Just been told the current on air item from the Lib Dems will last for eight minutes. So I thought I'd write a word or two.
Do you read many blogs? Have you read this one but never contributed? And more importantly - what DO you think about Darfur and the international response to it?
Now I must prepare for Sean to shut up.
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Wow Eddie! Multi-tasking!!
Oh it's so nice to have you back.
I'm going to go away and think about a full and frank response to the Darfur question if you don't mind. My current degree of flippancy is highly unsuitable.
One more and you'll have met Whisht's challenge! (No mention of "spoons" or "bombastic" yet though).
Back from sunny Brighton and sitting in my front room catching up on your comments...here we go:
Eddie - re the Rolec - that's probably a brand name - using it on the blog probably contravenes Editorial Guidelines. (For further details see * below).
Aperetif - re requests for my photo...I will try and find one for you.
Valery - re feast of photos on Fig Lover's blog and famine on this one...I need to take my digital camera into work. I got my personal mobile phone bill today and discovered it costs me 30p a shot!
Anne - re Rupert...hope we've achieved reconciliation and closure now over the newsletter incident.
Anne, Fearless Fred et al - re the comments system saving your details...I don't know.
John W - re things disappearing...you are probably correct to blame Eddie's reappearance. At home I blame the cleaner or the cat.
PS Gillian is our office manager. She issues very scary emails which list individual names and terminals of anyone who doesn't turn off their computer, telly and Rolec.
* PPS The Rolec is the cunning device which allows us to scroll through various telly feeds, radio stations, listen to what correspondents are filing etc. They are temperamental and break all the time. Broken Rolecs and headphones are the bane of a producer's life. They are also a convenient excuse when you've done a bad edit.
So, I've finally got home, eager to read the replies on the three threads, only to find Eddie has started another!! Where does he find the time and energy? Mind you, I'm glad I didn't see this 'til I got home. The others in the office probably would've asked why I was groaning...
Was that Arctic Monkeys or Gibraltar Monkeys? It was so short I couldn't tell.
um - actually at work and can't hear the programme. [yeah yeah I'll podcast it (yadda yadda)]
As for blogs... well, I used to have one of my own before boredom and lack of travel set in. Why did I write it?? no idea. Noone read anything there - well, I assumed they didn't but then I'd always get surprised by a friend saying "I check your blog to know what you're up to and where you are... why don't you update it more often?!?"
only other blog i read daily is a footy one arseblog.com (for arsenal fans - there are profanities a go-go so careful viewing children!).
enough - I can hear the bell. must be hometime
how was the show? (actually this would be VERY useful to know if its [ahem] worth podding....
*Four* blogs in one day, and a live in-programme one at that!
Eddie, you're winding us up.
And I bet you mention that Rolec at parties just to let people think the 大象传媒 provides you with a very expensive watch...
Lissa, this is very dedicated; posting from home. I hope you were listening to Eddie and not watching Neighbours.
sb5
no idea! I must be one of the few paople around who hasn't heard the Acrtic, Antartic, Gibraltar or any other monkeys. Oh dear, am I showing how un-cool I am? :(
Right, this is no good. I'm now going to have to spend the evening doing all the work I didn't get done this afternoon.
I think I'd better "blog off" until this write-up is finished or I'll never get it done, and I really want to so that I can get away next week, but that's a whole other thing.
If any of you see me, tell me to get back to work will you? Cheers.
Whisht - you can't podcast PM but you can listen again to the past week's programmes on the website (link at top right of page). You can podcast a selection of 大象传媒 Radio's best output...go to the PM website and there's a link on the right handside to the 大象传媒 Radio NewsPod.
Something to look forward to when you get home.
Mind you, this is not the first in-programme blog from Eddie. There was one just before he went away, although I only deduced that from the time of entry, he did not refer to it.
Hi to new bloggers etc.
Lissa, with all the technical paraphernellia in the PM office, and not one digital camera? Cannot you claim expenses from Aunty Beeb for your camera phone pics?
SB10, but this does get easier after PM's over.
Mr Ambassador Mair - with these blogs you are spoiling us. :o) So are these the 4 presents you brought us back from your holidays then?
Aperitini - re hols, will YOU send us a postcard then? Sorry I was snippy earlier - tough day, no excuse to take it out on friends though, even if they are drifting in the ether. You just put in as many typos as you wish, I don't care any more.
Off to finish the Crianza (yes S.O. didn't find it)
I don't get it. Why do we all keep chanting 'send the UN in' when the UN are set up to be impotent. Only recently in Lebanon the UNIFIL would not let Lebanese families into their enclosure and watched as the rejected families were strafed by the Israelis. NATO is malfunctioning, the UN is impotent, our UK 'peacekeeping' servicemen are being forced to become offensive battalions in Afghanistan. Saddam's sovereign state was invaded but the Sudanese government can do what it wants ' because we cannot interfere with sovereign states'. Another Rwanda blood bath is looming, but is it suiting more than the Sudanese government to have all these North African born people murdered? The media are not digging deep enough. Why?
