The Glass Box for Thursday
In the PM office we meet every night after the programme in this Glass Box:
We talk about the content of the programme and try to give an honest assessment of what worked and what didn't...the things we missed and the places where our ambitions were not met. THIS virtual glass box you are looking at is where you are invited - indeed encouraged - to be honest about our hour. Members of the production team will read it, and the editor should comment too. Click on The Glass Box link on the right of the page to read previous entries.
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Just thought I'd try to get in early and enjoy the blue upholstery.
Budge up, Vyle (1) I don't want to have to perch on the end like yesterday....
That word for the forces of law and order, or members of the same organisation? It has an O in it... Plice remember this.
What a lot of sense that headteacher made! Choosing what is right for a particular group of pupils? Well, it isn't rocket science, is it?
And the lovely item on the Land Army .... Hilda Gibson is delightful, and her memories echo stories I've heard from other ex land girls. It was pretty hard for most of them, and their efforts were very important as part of the infrastructure to keep the country going at a time of war.
I hope many ex land girls heard your item and will feel proud to be recognised after all this time.
Well done Eddie for reiterating our British sense of fair play by giving the barrister for Samina Malik lots of air time to state his case against the country's anti-terrorist laws of which he obviously disapproves.
What you patently failed to do was to chellenge his client's mindset. Pity.
A first class bit of radio thanks to all concerned particularly Hilda Gibson. Please ask the good lady back for a whole programme.
Thank you for not rushing Hilda Gibbson. Wasn't she wonderful: funny, thoughtful, a bit naughty in the nicest way and challeging too. Her poem was very moving. That was such sensitive interviewing Ed. Thanks and thank you for thanking her so comprehensivly. No words really were there?
Thankyou for Hilda - she made me feel proud, sad, amused and enthralled.
Thankyou
The article about Hilda was genius. No other news program does such quirky and essentially British stuff like this at primetime. Keep it up Eddie.
Why do ´óÏó´«Ã½ broadcasters say "a quarter of one percent"? The correct expression is "a quarter percent" (i.e. a quarter in a hundred or one in four hundred). Do you think that the British public is completely innumerate and illiterate?
After all, you wouldn't say "a quarter of two percent" (a half), "a quarter of three percent" (three quarters), or "a quarter of four percent" (one), would you? Perhaps you would, at that!
Oh, well done - you've corrected the text!!!!
Eddie and team...only caught the last 1/2 hour but.......
A sensible head teacher, an ex Land Army Girl AND the article about live stock movements.
VERY different topics, ALL needing different reporting skills and ALL dealt with to a very
high standard
Tonights program was ear candy and a credit to all...well done.
DiY..happy of Horstead.
The relentless mis - direction of the economy by the BoE continues.
Low interest rates are designed to keep up asset - inflation - driven private spending.
Meanwhile government spending will be attacked as inflationary over the next year or so as we come up to the next election. And the Labour government will cut its own spending programmes as it always does under electoral pressure.
Rather than reduce interest rates a mix of increased rates and adjustments to the tax - benefit system (with income related mortgage relief increases) would protect the government's spending programme from Tory pressure.
Which is exactly what a socialist Governor would have recommended.
Instead we have an independent Governor responsible only to his own economic viewpoint. Which so far has comprised a belief in an increase in his own secret powers (vide his response to Northern Rock) and a downright crazy view on asset pricing.
For if the stock market is still hugely overvalued and the housing markets still overpriced, both because of price bubbles, as King maintains, why is he CUTTING rates?
Our man shows every sign of the job being beyond him and genuinely frightened at the consequences of his own pro - market positions. From which he seems incapable of retreating.
Try a mantra, Merve, Private inequity bad, public equity good.
Yours, till the blog breaks again
mac.
PS Lets hear it for the Land Army and lets not forget women munition workers in WW1.
Hilda has real class.
And the best thing about the Army was that in its ranks real middle and upper class white women did proper jobs, albeit for only a few years.
They proved that the Glass Floor that so many white middle class women rely on to avoid proper jobs can be removed safely without the collapse of civiliisation as we know it.
About those poor people who now have to sit an exam to get a licences to look after theire rare breeds. (Yet another piece of insane over-regulation).
If they happened to be interested in antique end of the pier penny slot machines, as a hobby, and wanted to restore some of thes fine pieces, or repair them for thier friends, a license would cost nearly £6,000 (yes 6,000) and thay have to fill in huge amounts of personal data, ALL financial data about themselves, spouse, father mother, brothers and sisters, and both parents.
AND give full details of their 'qualifications' for indu;ging in this exceedingy dangerous practice, or risk fines of around £50,000 and / or a long term in jail. (These are classed as gaming machines, and we all know that they are far more dangerous than alcohol, cannabis, and cars.
David Harding (14),
I too note that transgressing regulations are increasingly criminal offences. I work in a field where our expertese is in demand world-wide, yet we have to work on the edge of legality due to ever increasing regulations. If we did not exist, there would not be anyone else to fill our shoes.
However, I would question how much of the regulation was from Brussels, and how much is this government's "guilding the lily", which no other EU government does.
