The 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.
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 editor Roger Sawyer will read your comments and may well add his own.
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Yes, well. Personal sensibilities involved here, I fear.
Always makes life difficult.
(I'm back, by the way. (Apparently) The Moderator rules have changed. Now one is no longer banned forever (after, as in my case, having libeled, apparently, a well known public figure))
Whether there will be a further economic crisis, now depends on three steps.
1. A quick economic recovery
2. A consequent return to poll support for Brown, indeed of the prospect of a Labour victory at the General Election
3. The incapacity of the BoE to counter the attacks then made on the economy by financial 'speculators', the plug pullers.
Obviously if Cameron heads for victory the 'need' for economic crisis HERE, reduces.
The key to all our woes still seems to me to be EQUALITY or rather the absence of it.
Sadly, the window of opportunity to bring it about seems to be closing rapidly.
There is a hierarchy in the English education system. To service the economy we used to need 70 per cent workers and a 2 per cent elite.
Now we have 40 per cent graduates.
As the demands of the economy change, so, too, do the very numbers we define as clever, or not clever.
Condemned or disappointed or fully self appreciative. A system which imposes on people myths like 'being clever', 'having ability' etc will always produce those sad effects.
The interesting question is never 'Who is clever?' That is overwhelmingly answered by finding those given most educational support and resources.
The interesting question is 'Who SHOULD pick the fruit, collect the wheelies etc?'
The answer to me is clear. In fairness, those whose intergenerational turn it is.
Our 'wretched of the earth' KNOW they are as talented etc as anyone else.
They should direct their anger at the work-avoiding middle classes who live off their backs, rather than each other.
It's the Julie Kirkbrides of this world who should be picking the fruit etc not the benighted on benefit or young energetic workers dragged half way across Europe.
That intergenerational inequality settled, no doubt the little matter of us all living at the same ('equal'!!) standard of living and making the proper (perhaps 10 percent) contribution to saving the planet and it's poor, would follow relatively easily.
And the sky wouldn't have fallen in, if those things DID come about. Whether through reacting to crisis or, better, from sober realisation.
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1.
Objection: We are ALL number ones. Every last one of us.
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1 and 2
The point is: PLEASE, PLEASE, talk about hte need for EQUALITY on this show.
Or on your soap boxes, at least.
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There's an interesting piece of ideology of which much has been made in recent years.
It's that we all have some special talent. It's just a matter of discovering it.
I THINK it's purpose is to avoid destructive conflict among the chosen ones - the educational elite.
Without one believing themselves a scientist, another a mathematician, a musician etc the competition for each of them to prove themselves the 'most intelligent' would be mass suicidal.
The recognition of others as 'better' fulfills a similar purpose.
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Does this make a unique full house, of one person!!!
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A prial! On the bounce! Is there a house prize?
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MoreAndAgian
You appear to have an in-built death-wish.
Tell me,because I'd truly like to know, is it a genetic trait, or a habit you've cultivated over the years...
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MAA 1,2,3,4,5,6, Who did you libel?
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I've been away from news all day, thanks to a poorly relative in hospital. So my question is...
...has there simply been no news today, or are the usual bloggers being put off blogging for some reason?
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Lovely Glass Box photo - perfect for a Friday.
Wondering if there is going to be any coverage on Madonna's successful adoption. Hate to say "I told you so" but, "I told you so..."
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Fifi 9, I think the good weather is keeping people away....or Mr/Ms 1,2,3,4,5,6.
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Moreofthesame(1-6) What job do you do? Is it your turn to collect the wheelies?
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8.
You're getting me at it. Not sure whether saying who, would be regarded as a further instance.
Or even saying no one!
7.
DNK. Why?
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MAG 13
A Professional interest. Nothing more.
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Mac (1,2,3,4,5,6,ad nauseam) Yet again you claim utopia when proposing a system that was most recently attempted by the Khmer Rouge. Count me OUT. I want the doctors and nurses who treat me in hospital to be properly trained. I want the engineers who will be needed to design the carbon neutral energy systems of tomorrow to have a good knowledge and experience of physics and engineering. That's just two examples out of hundreds. I don't want them to have been sent out to work the fields simply because you feel that it's their "turn".
