This is the place to comment on the content of tonight's programme.
ALSO: The Mattel recall that Nils mentioned: Customers in the UK and Ireland should contact Mattel's helpline on 01628 500 303 or email HelplineUK@mattel.com or visit the company's UK website at www.service.mattel.com/uk/.
And here's a visual aid for tonight's Sound of Summer...
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Blimey, that's a bit prompt, Eddie!
Definitely the dentist .....
But shouldn't it be 'The Glarsh Boksh for Tuesh-day' if he's slurring?
Sweet sherry indeed BigSis! The very thought.
On his outrageously inflated ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ salary (well if J. Ross is worth that amount Eddie must be earning double) our man wouldn't entertain anything less than Chateau Latour! Or Chateau d'Yquem, if he's a sweet wine fan?
Si.
Si: I'm Big Sis, not Fifi!
It was Fifi who mentioned Sw**t Sh*rry, a drink that would never cross my lips in any shape or form, believe me!
I'm sure Lord Mair drinks much more grown up stuff, and it may not all be superior wines ..... Though we know he doesn't like whisky.
Shame, really, cos a slug of single malt would probably help him after a trip to the dentist.
Clicking on 'previous' brought me to the Glass Box for Tuesday, which seems appropriate.
Looking into my crystal ball, I can see me listening avidly to a fascinating item , only to be interrupted by a telephone call from Oman -- a confused wrong number -- that causes me to miss the end of PM and never find out the name of the person being interviewed.
This is why I cannot yet comment on that item, its apposite nature and meaningful insight. Mind you, if the crystal ball is correct I won't be able to even when it *has* happened.
Drat. Back to the slate (which is what one went back to before the drawing-board was invented).
Oompahpah Oompahpah that's how it goes .......
It's the Bandstand at Eastbourne and I claim my £5!
49288!
49288, eh? 712 to go, and I can't offer any help. I'm on annual leave Weds & Thurs. so will miss the frog. Hope you good people manage it.
Not so much a Glass Box today - more an open space,
Isn't there an expression about bandstanding?
Ooops!
Sorry BigSis & Fifi.
Hangs head in shame. Your favourite tipple(s) can be found on the NCMB on the Beach (sorry, no sweet sherry available).
Si.
Big Sis (5) is correct - give her the money. National recognition at last on "PM the only blog that matters" for the Sunshine Coast, and what a lovely day it was - when the pic was taken.
I have to admit today it has been dreadful down here with rain, wind and no doubt a plague of something or other to follow tonights programme.
I've scanned the Conversation document and it's not at all bad. Am I the only one to notice Wee Eck's voice and delivery have changed, and somewhat for the better?
I heard him this morning and liked his tone. Dare I say, "a bit of gravitas"?
xx
ed
Simon (10) : Big Sister and I are ALWAYS being mistaken for one another, so don't feel bad.
She's about a foot more petite than me, and blonde while I'm sadly not, and I have a noticeable Scottish accent she lacks. Other than that, we are twins separated at birth!
Fifi
49,403
Does anyone know if the story in the Daily Express to the effect that eating at the desk has been banned for Ramadan by the Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board and the Lothian NHS board is true?
The Express is not exactly my journal of choice, and it would be fair to say that there are others in which my confidence is higher. On the other hand, I do feel it merits futher enquiry.
Eddie? Anyone?
If the Scottish people wish to be independent from the rest of the UK that is their right.
The rest of the UK however would then have the right to demand that MPs representing Scottish constituencies should no longer be allowed to sit at Westminster. Sauce for the goose etc.,
This would prove difficult for the PM and many of his cabinet.
It would also completely alter the political complexion of the rest of the UK.
So little chance of support from Labour or the Lib Dems, - but the Tories?
In order to teach maths you require "qualified teacher status", some certificate of teaching.
The system that teaches teachers is also filtering out those they regard as unsuitable candidates.
Since the 1970's the ratio of male to female teachers has continuously declined (it is presently about 1:4).
The quality of maths and science teaching will improve as soon as we stop 'feminising' the teaching profession.
Fewer than 600 to go then. Easy peasy. In fact, at this rate, we may have to slow up a bit if we want to crack the 50K on Friday. Do you think the techies can arrange for the blog to explode in a champagne-popping like fashion when the magic number is reached?
Brilliant Sound of Summer!
Whatever happened to the programme "Listen to the Band"?
My grandfather served in WWI in the RAMC and I was brought up in his house until his death in 1947. He loved brass band music, and everything had to stop while he listened to the programme.
