Three programmes, one passed, two upcoming, on the Beeb’s spoken word channel might be of interest to our readers.
Yesterday’s In Our Time covered Henry Thoreau – the American philosopher and naturalist previously discussed here on the Voice in one of our extracts from the Dictionary of Liberal Thought. In Our Time is one of very few Radio 4 programmes where past programmes are available in perpetuity. Currently the link is here.
Happily More or Less, a half-hour programme discussing the maths and statistics currently making the news, is another of those programmes where they leave previous editions available. Sunday’s show, at 8pm, features a specific discussion about how politicians use numbers to bolster arguments or to mislead. Contributing will be a number of politicians, including from the Lib Dems, our own Vince Cable MP.
And speaking of Vince, he will be Kirsty Young’s guest this Sunday, at 11.15 am, on Desert Island Discs, choosing eight records and a luxury item to while away his time in mythical isolation.
Oh, and some dog reviewed a comedy show.
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3 Comments
Actually, the More or Less show is out today, for those that want to listen to it now. It is repeated on the wireless on Sunday for the old skool. Last week’s is also worth a listen, as it discusses the spurious use of statistics by the government to defend it’s position on prostitution.
I’d not heard of Thoreau until I heard the programme. It left me with the impression of a man who was a shallow, inconsistent socio-path whose basic political philosophy was to be against everything that is new for no other reason than it is new and in favour of anything radical just because it is radical. Not my definition of a liberal (but I immediately thought of a few crusty old ex-YLs who are friends of mine who would love him ;-)))
More or Less is always good value. But I particularly enjoyed one moment in R4s otherwise completely incomprehensible science show yesterday where an ageing and respected professor of Germanic origin who had spent his entire career studying the behaviour of ants ended a learned discourse on a particular theory saying ‘basically it is cr*p!’
Very enjoyable Desert Island Discs with Vince Cable. But Vince…WHY oh WHY do you say that you and the LibDems will seek to do a deal with the largest party given a hung parliament? Surely you should speak to each of the two larger parties and find which of the two has values and policies that you can most comfortably work with? In principle I would expect that Labour would be a more logical party choice and, even if they are not the largest party, if you can do a deal with them that is in the public interest better than with the Tories shouldn’t you do this – or at least not rule it out?
Vince is my MP and he’ll always get my vote. But personally I don’t want him to cuddle up to Cameron!!