Is the staid cosy world of Radio 4 topical comedy really being forced into a tokenistic gesture to fend off criticism of its blatant political bias?
I don’t know how truthful that tweet is but it would be amusing to think that, after all these years, Hardy and pals suddenly found that even their smug little lefty enclave was not beyond the reach of the BBC’s Diversity Strategy with its commitment “to reflect the diversity of the nation accurately and authentically”.
If the “decree” is genuine, it will no doubt be good news for a handful of moderate centre-ground media types who are deemed acceptable enough to fill the role of “right-wing guest” each week (keep your Thursday evenings free, Hugo).
How much more fun to have somebody who really would shake things up. David Starkey, for example. I wonder what Jeremy would have to say about that?
Like most of Hardy’s material – not very original:
From fine upstanding citizen Piers Morgan to lefty R4 Front Row presenter John Wilson, people are queuing up to declare Starkey’s TV career over. A return to radio could be just the thing. The News Quiz should snap him up now. What’s more, Jeremy Hardy would probably boycott the programme. I believe that’s known as win-win.
Let the campaign begin – Starkey for the News Quiz!
ROBERT BROWN; Hardy is an un-funny left-wing dwarf, Starkey would wipe the floor with him.
I’d like to see that – literally.
Hardy’s “you can lie about Tories” quote deserves to be added permanently to the sidebar of this site.
Why do these Lefties think that Starkeys career is over? All he does is write books and makes documentaries about Tudor England. His target audience probably agrees with what he says.
However is there going to be a sinister blacklist, over at Channel 4. Funny how Libtards complain about the American McCarthyite area, and want free speech. However they turn Stalinistic when someone says something they don’t like.
As for Hardy when was the last time he said anything funny. Oh yes 1989, in Blackadder Goes Forth, “Well, Captain, I’ve got to admire your balls.” And he didn’t even write those lines.
With that nasty display of foul language and anti-tory bias, Hardys career should be the one that is over.
Do the Conservative Party really think that the BBC is wonderful when it employs obnoxious marxist “comedians”?
He isn’t a Marxist. He isn’t bright enough for that. Just a weird little fellow traveller who likes what he sees around him because it gives him a living. A court jester. No original thought at all. Sees all analysis as a threat to his self image. Hence the bile. Narcissist.
Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steele – both deserve to be off the air for good…
I would say the vast majority of the population agree with Starky. I’ve certainly not yet spoken to anyone who doesn’t.
Hardy on the other had, along with other pieces of communist filth such as Mark Thomas and Mark Steel, have opinions which I would imagine are shared by a fraction of one percent of the population, and none of them are over 18.
Just as an aside, and I am not just saying this. I am a self confessed blackadder geek. I love it. Apart from series one of course. And of all the episodes, one character has always bothered me for being unfunny and terribly badly acted. (I promise this is true). And that character was the jailer in Blackadder goes forth. I had no idea until just then it was Hardy. None. I have to fast forward through his bits, it was just so bad. How amusing, it turns out to be the most hateful man, along with Morgan and Brigstock on television.
What is it with that name Jeremy then?
Starkey is a giant amongst moral and intellectual dwarves and pygmies.
Little Hardy needs to do a bit of street stand up somewhere in Croydon or Winson Green!-keepin` it real as his like seem to think “cred”.
What about a busk/duet with Mitch Benn?
I`d keep lookout-then “tell mi boyz in da hud” where their brand of wit is to be found…an honesty box for all those CDs they“d shift though!
I think Hardy would need to be softened up with the big guns before the special forces are sent in. Where is Jim Davidson, this in the hour of our need?
Balance in BBC Comedy? The solution is not to add Right Wing comedian, but to drop the left wing political activist comedians altogether, and return to proper comedy.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/damianthompson/100098424/throwing-pies-at-lefty-comedians/
“British stand-up comedy is stuck in a trap. It takes its subject matter from the Guardian, the BBC and Channel 4, the last two of which painstakingly assemble audiences whose views coincide with the Left-liberal consensus and laugh out of loyalty.”
Watching stand up over the last few evenings on “Dave” (great channel) there were entire evenings without a single left-wing political sneer passing for a joke. Wit and observational stuff, and very funny for the most part.
BBC comedy has adopted the topical panel quiz format as a natural platform for heaving bricks at Tories. I doubt the formula can still work with balance. Imagine Pat Condell describing the BBC as “full of white middle class left wing pricks”, on the BBC. Stony silence. The BBC can not look itself in the mirror.
