[Abernathy]

Strange how, just when you think Portillo has morphed into that nice chap that wears purple trousers and makes lovely gentle TV travelogues about train journeys, he pops up again on GBeebies to remind us all that he is just as massive a rabid Tory cunt as ever he was.

[Watchman]

At least he’d get them to run on time!

[Youngian]

Wasn’t long ago when Portillo correctly considered it laughable that Boris Johnson was in any way fit for public office. Gob for hire.

[mattomac]

His rail programmes have progressively got tedious anyone who uses woke in a serious way disqualifies themselves from being taken serious.

As for Oliver I’m making the assumption he went that because the BBC didn’t commission his new book as a television series a while back. He was once very good friends with Alice Roberts. I can’t see that being the case now.

[Bones McCoy]

His rail programmes have progressively got tedious anyone who uses woke in a serious way disqualifies themselves from being taken serious.

As for Oliver I’m making the assumption he went that because the BBC didn’t commission his new book as a television series a while back. He was once very good friends with Alice Roberts. I can’t see that being the case now.

Alice Roberts is a leading proponent of science and its understanding.
That's not going to sit well with Oliver's new fursona.

[Killer Whale]

Broadcast data body Barb has now said GB News averaged 33,000 viewers to its New Year’s Eve fireworks coverage.

Barb initially gave broadcasters data showing GB News had surpassed one million viewers at once for the first time just after midnight on New Year’s Day. But Barb later said there had been an error and viewers to other channels had been misattributed to GB News.

https://pressgazette.co.uk/publishers/b ... g-figures/

[Spoonman]

"Coming up next on GB News, we reveal that Gary Lineker & Carol Vorderman secretly own BARB".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Nobody believes me when I say this, but Portillo is bright. Read The Hugo Young Papers, published after his death which reveal Portillo as one of his main sources.

The Portillo bits are nearly or always well done, making the best of the (not always great) hand that the government had. And they're surprisingly moderate compared with Portillo's public image and some of his speeches. Are they the real Portillo, or is he doing a surprisingly selfless job on behalf of the Major Government? Who knows? The public speeches were disqualifying, however you look at it.

These conversations with Hugo Young were 30 years ago, mind. A lot can happen in that time.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

For a given value of 'bright'...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Honestly, the book is well worth reading. His contributions are far from his "bastards" profile at the time. Bright is the right word.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I think you and I might have different ideas about what constitutes high intelligence...

[Tubby Isaacs]

Well, ok, but Portillo can argue a point and make a case. Better than that Government did at the time.

[davidjay]

Damning with very faint praise, the Tories of Portillo's time were bright in comparison to the current lot. Extremely faint praise.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Well, ok, but Portillo can argue a point and make a case.

That's a pretty low bar. That's 'A' level thinking skills.

I'd be looking for effective synthesis, balanced, unbiased judgement and sophisticated evaluation of a variety of sources of information, and the creation of a new narrative based on that.
I see no signs of that amongst Tories since Thatcher.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Unbiased judgement was Hugo Young's job. Portillo's was to put the Government's case.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

You aren't following me.
Whatever rôle Portillo may have undertaken he had to formulate and evaluate policy. There were no signs that he was able to do that using higher level thinking skills, and certainly nothing he has done since displays HLTS.

He may be man-down-the-pub clever but he isn't First Division Civil Servant clever.

[Tubby Isaacs]

That Major Government is no longer seen as the joke it was at the time. I don't know if that's true of Portillo's efforts as Defence Secretary, when he wasn't making silly speeches about the SAS. I have this book, but I haven't read it yet. He was the Rail Minister who saved the Carlisle to Settle Railway, which British Rail wanted rid of.

https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpoli ... -williams/

in Opposition, no Tory was going to spend much time formulating detailed policy in the face of a 170 seat Labour majority.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Again you are missing my point.
None of the things you have described display higher-order thinking skills, and doing something good is not the same as doing something clever, sometimes good things require only simple reasoning.

An example of HOTS - Brown's plans for ameliorating the financial crisis of 2008.
Analysis - synthesis - creativity - originality

[Tubby Isaacs]

I think very few are going to match Brown there.

[Abernathy]

Portillo wears fuckin purple trousers. Man’s a cunt.