The BBC has come off the fence on grounds of decency and taste:
The Wizard of Oz song at the centre of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign will not be played in full on the Official Chart Show.
Instead a five-second clip of the 51-second song will be aired as part of a Newsbeat report, Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper said.
Sales of Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead have soared since the former Prime Minister’s death on Monday, aged 87.
Mr Cooper called the decision “a difficult compromise”.
However, to play the song as part of the Chart Show would have put the BBC in a more invidious position.
It goes without saying that a similar situation on the death of Princess Diana or, in the future, Nelson Mandela, would have immediately resulted in a ban on any song which was manipulated into the charts for political purposes or purely for reasons of hatred of either person.
The BBC is all too ready to censor when it suits.
The BBC recently forced a playwright to alter their script as the BBC believed it could potentially offend Muslims.
The BBC similarly took the film ‘Greenmantle’ out of the schedules…presumably because it related a tale of Muslims joining up with the Germans in WWI with a hope of forming a ‘Caliphate’….the BBC doesn’t want anyone to think that Islamic radicalism was around before the 1930’s….because then they can claim that Islam has nothing to do with religious extremism or political radicalism…it does not originate from the Islamic tenets or scriptures.
Gary Glitter and Jimmy Savile have been to all intents and purposes erased from the BBC archives.
Today we hear that a Christian teacher is banned indefinitely from schools for revealing his views on homosexuality in reply to questions asked by students.
Ironically the judge explained: ‘The policy was part of “modern British values of tolerance”‘
The furore over the song is all a bit of a storm in a tea cup but because the BBC is so ready to censor things which offend certain select groups or cultures and ideologies I think it is only right that they should not play the song. To play it would indicate a definite bias against the Tories and Mrs Thatcher, a readiness to look the other way for Tories. They would not deal with a similar situation in the same way, as I say, on the death of Princess Diana or Nelson Mandela….an immediate ban would be in place.
There is also a very strong case for not playing it on grounds of taste and decency considering the responsibility the BBC bares in its position at the ‘heart of the Nation’ as it likes to remind us frequently and its own perception of itself as something above the rabble in the rest of the media, especially the Redtops….and as it seems, they have decided along those lines.
The BBC says: “It is a compromise and it is a difficult compromise to come to. You have very difficult and emotional arguments on both sides of the fence.
“Let’s not forget you also have a family that is grieving for a loved one who is yet to be buried.”
Toby Young in the Telegraph thinks that not playing the song is the end of free speech…but of course it isn’t at all….The case of the Christian teacher might be though. The song is not a satirical comment nor a political tract…it is purely intended by the organisers to celebrate the death of Mrs Thatcher, after wishing it upon her for years…and so could be, and probably is, a ‘hate crime’…not playing it is therefore not the censoring of free speech but of hate speech.
Is it OK to wish death upon someone just because of their political views? What’s the difference between that and wishing death upon someone because of their race?
When Ed Miliband and Co denounce the Tories for being ‘poshboys’ or ‘Toffs’ unable to do their job because of their ‘class’….is that not the same as racism? And yet the BBC laughs it off as a big joke. Isn’t it Miliband’s attitude that informs the attitude of those who think celebrating the death of Mrs Thatcher is a good idea…it is demonising, dehumanising the Tories, the ‘nasty party’, or ‘the Rich’, so that it becomes seemingly OK to wish death upon them.
Targeted ridicule, satire and rational, reasoned critiques have their place and are necessary to keep politician’s and other’s feet on the ground and to stop them believing their own hype but outright gratuitous abuse has no place under the banner of ‘Free Speech’ if the only object is to hurt the other person’s feelings, purely to insult or injure.
“When Nelson Mandela Dies…”
Can we all join in in finishing that phrase? My suggestion:
…David Vance will dance on his grave as he did with Hugo Chavez, once more lacking the intellectual ability to realise how much of a brazen hypocrite he is – but safe in the knowledge that Biased BBC’s usual sheep will bleat their usual brown-nosed defences. Meanwhile, Alan will regurgitate numerous turgid posts with little focus and less point, and Preiser will tell you exactly what everyone he’s never met, doesn’t know but lnows he doesn’t like has been thinking, because he’s desperate for people to think he has insight and craves the attention.