Better that in line with Hardy’s tweet, that any token right-wing comedian is not only armed (with a custard pie) but has memorised what Hardy looks like, and is a better shot than Marbles.
When there is talk about balance in comedy – we’ve lost the plot. Comedy should be funny or atleast amusing, surely?.
Instead, we get stupid dwarf communists spouting left wing twaddle or we get something so utterly dilute that the dire Miranda is sat on every panel show.
Thank God we still have one or two comedians left who actually read the job description and got on with it – Jeremy Hardy isn’t one of them – I have heard him spouting on for years, believing his own write-ups from the BBC Publicity Department I guess and I’m still waiting to find him even mildly amusing.
If he was never employed again I wouldn’t miss him
ROBERT BROWN; Thanks for giving Pat Condell a plug LC, terrific guy, if anyone here has not seen his stuff, rants, if you like, tap in his name for the site, the abusive comments section is amusing too, if a bit lengthy! Oh, if you are in any way a devout muslim, christian etc….. beware.
If by ‘right wing’ the BBC mean people as far to the right as Hardy is to the left, then we’ll be seeing a lot of BNP and EDL guests and Holocaust deniers. When Israel comes up they’ll get on swimmingly. Hardy would make someone like David Irving look reasonable.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2003/07/274831.html?c=on
In this link you’ll see reference to the role he played in the takeover of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem by Palestianian terrorists to elude pursuing Israeli soliders. He and his ‘peace’ group managed to get in as well. I well remember Hardy being interviewed on BBC Radio saying the Palestianians had no weapons, effectively saying they had just sought sanctuary in the Church because the Israelis like chasing Palestinians and killing them without reason.
Hardy really is the most verminous anti-Semitic scum. He could transit into any Nazi Party without difficulty.
The comments section of that link are pretty interesting as well. The cross section of differing militant leftist Trots from Indymedia, are whipping themselves up into a Stalinist frenzy, arguing as to whether Hardy is SWP or not….
Who cares!…..He’s a Communist employed regularly under the guise of “Humour”, by the tax payer funded entity that is the BBC.
His infesting of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue is one of the worst crimes against humour and taste the BBC have perpetrated over the last few years. ISIHAC should be for pure silly comedy and Jeremy Hardy a) cannot compete with the other three and b) does try and inject some political ‘humour’. Jeremy Hardy is a total c*nt.
Jeremy Hardy is one of those people who I would really enjoy watching while he suffered excruciating torture. Prolonged over, say , 10 episode series. Maybe the audience could vote for which bit of him is cut off next?
I wouldn’t.
ROBERT BROWN; Tell you what John, it would give me pleasure to know that he reads our comments, but sadly, he is probably unaware of this site, such is the inherent denial behaviour of left-wing persons.
Hardy using the obnoxious misogynistic C-word – what another example of leftwing hypocrisy and arrogance.
“You can lie about the Tories because there is a higher truth”
Is that the new motto of the BBC?
I wonder what this higher truth is that he is so keen to defend?
Something other than truth. Lies is the usual name for it.
So lies on behalf of what?
His membership of a political group that hero worships Lenin gives us a clue. Democracy? No. Freedom of speech? No. Higher living standards for the poor? Nope. What then? Absolute rule by a socialist elite.
This is worth lying for?
Evidently, in his mind, yes.
If there is a new BBC decree that the News Quiz should now always have a right-wing member – is this not absolute proof that it has long been hugely biased to the left ?
But Dez and the other bleaters claim there is not endless leftie bias at the BBC ?
What we now need is an addendum to the new decree – people who appear on the News Quiz should be original and FUNNY. Some hope.
It would also need two right-wingers for it to be balanced.
Two Trotskyites and two Stalinists seems to be the BBC’s idea of balance with this awful programme.
Here’s a brief clip of two comedy greats – Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel. They clearly find themselves hysterical. Does anyone really think Steel talks like that when off camera, with such a forced faux-working class delivery. Reminds me of Ben Elton’s cringeworthy mockney.
Also – An excerpt from QI
Jeremy
Thatcher’s grave is going to be a permanent urinal to all decent people, isn’t it? There will be . . .
Stephen
Won’t it be a . . . in fact, a dance floor?
Alan
What they should put on Thatcher’s grave is one of those arcade machines where the lights flash up and you have to put your feet on the lights. [slaps his palms on the table in criss-cross patterns]
But the bongo player in, er, T-Rex . . . Mmm . . .
