The Spectator's Notes

1 November 2008

Charles Moore's reflections on the week

What would happen if you or I or telephoned an old man we did not know and left a message on his answering machine saying that one of us had ‘f—–ed’ his grand-daughter? What would happen if we then left three more messages, joking about her menstruation and imitating his voice as, in our imagination, he said he would kill himself because of the shame? What if our messages pointed out that most grandparents have pictures of their nine-year-old grandchildren by the telephone on a swing and then went on to say that one of us had ‘enjoyed’ his grand-daughter in that position? What would happen if we also shouted into the answering machine ‘I’ll kill you!’ and added that we would come round and ‘knock his door down and scream apologies into his bottom’? We should surely be arrested, possibly imprisoned. But then you and I are only normal citizens. The two men who actually did all of the above (and more, such as taunting him for being lonely) are Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross, who recorded their calls to the 78-year-old Andrew Sachs so that they could be broadcast on their show on Radio 2. Ross is paid £6 million a year and Brand is paid more than £200,000 by the BBC to do this sort of thing. They are powerful establishment figures. So even their critics are mostly a bit circumspect. Ross and Brand, say shadow spokesmen and chairmen of parliamentary committees, are talented, ‘edgy’, ‘pushing the boundaries’, though they may have gone too far this time. After holding off for nearly a fortnight, the BBC has finally suspended them. Wouldn’t it be better to call the police?

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Christopher Chantrill

October 31st, 2008 10:33pm Report this comment

It's best to look at government spending during the depression years as percent of GDP.

You can see UK spending at http://www.ukpublicspending.co.uk/uk_20th_century_chart.html

And US spending at http://www.usgovernmentpending.com/us_20th_century_chart.html

Notice that the US doubled government spending in the 1930s from 10 percent to 20 percent of GDP, but in Britain spending kept jogging along between the wars at about 25 percent of GDP.

Ross Burns

November 2nd, 2008 12:57pm Report this comment

I'll be phoning up Wossy's number and i'm thinking of some words that, should they be uttered on air, the usual quick bleep will not be enough for censoring... For this 'edgy' recording, a car horn or a lorry's horn will be better, or maybe even a cruise-liner's blower would have to be used.