OPEN THREAD…

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Here’s a new one to follow on from David’s last one. Thatcher is still the BIG news story so detail it here. I can’t recall being this annoyed at the BBC in ages.

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  1. tckev says:
    April 10, 2013 at 9:50 pm

    Former Czech President Václav Klaus reflecting on former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher “She was one of the greatest politicians of our time, in the Czech republic she was our hero.”

    And even has his BBC World Service Prog on the link
    http://www.klaus.cz/clanky/3341

       8 likes

    • Wild says:
      April 10, 2013 at 9:57 pm

      I talked to a Hungarian friend and he said that virtually all the news that day was about the life and death of Margaret Thatcher. So much for the charge that she was a “Little Englander”.

         4 likes

      • Wild says:
        April 10, 2013 at 11:09 pm

        I talked to a Hungarian friend and he said that virtually all the news that day [in Hungary] was about the life and death of Margaret Thatcher. So much for the charge that she was a “Little Englander”.

           6 likes

  2. Dawggawn says:
    April 10, 2013 at 10:02 pm

    Hello chaps.

    http://brainfrog.wordpress.com/2013/04/10/how-dare-you/

    Sad tale of a victim of a slum landlord. Apart from the fact they seem to have made a lifestyle choice to live on housing benefit and move to Richmond of all places….

    I must be a mug for actually earning the money I spend on rent….

       7 likes

    • Hayley says:
      April 11, 2013 at 12:42 am

      Actually, we looked all over southwest London. There’s a lot more work here as opposed to where I was previously living and my partner needs to have access to his child. We didn’t deliberately pick Richmond, we were just “lucky” that this place came up that seemed ideal. But yea, we made a “lifestyle choice” *headdesk*

         6 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 11, 2013 at 12:48 am

      So the “On yer bike” lifestyle choice is okay if the State pays for it for a while? And there’s a Conservative-led Coalition in charge? Nice work if you can get it….

         2 likes

      • Simon Collis says:
        April 11, 2013 at 1:00 am

        I’ve been both a landlord and on DSS rent in my time (the latter while Margaret Thatcher was in power). It kept me from being homeless and I’m proud to pay my taxes (and I am in the highest tax band in the country) to keep other people from being homeless.

        The welfare state is pretty cherished in England, and insulting it is to a lot of us like spitting on the American flag, or refusing to take the pledge of allegiance.

        It helps you on the way up, you help others when you get there. That’s the deal. Nobody EVER made it on their own, no matter how much they say they did.

           4 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:
          April 11, 2013 at 1:17 am

          Well said, except for your final collectivist point, with which I disagree. But please allow me to place the rest of your anecdote into a larger context. What the BBC fails to emphasize (or fails to allow much emphasis on, if we’re going to play the game) is that there’s a difference between what we in the US often refer to as the “social safety net” and an environment in which life-long benefits dependency is not only created but protected by means of a poster featuring a caricature of “the poorest and most vulnerable” glued over the gaping hole.

          Of course, that all depends on how one defines “welfare state”. How do you think the BBC defines it?

             3 likes

          • Simon Collis says:
            April 11, 2013 at 1:27 am

            True, but I don’t think in the case of the blog post referred to there was any question of their being any kind of dependency here – in true “on yer bike” fashion, they get on their bike and looked for work.

            You’re right that my viewpoint is quite collectivist – I’m the sort of person that regards tax breaks for businesses as being a kind of “welfare handout” for them. I have trouble believing that any form of tax breaks for anyone is compatible with a free market (after all, if a business doesn’t like the tax regime in one country, they should get on their bike and look for a better one just like their workers are supposed to), but maybe that’s just me.

               1 likes

            • David Preiser (USA) says:
              April 11, 2013 at 1:41 am

              Except they couldn’t have gotten on their bikes, as it were, if not for the presumed dependency on the State. Even though I fully appreciate doing so to look for work, as i’ve done myself, albeit without expectation of the State covering it for as long as it takes.