Funny, isn’t it. The number of lefty comedians on the BBC that I find not just unfunny but deeply objectionable is a long list indeed.
Bear in mind that we poor sods that go to Tolpuddle every year have Thomas, Steel and Hardy(well presumably he`s too funny now being a star of Radio 4!)…but Steel and Thomas are bankers…yes, you heard me right “ladies un gl`men!”
Like Braggs “All you need is union card” anthem…it`s always the Last Night at the Proms “Jerusalem ” moment…not a dry antisemitic tract in the house by that time!
Blears, Hain….we`ve had ALL the stars here guv!
Competion Time! Jeremy Hardy’s grave will be…
A snooker table! You can spend hours potting his red balls.
… filled not a moment too soon…
Ye Gods. You’d have to labour long and hard in the Lenny Henry Mines to unearth anything quite as unfunny as a conversation between these two sniggering tits. Not too sure who Hardy actually is, but interesting that he should casually presume his BBC show a haven for left-wingers, with anyone else an unwelcome interloper. A typical leftie’s pea-brained take on democracy, I suppose.
That’s been the culture of BBC/CH4 comedy since the 80s – a closed shop for like minded left-wing activists who wrap their political agenda in the cloak of so-called comedy. If there are any right-of-centre comedians that make their way onto any of the current crop of comedy panel shows, they are clearly keeping their political outlook to themselves lest they be excluded.
Two irrelevances laughing at each other’s psuedo-comedic left wing observations – they deserve each other.
I hope they tour together indefinitely – if it would keep them off the media.
Steven ‘Two Tons’ Nolan on Radio 5 Listeners went doo-lally over Starkey.
Every caller got, ‘Let me just re-run the tape for ye so I will to be sure’.
When some right-wing Bufton-Tufton says something ABSOLUTELY OUTRAGEOUS !!!!! the pretrendy left shriekocracy crank the volume up to full howl.
When Jeremy Hardy says ‘cunt’ it’s hilarious and edgy.
I sincerely hope he predeceases me so I can go along kick over his gravestone and pee on his grave.
I’d make sure i was bursting too 🙂
He’s one of the few people about whom I can honestly say, that if I saw in the street, I wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to beat to an absolute pulp.
Join the queue. Let the ladies at him first, like the Taliban wives do…strip him of all serviceable parts.
ROBERT BROWN; Classy Bupendra, i think a long steaming no.2 would suffice, every day.
Jeremy Hardy doesn’t deserve to be beaten or have his grave defaced, he deserves to be have a complaint filed against him.
Oh the irony of that reptile Piers Morgan bidding farewell to someone else’s TV career. The clock is ticking on yours too, you mendacious fraud.
Hardy’s ‘humour’ is feeble and adolescent, but why should he bother to try to do better when he knows he’s guaranteed a good wage from the BBC every year for the rubbish he currently produces?
Good luck to the man. He’s exploiting a ludicrous situation which requires everyone to pay his wages or get a fine and a criminal record for using their own TV in their own home. He didn’t dream up such a ridiculous arrangement.
Yes, the grand hypocrisy of a marxist receiving a regular and no doubt handsome salary derived from a poll tax.
From what I have heard, I think Hardy can be funny when he stays off politics. Problem is he’s can’t for long, he is addicted to the “I Hate Tories” school of comedy. Putting him on the News Quiz is like putting an alcoholic in charge of the wine cellar. The producer knows what will happen and its alright with him.
The Producer is the problem, not Hardy. I don’t expect Hardy to change, I expect the Producer to change – change the roster of comedians. There is plenty of talent out there. As always its the BBC and its institutional leftism that is the problem.
Personally, I would like to see this whole program “refreshed”. For Hardy its a bit of a career gig. As far as I can tell he seems to play village halls the rest of the time and certainly without this program he would have to earn a living selling the Socialist Worker. I think he only got the gig because they like the rest of us thought he was gay – he’s not apparantly. In fairness their was a time when he was funny (we were all young once!) – trouble is that was 25 years ago. No new material! Well thats a bit of an understatement he’s still doing his anti-thatcher shtick! On one progarm recently there were 4 references to thatcher amongst the comrrades someone really must point out the name of the program is the News Quiz not the History Quiz. Forget about the politics they are just not funny! Not that that really is a hindrance on the BBC because offiicially making people laugh at loud is seen as an old-fashioned concept better to be edgy and pushing comedy in new ways. Trouble is Jeremy you are failing on all fronts. Time to start thinking about another career methinks!
