Hot Topics

'Whatever you may have done in your Premiership you will never ever be as influential as two Britons - Tim Berners-Lee and Jonathan Ive,' Stephen Fry told the Prime Minister in a podcast released through the official Number 10 web site.

The two were talking in the Pillared Room at 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister's official residence, when the subject turned to public image and perception.

'A lot of [communication in politics] is about how you manage [the news], and this is where the whole business to do with spin and spin doctoring comes in,' said Blair. 'In the end you know any organisation that wants to get its message across in the modern world has to realise that it operates through the medium of press and television as they are, and therefore if you are not acclimatised to the world in which they are working then it is really not much use for you.'

Yet as Fry pointed out,

ADVERTISEMENT

TV and the press are now far from the only means of reaching an audience. 'Not only in the press and television but of course the medium that we are using now,' said Fry, referring directly to the podcast. 'We are recording obviously but it is going into a strange place.'

This led directly to his comments about Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web, and the protocols that enabled the podcast's delivery, and to Jonathan Ive (photo above), chief designer at Apple. He was the man behind the iconic look and feel of the iPod which, as Fry pointed out, was the device through which many people would be listening to the two men talk.

'I don't expect you know about all this because you haven't had time to immerse yourself.'

Blair agreed. 'No, I'm going to have to at some stage,' he said.

The recording is part of a series of podcasts in which celebrities such as author Bill Bryson and Radio 2 DJ Chris Evans interview the Prime Minister in his London residence.

The Stephen Fry edition, and a full transcript of the interview, can be found on the official Downing Street site, at number-10.gov.uk

Read comments: 13

Add comments

Email a friend