Something for the weekend BBC-related comment thread.

Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely

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54 Responses to Something for the weekend BBC-related comment thread.

  1. Chris says:

    I keep looking at the blogs, not just to further my disgust with ‘our’ broadcasting service, but in the hope that I will read encouragements to refuse to pay the license fee. There was a flurry after the Ross/Brand affair; now it’s gone ominously quiet – and without mass refusals we’ll be stuck with NuAuntie forever.

    Send your £139.50 to Help the Aged instead, please! And keep the campaign going!

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  2. Dr Michael Ross says:

    Unbelievable.

    I no longer pay my “licence fee”. Just say no.

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  3. Bloody Brilliant says:

    In fairness to Al Beeb, they are probably right. If you look at the most read stories on their web site you will glean the average intellect of their readers and what makes them tick.

    GDP it aint.

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  4. Cheeta says:

    And as of now it is the Gurkhas leading the headlines. As much as I feel they should ALL be given a place here immediately (ideally replacing 100,000 of certain immigrants already here) and as much as I think Joanna Lumley is the most sexy lady of her age, the GDP figures should be and remain THE headline for today and the weekend.

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  5. will2001 says:

    Well done Sky News. Mrs Balls was interviewed on the economy’s plunge. As usual she was full of party political points scoring* , the Sky News man pointed out that she was representing the government & we were looking to them to to provide leadership & action, the opposition were not in a position to enact their proposals. Everytime I see her on the BBC she concentrates on what the opposition say – I think even Gorbals Mick had to chastise her about it – she is also allowed to talk over opposition politicians.

    (* I particularly loathe her look of pouting, contemptuous mystification when an opposition politician advances an argument which is contrary to Brownthink. Her face just cries out for a good slapping.)

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  6. nrg says:

    I fairness to the Beeb (I know, I know), there are three stories today.
    1. Government lied about economy
    2. Government lied about Gurkhas
    3. Government in massively expensive balls up over prisions (note lack of information about how much has been spent so far)

    It must be hard to know where to start. Though I expects Beeboids will fall back to their default setting and blame Margaret Thatcher. A pity the blessed Mrs. T had not weilded the handbag around Brodacasting House when she had he chance.

    Will, but you still would, wouldn’t you?

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  7. sutekh says:

    Cheeta:
    And as of now it is the Gurkhas leading the headlines. As much as I feel they should ALL be given a place here immediately (ideally replacing 100,000 of certain immigrants already here) and as much as I think Joanna Lumley is the most sexy lady of her age, the GDP figures should be and remain THE headline for today and the weekend.
    Cheeta | Homepage | 24.04.09 – 1:34 pm | #
    ——————————————–
    Seconded (about the Gurkhas I mean, not Ms.Lumley. I’m more of an Amanda Redman fan…).
    It just seems so morally wrong that any old scum can roll into blighty and we bend over backwards to help. Yet these tough little warriors get treated like dirt, after having fought for Britain. It stinks to high heaven…

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  8. Martin says:

    Gurkhas are not likely Liebour voters unlike the thousands of Somalis and Afghans sitting in Calais. if you were Liebour, who would YOU let in?

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  9. JohnA says:

    Trekking through the Ghurka areas of the Annapurna region in the Himalayas (far better than Everest) shows the poverty of so many of their villages. But the people are lovely, there is nil begging – and the little kids want to play cricket with you.

    The key thing the Gov needs to be nailed on is their restriction to 20 years or more service, which essentially bloxks out all the non-officers. Really distasteful, a severe restriction on actual numbers of potential immigrants – but several BBC interviewers are letting Gov spokesmen get away with this obvious and fraudulent ploy.

    The Brigade of Ghurkas now represents 10% of the British Army – the sharp end. It is sickening how Labour is treating these former soldiers of the Crown. Most are content to stay in Nepal, but some have family here, many have sent their children to schools in England and then on to college.

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  10. Martin says:

    JohnA: Like I said, the liebour party probably suspect they are not Liebour supporters nor do they have a significant sized community in the UK, so basically eff them.

    If it were a muzzie regiment McSnot would be doing anal to let them in.

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  11. Red Lepond says:

    The solution is obvious – Nepal should join the EU. If Israel and Turkey are candidates for membership, then a little thing like the Himalayas should be no obstacle.

