I see the BBC have responded to the news that Asil Nadir is planning to come back to the UK by dragging up all those memories of the 1980’S emphasising his links to the Conservative Party. I’m not sure if this is the single biggest news story of the day, perhaps it is, but it is clear that the BBC does not miss an opportunity to put the knife into the Conservatives for the sins of the 80’s. In that regard, every day is ground hog day.
BACK TO THE 80’S…
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What would the BBC do if Maggie had never existed ?
I think it says a lot for Nadir to come back to face the music, innocent or guilty. I know the village he lives in, Lapta, and I would much rather sit out a British winter there !
Just put myself through my daily dose of masochism watching the BBC News at One. Why do I do this to myself ?
First 9 minutes devoted to Asil Nadir, Tory-bashing and Michael “don’t let the buggers get you down ” Mates bashing.
The Beeboids haven’t quite made the step of implying that Nadir has only come back because Labour are no longer in power, but give them time, they are quite slow thinkers.
BBC definitely monitoring this website. The tailpiece on News at One now suggesting that Nadir has come back because the “legal environment has changed “. “Legal ” Beeboid codeword for “political “.
It is so obvious which way the BBC is moving.
I’m surprised the BBC want to associate Nadir with Thatcher. It can only remind people that Thatcher was the nadir of socialism.
Hippie,
Ha! Ha ! Nice one !
Hippie,
At the risk of being boring and pedantic “Nadir” in Turkish
means ” rare or unusual “. ” Asil ” means ” foundation ” and also “truth , reality ” . Many other meanings as well, often self-contradictory.
Turks , generally , feel an obligation to live up to the name they are given at birth . I would not know whether this is a factor in Asil’s return to the UK, but I would guess it is in his mind.
Is Ed Balls Turkish then?
OT but News at One on the death of Gareth Williams helpfully tell us that the “cause of death has not been established “. However, Beeboid informs us that “there is a growing sense ” ( wonderful BBC expression ) that the death may be linked to his “complicated private life “.
Time for me to calm down and get back to R4 TMS cricket. Good luck to England !
The Left in this country have done one thing very well – they’ve succeeded in selling a myth of 1980s Britain that everyone seems to buy into. Those of us who grew up in the grim late 70s don’t buy into this myth of ‘savage Thatcherism’, because we remember that the country virtually ground to a halt in the chaotic decade before.
It is about time that we tell the real story of the 80s and stop this mythmaking that is rapidly becoming taken as fact. For most people in Britain it wasn’t a decade of pain, or cuts, or rampant racism – as today’s Left is convincing everyone that it was. Prosperity boomed in the 80s, living standards rose for many. Families grew wealthier, the middle class boomed, and more people had money to travel abroad. Job security was better than it is now, and there was a booming private sector (unlike today).
We had stable government, and a PM that convincingly won 3 elections. Not everything Thatcher did was popular of course, but we had a PM that was prepared to take principled tough choices – something which Cameron half gets (and to be fair, may yet do) but Blair and Brown never did. We stood up for our sovereignty over the Falklands, we had a government that genuinely knew how to tackle terrorism at home and hold firm against the IRA. Then, our government fought the people that tried to blow up cars and shops, today we obsess over the rights of these murderers – and to think that the very man who tried to kill the PM in Brighton was released from prison by Blair! The threat from Islamic terrorists, of course, is a different one – but it’s the same fundamental problem; terrorists trying to kill innocent people and force their agenda on us. Today we talk about ‘community cohesion’ and ‘human rights’, and trying to help or understand terrorists, when the focus should be on how to stop and crush them. That was the 80s I remember – a government that stood firm, and only students and hard leftists banged on the rights of prisoners – these days, it’s the main story on the news! Suspected torture of a terrorist gets as much coverage as the actual bombing – or so it seems anyway.
In the 80s I recall that Thatcher steered Reagan as much as he steered her – whereas today our leaders fall over themselves to lap up attention from the American President. It’s truly pathetic to watch our leaders salivate at the prospect of a photo shoot with the American president. The low point must be Gordon Brown chasing Obama through the kitchens at the UN. Truly embarrassing. And then there’s Europe – we got a lot from Europe in the 80s, and we took back what was ours. We’ve slumped into some sort of collective lethargy today where we give in to Brussels and put up no resistance. We could easily get the EU off our backs if we are tougher (or just ignore what we don’t like, as the French or Italians do) but we just sit back and let some faceless jobsworth take the decisions.
The 90s was the turning point – when awful youth culture took over, when spin truly took over the hall of power, when moral equivalence took hold, when we took on board the New Labour creed for freedom (freedom to do what you want, when you want) and any notion of personal responsibility disappeared. It was replaced by a know all state, and head in the sand mentality summed up by the credit card generation who borrowed against inflated house prices like there was no tomorrow.
Hanson,
That is one of the finest posts I have read on this website, or anywhere. Brilliant, you should copyright it !
More power to your elbow !
Excellent post, Hanson.
This was seen during the election campaign when a couple of spotty youths, brought up only on the BBC worldview, really thought that “The Conservatives will take us back to the 80’s” was a good campaign slogan for them.
Everyone who drinks the BBC Kool-Aid was shocked when those of us who actually lived through the 80’s said excellent, bring it on!
most of the beeb prolls are too young to remember maggie so their views should be taken with a pinch of salt,just like the music shows when the celebs talk about music which was 10 yrs older than themselves….
While I was in Northern Cyprus for work in the early 1980s I met one of Nadir’s truck drivers. He used to travel down from the UK carrying cardboard fruit boxes and bolts of denim cloth. He’d then return after a few days resting and unloading/loading with denim jeans, shirts and jackets, and oranges and lemons.
While the BBC mention Nadir’s business interests in clothing factories and citrus fruits they make no mention of the large number of people he employed, paying above going rates, or his philanthropy – he built a health clinic.
Everyone I spoke to in Nicosia was full of praise for him. Not just because he was the “local boy made good”, but because he provided well paid work, treated his workers well, and contributed to the economy and the community.
I can only wonder if he’d contributed to the Labour party, instead of the Conservatives, whether the BBC would give us a different impression of the man.
You have to remember as well that in the late 80s and 90s the Serious Fraud Office (or whatever it was called back then) appeared hell bent on making its name and justifying its existence with some very high profile cases against businessmen. While I’m not saying the defendants were whiter than white the cases against them always appeared shaky and over complex. From memory the majority of cases were thrown out by the judge on legal grounds or the jury returned not guilty. Where they did obtain a conviction it was overturned on appeal. Odds on if Nadir had held his nerve and stayed he would have been OK.
Tim Worstall has a good explanation of the Polly Peck business model ..
http://timworstall.com/2010/08/26/this-is-going-to-be-fun/