Strangely busy
today yet I don't appear to have anything to show for it. Among the stories we ALMOST ran - something about London sewage, and the hunting ban: Ann Widdecombe was standing by to be interviewed at 16.00 on that, but we plumped at the last minute for more on the Bob Woolmer story.
The lead will be Open Skies. We've a live interview with the lead US negotiator, who will have ringing in his ear comments from the BA boss who recorded a piece with us earlier.
The only other recording so far has been with a chap from Sony about their new gaming console.
Stand by for Andrew's piece on what I've been told to call ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ News School Report Day. There's more on it and as I've noted on the "Today is" thread, if you have any questions about Andrew's stuff, please post them - I guess here is as good a place as any - and he'll do his best to reply tomorrow.
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Forget all that, Eddie, can we have 53 minutes of yummy budget coverage and comment? Thanks lots
Hi folks, internet connection problems have meant a short holiday from the PM Blog.
Oh Eddie I love it when you do a piece on gaming consoles (my hobby). You asked all the right questions, so much so that that I suspect that you are a secret gamer.
On the topic, I have to say that Sony have overreached themselves. This console, if aimed at a youngish market, is far too expensive.
It is launched at a time when people are still paying off their Christmas credit card spends and parents will have bought little Johnny or Jayne a Wii.
This is one console I won't be getting at launch.
Pity as I love the PS2.
Mary
Mary (2) - I must be psychic!
When I heard the item on consoles I said to myself: "I bet MadMary's listening to that." It’s great to hear from you again. How are you?
During the interview on the launch of the PS3, the Sony spokesman made a worrying comment that prices in the UK reflect the higher price of doing business here. Unfortunately, that went unchallenged.
Assuming that the assertion is true, surely there's a good case for a follow-up report. The internet now makes it easy to compare prices in the UK with other countries.
What makes UK so expensive, and consequently what needs to be done to bring prices down for UK consumers, not just for Sony products, but across the board?
Re: "The British District" in New York. A "Glass-Box" comment:
So, lets see if I've understood this article properly:
Someone opens a business and later finds out that they've made a mistake in the siting of that business because it has a confusing address.
Instead of leafleting taxi drivers or relocating their business, they whip up a large advertising campaign to rename an entire area of the city for their own benefit. This then becomes a "news" item on the telly and even on PM.
Is that right?
Not impressed Eddie, except with your characteristically gentle put-down at the end.
Hello again, madmary!
Eddie, I would have LOVED to hear Ann Widdecombe on sewage and the hunting ban.
Isn't sewage that place in the 'photos' gallery? (Small in-joke for sequin listeners).
Glad to see THE WATER VOLE still there. After all, we're an endangered species and need protection. Or chocolate. No, I'll rephrase that: AND chocolate.
Apropo of absolutely nothing - I've just done a search for a picture of a dead mouse (strange assignment for uni!) and was directed to a picture of two dead mice contained in a pm thread regarding postcards. How weird is that?
It is launched at a time when people are still paying off their Christmas credit card spends and parents will have bought little Johnny or Jayne a Wii.
Or perhaps Grandma or Grandpa.
Not that I have the foggiest idea what a Wii is, it sounds rather Monty Pythonesque.
SSC, I missed that. What was the story/context?
madmary:
Lovely to see you, and I hope you know somebody who'll let you play with their Sony. Actually, I hope somebody will buy you one of your own.
Of course, rumour has it they'll have to slash the price anyway - for the very reasons you give.
Sorry Eddie and team...I for one would have much preferred to hear from Ann Widdecombe, or any one else for that matter, rather than have to listen to the Bob Woolner article. I am sorry, his death is shocking and disturbing and I send condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. But what is the point of ''adding to the rumours and speculation'' which the programme itself referred to? It is unhelpful and inappropriate. Please leave it until the investigation is finished, and then you will have a real news story to report on.
RJD I'm very well. I've been working all hours and my internet connection has got slower and slower so that posting has been a nightmare!
Thank you for thinking of me.
Now to find someone rich enough to buy me a PS3. Eddie?
Mary
Izzy T'me (7),
And when you got there I bet the caption read "Anna Christensen and her dead mice", when it ought to have been "Anna Christensen's dead mice", unless Anna Christensen is invisible when standing upon grey carpet! I may have mentioned this elsewhere... ho hum...
