WHAT REASON?

The word is ‘reason’. It has been floating round my brain for several days. My reason reasons that reason is the reason I reason as I reason, which I reason is the reason I reason. I could go on reasoning. By virtue of a simple thought, the impetus if you like, assuming I am of sound mind, of  an idea, I deduce that I can arrive at some rational conclusion to this circular conundrum. Thinking is something we all do non-stop. I know, from just reading, listening, and exchanging information with relatives, friends and acquaintances, that many human beings have similar feelings and philosophies on modes of living, and express them in a similar fashion or in different ways amounting to the same thing. We often see eye to eye. 

As to the manner of developing and sustaining these modes of living, the evolutionary process that has developed amongst human beings has created some 193 independent states and some 7164 languages. That’s averages out at 37 languages per nation. Is there any wonder that with so many different modes of expression it is difficult to come to a common understanding? Yet, nonetheless we more often than not see eye to eye. That is my hope as well as my despair. With so many souls striving to reach some sort of social contract to sustain and develop  their own way of living and continuing survival, it seems extraordinary that the planet has made it this far. Nonetheless it has survived despite pollution and horrific natural and man made cataclysmic events. However much crap we throw at it, it has remarkable resilience. Time though, is running out. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of our lives.

Which is why, the leadership of nations, having, for some obscure reason, turned once again towards fascism, dictatorship and total social control, and having embraced climate denial in the extreme, must be stopped and challenged at every turn. 

So when I see in the Guardian, the likes of Simon Jenkins, even suggest that Donald Trump should somehow be praised for attempting to broker a peace deal in the Middle East and between Ukraine and Russia, I am bewildered. There is nothing laudable about a man who only thinks in terms of enriching himself in total disregard for the rest of humanity. He flatly denies the climate crisis. He cares not one jot for his own citizens health care or constitutional rights. He parades around the world like a tin pot Mussolini. He pretends to want peace only in order to garner a gold emblem and  a million dollars in the guise of a Nobel Peace Prize. He has even gone so far as demanding it. If given, he’ll put it on the wall and do nothing whatsoever to merit it. This is a con man in cahoots with Putin, Orban, Netanyahu and any other would be hooligan in South America, in Asia or Africa. 
 

He has no redeeming features that merit applause. He is a complete narcissist supported by a mendacious and ultimately evil cabinet and congress claiming allegiance to the Constitution and what once was the Republican Party. It no longer exists. That he has access to the power of the United States military is the greatest danger to the planet. I heard Sir Philip Pullman during an interview on Radio Four Today program, clearly state the horror of Trump and that he must be called out. Of course he is but one voice, but it is time for the western European nations in particular to step up and call out this man for what he is and stop the mollycoddling. What reason can they possibly have for not doing so? 

I still have hope. I promise.  

ANOTHER INVASION

I came down to breakfast this morning and found this leaflet on the kitchen table.

Celia had gone off to her exercise class and left it prominently displayed so as not to be missed. Hope is something we have discussed before, in relation to my rather downbeat and depressing views expressed in my various blogs. She is right of course. 

The majority of people around the world are not considered poor. Apparently only 9.9% of the world's population live in poverty. Indeed, when I go out and about, most people I see are going about their business with positive intent, wither going to work, shopping, jogging, interacting with others, on their phones, sitting in cafes and restaurants, driving here and there. Most are just generally living and going about their endeavours, on the whole without revealing whatever slings and arrows of outrageous fortune they may face on a daily basis. We do not, on the whole, choose violence to end our sea of troubles, but rather find some other way to improve our lives. The pursuit of reason, education, compromise and alternative  solutions to problems are the general go to tactics. We preach the avoidance of conflict and the loving of our neighbours as the highest ideals. Fortunately the majority of us do seem to accept  rules of law and adherence to the duty of care we owe to each other.

I do have hope, but there is a persistent nagging in my brain that the daily perception of what I witness when going outside exists on the most fragile of foundations. So fragile that a number of organisations have formed with a view to strengthening the ties that bind democratic societies into maintaining a social contract strong enough to resist an onslaught of those who seek to establish a hierarchical rule based on power and control over the freedom of thought and action.The policy behind this system is “You will be free so long as you believe what we believe and behave in a way that is consistent with how we think you should behave, and we will provide you with the means to live a good life under our beneficent control”.

