# Canon Angela Tilby Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283/canon-angela-tilby Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283/canon-angela-tilby.md Podcast: [Thought for the Day](https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283) Published: 2026-06-03T11:02:00+00:00 Episode link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0npt6jj Audio file: http://open.live.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/6/redir/version/2.0/mediaset/audio-nondrm-download-rss/proto/http/vpid/p0npt4h3.mp3 Processing state: not_requested JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/thought-for-the-day-385283/episodes/canon-angela-tilby Duration seconds: 155 ## Resource Good morning. One of the clichés of the media industry is that the public have a ‘right to know’ especially when things go wrong. It’s often true. Think of the post office scandal or the recent investigations into some of our privatised water companies. It’s important for the public to know when rules are being broken and when there’s manifest injustice. But the right to know must be balanced by prudence. On issues of security or defence, or when vital decisions are waiting, secrecy can be important. The whole point of a democratic system is that it’s for us to choose who we trust, who we allow to keep secrets on our behalf. And all this is fine of course, until it goes wrong. In recent days many files relating to Peter Mandelson have been made public. We’ve learnt of indiscreet remarks between him and the then Work and Pensions Secretary, Pat McFadden. There are scathing comments about the Prime Minister and other leading politicians which were never meant to see the light of day, and come across now as disloyal. Reading them I can’t help but suspect part of this was simply letting off steam. Politicians have a right, as we all do, to trust that casual remarks sometimes made in frustration won’t go any further. But of course they sometimes do and in the days of smart phones this trust is coming to seem naïve. Perhaps these days we could reflect that Jesus’ prophecy: ‘What you have said in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in an inner chamber will be proclaimed on the housetops’. This is very challenging. Who hasn’t said something disparaging behind someone’s back and then interacted with them as if they’d never spoken? Hypocrisy is part of the human condition. And Jesus himself warns against it. ‘Let your yea be yea and your no be no’. T… ## Actions - request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/thought-for-the-day-385283/episodes/canon-angela-tilby/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode. - read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/thought-for-the-day-385283/canon-angela-tilby.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource. A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed. ## Transcript Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.