The AM Glass Box
Welcome to the AM Glass Box - your chance to help shape tonight's PM.
You may have read your morning paper and listened to the radio, and have some ideas you want to hear on PM tonight.
Perhaps a question about something in the news you would like answered - or better still, direct experience of something topical. Or maybe there's an aspect to a big story you haven't heard explored that you would like to hear.
Just as the PM Glass Box emulates the meeting we have AFTER the show, the AM Glass Box will be like the real meeting we have every day at 11.00, in that all ideas are welcome.
Just like the real meeting, most ideas that are suggested will not make it on air. But we would like to try this to see how it works. It's best that you make your suggestion before 10am.
Listen to PM
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Why is the weather forecast so bad on the BBC website? It says the top temperature here today will be 17 Celsius - that's in the south of Essex.
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It is really a wonderfully effective smokescreen to tell us that the Royal Family costs us only 69p per head,
an estimate that is deferentially reported by the print and broadcasting media. It is quite another matter to ask whether the institution has any real purpose. There is a Head of State, currently The Queen, who is competent and immensely experienced; what, though, is the Royal Family? How is it constituted, who does what in the ribbon cutting department. Who is in, who is out, and what retainers are there on the payroll? Is it, maybe, a job creation scheme, with a lot of creation, but very little job?
Can we expect from the PM team some non deferential questioning of Household officials about these issues?
Let's distinguish the popular reaction "she is worth every penny" from the far less obvious "they are worth every penny", shall we?
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For balance, please quote how much tourist income The Queen and her family generate for the economy. (Must be in billions?). Plus how much money the Crown Estate and Duchy of Cornwall give to the Exchequer. Plus the amount of income tax paid by The Queen, her family and all her employees.
I am sure it will come to more than the taxpayer has to pay for them!
It will probably cover MP's expenses as well.
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Jack Dee - better than Stephen Fry for ISIHAC.
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Having heard that schools can be sued if students do not make progress. I am sure that the Grammar schools, who are coasting, with students not achieving 100% pass rates-A* etc at GCSE will be now under more scrutiny. Delighted to hear it.
I assume that comprehansive schools who achieve well with traditional GCSE's and some vocational options will be praised.
How much progress? Weekly, daily, hourly, immediate... I await with great excitement! Such foresight!
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Well done alunrt @3.
[How much in tourist income the Queen and her family generate for the economy. Must be in billions?] - oh, billions, is it? But there is no way of estimating this; it is a nice assertion, without any evidence.
[Plus how much money the Crown Estate and Duchy of Cornwall give to the Exchequer. Plus the amount of income tax paid by The Queen, her family and all her employees.]
Can we see the figures, then? I mean, without "redaction".
[I am sure it will come to more than the taxpayer has to pay for them!]
As before, you are sure, are you? Another nice populist assertion, without evidence.
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Sir/Madam,
the UK should scrap any upgrade to the Trident Weapons System.
Available funds should be used to ensure that UK armed forces are given the tools to do the job, both in weaponry and personal armour and enhanced vehicle protection, sadly this was not the case in Iraq or Afghanistan.
One of the myriad unacceptable faces of Blairism was sending UK troops into battle not only to fight an unjust war but under equipped and under funded.
Money was found to bail out the undeserving UK banks, it should also have been found to protect UK armed forces in battle.
Finally will someone try to establish where the funds have gone that were supposed to assist Afghan farmers to move from cultivating opium to producing food for their families and communities. Destroying Afghan opium crops without enabling farmers to produce an alternative subsidized income was never going to work.
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Swine flue parties a bad idea !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8125191.stm
Who knew ?
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Agree a breakdown of who constitutes the 'Royal Family' and benefits from the taxpayer would be interesting, to include how many of them live in royal residences or 'grace and favour' accommodation and what they do in return for same.
JAlexW@7: good point! Something on this too.
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How about a report into Obama's backtracking on pledges he made during the election over subjects such as indefinite detention for terrorists and no taxes for those earning under £250,000, or something about the White House's firing of an inspector general who was investigating the misuse of federal grants by an Obama supporter, or Obama's laughably inaccurate predictions about how the stimulus spending would impact on unemploymen, or the fact that not one congressman who voted for Obama's hugely expensive climate bill on Friday had actually read it all? Alternatively, you could just get that Cambridge professor back on to talk about how cool the Prez is at swatting flies or some other fluffy fan club nonsense.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
Prev post, meant to say "no tax increases", not "no taxes".
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#8
Quite so. We should wait until winter, cross our fingers and hope that the NHS doesn't collapse under the weight of cases.
#4
Agreed. Much better.
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Is Paddy Ashdown trying to make a fool out of Nicky Clegg? Or perhaps he's managed it on his own?
