I’m on the BBC this morning discussing the alleged story carried in The Guardian (where else?) about the firm Close Protection UK, which provided security services for the Jubilee celebrations, and which says it is going to investigate reports that it left unpaid workers stranded in London during the Jubilee celebrations.
Obviously four days of non-stop celebration of Monarchy must have stuck in the caw of the BBC and it’s print wing – The Guardian because it’s clear to me that this is not so subtle way of raining (a little more!) on the Jubilee Parade whilst attacking the Coalition and those evil capitalists who abuse the unemployed by…erm..providing them with work experience. It is well seen that Prescott is leading the charge on this story into the abuse of non-workers. Today places the story as its LEAD item. 8.10am Normal service is resumed.
My line is to attack the BBC for giving such a non-story such major publicity. The fact is that those in receipt of Benefit SHOULD be asked to give something back to the taxpayer who fund them and one night helping prepare for the River Pageant seems very reasonable. The meme that something for nothing is OK has to be challenged although that is a BBC article of faith which I will confront on Nolan in about an hour’s time.
yep! jubilee definitely over for biased broad cresent.
😀 this very morning el beeb one, drones on about the union jack, of course associated with … no not the queen
guessed yet? …. the ahem FAR RIGHT 😀 (3 times in 10 mins).
normal biased service, even on our flag fully resumed
DV, unfortunately the new site doesn’t carry the time you blogged so I dont know when you’ll be going on Nolan.
I’m not to up on the story, but what I understand is volunteer workers were dropped off in London at 3am to start work at 5am, and according to 5Live, left to ‘sleep beneath Tower Bridge’. It does seem there may be some cause to gripe, but yes, the Guardian/BBC Left do seem to sieze on anything as ‘damage limitation’ to the glorious celebration of the Diamond Jubilee. Who knows where being proud to be British might lead?
The facts on this still seem to be coming out.
On SKY some airhead Scots blonde was appalled that they had to sleep ‘rough’ in tents (lack of toilet facility provision was a good point but surely London was well stocked with loos?).
I merely noted in the last few days no one in the media seemed to bat an eyelid at thousands coming to the Capital on their own dime and found their camping out on pavements an impressive and inspiring experience to get a good view of a unique event.
In fact sleeping in tents appears to acquire ‘unique’ interpretations, pro & con, fun or shame, more based on the agendas of the editorial in charge and who they feel needs being ‘held to account’.
Most British cities are poor at providing public conveniences and there are three main reasons:
1. Penny pinching. Councils seem to think that Nuclear Free Zones and ‘fact finding’ trips to Thialand are more important than where people piss.
2. Public Order. Even thirty years ago they were good places to get mugged.
3. Homosexuals. Why gays want to hang around in toilets defeats me but they do. Closing toilets at night on grounds of ‘public decency’ is the mental solution.
Add to this a booze culture and you get city centres that are swimming in piss on a Sunday morning. For the simple reason that if you are caught short there is nowhere to go except an alleyway or a shop doorway. To be a British city centre shop keeper these days requires a strong stomach and stronger disinfestants!
So it is no suprise the workers found there was nowhere to piss really is it?
It’s about time councils of all stripes got back to the principle that their single purpose is to provide public amenities and not to act as training grounds to worthless political types.
Re your point 1 – All a question of priorities which nobody at the BBC seems to be able to get their heads round when it comes to local government spending.
Had to laugh, on last night’s Come Dine With Me (yes, yes, I know) they had a young(ish) woman who was employed by the local council to teach children how to behave on school buses. Well, if you had a choice of getting rid of jobs like that or closing libraries, what would it be? You guessed right – the one which scores most political points.
John Prescott was
dragged kicking and screaminginvited on speed dial into the Today studios to discuss the heinous matter of unpaid security staff being left under a bridge for two hours. It strikes me as just one big cockup but no, it’s obviously a matter of National Importance that requires Lord P’s megaphone diplomacy to complain about it and how it’s all the fault of the evil Tory government. I waited in vain for Evan to ask him if the Labour Party ever takes on unpaid staff.The poor woman brought on to counter Lord Megaphone was obviously left in a cold, urine-soaked telephone box as a penance judging by the quality of the line. Probably for two hours beforehand. No way was she going to be allowed to compete volume-wise.
Guess who got both the first and last word.
(Sorry for posting this everywhere. I can’t keep up with all the threads that appear!)
Had there been a journalist present in the Today studio s/he might have asked Prescott how come it was the Labour PR machine which was informed about this incident and who the informant was (or, more to the pint, who s/he works for). I wouldn’t expect Prescott to answer the question but, anyway, the point is moot because luckily for Labour the BBC doesn’t employ journalists; only propagandists.
BTW it wouldn’t surprise me if the BBC found out about this and informed Labour accordingly. I have absolutely no evidence for this but the timing and the subject matter are just too neat to be a “happenstance”.