Appy, What are you doing reading this??? You should be working! :p Only teasing, honest. So, you're deserting us for the week? :( What's the plan? Where are you heading off to? I hope we're going to get a postcard :o)
I can recommend Eastern Europe as a region to visit. I was in Riga this year, and it was wonderfully warm & welcoming. Vilnius last summer was nice too. Once I've been to Tallinn next year, I plan to explore the rest of the Eastern block before it gets overrun with "English" stag parties....
Hi Valery,
It's not exactly a holiday and I won't be going anywhere if I don't get this work done but, all that said, I will of course "post" a "card".
Hey, no apologies necsessary - I can handle my grammar/spelling/life being corrected - if one can give it one had better be able to take it, after all.
Enjoy the Crianza. Put your earrings in a safe place before you indulge ;). I'm entitled to that spot of Zinfindel that's left in the kitchen I think...
re 12
They probably think we'd rather hear about rows between the PM and the Chancellor and the latest gossip on Z-list "celebrities", Lynn. They'd be wrong.
Why, why why why why.....
Four!?!?!
Are you trying to make sequin look bad?
I'm going to a dark room to lie down (but first back to blog 3 to make another comment) Now where did I leave my life?
SB14
Oh, Fearless, you're right, you're right, but I've given up - it's been one of those "write-off" days.
Those Eastern Europe tips are very timely, thanks - although next week won't involve leaving the country (or even my desk if I don't have a more productive day tomorrow). A friend and I have been talking about going somewhere new before the year's out. Having said that, I haven't even done Prague yet, so it could be there before anywhere more adventurous.
If I do go I shall be taking the lapdog with me, so you don't get rid of me that easily.
Lissa - I'm touched.
a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and I've got little enough, so forgive my missuse of the lingo...
have launched and am listening now... and of course every PM is a quality venture...
oh good I am recognised again.
Lyn @12, you are puzzled because you have not reflected sufficiently upon the 3 magic letters O I and L.(I have put them in the correct order not for you but just in case Dubya drops in to read what we have to say - hey if the borg can monitor our blog, so can the CIA! and he would be real confused if I made an anagram out of them.
These multi blogs make life a bit difficult occsionally - like now. I am taking Ailing Child to Major Hospital in Big City tomorrow and will be gone for a few days, but with several concurrent blogs, which am I supposed to post my 'au revoir' in? I will make do with this one as it is the most recent.
Keep working, keep cheerful, keep EM in order...... well OK, 2 out of 3 won't be bad. I will try to listen to PM if I can and will look forward to catching up with you all when we get back.
Dear Lissa with an A, we definitely have closure as long as you promise never to use the dread word 'empowered'. Or to go and work for Veg Talk. :-)!
well - I listened... and the blast of Monkeys for Ming was just lovely.
ta!
Lynn C,
Welcome to the blog.
I recommend you read Robert Calver's "the Accursed Mountains". At one point a British General in Skopia refers to the new EU/NATO force going in as "considerably less wet" than the UN force holding the borders before. That was in teh 1990's
I agree, a UN force is useless by definition.
A considerable rant excised.
Four entries a day is fine with me - the more the merrier. It鈥檚 only all the replies I don鈥檛 have time to read. Hence the lack of information on what I鈥檓 doing when I should be in surgery.
So how about an item on current MPs鈥 favourite modern rock and pop acts?
SB22
PM
鈥淭he programme that sometimes has a different presenter.鈥
PM
鈥淐omplain about this strapline here.鈥
PM
鈥淒efinitely two letters in the current alphabet.鈥
SB22
Does anybody else find that Daily Express advert ("We stand for..") really sinister? When I fisrt saw it I thought it might be a promo for the BNP.
SB25
Re (24) I don鈥檛 know the advert you refer to, but I do worry about the one for something that removes stains 鈥榖efore you very eyes.鈥 I鈥檇 rather not buy a product that removes my very eyes....
All the best to you and Ailing Child, Anne. Re Veg Talk though, this has come up a couple of times and I feel it's time to stand up and be counted - I do really like Veg Talk! a) I like vegetables b) I like the chirpy chaps c) I like the recipes d) I like all the mad people who phone in, some sound nearly as eccentric as I am! Whew, what a hausfrau eh?
Earrings are off and tidied away somewhere thanks - check in tomorrow for another exciting instalment "Stupid menopausal things I've done today". Oh no, and there's more Networking to be done too....
Why is "Ugly" capitalised in the new strapline? Is it a hidden message?
sb28
valery p @26
I feel it's time to stand up and be counted
I make it ... erm ... one.