Last week Nicky Clegg insisted there was no more time to deliberate over Trident - a commitment one way or the other, had to be made now.
On the Today programme, Paddy Ashdown said there is NO need to rush such an important decision over the nation's security. He proposes careful evaluation and debate, suggesting a decision be made in 2012. That leaves Clegg looking rather foolish.
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Richard: I think Nick Clegg would be right to be wary of Lord Ashdown. From what I've noted, he's a leading member of the wooden spoon club.
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lordBeddGelert @ 8, a lot would depend on what you want from these parties. I doubt that anyone who knows about medicine would advocate them, or has been doing so?
If you are reasonably healthy (the three deaths that 4000 [reported: some people may have had it and thought they had a bad cold] cases have caused so far all seem to have been of people whose underlying health was already poor) and don't care about anyone else, then getting it yourself while it is still a mild strain of the disease and the weather is good is probably favourable for the individual. It may not be very good for the population at large, since it will increase the rate of incidence and presumably the rate of potential mutation as well, making it more likely that others will get a nastier disease.
So it comes down to "who do you care about? Yourself, or an indeterminate number of other people?"
The answer will be "yourself" for a lot of people, chances are. We have patio heaters and SUVs as evidence that many people don't care a hang for anyone else who may die because of their action, just so long as it can't be proved to be definitely causal. And after all, it may not kill any more people per thousand than it is at the moment, so the reasoning would be "I intend to be all right, Jack."
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Re: Current heatwave. Your guest yesterday said tea & coffe would dehydrate, however, the bbc news website:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/5281046.stm
seems to suggest otherwise.
Can you help?
Can we add a single cool pint to the list of safe drinks? Please?!
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"Schools to be sued if if they do not offer extra tuition for struggling pupils"
So goes the headline, and I was wondering how it would be implemented / how schools would fit it into the day (many teachers already work through a significant portion of the lunch hour doing PPA). Unsurprisingly this aspect of the upcoming white paper appears to be old news:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7632194.stm
But how will you ensure pupils from disadvantaged areas attend these tuition sessions - especially since it's likely a significant proportion of low attaining pupils come from educationally low attaining families, and therefore will find playing football on the school field a far more attractive use of lunchtime than extra English and Maths lessons... (after school's likely to be a no-no, due to transport arrangements etc., and half term holidays would have very low attendance!)
Then in the main article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/8125331.stm
"There will be a list of successful schools and organisations accredited to set up such chains - which would mean groups of primary and secondary schools with similar uniforms and brand names under a single executive head teacher."
Ugh! A school is not a chain store! Why do politicians insist on running public services like multi-million pound retail businesses? First there was league tables, which encouraged the trend of assessing a school's performance mainly by its exam results (equivalent of profits), now there's the prospect of mergers / acquisitions / takeovers, next (especially with academies) there'll be Ambridge Academies PLC.
"report cards for schools - seen as a future alternative to school league tables"
Presumably these will be released to the public domain, so that'll keep a handful of hacks busy for a few days collating them into league tables...
And with the existing tables, how many parents know / understand / use the "value added score" and how many just look at the raw percentage of pupils attaining 5+ GCSEs / 5+ A*-C GCSES / 5+ A* - C GCSEs inc. Eng & Maths A*-C?
"There will be plans to allow parents of unruly pupils to be taken to court by schools."
That'll go down like a lead balloon, I forsee a repeat of the truancy conviction madness...
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Meanwhile, on a lighter note...
I know it's well past the 11am meeting, but I dare you to discuss this...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8125934.stm
Tee hee hee!
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Sid - I don't think either Stephen Fry or Jack Dee is a suitable long-term 'Clue' presenter. Anyone who can present 'QI' well should automatically be out of the running for 'Clue'.
The programmes are too different - 'Clue' needs someone who can come across a bit 'baffled'.
Likewise Jack Dee doesn't work, but this is only because he can't really do 'double entendre' when you can't imagine him not knowing exactly what he is talking about.
I think Rob Brydon might be able to play the 'victim' character of 'what on earth am I doing here?' rather better. My early betting is on him, 'ante-post'.
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#17 I didn't hear this interview but I can't believe what they say.
If it were true no one in Saudi Arabia would drink tea or coffee yet it is the first drink you are offered at any meeting.
I couldn't survive without 2 or 3 pints of tea a day.
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I'm drinking iced coffee at the moment - a habit I picked up in the States. Alternating with a glass of water to salve my conscience.
Eddie - I'm sure there's scope for an iced quadlatte . . .
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Hey, Nils!
Seen this?
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=192
LOVE the last bit about modelling, the modelling being so much more optimistic than the facts. Would you kindly quote it,Nils?
