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Roger_Sawyer

Listed below are comments made by Roger_Sawyer between Wednesday, 15th April 2009 and Saturday, 25th July 2009.

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The PM Glass Box. 12:35pm on 25 Jul 2009 Hello Charlie...

Always happy to talk about matters cycling.

I had one puncture, exactly half way up Ventoux (so about 10k from the finish). Annoying, but I confess it was a welcome break from the churning climb. Also, easier to cough down some electrolyte(tastes gopping, especially at 35 degrees) and energy gels (even more gopping, but necessary) when not in the saddle.

You're right that the tyres are pretty narrow. I had 23mm tyres, but they were brand new and had a kevlar punture protection belt. A bit heavier, but worth it. Also the roads were very good indeed, really clean and smooth... so a puncture was a bit unlucky really. When I did the London-Canterbury stage a couple of years ago, I got two punctures within a mile of each other... and on Gap-Alpe d'Huez in 2006, none.

If you have decent tyres, well pumped up, punctures a pretty rare. You get a few more commuting in London, especially when rain washes stuff towards the gutters... but again, fewer than you might expect.

Now, about wine...

Rog
The PM Glass Box. 12:06pm on 25 Jul 2009 Morning All...

Thanks for your comments... and indeed for listening.

It was a pretty incident free programme really... a quietish news day, but with a couple of decent stories to work on.

One interesting thing though, that we come up against quite often. I won't say which story, but we put in a bid to speak to someone and came up against a real 'kis mitugralsz'* press office which was pretty unhelpful, to say the least. When we eventually managed to persuade them to put the bid through to the person we wanted to speak to, that person was delighted to come on and talk. It happens a lot... it's been known for people (including rather important ones) to phone us during a programme demanding why we didn't ask to speak to them, when we in fact had. It just hadn't been passed on.

Letters Eddie has already dealt with rather eloquently.

On the Tour (Mike Eye @29), sorry to spoil the highlights for you... but we can't avoid a story like that. Setting a new British benchmark is headline stuff, so we have to do the story. The clip in the headlines was put in very, very late because we'd only just got Barry Hoban... and we gave a warning in the news (apologies for the yellow jacket error) and wrote a heavily dropped intro to the Hoban interview.

You have to do a Likely Lads and try to cut yourself off from the news when there's a chance of a British record being set. I knew the result, but was still enthralled by the higglights.

David McN... you're maybe right to suspect the Tour may not get the coverage it deserves across all BBC outlets, but I do my best to prod people on other networks about that. The reason Cav gets more mention is because he's setting British benchmarks (I've already posted on whether Isle of Man counts as British, so won't go into that here).

It was a real thrill having Barry Hoban on, especially as I put the bid in myself and spoke to him in person! Starstruck, moi?

I shall be watching it all today... they're doing the stage that I did in the Etape on Monday. Lovely, scenic ride for 90 miles, then 15 miles up Mont Ventoux to finish. Still scenic, but not lovely!

Sorry to bore on about my hobbies. Just don't ask me about wine.

Cheery bye

Rog

*that's a Hungarian saying
Wimbledon semi final glass box 10:00am on 04 Jul 2009 Morning All...

Thanks for posting.

Shame about Andy Murray... would have been nice to watch him take on Federer in the final. But there you go... still, the British and Irish Lions are in action today and it's Tour de France time too.

Not a lot to say about the programme really. I was pleased we got Carl Bildt... though we didn't know that would happen until about 4.45pm,so that was a bit squeaky. But I like it squeaky.

I am sorry we didn't run the Padre from the Welsh Guards, we had a technical problem and then a timing one, so we just could not fit it on.

I thought Phyllis Self, the 101-year-old still running her own business, was sensational and a real inspiration. Amazing to think she would have been 28 when Fred Perry won Wimbledon. We did ask her about that, but she said she was never that interested in tennis... so we cut that bit out.

Have good weekends all y'all...

Rog
The PM Glass Box. 12:19pm on 10 Jun 2009 Hello All...

Thank you for posting... and thank you for all your comments on the BNP strand. One of the strongest responses to an item we've had... second only, I believe, to the Ross/Brand/Sachs/BBC saga. A huge number of new contributors, which is always encouraging, and a really interesting and reasoned discussion. Lots of emails too, which broadly reflected what's on the PM Blog.

All very interesting, because it was a very late decision to lead with the BNP protest story... or to include it at all. We had some good stuff in the programme, but absolutely nothing that stood out as a lead.

The mobile phone directory got many of you exercised. We're trying to do a follow up on that this evening.

And did you notice the "Flying Pots"? There were two in the programme. A Flying Pot is when you have come out of a pre-recorded interview early and unexpetedly to save time. Because of overruns earlier in the programme and because of a miscommunication in the cubicle, or a mishearing on my part, we were facing a big overrun at the end of the programme, with no live interviews coming up... after the first Flying Pot, which was successful but created some confusion in the cubicle, we had a problem playing out the interview of the Australian High Commissioner to New Delhi... we ended up playing the wrong version (a very long cut) and had to do another Flying Pot.

Probably terribly tedious for you all, but there you have it.

All the best...

Rog
The PM Glass Box. 12:41pm on 03 Jun 2009 Hello All...

