Laughs from Liberal Lords
Regular readers will know that I take a very dim view of the way successive governments have avoided doing anything about how seats in the House of Lords are allocated (e.g. HERE).
So, although I find myself much closer to Lord Ashdown's position on House of Lords reform than that of Lord Phillips of Sudbury, I spent quite a lot of time yesterday trying to find a clip of the above that could be embedded here - for purely entertainment purposes, you understand.
It's a reminder to those of us who bemoan the passing of the Jimmy Young Show on BBC Radio 2 of one of the regular features that made it so worth listening to. In his former life, Lord Phillips was better known as the solicitor Andrew Phillips, who appeared with Jimmy Young as the 'legal eagle' giving legal advice to listeners from 1976-2002.
Loss of the good natured banter between him and Jimmy Young is but one of the many reasons why I've hardly ever listened to the programme since it became the Jeremy Vine Show.
Another is that I thought that David Aaronovich, one of the occasional stand-ins for Sir Jimmy, made a far better job of it than Mr Vine has ever done - but, for reasons best known to the BBC, didn't get the job when they decreed that the time had come for Jimmy Young to retire.
More reign on its way from Prince Charles
Our thanks today for the widely tweeted news that BBC Scotland has employed a promising new TV weather forecaster, who's not afraid to insert one or two of his own ad-libs.
Knowing that Prince Charles was an avid fan of the late Spike Milligan, I was mildly disappointed that he resisted the temptation to emulate one of his hero's sketches, in which he too had stood in front of a weather chart.
As Milligan got towards the end of his 'forecast', he said "and now for a look at tonight's weather...", raised the chart (which turned out to be in front of a window), looked through it and announced "looks pretty nice outside tonight, folks..."
More reign on its way from Prince Charles
Our thanks today for the widely tweeted news that BBC Scotland has employed a promising new TV weather forecaster, who's not afraid to insert one or two of his own ad-libs.
Knowing that Prince Charles was an avid fan of the late Spike Milligan, I was mildly disappointed that he resisted the temptation to emulate one of his hero's sketches, in which he too had stood in front of a weather chart.
As Milligan got towards the end of his 'forecast', he said "and now for a look at tonight's weather...", raised the chart (which turned out to be in front of a window), looked through it and announced "looks pretty nice outside tonight, folks..."
Relaunching the coalition and the cost of Etonian English?
'About a month ago, I blogged about a speech by the leader of the Labour Party in which Ed Miliband used quite a lot of verbless sentences (HERE).
Today, I'm grateful to Stefan Stern for alerting me via Twitter (@stefanstern) to an article by David Cameron in today's Daily Telegraph, presumably written as part of the coalition's 'relaunch' after Tory and LibDem losses in the recent local elections.
For Mr Stern, it (rightly) reminded him of the 'content-free' political speech by the late Peter Sellers - which you can enjoy in full HERE.
Miliband was making a speech, but Cameron was writing an article
In the case of Ed Miliband's speech, one of the comments on my blog pointed out that had the full stops been commas, the verbless sentences would no longer have been verbless and could have served as useful stage directions to help the speaker to deliver his messages in nice short chunks.
I can see (but don't agree) that some speechwriters might want to make a case for verbless sentences when writing for clients speaking in our sound bite hungry world.
But I cannot see any justification (or excuse) whatsoever for leaving out verbs when writing an article that is explicitly intended to be read by readers (of a supposedly 'quality' newspaper), as in the following two paragraphs, purportedly penned by the Prime Minister - which, apart from the first sentences, degenerate into verbless lists:
'This is painstaking work.
'Seeing through the reductions to government spending.
'Cutting regulation and business tax to help the private sector.
'Helping start-up firms, investing in apprenticeships and boosting trade to help rebalance our economy in favour of enterprise, manufacturing, technology and exports.
'And repairing our wrecked financial system so that we can have confidence in our banks and they can lend properly again.'
...
'I’m proud of the battles we’ve fought in the first two years of this Government.
'Battles that we won in education, so that schools toughen up on exams, insist on discipline, and have the freedom to do what teachers and parents want.
'Battles that we won against the teeth of Labour opposition on immigration control and welfare reform, too.'
If this is the kind of English you end up writing after being educated at Eton, I'd be asking them for my money back if any of my sons wrote like this (which, I'm glad to say, they don't).
Or, if it were a ghost-writer who actually wrote this stuff for Cameron, s/he should be sacked forthwith and sent off for intensive private tuition with Mr Gove.
I'd also quite like to know who pays for such illiterate scribes to work in Downing Street - tax-payers or the Conservative Party?
Today, I'm grateful to Stefan Stern for alerting me via Twitter (@stefanstern) to an article by David Cameron in today's Daily Telegraph, presumably written as part of the coalition's 'relaunch' after Tory and LibDem losses in the recent local elections.
For Mr Stern, it (rightly) reminded him of the 'content-free' political speech by the late Peter Sellers - which you can enjoy in full HERE.
Miliband was making a speech, but Cameron was writing an article
In the case of Ed Miliband's speech, one of the comments on my blog pointed out that had the full stops been commas, the verbless sentences would no longer have been verbless and could have served as useful stage directions to help the speaker to deliver his messages in nice short chunks.
I can see (but don't agree) that some speechwriters might want to make a case for verbless sentences when writing for clients speaking in our sound bite hungry world.
But I cannot see any justification (or excuse) whatsoever for leaving out verbs when writing an article that is explicitly intended to be read by readers (of a supposedly 'quality' newspaper), as in the following two paragraphs, purportedly penned by the Prime Minister - which, apart from the first sentences, degenerate into verbless lists:
'This is painstaking work.
'Seeing through the reductions to government spending.
'Cutting regulation and business tax to help the private sector.
'Helping start-up firms, investing in apprenticeships and boosting trade to help rebalance our economy in favour of enterprise, manufacturing, technology and exports.
'And repairing our wrecked financial system so that we can have confidence in our banks and they can lend properly again.'
...
'I’m proud of the battles we’ve fought in the first two years of this Government.
'Battles that we won in education, so that schools toughen up on exams, insist on discipline, and have the freedom to do what teachers and parents want.
'Battles that we won against the teeth of Labour opposition on immigration control and welfare reform, too.'
If this is the kind of English you end up writing after being educated at Eton, I'd be asking them for my money back if any of my sons wrote like this (which, I'm glad to say, they don't).
Or, if it were a ghost-writer who actually wrote this stuff for Cameron, s/he should be sacked forthwith and sent off for intensive private tuition with Mr Gove.
I'd also quite like to know who pays for such illiterate scribes to work in Downing Street - tax-payers or the Conservative Party?
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