Lefty blogger (and New Zealander) Kate Belgrave :
At the start of last week, I was surprised by what I felt was a relatively quiet national political and press response to the battles that were raging at council meetings as people protested about council cuts.
The BBC spoke to me about using some of my stuff for segments on cuts last week, and there have been stories here and there on protests.
Any right-ish bloggers, even English ones, getting calls from the BBC ? Do let us know …
* tumbleweed blows across road *
* You wait. Time passes. Thorin sits down and starts singing about gold *
Ah, that brings back memories of my Commodore 64. And typing “Kill Gandalf” in frustration at being trapped in a prison. It didn’t work. Typing “Kill the BBC” has much the same effect.
Good grief, What a memory jogger that line is: time passes, you wait!I had totally forgotten it was lurking in the memory banks.
It’s all too predictable.
But wait, where is the up-to date BBC’s Kate Aidie weeping uncrontrolably in the steets because somebody young and possibly related to a favoured BBC Left-wing dictatorship got shot?
Well, the US isn’t involved, nor did they not kill her by leaving a UK airbase with horrible bombs.
So my point being BBC, Lybia too has got a few problems with Council cuts as well, so will you do an in-depth analysis concerning that over 300 citizens were murdered for having an opinion ?
Or is this just to do with council cuts Kate ?
Noting the ‘reporting’ today that the private sector is not too interested in staffing up from those seeking employment from the trimmed down public sector, with much huffing and puffing but little ‘analysis’ on this reluctance.
A bit like if I were running a professional media outfit and got an application from an ex-state, PC-obsessed, agenda-driven, PR-reprinter who wouldn’t know an impartial story if they tripped over one.
And expected a job by ticking a diversity box, whilst ‘working’ from 9-4, all school hols off and a pension plan that gets topped up if the dodgy investments made for political reasons go South.
On R5 “Wake up to money” the presenter read a text from a listener expressing first hand experience along the lines of Guest Who’s example. The presenter knew better & dismissed the text as out of date prejudice based on “Yes Minister”.
Earlier in the programme the poll results were discussed with the poll originator, Barclay’s Corporate. The Barclays man was also very reluctant to accept the poll findings & sought to distance himself from the expressed majority view. The BBC might come to love bankers if they find more like him!
Years ago (in what might be deemed a Big Society-esque precursor), I was asked by a local social enterprise to contribute to a major community marketing campaign. Happy to oblige. Good cause, and even if no money, a few pieces for the porty.
Trouble was, the dead hand the the Council was involved too.
I was dragged to a meeting the should have taken 30 mins, but lasted several hours until, at 4pm, the LGA reps (most of whom contributed nothing or got in the way) all looked at their watches and announced they had to leave for the day, and it would need to be reconvened.
My opining that while they were all paid to waste money all day, I had better uses of my time, did not go down well.
Wait… what? You mean all those talented public servants who we have to pay the market rate to, lest they head off to the private sector, turn out to be actually unemployable outside the ranks of Brown’s Turkey Army?
No wonder Beeboids are in a snit. It’s like they’re working away in a buggy whip factory and they’ve just seen a Model T Ford pull up outside.
Oh, dear. Not enough jobs in the private sector for telephone sanitizers.
The Management Review of the BBC for 2009/2010 states that there is an impact fund and it highlights the ‘pan-England Local Radio led strand on the public service recession ‘Facing the Cuts’ which used a team of dedicated Local Radio reporters and a BBC survey of council spending plans as the focus for hundreds of stories across all media including on air debtes, a comparative map and content on each of our websites.
Perhaps this is their justification for every negative story about the ‘cuts’ without explaining the need for them in the words of Liam Byrne ‘because there is no money left’ to continue paying for them.
Wonder if the sainted Craig has any anaysis of how the order of news is drawn up, how it unfolds and changes throughout the day- and what an analysis of its implied biases would reveal in ” quantitative terms”
Clearly the wordcloud has “Tory Cuts” “Thatcher” and “blowing the last Labour Governments bountiful legacy, due to you bastard ingrates-look at what you`ve done to Gordon and “our John” you serfs”! prevalent.
Funny how many old colonials like Hain amd Gould seem to be “spokespeople” against cuts and work for the State and its client charities of choice isn`t it? How does a permatanned turf turner from South Africa get a meal ticket for life in pretending he cares for Wales? Didn`t the good people of Neath have a donkey with a red rosette to vote in?
Cheaper,more independence of mind and thought-and not liable to ” discrepancies” charges should the poor mute think that his election to Deputy Leader of the Neath Knackers Yard Party. This at least IS worth two spittoons-unlike holding Harriets nosegay and handbags-like is worth even less than one now!
so this is the origin of the report openers
“SOME SAY”
“SOURCES REPORT”
“THERE ARE THOSE WHO BELIEVE”
it would be funny if it weren’t tragic
Again we`re back to Craig.
Use of language-where the Tories insist but the Labour party believe for an example-really needs looking at.
Pejorative terms-where a rethink is seen as a vacillating U turn-but when labour did it, it was because they were “listening to the people”.
Really need some analysis of our own to prime others about the BBCs(and of course their satraps at the Guardian and Channel4) loading of language to attack the Coalition or raise awareness of current concerns in Labour.
Orwell had all this spot on! Labour alleges,but the Tories defend or persist in.
My favourite BBC trick often used is – Labour says , while Tories claim.
I haven’t heard about any battles raging at any council meetings about the cuts.
A few people have registered their oppostion to the cuts, but the number who have actually turned up at council meetings to do so is insignificant – a tiny, tiny fraction of the amount of people who sit at home watching BBC trash like Eastenders and Casualty while their council meetings take place.