BBC 5Live limber up for the general election

BBC 5Live are soon to make some changes to their daytime lineup for this general election year and so on weekdays from a Monday in the near future we will be able to 'enjoy' as wsell as from 06:00–09:00 5 live Breakfast with the impeccable left of centre Nicky Campbell and sidekick Shelagh Fogarty. Followed by the same liberal lover Nicky Campbell as he "takes your calls on the day's big story", sure to be advantageous to Labour. This will be followed from 10:00–13:00 by the ever vile VD (Victoria Derbyshire) with "Original stories from across the UK, news, sport, and exclusive interviews" mostly from a left of centre standpoint. As if this line-up wasn't bad enough soon we will have to listen to Gaby 'only left-wing guests' Logan and Simon 'Labour luvvie' Mayo's replacement none other than Richard 'cocaine' Bacon who makes Simon Mayo seem like a balanced presenter.

He only asked "How are you?"

Do you get the feeling that Gordon Brown had a message that he wanted to get over and was going to deliver it whatever the question? Fair enough as virtually all politicians play the same game, but most manage to answer a simple "How are you?" without delivering a political message. Is Gordon Brown that nervous or that inept that he cannot relate to someone, even a New Labour supporter, as a human being?

Sigh of the year award

For the interviewers sigh of the year award, I think Simon Mayo's at 2:23:58 on his Thursday 10 July show during his interview with Angela Eagle must be in the running.

More on VED (The Angela Eagle transcript update)

Further to my post about the Simon Mayo 5Live show yesterday and his interview with Angela Eagle, I have managed to produce a transcript of part of the interview and if you want to see how a Labour Minister can simply refuse to address a question do take a listen to the recording as well - it should be there until the morning of Thursday 17 July. The segment starts at 2:16:25. Simon Mayo, for all his new Labour credentials, does push Angela Eagle about the 4 June PMQs whilst she just rabbits on about the 14 May PMQs. From 2:18:55 you can hear Simon Mayo say twice "So he got it right in May and wrong in June" and Angela Eagle sick to "right on the floor of the house". Simon Mayo does keep pushing the point about 4 June and even gets a bit of indignant about the handling of the message.
The best part comes from around 2:20:18:

Simon Mayo (SM) - "Did he mislead the House on June the 4th?"
Angela Eagle (AE) - No of course he didn't"
SM - "But the information was wrong"
AE - "The information is not wrong, I just read to you what he said on the 14th of May, ministers have been..."
SM - "I'm talking about June the 4th"
AE - "Ministers have been absolutely consistent that 55% of drivers in the new system will be better or no worse off."
SM - "Was he wrong on June the 4th?"
AE - "That is a fact"
SM - "Was he wrong, was the information wrong on June the 4th?"
AE - "No, what he said on June, on May the 14th was that motorists"
SM - "I'm talking about June the 4th
AE - "Well it's no good us having a debate"
SM - "He's the Prime Minister, if he says something in the House of Commons we have to go with that don't we?"
AE - "Well I've repeated what he said on the 14th of May in the House of Commons."
SM - "I know but I'm talking about June the 4th and if the Prime Minister stands up in the House of Commons and says something we have to it as gospel, don't we?"
AE - I've given you what the facts are, the facts are consistent with what Ministers, including the Prime Minister, have said on the floor of the House..."

At this point Simon Mayo seems to realise that Angela Eagle is not going to answer a question about what Gordon Brown said on 4 June and moves the interview on a bit.

It is worth listening to end of this segment though as Angela Eagle gives the Government "wriggle room" on a U-Turn.

Then in summing up Simon Mayo (and I give him credit for this) returns to the 4 June question:

SM - "And if we want to know the truth about what the Prime Minister thinks, we should look at what he said in May but not what he said in June."
AE - "Well you can make any sort of silly debating point that you wish but I want to talk about the reality of these policies
SM - The words of the Prime Minister are not a silly debating point... floor of the House...
AE - "The words of the Prime Minister on the floor of the House on the 14th of May ... that is a fact and it is a true fact.
"SM - We will leave it there, Angela Eagle thank-you"

I wonder if Angela Eagle is proud of her performance, of not answering a repeated question? Sadly I think she could be.

The exchanges on the Simon Mayo programme underline the arrogant nature of too many Labour politicians. Angela Eagle's answers were completely ridiculous; her stubborn refusal to accept that Gordon Brown made a minor error when speaking on 4th June resulted in far more damage than the comment Eagle was sent on the programme to defend. Simon Mayo had been saying that no Minister could be found to speak on this matter from almost his first mention of the subject at the start of his show - I suppose that Angela Eagle drew the short straw to go on the show. Her behaviour must have left listeners incredulous and lost Labour some more votes. I listened open-mouthed and I cannot have been alone in this. I cannot believe that even the most loyal of spin-doctors or deluded of Cabinet Ministers could think that Angela Eagle's performance helped their cause.

More on VED

Today's Simon Mayo programme, from about 1 minute in you can hear the the piece on the changes to VED and if you want to hear the most pathetic excuses then Angela Eagle tries to avoid answering the point that I made here then you must listen a lot further...

In the same segment you can hear The Sun's Trevor Kavanagh is interviewed about the matter and at 8:17 calls retrospective taxation as near to unlawful certainly immoral, "taxation without representation". I think The Sun may be about to take the step of following the prevailing wind and turning against Gordon Brown and his government.


For a transcript of the most interesting part of the Angela Eagle interview I can heartily recommend this link, well it is mine.

Simon Mayo

Did you hear Simon Mayo this afternoon on BBC 5Live? He seemed to want to keep reminding us that last year David Cameron made a mess of his reply to the Budget because he didn't realise what Gordon Brown had done re income tax. Now Simon Mayo is well known as a Labour party supporter, so we shouldn't be too surprised by this sort of comment. However, surely the point with last year's Budget Income Tax con wasn't that David Cameron and George Osborne didn't spot it immediately, but that Gordon Brown deliberately misled the House of Commons and the whole Country over this matter.