Radio select

Bob

"Jesus was left-wing too"? Yeah, that just about sums up Anne Atkins' world-view on tftd.

Howard

You can do this for free using Real Player and streaming Radio 4 live. And this is free and the facility has been there some ages. Fraser needs to catch up.

Do not agree about Quinn. I think she is useless and the worst of presenters. That voice at 6.00 in the morning. Glad she has gone. Bring back Sue MacGregor any day

Fraser Nelson

Not making breakfast in the kitchen with a screaming kid, Howard! My Evoke has a huge "pause" button you can just hit in an instant - beats the dodgy quality of Real Player and you have it all on an SD card you can slip into your mobile and listen on your way to work, if the mood takes you.

Prodicus

Quinn? Argh. Ditto Montague. Charlotte Green, on the other hand...

Alex R

Quinn a brilliant presenter? Really? But sure is so poorly briefed (or just fails to do her research herself).

Evan Davis for Carolyn Quinn is a fantastic swap.

Christian Socialist

I'm afraid to say that Jesus was left-wing. He was perhaps the first socialist. You wont find a passage in the Bible that supports any right-wing argument and you have to face up to that. I dont remember there being a Book of Enron. Christian values are about looking after the weaker, caring for your neighbor.

Tim

Perfectly possible, of course, that Jesus was both left-wing and wrong. Don't see why right-wingers should be upset about that.

Fergus Pickering

You will find PLENTY of passages in the Bible that support right wing views, racist views, anti-gay views, anti-woman views etc etc. You won't find much that JESUS said doing that, though he did encourage expenditure on luxuries and he did say that the poor are always with us. Socialists say that they can get rid of the poor, do they not? So I can't see that Jesus was a socialist. Which socialist is it that gives all his goods to the poor. Do you? Does Brown? Did Bernard Shaw?

Prodicus

Christian Socialist:

Like the Good Samaritan, you mean? You remember... the travelling merchant with the money, that chap whom Jesus told his followers to emulate.

Ted Tedford

Christian Socialist: Your post is breath-takingly wrong-headed. I suspect that your Socialist part outweighs your Christian side. Otherwise you might reflect that Christian values amount to more than your terribly modern summary. And I don't see how 'looking after the weak' is a left-wing positionany more than 'exploiting the weak' is a right-wing one. You might find quite a few passages in 'the Bible' that support the idea of hierarchy, the divine rights of kings, and the importance of tradition and ritual. Come to think of it, didn't the Son of Man say something about the authority of God being above the intrusions of the state? That sounds pretty conservative to me.

Lance Diatessaron

If we're going all anachronitic, I think Jesus was the first Thatcherite radical. He smashed the established vested-interests grip on contemporary Judiasm, making it possible for other groups to prosper in a free faith market. In fact, I'll do better than that: Jesus was the first Blairite. He was a liberal moderniser and I bet Tony is very proud of what Jesus managed to achieve.

Ben Stevenson

Christian Socialist: "Christian values are about looking after the weaker, caring for your neighbor."

I agree, and so could most people who are right wing.

Caring for our neighbours can should be done by individuals (Luke 10:25-37), families (1 Timothy 5:3-4), and churches (Acts 6:1-7). Ideally it does not need big governments.

Since when was Enron representative of all right wing views?

EyeSee

The biblical passage 'an eye for an eye' sounds a pretty straightforward trade-off to me. However I understand that, being a moral tome it MUST be Leftist, this phrase actually means, treat criminals lightly and the more so the worse the crime. The meek can of course expect the full blast of the law.

Ian C

Any piece of technology that enables listening on demand to the sensational intonations of weather lady (Linda?) McCabe reading the shipping forecast is progress indeed! The only reason for not abandoning the BBC altogether.

Oscar Miller

Every good socialist Christian knows Jesus supported immigrants and asylum seekers, single parent families, comprehensive schools and the redistribution of wealth. He was opposed to the war in Iraq, hated Margaret Thatcher, never read the Daily Mail and thought George Bush was the worst ever President of America. He was also a keen environmentalist who always recycled. And he was especially fond of Thought for the Day on the Today programme.

Nick Kaplan

Christian Socialist; not that I am any great supporter of Christianity (I’m an atheist) but I’m fairly sure Jesus didn’t advocate “looking after the weaker” through the coercive power of the state (as you socialists do), he wanted people to choose to help the weak, right-wingers have no objection to this, although we might suggest the weak also have an obligation to do something to care for themselves as well.

Mark Williams

Christian Socialist, I think you will find plenty to suggest that Jesus was not a supporter of collectivisation but of personal free will. Indeed, Matthew 6:1-4 implies that it would be very unChristian.

1"Be careful not to do your 'acts of righteousness' before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.
2"So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

Fergus Pickering

Who are all these smug little atheists? All I can say it you got it coming. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Nicholas

So, Christian Socialist at 11.16 a Christian cannot be right wing and someone of the right cannot be Christian, eh? Kind of makes that moral high ground you Lefties love to squat on kind of unassailable doesn't it? Since you're up there on that hill, full of your self-righteousness and going nowhere, you won't need the moral compass will you? Why not lend it to us impoverished, weaker and ungodly conservatives, so that we might find the true path?

Nick Kaplan

Fergus Pickering; When you say we atheist have “got it coming” I can only assume you mean hell, I’ve always thought the horror of hell is proportionate to its unlikelihood, i.e. because it is really really unlikely it had to be really really horrible to make anyone care. Also I see atheism as being far less ‘smug’ then the conceited belief that I am somehow one of the chosen people of some infinite and divine entity.