The Nostalgia PM Glass Box
The Glass Box is where the PM team meets in at 18.00 every weeknight to discuss the content of the programme. The big talking point tonight could well be the theme tune's return.
We try to be honest with each other, but not hurtful, as we talk about what worked and what didn't...what met our expectations and what fell short.
This virtual glass box is where you're encouraged to take part in the same spirit. Tonight's PM editor Eloise Twisk will read your comments and may well add her own.
Listen to PM
© MMIX~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~51~RS~)
Comments
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My Granny had one of those radios - is that nostalgic enough?
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Glassnostalgia? Transparency of pain?
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Yes, bring on the theme tune - THAT's what I'm talking about! You should keep it. It works well with Eddie.
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The theme tune!
YES!
WR.
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Now that's how PM should start.
I feel 10 years younger!!!
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Aaagh no, turn it off! turn it off!!
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Well, I remembered that - very good!
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BTW Eddie, how much did you have to practice to get all the words in, within the time?
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Can I check that the Policiticians claiming mortgage payments as expenses are exempt from the bank of england base rate. Surely the expense bill for payments will have down dramatically over the past 6 months as have half the population's mortgage bills or have our representatives been on 25 year fixed rates?
I'm thinking of developing a mortgage product for the politicians where the headline rate is linked to electoral popularity - currently we are looking at a negative APR!
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Enough. Don't play it again.
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My grandmother had one similar to this (maybe):
http://recollectionsof.com/antiqueindex_files/570%20Zenith%2010S153%201937%20Console%20Radio.jpg
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I'm sure you can still buy those Bush ones you know. I demand to know if that photo is genuine! ;)
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This is great stuff Eddie and Co. Lots of good work by the PM team across the country.
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Sue (13)
What is great stuff? They've hardly done anything yet...
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Baroness Warnock's interview, for instance. Brilliant.
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Scapegoat? He should be totally ashamed of himself. Go for him Eddie.
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Sue (15)
I agree, but that interview was broadcast after your comment appeared.
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Has he no morals?
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He's apologising for being caught - nice one.
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(17) Joseph, it has all been good! One of the best PMs ever. What do you think?
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The mantra for all this farago of expenses and misdeeds in the Lords is that "I followed the rules".
Well exactly. If you decide that the only way to govern is to make more and more complex rules to cover every eventuality in every walk of life and control everyone's behaviour, then you must not be surprised if people run their lives according to the rules to maximise their personal benefit.
Instead of which how about behaving according to a moral code, using common sense and judgement and being prepared to take ownership of the decisions you make and the way you behave.
Until our politicians are prepared to face up to this simple fact they will gain no respect from those they purport to represent.
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If we are to judge members of the Lords for acting improperly in dealings with lobbyists, we have to ask what are the lobbyists and their largely corporate sponsors doing paying large salaries etc. for, if it is not to gain an advantage?
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Very nice to hear the old sig. tune again. It reminded me of the the time I was working in the civil service and Friday was the only time I was home early enough to hear it. The tune not only heralded the beginning of PM but the start of the weekend, for me.
Hope I remember to turn in to work tomorrow.
It would be nice if you restored the tune permanently. Go on, you know you want to.
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Everything Eddie does is brilliant...and Quinn...both are more brilliant than each other...in fact, the whole PM team are the most brilliantest people on radio....and TV. Brill...
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Peers - Good Show
Commons - Where have we been. We knew it was a gravy train. Am I on my own thinking we'd all do given the chance.
Whats really going on MPs is all 'they' want to us to talk about?
Am I in a Minority of one remembering what matters.
My last 2 utility bills have just been rescinded and cut by more than 5% across the board, as promise by Parliament.
Thats money in MY pocket
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Please keep the theme tune. I have missed it so much. I heard it tonight for the first time since my own children were born, the tune that reminds me so much of my own childhood tea times. I grizzled into the fish fingers! You are depriving my girls by keeping it off the air waves. And unless I heard it wrongly, did Eddie enjoy it just a little bit??!
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Sue (20)
But the programme had only been on for thirteen minutes when you posted your comment.
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Can someone in the team tell us what method are we using on EU voting day is it party list or individuals. PLEASE TELL.
Its like its a secret
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I was sweeping in another room when I think I heard Lord Trustcott (?) apologise for being "entrapped". Eh! Is this right?
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I've just heard the programme segment which included US Healthcare (lack-of for 50 million) and, Prof. Karol Sikora.