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  12. Cassandra says:

    The BBC website is a picture of political denial in action, UK car production in freefall, the the budget forecasts by Darling proved to be a pack of lies just two days after they were announced, the UK is now in deep crisis but the BBC is blind to it!

    It seems that if you are a rabid terrorist loving islamist criminal agitator with a foaming racist hatred of whites and infidels then its WELCOME WELCOME COME ON IN TO THE UK, HAVE LOTS OF FREE MONEY AND AS MANY WIVES AS YOU WANT!
    If you have served the UK in the armed forces,risked your life and won medals and distinctions, wish to fit in and make a wonderful contribution to the UK then its PISS OFF AND SEE YOU AROUND NO THANKS YOU ARE NOT WANTED ANYMORE!

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  13. JohnA says:

    The obvious question the BBC is failing to ask is – exactly how many Ghurkhas moved from the other ranks to become officers. It is well known that very few soldiers or airmen choose to take promotion from the cameraderie of the Sergeants’ Mess up the line to become a very junior officer. Pre-1997 probably about 2% or so Ghurkhas became officers and were thus able to serve 20 years. All other ranks have to leave after a max of 15 years.

    So there is clearly a very small number of ex-Ghurkas now eligible under the 20-year rule. What is that number ? And what proportion of them does the Home Office expect to apply – given that many of them are firmly settled back in Nepal.

    I bet the number of likely applicants is about 1 or 2 thousand.

    How many Somalis, for example, who appear to be of no use (and much aggregate damage to British society and economy) have we allowed in ?

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  14. Mark Brentano says:

    Haven’t owned a TV for years – how can anyone watch that stuff? But Radio 4 is nauseating enough. I really like the way – Up shares down shares etc. – that they find the whole recession so amusing. If the Tories had led us into this, the tone would be Inquisitorial. as it is, it’s all a good laugh.

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  15. Ricky Martin says:

    Apologies if this has already been posted but this is a brilliant send-up of Gordon Macbeth – taken from the movie Downfall – about a loony leader hiding in his bunker…..

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNrBqrNhdGU

    There’s a brilliant line about the BBC……it’s hilarious stuff

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  16. Red Lepond says:

    Apart from driving buses and security-guarding, any ideas on what these Gurkhas and their descendants might actually have to offer Britain? We’ve already got enough ex-soldiers of our own on the dole or in prison to be going on with.

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  17. Cassandra says:

    Red lepond,

    What a comment, I think dont think you could have illuminated your value set better if you had tried.

    Can I take it you dislike our military services then?

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  18. Gigits says:

    I’ve blogged this today.

    I just couldn’t believe that the BBC website has relegated this story of total economic disaster to the ‘Business Pages’!

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  19. ed says:

    Gigits- yes. It’s a once in 30 years economic story, yet I haven’t seen it in top place on the BBC website after looking five or six times today

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  20. Pete says:

    Why expect a public corporation with a guaranteed income of billions per year to be in touch with economic affairs, especially during tough times?

    The BBC shares many obsessions with other public sector organisations and their employees – political correctness/equality/diversity, fondness for undemocratic regimes of the left, anti-Israeli and anti-US leanings and global warming hysteria to name the main ones.

    Only those who know their wages are safe whatever happens to the economy can afford to indulge themselves with these interests at everyone else’s expense.

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  21. Gigits says:

    ed, it was the main headline this morning, for about an hour, (just enough, no doubt, for them to argue impartiality) then it was gone down the ‘memory hole’ (or the business pages!).

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  22. Atlas shrugged says:

    Now you all know I am not the type to blow my own trumpet, and all that.

    However.

    I did sort of warn people things economic were going to be very bad indeed, did I not?

    So lets get this right.

    We are being asked to believe by our MSM/BBC along with both sides of The House, that this massive decline in GDP and all the misery that will undoubtedly go with it, has all been caused by, ( well the best word available would be ) ACCIDENT.

    Surly it is utterly IMPOSSIBLE for this situation to have happened by accident. These things can ONLY happen when a large criminal conspiracy is at play, operating at the highest level.

    What makes me laugh is this.

    Many on this site repeatedly and passionately claim that they do not trust the BBC on this, that or the other. However those self same people still clearly still believe the BBC, when it says something that agrees with their own thinking.

