You might not have heard of James Edward O’Brien. He presents a radio talk show on LBC weekdays between 10 am and 1 pm in the UK. He discusses current affairs and asks the public to call in with their experiences and insights. No doubt he earns a fortune and recently on his show he told us that he has two cats; one longhair and one shorthair.
At the time he was hosting his question or answer programme in which people call in with a question and another person answers it. He said that his shorthaired cat gets into the shower – I presume with him or another member of the family – whereas the longhair cat does not. The conclusion was that shorthaired cats don’t mind getting wet because of their short hair whereas long-haired cats are more concerned about getting wet.
I think they are siblings, but I forget. The reason why I am mentioning this is twofold. Firstly, the public likes to know which celebrities have cats and how many cats they have. I’m not sure I can classify James O’Brien as a celebrity. I would rather classify him as an arrogant, left leaning, Tory-hating, rude radio jock with the gift of the gab who requests the public to call in but when he doesn’t agree with them tends to insult them. No doubt he then wonders why he doesn’t get enough people to call in.
His behaviour gives me the impression that he is an angry person. The anger simmers and occasionally bubbles up through his mouth like vitriolic lava
I’m referring specifically to the Brexit years. The three years or more before the UK finally left the European Union when the Tory party gained power and a substantial majority. During that era, James O’Brien was rude and insulting to many callers including Rees Mogg a high-profile member of Parliament and the current leader of the House of Commons. Rees Mogg is a prominent Brexiteer while James O’Brien hates the concept of Brexit and frequently tells us that he considers it to be a near fatal mistake that the British public made in voting for it.
More recently, it is reported that he had a car crash interview with another Brexiteer MP, James Cleverley. In the argument between O’Brien and Cleverley, O’Brien apparently argued that there was no mandate for a no deal Brexit. He is still arguing about Brexit. He simply cannot accept that it exists and is fighting a rearguard action to try and dilute the terms and conditions (i.e. stay in the EU).
The trouble with James O’Brien is that he lets his arrogance overcome his obligations as a radio presenter to be polite to his callers. He has changed recently and I presume that his bosses (Global – a media company) who commission his services pulled him up and told him to get a grip. At one time I thought he would be unceremoniously dumped by LBC and his contract terminated because he was extraordinarily rude to Rees Mogg and a caller just beforehand who was a Brexiteer.
When push comes to shove, James O’Brien’s rudeness and arrogance comes to the fore. He has to contain it in order to make his radio programme viable but I expect him to be rude in an ugly way from time to time in his day-to-day conversations. In my view he does not deserve to have two cat companions. It is probable, and I am of course speculating big time, that his wife is the person who decided to adopt them. He probably puts up with them because I don’t regard him as a cat person. He’s not gentle or sensitive enough. He’s just an arrogant radio jock who likes to force his opinion on others but nowadays pretends to be all soft and cuddly because he’s been told to be like that or he can pack his bags.
