The Glass Box.
Be your own radio critic! Tell us here, frankly, what you thought of tonight's programme. In the PM office we meet every night at 1800 in the Glass Box you see above. Add your comment here.
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The blog for the afternoon news and current affairs programme presented by Eddie Mair.
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What?
Charlotte crashing the bongs?
The BBC really *is* coming apart at the seams...
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Mr Ross & Mr Brand and now, Ms Lesley Douglas...
I had thought and, indeed hoped, that accusations of "further" systemic failure within the BBC, following the Ross/Brand debacle, were somewhat overdone.
I began to seriously reconsider, when I read Paul Gambaccini's comments as reported in today's on-line Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/oct/31/russell-brand-lesleydouglas
Now, we hear from the BBC DG that Ms Douglas knew of the offending programme's content PRIOR to broadcast...
An appaling situation...
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I might get around to a full list of "And finally..." later, but here's a good example of why proofreading is a useful skill:
Lost in Translation?
Highways officials in Wales thought they'd got a very speedy response to their request to translate a road sign for them.
They emailed the text "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only." to their translation unit, and when they next checked their email, they found "Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i'w gyfieithu.", which duly ended up on the sign.
Unfortunately, as Welsh speakers quickly pointed out to the council, what they had received was not the translation, but the translation unit's out of office message - the Welsh equivalent of "I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated."
And for the curious, I've discovered that the replacement sign will hopefully read something like "Dim mynediad am gerbyd nwyddau trwm. Safle trigiannol yn unig."
(Dim mynediad is the Welsh for No Entry - given there are plenty of those signs around, you'd've thought someone would have spotted the gaff earlier...)
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The main way the watershed is defeated is by the downloads. All it takes is one mention at school and they all download it that night.
The parental control on the BBC site is pointless. It has to be re-asserted every time the cookies are deleted. Worse it is only an age 16 break point. There is not even a way an adult can check the control is working on the front page. In fact there is not even a link to parental control on the front page! This is the same site that is full of CBBCs programs and games. The children are 5 clicks away from any program whatever content.
It is easy to ban sites and lock them out, but impossible to stop half a site.
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In answer to the question from mummysaunders ( on landau comments ) " ... does the member of the NUT seriously think Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross ' target audience are primary school children? ..."
I just looked at CBBC s. They have a message board asking the year of each person. Some have answered year 4 and year 5. The notes say it is for 7 to 15 year olds.
They also have a thread called:
Russel. Brand. & & . Jonathan. Ross = Disgrace ?
One poster added: " well i do it and it was a joke so let go "
Then on a thread about bnp and racism
One poor poster has written: " umm sorry to intrude but what are the bnp and the other thing your taking about?? "
Another thread on childhood obesity:
"NO but i think that this is making children depressed. People in my class are saying they are fat because the news is always saying it."
Then they have a asl code that gives away data (town) and even a thread that invites people to list words starting with their letters of their name. Some poor idiot gives away here full name.
Maybe I am old and out of touch, and jaded from my experiences, but I am certainly depressed. But thanks for the funny on the Welsh sign and the lonely elderly people. We found a solution for my Granddad that meant he lived in a self contained flat with his own front door, but with a building caretaker and common room, and met up with old school friends from 70 years earlier.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
This post got removed by Mod action.
So here's a careful re-right.
Hey, old hands to the blog, the medicine is really working, isn't it.
Now Jimmy Giro is dispatched, the Glass Box is a hive of activity.
Why, of the 13 posts above, (ie from the other day, but tonite ~FIVE!!!) one or two posters have found it so good, they've posted twice, even thrice. (Of the 13 a lot were second bites of the cherry by the same poster).
Good on you!! Getting rid of JG did it!!
Ignore the threads with 500 posts on. They were stimulated by troll activity by Ross and Brand of course.
(Although we should appreciate that those threads will mention Nazism at some stage. Perhaps they already have. A regular blogger gets it right again!!! We're lucky to have him. Seriously. Its a valuable point. It suggests JG was just doing what anyone would)
Can I add a couple of comments about yesterdays?
Do we have yet another case of the BBC getting it right, too late?
Georgian atrocities in South Ossetia, the Russian invasion genuinely a response, not a prior provocation??
That's what we thought, felt and needed to hear from you AT THE TIME, BBC.
Goodness, no wonder you used to get rude messages on your telephone message service.
All those posters quoted, I was pleased. (That on a mid week summary of listeners posts)
But why weren't they named? They usually are. Gillianian, Big Sister Fifi Frances O, DMcN, BB Mittfh and others are household names (in some households)
Why not name who you quoted yesterday?
Is there a story for iPM there? Were they the old lags or new inmates. Why the anonymity in either case?
(Answers from anyone except anyone who thinks suggestions by me for iPM should be ignored since they come from me).
There, the post cleansed of suggestions that particular posters were pleased JG has been banned, and who blamed him for low GB post volumes.
