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Richard Rudin

A university lecturer (professor in USA!), author, and sometime broadcaster. Views expressed are my own.

Recent Activity

Get Your Fix On Election '66

Copyright BBC If you would understand anything, observe its beginning and its development. Aristotle Whoever wishes to foresee the future must consult the past; for human events ever resemble those of preceding times. This arises from the fact that they... Continue reading

Posted Mar 29, 2016 at Rudinblog

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Please note that I am currently bi-Blogging (!) and you can find my latest post at Http://rudinblog.com Continue reading

Posted Feb 28, 2016 at Rudinblog

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Terry Wogan was even more important to our lives and to the country than we realise

“Is this the man who’s come to tell us how we should be doing it?”, he asked with a gentle smile and, (yes) a twinkle in his eye. I did a sort of ‘we are not worthy’ gesture. But I think that opening gambit was very typical of the man – quietly provocative, didn’t take himself too seriously, but at the same time could be a little bit prickly and was well aware of his value to the BBC. Continue reading

Posted Jan 31, 2016 at Rudinblog

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From the miners to Sports Direct, it's a Dickens of a life

A Christmas Carol is one of my all-time favourite books and certainly my favourite Christmas story. Although, like many of Dickens’s works, it is often criticised for being oversentimental, even mawkish, and ties up all the loose ends just too... Continue reading

Posted Dec 21, 2015 at Rudinblog

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The Tories Have Come To Bury Local Government, Not To Raise It

It’s one of those stories that leaps out at you. Partly because it’s probably something you never think about, partly because it seems so sad and partly because it tells you how society is changing. Kind of a canary in... Continue reading

Posted Nov 30, 2015 at Rudinblog

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The Row Over the Tampon Tax Could Be A Straw In the Wind

It's nearly always tax and/or wages that causes revolutions and wars, isn't it? The Peasant's Revolt in England (the subject of an excellent new book by Melvyn Bragg)...the English Civil Wars...the American war of Independence...the Bolshevik Russian Revolution...even the 1990... Continue reading

Posted Oct 31, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Corbyn may not shoot Trident but he's shooting the messsenger

Sir Humphrey Appleby (HA): It's a deterrent. Prime Minister (PM): It's a bluff. I probably wouldn't use it. HA: Yes, but they don't know that you probably wouldn't. PM: They probably do. HA: Yes, they probably know that you probably... Continue reading

Posted Sep 30, 2015 at Rudinblog

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When talking about migrants in France we need to speak English with care

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean -- neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many... Continue reading

Posted Aug 11, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Why the lack of social mobility is a threat to all our futures

“They all ended up going to the City to do jobs they didn’t understand, yet ended up making oodles of money.” Nic Newman, talking about his fellow pupils at his public (private) school, quoted in article by Nicholas Hellen, 'How... Continue reading

Posted Jul 27, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Confessions of a sub-teen and middle-aged 'Avenger'

It was a baptism by fire. It was a very complicated show. The final rehearsing and taping was just a fantastic jigsaw puzzle that required guts and good fortune to get right. The camera crew were absolutely magnificent…. The Avengers... Continue reading

Posted Jun 26, 2015 at Rudinblog

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This election campaign has demeaned us all - but is no better than we deserve

Let us not be coy about this: the general election campaign, which concludes on Thursday, has been a carnival of nonsense and futility. Janan Ganesh, Financial Times, May 5 This is the 15th general election in my lifetime. But, political... Continue reading

Posted May 5, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Cheer and Droning in Las Vegas

I guess that all that radio listening finally paid off – David Crider, winner of the Broadcast Education Association (BEA) dissertation award. It's interesting how your pleasures and priorities change in life. When you're young, and the world is like... Continue reading

Posted Apr 30, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Enough is enough! The deafening silence on journalists' trials from our supposed liberal press

Last Friday, at around 9.30 AM, an eerie silence descended on most of the UK. in this first solar eclipse of the social media age, all the main sites were bombarded with images of the not-quite-full eclipse, accompanied by excited... Continue reading

