Great example of having a debate with only one side of the argument being given a say. The BBC had Sir Malcolm Rifkind (dripping wet “Conservative) and Lord Hannay (dripping wet technocrat) on for a little debate on the Greek situation and the G20 summit @ 8.32am Rifkind wants to ensure we prop up the IMF so it can prop up “colleagues” in the Eurozone whilst Hannay could discern some positive things coming out of the Cannes non-event, What’s the point in a “debate” when both parties agree? It’s NOT debate, it’s reinforcement of the narrative – we must obey the EU. Repeat after me. Oh, sorry I can’t post the link to this wonderful item but because it is a Saturday those highly paid BBC staff haven’t bothered providing any yet. I blame the cuts….
WISE OLD COVES
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Didn`t bother listening to this, but got the idea that they were both in London, whereas Johnnie boy was on a line from Greece.
Got to be Greece because-like the boy gathering the dung after the elephants have left town-only Humph of the Greeks times his junkets to coincide with Beeb “crises” of their ruminations and imagining.
No doubt WE`RE paying for him to call into his holiday home just to check on whether Alexis has turned off the wood-burning stove!
Guessing he was given the morning off yesterday to pack his socks and toothbrush( B.A Silver Slimers get to keep the slippers apparently!)…and ,no doubt;he persuaded Expenses that he`d be there at Papandreous political autopsy.
As it is, he is as useful there now as he was had he NOT bothered to chew up our precious few airmiles…and he`s the absent dad par excellance that Womans Hour tell us is “bloody typical!”.
So Humphrys gets a junket gratis as per usual…welcome as a fart in a spacesuit and useful as an ashtray on a motorbike!
Now let me see…Polly and all the other Tuscan Tribunards might be able to blag a few freebies out to their holiday homes if they can big up the “Italian crisis” between now and Christmas.
Obamas hangnail might cover the New York pre-Christmas blag to Bloomingdales if we get in there first…is that David P on the line withsome breaking news?(hint hint!)
Cynicism is the default after I heard Naughtie interviewing the Japanese Ambassador in London about the earthquake-and doing it from the Four Seasons in Tokyo. Not one joke either about it all from those fearless satirists who do the monoculture comedy at the BBC either”.Zees iz not funny”
There is a lot of this about. I understand Andrew Marr jetted all the way Downunder on a promise from comrade Julia Gillard who proceeded to stand him up. Amid citicism of her premiership she in turn private jetted it out of the lucky country. Well, they may as well just execute the polar bears. Marr was stuck for a date on his sofa in Perth last Sunday and had to busk it by talking about Her Madge’s visit.
It’s funny, but the beeb have gone quiet about the lying Aussie Labor PM who is suffering record levels of unpopularity due to introducing reckless climate-change legislation and screwing up the asylum system.
I wonder why?
Couldn`t we have sent Sir Malcolm the Bruised up to do something about that party of his in Scotland.
Yes, I know he`d not get a vote from anyone…he never really did…but at least he`d have prevented Billy Whizz from getting in as the new Tory leader.
32?…5 months an MSP?…a cartoonists dream of Jimmy Somervilles Bisto Kid of a sister?(can I say that Ruth?)…what WERE they thinking of in the phonebox where they met to elect her?
Blue phonebox?…Tardis in reverse perhaps?
Malcolm might have been better employed upgraded to a mere joke up in Scotland…as opposed to the really bad one(Toksvig style) that is currently the Scottish Tory Party.
That`s the vote of the Dorset nation…over to you Grant!…not Hugh Grant though!
cj,
Thanks for the slick handover. I am only 7 hours late.
This new leader of the Scottish Conservatives , whatshername ? Er, we’ve never heard of her up here. Not that it matters anyway ( correct me if I am wrong, Roland ).
I rather wish I was Hugh Grant. Lots of money for being a crap actor and his private life certainly seems more eventful than mine. Nice thought.
DV
As I’ve commented before, forget about the betrayal of the BBC’s “impartiality” mandate by mounting mock debates, it’s just boring radio. But maybe that’s the idea. If important issues are presented in such a way as to turn off the audience – or voters as they are once every 4-5 years – then when it comes to an election (or even referendum – as if) the voters will, like the sheep they’ve been taught to emulate, vote for any old crapola put before them by the political class via their agents, the major political parties – or, more likely, not vote at all.
As a technique to discourage the asking of awkward questions – or even informed thought – by an unsettled electorate, it’s brilliant. Just bore them into submission. The other technique is scapegoating: blame the bankers, the rich, the Jews (yes, it’ll come to that) but, whatever happens, don’t blame the politicians, the bureaucrats (except the junior ones) or the nomenklatura.
Christopher Booker
“Chris Huhne was as wrong about the euro as he is now about the wind”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8872269/Chris-Huhne-was-as-wrong-about-the-euro-as-he-is-now-about-the-wind.html