Hook's line sinks as Cooper eases ahead

RADIO REVIEW: SOMETIMES, one worries about George Hook. Such is the level of indignation and irritation he can bring to bear on any number of topics on T he Right Hook(Newstalk, weekdays) that one feels the energy expended must leave even a practised contrarian like himself occasionally drained. It is an opinion seemingly shared – once upon a time at least – by a medical professional, if Dr Harry Barry's appearance last Tuesday is anything to go by.

According to Hook, Barry last year urged him to be more positive, not to get into “a slough of despond”, to use the presenter’s singular turn of phrase. The doctor felt the radio host had responded to the challenge well, but Hook was not so sure: “I have my weaker moments.”

Being positive was one thing, but, he wondered, could one be factual as well? As it was, the facts proved an inconvenient stumbling block, not to his putative positivity but to one of those weaker moments. Spurred by the unfairness of the insurance levy that may be applied to cover the losses of the Quinn Group, Hook held forth on what Ireland could learn from the US when it came to transgressions in business matters. “America has it right. They jail guys; they make them walk down the street in handcuffs and are shamed. And they [Americans] do not bail out bankrupt companies.”

Hook soon had egg on his face, as listeners texted in to remind him that the US rescued its auto industry as well as the mortgage banks Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. “I should have more sense than [to] make outrageous comments,” he said by way of contrition, “but I still suggest the Quinn situation wouldn’t happen in America” – a thesis that apparently overlooked the €120 billion the US spent bailing out AIG, which is, of course, an insurance company.

Hook was even more outraged when it came to Easter Sunday’s dissident republican rally in Derry, where threats were made to kill more Catholic PSNI officers in the wake of the murder of the constable Ronan Kerr. Hook’s description of the behooded paramilitaries as cowards and a looney fringe group seemed to chime with his audience (thankfully). But his understandable emotions seeped into the discussion with the security analyst Declan Power.

The dissidents, Power said, were “people who have an element of a psychopathic nature allied with an ideology which is so singular and one-dimensional as to cut out any attempt at reason or common sense to enter their brain”. Such distaste for the dissidents’ lethal agenda is natural, but the loaded terms precluded a clear-eyed analysis of why these groups persist. Whether Hook wants to be positive or otherwise, his desire to be factual is not helped by his editorialising instincts.

Matt Cooper, on the other hand, could rarely be accused of vituperative spleen. But if he takes a balanced approach that sometimes veers towards the anodyne, the casually probing ethos of The Last Word(Today FM, weekdays) is ultimately more informative than Hook's technique. Wednesday's edition opened with an apparently innocuous item about the Independent TD Finian McGrath's complaints about the HSE's objections to the non-smoking area of his local pub in Drumcondra.

Cooper turned the segment into something more substantial, bringing in the dissenting voice of Dr Luke Clancy and touching on social mores, health policy and the etiquette (or otherwise) of smoking. All the while, he maintained a light touch, ensuring the proceedings never grew too stern.

Cooper kept this up throughout the show. Speaking to the journalist Robert Fisk about the turmoil in Syria, he was engaged without being overly earnest, letting his guest express his editorial asides before getting him back on track with another question.

He was in more jovial mood when he talked royal-wedding fashion with the Irish designer Paul Costelloe. But Cooper did not treat the issue as being beneath his dignity: he discussed Costelloe’s views on 1980s fashion and experiences with Princess Diana with his usual combination of informality and interest.

He could not, however, help asking whether royal protocol allowed dresses to show cleavage, while his observation that Kate Middleton has “great legs” brought a lascivious chuckle from Costelloe. “Very observant of you, Matt,” he said. “You’re still a man: it’s great there are still a few of us left.”

Cooper’s even-handedness may lack the fireworks of Hook’s single-mindedness, but if the American neuroscientist David Eagleman is to be believed, people with strong opinions are as prone to uncertainty as anyone else: they just don’t know it. Eagleman was speaking on Moncrieff (Newstalk, weekdays) about the power the subconscious wields in our everyday lives. Our decisions, he said, are influenced by an ongoing unconscious debate between multiple personalities competing in a “parliament” to win the attention of the conscious mind. “It’s a team of rivals battling it out under the hood,” he said.

If personal, family and social factors influenced the outcome of such inner debates, said Eagleman, this raised moral questions about free will (“If it exists, it is a bit player in the mansion of the brain”) and practical issues about crime and punishment. It was the kind of esoteric but fascinating item Sean Moncrieff is adept at delivering: equal parts philosophical fun and sound science.

Having strong opinions is one thing, but debate, it turns out, is what drives us. Just the facts, please.

Radio moment of the week

Wednesday’s edition of Breakfast (Newstalk, weekdays) was notable for the absence of Ivan Yates, the show’s swaggering co-anchor. Yates hurt his back, a particular problem given that he normally presents the programme standing up. But Yates’s misfortune was grist to the mill of his co-presenter, Chris Donoghue, who spent much of the morning cracking jokes about his better-known colleague’s misfortune.

The best line did not come at Yates’s expense, however. Rather it was a listener’s text, which Donoghue gamely read out: “Maybe Ivan’s back is out because he’s been carrying you for so long, Chris.” Even when he wasn’t there, Yates had the last word.