              There’s a difference between the government trying to create jobs in an area to where people would then move (tax breaks for businesses, on one level, sure), and a blank check backed up by Pollyanna. Even if one approves of one, both, or neither.

              Blanket corporate welfare is not the same thing as tax breaks to encourage growth. Possibly a value judgement, I admit.

                 2 likes

        • stewart says:
          April 11, 2013 at 1:20 am

          “partner needs to have access to his child”
          Should have tried staying with his/her mother then.

             2 likes

          • Darren says:
            April 14, 2013 at 3:43 pm

            It’s not always that easy to stay together for the kids, is it Stewart?

            I mean in this case she left me, so what was I supposed to do Stewart, hang around out the front of her house, never letting go, crying for her for hours on end? Doesn’t sound like I’d be a very healthy role model for my boy.

            But don’t worry Stewart, if you think I should get back with her, then maybe I should. How else should I live my life Stewart, I’m keen to know?

               3 likes

        • pah says:
          April 12, 2013 at 12:22 pm

          The welfare state is pretty cherished in England

          Especially by those whose elderly parents were killed in an NHS ward of neglect.

          Yeah, the welfare state is peachy!

             0 likes

    • Rommely says:
      April 11, 2013 at 1:53 am

      I don’t understand the connection between those appalling conditions and being on housing benefit. (which I’m happy to contribute to)

      Perhaps you read too much Dickens at school?

         0 likes

  3. Teddy Bear says:
    April 10, 2013 at 11:00 pm

    It’s been revealed that in the contract for the new director general Tony Hall there is a clause that forbids him from making “any derogatory or unfavourable public remark or statement” about the BBC, either during his time in office or the two years afterwards.

    He is also barred from writing or speaking about the BBC without its “prior written consent”, and from engaging in “any political activities”.

    Now why does a media organisation need such an action? We are not talking about a highly secret security company or branch of the government. The BBC claim they revealed this contract in the interest of transparency. It shows their complete contempt as this transparency is only to show THAT THE PUBLIC WILL KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT GOES ON WITHIN.

    How long is the government going to allow these continual scenes from 1984 to continue? Doing so makes them just as guilty.

    BBC puts gagging order on new director-general

       6 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      April 11, 2013 at 2:39 pm

      ‘THE PUBLIC WILL KNOW NOTHING ABOUT WHAT GOES ON WITHIN’
      Good old Aunty. Even her transparency is opaque.
      A Downfall spoof from the new bunker below the lobby must be well overdue.

         0 likes

  4. barlicker says:
    April 10, 2013 at 11:09 pm

    This is a genuine request for information, and forgive me if it’s already been covered and I’ve missed it, but I’ve heard that yesterday afternoon (Tues) on BBC24 News they actually interviewed the Brighton Bomber. Surely this can’t be true? Surely they wouldn’t have interviewed her would-be murderer the day after she died?

       3 likes

  5. #88 says:
    April 10, 2013 at 11:31 pm

    Tonight ultra left-wing Newsnight surpassed itself in the interests of ‘balance’.

    Having a ride on a see-saw in the BBC’s playground would be no fun at all with Tory MP, Eleanor Lang sat on one side and Alastair Campbell, Paxman and sour hypocrite Labour MP Ronnie Campbell on the other side.

    But of course in his impartial role as ringmaster, we could rely on Paxman to level things up? Not a chance…Lang had to justify to Paxman, the recall of Parliament, the cost of the funeral, face accusations from Campbell (the one who sexed up dossiers) accusations of politicking and hearing Ronnie Campbell bleating about Thatcher’s destruction of the North-East.

    Of course Paxman could have challenged the Geordie MP on the fact that 5 times more Durham pits closed in the 60’s than in Thatcher’s time; He didn’t. Or that the Stalinist Scargill tried to bring down a democratically elected government: he didn’t. Or that shipbuilding ended on the Tyne, after Thatcher departed, or that Thatcher’s own administration awarded the yard a number of Royal Navy contracts, or that it failed to deliver on time on budget; Paxman didn’t.