The sky isn't falling in unless you are (to become) unemployed, can't get a job in the first place and what do markets care about you. Are we just being told the truth straight out about Germany, 'cos it seems even worse there, Nils?
Markets like this unemployment stuff. It keeps wages down and profits up. They're too tied up each in their own little worlds to worry about overall demand when they think like that.
These marketeers have votes too, and apparently we need them before we can abolish markets altogether.
They refuse socialism in good times, they refuse socialism in bad times when they're running scared. The sky HAS fallen in 'cos the country's money is in the wrong hands.
Still, at least we can try to talk down markets so they don't soak up every bit of spending power that should go on education health and industry support, for yachts, multimillion homes and luxurious living (they're worse than even the Beeb) can be, through speculative bubbles.
It's a daily job, 'cos the insane psychology of those crowds and mobs of vultures can take off in a moment.
If 40 per cent of data puts things .5 per cent worse than 40 per cent of 'modelling' then presumably 100 per cent 'modelling' had it wrong by 1.25 per cent.
That's for the quarter compared with the previous quarter. For the year coming, that's, say, a 5 per cent error.
But that 5 per cent of growth is exactly the growth, taking us back to OK-land, that the BoE uses to get those graphs that go back up at the same rate that the growth charts (see at the URL address given above) are going down.
We are told we've never been in this situation before. So what is the 'modelling' based on?
Admit it, BoE, NSA, its sheer GUESSWORK, and worse still, numbers designed to deceive. Numerical mogadon for a population punch drunk with the dishonesty, greed and unfairness of its expense accounted, over-paid, layabout leaders and chattering classes. And of the system they make us live under.
And if the first figures for the first quarter, brought out in May are 55 per cent 'modelling' whatever are the figures that have been brought out DURING the second quarter ABOUT the second quarter, based on? Thin air, imagination, wishful thinking and downright deception, Nils?
And what about the claim, when a 1.9 per cent contraction was claimed (instead of the 2.4 it is now recognised to be), that things were not that bad because the third month in the quarter looked less bad? It must have, again, have been arrived at by plucking numbers they think we'd like the sound of, out of thin air.
Are you going to re-question the peopel who told you this quarter's figures are better, Nils? Erase the impression with them, that we swallowed whole what they have been saying.
Whatever will the slump number finally (truly) be when the last 15 per cent of guesswork is replaced by facts. IS there to be a US-DS competition to guess, Nils?
If they say to you, Nils, that they based the guesses on what was going on in the sectors they 'knew' about, how come they didn't issue a Government Heath Warning with the numbers, 'cos we all know building and hairdressing (yep!) (that were left out) always suffer worst of all.
And anyway the building numbers were IN FACT only 20 per cent worse (from 5 to 6 per cent) for the quarter compared with last quarter (.5 on 1.9 is a bigger fall). Aren't the errors consistent with over optimistic 'theory' ('We hope/ think/pray/pretend/think it best for you to think that.....') rather than simple extrapolation form the data they DID have, Nils?
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Hiya.
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23
Executive Summary.
The figures they used to claim the economy isn't in slump are completely BOGUS.
All worried about lies by MPs , extravagance at the Beeb and inflated salary cheques everywhere, should get on the backs of these economic commentators telling us its infinitely better than it is, them knowing or not understanding (whichever!!!) that it isn't.
HaleAndHello.
For scrollers in the blog park:
The system is rubbish. Rain or shine marketeers stick to it. However can we bring about change when their support in needed to form a democratically elected government?
HAH.
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Hey!
Dare not admit it, but I've got swine flu from a swine flu party.
A party for the illness that was all got up by the media for which there is ziltz chance of it getting more serious.
Shall I hold my own (party. that is, TYVM)? I just KNOW I can be fun at parties.
PS I like the Victoria Wood variant about their making their pants out of old dishcloths. How middle class dressing down is THAT? It puts Levis to shame.
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My Lord Bedd of Gelert - you may well be right. But of the two we've heard so far, Dee's better by far.
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@23, 25, 26: Wake me up when he's gone back to the Furrowed Brow...
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Is PM aware that two British citizens have been kidnapped in international waters off the coast of Gaza, between Larnaca and Gaza?
This happened at roughly 15:10 GMT.
The Israeli Navy threatened to shoot the British-registered charity boat Spirit of Humanity which is carrying ex-US Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney among others, and then boarded her 23 miles off the coast of Gaza.
These are international waters and international law prohibits such activity.
The UK FCO, to whom I have spoken, said that 'no kidnapping has taken place', but rather that the passengers of the boat had been taken off the boat and taken to Israel where, quote 'they are being dealt with by the appropriate authorities'. The UK FCO should be aware that seizing people by force and taking them to an undisclosed location constitutes kidnapping.
Would PM like to run a report on this story which is unfolding literally right now?
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This is very confusing.
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