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MAA (13) : I think to refer to someone famous isn't usually regarded as libellous. It's more of a compliment.
I'd go for it, and let us all try to imagine what you might have said that so offended the mods.
But seriously ... last news I heard on my way here this morning was an ex-Cabinet member bleating about how much better her hindsight is than her sense of timing or jewellery.
Has NOTHING worth discussion happened since then?
It really IS silly season already, isn't it!
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Hazel Blears is trying to save her seat at the next election.
Apparently, there real concern about who would want to employ one of these shysters when they get dis-enthroned.
Madonna adoption;
Each case will be looked upon on its merits....and of course the amount of money a rock stars have to grease the wheels of the system before hand by making big donations.
Does anyone remember when it was deemed bad practice to place different ethic backgrounds together in adoptions?
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Hazel Blears is desperately scrabbling to retain a political life; crocodile tears and hypocritical rubbish. As believable as the moon being green cheese!
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It's silly season.
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Now that Blears is back in the news, I think my second Blears photo should appear here. I know fJd would like to see it.
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L_S 10, I said, "I told you so." as well. Them that has gets.
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Lady Sue (10) I thank you.
David (20) I would too - my glass box is not as witty as yours - but it is real glass!
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I thought I found the Upshares Downshares music irritating, but this week's has been lovely.
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AP 22, Mine is plexiglass, but it doesn't appear in the second photo. That might be a problem for the Glass Box. Is that yours at the top?
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David (24) - Yup.
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I agree. Lovely 'Upshares' music. Thank you, whoever sent it.
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Have the media finally noticed that the BNP vote being much higher in Salford than Manchester and Hazel Blears expenses & melodramatic resignation might have some connection?
Why did the Guardian and Polly Toynbee run a major campaign in the week before the election for Gordon Brown to be removed as leader of the Labour party? Did they think that such a campaign might put people off voting Labour and a bad election result might force Brown out? Labour voters did stay at home, but the BNP were elected. This Guardian campaign was just as effective as their attempt to influence the 2004 US Presidential election which also backfired.
Isn't it time for reporters to get back to REPORTING the news rather than trying to make it.
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Congratulations BBC, for letting almost only BNP sockpuppets on the air. All this pious nonsense about letting democracy speak and how outrageous it is for a fascist bully boy to be egged, it was sickening.
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Nice photo David. Lovely stash box.
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Always listen to PM, get the official version of what's what in the world. And of course there's Upshares every day, how camp is that! There's the fun repartee between Eddie (tonite) and Nils, and the running joke, Ronnie Corbett style, of the theme tune. What mayhem! It's so utterly outrageous! Some might say too that Nils kind of slurs his words every night. I've thought of mentioning specific words that Nils appears to slur - tonite was 'brilliant' slightly mispronounced, for example? Good luck for the totally un-embarassing 'cheeky chappies' routing at 1730 each evening. Best wishes, Andrew Voyce MA.
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Ah, the BNP, what a concept! I wonder at so many British people being so exercised at too much immigration, for they do not think about the sheer number of UK people who have emigrated elsewhere over the years! Also what about what your empire wrought in this world? For in the Middle East, for one part, we are still feeling the effects! The same will no doubt hold true for the USA empire for decades to come. For not only did the British Empire effectively rape its colonies; it also presumed to tell the indigenous peoples how to live and worship! In effect, the chickens are coming home to roost, and while that may be unfair to those alive today, a large part of your place and standard of living in this world today has evolved from that colonial rape!!!
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We urgently need more background on the Bermuda problem. Can we start a petition for an OB? And if we promise to wear Bermuda shorts, can we come along too?