I would guess that the source for this, is this lot who seem to have the ear of the BBC
http://righttowork.org.uk/2012/06/tory-peer-at-the-heart-of-jubilee-workfare-scandal/?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
You will remember that this is the organisation, affiliated to the Marxist SWP, which is ‘Chaired’ by Labour MP John McDonnell.
You’ll remeber in a co-ordianted wrecking campaign, they enjoyed nights of lavish coverage on Newsnight following their attempts to close down unpaid internships and work experience schemes – in the process denying young people the opportunity of volunteering to get their first experience of work and their first foot on the ladder. I seem to remember that Paul Mason might have led on this as well as other anti-workfare stories (like A4e).
By the way, they (and the BBC) are remarkably silent on the Guardian’s unpaid internships which were subsequently advertised.
As there appears no link, this may help inform further..
http://apps.facebook.com/theguardian/uk/2012/jun/04/jubilee-pageant-unemployed?
Some ‘interesting’ comments there.
No doubt there are, but I have a deep distrust of Facebook. It seems that to look at the article, I have to sign up to a “Guardian app” that may post on your behalf, including videos you watched, articles you read and more.
Which I find very sinister.
Sorry about that.
I actually got to it from a post on the Newsnight FB page, so it looks like I signed up without perhaps being aware of what to.
If this is all the BBC can find to crap on the Jubilee, it must indeed be desperate.
Earlier, in its defence of itself, the BBC had tried to create what it must have thought was a shoo-in simulacrum of a “balanced” discussion on Today. It got on Gillian Reynolds (now of the Telegraph but formerly of the Guardian) to discuss criticism of the BBC’s coverage of the Jubilee celebrations with Mark Damazer (one of the BBC’s very own). The Today apparatchiks must have thought that with Gillian and Mark it was on safe ground here.
On the contrary, Gillian was incandescent and proceeded to make mincemeat of Damazer and Evan. She considered that the BBC had opted – quite unnecessarily – to “jolly up” the proceedings with an endless procession of Z-list celebrities and know-nothing BBC commentators. To Evan’s sneering suggestion that all she wanted was Richard Dimbleby back she responded by instructing him not to try to read her mind or put words in her mouth. Evan couldn’t wind this one up quickly enough.
And part of Damazer’s defence of the Beeb’s cringeing coverage was they wanted ‘to make it more inclusive’ i.e. dumb it down for the proles as they couldn’t possibly understand historical or cultural references from the likes of a Schama.
Patronising pillock.
The BBC – whose purpose is to educate, entertain, and inform.
‘Damazer’s defence of the Beeb’s cringeing coverage was they wanted ‘to make it more inclusive’’
Worked well for them then.
At least, those they think they ‘speak for’.
Do you have a link for your appearance?
are not the conditions suffered by these trainees/students (work experience folks) similar to those which we all volunteered to suffer at much cost at Glastonbury, IOW etc?
The sooner the Guardian is shut down the better. It is losing about £1 million a week now. Most newsagents don’t stock it now except places like whsmith.
How many went to see the Queen at Buckingham palace, 1.5 million people? How many of them read the Guardian?
There is a story in the daily mail with a muslim woman wearing a union jack hijab. Why don’t they Guardian run that story to show how well multiculturalism is working in this country?
The headline for that Gaurdian story should of been ‘we are so jealous of the queen we want to stab her in the back and this is the best we could come up with’.
You’d be surpised how many shopping in our local Waitrose buy it.
Don’t know if it was to him or from him, but this post seems apposite as Mr. Vine’s DM trashing of all the BBC manages is further unveiled on the soiled laundry line:
Ohhh errr best not@theJeremyVile
@theJeremyVine On day 160,000 young men stormed the beaches at Normandy @johnprescott moans that 19yr olds had to wait under a bridge 2 hrs
We want… your views (not yours… yours!)
Before enjoying a pre-luncheon sarnie with the fam (1/2 term), a quick tweetsurf shows that, post unlovely-Jubilee implosion, Mr. Vine’s latest shock-horror outing with the Good Lord has backfired nicely too.
What’s the opposite of the Midas Touch, as near anything the dead hand of Aunty touches seems to be turning into… well, not turning out too well.
Just an attempt to distract from the BBC’s failure, surely, rather than another attempt to rain on the Jubilee itself or attack the Coalition.
The BBC are a devious bunch. I listened to the BBC World service on shortwave carrying a negative phone in about the British Monarchy (while Jubilee celebrations were still in progress) . The BBC broadcasts different versions of the world service to different regions often very different to what is carried here on dab for domestic consumption. Some ethnic minority contributor was spouting embarrassingly ill conceived prejudiced rubbish, floundering to put his message across, little challenged by the host. No wonder the BBC is loosing its reputation around the world.