- Peter Barron
- 6 Jul 06, 01:14 PM
It's been drawn to my attention that our archest critic in the debate over our St George's flag bedecked car experiment, the , isn't averse to a bit of experimentation itself.
Here's their piece from 4 June.
"St George Makes Us Cross (by David Taylor)
Five days to go until the greatest show on Earth kicks off. So should we rally round the flag and support England in the World Cup?
"Don't talk rubbish" was the literal message as we put Scots to a light-hearted test with a giant England flag yesterday. Talk about showing a red (and white) flag to a bull - we took our St George's cross attached to the bonnet of a parked car round four cities - and in two it was stolen and binned within an hour.
In Edinburgh, our flag was trashed after just 17 minutes -while Glasgow punters put up with it for half an hour longer. And in Dundee, lads even gave it a two-finger salute - silly really, as the flag can't answer back. Our completely unscientific survey involved parking the beflagged car in George Square, Glasgow, Leith Walk, Edinburgh, Perth Road, Dundee and Union Street, Aberdeen.
Our photographer hid to watch what happened. In Leith, locals were tolerant - for 16 minutes. Then two bare-chested lads ripped it off the bonnet and jogged off to stuff it in one of the city's industrial bins. The flag lasted 50 minutes in Glasgow, although we overheard shouts of "put a brick through the window". Then a young, casually-dressed man detatched the flag, crunched it into a ball and binned it.
In Dundee's Perth Road, the flag remained intact for more than two hours. But bizarrely, a group of lads heckled it - and even threw it a V-sign. The flag drew little more than suspicious glances from well- behaved Aberdonians. But it did confuse a parking warden - he was so busy looking at the flag, he forgot to check the car's parking ticket. Maybe he was English...
"The 大象传媒 was last night accused of staging a stunt to portray Scotland as a nation of English-hating thugs" the Sunday Mail on 2 July.
Just fancy that.
Peter Barron is editor of Newsnight
Some bloggers have queried how Newsnight had key documents on John Prescott (watch here), obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, at such an opportune time. The 大象传媒's Open Secrets blog has an intriguing explanation...
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- Richard Porter
- 6 Jul 06, 11:44 AM
Day four and things are settling down.
launched on 大象传媒 World on Monday, presented by George Alagiah from TV Centre in London. It's been the culmination of months of hard work.
Here are some things we hope the viewers have noticed (and some we hope they haven't...):
Continue reading "Going live"
Richard Porter is head of
- Matt Morris
- 6 Jul 06, 09:49 AM
Couldn't you tell it was going to happen...?
The lack of penetration in spite of Wayne Rooney's bustling. The way the ball bounced off Peter Crouch, no matter how gently it was played up to him. Frank Lampard's unconvincing air of assurance as he walked up to take the first penalty. A nation was deeply upset by the success of the Portuguese; though in the Farmers' Arms in Llangennech on Saturday night, there was little sympathy for England fans among the assembled Welshmen (and they were all men, except for the woman behind the bar).
So now St George's cross is disappearing from cars, white vans and people carriers. But we on Five Live are having to give some thought to what the cross represents - or, more accurately, to whether it can be taken to represent any political party. It came about because of the contribution of a guest on Victoria Derbyshire's programme on 5 May...
Continue reading "St George's Cross"
Matt Morris is head of news, Radio Five Live
- Peter Rippon
- 6 Jul 06, 09:29 AM
PM's experiment with playing birdsong at the end of the programme rather than the chimes of Big Ben ('the Bongs' we call them) has ended.
We played a montage of our greatest hits at the end of the programme (listen here) in an effort to placate the hundreds of listeners now arguing we should ditch the Bongs and keep the birds. I'm not sure the fabric of the universe could survive such a move but there has been some well argued comment.
• Andrew Davy - "Keep the birdsong. Big Ben now seems stuffy, grey and the sound of an Ealing-comedy kind of England. Your final contributor, the Herring gull (complete with waves rolling in behind), made me go all misty-eyed as I sat in the heatwave rush hour."
• Tim Horton - "Stuff the bongs, please keep the bird song - I've loved this educational spot. On digital, the bongs are well off time anyway. Can we have the Radio 4 UK theme back too? I'll pass on the PM theme."
• Paddy Finnegan - "I think we should find a place for the birdsong somewhere in the show. It is impossible for me to believe that the songs could not be relocated in the show without upsetting the balance. Indeed, it could be used as editorial comment. I can easily imagine a time when a senior politician has failed at the third time of asking to answer the clear question, his voice is faded gently out while a much-loved voice gently intones... 'and here, with no less to contribute to the subject than the right hon... is the song of the golden oriel...' cue birdsong."
• Rowan Woods - "I grieved when I heard your listener's comment that he had now heard all he needed to hear of birdsong. I cannot imagine ever hearing enough of birds singing, and to sacrifice that little breath of heaven for the hammering of ponderous old bells is, I feel, a tragic metaphor for humanity's rejection of the natural world."
• Richard Evans - "Keep the birdsong. The wood pigeon made more sense than some of the members of the cabinet."
• John Pringle - "How disappointing that you're abandoning the birdsong to revert to the dreary metrocentric quarter bells. Why not adopt that wonderful recording of eider duck as your signature tune, to be played at the start and the end of each programme?"
If you've not heard the Eider... it's the one doing a Frankie Howard impression towards the end of the montage. I guess we will have to find ad hoc reasons for including Birdsong in PM in future. You'll just have to keep listening for it.
Peter Rippon is editor of World at One, PM and Broadcasting House
Telegraph: "A student who works as a scuba diving instructor in his spare time and supports the Tories is due to appear as a panellist on Question Time on 大象传媒 One tonight." ()
The Guardian: A feature on proposed new European rules for TV transmitted over the internet, and how they could affect broadcasters including the 大象传媒. ()