Hear, hear Deepthought re: pointless regulations and the UK 'guilding the lily'. Having worked in agriculture and food manufacturing for many years, I have often been baffled by our government's insistance on businesses jumping through hoops when our continental cousins (citizens?!) appear not to. One example that struck me in the late 1980s was how the bureaucracy surrounding milk quotas drove farmers in the UK to the brink of nervous breakdowns , the Italians (allegedly) simply over stated production capability to ensure a decent quota, and the Greeks claimed they just didn't know how many productive cows they had.
I so rarely get the time to look at the blog these days let alone comment, but felt I had to drop into the Glass Box this evening and say well done Eddie for your interview with Hilda. This was R4 at its absolute best; a responsive self deprecating and thoughtful interviewee with a thoughtful non-patronising and attentive interviewer. Wonderful stuff.
Mac (13)
I'm no economist - but there is more to to consider than asset driven spending.
The Governor has no direct influence on the tax-benefit system.
Inflation (especially from FOOD) is going to take a greater proportion of 'discretionary' spend from now and into the New Year (despite Tesco's arrogant assertion that they are holding off price rises) - this is such a 'visible' part of expenditure that I believe a minor downward rate tweak is actually a very politically astute move in favour of the government in that it will promote positive headlines. That doesn't necessarily make the Governor a Socialist, but it is definitely a politically motivated move.
Hilda's piece on the Land Girls was great -
a) topical (if several years late in becoming so);
b) a very well-presented piece by Hilda;
c) beautifully handled by Eddie - gave her the air;
d) given proper length and with not a single " and briefly . . .";
Arthur (10) - ‘Why do ´óÏó´«Ã½ broadcasters say "a quarter of one percent"? The correct expression is "a quarter percent"’
I think it’s because there might just be some people stupid enough to think ‘a quarter per cent’ means ‘25%’! I can’t think of a better way to make it clear.
Eddie thank you so much for introducing the redoubtable Hilda Gibson to the Nation.
Her heart warming reminiceses about the Land Army remind us how well this country can surrvive in the face of adversity.
Stalwarts like Hilda were the agricultural saviors of Britain,God bless them all!!
Deepthought (15):
And at the same time, things which are clearly criminal (and dangerous) and have been for decades - such as running red lights or cycling on the pavement - are ignored by the police.
Maybe next time Eddie has a minister on talking about some proposed new law he could ask them if their eyes aren't bigger than their bellies; shouldn't they have to show they're enforcing all existing laws before they get to play with new ones?
I really enjoyed listening to the Headteacher. It brought a lump to my throat to hear her talk about her school. Salford, as she said, gets a lot of very bad press and seems to have an unfortunate reputation. So to hear that it is home to the best performing primary school in the country was just so postive. I hadn't had a chance to look at the league tables but I had, in my mind, expected the top school to be somewhere in affluent Surrey or a wealthy part of London - so it was lovely to hear from her. Well done and keep up the excellent work, its great to know children from less priviliged areas are receiving such a quality education.
As for Hilda Gibson, have commented on the other thread but worth saying again.....briliiant! Well done.
All in all a really positive and cheery last half of the show which cheered up my dreary rain drenched, traffic jammed journey home no end.
Fiona x
Mac (13),
"For if the stock market is still hugely overvalued and the housing markets still overpriced, both because of price bubbles, as King maintains, why is he CUTTING rates?"
Why indeed? Sheer madness, and we'll be paying the price of it over the next decade or more.
The first is home equity credit. Beyond the alarming 16.5% 60 day delinquency statistic reported by Moody’s last week on home equity credit nationwide at the end of June, there is the question of collateral coverage. Generally speaking, home equity loans represent a junior mortgage. In the old days, home equity loans were obtainable for just some portion of the appreciation of home values, but in this credit cycle, home equity lines provided credit up to 110% of a home’s value at peak valuation.
Given the deflation in home values, I believe that many home equity loans today represent at best partially secured credit,....And not to frighten, but if unsecured credit card losses levels are running close to their 4.00% 60+ day delinquency rates, what does this suggest for home equity loans with their current 16.5% 60+ day delinquency rate? Clearly well above the 1-2% loss levels (and reserves) currently being forecast by banks.
The second risk area I see is municipal credit. .....And without serious, immediate cuts in services, municipal debt ratings are likely to fall (and if AMBAC and MBIA fail, fall hard).
The final risk I see is derivative counterparty risk. Or put differently, how financial institutions can be both right and wrong at the same time. Underlying our financial system today are trillions of dollars of over the counter swaps covering everything from future of interest rates to the future of GMAC debt - where money is owed to one counterparty from another based on what happens in the future.
Since the advent of the swap market in the early 1980’s there has not been a systemic credit crisis anywhere near the proportion of the one we are currently experiencing today. And the biggest question to me is what happens when counterparties begin to default on their swaps. Could, for example, Goldman, which is held out today as being the preeminent risk management firm, be right in its hedges, but wrong in its selection of the counterparties providing them? And then what?
Of course, that's all an American problem and needn't bother us here! I still wonder who's going to buy all the debt needed to pay for our foreign wars?
Salaam/Shalom/Shanthi/Dorood/Peace
Namaste -ed
Mac (and all),
More wise scepticism here:
Salaam/Shalom/Shanthi/Dorood/Peace
Namaste -ed
The best definition of a gentleman is a man who can play the accordion --
but doesn't.
-- Tom Crichton