I knew Iain has suffered a bereavement because that's why he didn't do his last couple of shows but I didn't realise it was this father.

I wish I'd known he was on. Miles better than the boring Stapleton. Does he still drive an Aston, and has he still got that dreadfully spoilt dog?

I was gutted when he left LBC, and I bet they miss him at holiday time. He was always available to fill in, sometimes at very short notice.

Indeed. Defending the indefensible is always a futile exercise.

NA was entertaining last night. Some of the callers were on very good form. Even a few of Darren Adam's callers showed some levity and brevity.

Hopefully, though, the end is nigh for the very tedious conversation about drinkers/smokers/lazy people who should be paying for their health care... Happy to charge £5 for a GP visit as a lot of pee takers abuse the front line NHS and don't turn up for their appointments: however, categorising punters according to their plight seems incongruous to the spirit of the thing.

I always used to feel a bit sorry for James Max, not sure why as he often gave as good as he got to the odd stroppy caller.
I got the sense that he was a bit of a confused lonely soul who was carrying some stigma about being Jewish, Gay and an Estate agent.
It's funny that over time LBC have had three former apprentice contestants in James Max, Trey Thingumebob and Katie Hopkins. I think Sky news have got one too, a blonde girl with pretend glasses and a big gob.........blimey, I've almost described myself 😳

My dad died earlier this year and I feel the same as you CC. I really rate Iain Dale as a broadcaster and whether or not one agrees with his politics, he has a very genuine style. I've been fortunate enough to work with one of Iain's publishing companies. A very nice bunch of people.

Blonde with pretend glasses? I had you down for a geezer with hairy legs!

Michelle Dewberry?

Funnily enough I was also going to post that he seemed to be the only gay presenter who was comfortable with it and didn't feel the need to keep airing his issues. Ditto being Jewish. As for being an estate agent, I think he was a bit higher up the financial ranks of the property business than that.

I forgot to say good morning and now it's afternoon!

I've never got that argument for charging for drunks and junk food eaters ... where does it end? Charge people who have been involved in car crash because of bad driving, DIY'ers who've been adventurous with a ladder or a power tool , rugby players , dancers who need hip/knee replacements .... etc etc ... all self inflicted.

Also agree about the £5 charge. My surgery has a sign up every month saying how many missed appointments there were. Last time I saw it it was 250+ and that was just over half way into the month .... I was really shocked at the number.

I agree with that. James hardly mentioned being gay or Jewish.

He did however obsess over his dog Barney (we need a dog emoji)

Oops! They just let the F word slip through the net on Katie Hopkins' show. The caller was clearly outdoors somewhere and when a driver sounded their horn, he quickly finished his sentence to KH and irritably said "F off" to the person. I don't think KH noticed and clearly the producer didn't or wasn't quick enough.

Yes, I think he was a director of the commercial property arm of the well known agency

I was just thinking of the usual stereotypes 'Jewish, gay, estate agent'.......similar to 'Black, Lesbian, Traffic warden'.........no doubt I'll get hung drawn and quartered for having non PC thoughts

Absolutely. I was listening to Katie Hopkins on the subject the other day. She was calling people 'fat', 'irresponsible', 'lazy' etc and she sounded somewhat unhinged. I almost phoned in and asked her whether she would have paid for hospital treatment after putting herself unnecessarily on the frontline in Calais... or if she'd needed hospital treatment having injured herself skiing... or whatever. But I decided to stick to my mince pies and red wine and trust that my years of tax paying will cover my expenses. What Katie didn't mention (at least while I was listening) was the amount of tax revenue the government rakes in from booze/fags/junk food etc. She should start picking an argument there rather than with a teenager who gets drunk or a fat housewife who loves pies.

That just made me LOL ... thank you

I've found JOB rants about "women's rights" jar with his obsession about childless women, who he finds he"needs to patronise".

He is myopic, he needed to see a priest to make sure he was doing the right thing with IVF, so his wife could have kids. That's fine. But what about other women/their partners who don't need to see anyone to make the choice not to get pregnant, because their income, timing, genetic factors make it right thing to do.

I find him religiously creepy about women needing to have kids. And his obsession with marriage(being the only way) tops it off.

Peachykeen, being as pedantic as The Max himself, his dog is actually named Barnaby. I say this as he was always quick to correct callers/emailers.

No he is an intelligent man of course that is true,but he skews arguments and callers points of view to suit his own agenda.

He does have a sympathetic side which is sometimes in evidence however his over the top attitudes favouring his own prejudices are always in evidence. He calls those who oppose his views Nazis and similar names ,unaware of any irony. He needs to research what facism actually means.

At risk of repeating myself, (although that doesn't seem to be a problem on this thread, so I probably shouldn't worry... ), the 'he' in that post could be a number of presenters IMO.

J O'B has the most peculiar relationship with religion. On the one hand, he will decimate a caller who supports religion in their argument, ridiculing their belief system, on the other, he says he goes to church! Perhaps he has to, so as to exorcise his demons.
I didn't know though he had to consult a priest over deciding whether IVF was the right thing. Quite extraordinary when he displays so much contempt for religion on-air.

I prefer Stapleton to gobber obviously but found his topics too dry to listen to ..think it was social care and I just wanted something else.

Switched over and it was a good mix,
now I quite like LBC's set 1 topic an hour format as I can turn over and come back when the next one is up but he was doing a bit of... "convince me going out on NYE is a good idea" OR "where are you going to or what are you doing"?
I tweeted him and he said it sounded interesting please call in and tell me more...
and then there was a bit on finance, a bit on future trends for 2017 in food, where is the best place to live in UK, so stuff on property prices but also tell me why your area is a gem, etc. etc...
It's the sort of stuff you want on festive period not coping with death or abortions for example...

When on we both quickly got into car anorak mode as we have a very rare Mk1 '63 Mini and a couple of Bentley's he was off and we probably bored the nation!

(and yes I think he has an Aston and if not working would of gone to a similar car meet as me NYD but as he was so pleasant I didn't take the mickey out of his stupid electric car! )
of course with zero tax and no congestion charge they make sense in LDN but not where I am...and it doesn't stop congestion as he has 2 cars instead! D

It was very relaxed and I didn't feel rushed or moved on purely for time reasons...
so trying to bring it back to LBC while the hourly format is good it worked on Talk as I stayed tuned in all morning....

Of course it is ... My bad

I did hear your call today and you sounded fine to me. The Max is always perky and for me a much better listen than Staplediet on LBC.

Such a nice man John Stapleton but very pedestrian. The subjects he picks doesn't help much either in keeping awake. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

P.S. The other thing I've always had a problem with, is the slushing sound JS makes when he's talking, as though he's hanging on to his dentures. I'm sure that's not the case, but do you know what I mean?

That first sentence reminded me of the "fatty,fat, fats" of James O'Brien! Maybe he and Katie are more alike than we thought?

Haven't had LBC on much over the holidays, but I popped it on today and found good old 'safe pair of hands' John Stapleton.

I swear within 30 seconds I'd heard the phrases 'foreign aid', 'our own people', '80% of patients are foreigners' and 'I'm not racist but...'.

Looking forward to normal morning service resuming in the new year.