18April
Starting with a couple of pieces of economics. William Rees-Mogadon on how to push up house prices. Hamish McRae, meanwhile, discusses inflation. He looks to be the first person to question the canard that Gordon Brown's instruction to the Bank of England may be questionable. Focussing on a single (and flawed) measure of inflation is simplistic. What matters are the general inflationary pressures in the economy and, beyond that, the threat to economic stability that inflationary psychology creates. Ah, but a single number is easy to sell to the innumerate public, an early indication of Labour's obsession with performance targets. It does surprise us that there's been so little criticism of the Bank's terms of operation.
Hitwise works out that politicians trawling for votes on Myspace is a waste of time - the people who frequent ballot boxes wouldn't be seen dead on a Murdoch site.
And speaking of people who might be dead because of a Murdoch shite, The First Post claims that the Iran 15 were captured while filming for Wok TV.
Behind the scenes at ITV's boxing coverage with Jim Rosenthal.
Martin Belam on The Beatles' 1987 CD reissue programme, and how it, er, failed to set the charts on fire. Indeed, it barely singed the lower reaches of the top 40.
Still in the world of nostalgia, Brig alerts us to Star Test
appearing on the cable version of 4OD. Cheers, sir. Bet they won't include the 1992 spin-off series where politicians of the day sat in front of the computer, only to be interrupted by the Disembodied Voice of Feedback
's Chris Dunkley, asking seriously personal questions. Ten bonus points for anyone who can recall the name of this show. Doubled for any channel cheeky enough to bring it back.
Charlie Brooker on the evilitude of spoilers. It's time to classify the divulging of spoilers as a criminal act. Not a major one - let's not overreact - but a minor offence, punishable by having half a finger lopped off. And fried in a pan in front of you. And then you have to eat it. That seems reasonable. Hmm. Makes our traditional response - having a bat stuffed up your nightshirt - seem quite reasonable.
We're confused as to why there should be such a stock-in-trade of Bits Of Last Week's The Now Show
. Not because it's completely unfunny - the programme certainly has its moments, and last week's was one of the rare half-hours that were consistently good. No, the source of our confusion is the presence of The Now Show Podcast, a version of the programme made freely available for all listeners to download and enjoy at their leisure.
We were going to buy and review a copy of Popworld Pulp
, the new print magazine from the people who brought you Simon Amstell and the other one. Then it folded after just two editions. So here's a condensed review:
Is it the new Smash Hits? Not yet.
Is it the new Revvolution? Quite possibly.
If it's Wednesday, it's time for another point to Bremspot, and more gushing over Kenickie.
And finally, those of you using the actual website (rather than an RSS aggregator) will have spotted the little search box over in the top left corner. Next thing you know, we'll have one of those modish pictures as our background.
