YouSaid · the spoken record

John Humphrys

lines on the record: 67
first: 2019-10-25
most recent: 2019-10-25
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“With a wireless set in front of them, obviously, and they listen on the phone or whatever. But they will listen if we're offering them the right material. And we've got to stay serious. That's the thing. Radio 4 is for serious listeners, or it's, there's no point.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't look at social media and say, ah, this is the way you get the kids because it's not. When I joined the program 33 years ago, they said, they were quite open about it, they said they'd given me the job because I was young. Imagine that. Being young. And we absolutely, the radio for the April especially, had to appeal to younger people because they were, but you know what happens younger people get older and then they die and other younger people come along and so on. And there is this kind of circle. And we still, I mean, when I joined the program, and I'd like to say this entirely down to me, it may not have been entirely done to me, but when I joined the program, there were four million listeners, we now have 7 million. And the fact is that's because young people are not as thick as lots of us say they are. They're actually pretty bloody bright, and a lot of them do listen to radio 4, albeit on differently. That's fine. They haven't got to sit there.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I wish I had some. Do you know what I think they'd be? And you'll be very disappointed with this answer. Don't worry too much about what they're doing on social media, for instance, or indeed what anybody else is doing. Radio 4 exists and prospers, and I know what you're going to say. Young people aren't switching on, and that is a danger. But Radio 4 exists to be an intelligent voice appealing to a certain group of people and that is always going to be the case. It will always be a certain section of the population. It has always been, will always be, a certain section, a pretty broad section in many cases, certainly for the news programs on Radio 4. But what we cannot do, and my advice, the idea they, but anyway, my advice would be don't, it's not a race to the bottom. Don't engage in a race to the bottom.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But I didn't. Sorry, forgive me. I didn't answer your question. The answer is most of the time if it's a seriously, if it's an interview with the Prime Minister, you usually get, you'll know about it ahead of time, so you'll have maybe a few hours the day before, usually if it's somebody as senior as that. Maybe if it's chance to have followers. Maybe you'll know, but not necessarily. As often as not, you will have virtually no time to pay. And the other problem is that if you go to bed, as you do, well, in my case anyway, I used to go to bed at half past eight, get up at half past three, you're not going to be able to be informed about what's happened in Parliament over the last whatever it is and so on and so on. So there'll be a huge amount you don't know and often you are not prepared. You haven't been prepared. Not because we like to live dangerously, but it just doesn't work like that on a program like today. Different if you're doing World at One for obvious reasons, but on today.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And what I wanted to say was, yes, and why and who is he? And that was it. Because then I was live on air with the leader of the Indian opposition. And I did want, I'm actually quite proud of this because leaders of opposition have one thing in common. They all want to drop loads of dirt on the leader of the government because that's why they're the leader and so on. So I took a chance and I said, it seems like a pretty serious state of affairs in Yolka. And then he said, well, you see this, and then we were away.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, yes, yes, a very good question. Yes. Well, the one classic one, I mean, the advantage of the first bit of the question, how long do you have to prepare? Sometimes no time at all. I mean, quite literally no time at all. I can remember on one occasion when everything was crashing in the studio. I mean, literally falling apart. The radio cars weren't turning up. The machines were breaking the whole. And we were down, it was about 20 to 9, so we had 20 minutes of airtime left to fill and nothing to fill it with. And we were all panicking like mad. The last tape was finally running out. So in about 30 seconds, nothing to put on the air. And then somebody came into the studio producer came into my ear and said... We've got the leader of the Indian opposition on the line.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, you'll still have people on who believe that their religion tells them that, yeah, but if they came on and said, you know, gay people shouldn't be allowed to be teachers, then you'd run them out of town on a rail. But there is a difference, I think, between a genuinely held religious belief. And being allowed to express it.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But Justin, that's because belief. The big difference is between belief, well, three things, right? Racism, no place. It's against the law apart from anything else. And I think every, I would like to think every civilized person in the land regards it as being a body.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But you want them to be allowed to express it. What we should not be doing, in my view, and it's kind of the other side of the case, the coin in a way, we appointed... An LGBT correspondent some while ago, who, after his appointment, made a little film for the BBC, for the website, BBC website, in which he said that he regarded himself, I'm truncating it, obviously, as a mouthpiece for the gay community. My view is that he shouldn't be. We don't have mouthpieces for any other community, do we? And I'm deeply, deeply uneasy about that.