Personally I would have thought that the GB full of inset twee dinky photos setting the tone for posts had more to do with it.
Real controversy and the absence or swamping of the usual crew is what brings out the punters.
One obvious problem with having regular posters is that their particular emotional reactions too often become the subject of the thread discussions.
('I have known XXXXX a long time, why s/he first blogged on 4th May 1862 and I have never known them to under/over state anything' when new posters have just complained that s/he just has).
Anyway, did Edgie Eddie give out the Oxfam numbers or how to contact your MP to complain about poverty in Africa?
No, no, no as that wonderful market economist (really an ice cream tester) used to say?
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pmL 7, To my knowledge, I have never been quoted on PM.
As Wild Oscar said to Wussell Bwand, "There is no such thing as a bad hair day."
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8 To my certain knowledge you 'ave.
You're being mentioned to take over the Ross and Brand spots y'know.
But I think the Connecticut accent left on the answer machines would be too much of a giveaway.
Also they play Glen and Ella rarely on their shows.
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pmleader - As you are a regular ''old lag'' (as you put it), and one of ''the usual crew'', have you ever stopped to wonder whether your snide remarks put new punters off? Your posts lately have been personal attacks - if I was a new visitor to this Blog, I'd find it off-putting.
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pmL, I get the best of both worlds if I am quoted in the letters spot: they can't cope with my surname, so they don't read it out! :-)
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Two seconds thought will tell you why PM does not attribute comments to "mittfh" or "pmleader" or "Gordon B" live on air.
And you write "One obvious problem with having regular posters is that their particular emotional reactions too often become the subject of the thread discussions" is true, as I am am now writing a response to you, a regular poster!!!
And, I agree: if you think that people are always addressing each and every comment as a personal attack on you, then this isnt a place for you!!!!
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Re the elder thing
This was very appropriate. As I went to see my elderly grandmother with her shopping yesterday there was some mention of spacing of park benches on Radio 4 not considering the needs of the elderly and being too far apart. Granny wasn't interested in this. She wanted to know whether the substitutes on the internet grocery shopping I'd done for her meant that Gordon Brown had lost her shopping list as he seems to be losing a lot of "electrical things."
My other dear grandmother has agreed to let me stay with her whilst I have no gas at home. We had a lovely chat over a cup of tea before I was told that if I wanted to listen to the radio I'd have to go into the other room because she wanted to see "Neighbours". That's when the trouble started.
The ad break in Neighbours coincided with the piece on PM about communities for the elderly. Oh how I wish that chap had been there in person to deal with her! She caught half a listen and wondered who this young whippersnapper was. She doesn't want to live with old people (being a young 87) because they don't listen and talk rubbish. She then started talking about the Polish man on the bus and the war and the funny lady over the road who used to wander in the street with her house key round her neck. She doesn't want that. She blames Alistair Darling. He's probably behind it all.
This diatribe continued for 15 minutes. Then she heard the end credits for Neighbours and blamed "that Scottish Boy" for making her miss it. Fortunately the pressure was taken off Eddie when she heard Paddy and said how disappointed she was when she saw him on BBC2 on a quiz and he wasn't Ant or Dec.
It transpires that now she doesn't pay for a TV licence she only feels she needs to watch the interesting stuff with her glasses on. This is Taggart, News at 10 and the soaps. She is happy if the rest is a blur.
She is still complaining about Warsaw ghettoes for pensioners at this point.
Then she came across Eggheads. And Jeremy Vine. She hasn't realised that Jeremy Vine and Jeremy Kyle are two different people - they don't merit a look with her glasses on - so she is convinced that JV is trying to take over the world. This continued until Emmerdale - JV is now lumped in with the "hedgy comics" that the BBC want and would probably want her locked up in a camp with John Sergeant as he's old too. And then all went calm...
...Until her beloved 10 O'Clock News where JV was being interviewed about the prank call saga and it all started again...
She is talking about getting a laptop and "a broadband" because she feels left out that she couldn't complain about the BBC. Apparently it's all email and blogging now. She wants JV to get himself a better suit and stop taking over the world. She also wants that "Scottish Boy" to find out and tell her what happened at the end of Neighbours as he made her miss it. She thinks Russell Brand is as he is because he doesn't wear a vest but he's basically a good boy led astray and he'll be fine when he grows up a bit.
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Karen (above) brilliant!
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Karen - I've just slopped my tea!!!
That's exactly hit the button. I'm going to get a broadband too, and, probably, a vest!!
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GM (14) Maybe my nana could revive the whole Mrs Merton thing for Friday nights on BBC1!
We're now off a laptop and onto a Wii. She's worried that Terry Wogan is looking old and that his knees are playing him up because he was looking bandy legged on News at 10. She's also still harbouring (another) grudge against JV for replacing Jimmy Young. I'm taking her out tonight. We'll see what other gems she has to offer.
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Gill 10, I just scroll past them. If somebody wants to write a column, let them apply for a job with a newspaper.