Do I win?
To Scott from Alan…
I have sometimes thought we need a cartoon strip, a funny, to lighten the blog up, provide a little humour.
The fact that I have never actually got round to doing so is purely thanks to you ‘guys’…Scott, Dez and Colditz, and a couple of others…who constantly amuse me.
Thanks.
And yes you win Scott, I don’t know what you win, but you win.
Enjoy.
You do win the prize for predictable personal attacks. Are you capable of engaging in a single debate without them?
Poor Scott, he should stick to the rubbish he writes about Doctor Who and Mickey Mouse but I expect he gets a bigger readership on here.
mickey mouse is walking around disneyworld wearing a scott m watch
Don’t forget Scott’s gay activism.
You do win the prize for predictable personal attacks. Are you capable of engaging in a single debate without them?
Sorry, I keep forgetting: “predictable personal attacks” are only tolerated on Biased BBC from David Vance. Or David Preiser. Or ltwf1964. Or Guest Who. Or Teddy Bear. Or Alan. Or any of the other braindead witless wonders who thinks that being a pillock on the internet will make up for the lack of meaning in their own life.
That’ll be a “no”, then. Are you a nasty piece of work, Scott?
Are you a nasty piece of work, Scott?
No. That’s going to have to be one more reason why I’m nothing like you.
A picture’s worth a 1000 words
Really? Stooping to his level is the best we can do? Depressing.
Yes, as deeply an unpleasant character as Scott M is, this is repugnant.
It reminds me of the Thatcher haters.
Doesn’t matter how many times you post that, Teddy Bear (and this isn’t the first) – it’ll always illustrate more about your deeply unpleasant side that it could ever say about anyone else.
Really?
All anybody has to do is to follow your posts and see the content, and mine to see just who’s who.
Like I’ve told you time and time again – what goes around, comes around. When you treat others with respect you’re more likely to get it back. Until then, don’t expect not to see your cartoon again at appropriate times.
Until then, don’t expect not to see your cartoon again at appropriate times.
The more you repeat it, the more you reveal what a sad little man you are. So knock yourself out.
Well, you would know all about sad little men Scott.
‘Do I win?’
Rather depends on what your definition of ‘winning’ is, probably.
But you did get to be first to post again, which must count for something.
And Colditz is measuring rushes to be offended elsewhere, and I think you are a clear favourite there, too.
Roland D will be proud of me.
I have resisted feeding a clear provocation directly for once. It is too clearly intended as such, and already has been rewarded elsewhere sadly.
This has been not from a person normally considered a classic troll, as I am the first to concede that whatever it is usually managed to go beyond that, but no longer.
The contrarian dogma and hypocrisy has now slipped out the wrong side of bed too often into something simply as drive-by nasty as it is petty and pointless.
In yet another jerk of a knee I find myself conflated with others in generic accusations high on dudgeon and low on substance.
If I read rubbish I reserve the right to offer an opinion.
When toys get thrown out the pram I won’t gently put them back in to be ejected again.
One of the first things I learned when handling spoiled toddlers too used to being treated as special by some.
Anyhoo, off now to see what’s what on the LSE story breaking, which is about BBC behaviour and may be worth discussing vs. feeding a faded diva’s need for attention.
This disrepectful carnival of hate merchants shows that the left is the the home of hate. It would not be necessary for David Cameron to Issue a plea for good behavior amongst conservatives if a hero of the left fell of his perch.
I think we in England would benefit from a MacCarthy investigation of all the communists and their sympathisers and a General Pinochet to rid us of them once and for all.
Short cutb. Are you now or have you ever been an employee of the BBC?
Speaking as “one of Biased BBC’s usual sheep”, I do not condone the idea of celebrating the death of any world statesman, because I believe in respect for the dead, even if they were, at worst, absolute scum when they were alive.
Mandela was no saint and definitely dodgy, but, on his death, decency would prevent me from posting the kind of bile some of the BBC twitterers bandied about MT.
But one of their own wept when the thug Arafart was whisked of to hospital. BBC bleeding hypocrite scum.