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The differences between doubting facts, scientific, provable scientific facts, and having a belief. So if, and this is slightly changing the ground a little bit, but if, for instance, you have a bloke with a sandwich board on the street saying the end of the world is nigh, and if you've got another boat with, you'll say, fine, whatever, and you've got another bloat saying all... Should be locked up. That is completely unacceptable, obviously. That is not allowed. If you have somebody who, as a matter of deep, profound belief, feels that we should not be allowing exactly the same Rights is the wrong word. I'm struggling a bit with the word. If you Christian with Which a lot do, they are allowed to express that view. They should be. They are, I mean, there's no question about they are allowed. The law doesn't stop it.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Because one is a provable scientific fact. Climate change is a provable scientific fact. And 95%, whatever it is, how do you get to these figures, 95%, 99 maybe percent of the world's climate scientists agree. And that's good enough for me, and it therefore should be, I think, good enough for our country.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I'd have said, hmm, well, there are an awful lot of people who would question, blah, blah, blah. It's no longer the case.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Well, it's an immensely difficult one. It would have to depend a bit, I think. Look, let's assume. And this is such an unlikely scenario that it sort of is ducking your question in a way. But let's assume that the most senior scientist, let's take a really very silly example. Let's assume that the Bloku was awarded today or yesterday, I think, the Nobel Prize for his part in physics, Nobel Prize for Science. And he, with his credentials, professor of and winner of the Nobel Prize, said, I've got great concerns as to the veracity of global war. You would have to report those views. Of course you would. But if a politician or a former camp or a sympathizer of the oil companies or whatever express those views, no, I don't think they're entitled because the overwhelming weight of evidence, the overwhelming weight of evidence is now, again, it wasn't. If you'd ask me this question 10 years ago,”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“People are not allowed to use the BBC, above all BBC news programmes, and sometimes it happens in comedy and maybe sometimes in live exchanges it's impossible. But as far as the BBC news programs are concerned, people are not allowed to use BBC news programmes as a platform for racist views. Full stop. No qualification there at all. As far as something like global warming is concerned, we know as a matter of fact now that global warming threatens the future of this planet. I don't think, well, I don't know, maybe lots of you would disagree with that. That is my informed view and mercifully it's the view”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Right. I take your point. I think Perfectly straightforward, and it has happened to me. I've had somebody, the program, who was allegedly an influential figure in his community who started spouting racist stuff to me as part of the Tempa State sequence, and I shut him up and we got rid of him.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“What do you mean by balance? Sorry to interrogate you, but when you talk about balance, what do you mean by balance? Because it's quite a complicated concept in a way.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was stopped from, so everybody was stopped from writing for the newspapers completely. It was just a blanket ban. Now it's eased to the extent that we are able to write some stuff. I think that would destroy the BBC. It would be absolutely, in my view, absolutely unacceptable. We don't have a perfect system, but we've got presenters like him and me have to be, or as I was, have to be seen to be to the extent that it's humanly possible, have to be seen to be impartial. Otherwise, the BBC cannot be trusted. And the BBC has only one currency, and that's trust.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is a very good question. It's changed a wee bit over the years. I was allowed to write a column so long as, and it was the main column, so it got a big chunk of space in a very prominent place in the newspaper. But I was allowed to do it on the basis that I did not offer any opinion at all on British politics. It was a bit hazy as to what I could say about the rest of the world, bearing in mind that I'd been a foreign correspondent and had been expressing opinion about apartheid in South Africa, for instance, where the government of the day, the apartheid government tried to get me record. But the general rule was not as rigid as it subsequently became, because after Iraq, as we both know, the rules were tightened, I was stopped from writing a column completely following the inquiry.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Discredited immediately. Discredited immediately. As the independent, and indeed the Daily Mail put it the following morning, big headlines, whitewash.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Don't think anybody won it because the residual distrust that was already distrust, of course, between Blair's government, Alison Campbell and us in particular, Campbell loathed us, as you know. I don't think anybody won that because in the end people have to make up their minds and you've got one. I remember doing interviews the morning of the who did that interview with Andrew Gilligan, you may remember it. 14 minutes past six on that particular morning. I don't know what the audience makes of it when you're getting totally diametric claims being made. How can the audience be expected? I think, and perhaps I'm wrong about this, I don't think people got a clear understanding bearing in mind that we'd already had one so-called inquiry into the war. I don't think people got a clear understanding of what had happened and why until the Chilcott report was published.