Latest news with #TrevorPhillips
Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Times
Rod Liddle on his radio comeback: Somehow I'm still on air
Everyone thought it was going to be trouble and would end in tears. Right at the start I rang Trevor Phillips and said: Times Radio has given me a show, on a Saturday, between 10am and 1pm, would you like to be my guest? Trevor is about as close to a friend as I have in this desperate trade of perpetual scribbling and jabbering. There was a hoot of laughter down the line. 'They've given you a show? Has anyone told Ofcom? Yes, I'll be your guest. Put me on an early one before it's taken off air.' I had not really imagined going back into radio at this stage of life. I endured a decade at the BBC Radio 4 Today programme, five of them as editor. There was always an agreement that radio would be absolutely brilliant if it wasn't for the presenters and the listeners. Both of these groups carped all the time and were impossible to deal with. Becoming a presenter, then, was a kind of betrayal. But the prospect held such allure. I had grown very tired of the BBC's monocultural output, its perpetual and predictable consensus, even if I still respected a lot of the people who worked there. Here was a chance to make a programme which would be, I thought, 'refreshingly different', which would 'break the mould'. And as I was a convert to Times Radio already, it was very hard to resist. I would be taking over the slot previously occupied by the brilliant Hugo Rifkind, and therefore a tricky act to follow. I was introduced to the producer, Danny Garlick. He appraised me with slightly narrowed eyes. How would you like to change the show, he asked. 'I'd like it to be refreshingly different, and to break the mould,' I replied. How exactly? 'I'd like it to be a little more, um … you know … fascisty.' I was joking, largely. But I did see it as an opportunity to approach the daily round of news stories from different angles, left and right. That old divide has become almost meaningless today. Politics does not know where it is; it has become lost. Reform urging nationalisation and the Labour prime minister conjuring echoes of Enoch Powell? This isn't just a shifting of the Overton window, it's a screen door being flung open. And yet too often the broadcasters follow the same old patterns which simply don't hold any more. The first couple of shows were terrifying, of course. Three hours to get through without losing the script, saying 'holy f***' or having a heart attack. I used to edit the Saturday edition of Today, a two-hour show which was put together by three or four producers the previous day plus an overnight team of three or four producers, not to mention input from a forward planning team. Here I had the services of the aforementioned Danny for one and a half days each week. But God, he's good. The most flawless producer I have encountered and generous of spirit, too. When, two weeks ago, I inadvertently deleted the entire three hours of script from the computer so that it could not be retrieved, 15 minutes before we were due to start the show, he performed a kind of technological miracle and we made it to air. Nor did he, when I told him what I had done, call me an abject little tit, which is what I would have done. And then some. What I really wanted from the programme was thought and depth from the political interviews, rather than the splenetic harrying of politicians you get elsewhere. We were the only broadcasters to secure an interview with the only British politician invited to Donald Trump's inauguration, the Labour peer Lord Glasman. We have had long-form political interviews with Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage and even longer interviews with the BBC chairman, Samir Shah, Richard Dawkins and the Labour recusant Rosie Duffield. But alongside this stuff there's also been a chance to share a joke with the audience and to hear what they are making of it all. One of the highlights, for me, has been the constant stream of WhatAapp messages coming in from listeners, which we read out. It is a privilege to know that people are so engaged. Mind you, it is also an act of kindness on Danny's part that he does not forward to me the messages which say: 'Get this interminable arse off air this minute.' When I ask him how many say that sort of thing, he usually mumbles: 'Oh, you know, only one or two …' The whole thing has rejuvenated my appetite for radio. And I hope, if you tune in, it may rejuvenate yours. It is a mix of highish culture, expert journalism from Times correspondents and humour — much like The Sunday Times itself. What's more, Trevor Phillips has been on the show loads more times. And I always remind him, as the second hand ticks round, that here we are, Trevor, still on air, still going strong. Listen to Times Radio for free on DAB radio, online or via the free Times Radio app. Rod Liddle presents every Saturday from 10am to 1pm
The Independent
6 days ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Labour ‘owe an apology' for delay in grooming gangs inquiry, ex-human rights boss says
Labour ministers "owe an apology" to everyone they dismissed over grooming gangs after Sir Keir Starmer's U-turn on a national inquiry, the former chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said. The prime minister bowed to months of mounting pressure over the issue ahead of the publication of a new report by Louise Casey, who led the original review into the scandal, on Monday. The Labour leader initially pointed to previous work on the issue by Professor Alexis Jay, saying the public wanted action not another inquiry. But after Ms Casey's report backed the idea, the PM accepted the recommendation. The issue hit the headlines again in January with a series of tweets by Donald Trump ally Elon Musk. Sir Trevor Phillips said: "I think that ministers owe an apology to all of the people who they essentially said were talking rubbish, to all the people who to whom they said 'you haven't actually bothered to read the Jay Report and you don't know actually what's going on'. And to all of the people of whom it was suggested their interest and concern about this was motivated in some way by racial distaste or prejudice." Speaking on Times Radio he called specifically for an apology to the late Times reporter Andrew Norfolk 'who did more than anyone else to expose this scandal and to keep it in the headlines… and who went to his grave feeling that people who should know better regarded him as a racist