Sandi Tozvig — Don’t get me started!!!!
I have linked to a YouTube clip which has long been a favorite of mine. I play it to myself every now and then to remind myself of how corrupt performers can become when they lose touch with reality.
The clip features Jeremy Hardy and Mark Steel, two self-regarding “comedians”, displaying an arrogance that would shame better performers. In the clip Hardy discusses audiences in Maidenhead Reading and High Wycombe.
Here’s a little tip lads. If the audience doesn’t laugh at you, it might – consider this revolutionary thought – it might just be that you are not funny. The sad part is that their fans don’t realize that Hardy and company think they are “toss-pots”. It never occurs to the kind of people who pay money to see these guys that they are laughing at THEM!
The place where hot house flowers like these two wankers grow tallest is in a studio surrounded by sycophants and arse-lickers where abuse passes for wit and the stage becomes a soapbox. Their acts are saved on the cutting room floor and with the heavy use of the laugh track. (And if anyone tells you the Beeb doesn’t use laugh tracks don’t believe it!)
One can only presume they’ve had a toke on something before filming this given their giggles. There was certainly nothing else to explain it.
Well spoken William…thanks Louis!
Useful to remind ourselves where the BBC choose to splash the fruits of the highway robbery they are “licenced” to extract from the little people.
Imagine Mike and Bernie had they gone to Roehampton Poly. And at least Bernie was kind to his dog…and braved the Glasgow Empire.
Hardy and the whole tired roster of old lefties are just bed blockers and stagnant millponds…but barnacles that hold the tatty pleasure pedalo together until it gets decommissioned!
The whole rotten hulk need scuttling…but rusts wearily by the day!
Whatever token gesture R4 may or may not be planning for the News Quiz is more than offset by other proposals:
“In her first reorganisation of the BBC Radio 4 schedule, Controller Gwyneth Williams is to extend The World At One by 15 minutes, with effect from the 7 November….
Sunday evenings will also see changes this autumn. Sunday Night Comedy will replace Americana at 7.15pm on Sunday evenings from 18 September. Comedies such as a new panel game Dilemma, hosted by Sue Perkins; political satire from Rory Bremner; and a new series from Cabin Pressure star and writer John Finnemore in John Finnemore’s Sketch Show, will all bring cheer to Sunday evenings.“
Radio 4 Controller – wow, what a tough job that is. Spin a wheel and see where it points: a panel game presented by a lesbo lefty comedian, a bit of lefty political satire, or a camp lefty sketch show. Hey, why not all three! Best part of £200,000/year well earned right there.
Thank you D B
Given all the excitement over the world’s funniest man resorting to expletives, I’d forgotten about the world’s funniest woman resorting to – well – er – !!! Oh yes, a nice pay cheque from the BBC.
The least we deserve is an hour special of Hardy in Perkin (very unlikely for you Jerrez as your a boy) daily for the next 6 months.
And here’s an idea as to what to call the show JH & SP – Fuck off licence fee payers !
See ? I can be edgey as well !
BBC time servers do love their Twitter, don’t they?
Sloganized, groupthink and the just the medium for – what I believe anti-racists would dub – ‘Dog Whistle’ politics.
Whereas Starkey is worth listening to since he tends to construct and develope an argument.
And therein lies the difference between right and left.
That and – as Kirsty Allsop once said – ‘right wingers think left wingers are missguided, but left wingers think right wingers are evil’.
(Or words to that effect).
I can’t be right wing then; because I regard left-wingers as malicious, mendacious, vicious, often vacuous and downright disgusting. Oh, and I also regard them as evil too.
On Sky News they are doing the paper review. One of the reviewers is Sarfraz Manzoor who I was expecting to be the typical Guardian leftie, but in fact he’s speaking quite a bit of sense. As an example whilst he thought the politicians were being opportunistic he agreed more with Cameron that the lack of authority figures and discipline was a cause (not he only one) than Red Ed’s prattling on about bankers.
I know Manzoor does a lot for the BBC but I wonder if they’ve kept him off the air due to him being a bit off leftie message?
A relation of Taaj Manzoor perhaps?
By the way notice how quiet the BBC have been over yet another rather damp cool summer. Or will the BBC believe the tossers at Anglia Poly and tell us that this summer is the hottest on record ‘again’?
