A Febrile Atmosphere (with Tom Peck)
5/21/202640 min
How do you capture the atmosphere of the commons? Parliamentary sketch writer for The Times, Tom Peck, joins Armando to discuss his most detested political buzzwords.
We look at why people get so bloodthirsty in politics when 'the herd moves', who 'an anonymous source' might be, and whether Keir Starmer can draw a pig.
In other news, we look at the demise of PearTree Productions, Ed Davey's wetsuit strategy, and a short-lived Reform councillor who may have taken to political language quickly in his political tenure, but was undone by some shocking language he used elsewhere.
Got a strong message for Armando? Email us at strongmessagehere@bbc.co.uk
Sound editing: Chris Maclean
Production Coordinator: Giulia Lopes Mazzu
Executive Producer: James Robinson
Recorded at the Sound Company
Produced by Gwyn Rhys Davies and Sasha Bobak. A BBC Studios production for Radio 4.
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSpeaker 1· Soundbite0:00
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Armando Iannucci· Host0:35
[upbeat music] Hello, and welcome to Strong Message here from BBC Radio 4, a guide to the use and abuse of political language. I'm Amanda Noguchi, and I'm joined this week by the parliamentary sketch writer for the Times, Tom Peck. Hello.
Tom Peck· Guest0:53
Hiya.
Armando Iannucci· Host0:53
Hello.
Tom Peck· Guest0:53
Thanks for having me.
Armando Iannucci· Host0:54
I think you've been courted one, once or twice- I have ... on this show. Yes.
Tom Peck· Guest0:57
Well, I have once, yeah.
Armando Iannucci· Host0:58
Oh, good. Good. Yes.
Tom Peck· Guest0:59
On, um, we welcome the clarity, which was the, uh, phrase of the Supreme Court's verdict on biological sex repeated everywhere.
Armando Iannucci· Host1:05
Oh, yeah.
Tom Peck· Guest1:05
An absolute gem.
Armando Iannucci· Host1:06
And that whole issue has now been resolved forever, hasn't it? It's been- Oh, the clarity's been welcomed.
Tom Peck· Guest1:10
It's all been sorted out.
Armando Iannucci· Host1:11
Yes.
Tom Peck· Guest1:11
Yeah, yeah.
Armando Iannucci· Host1:12
And the phrase we're gonna look at this week is a febrile atmosphere, which is a phrase you only hear possibly at football, but more likely at a chaos-filled week like, uh, the current weeks in Parliament. The atmosphere is febrile.
Tom Peck· Guest1:24
Oh, yeah.
Armando Iannucci· Host1:24
It's more than electric. [laughs] It's febrile, isn't it?
Tom Peck· Guest1:26
Febrile is one of those glorious adjectives that you only hear-