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It is our view that Iraq would not feature in the top. And then he said to me, and how would you, members of the media, this was obviously why I'd been invited to this lunch, private lunch. How would you members of the media react if we would say to you that, of course, there were weapons of mass destruction? However, when Saddam realized that he was going to be defeated, he issued an order that those weapons of mass destruction should be destroyed. So therefore we were not able to find them. How would you react to that? And I said, well, you mean after we'd picked ourselves up the floor because we were laughing so much? And he said, yes, I rather thought you might say that. And that's the truth of it. That's the truth of it. It was an insane decision by any standards.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Deal of over this lunch. I said dinner, I meant lunch, over this lunch, whether it was true, in his view, bearing in mind that he'd been briefing Blair pretty much every morning of his life for the last several months on the situation in Iraq, whether it was indeed true that Iraq opposed a real threat to this country, and he said, and being frightfully posh person, it's not that I'm hung up on poshness, you understand, but frightfully well. You decide. Or frightfully well educated. He said on any Cartesian analysis.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I would agree with pretty much everything you said. We went to war because Tony Blair had promised George Bush we would go to war. We went on the spurious basis that they had weapons. Saddam had weapons of mass destruction which he could unleash in 40 minutes which was complete boulder dash sometime after the end of the war, only a few weeks after the end of the war I got invited by an unknown figure. They do it rather stupidly. You get a call from a rather fruity voice saying we were to invite you to have lunch with a certain figure whose name I'm not allowed to disclose would you accept and you say don't be silly you've got to tell me who it is. Anyway, the figure turned out to be the director of an i5, Sir Richard Dale of and this is shortly after the war by which time as you know no weapons of mass destruction had been found and I asked”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Lovely lunch. Thank you very much indeed. Do you think we might be able to do an interview with you at some point? And she looked at me, she said. And then she stopped. So I thought, oh, well, I can build on this and make it, you know, so I delivered my prepared speech and said, well, now let's just sort of think about the various ways in which it could be, you know, we could do this and with that. And she listened very patiently. Didn't you talk to me at all? And she looked back up at me. I quote verbatim. Look back at me and said, no. What's more, Mr. Humphrey is a fun word ever to do such a thing, it would certainly not be with you.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“How close? Well, I had an invitation, a message on my answer phone, very fruity voice saying Her Majesties commanded me to invite you to one of her private lunches. So I went, obviously. And I do remember walking through Buckhouse with the rather tall and elegant franky who'd been sent to welcome me to greet me, to escort me, and saying slightly nervous. I was saying I didn't realize that people like me got invited to the sort of thing. And he looked down at me and he said, no, sir, neither did I. Didn't do a great deal for my confidence. Anyway, we have the lunch. We have the lunch. After lunch and we are sitting in this little ante room where she likes to take her coffee and feed biscuits or those horrible little dogs. Anyway, and I said.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But typically you see you're trying to frame the interview. Let me say what, if I may, what I want to say, and that is to say that I very nearly got that interview.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doesn't have to wear a crime, though. But just, I mean, it is every hackstream, isn't it? Apart from the fact that she is unique, she has met, probably met more powerful people in her life than anybody else on the planet and would have views that are really seriously worthless. And there's the gossip, isn't there? I mean, is Andrew really that, you know what I mean? So there's that. Anyway.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, that's easy. That's easy. You must have, I certainly have wanted to sit there on Monday morning and say, and with me this morning. Her Majesty the Queen You do, don't I not”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the answer to that is not very much, to be honest. I mean, I think we're through it. You know, the old Alistair Campbell line, which was that for the story to become a catastrophe for the party or the government or whoever it is, for the story to become a really, really, really damn, it's got to run on the front pages. I think he used to say for 11 days, or it might have been nine, I can't remember. But, you know, that was the kind of length of a story. And this hasn't passed that test. I think, well, I don't know. You may all think...”