RADIO phone-ins, rather like social media, tend to offer a skewed notion of what the public actually thinks. But there was a striking unanimity on Tuesday morning after the news broke of the email invitation confirming the Downing Street drinks party in May 2020.
On 5 Live Nicky Campbell said that 99 per cent of those phoning in were condemning what had happened and also condemning the Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was reported to have attended. There was a similar level of disgust on Stephen Jardine’s show over on Radio Scotland.
Perhaps inevitably, the anger for many was tied to grief. Dave from Bolton rang in to tell Campbell about his 25-year-old daughter who had been diagnosed with a brain tumour in December 2019 and was in hospital in an isolation ward with Covid at the time of the Downing Street party.
“We saw the news last night and my wife just sat there breaking her heart, absolutely breaking her heart,” Dave told Campbell. On Radio Scotland Jardine read out a text from one listener who said simply: “On the day when the government drinks party was going ahead one listener simply said I was watching my brother dying on an iPad.”
Callers to Radio Scotland were mostly of one mind. The Prime Minister has to go. On 5 Live Guto Harri, a former adviser to the Prime Minister, suggested that it needn’t go that far. What he had to do, Harri suggested, is come out, apologise profusely and eat a lot of humble pie. “I can see why he’s an ex-adviser,” the next caller suggested.
On Tuesday BYOB was trending on Twitter for obvious reasons. Coincidentally, in the first episode of a new series of Word of Mouth on Radio 4, Professor Lynda Mugglestone explained that the acronym could be dated back to 1916. Wonder if David Lloyd George’s PPS sent any invites for Downing Street garden parties that May?
Shall we look for some distraction from all this pain and anger? On Wednesday, Strictly Come Dancing’s Oti Mabuse turned up on Radio 4 to celebrate the life and legend of Fred Astaire in Oti Mabuse’s Dancing Legends.
It would have sounded just as home on Radio 2, to be honest. Rather confusingly, the programme began with an extensive examination of the CV of guest Matthew Bourne, the choreographer of the all-male Swan Lake.
He spoke very eloquently and at length about dance, dancers and the stories you can tell with the body before finally getting around to talking about Astaire.
What followed was a quickstep through Astaire’s career. Mabuse took some tap lessons, spoke to a film historian and in passing learned about his genius. Astaire’s legacy, Bourne concluded, is simply that he made us “feel like we all could dance like him.” If only, Matthew, if only.
Random radio joy of the week came last Saturday on Radio 3’s This Classical Life when conductor and composer Eimear Noone explained to Jess Gillam that she always plays AC/DC’s Back in Black before she goes onstage to gee herself up.
“Would the boys from AC/DC be nervous right now? No, they wouldn’t. They’d go out and have a fantastic time.”
Listen Out For: Nature Bang, Radio 4, Monday to Friday, 1.45pm. Becky Ripley and Emily Knight on the science that underpins the natural world.
We want to bring you the best The Herald has to offer every day, from our in-depth reads, unrivalled arts and lifestyle coverage, as well as our guide to everything from television, gardening, travel and outdoors to food and drink reviews.Subscribe to The Herald's 'Premium Plus' for free with our 30-day trial. you can instantly read your favourite writers including Susan Swarbrick, Teddy Jamieson, Alison Rowat, Mark Smith, Vicky Allan, Russell Leadbetter and Barry Didcock, as well as Ron Mackenna, Rab McNeil, and the (in)famous Herald Diary.
Click here to visit our subscriptions page and learn more
0 comment
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel