Yo, America, yo, Blair
...if anyone is up late, you can listen to me and the urbane Iain Dale, and Robert Guest, Washington Editor of The Economist, discussing Tony Blair on US open source radio at half past midnight. I was out tonight in Soho with a pal from the BBC news website, and after a whole evening of disgraceful media and political gossip, and four glasses of wine, or was it five, and a very bloody lamb steak, I'm not sure if I made any sense at all...but Iain and Robert sounded very together.
UPDATE: I also did very-late-night BBC Radio 5 live 'Pods& Blogs' on Monday ( pre-recorded at the weekend when I was 100% sober and en route to the gym, and you can listen to that here by choosing ''listen to the show'' on the top right hand of the pods & blogs page. The show kicked off with Bush's speech live, then had some very interesting voices from all over the world, including Iraq and New Orleans.
UPDATE 2: Lovely Robin from US open-source radio wonders if the civlised banter across party lines here between right-wing Iain and lefty-liberal me is something that can be replicated in the US, where things are much more snippy. I've had a few negative posts left about me on Harry's Place and perma-chuntering David Duff, but I no longer think that there is much point descending into sniping and hostile blog wars; after all, I've got Tory friends and colleagues and I don't spend my time in shouting matches with them. I've even snogged Tories in the ( long-distant) past. And I had a lovely lunch in the House of Commons with a Tory MP who's now a mate, a few months ago. Gossip is gossip, after all...
UPDATE: I also did very-late-night BBC Radio 5 live 'Pods& Blogs' on Monday ( pre-recorded at the weekend when I was 100% sober and en route to the gym, and you can listen to that here by choosing ''listen to the show'' on the top right hand of the pods & blogs page. The show kicked off with Bush's speech live, then had some very interesting voices from all over the world, including Iraq and New Orleans.
UPDATE 2: Lovely Robin from US open-source radio wonders if the civlised banter across party lines here between right-wing Iain and lefty-liberal me is something that can be replicated in the US, where things are much more snippy. I've had a few negative posts left about me on Harry's Place and perma-chuntering David Duff, but I no longer think that there is much point descending into sniping and hostile blog wars; after all, I've got Tory friends and colleagues and I don't spend my time in shouting matches with them. I've even snogged Tories in the ( long-distant) past. And I had a lovely lunch in the House of Commons with a Tory MP who's now a mate, a few months ago. Gossip is gossip, after all...
posted by Rachel at 12:58 am
Hello, Rachel -
So glad to find your blog after hearing you on Open Source.
You sounded fine - the wine was just a lubricant!
Julie, in Seattle
Damn! I missed the broadcast, even though I recorded a piece for the programme earlier (about Gordon Brown).
Hopefully I'll be able to download it later as a podcast.
I heard you!
Yes, it is available as a podcast now - click on th elink in the post above. I don't sound pissed, which is a relief. Thank God I stopped drinking at 9.45pm.
You were very good. Iain Dale is claiming that he recorded it live whilst completely naked which is worrying, I hope that you had something sensible on, it was quite nippy last night.
Ha! I've just heard it now. Well they certainly edited me rather a lot, I was chatting for about an hour. I'm glad the points I made that didn't make it into the broadcast were made by other contributers.
You'll be relieved to know that I was fully clothed throughout the interview (which was a good thing because I was being savaged by my cat as I was speaking).
Thanks for posting the link, Rachel. You did, indeed, sound great on the show. It's a sad comment on public awareness -- or the lack of it -- that the host had to ask (presumably for the benefit of the American audience)if your views on Blair and Iraq were considered 'exotic' (in his phrase) over here!