But, it didn't make sense...
Oh dear...
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murray gold on PM brill
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Anne (21) - Eminently sensible suggestion.
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Cant we just agree to get Murray to put together a new theme tune
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PT 12, If they do, I'll bet they aren't made in GB. Our Bush TV was made in ?Malaysia.
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Interview with the new Doctor Who? Good God! .....and it was all going so well up 'til then! Sheesh!
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Joseph Walker (17) - I think you should fix your clock.
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Where in Greater London can one find a place to pitch a tent?? (Legally, that is.)
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The radio I saw wasn't even real plastic! Mr McN! Comet have them - I've just remembered
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I used to think negatively about OUR NHS then I seen Michael Moore's 'sicko' Proud to be British and Proud of MY NHS
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Nice interview with Lord "i've not done anything wrong, I just got caught" and I enjoyed Jon Pienar's "haunted/hunted" line.
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Ah the theme tune. One clear memory is sitting on the roof of my car getting a sun tan on the M3/M25 interchange and being sat there for 2 hours after a truck carrying plate glass had dropped its load. It was a lovely sunny day and Val Singleton was in fine voice so it wasn't so bad. Bring it back the theme tune permenantly says I.
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(24) David, you are not normally so enthusiastic - you must have been very moved by this evening's programme.
(27) Joseph: 13 minutes is a long time on the radio and I thought that first 13 minutes was very good. Not sure why you are challenging this. Perhaps you would care to explain?
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Great to hear theme music again...please bring it back fo keeps. Like the Archers' theme and Shipping Forcast music, it calls diverted attention back to the radio -audio alerts one to listen or sleep in the case of Sailing By.
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I have exactly the same radio, as in the photo, in my kitchen. Its a reproduction of a nineteen fifties I think? I bought mine at the coop.
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fJd: would that be the 'chicken' coop?
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David,
Its a reproduction BUSH TR82. Ive got mine in the kitchen. It doesn't say where it was made but, I brought mine at the coop £25? or there abouts. Good speaker, old fashioned style front tuning dial.
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Eddie,
Please, stop displaying your "Bush" on the web...
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Charlie @ 30
Karol Sekora was saying that everyone needs "healthcare insurance" (sic) but he thought the NHS model was defective. At least, that's what I thought he said.
It was a tantalising little interview - I could have done with it being extended considerably. Perhaps he could be brought back as some stage?
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Pinaar was OK
Your other reporters, wet.
As for the Barrenness, what posh irrelevance.
And Edgie himself. Cooling out general anger. (Keynote Nostalgia for an old intro tune)
Channeled by him is OK
IS Edgie ambitious, in the way he detected in Dyke?
Subjectively his effect was less anger after the Edgie Mare rollercoaster ride. Nostalgia, Anger, More Nostalgia, an iPM plug.
His effect was LESS unity of purpose.
Anyway, if his real drive is the will to power, now is the time to find a seat.
I have seen that empty look of lust for power in his face, tis true.
But one upright man does not make a government.
Nonetheless his background and sex is/are much much better than 500 incumbents I couldn't possibly name.
Trouble is, he seems to have trained himself up as an Opposition critic (!)
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The media is behind the curve.
The public anger is total. Because this time the MPs are doing something clearly illegal.
That makes it a potential tipping point.
As for, up at 5 oclock and off to the student bar at University. Exactly. What is he now, a Tory MP?
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The theme tune was like the first spring wall flowers - salad days and innocent times. (Ive said this on another thread as well).
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SEE? We need more NHS spending, not cuts.
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invinc... 48
You are, of course correct.
If you have the time, have a look at this:
http://www.canceractive.com/page.php?n=1281
Sikora is a clever man. VERY clever and Eddie interviewed him quite recently - WELL worth listening to.
But, this evening's interview still doesn't make sense (to me that is...)
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Sue (42)
Well let's see, five minutes or so for headlines, a minute or two for you to write a comment. That leaves about six minutes of the programme for you to give such an effusive vote of confidence on (and you must admit it was very enthusiastic). I was genuinely confused and thought I had missed something. Were you referring to anything in particular?
And then you said it had been "one of the best PM's ever". Apart from that possibility being extremely unlikely, how could you have known that? The programme still had another forty five minutes to run (or strictly speaking thirty minutes if I give you a break and count from your third post no.20).
If you check, I only made a genuine enquiry to something I thought was a bit strange. I'm surprised we're still discussing it.
