When politicians *really* don't want to answer the question

You might like this. The Conservative leader Dr Andrew Povey sacked his deputy (David Hodge) and then announced he was resigning. But wouldn't tell me why. Well, he wouldn't tell me really why.

 NICK POVEY by nickwallis

We just happened to have an interview with a different cabinet member (Peter Martin) booked for the same morning, so I asked him what was going on. He wouldn't tell me. He really wouldn't tell me.

 NICK MARTIN by nickwallis

How to deal with hate in radio and in life

Please take the time to read this article written by the documentary film-maker and polemicist Michael Moore. Funny, fascinating and deeply worrying.

And for some light relief, click on the fist, and listen.



It's taken from talkSPORT's late night show, hosted by @mattforde.

The odd thing is that the rage is at one level - the caller starts very angry and remains so. He doesn't get any more or less wound up - it's a steady, constant pitch of compellingly-enunciated bile, delivered without one swear word.

Thanks to @richardpbacon for tweeting them both.

Six days a week

Now I'm doing BBC Surrey Breakfast six days a week, Monday to Saturday, 6am to 9am.

I had better go to bed.

Would you like to taste the wine, sir/madam?

I hate this ritual. It's awkward and odd and has no place in all but the very best restaurants.

95% of wines are okay. In the restaurants I frequent, 99.5% of them are okay. Most are screw-top, and modern bottling procedures are such that even cork-stopped wines are usually always as they should be.

But still, we have to go through with the tasting. What is the point?

Traditionally, when one person is paying the bill, that person is asked by the sommelier/waiter to taste the wine. Not because of their inherently superior knowledge, but because it re-inforces the hierarchy of their position as bill-payer. You might be breaking bread as equals, but some are more equal than others.

We wait for the bill-payer to say the wine is good enough to drink, then it can be shared among us lesser mortals.

In terms of real, genuine practical effect, the only thing this obviates is the pouring of bad wine into more than one glass.

It's out of date. I don't like it.

Hmm I think, as I take a sip doesn't taste corked, but I'm hardly having an epiphany here... in fact... it tastes exactly like the second cheapest wine on the menu, which is, funnily enough, exactly what I ordered. 

The waiter knows it's bog-standard supermarket screw-top plonk with a 400% mark-up, and so do I. He's now been waiting exactly five seconds for me to say something, which is far too long to comment on what I already knew would be okay. Why are we doing this?

"Lovely" I say, failing to make eye contact with the waiter, or my dining companions.

Let's stop this now. In future, I'll order the wine. You bring it.

If there's a problem, I'll let you know.

.

Word on the Street

I have just updated my biog to take account of what I've been doing for the last couple of years.

In doing so I found a link to a language programme called Word on the Street I did for young people at BBC World.

This went out on BBC Persia, and was sold to various other territories.

I could be big in Iran.