Such a shame when this site’s function is normally highlighting BBC biased facts, some people come here and the only way they can make a point is totally hypothesize for political aims.
You are of course referring to Alan’s post.
When Nelson dies I quite expect to see Free Nelson Mandela as #1. Can’t see anyone coming with a song for all the pro aperthied supporters to download. Simply because apart from Vance Alan and DP there very few people left who don’t see Nelson as one the real giants of the last century.
He seems such a nice old man but was convicted of sanctioning the Church St bombing which was aimed at killing white people in a public place. It succeeded in murdering men, women and children and maiming others. Before you claim he was innocent, face the fact that he has since admitted his part and in his biography ‘The Long Walk to Freedom’ claiming that this bombing was his signing off act to terrorism.
He never refused to renounce acts of violence committed by the ANC, and his wife Winnie has always claimed that the ‘flaming tyre murder’ technique was one that he sanctiond.
Yet, this convicted murderer is adored by the Left, turning a blind eye to the true nature of the man – some even complaining that we should left the past go. These are the same ones that are celebrating the death of an old woman who has not been in power since 1990 and whose only crime is to have the guts to clean up the stinking mess left by Labour politicians.
I despise hypocrites.
Colditz was a mental hospital before WWII. Why debate with a loony?
Or perhaps people who disagreed with Nelson Mandela aren’t childish enough to try and get a distasteful song to the top of the charts?
Mandela’s achievements in the world beyond South Africa are….?
Even in his own country, not much of a legacy to shout about is there? – continuing division between blacks and whites and between rival tribes, soaring crime and an economy fast becoming Zimbabwe’s main competitor in the basket case stakes (no wonder, he’s a big mate of Mugabe’s).
So, no great achievements except in your Leftie fantasy world (which sadly includes our education system).
“This will be the last from me on Mrs Thatcher and the BBC”… later…
“I wasn’t going to comment any more on the BBC and Mrs Thatcher” …. later….
“Amused by this from the Beeb in 2005 when they were looking at the ‘Thatcher Years In Graphics’ ” … later…
“The BBC has come off the fence on grounds of decency and taste: The Wizard of Oz song at the centre of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign ”
Oh well. At when Alan breaks a promise he produces a coherent, intelligent post that can really provoke debate and improve the reputation of B-BBC.
That’s a great nickname.
Oddly one I have not seen deployed with the many, repeated, ‘and another thing’, ‘I’m off’ flounces we get treated to on occasion by drive by Flokker fodder and even the odd hall monitor regular when playing offence industry Top Trumps.
As with any ‘the BBC hasn’t..’ claim, committing to a course can be iffy when circumstances provoke a return, but the ‘promise’ Alan has so cruelly reneged upon doesn’t seem that serious in the great scheme of things.
I, for one, am prepared to forgive.
If you and your colleagues remain outraged, you could of course withdraw support from the site.
But you are probably too happy sniping to exercise the choice you at least are offered here.
When the BBC doesn’t do what it says, it seems one is pretty much stuck with lumping it.
Which is just one the many things that make it so unique.
I note Vance is very quiet on his hero Elvis Costello’s song Tramp The Dirt Down which is also likely to chart. Plus there’s an old punk record which some Tories think is a tribute (I’m in Love with Margaret Thatcher) which I’m to prudish to discuss further, also in the running.
BBC are going to be making lots of announcements on Sunday! Blame all those people on the dole! They are definately them and not us.
First we get treated some Last Detail premature speculation by Scott on what he thinks others ‘will say’ as he can’t wait for them to say it.
Like the BBC and an Ed utterance that often rather embarrassingly changes, highlighting the PR nature of the accompanying ‘analysis'(and yes, Sky does it too, but I despise them equally when they do).
Now, on a slow snipe day, we have a projection based on what has not been mentioned about a song whose author is favoured by a site owner.
Is that the sound of a very deep barrel being scraped?
But crank it out at as MP3, get the BBC PR covert guys on it via their private twitter accounts, and if labelled anti-something it may stagger to a top 20 slot on what used to be the promo giveaway numbers when the charts were of significance.
