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Just spotted the first article giving concrete details on the global availability of BBC iPlayer. (More details available in this FT article, which requires registration.)

The summary: Mid next-year, we can expect availability on the iPad in the U.S. and a few other markets, via a subscription-based model. No details on pricing, except they're quite "bullish" about what they can charge. Availability on other platforms, and in pay-per-view and pay-for-download pricing models will follow, but no details on when.

So, if you've got an iPad and are interested in a wide enough range of BBC programming that the subscription fee represents good value, this is good news. (My Dad will most likely be thrilled.) Everyone else will have to wait. (Honestly, I have a hard time understanding why they can't just allow paid subscribers access to TV through the existing iPlayer website. I already use it to listen to radio.)

The Third Man: Life at the Heart of New Labour by Peter Mandelson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


If you're only going to read one book on the rise and fall of New Labour, this probably shouldn't be it. I imagine that there are other books on the topic that are less biased and take a broader perspective. However, if you're a political junkie, this book does offer a vivid first-hand account of the reshaping of the Labour party in the late 80s and 90s, and the government's successes and later unravellings in the 00s. Particularly fascinating is the depiction of the relationship between Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, which partakes of both Shakespearean tragedy and farce.



I read this book in part, because as someone who takes an interest in British politics from afar, I've never quite understood exactly what Peter Mandelson did, or why he seemed to be so hated or even feared by some people. I now have a better understanding of both of those things, although Mandelson naturally portrays himself as a pretty likeable person.



One rather odd thing about the book is how seldom Mandelson discusses policy in terms other than the impression it made with the voters. (The telling exception is when he discusses his work as a European Trade Commissioner.) For example, Mandelson praises Tony Blair's "Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" slogan for connecting with voters in middle England, but never spends a moment examining whether New Labour's crime policies actually did anything to reduce crime or make Britons safer. Mandelson very specifically denies the oft-made assertion that New Labour was all spin and no substance, but his own narrative consistently focuses more on the spin. Although this may be partly because he judges that his audience doesn't want a lot of boring technocratic detail on policies that may now be irrelevant anyway.



Similarly, if you're looking for juicy revelations about the run-up to the Iraq war or about the 2010 election campaign, you won't find them here. Mandelson covers these topics, but doesn't offer any big surprises.



But if you want to know about the ins and outs of political infighting, and get a sense of the personalities that shaped the present-day Labour party, the book delivers on that.



View all my reviews

I was just googling around, trying to find out the derivation of the expression "heebie jeebies". I found this article, which notes that the expression is similar in meaning to the British expression, "the screaming habdabs".

I am now practically holding my breath, waiting for some suitable opportunity to drop "the screaming habdabs" into casual conversation.

I just got an email from Victoria's Secret with the subject line, "Fall Trend Alert: Pants."

I'm cutting edge, me. I've been wearing pants for years. (Not the same ones, of course.)

As a bonus, the subject line gets even funnier if I read it with my British linguistic filter on.

Putting off listening to the Weekly Political Review podcast, because it might contain "spoilers" for the week's Prime Minister's Questions, which you haven't listened to yet.

But, you know, at least I haven't started 'shipping any MPs. Yet.

So, BBC7 has some holiday radio goodness coming up this weekend.

On Saturday, December 22nd, at 6 p.m. and at midnight (British time), they will be broadcasting Blake's 7: Rebel, the first episode of the new audio reboot of Blake's 7. You can read my review of "Rebel" if you want to know more. I highly recommend this. They will be broadcasting "Traitor" and "Liberator", the next two episodes of the series, in future weeks. I'm rather hoping that the CDs of those two episodes that I've ordered will arrive before then, but if not, I'll be listening along.

On Sunday, at 6 p.m. and at midnight (British time), they'll be broadcasting Episode 1 of The Phantom of the Opera. This is Big Finish Productions first foray into adapting a classic novel to audio. BBC7 will broadcast the remaining episodes in future weeks, but if you get impatient, you can purchase the entire play as a download. I purchased the download, and while I have to say that on the whole, I prefer Big Finish's Doctor Who plays, it's a fun play and a marvelous story for audio.

And then on Christmas Eve, at 6:30 p.m., they'll be broadcasting Episode 1 of The Scarifyers: The Nazad Conspiracy, which I know relatively little about except that it's supernatural and funny and stars actors who have been in Doctor Who. Which probably describes 83% of British radio.

Don't worry too much about figuring out the broadcast times - you can stream any BBC7 broadcast from their website for a week after the broadcast using their "Listen Again" feature. You do have to have RealPlayer or Windows Media Player installed.

I just discovered that you can podcast Prime Minister's Questions. Or watch them online.

Way back in the day when Margaret Thatcher was PM, when I was in middle school, I used to watch Prime Minister's Question Time on C-SPAN. Somehow, I got my friends hooked on it. We treated it like a spectator sport. Some of us were pro-Labor, others pro-Tory. I remember spending at least one lunch break discussing the poll tax. I had a strange sort of political crush on Neil Kinnock, who was the opposition leader at the time. (Hey, he was an unabashed leftist and Welsh.)

Somehow I doubt that Gordon Brown and whoever-the-opposition-leader-is can provide the kind of quality political theater that Thatcher and Kinnock could dish out, but I'm going to have to have a listen just for old time's sake.