Tuesday, July 07, 2009
Dying on Daily Politics
On the Daily Politics web site it says I am to appear on the show today to talk about assisted dying. This comes as a surprise to me as I have been booked to talk about political language. Given the state of the government, perhaps they are the same thing. But the reality is I am unfocused. I do not have a genre, rather I inhabit every genre. As a result, booking Bryan Appleyard does not in itself tell you what the subject is likely to be. It also puts pressure on me. Being an anxious type, I am now worried that Andrew Neil will demand a powerful and informed view on assisted dying, replete with examples and footnotes. In fact, I am only prepared to talk about political language. Kelvin Mackenzie's on too. A great piece of television is in prospect.
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A blog about, among other things, imaginary ideas - What ifs? and Imagine thats. What if photographs looked nothing like what we see with our eyes? Imagine that the Berlin Wall had never come down. What if we were the punchline of an interminable joke? All contributions welcome.
isn't that luvvie speak for a poor performance? don't worry, who watches daytime TV in the summer any way? don't do anything remarkable and it won't even make youtube.
ReplyDeletebooking Bryan Appleyard does not in itself tell you what the subject is likely to be.
ReplyDeleteYour determined generalism is, of course, why we keep reading. As is the fact that the subject, whatever it starts out purporting to be, usually ends up as being The Human Condition.
Please, if you do nothing else, punch Mackenzie in the face as hard as you possibly can. I'm a patient man but he is where I draw the line.
Why don't you just bring a syringe of cyanide (or something less painful) and put Mr. Neil "to sleep" on TV? The best writers "show" rather than "tell," and this would exemplify the maxim.
ReplyDelete"Assisted dying". Don't you just love that phrase? Why can't Charlie Falconer call it what it is: killing with legalized consent. And why tack his clause onto a wholly unrelated bill rather than allowing a full and proper debate?
ReplyDeleteOh. I forgot. They did have a full and proper debate recently when Lord Joffe's bill was soundly defeated. Funny that.
I think you should ask andrew neil's hair what it thinks of
ReplyDeleteassisted dyeing
You only got about three sentences right at the end - surely it was hardly worth shaving/getting dressed for. You looked a bit embarrassed and/or uncomfortable imho.
ReplyDeleteYou could conceivably just talk about pork pies. Then:
ReplyDeleteAnchor: But, Bryan, we're talking about assisted dying -
Yard [chilling whisper]: So am I.
I'm just enjoying Aubrey's suggestion that it "was hardly worth shaving/getting dressed for."
ReplyDeleteI like the notion that one wouldn't bother with such things unless a substantial TV appearance justified them - and if Bryan had known he'd only get a couple of minutes on air he'd have quite rightly done 'em unshaven and in his jimjams.
I saw a clip on the programme's website. It seemed to me that the producer had cast this as Men in Black versus the Pink Tie Space Monster. The interviewer's rather sizeable tie caught all the studio lights and dazzled with the power of 10,000 suns. Imagine if Michael Portillo had turned up in one of his red shirts. The dazzlement could have split the very fabric of space time. On the whole, I think the Black party had it, not least because they were an awful lot easier to watch.
ReplyDeleteNo one ever invites me on TV shows you know...
ReplyDelete