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Mat I suggest that the MPs' expenses scandal is just further evidence that the whole Western Capitalist system/world is going through a massive Legitimacy crisis and nothing else...And hopefully over the next few years we will drop these brutal neo-Liberal concepts..first started in Chile and then taken up by the Thatcher government...especilly in the USA and Little Britain and start a new epoch where wealth is 'spread around' for everyone and not just for a very small Elite of 'upper class' people and their cohorts..
Not forgetting that Politics is virtually about every thing and not just about what goes on at Parliament, etc...i.e..the NHS was a Socialist idea that most Tories hated and still want too destroy, especially after 1979..the shame being that new Labour has gone down the same path as the last Tory governmnet...so not really safe in their hands either...Michael Moore I should note praised the NHS in his last TV doc...when comparing it with the USA health system...how ironic don't you think!!!
Brian V Peck
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The dilemma over funding public services is this:
The Tories come in and reduce spending on public services. Eventually it reaches a stage where everyone's so upset that they kick them out.
Labour then come in and increase spending - but while it improves 'behind the scenes' aspects such as salaries and waiting times, there are many areas where the money available cannot deliver vastly improved services. So they pump a bit more in by borrowing money - both in the form of direct borrowing and in the form of PFI schemes (which apparently work a bit like a mortgage, but are vastly more complicated [no surprise there, then!]).
Even without a credit crunch, the Tories can then argue that people are being taxed heavily, and vast sums of money are poured into public services, but they still aren't perfect. Therefore, they argue, the money must have been "wasted" and the same level of service can be delivered through a significantly reduced budget.
And so the cycle goes on...except this time, Tony set the stage for increased resentment amongst voters by getting involved in two unpopular conflicts which, if anything, seem to have increased the chances of disaffected people in the countries concerned trying to seek revenge on us, rather than the claim given at the time that it would do the opposite. Then Gordon takes over, and appears to lurch from crisis to crisis. Although most had seemingly little to do with the government directly (most data loss incidents were civil servants, who'd be the same whoever was in power, and probably have no direct line of responsibility to the Minister), the combination of Gordon's awkwardness in public speaking, his apparent inability to devise coherent policies on the hoof (as opposed to meticulously planning them over a period of time) and reluctance to hire people that could advise him effectively or be his public face (although in mitigation, Tony was often derided for doing just that) has reduced his popularity to record lows.
(Oh gawd, I've been on a Plain English course today - the tutor would lynch me for that last sentence!)
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TRW.
I am surprised that your keyboard still works after all the ash dropping into it from that exotic stuff you must be smoking.
I, (like lady Sue) thought Baronness Warnock's comments were very valuable and infomative.
I suspect that if you read the transcript of what she said ,you would agree, but the (posh) voice and the title, had it pigeonholed in your mind as, "Irrelevant", before you had given her a fair chance
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The original Bush radios only had MW and LW, I think. The recent repro ones have FM. Maybe they'll have DAB soon (it had better be soon or they'll be out of date). Bush also made a repro of ther TR130 and I regret not having snapped one up when H*m*b*se were selling them. My wife has an orginal one with LW, MW and a "208" button for Radio Luxembourg.
About the theme tune, delightful. It's not my favourite, but still brought tears of delight to my eyes.
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That should have been "Their" TR130.
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WRT Lord Truscott, I understood him to have meant he was entrapped by the lobbyists, as if they had been real.
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Here' a juicy little nuggut for tomorrows
Chat!http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5298358/Honours-watchdog-to-consider-stripping-Sir-Fred-Goodwin-of-knighthood.html
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The numbers. The FTSE's up 'cos the speculative money is getting out of oil.
Decline at 4.5 per cent for the year.
'Recovery' re-defined as stopping getting worse. 'Not getting worse' defined as getting worse more slowly.
Mortgages: Figures for MARCH. We've had 'em already. Divide the extra money lent by the extra mortgages and you get 5.7 MILLION. Ie the rich are picking up 8 million pound houses at knock down prices (literally - see The Grauniad on Sandlands)
And at knock down interest rates - paid for by the voters through billions of £s of quantitative easing.
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TRW.
Do'nt you mean "paid for by the tax payer"?
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Lady Sue @ 42, I *think* David was being tongue-in-cheek.
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nextoanidiot @ 63, who knows what s/h/it means? Who cares?
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Tory MPs standing down and making off with the loot.
Off to the Universities many of them.
Ho, ho! The only plausible replacement candidates would alienate right wing Tory voters anyway.