The propaganda behind the leaflet I found on the kitchen table is explained on their website:

At HOPE not hate, our mission is to work tirelessly to expose and oppose far-right extremist.
Our work focuses on the organised far right, the communities who are susceptible to them and the issues and policies which give rise to them. We build skills and resilience across communities and civil society organisations, creating an alternative narrative of togetherness and unity.
We leverage the power of HOPE by creating a platform for ordinary people to do the extraordinary. That includes supporting the wider sector to have greater impact in opposing hatred in all its forms through more effective collaboration and sharing of skills, promoting social cohesion and defending Britain’s multicultural and multiracial society.
Through our work, we defend, champion and promote democracy and the rule of law; speaking out against anti-democratic and authoritarian forces and policies.
To do all of this, we work to build, nurture and safeguard a powerful team of staff, volunteers and supporters, including investing in staff and volunteer learning and development.
With our roots firmly and proudly in the British antifascist movement, our approach is always to use a strategic approach, remaining agile and meeting and overcoming threats to this day, continually researching and reassessing the political and extremist landscape we face, ready to meet the challenges we face.
HOPE NOT HATE TODAY
We are living in rapidly changing and unpredictable times. Longstanding problems of racism, divided communities and the economic and political consequences of globalisation and de-industrialisation, are now supplemented by new pressures and trends. The growing threat of international far right terrorism, particularly amongst young people, and the mainstreaming and the increasingly complex and sometimes unconventional nature of hate rhetoric in public discourse, generates new fears and challenges.
Our first priority remains the organised far right, the communities who are susceptible to them and the issues and policies which give rise to them.
Our team includes researchers, educators, community activists and policy experts, as well as specialists with inside access to far right groups.
We realise our vision through challenging racism, hatred and extremism in all its forms. We always look to leverage hope – supporting and empowering people to build the stronger, more resilient, inclusive and hopeful communities they want to be part of, where the power of hope overcomes hate. We work to support powerful and effective local, national and international political, societal and economic ecosystems, and we challenge attempts by promoters of hateful ideology to gain public platforms, both online and in real life.
HOPE not hate represents a value system, a framework for society and how we want to live our lives within that. It is about community not individuals; peace not conflict; solidarity not self-interest; respect not abuse; resilience not fragmentation; togetherness not isolation; collaboration not competition.
We are passionate, committed and determined.
And in these increasingly unstable and uncertain times, we are here to offer hope, to demonstrate that hate and division can be overcome.

 
I personally find nothing wrong with the aims of this anti-fascist organisation. It is similar to the aims of the Antifa organisation in the United States. In that country, the current establishment views Antifa as a terrorist organisation and spit out the word ‘Antifa’ as an insult to democracy and align it with Hamas, Houthis, Hezbollah, al-Qaeda, Palestine Action, all proscribed terrorist groups. To me this demonstrates a lack of reason or rational thought of any kind in America. The vehemence with which the current Trumpian Regime attacks diversity and inclusion is pathological. It is as if the Invasion of the Body Snatchers has actually come to fruition. But there is hope:

FROM THE GUARDIAN 13 OCTOBER 2025

Having posted yesterday my view about Trump in the middle east, I feel obliged to share a piece by Nesrine Malik from yesterday's Guardian:

While the perpetrators of Gaza’s genocide pose as its saviours, survivors return home – to a wasteland
Nesrine Malik

Western leaders attending the Sharm el-Sheikh summit have enabled and sponsored this slaughter. They are in no position to build a Palestinian future.

Today, Sharm el-Sheikh will host the most high-profile gathering of global leaders in the Middle East of recent years. Donald Trump, Keir Starmer, Emmanuel Macron, Pedro Sánchez and others are meeting “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability”.

If the ceasefire holds, this language is an augur of the future. One where there is no reckoning, no addressing of root causes. Only a hurtling into the imperatives of cleanings-up and workings-out. All the while illegal occupation continues, and another chapter of Israel’s violations is furtively closed without accountability not only for Israel, but for its sponsors.

There is an Arabic expression, hameeha harameeha – meaning “its protector is its thief”, that comes to mind as those who have plied Israel with weaponry gather to figure out how to achieve peace in Gaza. Over the coming weeks and months, a Gaza even more devastated than what has been shown to the world so far will come into view. Already the colossal scale of what needs to be rebuilt is becoming clear. People are returning to their homes in Gaza City to find a wasteland flattened to the horizon by bombs and then bulldozers. In the images of the area, even the sunlight looks different and otherworldly. I couldn’t figure out why, until I realised it was because there were no structures to filter it. No shade, no shadows. A home returned to is just a plot on which to pitch another tent and wait for aid. But this time, with less risk of being bombed in your sleep.

