Shameless Self Promotion, UK “Emergency” Budget Edition

In the course of my job, I done a fair share of media work, but it has ramped up significantly in the past couple of years.  In a rare display of organisation, I’ve been keeping track of each appearance on television, radio, or in print since the beginning of 2014, and I’m somewhere over 65 spots. I have some friends to whom that’s not much at all, but a colleague in the media/PR office (or whatever it is named this week) at my august institution of higher learning said I likely have the most appearances at the university, which led me to quip that I should get paid or promoted or something for all this free publicity the place is receiving.  The majority of it is one of several local BBC radio stations, where I’m on to discuss American, British, and local politics, as well as some EU stuff, but national thus far has been limited to American politics (where with my accent I could say just about anything and be taken seriously). I did have an opportunity to go national for British politics on Radio 4 this last election cycle, but it fell through at the last minute for reasons beyond my control.  All that said, I’ll never feel like I’ve made it until I appear live in studio on Cerys Matthews’ show on BBC Radio 6 Music.

Of course, one aspect of this is pitching the analysis to the audience, and this does vary depending on the media outlet; fortunately, academics are supposed to be good at this.  Another aspect is the delicate balance between identities.  Much like in the classroom or in my office, I’m invited to comment in the media because of my academic credentials.  I have to set aside the bit where I’m an active member of the Labour Party.  All of this is a way of introducing the context for my commentary in the link below.

I do somewhere north of 50% of my media stuff for BBC Radio Devon.  The early afternoon presenter, Bill Buckley, is a politics geek, and has recently introduced a new format for Radio Devon around scheduled, live national political events, namely the budget.  This consists of a panel representing several interests or viewpoints, and we’re on air from one to two hours.  With the “Emergency Budget” announced this past Wednesday, the panel included the Chief Executive Officer of the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Regional Chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, and yours truly as the academic “expert”.  We watch a bit of the speech in the House of Commons off air, then react live to the various announcements in the studio (as well as the occasional listener phone-in or email).  This is the third of these I’ve been on (the normal budget speech in March and the “Autumn Statement” in December being the other two) and I’ve really enjoyed it, even though I can only speak in general, nearly superficial terms on these panels, not having a specific interest to elaborate upon.  According to Buckley, the station is receiving excellent feedback from listeners for this format’s ability to explain what’s going on in accessible language, which is encouraging.

Senior management here at LGM has suggested that we should start linking to these appearances, which is a good idea.  So, here’s the link to Wednesday’s panel on BBC Radio Devon, which remains live for a month.  We’re on from about 14 minutes in, and I’m the one with the American accent.  I also did a live remote interview for BBC Radio Cornwall from the Radio Devon studios about an hour before this, as well as a phone interview on Buckley’s show the previous Friday.