Liberal Burblings

Archive for October, 2006

I am very pleased that West Berkshire Liberal Democrats now have a page for Polish voters.

I was very sad to hear of the untimely death of Paul Walters, famous latterly as Terry Wogan’s Radio 2 producer. He pioneered a unique form of half-off-mike grunts, uhms, aahs and chuckles which acted as the perfect foil for Terry Wogan on his “Wake up to Wogan” show. As such, Paul became much loved as a quiet, unassuming and jovial chap who, nonetheless, was skilled at choosing the music and emails for the programme, helping to make it an overwhelming success with listeners.

He will be sadly missed. Terry’s tribute show yesterday was a masterpiece – the music was beautifully chosen and Terry approached it with exactly the right tone.

As the writer of a few letters read out by our Tel it will be sad not to be able to write in as “the real Paul Walter” or “Paul Walter singular” or some such unfunny joke anymore.

I first raised the issue of this BBC phenomena in June. On the 7.35pm BBC1 news tonight we had yet another case of going live to an umbrella – and a pretty boring white umbrella at that. The newsreader crossed live to Westminster and reporter Tina Stiastny. She could have been standing in the Shetland Islands for all we knew, because all you could see behind her was a white umbrella and a minute section of a darkened road.

How much does this sort of live outside broadcast cost?

With the licence fee being negotiated, it is amazingly profligate for the BBC to do this sort of thing. For the cost of a tube fare, the reporter could have reported from in the studio at no extra cost.

It makes me so angry!

Calm down dear.

Andrew Rawnsley writes a very authoritative article in the Observer today entitled: Tory taxidermy – how to get yourself stuffed over tax.

He argues that Cameron has made a major mistake by setting up all his policy commissions. As they are closely alligned to and associated with him, the public will take their prognostications to be Tory policy or, if Cameron disassociates himself with their output, see the Tories as divided:

The Conservatives have just committed what could be their first serious blunder under David Cameron: they have suggested what they might do in government.

…How idiotic for them to hand over ammunition to Gordon Brown for him to load into his formidable guns. That is precisely what the Conservatives did last week when they published a 176-page document listing tax cuts amounting to more than £20bn. Years away from the next election, we now have detailed Tory proposals on everything from personal allowances to corporation tax to research and development reliefs, presented as if they were the first-term plans of the next Conservative government.

…A lot of voters will simply conclude that the Conservatives are divided, confused and can’t make their policies add up.

…The media are certainly not going to oblige the Conservatives by treating the work of their policy commissions as if they were merely the musings of some think-tank. Newspapers reported the commission’s recommendations with pieces about ‘winners and losers’, as if Mr Osborne had just presented his first budget.

…The idea of these commissions was that they would buy time for the Tory leader. What they are doing is storing up big trouble.

We are led to believe that, under Cameron, the Tories are being very clever, like Blair was in the run-up to victory 1997. But, as Rawnsley reminds us, one of the biggest planks of the Blair pre-97 project was a ruthless control of policy output from the Labour party. No policy musings with spending attached were allowed out into the public domain without the strict approval of Brown.
In sharp contrast, Cameron has set himself up for a sort of death by a thousand commission proposals.

This is certainly a contender for the ultimate political anorak blog – The Political Bumper Sticker blog. It is dedicated to that peculiar US trend. We don’t really have political bumper stickers….or indeed bumper stickers of any sort over here, do we? Rear window stickers perhaps, but not many political ones at that.

But this new blog is dedicated to surveying what sort of cars are driven by people who sport Democrat bumper stickers relative to those who sport Republican ones…in the blogger’s local area of Phoenix, Arizona.

So far, the blog is off to a rather unscientific start:

The amount of data collected has been very slim. Either people are not that interested in this election or both campaigns only handed out a handful of bumper stickers. So far, I have only found the following:

Len Munsil – Arizona Gubernatorial Candidate (Republican) — Chevy Suburban- Ford Expedition

Janet Napolitano – Governor-(Democrat) Toyota Camry-Toyota Carolla-Ford Expedition-Honda Element

I am rather unqualified to say if this data enables us to draw any conclusions.

Currently, MyDD has Napolitano down as a shoe-in for re-election as Governor. So, the Toyotas and Hondas have it.

I read in Guardian Weekend today that Noel Edmonds is developing an alleged cult following for his phrases used in ‘Deal or No Deal’. Such gems include:

Welcome to Planet Tension

Take the walk of wealth!

Will it be a fortune or a fiasco for…

Channel 4 is all yours

I’ll let you judge whether these phrases are brilliant or cringe-worthy.

But, I was reminded of the brilliant Humphrey Littleton and his closing remarks on “I’m sorry I haven’t a clue”. Shining examples of Humph’s skill with the language include:

…and so, as the still-warm seat of eternity is lifted by the charlady of time, before she brandishes aloft the Toilet Duck of destiny…

Well, with Mickey Mouse’s big hand pointing upwards and Goofy’s tail pointing downwards, I realise my Rolex is a fake….

There are many more here.

Who do you think is the master of quiz show phrases: little Noelly Edmonds or the Humph? (And I have added in a few others to keep it open and democratic).

The choice is yours….