People in Gaza have been released from the fear of death, but what of the life they now face? What of the thousands of orphans, and the wounded or maimed children with no surviving families? It is not just the infrastructure of large parts of Gaza that has been destroyed, it is also the social fabric. Family lineages across two, three, four generations have been wiped out. What of the thousands of parents who have buried their children? And of all those who have collected the body parts of their loved ones? How to even begin to think about addressing such mass trauma when there isn’t even a roof to gather under? I asked a man from Gaza about his brother, who had lost all his children and his wife in one strike. Where is he now? “Just constantly walking around, circling the rubble” of the site where they died. “Lost.”

The death toll will certainly rise, as bodies that could not previously be retrieved are pulled out of the rubble. At least 10% of Gaza’s population has been either killed or injured, and that is a conservative estimate.

It is important that these facts are not simply totted up and brushed aside as the costs of war. The assault must end, but the terms on which it is ended, and on which the path to peacemaking and reconstruction is based, are crucial. The crimes that have been committed cannot be redressed, or even prevented from recurring, if the conditions that enabled their perpetrators continue.

This is a difficult thing to insist on when you are dealing with a genocide. The scale of the death and violence, the erasure of the conditions for life, make the cessation of that erasure the most urgent, the only focus. But with that comes exculpation, and worse. Already Donald Trump is taking a victory lap for his peacemaking, after enabling what has taken place for months. Jared Kushner praised Israel’s conduct: “Instead of replicating the barbarism of the enemy, you chose to be exceptional.” Starmer lauded Trump for securing the deal, and focused on the importance of letting in humanitarian aid. He will, No 10 has said, pay “particular tribute” to the US president in Sharm el-Sheikh. And so now we have a crime without criminals, a genocide without génocidaires, a wretched population who, we are to believe, have been brought low by Hamas, and must be fed and watered while the world works out what to do with them. An entire history across Palestine of Israeli impunity and dominion, one of repetitive ethnic cleansing, military rule, expansion of settlements – and now explicit rejection of Palestinian self-determination – is erased, again.

This time, that exoneration, that framing of what has happened as tragic and finally over, is even more urgent, because the responsibility of countries that have supported Israel and silenced its critics is clearer than ever. Of course you would rush to Sharm el-Sheikh if you were representing a government that provided arms, restricted protest and refused either to endorse declarations of genocide, or to observe the rulings of the ICC when it issued an arrest warrant for Benjamin Netanyahu. Peace in Gaza represents an opportunity to forget; to erase from the collective consciousness an era in which some western countries took a bludgeon to international norms and institutions, and indeed their own domestic politics, in order to force through the destruction of Gaza.

But many all over the world who have witnessed the massacre, and all that went into sustaining it for two whole years, will not so easily forget. The secure future of those in Gaza, and Palestine in general, is not something that can be delivered by the thieves-turned-protectors. Without the empowerment of the Palestinian people and their self-determination, there can be no faith or trust in Israel or its allies to deliver that constantly invoked “lasting peace”. The killings have mercifully stopped for now in Gaza, but there must now be a refusal to normalise what will follow – a return to a status quo in which we all keep on pretending that Palestinian life is viable under the authority of Israel.

Palestinians will continue to be killed, their homes stolen, their prisoners tortured and detained without due process. What has been learned in the past two years cannot be unlearned, despite all the energy that will be expended to make that happen. The Palestinian cause cannot be returned to the fringes of “complex”, marginal politics, a framing that has enabled two years of devastation. That devastation’s perpetrators disqualified themselves long ago from any mandate over the people they have aided in killing and shattering. What will now be revealed in the body count and wreckage in Gaza should make that impossible to deny.

As the world leaders descend, a line from TS Eliot’s Gerontion hangs over Sharm el-Sheikh: “After such knowledge, what forgiveness?”"

Nesrine Malik is a Guardian columnist
 

TRIUMPH OF EVIL

There are things in this world that make my blood boil. An idiom to indicate extreme anger. What I was witnessing today, being televised by BBC News, was a re-enactment of a scene from The Godfather during which the bosses of the five families have come together to make a bargain for peace. It was a meeting organised at the Israeli Knesset leading up to an address by Donald Trump. All the parties were introduced at the beginning of the session, each receiving applause, followed by opening remarks of such gargantuan sycophancy which carried on throughout the whole of the session, until I could no longer watch. It was an insult to the entire world leadership of the United Nations, in praise of a convicted felon, fraudster and gangster, hardly even surpassed by Putin. Corruption was heaped on corruption. 

