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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Please try to get the best part in the first 10 minuites, as that's the only part I am certain to hear.
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Which do you regard as more important, the constitutional disintegration of Thailand or the constitutional disintegration of the U.K and if it is the latter why is radio 4 news making such a sturdy effort to marginalise it?
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Never mind. The answer is already very well known. It's because you are NuLabour's very own Pravda.
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Um, I'd quite like to know - when did
E-conomic become Ec-onomic, and
Fi-nancial become Fin-ancial?
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D_H 4, Is that Hack-enbush or Hacken-bush?
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What no mention of za_nulabour's stitch up or the analysis of what might happen to gorbals mick tomorrow?
Isn't this more important than some streetlights out to save money?
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Yes, it is.
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Tomorrow the Queen opens a Parliament
disgraced by the presence of fascists and you have nothing to say on the matter????????????????
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I thought so.
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S_l 3, The answer was as clear as the question.
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Radio Four,
Nu-Lab whore.
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PM is an excellent programme. However, the piece on the private ambulance contractor in Birmingham seems more appropriate for a tabloid than PM. Presumably the undercover reporter had hoped for more exciting revelations. The spokesman from Birmingham Children's Hospital did a creditable job of responding in a sane fashion to an aggressive interviewer who appeared amazed that the BBC wasn't being allowed to act as witness, prosecutor, judge and jury on the case. Not PM's finest hour.
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Re ambulance drivers: Hospitals are trying to save money by outsourcing ambulance drivers. Sure, the drivers should have training and criminal records checks. But I don't want the hospital to waste its valuable resources on duplicating all these checks. In fact, I would recommend outsourcing the checking, by ensuring that contractors are quality certified (eg. to ISO9001).
I think BBC is trying to make too much of this story.
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Not being a sex-tourist I couldn't give a flying stuff about Thailand. What I do care about is the creeping Gramsci Marxist imposition of authoritarianism in MY OWN COUNTRY. What the hell are you overgrown, overpromoted hippies playing at !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Snafu_Land: Why don't you write to your MP about it? ;o)
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Oh thanks. So now you supplicate yourselves to the warped self-justified ravings of Citizen Smith as she tries to smear her own iniquities on her critics. You really are a detestable collection of fifth-column Gramsci apparatchiks.
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Yes very funny how your contributions go straight on without any moderation isn't it "Big Sister"?
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
And just in case there was any doubt that radio 4 is infested with useless twerps we get the abysmal 'Listen Against'.
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Good unbiased report with the former ofsted inspector re baby P case. First time I've ever heard anyone confirm that authorities use agency staff. Now is the time to dig under all the official obfuscation around these awful cases. Agency staff are also used to cover for sickness caused by the stress of the job caused by case load overload - just check how many staff are off sick! Reason for the stress? Managers prefer not to remove children from homes because the government increased the cost to complete this and no extra resource for this! How can authorities employ the recommended number of social workers to get the caseload down to a managable size without extra funding?
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Subject: The Police and the Law, Contd.
Here we go again. Yesterday, I whinged about the Police and MPs, with a side mention of Senor Menezes. Today I will whinge about the Police and Senor Menezes with a side mention of the Police and MPs.
I find it bizarre that a conveniently establishment barrister has forbidden the coroner's jury to find that the killing of Senor Menezes was unlawful. What is the point of coroners' inquests with juries if the juries cannot make up their own minds what happened? A waste of jurors' time I think.
In addition, I suspect that this absurd injunction by the Coroner will result in the destruction of what little international credibility the English legal system has left.
Arguably, Porky has got away with murder (again?).
The French Right Wing Political Scientist, Duverger, suggested that: "the state needs to maintain a monopoly of the means of coercion". This is probably true but the Police should not be that mechanism. I will expand:
A police force which performs suppression tasks for the Executive cannot be trusted. These suppression tasks have very little to do with law enforcement for the benefit of the community.
The international evidence for this is overwhelming: Police forces tend to be AMORAL because of the requirement to suppress, so aiding the installation of dictatorship. (Hitler, Mugabe, Sadam H)
The point is that the Police will do anything they are told without question; there is no morality.
We need to control our police. The starting point for this is to prevent the Executive from putting them out of control.