    I personally do not trust the BBC with any more then the sporting results, and I am not joking.

    The BBC plays the right every bit as much as it plays the left, and is an expert at playing them both against each other. This is in reality the BBC’s idea of abiding by its charter.

    However, The BBC will bugger us all in the end.

    The BBC treats left and right with manipulation and dishonesty. IMO The BBC is more dishonest to the left then the right.

    I would go as far as saying that if the BBC is pretending to be your friend, you certainly don’t need any more enemies.

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  23. piggy kosher says:

    Why did the U.K govt let all the Pakistanis in, and the Nepalese kept out? Im genuinely puzzled.
    Now THATS fecking racist.

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  24. piggy kosher says:

    Or does it go way over the head of a beeboid and spatter the wall, irony wise.

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  25. Martin says:

    piggy kosher: Because Muzzie’s vote Liebour and Gurkhas don’t.

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  26. piggy kosher says:

    Cowardly, immoral, destructive scum this govt.

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  27. AndrewSouthLondon says:

    Sectarian Scottish hate the English hate “toffs” hate the “bosses” hate Tories, hate “the rich”. Infantile Marxism sweetened with red champagne and fear of being called racist, which is the smear they applied to anyone who question their “open doors” Britain (Benefits provided while you wait. Queue here for your state-funded lawyer) What a load of evil scum.

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  28. Sarah Jane's Ghost says:

    Main story at 21.20 is ‘UK Economy weakest in 30 years’

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  29. Chuffer says:

    Atlas,
    What, nothing about married-to-Royals criminals changing the weather this week?
    How very dull.

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  30. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Sarah Jane’s Ghost | 24.04.09 – 9:25 pm |

    Main story at 21.20 is ‘UK Economy weakest in 30 years’

    Yes, in attributive quotes. Plus you have the ONS guy saying he doubts things will continue to contract at such a rate, which is another way of pretending to predict recovery. Then there’s the video clip of Yvette Cooper for the defense, forecasting recovery beginning at the end of the year. The report ends with the ONS saying their verdict could change, and in case there’s any doubt as to the desired direction, the last bit is “some better news for the economy”, specifically retail sales, as mentioned in other reports about green shoots of recovery.

    At least this time they don’t bring up who was in power the last time people saw these numbers. But there’s a reason for that, isn’t there?

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  31. Dave S says:

    Red lepond.
    The Ghurkas are loyal to our monarch. Not to parliament, Brown or the BBC.
    That is quite enough for me. I require no further proof of a man’s suitability to stay in England.
    Their loyalty actually means something.
    The sneering classes that infest this country like a plague of locusts will never understand.
    The BBC is one long sneer at the notion of England.

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  32. Martin says:

    What a prat Vince Cable is. On his budget response he claims that manyof our banks are nationalised but are having to lay off people because they are struggling.

    THEN the prat says there are tax loopholes for companies that need to be closed to make them pay for tax cuts.

    So Vince which is it? Do you want to tax struggling companies MORE or LESS?

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  33. Jon says:

    Martin | 24.04.09 – 10:47 pm |

    Vince Cable can spout as much garbage as he likes – as he will never have to prove himself. The BBC don’t seem to realise that this bloke is a politician – not an independant expert. I have never once heard anyone on the BBC questioning this blokes views.

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  34. Martin says:

    I should have said companies not banks.

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  35. Red Lepond says:

    So all the Gurkahs, or indeed anyone need do is pledge fealty to the monarchy and they get to become British citizens? Seems like a good bargain from their side, but, I iterate, what do we get out of it?

    I also wonder just how grateful and loyal second or third generation Nepalese-Brits will turn out to be.

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  36. Red Lepond says:

    Cassandra, chill, babe. I’m cool with the military, as long as they can hold their drink.

    Just stop assuming you have the right to dole out British citizenships to your favoured ethnic groups.

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  37. Jim Miller says:

    FWIW – The US allows some foreign nationals to earn citizenship by serving in the US military. From time to time you even hear about citizenship ceremonies over in Iraq.

    Don’t know if we take in any Gurkhas, but they sound like the kind of men we should accept. Perhaps we could trade some of our Somalis for some of your Gurkhas?