Having laid waste the whole of Gaza and virtually elbowed the Palestinian people from the West Bank, in contravention of numerous UN resolutions and International Law, the Netanyahu ‘family’ seek to elevate their chief facilitator to some kind of sainthood. They do this in the hope that a Palestinian State should never be recognised, and that their saviour will help prevent it. They are pulling troops out just far enough to maintain a frightful presence. They leave behind them a corroded desert of squalor. They have poisoned the well and all the life saving supplies of food and medicines, that they had withheld, are now being fought over by the vermin they have left behind. How does anyone have the gall to call this a peace. Shooting has not stoped in Gaza!

Netanyahu has already warned the Israeli people that this is but a temporary cessation of fire and  they must remain vigilant until the ‘threat’ has ceased. He will make sure that the threat never goes away. The Haganah and the Irgun are still fighting in the Middle East just as viciously has they did 80 years ago. To  call them the IDF is just a newish label. Nothing will change until they return to humanity. Their vengeance has prevented any road to reconciliation with the equally indigenous people of the Middle East. Rather their suppression and bigotry towards the Palestinians as a whole increased the resentment and created the likes of Hamas and others seeking their own retaliation and vengeance. 

What we are witnessing today is hardly a triumph of will, but a triumph of evil. Outrageous claims that the cycle is over is a fantasy only in the brain of Donald J Trump. Netanyahu will try to keep it there in  the hope of extracting as much personal benefit from it as he can. In the meantime Trump scarfs up the world and shits on it. There will be no real peace so long as he reigns. The greatness that was once America is no longer. I am sorry to be so pessimistic, but this charade that we are witnessing is hurtful, and all I can see is the nightmare around the corner. If there is any decency left in the United States, they will vote next November to rebalance the powers, bring this regime to heel and get rid of him and his ilk altogether in 2028. 

MEDICATION MEDLY - A BRIEF THOUGHT

I have to confess that my brain is no longer functioning in the same way. Ideas float in and out and I find that my recall and attention span is not what it once was. The evidence of this age related deficiency is ever present. For example, I have a regime of pills which need to be taken at timed intervals. I’m now not very good at remembering if I have taken a particular pill. I place the pill next to the glass of water in preparation. Between preparing to take the pill and actually taking it, my brain is occupied on a number of other things, like listening to something on the radio or conversation with Celia. When I look back at the glass I note the pill is not there. My brain fumbles between looking for the pill and wondering if I have already taken it. Indeed I search my mind trying to recall the exact moment I may have taken it, but that moment does not seem to have registered in the brain, so I remain puzzled. The pill is gone, it is not found, so I must have taken it, but how and when, only moments have passed? You see my dilemma.

I am sure I am not alone in this situation, but who knows? Equally, I am perplexed by current events ranging from the breakthrough in the Middle East, the Trump Regime’s growing dictatorship and repression in the United States, the French government’s difficulties in simply governing, the world view of the continuing killing by the Putin Regime in Ukraine and the absurd notion that Trump should receive a Novel Peace Prize.

The so called Trump 20 point plan (which is actually a rehash of plans put forward by other people before Mr Trump put his oar in the water) has been approved, presumably because of pressure put on Mr Netanyahu by the United States. One has to be realistic and accept the fact that pressure was applied not because of continued killings in Gaza, but because of Benjamin’s irresponsible bombing in Qatar potentially harming relations between that country and Mr Trump’s bank account. How can one accept a multi-million dollar gift of a jumbo jet and allow the donor’s territory to be violated? Clearly not on. I firmly believe that is the motivation here, so any talk or even speculation that Mr Trump deserves a Nobel peace prize is absurd. A Nobel Prize for chicanery and being the greatest narcissist on the planet is more like it. What stopped him from applying pressure on Israeli military action well before that event? Did the Qatar deal override whatever deal he had with Netanyahu? A proper examination of cause and effect in this instance would not come amiss.

So I take grave exception to all this adulation and praise for Mr Trump being the great peacemaker. I do not subscribe to the ‘give him his due’ attitude which seems to prevail, particularly in the light of the colossal failure in relation to resolving the situation in Ukraine. Boasts and braggadocio are not the basis of terms and conditions of agreement. 

On top of all that, it is a distraction from what is actually happening in the United States itself. Freedoms of speech are being trampled. Any political opponent is being victimised and attacked either through clearly dishonest legal activity, misuse of the military and the national guard, and the formation of a Gestapo clone agency such as ICE. The complete dismantling of constitutional checks and balances is being allowed to happen by an ineffectual congress and supine supreme court. It is a tragedy for the entire world. With the United States falling into the sphere of the dictators and mobsters, there will be little left of any real power to keep democracies alive. 

