Tuesday 31 March 2015

Summary Feb-Mar

April summary here.

My usual inputs are Radio 4 Today, BBC1/2 Daily and Sunday Politics, BBC Andrew Marr and occasionally Newsnight.

The spots so far are:

01. Feb 16 - Ed Balls (Andrew Marr)
02. Feb 17 - Evan Davis (presenting Newsnight)
03. Feb 18 - Ed Mayo (Moral Maze)
05. Mar 01 - Kristin Scott Thomas (not Andrew Marr)
06. Feb 28 - Adam Nicolson (Spectator)
07. Mar 08 - Caroline Flint (Andrew Marr)
08. Mar 09 - David Graeber (Radio 4 talk)
09. Mar 13 - Peter Kellner (Newsnight)
10. Mar 14 - Bridget Kendall (presenting R4 PM)
11. Mar 14 - Michael Sandel (Radio 4 talk)
7b. Mar 15 - Caroline Flint again (Sunday Politics)
12. Mar 17 - Frances O'Grady (Daily Politics)
13. Mar 17 - Jonathan Isaby (Daily Politics)
14. Mar 20 - Carole Malone (Daily Politics)
15. Mar 22 - Kunle Olulode (The Big Questions)
16. Mar 27 - Justin Webb (presenting R4 Today)
17. Mar 30 - Nicola Sturgeon (R4 6o'c News)
18. Mar 31 - Shabana Mahmood (Daily Politics)

Near Misses:

Mar 04 - Nigel Farage, 'ordinary, decent working families' (policy launch)
Mar 22 - Nigel Farage, 'ordinary decent working people'(news report)
Mar 27 - Rachel Reeves, 'ordinary working people' (R4 Any Questions)
Mar 29 - Iain Duncan Smith, 'ordinary working people' (Andrew Marr)

#18 Shabana Mahmood

Shabana Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Ladywood and Shadow Treasury Minister used the phrase 'ordinary people' on BBC's Daily Politics show today when discussing Labour's deficit reduction plans. About 20 minutes in.

Image from the programme.

Could not find a constituency address and so sent the postcard to the House of Commons: I guess they might forward it.

Monday 30 March 2015

#17 Nicola Sturgeon

Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the SNP on BBC Radio 4's 6 o'clock news, 30th March. About 9 minutes in.

Image from Reuters.

More Sturgeon.

Sunday 29 March 2015

IDS OWP

Iain Duncan Smith, 'ordinary working people' on this morning's Andrew Marr show.
Image from his web site.

See 5th May.

Friday 27 March 2015

Rachel Reeves just escapes

On BBC Radio 4's Any questions at 8:30-ish tonight, Labour MP Rachel Reeves narrowly denied herself a postcard with the phrase 'ordinary working people'.
Image from rachelreeves.net.

#16 Justin Webb

BBC Radio 4's Today programme, discussing new court costs.
Image from the programme's web site.

Sunday 22 March 2015

Westminster Hour 22:22

It was used in this Radio 4 show but I have not managed to identify the culprit.

#15 Kunle Olulode

Of Voice 4 Change referred to 'ordinary people' on  BBC1's The Big Questions this morning.

Image from V4C.

Farage nearly does it again

Following on from "ordinary, decent working families" on 4th March, on the Marr show today, he referred to "ordinary decent working people". The context was describing his Thanet South rival Al Murray as being patronising to said group.

Image from the Daily Mail.

Friday 20 March 2015

Tuesday 17 March 2015

#12 Frances O'Grady & #13 Jonathan Isaby

The time: 12:10
The place: College Green, Westminster
The event: BBC's Daily Politics, Jo Coburn interviewing Frances O'Grady, TUC General Secretary and Jonathan Isaby, Chief Exec of the Taxpayers' Alliance.

Ms O'Grady used the phrase ordinary people TWICE and Mr. Isaby once in a single interview.

Astonishing.

Image taken from the event itself.

Sunday 15 March 2015

#7b Flint does it again

Caroline Flint, our first repeat offender, referred to 'ordinary working people' on the Sunday Politics show.
Farage was excused "ordinary, decent working families" and so I'll save myself the price of a stamp on this one.
Image from the Independent.

Saturday 14 March 2015

#10 Bridget Kendall & #11 Prof. Michael Sandel

Bridget Kendall
Bridget Kendall
Prof. Michael Sandel
Prof. Michael Sandel
Two sightings on radio 4 today, at 17:20 and 20:30 (the latter twice in
one sentence). Details to follow.