You might think they'd sneak in with Labour switch - over votes.
But we know from America that neither Congealed Rice nor Coe-lin Poe-el were prepared to wield the knife.
So, again, background is not enough.
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57
What she said was not as valuable as what everyone is saying.
Her irrelevance is her ordinariness backed by the privelege of her life.
She hands Egdie a bone.
We're worried about politicians not telling the truth.
Yeah, well, and that Hitler was such a liar.
No, we're trying to get a hold on them refusing to do the right thing.
Iraq, Afghanistan, privilege, inequality, taking back what is ours. getting rid of a parasitic class.
(We don't have duty to die 'early'. It is more like an honour and a right)
She comes from a class that has a duty to die. Its long overdue.
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TRWtherealworld (66) Have I got it right?
You' d have thought they'd a learned by now.
it don't mean a hoot who got da loot.
In Hong Kong even the dong, doing a flip around!
Even the Chinese are worried this time!
Lib-dems might do something but don't think Glegg is up to an all night with charlie
Hijacked by the liberal part of the lib party - parties after midnight - have another drink on me charlie!
FTSE up!; Nils feeling down.
new theme tune called for I think cue eddgie!,;
But it won't make a a'peth cause the execs know how to ruse the market.
They got it taped put the big ones up on the down side, big fat cigar, all in oil. China/even Obama don't give it up this time.
Yo!, more teutonic nights of the road eh edgier!;
No what yer mean man!
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I've still got one of those radios but no where to plug in the 3 round pin plug....
What a delight to hear the theme tune again. Can we have it back full time Eddie?
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63
Aren't people on benefit with tax credits net tax receivers rather than net tax payers?
They are still impoverished by 125 billion of money creation.
It will come to be used as a dagger to the heart of everyone here's right to an orderly and civilised life, voter or not, tax payer or not.
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I have been waiting 12 long years to hear the theme tune again. Please don't let me down by making me wait another 12 years to hear it again. And please, please, please bring back Valerie Singleton (no offence Eddie !)
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Somebody, help....please....
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68
You took the words out of my mouth.
Pause for 'Its not the words in your m.....' poster race.
I hope Chris Ghoti wins.
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So do I!
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74
Boo, she won't bother now.
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Poor Lord Truscott.
He didn't deserve Eddie's Wrath,
so calm cool and collected ;-)
Clearly a pillar of society.
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Rev Claire (26), I think Eddie enjoys most of the programme.
Perhaps that's a reason why a lot of us bloggers enjoy it, too.
But on to the events of the day. MP scandal escalates and meanwhile the first Euro election flyer plops into my letterbox. It's from UKIP.
If I were Tebbit I might raise a wry smile.
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Portillo + Ming + Beckett = The MPs set up the system of expenses as it is, so that they could milk it.
They weren't getting enough pay, they thought. But they were too canny to vote themselves more.
Therefore the legitimate expenses could not be legitimate (otherwise there would be no extra salary bonus in it for them - it would just be plain reasonable expenses)
So the inception of the system was a piece of collective dishonesty.
The problem for a programme like PM is:
A. How do you interview the 600 odd MPs who set up the system to pin them down to admitting they were being dishonest.
And
B. How do you collectively interview all the MPs who have benefited subsequently who knew it was a scam?
Well, one or two would be a start. But the problem is you would have to establish A to tackle B.
The A's say 'We thought it would be interpreted reasonably. B's say 'It was. Its just that the public is a bit sensitive on the subject'
Which is why if the only seriousness allowed on the programme is Edgie's quessies (political - indeed any non - individuated - argument not allowed) the programme is necessarily limited.
(By non-individuating, I was meaning one not involving the individual guilt/unique responsibility of Mare's interviewee).
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QT
Whatever happened to party politics?
How did that bloke avoid quessies about McDonald's pay, work conditions, value for money, nutritional deficiencies, environmental devastations and lousy coffee?
It took talk of the BNP
i. to cheer up the politicians
ii. to make the MPs there sound anything other than as bad as anyone can possibly get.
Ming's position: I'm paying it back 'cos my constituents want me to.....
...doesn't hold water either (Are his constituents right)
Why give MPs such dominating rights of reply?
Why only have experts on the news saying this is a crisis? Or saying the public are concerned? Or giving impersoanl;accounts of their dishonesty? (Nothing 'dropped through the floorboards ' but that MPs let it fall through)****
What about 'This is a downright illegal disgrace by hundreds and hundreds of MPs over decades'?
