After a hectic day of booking, I was happy with last night’s show. We had a range of voices, almost all of them bloggy (as we say around here), and managed to get into the political nitty-gritty of British party politics as well as the bigger philosophical questions about Blair’s legacy and world view.
Now something is happening post-show that we wish would happen more: an exchange between the guests (and their readers) on their own blogs. Rachel North’s hilariously titled post-game post elicited comments from Davide Simonetti, who we pre-recorded and used as tape out of the first break, Oxford’s own Brit Pundit Rod Dacombe, and Thatcher biographer Iain Dale. Then Rachel jumped back on Iain’s blog.
According to Mr. Dale, Rachel is one of his favorite bloggers. Who knew? It’s the kind of detail I should have unearthed before hand, but I’m glad we know now. Interesting that this would be the case, though, given Rachel and Iain are coming from opposite sides of the political spectrum: he a conservative and she a life-long Labour voter. Is this exchange and mutual respect more a reflection of British politics or the British political blogosphere, I wonder? Could we envision such an admirable exchange in our own polarized political discourse?
Also, Mr. Dale pays us a very high compliment on his own post-game post:
Actually, the programme is quite interesting so far…I can’t imagine the BBC devoting an hour’s radio time to this or any other subject. After all, they think we can’t concentrate for more than four minutes at a time. Think how often you hear a BBC interviewer say the words ‘that’s all we’ve got time for’.
Iain Dale, Iain Dale’s Diary, 9/14/06
I love the British; they can be highly civilized and totally outrageous at the same time. They seem to have a healthy sense of humor about themselves; they know they are all nuts. We are much too serious. So I think it’s a reflection of the British character or culture and their long history.