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chocolate dog

Listed below are comments made by chocolate dog between Tuesday, 6th October 2009 and Wednesday, 28th October 2009.

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What did you think of the show? Guest: Tom Chambers 8:34pm on 28 Oct 2009 The spokesman from Leeds council really annoyed me in his attempts to justify the bin-men's wage cut with nonsense about the lack of skill in the job. The valuation of their role wasn't made by the bin-men, but by the council. If we follow his logic there are two positions one can hold. Either the bin-men have been getting over-paid for years, in which case those that decided to pay them that much are inept. Alternatively they have been getting paid a fair wage, in which case the cuts are unjust.
Given how ineptly he put the council's position across, perhaps he should be taking a pay-cut himself. In fact I'm sure many of those under-paid graduates would make a much better fist of the job than him.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Jamie Cullum 7:58pm on 21 Oct 2009 I hope that when the BNP do appear on Question Time the questioners are intelligent enough to go beyond the issues of race and tackle them on what the rest of the programme is. Do they actually have anything to say about the credit crunch, the future of the NHS or enviromental issues? I doubt it.
More importantly I look forward to them being tackled on their record. They have said much about the arrogance of the major parties. However where they have been elected to local councils, they have shown themselves to be among the most venal, corrupt and downright incompetent councillors in the UK. It is perhaps indicative of their abilities that those wards that had BNP councillors going into to the Euro elections actually saw them get a reduced vote.
We know the BNP positions on race and immigration. Debate with them on these issue is likely to produce more heat than light. Perhaps if we confront them on what else they have got to say and whether they have anything beyond their narrow platform on which to stand.
Moreover, if they are subjected to scrutiny perhaps we will finally see them not merely as racists, but as useless racists. They not only fail to represent Britain, but they are pretty rubbish at representing even that narrow strata of society that elected them.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Cat Deeley 8:00pm on 09 Oct 2009 Oh and on a superficial note, I thought Christine looked amazing in that short sparkly number.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Cat Deeley 7:23pm on 09 Oct 2009 Favourite foreign word is the Japanese bakushan, which describes a woman who looks better from behind than from in front.
I also like the rather literal German word for diarrhoea - 'Durchfall'.

Anyway as for dolphins, I always think of what Douglas Adams once wrote:
'On the planet Earth, man had always assumed that he was more intelligent than dolphins because he had achieved so much -- the wheel, New York, wars and so on -- whilst all the dolphins had ever done was muck about in the water having a good time. But conversely, the dolphins had always believed that they were far more intelligent than man -- for precisely the same reasons.'
That said, they need oil exploration like a hole in the head...
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Elaine Paige 10:38pm on 07 Oct 2009 No, johnhoyler I am not calling anyone thick.
Very intelligent and sophisticated people are subject to the effect and don't exempt myself from the analysis. Everybody, from Nobel laureates to tabloid journalists are subject to the effect. Indeed it is because of the sophistication of the human brain that we are peculiarly prone to it. We don't just compute information uncritically, like a machine, but constantly assess and re-assess it on the basis of prior experience and belief. If we didn't we would stop functioning as people, unable to come to any decision due to the huge weight of unfiltered information.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Elaine Paige 10:10pm on 07 Oct 2009 I think that there was a missed opportunity. When doing the 'Call my bluff' style bit with the etymology of animal-based idioms both of the given explanations for the origins of 'red herring' should have been, erm, red herrings.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Elaine Paige 9:28pm on 07 Oct 2009
There is a well-studied psychological effect whereby people seek out evidence that reinforces prior held beliefs. So on this this blog those that believe that the BBC has a strong bias against the Tories will collate any evidence that shows this, whilst ignoring what might undermine it. So in their memory Adrian's quips are given more importance, whilst the comments from Gyles are filtered out.
Someone coming to the show with the opposite prejudice (that the Beeb is prejudiced against the left) would make much of the inclusion of Neil Kinnock's coastal mishap or Michael Foot's donkey jacket in the VT. We instinctively seek that which reinforces our world-view.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Elaine Paige 8:00pm on 07 Oct 2009 The champagne was only a story because of the Tories reportedly instituting a self-imposed ban on it at their conference because of worries over what the press would say. Unsurprisingly this meant that the papers were watching like hawks and what would have otherwise been a non-story to excite only the more lefty trade unionists became a stick to hit the politicians with.
Whether or not the party did issue such a ban is germane to the argument. It may, of course, be the case that journos just made it up, knowing that they could then use it to make a story from nothing. Or it may have been a creation of the Tories' own PR machine that went wrong.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Monty Don 8:21pm on 06 Oct 2009 hokeykokeyalex,
I apologise if I offended you. My point was not that people whose grammar skills are poorer have no right to comment, but rather that bad spelling and grammar gets in the way of the argument. I do realise that the manner in which I expressed this was somewhat condescending.

Anyway a useful link for those for whom grammar is tough:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/grammar/

Mariondoc, I am reminded of what Derry Irvine (he of the expensive wallpaper) said of the West Lothian Question that the best answer was not to ask it.
What did you think of The One Show? Guest: Monty Don 7:51pm on 06 Oct 2009 This is a general plea to all of those who are apparently proud to be English. Could you please learn the basics of your native tongue before making disparaging comments? If you took the time to avail yourselves of some of the simpler points of grammar and how to construct a sentence then your erroneous opinions might at least take on the appearance of intelligent comment.

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