Just thinking that myself. Cardiff tonight will feel like 6C and its the middle of August. But that is just weather – if it had been one “scorching” day it would have been climate.
http://www.accuweather.com/ukie/index-forecast.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&postalcode=CARDIFF
You’ve missed their clever trick : Swapping from the phrase ‘Global Warming’ to the ambiguous ‘Climate Change’. That way, whatever happens in the future, they’re right. Magic.
The BBC has a great deal to hide with South America/Australia/New Zealand all feeling the effects of cooling. The East coast of the USA has been colder than usual.
The BBC has to concentrate on the few areas seeing hotter than usual temps like Texas, but there again Texas summers have always been hot so there is nothing new there. Antarctica is cooling down, sea ice levels are still higher than average. And to top it all the Kiwis in south island are being buried under a giant snow blanket.
This is the perverted BBC notion of the CAGW consensus you see, in reality the CAGW consensus involves lying and cheating and deceiving the viewer/listener. Aint got nuthin to do with scientific consensus because there isnt one. The BBC have become depraved degenerates without noticing, there will come a time when the BBC will be forced to look in the mirror of reality, the ends never justify the means.
Didn’t stop them shoehorning a reference into how climate change is threatening whales due to the rise in Antarctic temperatures into last night’s otherwise interesting Ocean Giants programme.
Shame it was narrated by Stephen Fry instead of someone who actually knows about them. Was it just so he could tell us how big whales’ testicles are?
Well spoken Martin!
At least SOMEONE out there cares about the planet…and I won`t have been the only one crying about those 2020 carbon emission targets now being at risk due to the disappointing behavior of some of our challenged and vulnerable children…for that is what they are! Forever young…those ten year old Schoolchildren Oystercards are concluding evidence of that!
Litter, carbon footprint…and I saw NO-ONE putting their trainer boxes in the right wheelie bin…Buddha knows I triedto look for hope, but…
So we`re the dirty man of Europe again…let`s hope some Guardian reader with a double barrelled name will send Jocasta to Norway to see how those polar bears responded to the tragic loss of a soulja…he`d have been a scientist at the IPCC you know, had he not fallen over that icy trip wire he “tripped over”!
So-is global warming a good or a bad thing then?…
Jeremy Hardy is definitely over-exposed. He can be very funny on ISIHAC, but so can others.
David Starkey is maybe too intelligent for the level of debate we can expect on broadcast TV. Being talked over and misrepresented is poor substitute for an argument from his opponents. I wish there was someone as cogent in putting forward the left wing point of view, as I’d welcome being challenged. As it is, the more I hear the more my prejudices are reinforced because of the appallingly dire quality of left wing commentators.
Bit of hypocritical psychological projection going on there it would seem – with Hardy slurring ‘right-wingers’ as being somehow synonymous with gun-violence…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/lancashire/3974731.stm
Well spotted, Gud.
Nice kick at the new generation of “I can’t believe they’re not Labour” Conservatives. Louise Mensch surely leads this pack.
Off-topic. Anyone else notice that Marcus Brigstocke helpfully put David Starkey’s car registration on Twitter – twice.
marcusbrig Marcus Brigstocke David Starkey’s car has the number plate V111 HEN. That should tell you all you need to know about him. #true
13 Aug
While he would probably get away with strict incitement it is an invasion of privacy. Let’s hope the address of Brigstock’s home in Clapham is never published.
brigstocke
what an utter knob
Someone also Tweeted :
“Aren’t you going to do your funny Ja-fakin accent for us now Marcus ?”
Anyone got a link of Shitstock doing the unPC ethnic impression?
“Someone also Tweeted :
“Aren’t you going to do your funny Ja-fakin accent for us now Marcus ?”
Anyone got a link of Shitstock doing the unPC ethnic impression?”
LOL – “The Lardy Yardie”
Is I being fick or summink, but what is ‘obvious’ about “V111 HEN” ?
If he was sporting “ADOLFH 4EVR” OF “GAS 4 BLKS” I could see it, but what the heck has Prickstocke deduced from Starkeys’s actual plates ??
Prickstocke+Meat suit+Wolves. Just a reminder.
The Guardian got Dreda Say Mitchell to continue her ad hominem attacks on David Starkey on CiF. In it she claims that 99% of her emailers agree with her. Well, 90% of the comments definitely don’t, as you can see here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/14/david-starkey-ethnic-year-zero
(incidentally, something odd is going on at CiF. Overnight, many of the pro-DSM comments – the ones that simply insult DS – have put on HUNDREDS of Recommends. I’m not saying it’s an inside job, obviously, but . . . )
Just an addition to the debate. The trouble with the Left is their addiction to the narrative and their dire and unproductive even destructive attempts to shut down honest and open debate. Their attempt to monopolise a faux high ground even when their argument is quite patently wrong.
