breakfast radio

Radio National is so much better than BBC4 though you'd never convince the English of this. Given that UK media tends to treat Australia as uncouth and mildly entertaining (this plus 'shark attack') it would be sacrilege to say so. But RN gives sufficient time for interviews. They're not just 'grabs' that are cut off because time has run out. On BBC4 this ends up turning the interview into an exercise for people like John Humphreys to show off their ambush skills. The result is mostly that there's actually zero information conveyed. The BBC also repeats the same items in one form or another over its three hours, this presumably because they think the audience turns over every thirty minutes or so. But this is old-fashioned thinking in the era of the catch-up. And don't get me going about the so-called 'experts' in the arts area who are called upon incessantly. You want someone to comment on poetry: call Simon Armitage.

Dubai International Airport

It seems like the planet is being destroyed so that people can sell expensive watches.

A Shropshire Lad

Much Wenlock
about nothing

Woodlands via Adisham, 9/8, 11.51