Michael Parkinson interview 2002 3/4 Ian Hislop 1

[thesubtleface]

There is a lot of anger and bitterness in Ian Hislop, Unlike Paul Merton he's not genuinely good-humoured and I've never liked him or his wit.

[JuliusDS92]

@thesubtleface Interesting comment - how do you mean? I would have had the two of them the other way around - Hislop certainly smiles and laughs more, though I realise that may have more to do with Paul Merton's deadpan style of humour.

[thesubtleface]

@JuliusDS92 Having seen so many episodes of HIGNFY and hearing what Hislop has had to say about the great and the good it seems obvious, to me anyway. He comes across as a protector of the 'ordinary working man' but of course at the same time portraying himself to be aloof and upper middle class; whereas PM seems a genuinely nicer guy despite his deadpan humour (notice he is seldom rude to any of the guests). Sorry I can't be any more specific

[mtheadedwally]

WTF have all the comments below about Bush and Milosevic got to do with Ian Hislop's interview on Parky? Just shows that some people will use any platform as a soap box

[pow1983]

At least have it in stereo even if u have to fudge it

[BanazzaSamwich]

i can hear the sound ? lol i know this is like 1 yr on :)

[mikemanu01]

HYPOCRISY, is that when you slaughter somebody then get them the sack for taking drugs & sleeping with a prostitute, then invite politicians to present your show who have sent hundreds of our troops to their deaths & thousands of iraqi & afgan civilians to their deaths

[CookieCrumble47]

@mikemanu01  totulli agree brokun britton!

[bobhasell]

who can forget peter cook outside the law courts shaking his cheque book at ROBERT MAXWELL!!! says so much more than words!!

[coneko]

wow silly me and here i thought this section of you tube was to comment on the video we've just seen

[FulchesterUnited]

Don't be ridiculous! It's always eventually about Hitler, God, spelling and Grammar, or how stupid Americans are... EVERY THREAD. Do keep up old chap!

[Tamashi88]

@FulchesterUnited

it's Godwin's Law!!

[sxmadrid]

Somebody disconnect MrLewey before it says something worth reading.

[MrLewey10]

I love Ian Hislop, but he isn't averse to playing fast and loose with the truth to get a cheap laugh. An example is his childish claim that Blair didn't go to Parliament over the Iraq war. He did and they voted on it. In fact, Blair expended more time and energy in attempting to engage with the public over the issue than any Prime Minister in history. He didn't have to do that. I actually think the Iraq war was a mistake, but I don't like pandering to people's simplistic ignorance.

[Pippiok]

But alas, Blair recently said he would have gone into Iraq even without WMDs.

[joejjohnston]

Yes, absolutely right. To be quite honest I still think war was the right option, earlier I meant to say that I think there have been mistakes in the conduct of the war. Saddam's was a criminal regime, and what is more, he had used WMDs in the past when he gassed entire Kurdish villages, killing upwards of 100000 Kurds. Anyone who thinks it was a mistake to remove him doesn't understand the nature of his rule.

[MrLewey10]

But he did go to the House of Commons, and they voted in favour of war. This was Blair's downfall. More than any Prime Minister in history, he felt it was important to get the public and parliament to support the war. In pursuit of this, he undoubtedly exaggerated aspects of the case for war (WMDs, etc). In my view he should have been more decisive, and said clearlt that he was to make an executive decision to remove an odious and criminal regime from power in Iraq.

[Pepotamo1985]

@MrLewey10

Exactly, lies and affiliation with Bush were his ultimate undoing - the humanitarian case for the removal of Saddam was a particularly potent one and the invasion was supported even by left wing pacifist MPs on that basis. The lefties who started and campaigned for the Stop The War coalition were the same people who wanted Saddam out at all costs on humanitarian grounds throughout the 80s and 90s. Irrespective of the errors made, Iraq is definitely better off without him in power.

[MrLewey10]

There's another point here. It is common amongst opponents of the war to mock the claim that Saddam had WMDs. In fact, his regime were working actively to develop such weapons, and despite the sneers from opponents, ample evidence to support this was found in the aftermath of the war. Failing to invade Iraq would have meant keeping a dictatorial regime in power that was actively seeking to produce WMDs to threaten the region and the world.

[WhyGenFM3]

If that was the arguement North Korea and Iran would be holes in the ground by now. I think the declaration of war against Iraq whilst Afghanistan was (and still is) such a mess was a mistake. Although I agree Iran, Korea, Iraq ect. shouldn't be allowed to continue their ruling... it should be considered that the Western world also can't continue to think it knows what's best and be so shortsighted. Diplomacy and negotiations are the way forward, otherwise the world'll create its own demise.

[MrLewey10]

That is an honourable position, but you have to consider that diplomacy and negotiations had been tried with Iraq since the first Gulf War. Saddam demonstrated, time and time again, his refusal to cooperate with the UN. I completely agree with you that war should always be used only as a last resort, but our crime in Iraq was that we intervened too late, not too early.

[WhyGenFM3]

I agree something needed to be done, but when the arguement is that he was ruining lives, war is surely the ultimate cache 22 solution. As bad as Saddam's regime was, I fear more damage has been done by the West's intervention and insistence on knowing best. Ultimately it seems the war attrocities by Saddam won't match up to those done by Blair/Bush. Millions of innocent lives destroyed or lost, no problem solved for the people of Iraq and no happy ending in sight.