    ‘Balance’ in the BBC is as unique as the way they are funded

       9 likes

  6. Framer says:
    April 11, 2013 at 12:40 am

    I presume the Beeb ban on interviewing Carol Thatcher has not been lifted.

       7 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      April 11, 2013 at 12:44 am

      Good spot. Did anyone else even notice? I didn’t even think to check. Or was it one of those “here this minute, gone the next, damn that vicious news cycle” things?

         5 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      April 11, 2013 at 2:35 pm

      ‘I presume the Beeb ban on interviewing Carol Thatcher has not been lifted.’
      Just seen this, very, very, good point.
      The kind of redaction in coverage the BBC should be tasked on explaining loudly, much as they don’t like to be held to account on their own less than stellar variable standards.
      Unless she told them where the sun doesn’t shine by way of a location, for which she could hardly be blamed.

         1 likes

  7. Reed says:
    April 11, 2013 at 3:15 am

    How quickly they pile in, these filthy nationalised broadcasters. Presumably they only canvassed BBC employees for their unbiased opinions.

    http://orderorder.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/income.jpg?w=480&h=309

    Thatcher ‘racist’ (goes without saying, like all Tories)
    She never really understood sport (gasp, terrible woman)
    What if Margaret Thatcher had never been (we can dream)
    The TV was turned off when she came on (switched back on for Jim’ll Fix It)
    The taboo of speaking ill of the dead (can we end this now)
    Right to buy. A tainted gift? (home ownership – so selfish)
    She used to eat babies (no, really, I saw the blood on her lips)

    These people can’t help themselves. It’s a loathsome propaganda outfit we’re forced to pay for.

       5 likes

  8. Reed says:
    April 11, 2013 at 3:36 am

    Very good article by Dan Hodges, worth a read…

    If Labour can’t show restraint today, it will say more about them than it does about Margaret Thatcher

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100211461/if-labour-cant-show-restraint-today-it-will-say-more-about-them-than-it-does-about-margaret-thatcher/

    Ditto the BBC.

       3 likes

  9. thoughtful says:
    April 11, 2013 at 8:51 am

    New DG gagged?

    Apparently his contract prevents him from publicising anything without the prior consent of BBC committees and also prevents him from making any negative remarks for up to 2 years after the end of his contract.

    As the Taxpayers alliance says, isn’t it worrying that the DG is only allowed to support the decisions reached by the BBC and to never ever express opinion against them.

    The question is why any organisation would consider a clause so draconian would be necessary? Obviously BBC senior management is aware of the skeletons in the closet & don’t want them getting out.

       3 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:
      April 11, 2013 at 9:05 am

      Not certain, but doesn’t the bBC trust appoint and therefore control the DG contract. If true then Patten is at the centre of covering up for the bBC . So the overseeing body instills secrecy from the very start. This stinking mess has to be cleaned up.

         4 likes

  10. Council house child of the 60's says:
    April 11, 2013 at 9:17 am

    How much harder can they push “Ding Dong…”?

       2 likes

  11. AsISeeIt says:
    April 11, 2013 at 9:37 am

    Not reported on or commented about by the BBC (as far as I can see – over to you friends of the BBC)….

    Norman Tebbit in his tribute to Margaret Thatcher described listening each morning to ‘the BBC’s version of the news’.

    Gosh, what could he possibly have meant by that? I won’t hold my breath waiting for the BBC to interpret it for me.

       3 likes

  12. Smell the glove says:
    April 12, 2013 at 3:59 am

    Talk about destroying our togetherness . Being in a house with 14 members of our family and the light went out . No questions asked out . Why has this happened I rather naively asked oh it was the unions lad and this is the way it is . This is progressive politics. Then my uncle died during a strike we couldn’t bury him for 3 weeks because of strikes. he was in a hangar for 3 weeks what a way to go .Truth was at the time she came to power ,she was so needed

       1 likes

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