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...and to think, I've lived to hear about what may be the "Hit" of the century...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/space/5511619/14-year-old-hit-by-30000-mph-space-meteorite.html
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31 shadowmac, ah the taunt the British about empire post, what a concept! Are we still moaning about the Roman empire which smashed its way through our indiginous culture, killing many thousands of men, women and children? Are we still complaining about the Norman invasion which took all our land and gave it to Norman hangers on, whose families still 'own' it today? No we aren't, although we do have a traditional antipathy towards the French, only half jokingly. So get over it. The British empire did some crap stuff, empires tend to, but it also built roads, introduced order into what had previously been chaos and did a lot of good stuff, empires do that too if only for their own efficiency. None of it anything to do with me, or you.
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Re Hazel Blears: Timing is everything!
She's apologising NOW because her local party has put forward a vote of no confidence.
She's not as green as she's cabbage-looking!
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Anne P: you are welcome. It's such a British picture - love the hat and cup of tea at the ready. Note the radio... now I wonder what station it is tuned into?
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shadowmac @ 31
You've given me a great idea ... what if we send all the foreigners living here back to their homelands, and invite all the Brits who have emigrated back here? That means we'd get rid of a whole lot of hard-working, flexible, open-minded youngish people, and we'd get in return a whole bunch of ageing, narrow-minded whiners ... no, hold on a sec - I don't think I've thought this through ...
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37 Sid
Flexible, open minded?
Nope you haven't thought it through have you?
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Clearly, as if we needed to be reminded, when one's time is up... It's up!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article6479203.ece
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39. Charlie
Trouble is, I can see the conspiracy theory starting ...
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@#28
Agreed. It's surprising and not a little disturbing quite how many PM listeners leapt to the support of the BNP in the light of what they evidently perceived as criticism of the protests in the tone of the interview with the anti-fascist campaigner.
Thank goodness that a liberal elite persists in this country, if only to protect these people from the consequences of their own stupidity.
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37. Sid
That's what BNP recommend, only they specify the colour.
I may be a foreigner but I am one of Her Majesty's foreigners, as they told me when I got my British passport 36 years ago.
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It is a gorgeous pic, isn't it, Lady Sue? Absolute summer. And the radio (I think we know the answer, heh, heh).
I have now got 'Bermuda Triangle' as an earworm, which I resent deeply since I don't even like the song.
[Thinks: recall some of the music from the Cerys Matthews programme earlier. 'Salley Gardens' or 'Ca the Yowes' (sorry, Feefs) would do]
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ia 29, Ain't my photo.
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invisible... 40
Consider "it" started...
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I like contheoricy spiries.
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D_M 46
David
"Conglomerate rude"
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Charlie 47, Condoleeza Rice.
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Being sent to Coventry's one thing...
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/14/fashion/14ruth.html?ref=fashion
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D_M 48
David
I know her... as "Recolonized ace"
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Moderation.
Mmmm... interesting word.
Valid nonetheless.
Okay, I'll cut-down on consumption.
From now on, only two bottles-a-day. Plus the odd beer and scotch, etc...
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see above.
...Y'know, this Dementia's a difficult thing..!
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090611174052.htm
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Odd... very odd, actually...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/5522683/Oxford-graduate-died-after-being-injected-with-experimental-drug-by-sister.html
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Cossackgirl @ 42 - I do hope you know I had my tongue in my cheek ...
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I posted this on the BNP thread, but I'll repost it here, for obvious reasons:
**********************************
Hi, Eddie and team,
I may be the only frogger experiencing this; I don't know (and you'll see why), but - it's now 1754 on Sunday and the last post I can see on this thread is no 500, 11:47am on 10 June.
Is it cos I is a mac user? Does your software cut out at 500 for those who don't use Windows?
You might consider replying, should you wish to do so, on the PM Glass Box thread cos...
I won't see it here...
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F O 55
Frances
No such problems with my Mac...
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Frances O @ 55, my Mac displays the first 500, and then just below the 500th post there is a very small and unglamourous "next"; if I click on that I get numbers 501 onwards.
This means that I don't have a Mac that crashes every time it tries to load that thread because it has got so huge, so I applaud it.
Maybe yours is doing the same thing?