Indeed, a question was put to the United Kingdom’s current Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, asking whether she thought Britain’s recognition of a Palestinian state had any real influence on the acceptance of the peace plan, or whether Britain had any influence at all in the proceedings. There was a significant pause before she could reply, and the answer amounted to not very much. That is the reality we face. 

I have no idea if any of my suppositions have any validity whatsoever. Perhaps I am way out of line. My view of the world may be tainted, by what, I am not sure. Is there a trace of a bad or undesirable substance or quality affecting my brain? Could it be the medication? So I stare at my glass and missing pill and wonder whether it has any effect at all. 

TRANSLATIONS AND CONVERSATIONS

I went for a CT scan on Friday and whilst waiting in my hospital gown for my turn, I was sitting next to a fine looking gentleman who was watching me playing bridge on my iPhone. He was waiting for his turn in the X-ray room. He asked me very softly if I spoke Spanish, to which I replied "Not really, I know a few words (shaking my head, No)"  He  spoke into his phone in Spanish and then held it out to me to read. In English it read “Do you believe in Jesus”. I chuckled and brought up Google translate on my phone and checked English to Spanish. This was in fact the first time I was about to have a conversation using tech translation. I wrote - "Sorry, no I do not, but if he does exist he’s not doing a very good job.” He then, asked whether I had read the bible and followed this up with a long quotation from what I believe was one of the gospel’s version of sermon on the mount. He was keen that I should have a look at the King James Bible and seemed to be about to offer to provide me with one. I said that there were many versions of the bible written by many different people, telling the same story in different ways. I added that it was possible to live an honourable life without believing in a deity and that what is moral and good is essentially the same all over the world, and that it was a pity that many people did not practice what thy preached. He showed me yet more quotations from the bible and I explained that I felt that I had managed a reasonable  life so far and even managed to live a bit longer than Jesus. 

Unfortunately we could not continue our discussion as we were called in for our respective scans. He was very keen, that I, a non believer, should perhaps rethink my view. It was all very calm, courteous and pleasant and it would have been fun to carry on with it.  It also transpired that as we were leaving the hospital we got on the same lift going down. I introduced him to Celia and explained our meeting. He said we should believe in Jesus and gave a blessing as we went our different ways. Celia exclaimed that she believed in the existence of Jesus, at which point he smiled and waved goodbye. It was all smiles and bonhomie. It was refreshing to have a pleasant conversation with a stranger about religions of all things, through our phones, in a hospital corridor waiting for a scan.

On reflection I felt my initial response should have been “Yes I believe in the existence of Jesus and that we share many of the same beliefs, and he is just as successful at getting them put into practice  as I am” (Which or course is not at all). An afterthought smart ass comment, I suppose. Nonetheless it sparked off some thought about the current religious bigotry that seems to be overrunning the world. 

Vis a vis anti-semitism, it cannot be discounted that the situation in the middle east is a catalyst for the increasing attacks on jewish people and places of worship. The outrageous behaviour of Mr Netanyahu and the Israeli Defence Forces in Gaza, which have nothing to do with being Jewish, but are the misguided over reactions of a Nation State, which by the way claims to be a Jewish State. It is this claim that causes overt hostility towards jews in general, rather than confining the outrage to peaceful protest on the streets against those who claim to represent the State of Israel. 

This is not to discount the outrage of what occurred on the 7th October two years ago. It was a vicious attack on civilian citizens of Israel. Does that make it an attack on Jewish people or an attack on the state of Israel? Is it not possible to distinguish between the two? One cannot deny that there are many who do, even Jewish people and some Israeli citizens. 

The unfortunate centuries old bigotry and violence towards Jewish people, highlighted during the holocaust, has made it difficult and almost impossible to be critical of a state created as a place of safety for Jewish refugees from this history of suppression, bigotry and attempts at extermination. There is not a single European country that has not at some point perpetrated violence against ‘the Jews” and persecuted them. Not one. That violence has spread throughout the world, so it is not inconceivable for the people to say after 5000 years of crap, enough is enough. In saying that, having created a Nation State, it must therefore behave as a Nation State and not as a rabble bent on vengeance. They are so blinded by their determination not to be victims any longer, that they fight back against any provocation so as not to appear weak. The greater tragedy is that they appear to be putting the whole of their 5000 years of rage on to the backs of the Palestinian people, and a few surrounding neighbours, in the belief that a scattergun approach, to defeating Hamas and Hezbollah, will solve all their problems. They have lost sight of their own history of hurt and feelings of despair in their assault on Gaza, that they no longer know when enough is enough.

