is the place where you can - nay, SHOULD comment on the content of tonight's programme. Love it or hate it - please add your comment here. Our editor will read them all and respond as she sees fit. But be nice - she's had contact lens trouble today.
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Much sympathy about the lens trouble. I once spent more than an hour, round midnight, in a four-by-six tent in a sheep-filled field looking for a lost contact lens using a torch and a lot of bad language. It was sticking to the wearer's cheek, as we found *after* we had gone over everything we could and given up. So the moral has to be that there is always hope with those things: the one that went down between two floorboards and was retrieved, the two that vanished in a swimming-pool and were found in the filter that evening, the one that stuck to the outside of the bow on a boat on the starboard tack and was rescued *just* before we had to change tack on account of rocks...
Actually, let's hear it for laser treatment, now I come to think of it! :-)
There was bad weather in Derby, too. Derby is the one next to Nottingham...
I listened to Gordon Brown's speech today and was quite impressed until he said that he wanted everyone to have the opportunity to have higher education.
This is rich coming from a government that has engendered a generation of debt-ridden students, who leave higher education with debts of around 30,000 pounds and an attitude that debt is a way of life.
I know because I'm a parent of two of them and I think it has been anything but empowering for medium and lower income families.
Best Wishes,
Anne Dobbing
To be frank Gordon Brown's hypocrisy makes me sick.
yeah fine, paint broad pictures of a sunny Britain but God help you if you are disabled, especially suffering from a mental illness. You will rapidly find out that Labour's target driven social security system does not work, and the NHS is a joke.
And if you have a mental illness and happen to get pregnant, be prepared to have the baby snatched.
Oh and perhaps on a more specific point, perhaps Gordon would like to explain why pregnant invalidity claiments are moved onto maternity benefit and the extra money goes not to the mother or the baby, but is taken by the council in the form of council tax.
anne d,
Maybe Brown can create more fake universities so that everybody can attend one.
The longer Father Brown delays the election the longer Dave Boy has to reveal his idiocy and guarantee his defeat and the end of the Conservative Party. So there will be no election for a couple of years.
I do hope that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ removes childrens' programmes from the current slot because doing so will remove the only remaining reason for having a television set in the house.
With GB pushing his credentials as a son of the manse, mebbe Labour should adopt Dusty Springfield's "Son of a Preacher Manse" as their new theme tune!
Utterly sickening. England has endured ten long years of Labour. The Scotsman Brown makes a lack-luster speech devoid of new content and repeating announcements made before.
PM reports as if Brown is wonderful, a fantastic light for the future of Britian. Biased to the extreme and it makes me sick that I'm forced by law to pay for this rubbish.
Lets wait until next week and wait to hear the unending diatribe of negativity that will flow from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ about the Conversatives.
You make me sick.
Steve Ferris (9) - Strewth Steve! - a bit biased yourself are you not?
"England has endured . . " - a bit insular too maybe?
And the ". . ten long years of Labour" might in some way be attributable to them convincing the electorate at three successive polls that they had better and more acceptable policies than the opposition.
Ah well, at least you will have David Cameron to cheer you up next week. I expect his speech and policy announcements and the general performance of the Tories will cheer me up too!
I have just visited the PM blog for the first time and I'm absolutely staggered to see what Eddie looks like! It just goes to show how radio can conjure up images of a person just from the sound of their voice.....in this case, Eddie looks NOTHING as I imagined! Carolyn however looks pretty much how I thought she would.
It would be fun for listeners to send in descriptions of how they think radio personalities look.....as long as they haven't sneaked a peak first.
As for my impression of Eddie's appearance before I saw his pic, I imagined someone older, greyer and with a kindly but craggy face. He's actually rather fresh-faced and suave-looking! I'm not sure if I'm disappointed or not!!
I bet this'll go to Room 502, but I'll try anyway.
Fellow Froggers should have a look at the Radio Times this week as it features a photo of Eddie and Ryan looking seriously at a newspaper in the studio.
I reckon he's got a Beano hidden in there, what do you all think?
SSC - no, I think it'll be that copy of Viz that PM featured in, a few weeks ago. I'm guessing Eddie's been treasuring it, & showing it to all & sundry at the least excuse. It's probably looking a bit dog-eared by now.
Debbie Court - welcome to the blog! I too had a completely different image of how Eddie would look, from hearing his voice. I think I saw him on Newsnight ages ago, & like you, was surprised.
Of course, he's aged considerably since then, what with this blog & all. :)
Chris, many thanks for your lense-loss sympathy. My eyes are poorly suited to all-day wear, but the spectacles were left in a neighbouring borough. Suffice it to say that colleagues were most kind.
Fiona
Hello Debbie (11) - I bet you didn't realise that he was missing the top third of his head, either.
Purely generic advice from your blogtician. If you a soft lens wearer them try Silicone Hydrogels. But specs will be more comfortable in an air conditioned office with lots of VDU use.
Don't lick lenses and re insert. Mouths are mucky things. You should not wear when swimming for same reasons as licking.
Oh! And its Lens (no extra e)
Testing, testing ...... to see if today is a Room 502 day again.
(I'm not a Harry Potter fan but ....) At Hogwarts, they play quidditch, I believe, and I think it may be time to invent a fictional game for the Blog for those 502/409 days. We could base it around those magic numbers, and also around probabilities for getting through. I'm thinking something along the lines of:
Getting a 502 message = 1 point
Getting a 409 message = 2 points
Getting 502 x 502 messages = 1 million points
Getting 409 x 409 messages = 2 million points
Getting a posting through on a 502 day = 10 points
No score for getting through after a 409 message as these are more random.
