Last night we have a full scale dress rehearsal for 18DoughtyStreet. The good news is that the live streaming worked, which was a relief to us all. The technological side of the operation of the venture is something I have little comprehension of, but it's a relief that we now know we can stream the pictures out. The website is also nearing completion and is looking good. We've set up a text number and today a rather complicated telephone system is being fitted. Included within it is a "Rantline" where viewers can ring up and get things off their chest - a bit like the one on 5Live's 606. We'll use the best calls on my programme and stream them on the website hopefully. We can all speculate which of the regular commenters on this blog will be the most entertaining ranters!
I must admit I am pleasantly surprised by the amount of media coverage the channel has attracted. The BBC Politics Show is coming to film here this afternoon and I'll be writing a feature for the Sunday Times News Review this week later this morning, But first, the small matter of a thirty minute pre record with Andrew Roberts to prepare for...
8 comments:
Hope all goes well.
Such a credit to politics.
Only 30 minutes? Surely Andrew deserves a couple of hours!
Iain is it true you will be wearing a hijab on camera?
you must get the real peter hitchens on soon. he was brilliant on politics show last night; not sure he meant to be funny, but was great none the less!
also, what's the policy re swearing on the rant line?
I met Andrew Roberts Recently ( well listened when he spoke ) and he was kind enough to say he had some difficulty with my question on his history of the English speaking peoples; It was this :
1 If I were seeking to discredit your book ( on the basis of your description of it ) I would leave wartime and concentrate on the peacetime integrity of the concept of an “English Speaking People “ . Andrew accepted that they were clearly not homogenous and I clarified…
Your history is not neutral it has very clear policy implications for the UK in Europe. There is a conundrum at the heart of your book in that the vast majority of English speaking people would not agree with the political views you impute to them .While in war there may be cultural strains that have held sway you have not demonstrated that is so in peacetime and with respect to trading relationships. As the thrust of your book is in fact an exhortation to leave the EU and pursue closer trading relationships with the commonwealth ( to put it bluntly) , this omission is a large one.
Your suggestion amounts to this, that we should trade with our old friends cause in a fix they stood by us. An emotional appeal admittedly but is it sufficient?
Andrew admitted there was something in this but he was primarily concerned to point out bonds and others may or may not apply this to policy now .
This was a bit of a cop out as his book is in fact far more committed than that would imply but fair in that he would personally be able to answer that question beyond the covers of his book which dealt with history. Christopher Booker gave an excellent extrapolation of how these cultural bonds would operate to our advantage in trade
2 More seriously in a historical sense ,another attack on the integrity of the concept. You have shown that English speaking peoples have operated together in war ( with the exception of Ireland). If for reasons as above we have doubts about the existence of this tribe , an alternative view might be this .
What you have actually described is the actions of the West and what we see is not the special moral superiority of the English group but the moral inferiority of the European group . In other words you are talking about the West minus Europe . Given the social proximity of Europe to the two wars this exception might be described as arbitrary and ad hoc . If you are in describing , in reality , the West then I don’t see it gets us far.
Andrew was able to answer this effectively citing contrasts and similarities of legal systems and much more
He was probably flattering me ( it certainly worked) but he said this integrity of the central concept was clearly the argument he had to win and the argument of the book.
He is an immensely impressive man who I admire a great deal he spoke brilliantly .
How I envy you
Any use ?
Mongchacha
Guido Fawkes, libertarian,
He isn`t a Libertarian he is an inky fingered little twerp and by the sound of it so are you
Its been mentioned on a Fox News affiliate WLOB as well by me. When I next do my London Report, next week, I will make sure to mention it again.
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