[Tubby Isaacs]

At one time this disagreement would have been a huge deal- Deputy Chair of the Tory party, much more frequent media presence that most of the Cabinet, openly disagreeing with policy. Why should anybody else who holds an official post in the government/party bother to take one for the team?

I can remember under Cameron that Ken Clarke gently criticised having left the EPP group, but that was in the past. I can't remember anything like this?

You only have to Google my name and put ECHR in and you’ll see where I stand on the matter and I’ve spoken about it in the chamber as well.

I’ve always been an advocate of leaving, but you know, we’re a team. And if things don’t work, if things don’t go to plan, then we’ve got to take drastic measures and I would fully support the government in doing that.

[Spoonman]

It will be interesting to see in what direction the BBC heads after 2027 because I can't see any government allowing the licence fee to continue from that point. The BBC's "Digital First" strategy is, IMO, paving the way for it to become an entirely web-only, subscription operation. Already Radio 2 no longer announces frequencies, it just directs you to BBC Sounds or a Spy Speaker.

The Overton Window is mounted on roller bearings and being tilted ever further right.

Having listened a bit more to broadcast radio more recently because of personal circumstances, I didn't hear any UK based radio station, including any of the BBC Nationals - except one (a community station) - announce that they were on FM or MW nowadays, at best referring to their availability on DAB, otherwise simply saying that they're now "on digital". A little different in the Republic of Ireland as there's no official DAB broadcasts there right now, but even frequency announcements were few & far between.

It makes a change from a few years ago, where BBC Radio Ulster's TOTH jungle mentioned being on "1341 medium wave" right up to the final full day of broadcasting on that frequency!

As it is, the likes of national public broadcasters in first-world countr8es like the BBC have little choice but to persue putting plenty of emphasis on on-demand services like iPlayer & Sounds, the alternative would have been accusations that the BBC was a stone-age behemoth incapable in moving with a changes in media deliverly, and give it's opponents an even easier excuse to either close or privatise it. Nevertheless, it can never seem to win against such folk anyway.

[Youngian]

Funny you should mention that, a trawl around BBC Sounds has led me to BBC Ulster and Foyle, today. A higher standard of news reporting than English local radio and BBC Wales and Scotland (presumably as there’s more subject matter that requires gravitas and seriousness). This evening is a treat as two planks from the PSNI have to explain the data losses to a room full of journalists. It’s like a Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones sketch in their prime.

[Spoonman]

Funny you should mention that, a trawl around BBC Sounds has led me to BBC Ulster and Foyle, today. A higher standard of news reporting than English local radio and BBC Wales and Scotland (presumably as there’s more subject matter that requires gravitas and seriousness). This evening is a treat as two planks from the PSNI have to explain the data losses to a room full of journalists. It’s like a Mel Smith and Griff Rhys Jones sketch in their prime.

I'm presuming that you weren't listening to Stephen Nolan's mid-morning show ("...the biggest show in the country...") as that would have made you seriously re-evaluate that! But other than Nolan, Radio Ulster's journalistic credentials have long been held up as being pretty good even by long held BBC standards. I'd love to see Sunak, Braverman, Anderson etc. get grilled by Mark Curruthers or Noel Thompson.

[Crabcakes]

Already Radio 2 no longer announces frequencies, it just directs you to BBC Sounds or a Spy Speaker.

I would suggest this has far more to do with most radios (esp. DAB) having either preset channels or channel scan abilities than anything else. You simply don’t have to sit there twiddling a dial anymore, so it’s information that isn’t necessary to repeatedly pump out.

[Boiler]

Already Radio 2 no longer announces frequencies, it just directs you to BBC Sounds or a Spy Speaker.

I would suggest this has far more to do with most radios (esp. DAB) having either preset channels or channel scan abilities than anything else. You simply don’t have to sit there twiddling a dial anymore, so it’s information that isn’t necessary to repeatedly pump out.

They don't mention DAB either.

[Boiler]

Funny you should mention that, a trawl around BBC Sounds has led me to BBC Ulster and Foyle, today. A higher standard of news reporting than English local radio and BBC Wales and Scotland

Don't forget BBC News - especially local radio news - has been hacked back royally.

[Crabcakes]

Already Radio 2 no longer announces frequencies, it just directs you to BBC Sounds or a Spy Speaker.

I would suggest this has far more to do with most radios (esp. DAB) having either preset channels or channel scan abilities than anything else. You simply don’t have to sit there twiddling a dial anymore, so it’s information that isn’t necessary to repeatedly pump out.

They don't mention DAB either.

Why would they? It’s just the reception format, and is so ubiquitous now it’d be like still saying “BBC2 - in colour”.

I really don’t think there’s some sinister scheme or plan behind not mentioning analogue frequencies when digital radio launched 35 years ago.

[Boiler]

I beg to differ, Crabs. R3/R4 still do.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I had a look at BTL on the Guardian quickly and a few people seemed to be suggesting that those of us talking about/ laughing at Lee Anderson were being distracted from the real stuff, or something.

Maybe, but the only masterplan I'm aware of is the one to build Lee's media career.

[Bones McCoy]

I beg to differ, Crabs. R3/R4 still do.

That may simply reflect their audience profile.
People who remember turning the big dial on their BUSH radios.

[Boiler]

I beg to differ, Crabs. R3/R4 still do.

That may simply reflect their audience profile.
People who remember turning the big dial on their BUSH radios.

Valve or transistor?

[Andy McDandy]

I had a look at BTL on the Guardian quickly and a few people seemed to be suggesting that those of us talking about/ laughing at Lee Anderson were being distracted from the real stuff, or something.

Maybe, but the only masterplan I'm aware of is the one to build Lee's media career.