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  38. Cheesehoven says:

    I noticed that BBC Breakfast led yesterday with a *proposed* crackdown on benefits cheats living abroad, a story which would ordinarily barely be reported as being too ‘daily mail’ let along be given top billing. I did wonder why, considering the abundance of real and immediate stories, until the deficit came out.

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  39. Liquid P Gasse says:

    Steph Flanders on BBC News last night said ‘the worst is behind us..’ – wow

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  40. Grant says:

    Martin 3:44
    I think you have hit the nail on the head. This scum government know that the Gurkhas are unlikely to vote Labour and, of course, they hate all military people.

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  41. Grant says:

    Martin 5:12
    Another good point. If the Gurkhas were muslims, they would all be let in immediately.

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  42. Grant says:

    Is Red Lepond a troll ?

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  43. Craig says:

    Jon,
    “Vince Cable can spout as much garbage as he likes – as he will never have to prove himself. The BBC don’t seem to realise that this bloke is a politician – not an independant expert. I have never once heard anyone on the BBC questioning this blokes views.”

    Dead right. Vince is on the Beeb even more than Crash Gordon’s best pal Peston & is always given a free ride.

    With one exception…

    I once saw Glenn Campbell (the Beeboid not the singer) on the Politics Show Scotland – come on, you all watch it, don’t you?!?! – play Vince a clip from a few years ago saying the exact opposite of what he says now (and so showing him not to be quite the Great Sage he and the rest of the BBC thinks he is). The shock on Vince’s face was priceless. His composure went. His eyes were darting all over the place & his mouth was twitching like crazy. If Beeboids did start questioning Vince, the man would fall apart.

    It had obviously never happened to him before and I’ve never seen it happen since. I doubt I’m like to either.

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  44. JohnA says:

    The betrayal of the Ghurkas is the big front page headline on half the UK press this morning. Many of the editorials and comments contrast the disgraceful treatment being meted out to these soldiers with the welcome Labour has given to all manner of undesirables.

    There are about 35,000 former Ghurkas who served before 1997 – and many of them are firmly settled in Nepal.

    It appears that only 2% of Ghurkhas became officers and could therefore comply with the 20-years-of-service criterion.

    And only one living Ghurka could benefit from the criterion favouring those with the VC, DSO or MC.

    It therefore looks as though the Govt is outright lying when it suggests that the new rules would allow 4000 Ghurkhas in, or 10,000 counting dependants.

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  45. Red Lepond says:

    ‘There are about 35,000 former Ghurkas who served before 1997 – and many of them are firmly settled in Nepal.’

    Good. Let them stay there. We’re actually losing sight of the lamentable fact that those serving in the British army since 1997 do have the right to settle here. That will mean tens of thousands of Gurkahs and their dependents settling in the UK over future decades.

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  46. JohnA says:

    You really manage to post some scum stuff, Mr Troll

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  47. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    I am surprised that the BBC is hiding the destruction of economy by Blair/Brown. The current Chancellor has a background as below, extracted from Wiki:

    Now, given that marxists/trotskyists/whatever-scum have long declared their intention to bring not just Edinburgh, but all of Britain to ruin, Darling must have been quite pleased with himself when he announced exactly that, although most ‘credit’ should go to his boss, who also has a weakness for marxism as the subject of his doctoral thesis shows. So, come on BBC, lets hear more for our marxists in government who have achieved their lifetime goal.

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  48. Allan@Aberdeen says:

    He was educated in Kirkcaldy, and the private Loretto School, Musselburgh, East Lothian, then attended the University of Aberdeen where he was awarded a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B). He became the head of Aberdeen University Students Union. Before joining the Labour Party at the age of 23 in 1977, Darling was a supporter of the International Marxist Group, the British section of the Trotskyist Fourth International.[2][3][4] He became a solicitor in 1978, then changed course for the Scots bar and was admitted as an advocate in 1984. He was elected as a councillor to the Lothian Regional Council in 1982 where he supported large rates rises in defiance of Margaret Thatcher’s rate-capping laws and even threatened not to set a rate at all.

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  49. Liquid P Gasse says:

    What a prick then?!

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  50. Red Lepond says:

    There should be a scheme whereby supporters of the Gurkahs like JohnA could put their money where their mouths are and sponsor a Gurkah. This would involve a monetary surety and the provision of a home, preferably their spare room.

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