(this picture is pants on just so many different levels)This is really just for the British readers...
What is about the bloody Today Programme and Marks and Sparks? I'm sure if the M&S chief exec farted excessively it would become the 8.10 podcast from Today. They're obsessed with the place - and it all tends to whiff of the whinging Home Counties, middle class, middle brow demographic that many accuse Today of serving. Gaza burns, but we get to hear 10 minutes on Mark's crap sales figures. I swear Today have been doing the same story every quarter for last decade.
I suppose John Humphrys buys his y-fronts there or something.
On a vaguely related note I'm sad to read that Ed Stourton is leaving Today. He and Sarah are the two presenters that don't make want to hurl the radio at the wall for their general smugness and combativeness-to-the-point-of-pointlessness interviewing style. Yes Messrs Humphrys and Naughtie, I'm talking about you.
Bit harsh Mr A. I'm not sure the over 1200 people losing jobs at M & S would agree!
ReplyDeleteIn my defence - the job cuts are of course bad news but there have been lots of other job cuts that Today hasn't looked at in any great depth - from banking to manufacturing. And then in the discussion itself there is very little discussion about the people losing their jobs. Today gets into certain grooves that just annoy me, in a way other daily news programmes seem to avoid. It can be turns of phrase that rapidly become cliches as they used endlessly, or certain ways certain issues get approached: retail as M&S, education as "exams were harder in my day..." etc.
ReplyDeleteBBC presenter Ed Stourton will not be sacked
ReplyDeleteTelegraph readers save the day ... or not
and many people agree with you about the Today show:
'I like Today even less since the Ed Stourton affair'
Although i think this was a story worthy of reporting, I do agree with you that Today gives undue prominence to M & S. No doubt they still believe it is a Bellwether, when in fact its only a small part of a relatively small (retail) sector. The BBC's problem is it rarely employs people with any experience of business or finance, so they don't really get it.
ReplyDeleteFor the record though, as a middle class person from the Home Counties i don't have a particular interest in M & S, but maybe i'm not representative of my whinging brethren!
Are you actually home counties? I thought that was the other side of the bridge from you?
ReplyDeleteAnyway - I meant home counties more as a state of mind than a geographical location. I'm just very post modernist like that. :-)
Geographically i'm in Oxfordshire, but postal address is Berkshire due to local post office being there. Is this what they call a marginal seat:-)
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of a Home Counties state of mind. Currently i'm in a London state of mind and being very rude and aggressive but on the weekend i shall revert to my Home Counties state of mind and bake scones in my wellies!