DEM not gonna CON dis NATION: Rolling UK politics in the short-lived Cleggeron era

Also laaa la-laaaa la-laaa Look In

feel like in the 80s there was *only* tv times and radio times, and at some point that all changed

could be wrong

wonder what they filled 'em with, in the 2-3-4 channel era

In the 80s there was only TV Times and Radio Times and for a very long while they only carried ITV and BBC listings respectively. Then at some point that was presumably deregulated and we ended up with loads.

As far as I can remember TV Times has never been under public ownership, given it was the ITV mag and all that.

TV Times had a bunch of features about popular shows, interviews and such, fairly extended listings pages, letters etc.

Radio Times kind of the same except not so much popular shows.

wonder what they filled 'em with, in the 2-3-4 channel era

Articles and interviews and features and shit, they were big magazines too

I can remember the deregulation of the listings happening - in the 80s I think. Allowed free weekly papers to start running the weekend listings.

TV Times got eaten up by the likes of TV Quick - cheaper, soapier etc - but in turn the cheap TV listings mags mostly seem to have been eaten up by weekend newspaper freebies and listings in Heat type mags.

Haven't seen a Radio Times in years but having detailed radio listings were wonderful

TV Times ran the odd awesome thing like original E.L. Wisty or Alf Garnett vignettes iirc. Always liked Radio Times better cos of the film listings mostly, read them both at my nan's house on a Saturday.

Occasionally bought RT for the BBC4 listings, but now it's just a keypress on the freeview box.

Having Sky plus not being a big TV watcher has fucked with my need for regular listings nowadays, I usually just see what's on when I'm sat in front of the box.

or a very long while they only carried ITV and BBC listings respectively

lol

think this is an area where im all for deregulation

but in turn the cheap TV listings mags mostly seem to have been eaten up by weekend newspaper freebies and listings in Heat type mags

This is not true, at least two of the cheapo TV mags (TV Choice and What's On TV) still sell shitloads, probably more than Heat.

There was talk recently of the BBC scanning and archiving all old issues of RT so you could see a list of everything that was ever (or at least intended to be) broadcast on the BBC. The press made some noises about it being a waste of money then it went quiet.

xp

Okay fair enough, I am totally out of touch with this stuff now.

If you'd like to start your own listing publication and make a mint, you can pick up all the updated listings which are provided here free of charge as required by law:

http://bds.tv/

However the web site is purposely shit and difficult to use, to make it as hard as possible for anyone to actually do this

Awesome:

http://www.radiotimes.com/content/features/galleries/musiccovers/04/mainImage.jpg

Please to not post reminders that this country didn't used to be wholly shit.

ha, "Ninepence"

Funny, there's the date but no year.

Looks about 1974, judging from Ray's hair.

When the print media apocalypse comes, the only things left will be the Economist and a load of titles that retail to pensioners for 35p.

price cut for the Daily Mail then

1970 I think

oops:

"Play for Today" The Long Distance Piano Player (1970)
With Ray Davies, Lois Daine, Norman Rossington.
Visit IMDb for Photos, ...
View company contact information for The Long Distance Piano Player on IMDbPro. ...
www.imdb.com/title/tt0414239/ - Cached - Similar

But Ray Douglas did appear in "Starmaker" in 1974 - but that was for ITV. Dunno if he made the cover of TV Times tho.

Raymond Douglas Davies that is

Raydug to his friends.

Think the last goal I scored was playing a re-tooled version of anarchist football that we made up for the playscheme in the summer. Classic foot on the ball, lie on the ground, head it over the line manoeuvre.

LOL RONG THREAD

He's lost it, he's finally lost it

Nah, just the usual hangover.

nice to know that this country's ~defence forces~ are now officially answerable to the pentagon

Mr. Fox told reporters later that, after any cuts, the British military would be able to respond to a broad array of threats and retain capabilities particularly valued by the Pentagon. He identified those as Britain’s Special Forces, its nuclear deterrent, its participation in the Joint Strike Fighter program and its ability to deploy substantial forces when needed.

“They have the capability to go in early on in a crisis, particularly on the ground, to be with us,” said a senior United States Defense Department official, who asked not to be named because of the confidential nature of the continuing consultations. “If they maintain the full-spectrum capability to operate with us quickly on the front end of a conflict, it is helpful. That is what we are watching and talking to them about.”

one of the only good things this govt is doing

what time is the leadership result tomorrow?

Would imagine it'll be early, or leaked before the event.

4.300 i think, or at least that's when there's a bbc2 programme on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11423777

fucking tories

The latest daily YouGov poll has Labour up two to 40 per cent, the Tories unchanged on 39 per cent and the Lib Dems down from a post-conference high of 15 per cent to 12. If repeated at the election on a uniform swing, the latest figures would give Labour a majority of 10 seats.

http://today.yougov.co.uk/sites/today.yougov.co.uk/files/550pxGovtApp270910_1.jpg

http://today.yougov.co.uk/politics/govt-trackers-update-27th-sept

happens after every election, and they weren't starting from much of a lead in this one

Sometimes there are post-election honeymoons, though?

depends on the wider economic climate dunnit

well, in the sense that it takes while for everyone to hate them, yes. but even in these "honeymoons", approval rarely goes up. it's passed through zero earlier this time because they were starting from a pretty slim lead.

don't want to sound like capt obvious, but this govt didn't even win a clean majority among the near-minority of people who vote in elections. and all three parties fought fraudulent campaigns that kept the central economic questions in the background, so that the govt's actions seem even less legitimate. so no, the figures are unsurprising.

boom.

i don't think poll results like that (loss of ~10 approval points) are much to do with events since the government was formed. that's just how approval works.

Guys, Labour have just got a new leader.

Approval always goes up, pretty much.

In hurriedly googling to try to find some (apparently nonexistent) evidence to back up my sense that this has been an unusually brief honeymoon*, I find people** declaring this honeymoon over as far back as May.

*for the reasons HM notes, no doubt
** and Toby Young

Was that true for W Hague, Mark? Or M Howard? Genuine questions, I couldn't find the stats.

hague was just kind of ethered in the heady, 'be here now'-listening days of summer '97 iirc

can't remember howard coming in, not even which year. felt like a caretaker manager really.

There aren't really many visible effects of anything the government's done just yet, unless you happen to be working for a construction firm or architect whose project has been cancelled. Or if you're trying to get into the UK from outside the EU (but then again you won't be voting).

It's perfectly possible that Labour is enjoying a poll bounce by sheer virtue of not being led by Brown, but it's difficult to pin it on much the government's done up to now. Dread of what's about to happen, that's a different story.

amazingly, hague was made leader within a week of major being ousted

you can see why in a sense, but honeymoon periods don't get much more mooney than may 1997; it would have been just white noise at that point

on the other hand, they hadn't a hope in hell of gaining ground in the short, even medium term

Took a while for IDS to get elected though, the 2001 election was in... May? June? I think they were going to announce the result on 9/11 and then didn't for obvious reasons.

And then they announced the result and no one even remotely cared, for even more obvious reasons.