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...and Sir Michael Lyons would, in my opinion, be right...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/5525934/BBC-set-for-battle-with-ministers-over-historic-licence-fee-shake-up.html
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54.Sid
That's what the (former) Labour media lady said after she had said that 9/11 was a brilliant day to bury bad news... ;o)
Yes, of course I know the point you were making, but the words "what if we send all the foreigners living here back to their home lands..." leave you wide open to a polite enquiry such as mine as to who the WE are and what happens if I don't want to be sent back.
Anyway, to get back to good humour and sanity, and this being Sunday night, here are a few winning submissions to The Washington Post Mensa Invitational to supply a new definition to a word after changing, adding or subtracting just one letter, and TWP's annual contest to supply alternate meanings for common words:
SARCHASM: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
GIRAFFITI: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
GLIBIDO: All talk and no action.
ARACHNOLEPTIC FIT: The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
BEELZEBUG (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
- - - -
COFFEE, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
FRISBEETARIANISM, n. The belief that, after death, the soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.
TESTICLE, n. A humorous question on an exam.
Most others are related to sex, so I shall discontinue...
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
And ...
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C_G 57, Ah, now I know why your abilities are limited. Youse gots a Mac.
I click on the NEXT (once I discovered it) and saw the next 500 posts immediately. Maybe FO, like myself, didn't see the NEXTie thingy at first.
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FO 55, This is The PM Glass Box.
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DMcN - several of us seem to be using Macs without difficulty.
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Sid 64, But most Mac users continually complain about Windows, with which I have never had any problems. I assume most Mac users also preferred 8 Track and Betamax and are Dib Lems.
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DMcN - several of us seem to be using Macs without difficulty, and without complaining about Windows.
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Sid 66, All Maccies secretly complain about Windows. And still use Betamax.
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And have beards and wear sandals. Probably play guitars....
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DMcN @ 67, I don't complain about Windows. Why should I? It never does me any harm; I don't use it.
I have no idea what a "Betamax" is, so I don't think I can be using it. Some sort of pre-Microsoft computer? Or is it a typo for some sort of foodprocessor, a Betamix?
ongoing, your 68: I do sometimes wear sandals in hot weather, but I have no beard and can't play the guitar. So you have one out of five statements correct, there.
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61. Sid
You and I have obviously been receiving the same round robin email (unless they are all YOUR submissions ;o))!
Gargoyle, n. Olive-flavoured mouthwash;
Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddishisms.
Enough already, I am off to the new PM GB!
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Cossackgirl @ 70, the collection I got a couple of years ago, which had most of those quoted so far, also included
Karmageddon, n. It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.
Hipatitis, n. Terminal coolness
Reintarnation, n. Coming back to life as a hillbilly
I think the original place they came from was as competition in an American publication, possibly an annual competition.
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71. Chris
Well, Karmageddon is on my email of submissions to the Washington Post, as is reintarnation, which I am ashamed to say I don't get at all.
Did you mean it about Betamax? I suspect you were just funning, but just in case you are too young to remember: in the beginning there were two video recording systems: VHS and Betamax. All the smart people were buying and showing off Betamax. In truth, the video cassettes were much smaller and neater, if anything closer to a modern DVD. VHS won, as you know, and the smart people kept watching Betamax for as long as their hardware lasted...
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Cossackgirl @ 72, David McNickle is determined that because I don't use my computer to listen to the radio or to watch clips from uTube, I must be living in the Dark Ages. I see no reason not to indulge his fancy in the matter. It does me no harm, and probably gives him some innocent pleasure.
Hillbillies say "tarnation" instead of "damnation", in popular legend. Hence the joke, I think.
M'yes, it would be the Washington Post, now I come to think of it. Thanks.
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73. Chris_Ghoti
Dark Ages? You've come to the right place for Dark Ages: due to some excellent reasons I'm actually doing all this stuff on DIAL-UP at home! To see YouTube and such I go to the Library.
Let him despise me for a while - the change will do him as much good as a week at the seaside...
*Exits, cackling madly*...
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