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think the serious answer to that fairly daft question is that media study is a matter of monumental unimportance for most people. Sorry, but it is. And soil we talked about more views on farming. Yeah, I think we could all agree that healthy soil is a good thing and not highly controversial, couldn't we, really? I mean, I happen to think it's one of the most important things that we have, obviously global warming is up there at the top and the health of our soil is a massively, massively massive. So I don't think that's too controversial. But I think to call the President of the United Nations, but she was being invited to suggest that the President of the United States was a racist, that is a very broad view from Nigeria, I slightly exaggerate, but nonetheless, that was the direction in which it was going. I think that's wrong. When we get to that stage, and you can't, there are some things like racism, like immigration that are beyond”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, obviously racial allegations, allegations that they're in any way, shape or form racist. But they weren't being, it seems to be. They weren't being”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Certain pressure groups, whatever they may be at the time, I mean, back in the late 80s, and into the 90s, immigration was a huge issue. The BBC was terrified of being seen as anti-immigration in any sense whatsoever. So they went in the opposite direction. They were terrified of being seen to be anti-Brexit. And they went in the other direction. We regarded people, not specific individuals, but there was a sense that anybody who preached the Brexit cause, though we didn't even have the word Brexit in those days, did we? Anybody who said it was a good idea for Britain to leave the European, or the European Union was, they were regarded as a bit loony. They weren't regarded as serious people. That was the mindset in the BBC. And throughout this...”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“In your view? Yes, yes. I think that was Tony Hall who overruled. Well, the thing is, they were so, I've made this point in the book, as you know, the BBC has been historically and remains, I think, historically afraid of”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“His initial response was to say, as I understand it, and I wasn't actually here at the time, but as I understand it, his initial reaction was to say nothing wrong, no reason why Naga shouldn't have said as a woman of color, I suffered in this way and that way and the other way of her own personal experience, she's entitled to say that what her co-presenter, Dan, shouldn't have done, was to then ask her a question for her views on Donald Trump's motives in saying what he had said. And I think that's right. Presenters, it's what I said earlier. It's going back to what I said earlier. Presenters are not allowed to express views on controversial political topics.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You may aim that you're trying to say. Can I abbreviate a bit? They made a total mess of it, a shambles. What should they do? What should their what they should have done was pretty much actually, I think, what David Jordan did, David Jordan.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Unjustifiable for men to be paid more than women. But then you have to say in the next sentence, however, if the man in question is the Director General of the BBC, naturally he should be paid more than somebody who is the Director General's secretary, for instance. Incidentally, on that topic, on that topic, since we're on the men-women thing, I think, and I'm allowed to say so now, formally, it is outrageous there has never been a woman Director General of the BBC. A hundred years and no woman I have absolutely no problem at all. Of course women should be paid the same as men. Of course they should. But if somebody... Is doing a more important job or is seen as presumably Gary Lineker was seen to be a tract in Wagner, I mean Gary Linca 1.75 million, well, all right.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not false, Morris. I mean, I reckon that I'd probably earn a decent whack. And if I'm to be entirely honest, I reckon I was worth more than somebody who'd come to presenting from a somewhat easier life than I'd had with a bit less experience than I'd had. I'd probably never been shot at, although that doesn't mean anything, I know. But nonetheless, it wasn't an easy life being a foreigner. So it's reasonable.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was always stunned at Well, it wasn't, yeah. It was slightly overdoing it. I mean, I was earning a lot more than you. That is certainly true. But I was also doing mastermind, and that was completely separate. And another reason why I had been paid more earlier was because I was also doing a program called On the Record, the Telly, which I did for a long time. And that kind of clung on. So I was working six days a week, and you know what it's like being a foreign correspondent. I was away from home three or four months at a time. I reckoned, and this is...”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I don't agree with that at all. I'd been, like you, in fact, I had your job in North America for six years and was paid the usual salary. In those days, I don't know, it was about 40,000 quid or whatever it was, came back to Britain, was asked to do the 9 o'clock news, was told by management that I'd be idiotic not to go freelaire if I didn't go freelance, I'd be very silly because I was on the staff, of course, as foreign correspondent. And they said you can double your salary if you go freelance, at least. So I did. And I doubled my salary. And then they asked me to stay programmed at the admiral. And one thing or the other, I wrote a column for the Sunday Times, for which I was paid quite a lot of money and then was stopped from doing that and was compensated for doing it. Do you know, I never, ever went to management and said, I want more money.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He's the editor. Now there's only one person who could have stopped in doing that, and it wasn't one of the big bosses because even the big bosses didn't know what they were doing.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And so I felt that I should at least be allowed to say, eh, it was a joke, silly, stupid, but nonetheless, you know, two old mates, and we are old mates, we're old friends. We've been taking the Mickey out of each other for 30 years. But at no point did they do that. And then I rang the program, said I want to speak to the editor, spoke to the editor of the program, spoke to the editor of the program, and said, in fairly fruity language, it must be said, I want the right to reply, as it were. And he said, I'll call you back in 10 minutes. He didn't call me back in 10 minutes. So I rang again, and this time was just a teeny, weeny bit more cross. And he said, I'm not allowed to let you come on the program.