If the BBC did not produce trash TV, there'd be no Newsnight.(Thought For The Day)

Publication: Spectator

Publication Date: 28-FEB-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 The Spectator Ltd. (UK)

Just like the great, arguably the first, sociologist, Auguste Comte, I pay a batman to wake me up every morning with the words, 'Arise, Mr Liddle, you have great things to accomplish.' He usually arrives, the batman, at about 11.30, carrying a bottle of Moldovan Sauvignon Blanc and 20 pristine Raffles. And I get out of bed, invigorated, just as Comte did. Or, actually, it might have been Saint-Simon, I forget which. Blame that on the Sauvignon Blanc.

Ambition is an important thing in my life. Every week I set myself challenges, things to be done, glittering trophies to be captured. This last week, for example, I set myself the tasks of a) writing a mass-selling book about punctuation b) becoming chairman of the BBC and c) launching an ultra-upmarket morning newspaper aimed entirely at myself--a newspaper which nobody else will be clever enough to understand. It's Tuesday now, and things are going well. The punctuation book is finished and the newspaper has already made its appearance at my breakfast table....

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