The first was Bridget Kendall, presenting PM and introducing a report on the Pope. Image from Wikipedia.

The second was Prof. Michael Sandel, The Public Philosopher, discussing democracy. Image from the BBC.
97p for the postcard to Cambridge MA.

A justification

Peter (the first and only replier) has not responded but his comments have prompted some thought and this came into focus when the phrase 'real people' was used on the radio last night.

Why do I object to the use of 'ordinary people'  when compared to, say, 'real people' or 'normal people'? I believe that two aspects of the words must be considered:

Firstly, is the word complimentary?
Secondly, consider its opposite.

Thus, being categorised as 'ordinary' is not complimentary, An opposite,  for example 'extraordinary' is usually positive.

Real is a positive attribute, unreal is not (and surreal is almost invariably misused).

Normal blood pressure is good, a normal approach is fine (if a little unimaginative) but abnormal is usually pejorative.

So when a politician refers to ordinary people without obviously including him- or herself in that group, they are implying some form of superiority and, as noted in earlier postings, experience suggests that they are  probably not superior. If they used 'real' or 'normal' this would, by comparison, be self-deprecating.

The origin of this campaign was an intuitive dislike of the usage. I now believe it is also justifiably rational and so will continue.


#9 Peter Kellner

The boss of YouGov on Newsnight, 13th March 2015.
Image from Wikipedia.

Friday 13 March 2015

A Reply

A first reply, from John, regarding the Graeber post,

"What a strange obsession. I work as a carer on the minimum wage - I've used this phrase many times. When you live in a class society such as ours there is a need to make a distinction from the lives of the great mass of people and the ruling class. There may be *some* cases when a phrase is deployed in a patronising way but certainly this example is not one of them. I feel that your [sic] wasting your life here - precious heartbeats and I expend some of mine in pleading with you not to dedicate anymore time to this drivel."

One could have hoped for better, so it goes. I wonder what John's first, deleted reply was.
John's profile states that he registered in March 2015.

When considering class and society, this Guardian article makes interesting reading.

Monday 9 March 2015

Second thoughts on the postcard wording

It currently reads,
You have been logged using the phrase ordinary people, thereby implying that you are better than ordinary. As you are a politician / journalist, that seems unlikely. Please stop using this patronising phrase.
This is fine for politicians and journalists (and it is these groups that cause the most offence), but less satisfactory for other categories such as non-journalist-broadcasters and academics. My current approach is to cross out politician / journalist and write in 'other'.

There are 92 postcards left and I'm sticking with those but for the next 100 (if the campaign continues), I might have an alternative,
As you are a politician / journalist, that seems unlikely.
As a(n) ______________ , you should know better.

There's plenty of time to mull this over.

#8 David Graeber

Mr Graeber is described in Wikipedia as "an American anthropologist, author, anarchist and activist, who is Professor of Anthropology at the London School of Economics". He is currently presenting a series of talks on BBC Radio 4 entitled Promises, Promises: A History of Debt.
In episode 6 of 10, The Medieval Period, The Phrase was deployed.
Image from Wikipedia.

Sunday 8 March 2015

#7 Caroline Flint

Spotting usage on the Andrew Marr show is rather like fishing in a barrel.
Today it was Caroline Flint, Labour MP for the Don Valley, currently Shadow Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, and holder of a BA (Hons) in American Literature and History combined with Film Studies from the University of East Anglia.
Image from Wikipedia.

Wednesday 4 March 2015

Farage comes close

Nigel Farage launched UKIP's immigration policy today and stated "I think what’s been felt by millions of ordinary, decent working families, is wage compression".
This is outside the stated scope and will not merit a postcard.
Story and image from the Yorkshire Post.

See also 22nd March.

Monday 2 March 2015

OPMA

Googling 'Ordinary people my arse' brings quite an interesting haul:

#6 Adam Nicolson

In this week's (28th Feb) Spectator, Adam Nicolson reviews two books on the language of natural history and comments "most [of the words] were formed in the mouths of ordinary, almost certainly illiterate people".
Wikipedia describes him as "Adam Nicolson, 5th Baron Carnock" but does not provide a photograph. The image is from the Telegraph.

Sunday 1 March 2015

#5 Kristin Scott Thomas

Andrew Marr Show (sans AM) 1st March 2015.
Dame Scott Thomas snatched failure from the jaws of success when she referred to "normal, ordinary people".
Finding an address for the postcard might be a problem. (Agent)
Image from Wikipedia.