Just as there's a type of YouTube commentator who says everything is "fake", there's the news pundit who claims everything is a false flag or a dead cat. They think it makes them appear all wise and cynical.

[Crabcakes]

I had a look at BTL on the Guardian quickly and a few people seemed to be suggesting that those of us talking about/ laughing at Lee Anderson were being distracted from the real stuff, or something.

Maybe, but the only masterplan I'm aware of is the one to build Lee's media career.

I suspect this comes from the same “always on, always 110%” school of thought that demanded Starmer put in a vote of no confidence motion for every single thing Johnson did, then assumed when this didn’t happen it’s because he was secretly Tory etc.

For them, any mention of any issue *not* the issue they think is most important is evidence you don’t care or are an imbecile, because as we all know humans can hold only a single opinion and train of thought at one time and cannot take on another until that issue has been solved, with the sole exception of letting people on the internet know that you are better than them because you have not let your laser focus wander even for a second.

[Andy McDandy]

Yes, a bit like how Mark Steel recounted the fun that was doing Labour party benefits, and having people shout out "Put in a word for Nicaragua!". When he pointed out that the gig was to raise money/awareness for [whatever other cause], he'd be accused of abandoning their brave Sandinista comrades.

Funnily enough, it's that sort of cliched "politician speak" ("Best of luck to the England team...and the Scottish and Welsh teams, indeed, all the teams you might be supporting, although of course if you don't like the sport there's nothing wrong with that...") that people on the far left say they really hate...

[Boiler]

Profile piece on Lee Anderthal in the Grauniad:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... just-nasty

But he does have some passionate supporters. Audrey and Trevor Evans tell me that they “agree with everything he says”. They believe the country is in a terrible state, and it’s “shameful what this government has done”.

I point out that Anderson is deputy chairman of the party that is in control of the government. This doesn’t appear to cause any cognitive dissonance. They tell me that they only voted Conservative to get the UK out of Europe and to stop illegal immigrants. They now support the Reform party, which used to be the Brexit party. “Politicians are being directed by major shadowy organisations,” says Trevor. “We’ve looked under the bonnet,” he adds, enigmatically, “and we’re not conspiracy theorists.”

So Anderson’s most devout supporters in Ashfield are not even Tory voters.

As the next election grows closer, we can expect to hear yet more from Anderson, more divisive, more emotive, more accusatory, more extreme. Sunak presumably hopes he will be the rough diamond who will help secure the red wall and with it an unlikely electoral victory. But even if that were possible, what would be the cost?

What kind of Tory party will be left if figures such as Anderson are silently encouraged? Sunak may think he’s cleverly containing and exploiting the forces of populism, but then conservatives in America once believed they could use Donald Trump for their own ends. Patronising bullies, as history show us, is a dangerous game.

[davidjay]

As if the Tories care about what kind of Tory is in Parliament - just so long as there's enough of them.

[Spoonman]

Just to add two more pennies on radio stations no longer regularly announcing what frequencies they broadcast on - I recall around 25-30 years ago when pretty much all listening was terrestrial (so either the VHF FM, MW or LW bands, with the Shortwave bands for the especially curious, with satellite being there for the hardcore pre-digital satellite days) most people's radios were either an analogue tuning dial or had a simple digital readout of the frequency tuned into. Radios with RDS were mostly limited to upmarket car or home hifi systems, so it was important for stations to tell listeners where they could be found either on the dial or on the display.

Nowadays with ways to listen either to "linear" or "live" radio being well diversified, even most of the cheapest run-of-the-mill FM radios will do an automatic search of what's available where you are, giving the station name via RDS (assuming they're on FM), with FM only accounting for around a third of all radio listening in the UK now. DAB was always intended to be a system where the listener was never expected to know what ensemble block & frequency a certain station was on, just search, store & go. As a result of these technological trends, most stations no longer refer to their frequency in either the names or slogans/straplines, compared to even as recently as 15 years ago - XFM becoming Radio X being the first of the top of my head.

OTOH, anyone still loyally listening to a station on FM will likely know where to find it.

[Youngian]

Profile piece on Lee Anderthal in the Grauniad:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... just-nasty

Now we have a Labour Party where neither feel at home, what a result.

By his own telling, what drove him out of the party was the Corbynite revolution that put the Momentum faction in control of the local council. The local party, for whom he worked, was moderate, but the council was more to the left, leaving him somewhat embattled.

“They were horrible to him,” says the former Labour insider. “And he was horrible back.”

One thing Corbynites and Anderson do agree on is that dressing ‘authentically’ (like a sack of shit) and giving it to you straight is big and clever on the doorsteps. Well it’s not.

He was dressed in a white T-shirt, with his tattoos showing on his biceps, all gruff attitude and simmering menace, as if auditioning for a local amdram production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Tim Bale is professor of politics at London’s Queen Mary University and an expert on the modern Conservative party. How does he think Anderson’s bristling delivery goes down with Tory supporters?
“There’s an awful lot of stereotyping of working-class, culturally conservative voters going on in the Tory party. If they think that somebody using the F-word is going to trump people’s anger about mortgages and the health service, they’ve got another think coming.”

[Abernathy]

It seems to me that Lee Anderson

1. Is very obviously a grade 'A' fucking idiot.

2. cleaves to the sort of reactionary, belligerently nasty views - restoring capital punishment, "fuck off back to France", stuff the paupers, etc. etc. - that can be encountered down the Frog and Speculum or in a late night LBC phone-in - quite deliberately, and only partly performatively, because those really are his views. As I say, he is quite industrially dim.

3. Has decided that he can "do" politics as a career because he thinks that a "tell it like it is" approach is all that he needs. Intelligent debating skills, thoughtful and considered analysis of every issue, any sort of strategic approach, or any of the other skills and qualities needed to be a successful politician are all totally absent in 30p's case.