Posted Mar 22, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Labour's tuition fees' policy is more or less nonsense

This is the worst type of politics and is financially illiterate. If any other party was launching a policy that effectively meant poorer students would be subsidising City investment banking graduates, there would be protests in the streets. (Martin Lewis... Continue reading

Posted Feb 28, 2015 at Rudinblog

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Free expression, offence, and human rights - this is all getting ridiculous

“Freedom of expression is not just a British value or a French value. It’s not a Christian value or a secular value. It’s a fundamental human right, probably the single most important freedom we possess. If you can’t stand up... Continue reading

Posted Jan 11, 2015 at Rudinblog

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We have to sacrifice some of our privacy, but not our freedoms

The past year has seen some very disturbing trends towards censorship, if not by the state then by what we might call the mob or blob; those who are on 24/7 standby for sanctimonious outrage. We have seen in this... Continue reading

Posted Dec 28, 2014 at Rudinblog

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The opening of the Berlin Wall - real life more amazing than any fiction

Twenty-five years ago tonight I was staying at a cheap hotel in Leeds, while the legal biz for our new house was being completed. I had an early mobile phone provided by the BBC (with battery, this was the size... Continue reading

Posted Nov 9, 2014 at Rudinblog

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Shock News: The drugs DO work – which is why so many use them

The so-called "war on drugs" must be one of the most cretinous, counter-productive public policies ever pursued – even in the United States, which, you might think, should have learned something from its disastrous experience of alcohol prohibition, the after-shock of which is still being felt today Continue reading

Posted Oct 31, 2014 at Rudinblog

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Our broadcasting history should not be allowed to fade out

There's something big and important that is missing in our depository of national memory. There are museums for lawnmowers, pencils, hats, prams – even one for mustard: not just ALL mustards, mind, but one specific brand. But in the country... Continue reading

Posted Sep 8, 2014 at Rudinblog

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August 31st – A date that’ll live in anorak infamy!

Audio here! It's funny how some dates seem to acquire a special significance. For offshore radio supporters, August 31 has special meaning, not once but twice! In 1967 it was the date that the Marine (&c) Broadcasting Offences Act (MOA)... Continue reading

Posted Aug 31, 2014 at Rudinblog

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Richard Attenborough’s death should bring Paine

A few months ago I heard a psychologist say that there are only two questions they ask a patient at the first consultation: What is your relationship with your mother? What is your relationship with your father? In the case... Continue reading

Posted Aug 26, 2014 at Rudinblog

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Brothers in anoraks

"We are alone." (The Admiral' Robbie Dale, Radio Caroline South, 1500hrs, August 14, 1967). "Bob had discovered a whole new world. It was like fumbling around in the back of the wardrobe and finding Narnia. For him, it was like... Continue reading

Posted Aug 15, 2014 at Rudinblog

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'Hackwatch' is the new Mary Whitehouse

In their reaction to coverage of Robin Williams' death surely Hackwatch have lost any remaining credibility. I've listened to its increasingly shrill and ludicrous Director, Joan Smith, on this week's edition of The Media Show twice now and have been... Continue reading

Posted Aug 14, 2014 at Rudinblog

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Review: 'Me and Thirteen Tanks – The Tales of a Cold War Freelance Spy', by Peter McDonagh.

BFBS Cologne is a handful of semi-pissed minor public schoolboys playing English commercial gramophone records for six million bemused Germans – Charly Lowndes. Richard Astbury…had a pleasantly cheeky and semi-aristocratic Dimbleby accent, with a huge laugh in the voice itself,... Continue reading

Posted Jul 3, 2014 at Rudinblog

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Breaking up the UK may not be so hard to do

It must seem odd for anyone under the age of about 45 to know that there was a time - and within the living memory of the working age population - when immigration from other parts of Europe into the... Continue reading

Posted Jun 29, 2014 at Rudinblog

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