Peter Rhodes on political interviews, the decline of handwriting and a moral dilemma with a lift
An antique-dealer friend recently gave me a handwritten diary, penned by a Victorian lady which begins: “We were married on July 29, 1858 . . .” It is an everyday book with little excitement or drama but it is shot through with the sheer joy of writing, made possible by a fine quill, quality lined writing paper and blot-free ink.
That book dates from a golden age of handwriting when literacy was spreading and ordinary folk sent beautiful, copperplate notes to each other. This week, a National Literacy Trust survey shows that writing for pleasure has dropped to “crisis point.”
People still communicate in written words but it's mostly emails or texting. Beautiful, painstaking letters in ink have been all-but replaced by the tap of smartphones and smiley-faces. It's sad, of course, but I suspect that if my Victorian lady had been given a laptop in 1858, she would have loved the emojis - and never picked up a pen again.
Compare and contrast the encounters on Today (Radio 4) this week when Mishal Husain interviewed Nigel Farage and Nick Robinson spoke to the Lib-dem leader Ed Davey. You could almost hear Ms Husain pursing her lips in disapproval at Farage while Robinson treated Davey as a national treasure. An easy ride for the Lib-Dems, but merciless demolition for Reform. Spot the agenda?
Frank Gardner, the BBC's security correspondent who has been wheelchair-bound since al Qaeda tried to kill him 20 years ago, tells how he was waiting for a lift to a BBC studio and time was running short. The lift arrived, full of people, but not one of them offered to make space for Gardner and his wheelchair. Gardner had to wheel himself through a newsroom to another lift. He says none of those involved in the incident has ever apologised.
So what would you do? I know one or two robust individuals who would instantly take control and say: “Right, folks, everybody out!” to make space for the disabled man. It takes leadership but, more than that, it means risking a moment's embarrassment to do the right thing. And we live in a society where, sadly, most people will look the other way and avoid getting involved rather than stand out from the crowd.
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