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

“And the incident that you refer to, I was in hospital just for the day, I mean, I was a cyst at the base of my spine, so I was lying on the bed naked. Are you sure you want this story?”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They might have made the difference. She might have lived because they would have spotted. He never got over that. He hated authority. He was a French publisher who, if he needed the money, God knows, but if he knocked on the door of the grand house and was told to go to the servants' entrance, he would turn around and walk away. That's the sort of bloke he was, and I inherited that. He did not, he was a whole, a full-blooded Republican. He was a member of a club where the Queen's picture was on the wall, and there was one Friday evening when the club was absolutely full. He refused to sit in the only empty chair that was beneath the Queen's portrait when he said so and they expelled him from the club. I mean, that sort of thing went on all the time in the fight.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sun on the snow and he losses site. That did something to him. That did something quite profound because of the way he was treated in the years that followed that. Eventually, he managed to get a job and in his first week there he punched the foreman on the nose and lost his job and never worked for anybody again. And much more seriously than that, my small sister Christine died. She'd been taken ill, not a desperately serious illness. and was taken into hospital. My parents weren't allowed to visit her.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It seems to me that that matters a lot still. Well, it was an example of my view, a 15-year-old, 14-year-old view at the time, 14-year-old view that they were against us, that is to say, rich people, middle class people, were against us, the poor people. It started not in my hospital bed. Well, I mean, my father was, how can I put this? He was a very strong man who had very strong views, who had absolutely no time for authority. He went blind when he was a young man, when he was a kid. He had got measles and managed to escape from the bedroom where he had been confined because in those days when you had measles, you weren't allowed to go out because the sun could destroy Europe. And his mother went out shopping. My grandmother went out shopping. And he escaped from the house. There was snow on the ground.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Of what they would regard as the truth. I don't know which of those is true. I've absolutely no idea. So all you can do, and you were almost right in your laborious question, all you can do is try to establish the facts. But then again, whose facts do you want? Do you want Boris Johnson, for instance, do you believe Boris Johnson when he says that in the case of the Northern Irish border, there is an indisputable case to be made for operating the border electronically or eight miles away from where the border happens to be, finding a way of doing it technically that isn't in operation at the moment but would work perfectly well? Or the view from Brussels, which is that it wouldn't work at all. Set of facts do you want?”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Northern Ireland border good example, perfectly good example. It is the case, and this has puzzled me right from the beginning, it puzzled me to this day, that after Brexit, however it happens, there is bound to be a border between the United Kingdom, as exemplified by the province of Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It has to be bordered otherwise, we all know what would happen. Now, the effect that that would have is where you get into difficulty with the truth. Those who are unionists will argue that it would destroy the Union. Those who are nationalists would argue that if you do allow the border to be recreated, it is inevitable that there will be, it will destroy the Good Friday Agreement, there will be violence, and the whole thing will fall apart, will come apart of the seamless now. Those are two versions.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Conceded it. I've actually forgotten what the first part you drew in I took exception, by the way, to the word truth. We're not trying to seek or find or prove the truth. Are we not? No, no, no, we can't. No, no. No, I think you can hit one group of people who believe in ideology or whatever happens to me can take a set of facts, which are indisputably facts, another can take the same set of indisputable facts and reach entirely different conclusions and tell you that the truth of the matter is X or Y. That happens, as always happens, throughout history and will always happen. So I'm nervous about the word truth. Whose truth do you want? Do you want Donald Trump's truth? And I use the word in inverted commas. Clearly, when we're talking about Donald Trump, or do you want Boris Johnson's truth? Do you want Jeremy Corbyn's truth?”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are you sure about that? We make fairly sweeping judgments about who our Brexit is and who our Remainers, too sweeping, ridiculously simplistic judgments. And there are plenty of perfectly thoughtful, perfectly intelligent, perfectly worldly wise people who see no reason why we should not leave the European Union. You're right.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, I'm just looking up there. There is an old fellow with a long beard, with a bolt or something. And now I am able to say I voted Remain. Now, obviously, I could. But I couldn't say that. I mean, how did you vote, Justin?”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, I mean, not having views, I think I've always thought what I think, if you see what I mean, but haven't said it. But Brexit is the obvious example, isn't it? I mean, I, towards the end of my time there, well, fact for the past three years, I suppose, I was given an awfully hard time by many members of the Twitter RT, if that's what they're called, for being a Brexiteer and giving a horribly hard time to remainers, which was, can I use the word in, this is sort of almost a sacred building, isn't it? But nonetheless, which was bollocks? I mean, I did not. And now...”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And if you've been with the corporation, as I have for 50 years, even though occasionally, quite often you might defy the bosses, but nonetheless, in the back of your brain, there's that little red warning light that says, should you really be saying that? And now you don't have to do that.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Not very much at the moment, but I'm working towards it because I've got another book coming out in about six weeks in which I say what I really think. It's taken me a little while to adjust. Well, I mean, the honest truth is not very much because having done the book, I mean, I've said in the book pretty much what I think about things. I mean, it was weird starting the book because I'd actually signed the contract to do the book nine years ago, promised to deliver within two years, and then finally got around to writing it, starting to write it about eight or nine months ago. So instead of having seven years in which to write it, I had a few weeks, a few months in which to write it. And the first few sentences I wrote, well, instinctively, I thought, hang on, I wonder what they'll think about that because you do, don't you? I mean, however, what old hands like us, however, I mean, that bit older than me, but you do. There is just that little bit of your brain.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yet I'm not going to comment. Oh, I'm allowed to comment now, aren't I? Nothing is stopping me. I have freedom. So no, it's not only when Nick's on.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Oh, why the hell isn't he asking that for God's sake? Yes, of course I do. Of course I do. And the number of times I've gone for my phone to text the editor and say, that is funny. You can't possibly. And then the finger is poised over the button and you realize that actually. And that one”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I listened to. The headlines to see if anything important has happened. And I listened to see who you've got on. And on that basis, I decide. And I reckon it's probably about 50-50. Maybe I'll have it on in the background.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Any more questions? What aspect have I miss arguing? This is true, this is true. A few days ago a frog in my garden jumped into the I found the frog in the sink, in a sink, the pipe comes down from the roof and the wastewater flows out and they sink. And there was a frog in the sink and it couldn't get out because it was. So I helped it out. I put my hand in and I scooped it up and back. And as I did so, it started doing what tribes do. And I started arguing with it And I said, no, no, John. It's only been a fortnight. What the hell are you going to be like? Yeah. I mean, what else can you do when you get up apart from Argue? I mean, do you?”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Hello and welcome to this week's intelligence podcast with me Faragisat. This week we have John Humphreys, former presenter of the Today program, in conversation with Justin Webb, Hannah produced this event. Hannah tell us about this. John Humphries is one of the big beasts of the BBC, the Terrier of Today, if you will. Absolutely, and he's just stepped down after thirty two years presenting the show, and he was in conversation with his today colleague, Justin Webb. He's also just produced his long awaited memoir A Day Like Today, which is a brilliant read. And what did they speak about Hannah? Did they spill any beans? They spilled a lot of beans, Farah. They talked about Humphreys battles against the BBC bureaucracy and the various heads that were caused to roll during his show. Brilliant, well, we hope you enjoy the episode. If you do, please take a moment to rate and review Intelligence Squared on Apple podcasts and don't forget to subscribe.”
2019-10-25 · Intelligence Squared · John Humphrys: The Terrier of Today, in conversation with Justin Webb · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source