Aperitif @27
Is it a hidden message?
Could be but, if so, it isn't very subtle.
Fine by me Al. It would be cheating to count me more than once..
Valery (26),
Cannot say that I would gush over the (never to) return Veg Talk, but it was far better than some of the stuff at the moment...some of the 18:30 stuff in the "comedy" slot for example ... and I did learn some stuff from it. There, head above the parapit and all that.
Aperitif (27),
Ugly (or is it Ugli) is a citrus fruit, a cross between ..er. grapefruit and ...where are those veg talk guys when you need them... anyway, it must be a reference to the citrus fruit grading in the Civil Service, following the ancient Chinese example. As we all know, the top of the pile are the Mandarins. When you start, you're a Satsuma. Obviously small elevations are Clementines, Limes, Lemons etc (must admit, I'm a bit out of touch with the Civil service heirarchy, must check with my brother what the correct order is). I would guess Ugli is either a political advisor or spin doctor. Not quite sure how that helps the Strap line, though.
SB29, but as I pointed out, easy at this time of the day.
Glad to help, Appy:o) I can definitely recommend Prague. The main problem there nowadays is too many tourists! I agree with you about the DE advert. Plus, I think they missed out one... "We stand for telling the world that Diana's death was a conspiracy, it was MI5, the CIA, Mossad, the WI, Prince Philip, the corgis...."
Anne, all the best to you and Ailing Child. We'll try to keep EM in order 'til you get back
PM: "Other News Programmes are available"
PM: "Tomorrow we'll try to use the other 24 letters and in the right order"
SB30
Read many blogs? Nope, this one and Nick Robinsons @ 大象传媒. PetiteAnglaise (found through a 大象传媒 web news item). Girlwithaonetrackmind. That's about it. Glanced at other but mostly found them to be tedious navel-gazers or outright egomaniacs.
Contributed a couple of comments to this one. Love the banter, sometimes. Enjoy the 'silly names' immensely, would love to change my moniker to 'Hugh Jarse' but someone probably already has that one claimed. 'Al Sing Yu Wan Ho' (28), love it, one of the best names yet. Yes, I find some of the comments pointless, even (dare I say it) puerile. But hey it's a free country, -ish. I really don鈥檛 understand the SB thing though, or more precisely why people do it.
Darfur; nothing short of scandalous and,sadly, entirely predictable. I tend to agree with those who have rubbished the UN in previous comments. It's a (pretty useless) talking shop. In 1945 it must have seemed like the last hope of Mankind, but the reality today is that of an aging leading actor, well groomed, but tottery on its legs, toothless and living on an extinguished reputation. Speaking of actors, I'm no fan of Mr. G. Clooney, but his pitch last week was perfect, direct, accurate and hit the target exactly. Darfur will suffer endless agonies, as do many other places in the world, because there is no will to stop it.
We hear a lot about the unity of Islam in the media, but here we have Muslims of Arab descent killing other Muslims because they are black. Where's the unity in that? What about the unity which is entirely absent in the Iraqi civil war (can we call it that and stop beating around the bush? Please), where one major form of Islam has taken up arms against the other.
Is it O I L, as Anne (19) put it? Undoubtedly yes, at least in some part. But Iraq is at the heart of the most godforsaken area on Earth. Military dictatorships, militant Theocracies and police states are the norm, rather than the exception. Every nation's rulers in the area have a vested interest in seeing the West fail there. Democracy is utterly non-existent. From the 鈥楽tans鈥 of Central Asia, through the Middle East and into Africa, it barely raises its head and when it does it is ruthlessly stamped on. Exaltation of despots and personality cults are par for the course. Democracy is anathema to men like these, it threatens their very existence. Ask Ceausescu about that. The vaguest possibility that a representative democracy might come into being in Iraq is desperately dangerous for almost every other ruler within 2000 miles or more of Baghdad. Where is their incentive to assist in its creation?
We in the west talk up a great game about 'Democracy' and as Churchill once said (?) it's the worst form of government there has ever been, except for all the other kinds. But Democracy, as it has developed in the West, is a fairly recent innovation. Many parts of the globe are not yet ready for it. Tribalism and the individual, or collective, desire for temporal power still hold sway over the larger part of the Earths surface. Until mankind is ready to place the needs of us all before self-gratification and self-aggrandisement it will remain thus. This is what keeps the US polluting, to preserve American jobs. It鈥檚 why the Chinese are about to overtake the US as the biggest polluter, to create and nurture Chinese jobs. Any visionary Western political leader who tried to turn the course of his nations future development for the betterment of the planet would be hurled from office by the electorate at the next opportunity if their policies cost thousands, or millions, their jobs and livelihoods.
