[Killer Whale]

I know it's off topic, but if the answer isn't 'Rain', then the interviewee doesn't know what they're talking about.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I know it's off topic, but if the answer isn't 'Rain', then the interviewee doesn't know what they're talking about.

Status Quo?

[davidjay]

Favourite album of course is the Best of the Beatles.

Give that a look as Apple have been using AI for their own copyrighted material, McCartney should be a good witness on the subject.

Best of the Beatles being, of course, a Pete Best album. You knew that already, didn't you?

[Youngian]

Farage doesn’t have any cultural hinterlands so he can connect with people who don't have any either. And nor did Thatcher but it didn't hinder her premiership.
The problem with politicians swotting up from the Malcolm Tucker zeitgeist tape* is they'll get caught out.

* From the political satire Thick of It in which the PM's enforcer makes a weekly compilation tape for ministers to catch up on soap cliffhangers, Premiership goals and Saturday night talent contest winners.

[Youngian]

Favourite album of course is the Best of the Beatles.

Give that a look as Apple have been using AI for their own copyrighted material, McCartney should be a good witness on the subject.

Best of the Beatles being, of course, a Pete Best album. You knew that already, didn't you?

I didn't and my Beatles trivia knowledge is of a high standard.

[Crabcakes]

It’d be refreshing if a politician just said what they actually like, rather than what they think they should say. Gordon Brown saying he liked the Arctic Monkeys didn’t ring remotely true, and in its own way is as bad as Badenoch saying she likes Yellow Submarine.

That said, the correct answer to the Beatles question is “To be honest, I prefer the Rolling Stones”

[Youngian]

A case in point was David Blunkett scoring zero points on Mastermind with his alleged specialist subject of Harry Potter. Perhaps he meant the lawyer who presented a show on Radio 4.

[Andy McDandy]

That was so clearly a hastily made decision by a bunch of SpAds - "Ooh, what's popular, nothing too controversial or obscure...".

[Tubby Isaacs]

Farage doesn’t have any cultural hinterlands so he can connect with people who don't have any either. And nor did Thatcher but it didn't hinder her premiership.
The problem with politicians swotting up from the Malcolm Tucker zeitgeist tape* is they'll get caught out.

* From the political satire Thick of It in which the PM's enforcer makes a weekly compilation tape for ministers to catch up on soap cliffhangers, Premiership goals and Saturday night talent contest winners.

- Who's the only gay in the village?
- Eddie Grundy?

[Oboogie]

I know it's off topic, but if the answer isn't 'Rain', then the interviewee doesn't know what they're talking about.

The drums and bass on Rain* are some of the best you'll hear anywhere, it's The Beatles at the top of their game. If only they'd put that on Revolver instead of Yellow Submarine.
Solid proof that, if you've got Ringo in the band, the thing to do is stick him behind a drum kit and ask him to get creative with the fills, what you should never ever do is give him a microphone and tell him to sing a fucking nursery rhyme.

*NOT the Status Quo song of the same name, Malcolm.

Edited because I misspelt Malcolm's name which was silly of me because I do know how to spell it correctly. I've now put it right, not because I'm scared that Malcolm might bully me or Abernathy might mock me but because it would be disrespectful not to and that stuff bothers me.

[Rosvanian]

That said, the correct answer to the Beatles question is “To be honest, I prefer the Rolling Stones”

I think I've actually said that in response to the very same question. Other than the singles, I don't know the Beatles.

[Tubby Isaacs]

She's been at the Covid Enquiry today.

Keith asks about misinformation and disinformation. He says the fourth report from the Race Disparity Unit that Kemi Badenoch oversaw spoke about the importance of this being tackled.

Q: Is there a limit to what government can do?

Badenoch says there is always a limit to what central government can do.

She goes on:

I think it’s probably worth explaining what it is that I mean by misinformation and disinformation. People often assume that it’s stuff on Twitter or X. I’m actually less worried about that sort of misinformation because it’s very public, and people who know can challenge it easily. So that’s an open sphere.
Badenoch says she is more worried about things like WhatsApp groups, “things that government has no insight into”.

Even the tech companies don’t really know what’s being shared. It’s all encrypted, and a lot of false information travels very quickly through those channels.

Badenoch says in some cases “reputable sources” were even spreading misinformation/ She claims there were people in the BMA who thought the government was trying to suppress information about what was happening to ethnic minorities.

She says government can respond by putting information into the public domain. She says she took part in vaccine trials to show the vaccines were safe.

Yeah, Kemi. I think the problem might be exactly that it's very public. Bit more of a problem that somebody in a private WhatsApp group making up shit. And "but the BMA" doesn't cut it.

Roughly translated- Musk and co don't have to do anything about the shit on their platform.

[kreuzberger]

The Specials. By any measure and by a country mile.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Albatross.

[mattomac]

For example:
* Glen Hoddle - Great player, far less successful coach.
* Jurgen Klopp - Modest player, outstanding coach.

Football is a good source of 'your common sense stuff only takes it so far, you know', in great big multi-billion pound centre-of-all-attention lights. This, and see things like Mo Salah praying to Allah in front of adoring fans. Nobody gives a shit he's a Muslim (of course, it shouldn't take being a footballing genius to engender that respect, but...).

Salah is also somewhat interesting as he often posts about his family life that often seems to irritate some of the more hardcore islamists online.

In fact he seems really integrated and I do hope he stays at Liverpool for a couple more years.

As for the Beatles and all that kind of stuff I wouldn’t really know as I heard it alongside Dylan and other bands and have revisited it many times.

[davidjay]

Few things down the ages have been as ludicrous as the Tories' attempts to be what they probably still call 'with it'. She wasn't born until ten years after they split; she could easily have said they were before her time and asked Macca to educate her. But that would take humility and nous, two of the many things she lacks.

[mattomac]

I wonder if it's because the chorus is very easy to remember. And they didn't want to risk it by going for anything too OTT.

[Youngian]

Surprised to hear (from Richard Osman and Marina Hyde’s podcast) quite a few credible pop artists have had a go at children’s songs. Harder than it sounds and Yellow Submarine is a gold standard that’s still beloved with the little ones as is Ringo. Don’t knock it.

[Abernathy]

I think Octopus’s Garden was a far superior song.

[Oboogie]

I think Octopus’s Garden was a far superior song.

I always liked the guitar parts on that and I felt better about the lyrics after I learned that it isn't childish whimsy, octopuses really do make 'gardens' on the seabed, Ringo was inspired after seeing some on a Greek boat trip.

@Youngian I agree with what you say about children's songs and, in that genre, Yellow Submarine is a good one. The problem is that I'm not a kid and I wasn't when I first heard it either. So I'm not knocking it as a song, my objection is that it spoils the otherwise nigh-on perfect Revolver album. McCartney could have put out a solo EP of his children's songs.

Edited to insert a missing comma.