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| Donald Trump |
It's a while since I've listened to Radio 4's Saturday Review, as I grew impatient with the self-important blowhards then appearing on it, but I began listening tonight...
...only to be brought up short within seconds of the first guest's contribution.
And what was it that made me move towards the off-switch? Well, by this from long-term Saturday Review regular Amanda Craig about Armando Iannucci's new film The Death of Stalin:
I think this is the best film I've seen this year. It's satire at its most savage, and also its most pertinent because we are, of course, living in another age of dictators - whether it's Trump or Putin or Kim Jung-il - and these things are all too horribly real.
Yes, "of course", Trump is a "dictator" worthy of comparison to Stalin and it's definitely "horribly real" that she's so confident in her views about "Kim Jung-il" (sic). And can you believe that no one, not even Tom Service, picked her up on any of that?
The programme's website, incidentally, framed the film in this way:
How funny can a film about the death of the man whose regime saw the murder of hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens actually be?
"Hundreds of thousands"? That's one heck of an understatement.
Amanda Craig has been around long enough to know better. Am really surprised. I don't why I don't listen to this programme. Having looked up the presenter and guests just now, Tom Sutcliffe was the first arts editor of The Independent. Brings back memories of the book reviews, which I always liked. Unlike the other papers, they had one every day, and the selection of books was interesting. Also, a poem they published opened my eyes (or ears) to Auden, who until then had passed me by. Harrison is a novelist and nature writer. And Alex Preston is a reviewer and novelist who is a brother of Samuel Preston who was in band called Ordinary Boys and was in Celebrity Big Brother - and a grandson of a literary critic.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the Indpendent initially for its commitment to knowledge. I gave up on it when they brought in a ridiculous policy of not having a Royal story on the front page. This was the height of the Royal Scandal period - it was ridiculous. Whatever you think about it, the monarchy is important.
DeleteYes, it was meant to be a serious paper and they had a policy of not having any photos on the front page, at least. Can't remember whether it applied to the other pages as well. They were trying to be high minded. Remember when the Mirror tried the same, so as not to follow The Sun when it took a headlong dive? Among other attempts at serious content, it started printing a poem every day, selected by Kingsley Amis. He did a short intro of no more than a line or two to each poem, which he was very good at. Neither paper managed to sustain its policy. Eventually The Mirror gave up and followed The Sun and The Indy turned into a lefty organ.
DeleteWhy do the Chinese always get a free pass from our bien pensant globalist PC elite commentators like Amanda Craig? Perhaps they are wary of Chinese pronunciation?
ReplyDeleteTrump - elected by a majority.
ReplyDeleteBrexit - voted for by a majority.
These people who say otherwise, or try to argue that the voters were stupid or racist or not representative of a majority should instantly be shot down by any reporter / interviewer as being anti democratic. In their parlance “Anti Democratic” should be said with the same venom as “Far Right” when discussing certain people.
Trump was legally elected under the US electoral system which requires the winning candidate to secure a majority of Electoral College votes. He faces election in three years (assuming he wants to run again).
DeleteHe won by a majority in the system he was standing in....by % of all voters yes he didn’t get the majority however our own parliament would look considerably different by that measure.
Delete"living in another age of dictators"
ReplyDeleteI don't know the circumstances in PRK though Trump has to share power with the legislature and legal branches of government.
I'd have imagined educated people invited to comment by the tax funded broadcaster would know this? Or were they being ironic?
It’s not the first time I have heard the hundreds of thousands figure quoted recently. I believe the last time was also from a BBC journalist. This almost criminal level of ignorance about the horrors of the Soviet Union can only be the result of an educational system dominated by the left. Morally I think it is as bad as Holocaust denial. These idiots really do believe Stalin is equivalent to Trump. Depressingly unsurprising in an age where universities think gender studies is an academic subject.
ReplyDelete"These idiots really do believe Stalin is equivalent to Trump."
DeleteIdiots or partisan revisionists; each are useful.
Those programme blurbs often seem to be written by poorly educated perhaps young trainees or work experience temps? I've seen so many with such basic grammar, spelling and other mistakes that I wonder if they also have only a hazy notion of large numbers. I wouldn't even be surprised if such a writer thought hundreds of thousands means something massively larger than it is. Does anybody oversee or edit these things?
DeleteRather suspect the 'reviewers talking' errs on the tautological.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Mishal Husain got Diane Abbott in to tot up Uncle Joe's casualty tally?