We cannot turn the clock back to pre-industrial times in order to save the planet from ourselves. It just ain鈥檛 gonna happen. We鈥檙e all out for ourselves, individually and collectively. We place a higher value on our own lives and comforts than the principles we claim to espouse. Democracy for others is fine as long as we don鈥檛 have to do anything to help them obtain it. The very idea that international conflicts to try and establish 鈥済overnment of the people, by the people, for the people鈥 in some of the worlds more benighted areas is shunned by those who place more value on the life of one Western soldier than on thousands or millions of lives in Africa or the East.
Incidentally, I write this last piece as one who served for over 15 years in the Armed Forces during the end of the Cold War. I could have been called upon at any time to go and fight. It might have cost me my life or my health. If I had stayed in longer it would have been my hand which fired the Tomahawks that started the Kosovan War and led, ultimately, to the downfall of Milosevic. Given the butchery happening to the Kosovars I鈥檇 have done it with a clean conscience. Some things ARE worth fighting for.
Sorry to be a bore.....
I read the Dilbert Blog where Scott Adams has put up some fascinating thought experiments about solving the Isreali/Palestine problem and some strange details about his underwear *cough*.
The Darfur Problem is easily solved by spreading rumours that there are nuclear weapons in the refugee camps. When the Americans go into get them tell the forces there aren't any weapons, however, as the US Army is there anyway why not hang around and act as peace-keepers. Problem solved.
Next one?
Good grief, Simon! Some very well made points, but, as someone (Fearless?) said a few pages back, the seriousness of the blog on the 大象传媒 is generally inversley proportional to the seriousness of the programme. I certainly wasn't expecting that here!
I'm with you on George Clooney's comments - he's an OK actor but, more notably, has begun to use his fame to address more important issues, and is thoughtful and intelligent about matters that many others try to duck. He's managing to walk the tightrope between being outspoken and being discreditted at the moment due to his popularity, and I hope he makes a more formal move into the polictical arena before his fame (looks) fades and his voice loses power (sadly, in the media climate in which we live, I'm sure that if he ages without making that move, it will).
I have nothing to add to any of your other comments; thanks for an interesting read. Oh, except, the "SB thing", it's a game; you get points for it (you'll need to read back two or three weeks at least); after a while it becomes a habit; maybe it even shows other bloggers you're in the know? Don't knock it - join in!
I've forgot now, did you say Defur or Decafe? Either way it's Expresso for me. Ta.
re 35
Joe, I think you are referring to a type of coffee drink known as "Espresso". "Expresso" is usually a type of bus/train. But without the "O".
Aperi (34), I'm not above a flippant comment or twenty when called for. I've left a few dotted around this blog in the last two or three weeks. Such as the surreal idea of Sequin riding her bike to work wearing her mandatory 大象传媒 lady presenters ballgown and pearls.
But Eddie's questions on this thread seemed to demand a serious answer. Or two. Or....
I'm a big fan of Lord Ed, in particular because there is often a dry and / or caustic comment somewhere in a PM bulletin and I find that refreshing. An unleavened diet of hard politics, death, murder, taxes, etc. would be unbearable. Humour is the relief valve which keeps us sane.
But there is no way to ridicule a topic like this.
Two quotes and a paraphrase from my favourite author, P.J. O'Rourke;
"Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed, and love of power."
(Paraphrased) Civilisation developed in the Fertile Crescent. It has not continued to do so there.
"Civilization is an enormous improvement on the lack thereof."
sb37
Simon@32
Your contribution didn't bore me. You'll have to try harder.
A friend of my daughter has just signed up. He's a nice sensible lad (mostly) but from a military background - so he didn't really stand a chance.
I hope he emerges showing the same roundness of character as you.
I missed national service by a whisker - no not that sort; the face fungus wasn't installed before the mid 60s.
Simon (37), you're right, you're right. Your reasons for appreciating Eddie mirror mine and the quotes you have chosen are spot on. I can only echo Wally (38) re character.
Had a look at your website too - great photos.
A, x.
During my last comment, I forgot to ask what TAX means - we didn't have that in my time at Bush, or is it what I knew as TX, or maybe a live piece??
I saw the blog from the other day, entitled Push, and, as a disabled woman, I am more than happy for you to use this. I didn't realize what a difference this button can make until I became less mobile and started using a stick. You're absolutely right about the heaviness of some doors these days!!
Read many blogs? Dozens (36), all aggregated with / by Google Reader.
I've read the PM blog, on and off, since just before Christmas and this is my second contribution.
Darfur: Surely, as long as we are consistent in our responses to Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea, Zimbabwe and Darfur, what is the problem? I mean, how hard can it be?
Is there an RSS/Atom feed for comments as well as posts? If there is, I am an idiot - please show me where it is. If not, who do we need to threaten in order to make one available?