The kiss of death?

nanaej

Look forward to our next encounter, even if you are a Labour party 'leaks' officer..

pogs I was joking! your question just made me smile! I love a debate and am unashamedly socialist in my political leaning but am not affiliated to any party. IMO current mainstream politics is causing the general public to get less engaged because people do not see much difference between the parties or how voting for one rather than another will have any significant impact on their day to day life. I get involved in practical campaigning groups for issues I feel strongly about. This helps me to feel I am being proactive rather than reactive.

ana well two opposing sources with same story..absolute truth!

nanaej.

No i'm not. No offence taken or intended I am sure.

I am very interested in politics and sadly watch too much politicaL t.v, coverage and news, especially Parliament Live. I like to think that if I watch what is being said and by whom I can answer and debate knowing the truth as I have watched and heard for myself what has been said. I cannot be accused of not knowing the truth then and I hate partisan politics. I can understand why GN might think I could be a 'right wing spy' but if you met me you would find that as funny as I do.

If you look at my comments I will not start a political thread but I will state my mind having given proper thought to the question. I guess at this moment in time I do lean more to the right but that has not always been the case. If Tory, Labour or Lib Dem annoy me I will say so. The same as yourself, as I have observed. Surely to debate is healthy and in a funny way whether a GN is left or right, that's fine, at least we all share in an enquiring mind and that to me is a good thing.

Yes, nanaej
...interviewers accept responses etc. etc.... very frustrating for viewers.
I should like to go further than that. It is infuriating.
Even Paxman is guilty of it.
At the end of the day it feels as if :we are all "old boys " here, so we will not take it any further.
Another thing that used to irritate me to death was the BBC LECTURING the news, rather than reading it. So insulting.
Since the arrival of Sky , they have somewhat altered their method.
Talking T.V here, not Radio 4.

There was a similar article in The Guardian - does that make it truer?

Like me ana I expect you just googled 'where was Osborne during Paxman interview' and not because you paid good money to read it!!

Aaargh! You have revealed my source, nanaej!
How will I ever live it down?

www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2166996/The-cowardice-Submarine-Chancellor-At-sign-trouble-George-Osborne-slips-surface.html?ITO=1490 FYI pogs it's the DM so must be true

I am not fond of Paxman's arrogant style and sometimes sneering attitude but he does pursue avoiders! I find some interviewers accept responses even if they are not answering the question.. very frustrating for viewers!

I think if you are the chancellor of the exchequer (or any other elected person!) you are in service to the electorate and that is where your priority should be not feathering your own bed. Naive of me I know but....

Sending a junior person was a bit cowardly but she should have been prepared either through her own research /knowledge or from being briefed! t is her job after all.

pogs are you a secret Tory party 'leaks' officer??

I don't blame him. What is so special about Paxman anyway?

Who would cancel prior arrangements to satisfy Newsnight?

Anagram.

I am intrigued, where did you obtain the information he was drumming up support for his own bid to succeed Cameron? Not seen that anywhere.

He doesn't care, though!
I think the point about Osborne is that he was apparently hosting a Tory dinner to drum up support for his own bid to succeed Dave, and refused to put that off to be on Newsnight.

Personally I thought the Paxman interview was a waste of viewing time. What was the importance of knowing when she knew about the 3p tax on petrol not going ahead, he went on about it for ages. I agree she looked out of her depth but he certainly smelt blood on that occassion.

Osborne had been in parliament that afternonn answering questions. Does he not have an entitlement not to do a television programme as well? The media now are so use to reporting trivial matters they have lost sight of the bigger picture and it is so tiresome. What has happened to serious debate and questioning, it's the culture of crap reporting and inane interviewing.

Andrew Neil, Andrew Marr and Jeff Randle are quite possibly the only decent interviewers on T.V. at present. They would have given her a rough ride too but they would know when to stop and move on to trying to talk about the subject in hand.

Not only was Chloe Smith made to look stupid Paxman did'nt look much better.

I try to hold onto something I was told years ago
'nothing matters very much and very little matters at all'.

'Man's reach must ever exceed his grasp'?
I thought the good, fair times had come back in 1997 - how wrong I was.
If only John Smith had lived, things might have been very different.

Maybe, although we seem to be in trouble economically, we don't really have things to fight for any more? A bit like a marriage that [this is what happened to mine and, so my doctor told me, seems to happen to a lot of other people as well] when you reach the point in your life where you've got most of what you set out to get, the marriage falls apart.

This is why I miss the 1960s. Workers' rights were increasing, pay up, hours down etc. Social injustices were being fixed - civil rights in America, homophobic laws being removed in the UK, deep injustices against Aborigines here in Australian being removed, White Australia gone, the Colour Bar no longer acceptable in the UK, Vatican2, sex finally invented ......

Then it was as if the powers that be said Enough!

Things were never that good again.

True, I was never that young again, but it was more than just the decade of my youth. I can't put my finger on exactly when and how, it is early morning and my mind is fuzzy, but it all seemed to grind to a halt around 1970. I remember feeling a new Zeitgeist and being immensely sad. I was 25.

We never got the magic back.

I think Capitalism wasn't right to start with.....agree totally about growth....

I don't think our parents expected much out of life. The young generation have grown up thinking everything would be theirs as of right and they are deeply disappointed.

Is it Capitalism that has gone wrong, perhaps? I don't pretend to know anything about economics and stuff but can markets just keep on growing ad infinitum? And can everyone just keep living on credit?

No more than any other generation, who love to blame everything on the generation before them!

Of course goldengirl! But they do have a right to be angry!

As long as it's non violent, please nightowl

Annobel That could explain a lot! My son is a philosopher and reads a lot of Voltaire. Maybe he is not as disillusioned as I thought

And Gally I'm sure you're right, maybe the current state of affairs will galvanise the young into action. After all, as I told my son, it's their world and their future, they must do what they can to bring about change.

I agree with you all, but turn the clock back 70 odd years and wonder what our parents and grandparents thought of the world then - I think it was pretty f*** for them too? We aren't the first and we won't be the last....