- Steve Herrmann
- 22 May 06, 02:59 PM
Eight-and-a-half years after we launched the BBC News website, we have now reached our five millionth story ID - (the number you see in the address bar of your web browser). It won't mean much to anyone who doesn't work here, but to us it's naturally a landmark. And which story was it? Inconveniently for this blog, it was a story on our Russian language site, and had the headline "ЕдРо хочет осадить несдержанных депутатов Думы".
Steve Herrmann is editor of the BBC News website
It's worth taking a look at this week's Newswatch. Among other things, host Ray Snoddy interviews the BBC's Mark Urban on the issue of conspiracy theories (which we looked at last week).
Ray: "In future, will journalists like you have to pay more attention to the unofficial view of the world, through blogs and the internet?"
Mark: "I think we already do - I think it is a very good way of getting some sense of what people are saying and thinking out there."
Watch the programme in full here.
- Jamie Donald
- 22 May 06, 01:45 PM
I’m sure we’ll take some stick for doing this. There’ll be those who think it’s not right to give Mark Oaten a platform, or take MPs away from their legislation and constituents. There will be others who think it's unseemly or a waste of the licence fee. Some of the bloggers out there already given us some feedback. Here’s a sample:
• "That's just conjured images of green lycra that I just didn't need." (The Vented Spleen)
• " [Mark Oaten] should be aware though that all this exercise will not get him his hair back."
(Peter Black AM)
• "[You] can already sense the shudders from some party stalwarts who will feel that this kind of public spectacle (entertainment) on national TV won't do the party's image any good.
(Susanne Lamido)
• "Get a hat and suitable condiments ready." (Guido Fawkes)
As you’d expect, I’m a big fan of both the idea and the execution. Think Jamie Oliver and School Dinners. Think too about politics and engagement; about the issues facing ordinary people. Think seeing the mighty struggle, the powerful sweat, and those remote and gilded villagers of Westminster being put through a lot of pain and anguish. It’s all there.
As for my own pain and anguish – it’s pretty much over now. The heart rate is settling, the tremors are lessening and I wish I could say I feel better for it. Well maybe a little. You can catch the series – which we’re calling The Body Politics - every Monday for the next six weeks on The Daily Politics on BBC Two at Noon. We’re also going to run little tasters on the days in between. There’s more background, and video of the Body Politics, on our Daily Politics website.
Jamie Donald is editor of live political programmes
An e-mail from Mrs J Daniel, Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire:
Why "Silver" surfer? This reference and labelling is, in my view, as derogatory as the term 'blonde bimbo'. My husband bought a computer in the mid-1980s. I am sorry to disillusion them, but this present day generation of IT whizz-kids did not invent computer technology. Enhance, certainly, but before they completely shove the proverbial boot into our faces, I would like to see some credit, where due, and less labelling of those who are considered to be no longer in the mainstream due to either date of birth or colour of hair. I don't consider myself, nor my friends, to be silver' surfers. We are adults and IT literate. Thank you for your time.
- Jamie Donald
- 22 May 06, 10:31 AM
I am not enjoying this form of exercise. Really – I’m not. My heart is pounding, I feel sick in the stomach, the sweat is beginning to prickle on my arms and shoulders, and my hands are trembling. It’s my very first blog posting.
But that’s nothing compared to the exercise that’s facing four members of the great and the good over the next six weeks. They’re going to be prodded and poked, measured and weighted, bullied and sweated. They’re going to tone up their bodies, lose pounds of fat (but hopefully none of their dignity), and try to eat and drink properly. All in a good cause.
The Daily Politics on BBC Two is filming three MPs and a baroness as they take part in a diet and fitness regime to help themselves shape up, and lead the way in tackling the obesity crisis facing Britain. From Monday until the end of June the Daily Politics cameras will follow them as they get training instruction from the formidable Body Doctor, David Marshall at his London gym. And from what I’ve seen so far, it’s looking great.
The highlights are the agonies of the MP, Mark Oaten. You remember him - home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, family man and would-be leader of the party, whose affairs with rent boys were exposed earlier this year.
Why’s he doing it? Well, there’s a relationship between absolution, pain and humiliation: think hair shirts, pilgrimages on one’s knees, and self-flagellation. So I think it’s an act of penitence. Others think it might just be cheap publicity as part of a hopeless attempt at a comeback. But this is what Mark himself told us: "Exercise is a way of cleansing the brain – it’s a mental health thing and I want to learn how to do that."
Whatever his reasons, he is suffering. He’s trying to give up chocolate. He’s got to limit and improve his eating and drinking. And his regime is a punishing one: an hour-and-a-half three times a week for six weeks. Each visit he’ll do a 15-minute warm up, a 45-minute full body workout involving all the muscle groups, and a 30-minute cardiovascular session. At one point in his first session he – nearly – couldn’t take it. He was on his knees whimpering.
Although Mark has rather hijacked the attention surrounding the series – with a series of interviews to the media about how its all part of his comeback from hair loss – the films are actually about much more than him.
There’s Sailesh Vara, the fortysomething Tory MP from Cambridgeshire, who used to hold a black belt in a martial art in his youth, and who’s trying to recapture the glory days of his six pack and 30-inch waist. He wants his constituents, the Indian community and Conservatives everywhere to take up the health message.
With him is Meg Hillier, one of the new intake of Labour MPs, who’s 37 and from Hackney. She’s well up for it, and her plan is to get rid of her "mummy tummy", and push the health message through to kids everywhere. Though she’s quite fit, she’s also finding it very tough.
Then there’s Susan Greenfield, the svelte barnoness with the big brain, leading scientist and member of countless academies, who at fiftysomething is the oldest of the group, but the one with the fewest pounds to shift. For her it’s about getting the more-than-middle-aged to understand how diet and activity can keep you feeling younger and healthier.
They’re all as interesting as Mark Oaten in their own ways.
But perhaps the real star is the Body Doctor himself – David Marshall, trainer to sports starts, celebrities like Ant and Dec, and now MPs. His very high tech gym in Chelsea is the base of all operations. And his approach puts the toughest chief whip and most acerbic Speaker to shame.
How's this for a manifesto pledge: ‘The end product is the empowerment of the individual and their complete and utter belief and knowledge that they and not us have been the primary factor in their physical mental and emotional improvement." He’s devised the punishment, he’s a tartar, but he’s also very good.
Jamie Donald is editor of live political programmes
Mail on Sunday: "BBC bluffer Guy Goma is facing deportation because he does not have a work permit" (link).
The Times: "Just how many people does it take to change a light bulb at the BBC?" (link)
The Guardian: BBC director general Mark Thompson says his competitors are trying to reopen a lost argument in their last-minute fight to limit the licence fee increase (link)
The Guardian: Jeff Jarvis writes: "Don't just build BBC 2.0 - build the open-source BBC, please" (link)
The Independent: Krishnan Guru-Murthy writes: "While I secretly admire Jeremy Paxman's disdain for doing anything but presenting his television programme, and his refusal to write the Newsnight e-mail to viewers, my generation cannot afford to be so choosy." (link)
Financial Times: An opinion piece comments on the role the BBC World Service Trust has to play in the fight against HIV (link)
