Re: “Alastair Campbell’s Diary” on Burnham and the EU, TNW #501
Andy Burnham is probably never going to be as popular as he is now. The Labour Party too. If he’s going to press on with his agenda, including stronger links with the EU, he’ll want his own mandate.
He can’t stick to the ’24 manifesto and be radical. An early election is surely on the cards.
RSP Zatzen
Alastair Campbell is right to point out that the UK would not be joining the same EU that we left in 2016. We would certainly not get the same excellent conditions that we catastrophically abandoned.
Tim Allen
Re: “How Andy Burnham won over the TikTok generation” by Lucy Reade, TNW #501
I found your article wonderfully optimistic. At last the penny is dropping with young people. It’s their taxes that are paying our pensions and they’ve been ignored for too long.
Christopher Harrison
Re: “Burnham’s big bad idea” by Peter Kellner, TNW #501
Who knows what difference proportional representation would make? I think it will change the way people think emotionally about voting in the first place.
More people will want to vote because PR is a much more meaningful way to choose who/what party to vote for, and their vote will count.
Fiona Fall
Democracy should mean that every vote has equal value, which at the moment under FPTP it doesn’t. We should adopt the model that gives the best chance of representation for all and not the model that ensures a two-party system prevails or that any party secures an overall majority.
Janet Bayford
The idea of coalitions bringing the need to cooperate instead of confront and coerce is what scares politicians most and what they need to get over.
Graham Trott
Re: “Emily Maitlis’s Diary” on her Jeffrey Epstein documentary, TNW #501
This is going to be one interesting doc. It tells you a lot when a country votes an adjudicated rapist in as president.
Giselle Jones
Stirling work, Emily. The full, horrific truth about Epstein must be brought to light.
Neil Philpott
Re: “We are all Keynesians now” by Matthew d’Ancona, TNW #501
Brilliant article, thank you. I often wonder whether Thatcher would recant, given the state of the modern world. She stridently believed in her vision, but I think she was genuine in that belief. She wasn’t trying to line her own pockets, and unlike Farage she wasn’t afraid of the hard work of government.
Keith Brisley
Re: “The writer who fell for Farage,” by Ian Winwood, TNW #501
Nick Tyrone’s assertion that Farage is “not such a bad option” for a liberal is rather like suggesting that the abattoir is not such a bad option for a sheep.
Philip Neale
Re: “Britain needs the BBC, but not in its current form” by Patience Wheatcroft, TNW #501
The BBC is a pillar of soft British power in the world, made wonderfully manifest in the World Service. In the current, unstable world the BBC is of inestimable worth and any government should be prepared to fight for its news, current affairs and political/social commentary.
We shouldn’t be sniffy about the entertainment arm of Lord Reith’s charter though. There is so much absolute USA rubbish masquerading as entertainment that the BBC must remain as a shining light to those who value British humour, drama and music.
Joan Dugdale
Patience Wheatcroft says “the BBC remains the UK’s most trusted source of news”. Even if that were correct, this does not mean that it is the most trusted source of news, just that it is perceived to be so.
It lost any claim to that mantle after its shoddy presentation and analysis of the Brexit arguments, particularly its misconceived notion of “balance”, which resulted in it giving platform and credence to those with bias but little knowledge of the subject under discussion. It has provided an undeserved and largely unchallenged vehicle for Nigel Farage, as well as being populated and controlled by Tory placemen.
Andrea D’Ambra
As a child in pre-TV days, I gained my appetite for theatre by listening to BBC radio plays. I have always appreciated the Beeb’s contribution to news and, as Patience rightly says, the demise of regional print journalism (in which I worked for many years) makes its work in that area increasingly important. Instead of cutting jobs in current affairs, couldn’t the new BBC management sell on fripperies such as The Traitors and Strictly? David Isaacs
Re: “No controversy here in ‘Dad’s DVD Collection’” by David Quantick, TNW #501
While bemoaning the lack of foreign shows in the New York Times’s list of the best 100 best programmes of this century, David Quantick omits no 54 on the list, espionage thriller The Bureau (or as we call it in France, Le bureau des légendes).
Pascale Vuitennez
Where on the NYT’s list is The West Wing?
Jonathan Ash
Re: “British teens need to go on strike,” by Marie Le Conte, TNW #501
My niece, who is in primaire in Paris, was escorted to the swimming pool with her classmates by the police today, because the lycée next to her school was “under attack”. I support the children – the hours are terrible and the homework is burdensome; two things the students are protesting over.
My daughter studies at a “section international” part of a French college. Tomorrow she starts school at 8am and finishes at 5.30pm. And then she has homework. It’s ridiculous.
Richard Riddle
BELOW THE LINE
Re: “Why are there so many penises on the big screen?” by John Bleasdale, TNW #501:
I used to argue all the time about the lack of lead actor penises in Game of Thrones, compared with pretty much every woman having to get naked.
Ste Thomas
A brilliant article that had me laughing so much it took me a while to read the opening paragraphs to my wife! Thanks, John Bleasdale!
Keith Bryant
Sorry John, but Karen Black was not being chased by Robert Forster in the 1969 film Medium Cool. The female role was played by Marianna Hill, who admittedly is a ringer for Karen.
Ken Chambers
Re: “Reform’s farting racist councillor is another embarrassment for Nigel Farage,” Rats in a Sack, TNW #501:
I suspect we’re talking in a vacuum. This shameless individual should have been the first item on every TV news show and on every newspaper front page. It wasn’t and that speaks volumes about our political discourse.
TV and media have rolled out the red carpet for Reform and it shames them. And us.
Paul Caton
An arse indeed.
Adrian Withill