Any chance of a small daily slot on PM?
Wonderful to hear Sussex by the Sea (written in 1907) Always played by the Band of the Royal Sussex Regt, but it was not their regimential march.
For military buffs (if any still left alive). It was the Col of the Royal Sussex who gave the famous Ball on the eve of Waterloo and told Wellington that "Boney" and his army had broken free and was marching on Brussels. The regiment did not take part in the Battle at Waterloo, being instructed to make a last ditch stand (if required). A sort of Dunkirk that never happened.
All the squaddies used to sing the words "You tell by the smell because it s...ks like hell
In in Good old Sussex by the sea.
Good to hear my tune tonight!
Evening, me in the big chair for PM this afternoon. So - I see the SNP white paper has got people going on the Independence thread..and we've had a quite a few emails already asking why we spent the first ten minutes of the programme talking about Scotland. To be fair, yes we did talk about Scotland but Eddie was at pains to bring in the argument about England having a vote too.
Huge and very dull technical probs with our Foot and Mouth coverage. No such technical probs with the EColi story - we should have worked harder to find a better more engaging way of reporting the story. Whereas Hugh's report was a pleasure - though I'm partitioned out - don't get me wrong not saying it isn't a good story but I've heard and seen a fair bit over the past week.
If you'd like that number for the Mattel recall - please look at their website rather than ask Nils.
Finally - summer sounds, you like? All contributions are more than welcome.
Loved the sound of summer.
Interesting how much the question of Scottish independence stirs up folks in the rest of the UK - good to start the debate. I suspect you will be covering this again.
As for the Matel recalls could you perhaps do a wider piece on how the demand for cheap goods in the west is not being matched by care on the part of the commissioning companies in the west to ensure that appropriate standards are being met. Lead in paint doesn't just harm children, it won't be doing the Chinese workers any good either. Lots of issues here that would be good to follow up in future.
As for the parent who has to take the toy away, can I suggest if the child is too young to understand why, that they are given the cardboard box to play with, or a saucepan and wooden spoon. Before all this consumerism in toys children still played.
I *thought* that was Eastbourne. That was certainly a sound of summer as I spent all my childhood holidays based along the coast in Hastings.
Ah, all those half-ruined castles to climb around, the old rickety diesel trains, the ship-shaped building at St. Leonards, the awful De La Warr pavilion at Bexhill [(C) Spike Milligan] and being the youngest person in Eastbourne by about fifty years...
Thanks Eddie & team, that was a good one.
Talking of the battle of Waterloo, Peter (19)... and normally I'd post this on the Beach but it's getting a bit full and slow to load for some folk...in 1930 my mother met someone whose father had fought at Waterloo. And I recall some years ago the obituary of the last woman to speak Perthshire Gaelic whose grandfather had fought at Culloden.
What are the longest three generation timelines other froggers know of?
49455!
I'm just listening to Eddie on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ7 just now, barely managing to get a word in edgewise between Barry Cryer and Ed Stewart.
I'm glad he has more to say for himself these days!
On the Scotland Independent question...
I'm disappointed to see comments suggesting too much time was spent on it. Think for a moment...
I live in Scotland. I'm very interested in current affairs. I choose to listen to the best programme on the subject, which is broadcast to ALL parts of the United Kingdom. Why shouldn't the programme cover such a major issue (for me, as a resident of the UK and a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ licence fee-payer)? If it didn't give matters such as this sufficient coverage, then how could it continue to be the BRITISH Broadcasting Corporation, serving the United Kingdom? How could the programme then remain relevant to my interests?
There is of course the argument that Scotland should have its own broadcasting corporation - that's another argument (with which I agree), but until then the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ must serve all its licence payers equitably and this is one story that is of immense interest to many people and not just those able to influence voting in Scotland.
David Muir (15),
"The rest of the UK however would then have the right to demand that MPs representing Scottish constituencies should no longer be allowed to sit at Westminster. Sauce for the goose etc.,"
That goes without saying, but it is made very clear in the document, and has been stated by Wee Eck (Salmond) many times over decades.
Slainte
ed
If Scotland got ten minutes in one day's PM, then that's slightly above its percapita quota, but I expect it gets less than that 10% quota on average over the long term.
I'm with Holy Blue on this!
Read the document and then we can discuss it sensibly.
Slainte
ed
How to Overthrow the System:
brew your own beer; kick in your Tee Vee;
kill your own beef; build your own cabin and
piss off the front porch whenever you bloody well feel like it.
-- Ed Abbey
You can best serve civilization by being against
what usually passes for it.
-- Wendell Berry
To put the bounty and the health of our land,
our only commonwealth, into the hands of people
who do not live on it and share its fate
will always be an error.
For whatever determines the fortune of the land
determines also the fortune of the people.
If history teaches anything, it teaches that.
--Wendell Berry
xx
ed
Just visited mattell website and we have loads of the Polly pocket stuff. The are great toys and are the small toys kids probably play with most. Ours have had some abuse (toys not kids) and I think a magnet did come out of one of the bits. But the fact they are magnetic is their appeal. So do we REMOVE FROM CHILDREN (who are responsible and don't shove things up their noses) as told in red ink at mattell or just let them keep them. I suppose being responsible we should remove them. But..... When I were a lad ....
Stewart M @ 31, surely if these are old enough Polly Pockets to have got battered, they won't be the new batch that has caused the fuss and you can safely ignore the whole business? I mean, is there no earliest date-of-risk before which they weren't being made in China? Contrariwise, if there have been no injuries caused by them for years and years and years, maybe they weren't all that dangerous to begin with -- just a thought...
To swallow one magnet might be the accident of a moment; to swallow two smacks of carelessness. :-)
thanks for the summer sound at the end.
Ironically due to delays - and meeting my Sis and kids at the airport from Holland, it's about all I heard.
My sister remarked in the car - how nice it was to hear ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Radio 4 again - observing the colourful words the weatherman was using. She was in hysterics when the Summer sound's contribution was played - with the rain lashing down on the windscreen of the car!
She says the Dutch have a very different sense of humour to us Brit's
One could argue that a few swallowed magnets might make children easier to handle? (Ducks as the bricks are thrown!)
Chris Ghoti (4):
'Look at this new thing I've invented. It's called a drawing board.'
'Hmm. What's it for.'
'Well, you attach your paper here, then you tilt it like this, then ... ooops. Back to the - um - back to the - err ...'
Sid
Eddie,
That was a smashing sound of summer.
Who drank all the Sweet Sherry?
and Big Sis.......magnetic children...now there IS an idea....will get back to you when I have chatted to my mate at Mattel...in the mean time get some iron fillings....
DIY
Jonnie - the irony of the Dutch sense of humour was flagged up by the Traveller yesterday. Fair to say that he was paranoid about his luggage going astray and arriving somewhere other Schiphol with him. This was compounded when at check-in he had to trek to another desk with it "because it's a rucksack and is loaded separately". Shut up - I wanted to say to the cheerfully nonchalant attendant.
How grateful was I several hours later to receive a text saying
"In airport, got bag. Interestingly 'alle bagage is gelost' means all luggage unloaded....hmmm!?"
As long as he's still got his sense of humour!
Talking of magnetic children reminds me of a wonderful plan I had to make flying more comfortable for everyone. An empty, soundproof room should be created at the back of every plane (the safest place in the plane, of course) which should them be lined with one side of Velcro.
All children should be dressed in an appropriately sized jump suit covered with the other side of Velcro. The children should then be confined to the soundproof room for the duration of the flight, and stuck to the walls for take off and landing.
Result, happy kids who can play freely during the flight, and happy adults who don't have to listen to them whining and screaming.
Oops, I can hear the NSPCC battering down my door...
Chris 33 ish. Youngest once put a nut (metal one as it happens from a thing with a magnetic base) up her nose. She won't do it again.!! Came out with forceps and a tug and a twist. No A&E for us that day!.
and FMcD 40 The velcro idea sounds great. I fancy a go at that myself!
So we are all voting for velcro! I just knew I was in the forefront of modern thought with that one.
*smug grin*
Just tried to post a comment about inflation which took me a while to write and got a message about putting a time limit between postings. Lost my rant and now very annoyed because
a) lost my rant and
b) haven't posted anything, not one thing, since 4.30 ish yesterday morning!
Watch out there IS inflation about.....
(that was the gist of my rant)
UptheTrossachs @ 43, of course there is inflation. There has been for at least the last fifty years... or five hundred, or five thousand.
But what's so special about *this* generation that we think we are uniquely badly off?
I can confirm that the Bandstand at Eastbourne was under a gorgeous blue sky today.
I just had to go and check ...
Oh, sorry! I should have been blogging here, shouldn't I? I knew there was something .....