Thank you for taking the time to post. Quite some day, with resignations and standings-down seeming to pop up every minute. It was a real struggle to get people to talk though... and the producers did a sterling job bashing the phones to try to get some response. I expect it will be more of the same today.

It was Eddie's rather witty empty chair - the long list of names of people we'd contacted who either did not want to be interviewed or who did not get back to us - that seemed to do the trick. We got a call during the programme to tell us that Douglas Alexander would be making his way to a land line to talk to us.

That meant we had to reshape the programme rather drastically in the second half and - as we were live on air when we found out we going to get Douglas Alexander - there was not time for us to sit down as an editorial team to plot how we should tackle the interview. Communication between me and Eddie had to fit around a programme with lots of live elements and with my having to speak to Douglas Alexander's people while we were on air.

Reaction to the interview here on the blog and in email traffic has been mixed, with some people objecting to the initial questions about process (why we had not had responses about interview requests) and others disliking the initial question about Gordon Brown being inept. Others, however, thought it was inspired.

First of all, the questions about process were to try to illustrate the confusion yesterday surrounding communication between us and the Government/Labour. Secondly, with the question about ineptitude, it's worth noting that Douglas Alexander engaged with the question rather than dismissing it.

There is more than one way to conduct an interview - different styles are used at different times, depending on the circumstance and depending on what has gone on before during interviews... That day and on previous days. We live in interesting times, but many interviews we see/hear involve the parroting of duck-billed platitudes. We all try very hard to make sure we get interviews that do not end up with our being fobbed off and I think Eddie's line of questioning, given our late knowledge of the interview and the fact we were somewhat squeezed because of that, was apposite.

I know some of you will disagree.

I am sorry about mixing parrots and ducks.

All the best...

Rog
The PM Glass Box 08:03am on 02 May 2009 Hi All...

Thanks for your posts. Not much to add really, except that I thought the new Poet Laureate's old teacher was fantastic.

Have good weekends everyone.

Rog
Monday's Glass Box. 10:44am on 28 Apr 2009 Hello All...

Many thanks for your comments.

The flu story is an easy one to tell badly, so we are doing our best to keep listeners as informed as possible, without being alarmist... or indeed underplaying the situation. We've had a couple emails accusing the media of hype and saying PM should ignore the story. I don't agree... though the way medical/science stories are reported generally is an interesting subject in itself.

We did try to get to the bottom of why people have been dying in Mexico, but not elsewhere. It seeems to have all the experts baffled for the moment, though I agree that RxKaren's very thoughtful post was full of good sense.

Cossackgirl, the incremental charting of cases of swine flu is not done to build up a total number, but to mark the spread of the virus.

And Lady Sue (@49), my understanding is that tamiflu is not a vaccination, but a treatment. I don't think there are any catch-all vaccinations, though I do believe that some can be effective across a number of strains. Don't take my word for that though... I'm not a health expert.

Anyway... there are lots of unanswered questions, and I am sorry we were not able to provide answers yesterday... maybe today as it is a fast developing story.

It's a story that certainly makes for lively editorial meetings.

Elsewhere on the programme, I rather liked the Mayor of Wallingford on his efforts to be de-twinned from (with?) a town in France due to a lack of communication. And a story that had to be dropped for space reasons... apparently Paraguay and Bolivia were about to sign a document officially ending an 80 year border dispute that caused the Chaco War in 1932. They've done it now, I think... with Argentina having been arbitrating since the 1930s. maybe it will make tonight... but that's up to Jo, who's in the chair.

Hasta luego...

Rog
Monday's Glass Box. 1:56pm on 21 Apr 2009
Afternoon All,

Thank you for all your posts... I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you.

There were some interesting stories around yesterday... with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech at the UN Racism conference being a natural lead as soon as it had happened.

There are several aspects to a story like that... and the most immediate one was its diplomatic impact, which is what we decided to go with. I thought Eddie's interview with the UK Ambassador and the UN spokesman were good... and he questioned them on the issues of freedom of speech and on President Ahmadinejad's right to hold his opinions and to express them.

The fact that President Ahmadinejad accused Israel of being a racist government does not mean that was what we had to discuss on the programme yesterday. The Israel/Palestinian situation is one we have discussed many times before and will no doubt discuss many times again, with strong views about Israel and the Palestinian Authority/Fatah/Hamas having been ventilated on PM among
other Radio 4 and BBC programmes in the past. No doubt they will be in the future.

Yesterday, I wanted to concentrate on the diplomatic aspect of what had happened.

All the best...

Rog
The Weekend Starts Here Glass Box. 12:59pm on 18 Apr 2009 Hello All,

Thanks for posting.

Some late breaking stuff yesterday... the developments in the Ian Tomlinson case and the CO2 rethink by the Environmental Protection Aghency over in the USA.

That all made for a somewhat drier programme than I would have liked. I thought the Pirate Bay stuff was interesting, two really engaging lawyers.

Have good weekends.

All teh best

Rog
The Glass Box for Tuesday. 12:13pm on 15 Apr 2009 That's weird, Charlie. I don't think I swore or said anything offensive. Oh well... have to wait and see what happens.

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