News about John Humphrys

JAN MOIR: No surprise that Emma Barnett 's debut on the Today programme ( BBC Radio 4) was confident, assured and polished, but did we have to suffer quite so many moments of cheery self-reverence? From opening sentence to last, Emma took every opportunity to spotlight her maiden voyage on the good ship Today. 'Here on my first shift on the Today programme it is lovely to be here,' she declared, just after the 6am pips. 'I won't make you blush on our first exchange,' she said to one reporter. When she asked Sir Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, if he felt his opinions are being heard, she added: 'Beyond coming on this esteemed programme that I am getting to grips with this morning.'

The 'pips' that make the Greenwich Time Signal (left, the machine that made the pips in the 1970s; inset, a graph of the sound they produce) have been played at the end of each hour on BBC radio stations around the United Kingdom since February 5, 1924. Except for the occasional hiccup. But now, with the widespread take-up of digital radio rendering them inaccurate by several seconds, BBC Radio 4 has made a programme asking: 'Do We Still Need the Pips?' The answer from presenter Paddy O'Connell and several others to the program is a resounding yes. The six short tones were a 'wonderful century-old tradition,' according to popular scientist Brian Cox, who co-presents Radio 4's Infinite Monkey Cage series.' The pips must still be used,' Mohit Bakaya, Radio 4's controller, said. The pips are the radio 4's heartbeat. They are one of the many things that make Radio 4 unique, and I love them.' The BBC's former Today Programme host John Humphrys (right, presenting his final Today Programme in 2019), who appeared on Radio 4's flagship Today Programme for more than three decades, has said it is 'inconceivable' that the time signal will be scrapped.

PETER HITCHENS: There is a simple answer to the BBC's request for another increase in its licence fee. If it won't even try to be impartial, freeze the fee, which will then fall rapidly due to inflation. Some may argue that seeking restrictions on another portion of the Fourth Estate is wrong for one part of the media. However, this is to miss the point. Newspapers have no evidence that they are biased. Newspapers publish leading papers in which they state strong views on the day's biggest topics, with journalists openly taking sides for all to see. The BBC is in effect the complete opposite of a Fleet Street paper. On pain of jail, the organisation is coerced to perform. It has opinions, but it doesn't pretend not to. It is recruited almost entirely from a segment of society that shares these beliefs.

Enior doctors have cautioned that a big measles outbreak is looming in Britain this winter, which may result in 'a lot of deaths' and could be 'disastrous' for the NHS. This is not a case of scaremongering or health officials trying desperately to cover their backs in case, just in case, something bad happens,' writes John Humphrys

The journalist, 59, who grew up near Bolton with his Jamaican parents, said they only watched ITV at home because the news seemed more 'human.' Despite now presenting the BBC News at Ten himself, Myrie said that when he was growing up, it felt as if the company's newsreaders were 'handing down tablets of stone.'

JOHN HUMPHRYS: Huw Edwards, a man held in such reverence by the majority of the population, has been the only thing at stake regarding his future: when he would be granted a knighthood shortly. Now it's unclear if we'll see him on our screens again. That will depend on the results of the BBC probe and whether the country accepts that his strange behaviour in recent months and years was attributed to his underlying medical disorder for which he is now being treated in hospital. I can't pretend that I knew Huw for a portion of his broadcasting career. It would have been impossible to find anyone more embedded in BBC behaviour.

Former BBC presenter John Humphrys condemned the Brecon Beacons' English name for a'eco-friendly' Welsh one, describing it as a "pointless" move that will do nothing to save the planet. As the name was changed to that of its Welsh counterpart Bannau Brycheiniog, the park's board said the association with a wood-burning, carbon-emitting blazing beacon was 'not a good look.' Mr Humphrys said today that he never even noticed that the park's logo was a "fiery beacon" and that, in any case, there was no association with the 'threat posed to our planet by the climate change crisis.' The former host of Radio 4's Today program warned that it was not just strangers who would struggle to pronounce the new word, but also many people who were born in Wales but who do not speak Welsh.

The former Radio 4 Today program host, 79, compared the language over the government's small boats crisis to that of 1930s Nazi Germany,'s'morally repugnant.'

The procedure, which dates back to the 16th century, calls for someone holding two L-shaped or one Y-shaped rod in front of them, which is then said to twitch or cross if there is water underneath. This flies in the face of established science, which states that there is nothing that could move the rods. Scientific studies have discredited the technique, with evidence proving that it is no more efficient than guessing. In 2017, ten of the UK's 12 water companies reported that the procedure was used in 2017, compared to just one in 2023.

JAN MOIR: Every morning, nine million of us tune in, soothed by his lowering presence and his peaty voice, with a hint of malt whisky bubbling over the smooth pebbles of pop. And now this! We're losing Ken, we're losing PopMaster, as well as the fluttering ribbon of contestants who have competed for many years. And no, not just for the chance to win a smart speaker or a CD wallet, but also for the opportunity to chat with Ken himself.

King Charles' restaurant in Balmoral is shifting hands, but keeping its royal link intact. In the new year, hospitality company BaxterStorey will take over Ballater, Aberdeenshire's award-winning Rothesay Rooms. The Prince's Foundation, the King's charity, will keep the lease and will grant it to the company for an undisclosed sum.

SUE BARKER: I was fired as the host of the BBC quiz show A Question Of Sport after 24 years in the hot seat, but I'm afraid that has left me marginally injured. Don't get me wrong; I had no issues with being recalled. Everyone has their day. Producers must always have the right to refresh a program and take it in a new direction. It was the way it was handled. With your head held high, it taught me there is really no way to leave a job in a polite, courteous, and helpful manner.

People smugglers have discovered that the Channel is actually very simple to cross. PETER HITCHENS: People who are smugglers have discovered that it is not so simple to cross. They are confident that no civilized, law-governed country will do anything to protect migrants if they are to be effective against migrants, as long as they have been put to sea. This disaster, in large part, is the fault of the Blair Creature and his imitator David Cameron. They began a massive migration of economic migrants from Africa and the Middle East with their half-witted military adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya. This is likely to stop anytime, but it can also be blocked from continuing here.