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“He was not formerly the editor, but you'd never guess it. Because I rang in as soon as I heard that, I rang in, spoke to the editor, and said, I want a right to reply. Because Eddie, at no point, the whole thing about it is that at no point did Eddie suggest I had been joking. With Justin, you're Justin, aren't you? I was not involved in this. You can't tell them apart with John. At no point, no suggestion from him that it might have been a joke.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“But with profound regret at the same time. You know, that's such an awful thing could have happened. Now, you know, and I know we're journalists, that if you're going to report a story, a controversial story like that, the very first thing you do is you call the person at the heart of the story, in this case me. And you say, do you want to come on and defend yourself? No, we shared the same room. We shared the same newsroom. They could have just popped across, walked 20 yards. They could have picked up the phone. Did you ever discover why they did? Yes, I do know why they didn't. Because Eddie was determined to do it that way. And when Eddie was editing the program, he got what he wanted.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I didn't hesitate. I heard Eddie announcing that this was going to happen, that this had happened, and then reading, it really was...”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not want that to happen, but a couple of very senior bosses said, yeah, she's got to continue. So she was. And when I went in, the first thing I had to do, having had a very quick word with Carrie, was to do what we call a prerec, a pre-recorded interview with Euromate, John. Well, mate, John Sopal. He was in Washington, obviously. I was in London at four o'clock in the morning, strictly private little chat, as we always have before the end that we take the piss out of each other, as you know. We've done it with you many times. And I made some daft remarks. I mean, completely just a bit of mickey-taking banter, I think we call it nowadays, aren't we? Saying, ah, you earn that much more, you don't earn as much as you. And on it went for about 40 seconds, and we took the mickey out of each other, and that became converted by a certain group of people into me deriving Carrie Gracie.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“About it. I went in at 4 o'clock on the morning that term Carrie Gracie had written a letter to the BBC accusing them justly of badly miserving her, actually breaking the law because they were paying her far less than they were paying males doing much the same job, even though, this is the important bit, even though they had assured her that they weren't. I mean, that was the essence of the complaint. It was absolutely rock solid complaint. It was slightly weird, to say the least, that she was continuing to present the program that morning because it was a huge story, obviously, and neither she nor I was able to talk about it, because that was the ruling. And she wasn't allowed because she's not allowed to use the Abraham so-and-so. I wasn't allowed because you wouldn't answer. So it was a very, very, very strange. And most bosses did.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I don't like the word dislike, really, because it does depend on the individual, doesn't it? And you can't dislike a class. And after all, I'm a middle class. For God's sake, I've earned a lot of money, as you subtly pointed out. And I have a nice house. I am one of them now, aren't I? And listen, Justin, you're a good mate, you know, but you are a posh git. You went to private school, you know.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Question of liking them. We're journalists and our sacred duty, God forbid, pompous phrase. But what we have to do, and it's only we who can do it at least, only we've got people out in the streets a few yards away from here doing it for themselves. And that's fine. But we have access to power. We are able to ask the old phrase we are able to hold power to account. That is our job. And you can only do that, it seems to me, if you start from the basis not as Paxman would have it, although he was quoting somebody else, it wasn't his original quote, but as Paxman, you assume that every answer of the politician gives you his lying to you. Why is this lying bastard lying to me? That's the sort of Paxman ideology. I don't sign up to that, but I don't use the word cynical either. I use the word skeptical. We have to be skeptical of everything pretty much everything a politician tells us.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I've got other things wrong with me as well, which are partly a result of the kind of way you live, when you're poor. We didn't have an indoor toilet. So in any way, look, but it affects you. It affects you. It affected me anyway. And maybe it's child. And I am a different person from the then, Justin, as you will have spotted.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Otherwise, there's not much point. Anyway, the consultant arrived, the grand man arrived with his little coterie of student doctors, all of them, obviously posh young white males. And he ignored me, totally ignored me, because I didn't so much as say, you know, whatever. Didn't bother with my name or anything. They stood around me. He pointed at me, pointed at the cyst, and said, you know, no real problem here. This young man simply doesn't bath enough and moved on. And what I wanted to do was, well, A, punch him on the nose, and B, say, actually, you know what?”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source