My sources tell me that there is weeping and wailing in BBC newsrooms, black ties may be worn and solemn music should be played…..at this breaking news…..
The UK economy grew by 0.6% between July and September, official figures have shown, faster than previous estimates of 0.5%. The rise was driven by strong performance in the service sector and construction, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
On the bright side, ay least for Tub of Mardell, Sound of Music will probably now get knocked off the schedule on Xmas Day..
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8971075/Nick-Broomfield-I-didnt-realise-how-horrible-Sarah-Palin-really-could-be.html
After all the nice things that the liberati have been saying about HER these last x years!
Nick Broomfield is just a creeping voyeur who hides behind the camera…his excuse for stalking and massaging.
Just the sort who always gets a puff on the Beebs review shows and Guardian supplements.
No doubt he`s hoping to film Ian Bradys quest for assisted dying…all in the best possible taste.
He did day that he tried to ingratiate himself with Palins parents…it`s just what he WOULD do!
Our Zen-stickman as revenge for their Michael Moore!
I think I heard about the improvement during the 10pm news last night – but said so quickly that by time I had taken it in Hugh had moved onto other things more suited to the BBC agenda.
Worry not. I’ve just heard the R4 6pm news headlines and there was only mention of the Zero growth period between June and Sept.
Yup, the follow-up story highlights ‘zero growth’, ‘fragile economy’ and finally mentions briefly the slight rise in the last quarter which is ‘no better than expected’. What a fascinating twisting of the facts
It matters not. I can imagine the following briefing notes being passed around all BBC newsrooms, national and local.
“Recession Reporting.
Report the economic situation as ‘even if we are not “technically” in recession, then we are heading for recession. Also the great thing about that is, there is no technical definition of what a “double dip” recession is, so it matters not how long it is between the end of the last recession and the start of the next, we can still link it into the “tories caused double-dip recession meme” We have worked for far too long and far too obsessively to allow that meme to be unused.
And do not forget to remind our viewers, (in the name of balance) that the previous quarter showed no growth.
Oh and remember to ‘slip’ the phrase “with the current recession” into any article on the economy, and make it look like a slip of the tongue… If you have to account for the phrase, clarify it with, “Well, what to many people feels like a recession”. We do not actually have to be in recession to report as if we were.
As Helen Boaden said (before it went down the memory hole), only a small percentage of viewer understand the situation and factors involved, and some people tune in only once a week or every few days, so they must repeat the basic talking points over and over.
Still hunting that gem. It exists, as we saw it, so the truth is out there.
The BBC just use the term “downturn” instead of recession.
On local radio they do not even pretend to represent reality. They use the word “recession” or phrase “current recession” every morning.
Slightly off topic, Today’s “The SUN says” column’s second item goes as follows:
”
Boozy Beeb
NOT a week goes by without BBC staff whining about the terrible licence fee freeze.
That hasn’t stopped the pampered luvvies downing oceans of free booze.
The Labour Party’s unofficial mouthpiece has spent £366,000 of licence fee money on alcohol in the past five years, including 9,000 bottles of bubbly, 41,000 bottles of wine and 85,000 bottles of beer.
Nothing like Tory bashing to work up a thirst for champagne, eh, comrades?
Private firms don’t run a free bar for their employees.
Why should we pay for one at the BBC?”
I wonder how much the Cocaine bill was?
Bang on! I could almost stick the BBC’s constant Private Fraser act, if only the self-same people wouldn’t whinge like a singed coyote whenever it’s suggested that they need to tighten their belt.
You cannot possibly expect Stephanie Flanders to cover the UK economy! She is much too busy explaining why the successful Euro project which has continually been praised by her as being quick and decisive seems to have sprung yet another hole requiring filling with 489 billion Euros.
Still as Steph once called 6 billion Euros “virtually nothing” she will no doubt come up with something.
Oh the corridors of broadcasting house will be strewn with cyanide bottles tonight !!! O:-)
Well the BBC report on this I heard at about 11am had some woman financial expert whose name I did not catch, explaining that “although the growth for the last quarter was higher than expected the quarter before was much lower and consequently nothing has changed….realy.”
So there we have it….Good news is bad news !!
Maybe before the day is out the Beeb will have Ed Balls attired in full Nazi uniform ( because its only Tories who are villified for this) to explain that we are at best flat lining and the lack of growth is due to cutting too fast too deep. He will not be asked to explain how much he would cut or where or when.
Fear not, the economy flatlined earlier in the year and that can be headline news instead of good news.
As always with the BBC its sensible to ask “what would have happened the other way around”?
In this case what would have happened if the figures had been revised downwards?
Hmm lets think….yes yes of course Ed Ballsup would have been on, Flounders asked for comment of what this all means now, Brendon the Barber asked for his views, a piece to camera from downtown Middlesbrough. Yep no bias in todays reportage from the BBC
There may have been a bit of growth, but more emphasis is placed on the negatives: zero growth in the second quarter, the reader is told the deficit is the highest ever – helpful link included – the situation is still “fragile”, and the Bank of England “explicitly” left room for more QE.
More of a disaster than a growth figure, from the way is spun.
99.9% of the Public have no idea what is “true”about the Economy, only what the bBC tells them. Half of them are not paying attention, half haven’t the foggiest idea how it works, and the remaining half are hearing what they want to hear. A good example of bBC mathematics. The bBC is lying virtually every minute of the day yet they are believed to be telling the truth, because that is what they are paid to do, and the idea that the National Broadcaster is lying to you is too difficult a concept for most people to take in.The BBC don’t know what is true either. They make up what they would like to be true, and serve it up labeled “news”.
Now over to Stephanie daughter of Flanders and Swan, to tell you something she’s made up. Its all worse than we thought and we know whose fault it is, what else do you need to know, proles?
Spot on, LC.
Once again R4 at 10pm headlines only report the 0% growth during the summer and no mention of the upgraded 0.6% in the most recent quarter. Such obvious bias.
PM mentioned `cutz` that were affecting everyone , then up to Manchester to trawl for despondent folk .
I didnt know that a reduction of INCREASED spending was `cuts`, perhaps we ought to have cuts as in a normal meaning and cutz as a BBC meaning .
As for affecting everyone , I thought the BBC told us that bankers were evil vicous bastards unaffected by anything .
How BBC wrongly predicted bad news for British economy (and then relegated the story when the figures were actually good)
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077796/Good-news-Britain–didnt-suit-BBCs-agenda.html#ixzz1hJm0P49c
The big issue here is the emotive term “Recession” which occurs when the ONS has to report two consecutive quarters of negative growth.
If we still had Blair and Brown in charge, they would have made every effort to find excuses to massage down the Q3 growth figure to something like 0.1% and transfer the slack into the Q4 figure. (Please don’t bother to tell me that the ONS is politically independent!)
If they could keep the Q4 growth figure above zero, the BBC shouldn’t then be allowed to use the “R word” until next July at the earliest!
Watching Big Steph last night on Views At Ten I couldn’t help thinking what a good catch she was for Fat Ed and Camelnose.
As for the rest of us – you could see all the pocks on her where she’d been touched by a ten foot pole.
No doubt to the cheers of Messers Miliband and Balls their unofficial propaganda arm – the Beeb – have a free rein to bang on about our economics woes.
The trouble is (as Toenails perceptively observed in his CoJ spiel) the worse it sounds the more we Brits are blaming the previous Labour Government and the current Eurobloc.
As a teenager might phrase it – BBC Epic Fail.