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pmL 9, I only remember being mentioned on Today. A much more important program.
I'm from Ohio and our accent is to the US what BBC pronunciation is/was to GB.
Who are Glen and Ella Rarely?
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I would like to think, given their interest in the recent Ross/Brand BBC debacle, both the Prime Minister and the Leader of Her Majesty's Opposition will also find the time to become involved in this situation:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/sas-chief-quits-over-negligence-that-killed-troops-in-afghanistan-982229.html
I wonder...
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Mr Ross & Mr Brand have been branded as (to say the least), "Loonies".
Time, audience numbers & income will (for some) finally decide those issues.
Anyway, this comment from the land of the "Loonie"...
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20081101.RENZETTI01/TPStory/?query=BBC
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(13) - RxKaren. Ours just hit the OFF on the remote at any sign of violence. TV was so much more entertaining, in that, the family competed to guess the missing bit until the TV came back on.
Member of my family still does not forgive the BBC for ever hiring that Jimmy Young. "You know he caused the sugar crisis!", "Yes I know"
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Gosh if I got refered to the moderators - think what will happen to Paul Gambaccini?
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A beautifully crafted article by Clive James - as ever, humerous but, on target:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7702216.stm
"But there is such a thing as a reasonable sufficiency..."
Or maybe, as my Grandmother would have said:
"...but there is such a thing as an elegant sufficiency..."
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@23
...Oh, and Mr James is also (even allowing for his Aussie-background) spot-on about this...
"The best James Bond ever was George Lazenby, and maybe it's time for another Australian in the role.
But the script needs a more formidable villain. Couldn't he be a British Labour Peer with a sinister smile and uncanny powers of resurrection? (cut to picture of "Mandy" on the previous post's website reference)
And we need a new title: The Man Who Resigned Twice.
P.S. Mr James, your suggested title may need revising before the film is released..!
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A point very well made (see final para) by Paxo
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082364/JEREMY-PAXMAN-Wear-poppy---lions-killed-war-donkeys-send-there.html
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The other side of the Daniel James coin...
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1082354/LIZ-JONES-23-paralysed-Dan-ask-father-help-die.html
What, I wonder, would £18 million over 3-years do for people in this situation..?
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Mittfh, on one of Edgie's joke threads (you just have to laugh at him, don't you (don't you?) says, in reply:
PML@26: The financial markets are so volatile at the moment there's probably little sense in making big headlines out of daily rises/falls, as over the following days/weeks, the various market indices will eventually find a new equilibrium.
Mittfh, mittfh, mittf!
What Naomi Klein says + a weak pound suggest last week's FTSE gains were from NY money.
'Cos Klein says that the Bush bail out money is going into the usual speculative channels.
When exactly do you think these markets were in equilibrium, then? During the dot com boom bust? During the post 9/11 inflationary bubble?
Mittfh, as they say, we are always in the long run.
Constant critique of market activity is good journalism. It ought to help stop the next market scam.
Edgie may think that all (tele)phonney****, I think it's worthwhile hearing the tosh marketeers talk, handling our money.
The 700 billion Bush has given to his banking friends to spend (and think too of the salaries and bonuses to the new place(wo)men on the Fannie and Freddie boards) is the next stage in the usual capitalist con trick.
Let's rehearse it. You get the creation and then the realisation of surplus value.
The creation, in this case, comprises the refusal to help the sub prime mortgagees directly, instead, hiking their interest rates - impoverishing them so they'll work for nothing.
The realisation? Why, the money that should have gone to the poor lining the bankers' pockets.
Meanwhile, as bankers re-line their pockets, the credit crash goes on. It hasn't hurt China or India or Islamic oil enough yet.
Here, according to Cameron, we should cut government borrowing. His kind can survive on a nice little FTSE bubble whilst the real economy goes to hell in a hand cart.
I'd rather hear a daily report of market cynicism (including criticism of the claim governments are themselves nearly bankrupt (which, incidentally Barclays clearly is/was. When I said that a year ago I got modded for spreading alarm (or the truth as the rest of us call it.).).), than hear Edgie (Night) Mare making silly jokes.
Sans doute, Edgie Mare is au fait with all this in any language, but there is precious little evidence for that from PM.
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27
Does S/HE mean moi?
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How Jonathan Ross can be a presenter on the BBC, beggers belief when the man cant evan talk proper. He needs elocution lessons and its a disgrace that he gets so much money for mumbling through his words. As for insulting that great entertainer Andrew Sachs, both he and Russell Brand should be sacked permanently.
Jeffcasey
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Jeffcasey (29) - "the man cant evan talk proper"
????
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QualifiedLoon, dnftt! leave it, it ain't wurf it....
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QL 30, He means 'pwoper'.
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Don't take the bait...Jeff is an Oxford Don. You are an Eliza to his Prof Higgens .
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ingeniousCliff @ 33, ah, but which college? :-)
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