and a bigot.' He added: 'One minister said to me yesterday, it shouldn't be about the hurt feelings of journalists and so on. Well let's be clear about this. People like Andrew Norfolk were speaking on behalf of those who could not speak. This isn't a matter of vanity. It isn't a matter of journalists saying look at me. It is a matter of people like Norfolk, and there were others, who spoke out because the people who were the victims were not being heard and could not speak for themselves and I think they are owed an apology." In April, Sir Trevor condemned the government's approach to grooming gangs as "utterly shameful". The shadow home secretary Chris Philp defended the Conservatives' record on the issue, saying Theresa May had set up original Rotherham inquiry. He told GB News: 'It was Rishi Sunak, a Conservative prime minister, who set up the grooming gangs task force, which in its first year led to 550 arrests. So that's what the last government did.' He also called for a 'quick' inquiry. 'Some public inquiries drag on for five or ten years. We can't have that happening here. This needs to be a one- or two-year process, a very focused process,' he said. At the start of the year Mr Musk even called on the King to step in and dissolve parliament after Labour rejected a call for a national inquiry. The tech billionaire's erratic request followed days of an explosive row over the PM's handling of historic child abuse in Oldham after he suggested the Labour leader had failed to bring 'rape gangs' to justice when he was director of public prosecutions. While the monarch does have the power to dissolve parliament, this power is a formality and is done so upon request of the prime minister. Sir Keir condemned Mr Musk at the time suggesting his 'lies and misinformation' on grooming gangs were amplifying the 'poison' of the far right. Mr Musk has engaged in a long-running war of words with Sir Keir's administration which came to a head during last summer's far-right riots when the social media boss claimed 'civil war is inevitable' in the UK.
Yahoo
15-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Rachel Reeves Clashes With Trevor Phillips Over Labour's Grooming Gangs U-Turn
Rachel Reeves clashed with Trevor Phillips after the government U-turned on its opposition to a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. Keir Starmer has previously accused opposition politicians calling for one of jumping on a 'bandwagon of the far-right'. But he announced on Saturday that he supports the recommendations of an independent report into child sexual exploitation by Baroness Louise Casey, which is being published next week. It is expected to call for a judge-led inquiry into the grooming and sexual abuse of young girls across the country, mainly by groups of men of Pakistani origin. On Sky News this morning, Phillips asked Reeves whether those who had been dismissed for raising the issue were due an apology from the government. As the chancellor tried to say the 'most important thing' was getting justice for the victims of the grooming gangs, Phillips told her: 'No, what I've asked you is the most important thing.' Reeves then hit back: 'No no no. Trevor, what is the most important thing here? It is the victims and it's not people's hurt feelings about how they've been spoken about. 'The most important thing here is the victims of these evil crimes.' Undeterred, Phillips said: 'The reason this matters is because those people who raised these matters on behalf of victims, who cannot often speak for themselves, were accused by government ministers of 'total nonsense, misinformation and racism'. Surely that's important as well?' Reeves replied: 'The most important thing is the victims themselves, and we have been busy as a government implementing the 200 or so recommendations of the previous inquiry.' 'The most important thing is not people's hurt feelings about how they've been spoken about'@TrevorPTweets presses Chancellor @RachelReevesMP on whether the government was wrong to dismiss calls for a grooming gang inquiry as misinformation.#TrevorPhillips📺 Sky 501 — Sky News (@SkyNews) June 15, 2025 Keir Starmer Performs Major U-Turn As He Backs National Inquiry Into Groomings Gangs Here's Why Lucy Powell's Comments On Grooming Gangs Really Matter Yvette Cooper Slams 'Party Political Misinformation' Around Grooming Gang Probes
The Herald Scotland
08-06-2025
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
UK will handle US security concerns over new Chinese embassy plan, says Kyle
Mr Kyle sought to reassure the public that the Government deals with similar 'infrastructure issues' relating to embassies 'all the time'. 'These issues will be taken care of assiduously in the planning process,' he told Sky News's Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme. He added: 'These are the issues that we talk about as two countries all the time… we're in the Five Eyes agreement, America and Britain share intelligence… If people raise security issues even though it relates to planning, then I'm sure we will have a fulsome response for them. 'But look, the key thing is these are issues which are quite routinised in the way that we deal with the security of our country.' A senior US official had told the Sunday Times: 'The United States is deeply concerned about providing China with potential access to the sensitive communications of one of our closest allies.' The matter is believed to have been discussed during US-UK trade talks, with diplomats saying the Trump administration would have reservations about intelligence sharing with the UK if the building went ahead. More than a thousand demonstrators gathered earlier this year for a rally against the proposed Chinese 'super-embassy' because of concerns about its potential proximity to Canary Wharf and the City of London. The redevelopment plans at the former site of the Royal Mint were 'called in' last year, which means the Government will make the final decision following a report from the Planning Inspectorate. The plan was initially refused by Tower Hamlets Council in 2022.
Evening Standard
08-06-2025
- Politics
- Evening Standard
Swinney promises no ‘deal or co-operation' with Farage after by-election defeat
Speaking on the Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillips programme on Sky News, SNP leader Mr Swinney said that if it was necessary to form a coalition to keep Reform out of government, he would 'pursue the policy priorities of my party', and pledged never to work with Clacton MP Mr Farage.
