I received a copy of an email this morning saying:
This is a link to Richard Murphy's video on inflation…
It's excellent, as usual, but…does RJM only have one shirt? The same one or an indistinguishable facsimile thereof appears in every video!
For the record, I have about five near-identical shirts that I almost always wear, except in high summer. I always replace a worn-out one with one of similar design because I am really not a man with great sartorial interest.
So, it's not the same shirt in every video, I can assure you. What is more, if you really want to be amused, you can spend some time spotting the differences.
But that would be sad.
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Freedom of Information requests going in to the Royal Family, MPs, CEOs, male newsreaders… “How many white shirts do you own?”
Sheesh!
The comment was made in good humour
And so was mine…
I have several very similar shirts. In fact I have one on now.
🙂
Outfits are easy to coordinate if all your shirts look the same making dressing for each appearance very efficient.
One does not have to spend much time deciding which shoes look best to make the right statement.
Precisely
Ian, Whether the shirts are similar or not, I find wearing more than one at a time spoils the look …………. 🙂
One of my brothers does the same but with socks so you don’t notice it
I only have one type of sock – pairing them up is never a problem….
There are more important things in life
Like knickers???
Pardon?
Sarcasm!
🙂
Sarcasm!
“There are more important things in life”
I was comparing the importance of socks in life to the importance of knickers in life.
I think they’re important enough to not require me to have to think too much about them.
I prefer different pairs of socks, otherwise pairing lots of the same colour means that they do not get worm in pairs and can thus wear unevenly
Keir Starmer makes do with one coat – he just keeps turning it.
🙂
“There are more important things in life”
I was comparing the importance of socks in life to the importance of knickers in life.
Both important
But not worthy spending too much time on
Never mind the shirts: how can anybody know for sure if there is just one Richard Murphy or if he has been cloned?
I do have a twin brother
My late father always wore the same style of mid blue short sleeve shirt for the last 30 years of his life. Drove my mother up the wall, but made buying shirts for him simple.
Some good off the cuff comments here.
Ha, ha
B’boom! Tsssh…
I’m here all week…
There are several movies (such as Bond, or Jason Statham’s somewhat gratuitously-violent series) in which the hero always has a closet ready with fresh shirts of identical design, to restore his image after some particularly bruising encounter (the bruises and worse being inflicted on the bad guys!). I feel your style is similar; but the designs are more interesting 🙂 and the ‘encounters’ are with neoliberals, TCP-LINO and so on, in which the pen (and video) is mightier than the sword.
Personally, I find that most patterned shirts and blouses distract from the speaker. This is especially true when the message is really important; this is offensively distressing when sad news is delivered by someone wearing a floral blouse for instance. Considering the important economic message you are delivering, I think that a suit jacket would look more businesslike. I know you put a great deal of thought into these videos so you don’t want to give the casual impression you are dressed to head out birdwatching.
However, although care must be taken not to be seen as identifying with any particular political camp, a plain bold colour shirt will provide strong contrast for photographic purposes as this is what photojournalists look for: the front page of most newspapers is testament to this reality. In addition the first-glance initial attention that might encourage a new viewer to begin watching one of your videos for the first time, might also depend on the same visual contrast. Unfortunately, I think that the shirt and jacket you appear in on all your videos blends into the bookcase behind you far too easily during your presentations.
Sadly, we live in an age of short attention spans and multiple visual distractions, so these points are perhaps worthy of consideration. Please don’t feel insulted by these comments as I want to see you succeed in these challenging mediums.
There may be a poll on this….
What colour shirt by the way? I only own plain blue and pink – my preferred choice.
But I just had lunch with a well known journalist who had been watching them and their opinion was the professorial garb was fine and pretending to look like a politician – plain shirt and jacket – would not work
I may not be able to please everyone here…