As for Letts afterwards. Why didn't he give more weight to the Kirkbride MacKay farce.
Two homes. Each the first home of one and the second home of the other.
And they voted against reform last year.
And have you seen their place? It should be open to the public and form part of a public park.
Isn't Cameron coming across 'better' because he's more eloquently describing what a disgrace all MPs are, himself included, for not straightening this out yonks ago?
Isn't his approach another smoothie version of that Patricia Hewitt technique (widely imitated since) of saying 'What people want to know is why XXXXX' when she had just been asked 'Why XXXX?'
We'll wind up with Cameron and Brown saying 'What people want to know is when I am going to resign' in response to the general shout of 'When are you going to resign?'
Anyway, these are all suggestions for tomorrow's AM GB. Trouble is, I won't be in front of a machine till 11.
Could someone kindly tell Edgie my suggestions are here at PM GB, 14th May, at post79? Thank you in advance.
****It's the 'pathetic fallacy' in reverse. Suddenly groups acting in concert can't have intentions.
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C_G 64, No comment...
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fJd 46, I have one of these.
http://www.electricshop.com/content/ebiz/electricshop/invt/rd60cfmr/rd60cfmr_l.jpg
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fJd 46, Re 81: And Eddie, Quinn, et al, are BRILLIANT ! on it. I can't praise them enough for their brilliantcyness.
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PM is a shadow of itself without the theme Tune. It really MUST be reinstated!
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Yeah David,
Would that be the sort of newish one?. Thought about buying one of hem once but though a bit pricey.
looked good quality though. Better than the quality from mine no doubt.
Good radios Roberts.
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Hearing the theme tune, I realised that for me it has never gone away. Every day at 5 pm, on hearing the pips, I hum it. So I never hear Eddie's opening remarks.
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I know I've been huming it since it disappeared too!!! Just how much to people miss by doing this???
Please, bring it back for good!
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(54) Joseph: during that 13 mins:
there was a report on Andrew McKay explaining his "double your money" scheme;
an interview with him trying to weasel;
a clip with David Cameron on McKay;
clips from five constituents offering their opinions on him;
a report on Eliot Morley;
a clip from his colleague John Mann saying Morley should resign;
Gordon Brown announcing the suspension of Morley;
Ian Watson in Derbyshire with a report plus several interviews with the 'man on the street';
Watson interviewing Europe Minister Caroline Flint on Morley;
Nick Garnet in Scunthorpe on Morley telling him (and us) that people were lining up to talk to him and 62 out of 63 of them felt 'let down' by him.
That's a lot to cover in 6 minutes - it was varied, lively and very interesting.
By 5.33 when I posted that it was, in my opinion, "one of the best PMs ever", apart from all the other clips and interviews, Baroness Warnock had been interviewed and Eddie had got stuck into Lord Truscott who tried desperately to make himself out to be an "innocent" scapegoat.
As I do not have access to the politicians the PM team have and, if I did the conversations would not be 'public', I am delighted that Eddie and his team get stuck into them and expose them for what they are on my behalf (as it were).
You must forgive my youthful enthusiasm but I do feel it was quite justified.
(64) Chris: Mr. McNickle being "tongue in cheek"? No... never... Was it Oscar Wilde who said 'Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit'?
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Lady Sue @ 87 - are you referring to the shining wit?
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Sid: LOL! Join me on the beach for a Pimms?
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L_S 87, Oscar Wilde, 'There is only one thing in life worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about.'
Sid 88, I asked you elsewhere, but missed your answer or you didn't see my question about what you thought of telling during elections. What responses are you getting about MPs expenses when knocking on doors?
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fJd 84, Very newish. It was a Christmas present from my wife.
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That's the opening of the programme I've been waiting for since I was re-converted to R4. It makes the news sound exciting, changes a gear. Bring it back!
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DMcN @ 90: missed your question.
Haven't had much response locally; I get the impression people think it's hardly worth discussing as we're all in agreement.
But I have had several comments (positive) about Vince Cable. Also about our plan to raise the income tax personal allowance to £10000.
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Sid 91, Thanks. I will hand out leaflets (500 more Focuses to come soon), have a window poster, and do telling (Waste of time. I was once told that they threw away things from certain wards that they knew they wouldn't win. It does give me a chance to chat with people from other parties. however.), but I won't knock on doors because I don't think it my business as a foreigner to try to tell people here how to vote.
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