Participants can then *try* to post their scores up on the Beach that evening. If they are able to get through the 502 barrier, they will automatically be awarded a further 100 points.
Do other froggers have similar ideas to make 502 more bearable?
Big Sis, who knows if we are cheating? Or do you trust us. Look! I've caught a snitch.
Of course, we could all take 1 off the 502s we get and have a free pair of jeans! (other styles of jeans are available)
Am I really being malicious trying to post 3 times in under an hour? I think not!
Stewart M: This is the ´óÏó´«Ã½, home of 'Trust'
Ahem.
This is the PM Blog, home of 'Trust'.
Of course I trust fellow froggers, don't you? ;o) Anyway, the likelihood of getting onto the Beach on a 502 day will thin things out somewhat, don't you think? Yesterday, I tried to post something on the Hugh thread and reckong it took all of 30 attempts (during which I lost the comment and had to rewrite) before I finally got through. And then in duplicate (even though one must have made in through Room 502 - which is a duplicitous place, don't you find?)
Now, perhaps you could suggest alternative games for such days?
Welcome to the blog Debbie! Yes like you I had a similar image of our Eddie - I had been listening to the programme for years before I finally saw a picture of him - it was indeed a very pleasant surprise :)
Fiona L - hope your eyes are better today, have you thought of laser eye surgery? (sorry Stewart!). I had mine done a year and a half ago and I haven't looked back since (excuse the pun!!)
SSC - which copy of Radio Times are you referring to? Is it the one with Billie Piper on the cover? Must go home and check it out!
Oh and the programme - am here in the glass box so it would be rude to comment. Have to confess I only heard the first half which was largely dominated by GB. I am a little weary of listening to politicians waffle on endlessly and promising the earth so I did find it a little tiresome to be honest - but that's just me and nothing really to do with the quality of the programme.
Fiona
Chris (1);
Laser and other eye surgery is banned in the Forces. Anyone who gets it done will be charged with a self-inflicted injury, which carries severe penalties, up to and including being discharged from the services.
This came about as a result of many studies which apparently show that in the short-term the individual suffers from flaring and 'starbursts' especially at night; there is a higher incidence of infection because the cuts take very long to heal, occasionally years. The longer-term prognosis shows a large increase in eye problems such as glaucoma.
For a fuller list check out LASIK on the Wikipedia. I've got myopia and slight astigmatisms in both eyes. I've worn lenses for the last 16 years. No-one is going to mess about with my eyes, it's probably my greatest fear.
Si.
Big Sister @ 20 asked
"Now, perhaps you could suggest alternative games for such days?"
Patience. :-)
It doesn't seem to be doing it today, so thanks are due to Eddie for asking that it be sorted, and to whoever sorted it.
The item on acupuncture and the comments by the doctor representing badscience.net typified the response of some conventional medics to alternative forms of medicine.
We use homoeopathy on our livestock farm not because we are weird and feel the need for placebos in the form of sugar pills, but because it works. The placebo effect is unlikely to occur because the animals in many cases do not even realise that they are being handled or treated for disease, because we often put the remedies in their drinking water.
Homoeopathy, like acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy and herbal medicine, are not clearly understood in terms of their modus operandi, but their efficacy is sufficiently well recorded to justify their use in the NHS. They are not magical cure-alls and will not be suitable in all cases, but sensible and pragmatic use, sometimes in conjunction with conventional treatments, gives excellent results.
badscience.net and it's followers should consider that farmers are a hard headed commercial lot and if it doesn't work, they will soon tell you. And yet growing numbers of us are using homoeopathy to good effect. It might also be a good idea if PM actually discovered who is funding badscience.net. I suspect there will be a very short trail which leads back to large pharmaceutical companies, who are worried that alternative medicine will open the floodgates to cheap medicine - which is, of course, not in their commercial interests. And which also explains their almost poisonous reaction to alternative medicine.
Si @ 22, "Laser and other eye surgery is banned in the Forces. Anyone who gets it done will be charged with a self-inflicted injury, which carries severe penalties, up to and including being discharged from the services."
Well, no, not exactly. This seems to be a case of the RN unofficial motto, "Haven't you heard, it's all been changed."
A currently-serving officer in the Royal Navy when consulted reports that [a] the officer sitting next to him had laser surgery to correct his vision when he changed stream from one branch of engineer to another, and had the approval of the Admiral to whom he went to check that it was ok to do so; and [b] that when my informant looked into it himself, he was given every encouragement by the Commander (medical) whom he consulted, but that before it was done the chap went off to make scads of money in civvie street, and his replacement suggested that it would be better to wait until contact lenses stopped being satisfactory.
So in the Navy at least, it not only isn't forbidden, there are people who do it for you. The rule is that you have it done at your own risk, and if it goes wrong you have blown your career, but the Navy will help if it is what you want to do.
On the other hand someone who's just been accepted into the Royal Engineers reports that the Army don't allow it full stop, and that your dictum about self-inflicted wounds still applies there as far as she knows.
I have no information about the fly-boys. :-)
There are several different sorts of this surgery, so the wikipedists may not be up to speed on all of them.
Oh, and the glaucoma thing: it strikes me that one of the reasons for that getting out of hand is that people don't get eyetests regularly enough, so it is possible that they don't because their eyes are so improved by the surgery that they don't bother.... One never ought to take statistics entirely without careful inspection.
No, I'm not advocating laser surgery; every time I think I might look into it for mayself, the first thing I find out is that my eyes have got just worse enough that they are outside the accepted perameters, and I don't. I just happened to remember the navy thing and the rest followed with terrible inevitability.
David Eyles @ 24, "Poisonous reactions"? I thought those were the side-effects people suffer from chemicals, not homeopathic at all, let alone accupuncture...