We need a constitution which will prevent the Executive from arbitrarily increasing police powers.
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Snafu_Land: Don't jump to conclusions - I'm not related to Big Brother. I'm just a regular contributor, as (by the looks of it) you soon will be, and therefore you won't be premodded.
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I totally agree with Sussex Tadpole.
The strident interviewer continued with her 'off with their heads' line despite the sensible arguments from the Birmingham Children's Hospital - was she listening? The following politician also failed to be objective or show much understanding of the real world or risk management. What a contrast to the sensible ofsted inspector interviewed later in the programme.
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Subject: The Police and the Law, Contd. - Further.
A - bsolutely
C - riminal
P - olitical
O - Obfuscation
Fact never bothered an ACPO spokesman yet and they don't do responsibility.
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Well, now.
The voice suggests the news is going to be taken seriously today.
It is impossible that the police could have at their core, an ideology of revenge, of the need to make someone an example, of decimation (literally). The British Army never did - in Malaya, in (what is now) Zimbabwe, in Cyprus etc.
So why ever would our police force commit a murder born of rabid anger and the wish to frighten - everyone?
Now, we know, how silly it is to consider such (im)possibilities. Why, the Menezes coroner assures us of it. And coroners are honourable men.
What's happening in Thailand, then? WaO had reports that the PM was a dictator.
Funny, I thought the PPP had won the General Election. Other BBC outlets say it's class war. PM? Shouldn't it be on the side of the oppressed majority?
Haven't heard the plug for iPM yet. Thank goodness there's a thread inviting good ideas (like, 'stick Gordon on the ceiling'). Apparently PM listens to its listeners.
On the economy? Certainly. But only AFTER the bank-ruptcies and the October crash.
And before? Your theme tune doesn't mention that not listening is one of Edgie's tricks.
What Enron did, every financial company is doing.
The stock and housing booms will come to grief.
Markets are inherently perverse.
Without economic equality how can we justify our lives?
I'm sure Edgie said all that. No, wait, that was bloggers and Edgie said... well, something about Shatner, I expect. (Are the attacks on HIM ageist? They smack of bullying to me)
So, you feel like proposing a better way of running the economy to iPM?
No chance. The prog itself says big ideas are bad.
Has Edgie worked out yet, why he can ask politicians unanswerable questions? It's 'cos they ARE politicians, who TRY to answer, down to the last fig leaf.
The Q and A sessions are a PART of democracy, not criticisms of it.
By contrast, where are the bankers and any criticism of markets?
Oh, wait, perhaps I'm wrong (again). Why hasn't Edgie asked Boris Johnson what his reaction was to being told Damian Green was going to be busted?
Is Edgie waiting till the story breaks (or something)?
Must be that Mare is going to tell us when it does.
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Hello!!!
I find PM usually very interesting. I am usually on my way home from work. The thing that caught my imagination mostly was regarding Ambulance subcontracting. I could not believe my ears when I heard people discussing Ambulance subcontracting. Which planed do these people live in. On a more sober thought when I arrived home, my daughter greeted me saying ?I was made redundant today?. She is 20 and was doing a part time job in our local gym. Times are hard all-around. Is she the first 20 year old to be made redundant from a part time job?
Yours truly, Bina
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How very disappointing that on a night when there is scope for serious discussion on serious topics most comments seem to rather crass attempts to insult each other and presenters some of which seem unreadable.
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when i made my previous comment i did not mean to insult those who did take up serious issues.
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There's a glitch stopping us making comments. Only realise about it is
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I do agree MP should NOT be above the law. BUT they must never have their offices searched.
I have complained a few times about police corruption. I understand that my complaint to the MP is confidential.
Now they have all the records of the complaints!
It is unacceptable that MPs records arrive in the hands of the police. There has to be some control of the police. Especially at present while the police themselves are determined to be seen to be out of control and above the law.
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justfloating (31):
Good point. Shouldn't anything of that nature be carried out by the Sergeant-At-Arms rather than an external force?
PM team? Anyone asked that question?
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Oh dear. There is something somehow familiar about Snafu-land's posts, at 17 in particular, but the rest too.
One might almost wonder whether we all ought to say, 'hi, Jimmy'.
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