A Rude Awakening

I was woken up this morning by John (Lord) Prescott and a high ranking policeman or former policeman from The Met yelling at one another. And no it wasn't a nightmare, it was Radio 4's so called 'flagship' news program, Today.

The cop was  shouting at Lord Prescott that he was badly researched and badly briefed. I forget what Lord Prescott was shouting at the cop. The presenter was making futile attempts to impose some sort of order.

The piece was about phone hacking; I didn't hear the beginning as the timing for the radio coming on was apparently for about half way through. I was fairly disgusted. We're supposed to get news and informed, chaired debate. What we got was a shouting match, full of sound and fury , which illuminated nothing. Except perhaps to suggest that whatever your accent (and the policeman sounded fairly posh) you're not above yelling in an attempt to make your point.

 

On the upside this may be an appropriate moment for me to share my very old John Prescott joke.

 

One evening John Prescott came into his living room and said to his wife Pauline 'I'm going out. You'd better get your coat on'. Pauline said 'Oh am I coming with you?' and John said 'Good Grief, no, I'm turning the heating off'

 

I think this is very funny. I told it to my Dad and he said Why does it have to be John Prescott? Well I don't know why, but it does, doesn't it? Even at the time there really wasn't anyone else to whom you could apply it, and now that the Labour Party is full of bright young things with meejer and politics degrees and more bothered about the marketing than the message, it's even less applicable.

 

And I have a bit of time for Lord Prescott. He knows what it is to actually do a job of work. His natural reactions to annoyance, provocation and snobbery haven't been trained out of him. He's clever but never feels the need to rub anyone's face in the fact. He's genuine, in an age when most of our politicians come across to many as utter hypocrites, in politics only for themselves, not for others.

 

But leaving aside the relative professions of the two interviewees, this was an appalling display of bad manners  by them both. The audience deserves better.