Frances (9):
A British-themed restaurant in New York...
(that sounds lie the first line of a limerick)
...is heading a campaign to get several "blocks" in the city renamed as The British District. The woman on tonight's programme - I think - said the idea stemmed from the fact that the street the restaurant is on is easily confused by taxi drivers for another one, so they lose custom, poor dears.
So they've had several british stars there today, talking up what seems to me to be an advertising campaign for one business.
A British-themed restaurant in New York,
Thought they weren't getting enough 'pork',
"We need bums on seats,
"So we'll rename the streets,
"And teach them a new way to tork".
It's hot in here tonight innit?
SSC (14)
brilliant!!!!
Izzy -(7) nothing weird (or, as Eddie likes to spell it "wierd") about dead mice on the PM Blog. I sent the card in - it was from a spoof Art book done by an artist we knew in NZ. The book was called "Why Cats Paint" & was full of the sort of rubbish critics talk about art - in this case art done by cats. The dead mice were an "Installation". Somehow I just knew Eddie would post it on the blog (it was early days in the Pointless Postcard Thing, & we didn't realise they would all get posted in the end). I like to think it set a standard to which later contributors aspired!
Great Blog. I just E Mailed ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ PM my photo.
I read an item which said they were going to rename it Little Britain, to team up with Little Italy etc. Couldn't help wondering it Matt Lucas and David Walliams would have something to say about that??
Hi mmary - good to see you back.
Hi RJD - is this the first of you back since Barcelona, or am I starting at the wrong end of the Frog as per?
Val - Yes, I'm just back and trying to put some photos on Flickr at the minute!
Annasee (17) - I am TRULY shocked. All these months I have understood that this was a genuine photograph that you had submitted of mice that you had found on your premises. I feel betrayed to discover that it was filched from a spoof Art Book.
What else am I going to discover? Stainless Steel Cat is actually a rusty moggy? Roberto Carlos Alvarez-Galloso,CPUR is the silver-fox's alter ego? Aperitif actually is an oily prat?
I am going to the Beach for a libation.
Oh, crumbs! Is this (SSC 14) the beginning of the backlash?
Ideally, though, it would be located around Boston harboUr.
A British-themed caff in New York
Was run by an ignorant dork.
A foolish young fella,
he served frikadeller
And put on a record by Bjork.
At another Brit caff in New York,
A customer brandished a fork.
He creid: "Now and then
I hear Lady Pen
Read the menu and utter a snork."
At a British New York resataurant
There was nothing an exile could want.
There was marmite on tap,
Scrambled eggs on a bap
And a horlicks cascade in a font
Frances (22):
Bwahahahahahahahahah!
As for a backlash... only if someone wants a taste o' the cat! Arrr!
RJD - well I can't answer for most of your worries, (now that I have betrayed your trust so totally with the dead mice) but I would have thought self-evidently SSC won't be a rusty moggy. He can't be. Stainless steel doesn't rust.
If we get any "installations" from the cat in the next few months, shall I send them in for the blog then? And will they then be art?
PUSH! This is becoming VERY tedious!
Annasee (24)
I would have thought self-evidently SSC won't be a rusty moggy. He can't be. Stainless steel doesn't rust.
Absolutely correct. Hence the Esperanto tag I used to add onto my messages in Another Place:
La Rustimuna ^Stalkato
There certainly won't be any installations from this Cat. The only meeces I battle are the computery kind, and after I've finished with them, they don't make a good photo. I'll leave that to my furry compatriots.
O Frances, you are a gem!
I missed the article about Bob Woolner. I am content, since I would rather have heard Ann Widdicombe, so missing her would have been worse.
Now that the speculation about Mr. Woolner's cause of death has become irrelevant, said speculation will doubtless move on to who it might have been, whether the local police are competent, whether S.Y. really have anything to offer...&c
Vyle (28) when is speculation news, if ever? It seems to me there is a fine line between reporting an event and speculating about its causes. With twenty-four hour news media all rushing after the same stories we seem too often to have lost the ability to sit back and wait for events to unfold.
Re Bob Woolmer - the poor man has been found to have been strangled. All the hotel guests have been questioned. These are all the facts I have heard up til now. If there are any other facts I would be keen to hear them. If there is any further speculation I would prefer not to hear it, if only out of respect for Mr Woolmer's family.