Perhaps the following from Ross Kemp shouldfind its way into every BBC in-box.
The black communities of London (or elements therein) “blame” the government for mach-10s being on the streets. This is rubbish. It’s been a thing (culture) imported from the states and is related to “protection” of drugs trades – gang areas. Unless the communities acknowledge there’s a problem in the midst. Like an alcoholic – or any addict – no reform is possible because they won’t acknowledge THEY are responsible for their own problems.
Poverty affects whites as much as blacks in the UK. So that is certainly not an excuse. Since gun or knife crime white on white is not at near the same level. The issue is the gangs get people out of education young. This is a result of cultures from the west-indies and America influencing London’s streets. It really infuriates me when people turn around and decry “Racism” – when infact it’s not at all.”
Easy to set anyones moral compass, thanks to the Pathfinders at the BBC and the dead tree portable version called the Guardian( where facts can`t be sacred if there`s no God as they say!…but hey..).
1. Start with Kelly/Gilligan and point at that place.
2. Do a random check on all psychic slurry and landfill slopped up to us since then…I find a nice bay leaf where Ross/Brand or Orla Guerin let their calling cards for example…but it`s an individual thing…this is the “direction of travel”
3. Turn EXACTLY at 180 degrees to that direction…you`ll find Mel, Israel, USA/Tea Party, Carswell, Hannan, Hitchens (P) and the usual good souls sloshing in the slurry and cleaning their wellies en route perhaps?…who knows?
4. Walk proudly on, keep your nostrils clear and don` look back at the wreakage and burning martyrs/bleeding hearts of “progressive, liberal and passionate” types…the ones infesting the whores bed with publi lice of the soul.
You`ll not go wrong…for the tossers who will cavil and quibble say that “wrong” is not a construct…so how can you be?
“Talking about a revolution eh?…bit more than a whisper nowadays Tracey pet!”
“Is David Starkey a racist?”
(by Rod Liddle)
[Excerpt]:
“Should David Starkey be made homeless by his local council for his recent ‘inflammatory’ comments about the riots which have so entertained us recently? I do not know who runs Mr Starkey’s local council and I suppose that he is an owner-occupier, rather than living in accommodation subsidised by the rest of us. But clearly, according to many eminent figures, such as the BBC’s camp and self important business correspondent Robert Peston and the sage Piers Morgan, Starkey should suffer some sort of punishment for having said that white chavs were now copying the violent and materialistic culture of the black underclass. Both Peston and Morgan averred Starkey should no longer be allowed on TV. I am not a huge fan of Starkey’s, but I marginally prefer him on my box to either Peston or Morgan, but I suppose that’s by the by. The fact that Starkey was – on this narrow point – incontestably correct does not seem to bother those whose view of the world is blinkered by a terrible fear of being called racist. ”
http://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/7168573/is-david-starkey-a-racist.thtml
It can be fun to count the ways in which Starkey is a hate figure for the BBC; he is from a working class background and escaped that by hard work and intellect instead of sitting back and being a victim for middle class prats like Hardy to patronise (here I claim a certain similarity); he is a respected academic who fails/refuses to toe the left wing line; he is a media figure who fails/refuses to toe the left wing line; he is a gay man who fails/refuses to toe the left wing line.
Apart from his intellect and self improvement, Starkey should be one of them, but he is not. Little wonder they hate him.
No. I think Kelvin McKenzie would be much better value.
BARKING RACISTS
THE SPECTATOR 12 May 2001
David Coleman on why it is nonsense to say that Britain is a nation of immigrants —
and why the debate must continue.
http://centurean2.wordpress.com/2011/08/14/barking-racists/
Ten years ago and still relevant today, because the subject is non-PC and shall not be spoken of in polite company, heaven help us in ten more years!
In spite of my best efforts I could not find this in the Spectator’s archives. There is a Pdf link on the site that reads much easier. The reaction to Dr David Starkey came to mind when I read this. The Newsnight biased ‘discussion’ was no place for a distinguished academic historian to air his views on the subject.
Dare the BBC give him time to produce a Panarama special with all views and opinions expessed 90 minutes should be enough?
The British government’s policy for immigration and in particular immigration from Arab and Muslim countries has far deeper roots than just the last decade. I suppose the shouting bloggers here have read the book by Bat Ye’or: Eurabia.