[MrLewey10]

I don't agree that it was about the West "knowing best". The most vociferous opposition to Saddam came from within Iraq. As for a comparison of how many lives the invasion has taken against the victims of Saddam, I think if you factor in the Iran/Iraq war of 1980, which took millions of lives (caused, admittedly by Jimmy Carter's policies), and Saddam's murder of the Kurds, you'll reach a different conclusion. We should not be ashamed of asserting our morals for fear of being called arrogant.

[WhyGenFM3]

Arrogance is a long way down the list of critisisms. Killing Sadam was a statement that solved nothing... Osama has been labelled the face of terrorism, with the idea once he's dead the Afghan problem will be solved. Sadly the fallout from the wars are far bigger problems than what they initial went there to stop. Constructive, political debate... not often you see this on YouTube lol. Sadly our opinions mean nothing as the 21st century has turned society into nothing more than consumers.

[MrLewey10]

You've got some interesting points there, and I definitely agree that the problems of the Middle East (and the world) are bigger than any individual leaders. Like you say, at least this exchange is better than the "fuck you", "no, fuck you!" to-ing and fro-ing usually found on Youtube! And I have to say, I too lament the fact that politics has been replaced by shopping in many areas.

[WhyGenFM3]

Well capitalism and socialism would be that ordinary people having opinions that effect decisions. Which means the general public are no longer a society, they simply spend money, pay taxes and work for the machine which is funding these wars. An unelected prime minister, in 2 wars the public didn't (and surely wouldn't) vote for. It's a sad state of affairs in Britain. America is similar, with Bush hijacking religion to justify his actions. Sadly for Brown and Obama, we're in too deep now.

[Pepotamo1985]

@WhyGenFM3

As wrong as many of the decisions made by Bush and Blair during and after the war were, and as appalling as the conduct of British and American soldiers has been throughout the occupation, I'm afraid the crimes committed by Saddam Hussein are a hundred times worse than anything either B could possibly be guilty of. Seriously, read up on Saddam's preferred torture techniques, and his appalling kill count. He was a megalomaniacal racial purist with a taste for ethnic cleansing.

[WhyGenFM3]

@Pepotamo1985 I'm not doubting that Saddam needed to be overthrown - but if you look at the bigger picture, and the nature in which it was done it seems that Saddam and the 'War on Terror' was a scapegoat for the west to grab some easy oil. What Saddam did can be grouped together with North Korea, China, Iran, Zimbabwe, Pakistan and even all those rich Arab countries which subjigate women and previously regimes such as Misolovic's ethnic cleansing. Nothing was / has been done about these.. Why..

[Pepotamo1985]

@WhyGenFM3

They got rid of Milosevic. Those countries may all be authoritarian police states with questionable human rights records, but what Saddam was doing was 100 times worse. Read up on his favoured torture and culling techniques. He was evil. Three of those countries you've just listed have gotten the message sent by the Iraq invasion and have begun the slow process of liberalising. You may ask, upon toppling Saddam, where do you stop? A better question is where do you start?

[liljoerox]

i often wonder if paul and ian like each other, i can't tell if ian's making a joke when he says they don't. i know neither of them seem particularly fond of angus but i always imagined paul and ian got on ok.

[ScottFromScotland1]

Do you lie awake at night thinking 'oh my god, I wish I'd not said that' about someone?

No.

That's what I love about Ian Hislop.

[ExtremeBogom]

The question should be, "Who DOES lie awake at night worrying about that?".

I doubt very many.

[vilkwang]

@ScottFromScotland1

I remember Paxman was asked a similar question once and said that he did worry if he'd been too harsh on people sometimes. I think Paxman is probably a decent bloke, and although he can be funny I get the feeling that Hislop is a sanctimonious twat.

[sm0kingJay]

sound fail

[trailerstrailers]

Dude....... ....mono sound ... ...really ... !!!

You could of doubled the mono sound from your vcr to made a faux stereo at least....

Oh well thanks for putting this up anyway I just downloaded it to my pc and quick re-encoded it myself in stereo :-)

[MickeyLove01]

was Private Eye ever funny?

[gczilla]

No sound? :-|

[frogandpeach1]

There is sound (I'm listening to it now), but it plays in mono so perhaps there's a problem with your computer playing mono sound or something. Sorry, I'm not very technically-minded, which is why it was digitised so primitively in the first place (although it was done years before I imagined there would be anything like youtube and that this would have a wider audience than my household). Thanks for watching and good luck trying to get the sound to work.

[greatscot24]

@gczilla plugging y earphones on only half way fixed it (???) somehow.....

[CasparWilson]

mono sound :(

[frogandpeach1]

Yes, sorry about the sound. The VHS tapes were digitised long ago using a VCR with only mono output, and there's nothign I can do about it now. BTW, my computer speakers split the sound and play it as stereo which helps. Thanks for watching.

[hobbitthedog]

This could only be better if I was sitting in a fourth chair with them.

[MickeyLove01]

why? what could you offer??

[KenAugustino]

britain is so lucky to have ppl like Parkinson and Hislop ard.

[pleximold]

There's a very telling edit at 6.37

[XXWXWXW]

Parkinson is so condescending.

[snoozeyoulose19]

Hislop is great! And Parkinson IS condescending - the phrasing of his questions doesn't help either. "Does it have any other function or purpose besides comedy?" The answer is obviously yes!

[MickeyLove01]

I think Parkinson has done well tolerating 100's if not 1000's of wankers over the years. I know I'd have punched most of them.....

[snoozeyoulose19]

Not if you had been getting paid what he gets paid! I could keep my calm very well... especially on pay day!