Max Atkinson's Blog

Basil's book launch

We've just been to a book launch - not one of mine, you understand, but it's about our cat, who attends the primary school next door, especially at lunch times when he can scrounge tuna sandwiches from his fellow pupils

The author, Clare Blackmore, works there and persuaded Bristol Water to sponsor the book to raise funds for the school and Water Aid.

It's full of delightful stories and pictures of Basil's life at school, as well as reports on his CATS tests, progress on work placement schemes, etc.

If you or any of your friends and relations are cat lovers, Basil's School Antics would make a purrrfect Christmas present - with the added advantage of supporting an important charity and a cash-strapped village school. It's not available on Amazon (yet), but details of how to order a copy are HERE.

STOP PRESS (13th November):

Basil got the dates for the book launch wrong, and has only just arrived at school, two days late, to inspect the book.

He was soon distracted by the contents of a bin and was last seen catnapping on one of the school's computers.

Attacking a politician's spelling and handwriting: fair play or dirty trick?

Regular readers of this blog will know that there have been plenty of posts raising questions about Gordon Brown's communication skills. But when it comes to expressing condolences, he's actually rather good at it (e.g. HERE & HERE).

This is perhaps why I find the media attacks on him for upsetting the mother of a soldier lost in Afghanistan for his bad handwriting, use of a felt tipped pen and poor spelling in a personal letter of condolences rather distasteful and politically suspect.

It can hardly be a coincidence that the story seems to have originated from the Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper and has had much coverage on the Murdoch-owned Sky News just a few weeks after the Murdochs had instructed the Sun to announce, in the middle of the Labour Party conference, that it wouldn't be supporting them at the next general election.

Much more likely is that it's a rather nasty and politically motivated attempt to discredit a prime minister who happens to suffer from poor eyesight.

The most encouraging thing about it is that the story seems to be backfiring on its perpetrators, both in the mainstream (non-Murdoch owned) media and in the blogosphere - and even amongst anti-Labour voters and Conservative bloggers.

'Here today, gone tomorrow' politician walks out of interview with Robin Day

John Nott was the Secretary of State for Defence in Margaret Thatcher's government during the Falkland's war in 1982.

The following year, he announced that he would not be standing for re-election at the next general election - after which he moved on to become chairman and chief executive of a merchant bank.

His immanent departure prompted Robin Day to refer to him during an interview as a "transient here today, if I may say so, gone tomorrow politician".

This prompted Nott to get to his feet, announcing that that that he was "fed up" with the interview - whereupon he took off his microphone and threw it down on the table in front of him.

If that wasn't enough of a high spot, Day's calm response - "Thank you Mr Nott" - was arguably the crowning glory of this remarkable sequence.

Two other points are also worth noting:

1. Nott didn't forget what Day had said
One is that Here Today, Gone Tomorrow resurfaced nearly ten years later as the title of Nott's autobiography.

2. 'Iconic gestures' revisited
The other is that it's another nice example of a gesture coming just before the word(s) to which it relates, as illustrated in an earlier post about the timing of Churchill's iconic gesture in his 'Iron Curtain' speech.

Nott looks away with an irritated expression on his face and starts to stand up before he gets to saying "I'm fed up with this interview" - illustrating again that iconic gestures start before the speaker says the actual words to which they relate.

OTHER CLASSIC TV INTERVIEWS:

The day Mandelson walked out of an interview rather than answer a question about Gordon Brown

Regular readers will know that I've already posted a number of classic TV interviews in which top politicians do something unusual or amusing (or both) - and newer readers can catch up with some of them from the links below.

This latest specimen is a stunner for anyone still baffled, bemused or bewildered by the Brown-Mandelson duet.

It shows the noble Lord, when still a humble commoner during the last general election, walking out of an interview to avoid answering a question about Gordon Brown - only a few years before being elevated to a peerage, appointed (in all but name) as deputy prime minister to become the centre piece of Mr Brown's survival strategy.

Avoiding or refusing to answer a question may be routine practice for our politicians, but actually walking out on an interviewer is, to say the least, fairly extreme. And, for an even more dramatic example, keep watching this space over the next few days.

OTHER CLASSIC TV INTERVIEWS:

Humorous political speeches from 30 and 50 years ago

In previous posts, I've featured the 'content free' political speech recorded by Peter Sellers 50 years ago (which you can listen to again at the bottom of this page).

Twenty years after that, another comedy version of a political speech was broadcast on the BBC series Not the Nine O'clock News - but it could hardly be said to be 'content free'.

Thirty years on, and only two weeks since the furore about the appearance of the BNP leader on BBC's Question Time, it's difficult to imagine any comedian being allowed to get anywhere near a television studio with a script like this.

Grounds for optimism or pessimism, that is the question.

ROWAN ATKINSON (30 years ago):

PETER SELLERS (50 years ago):