As a result, members of the United Nations walk out of the room when Netanyahu speaks, numbers of the children of Gaza will harbour resentment and long for vengeance, and would be deluded cowboys will attack synagogues and spread more hatred of the Jews, which will only encourage the mission of the IDF to label anyone who supports the Palestinian cause as terrorists and also con erstwhile friendly governments to declare them as terrorists as well. It is sad that this history of prejudice has clouded rational judgement, and the desire to do the right thing has become confused and fraught  with difficulty. 

It was very nice having a brief and friendly discussion by smart phone, with a very nice gentleman from Spain, about religious belief, in an NHS Hospital staffed by people from all over the world doing good and being nice to each other. You can't get enough of that.

DISMAY AND UPSET FROM SW8

Je suis navré,  ou bien, consterné. I am upset and dismayed. Sentiments I am sure are shared by many people, arising from the difficulties listening to political interviews can cause. I do understand the need of journalists to push back on statements made by politicians in order for them to better state their case, or to reveal whether or not they have a case to present at all. It is certainly a style of examination we have become accustomed to and which British politicians, in any event, have come to expect and should be prepared for. 

American politicians resent such questioning as they see it as an attack on their integrity or competence and consequently accuse the interviewer of fake news and either threaten to walk away from the interview or resort to insults and attack the questioners intelligence. That is clearly stupid and displays a clear lack of intelligence and competence on their part, being unable to deal with difficult questions. 

But I digress. The reason I am dismayed is that I sometimes have the impression that journalists seek to ask questions to score some point or attempt to effectively put words into the mouth of the interviewee to show how clever they are at their job. It is a fine line between a so called investigative or aggressive cross examination, and simply trying to obtain an explanation as to why a certain policy or action is being put forward, and to give an indication as to why an opposing view is incorrect or harmful. There is a difference between asking a politician to explain why their policies are beneficial and more effective than what is being proposed by others, who may or may not be in opposition, and attempting to push for evidence of division and rancour. Questions appear at times to be put solely to irritate and disconcert the interviewee. It would seem, creating the explosive moment is more important than obtaining information. That is entertainment, not journalism. Not every interview is meant to be the Jerry Springer Show, although President Trump, treats everything like the Jerry Springer Show.

Be that as it may, I am not sure it is becoming a bit like that on the BBC. I know much is to do with time and fitting in all the items an editor wishes to cover on the particular programs scheduled time slot. A specific number of minutes per item, and things must move on, so the interruptions are sometimes necessary from the program editor’s point of view. Indeed, the producer or editor might be rushing the interviewer to get on with it and move to the next question, but it is the interruptions which are the problem and particularly the frequency and manner of the interruptions.

There is push and there is push. A great big shove is sometimes too much. I could not listen to an interview with the Prime Minister this morning because of the constant interruptions and length of the questions. I was hearing more from the journalist than the Prime Minister. Sometimes journalist forget the they are not the news. Because they talk a lot during a show, they seem to feel that have to keep talking instead of listening. Indeed, it prevents the audience from listening. I could not listen to the interview because there was too much of the journalist. I was plainly irritated, upset and dismayed,  particularly because I have respect for the journalist in question. On this occasion he lost it as far as I was concerned.. Get a grip.Nick Robinson. 

The shame of it is that the Labour Party is going through a bit of a crisis right now, and it is important to hear what the leader of the Party has to say.  I can read comment about his speech and I can agree or disagree with opinion about his speech, I don’t mind him being asked difficult questions, but I would like to hear the full answer before he’s pushed on to something else, especially when the interview is  for some 20 minutes, most of which seemed to be taken up by the interviewer rather than the interviewee. I may be wrong about that, but that its what it felt like. Hence my dismay. Indeed, the interview itself was treated like an advert, with snippets of it broadcast followed by ‘You can hear the whole of the interview at 10 past 8”. This happened several times during the program, a sort of preview of things to come. Why is that necessary? Do the producers really think it’s necessary to preview interviews to keep the listener tuned in? I don’t get it. Is the average radio 4  listener of the Today program so lacking in attention span? Are we really becoming like America? Please let it not be so, because I turned off the interview before it finished. I was not so much informed as irritated. Just too much "journalist'.