2026/04/05/britains-vulnerability-to-war-exposeneed-fundamental-reform/ | 

Read more from Liam: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/authors/liam-halligan/ |

Read Liam’s Substack: https://liamhalligan.substack.com/ |

Read Nicolas Hopton: Iran has offered Trump an olive branch

https://spectator.com/article/iran-has-offered-trump-an-olive-branch/ | 

More from Nicholas: https://www.nicholashopton.com/ |

Need help subscribing or reviewing? Learn more about podcasts here:

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/podcasts/podcast-can-find-best-ones-listen/ |

Email: planetnormal@telegraph.co.uk |

For 30 days’ free access to The Telegraph: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/normal |

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.