And speaking of payola… maybe a another topic for a different time, BBC?
Personally I’m all for The Wizard of Oz ditty getting as much airtime as possible as it is so revealing of the mindset and morals of The Left.
Equally, it’s great to see the young kids rioting, as we all know it’s because they’ve been brainwashed by the Leftist educational establishment. I’m sure if it wasn’t against BBC principles to show the full horrors of union militancy in the 1970s, including the climax of their achievments in the ’79 Winter of Discontent, they might have a more balanced view of Thatcher’s legacy, and why she had such strong backing from all classes of our society.
No-one seems to have made the obvious point that Chav-ez was still in power, so ‘celebrating’ his death was actually celebrating the end of his presidency of Venezuela.
Mrs Thatcher had not held power for more than twenty years so the lefties celebrating her death are just using it as an excuse to show their nasty instincts.
Bless. Alan is so far up his own fundament that he thinks he needs to add his comments to other people’s, rather than replying like normal people would.
Funny how you complain when you get others writing about you in the same way – and if there’s anybody that would know about being up a fundament…
Scott
I warned you about your serial rudeness.
The BBC have done all the can to gleefully promote the song by mentioning it wherever possible. If this were a song intented to insult a deceased Blair or Brown, the BBC would not have mentioned it at any stage and let it die unoticed.
You haven’t read any papers which have all been running the story for days demanding it be banned. The main story in the Daily Mail.
The BBC tried to ignore but once it charted had no option but to react. Oh and Sky are running it all day as well.
20,000 downloads out of a population of something like 60 million? When was the last time such a minority got so much coverage…
‘When was the last time such a minority got so much coverage…’
Possibly a certain petition based on on a spurious claim, that having a £4Bpa PR system behind it really was never going to want for awareness.
The numbers were impressive, but of course did not have a 99p commitment.
However the actual audience demographics were illuminating, given the number of clearly interest-conflicted turkeys noticing how Christmas was being re-shaped.
The MSM needs such tripe to fill their 24/7 ‘news’ void when ratings slide, and the BBC when a twitter campaign agenda needs pushing.
Stuart Hughes has conducted online classes on it.
Until he got nailed.
So why have the Tory press made a meal of it?
‘So why have the Tory press made a meal of it?’
—
Because the UK media sewer, press and broadcast, will make a meal of anything that will serve a rating or an agenda. Especially at the behest of media luvvies who mix together in a very small bubble, and appear to exist in a twitterverse unrelated to reality.
Sky today has today been getting excited about a measles story blame game, it appears based on a press release from a now disgraced Doctor who has accused ‘the government’ of fault. The po-faced anchors are trotting out that ‘the government’ is on the defensive, as this always plays well.
No word on which ‘government’ this might be, given the timings. My experience is ‘the government’ gets generic when it suits as much as the commentariat will get highly specific when their favoured party is in the clear or running the #prasnews campaign.
Then, in sport, Sky wheels out a single football pundit from Liverpool to comment objectively on the FA getting as silly and selective on minute’s silences as the ever-divisive BBC on point-making songs.
One had to suspect that, when he started ranting about it all being a Tory plot, he was perhaps more invited on for heat as much as light.
I laughed out loud when the doe-eyed host turned to camera and intoned solemnly that ‘It was a pity to see this spin into controversy’.
Yeah, right.
Colditz, they are all it. And I despise them all.
Thing is, I will be soon taking pleasure citing such risible ‘news’ coverage to Sky when I cancel the DD.
The BBC will care not a jot as simply for watching a live broadcast on a device I am meant to uniquely fund them anyway for possessing.
So to protest their overt political tribal influences and social engineering meddling, I will need to go ‘off-wire’ (I understand online is Ok for now but under threat) I need to remove from services and rights any from the rest of the free-speaking, democratic world take for granted.
Are you really suggesting that a thousand score – or, I would wager, a few hundred rather well-to-do fifth formers – buying a 59p 51-second showtune is ‘collective action’?
Desperation in action!
There is no such thing as “Society”, any more than there is such a thing as “Climate”. Both are intellectual constructs designed to futher an agenda.
In the real world there are only people, like there is only weather.
Please BBC do not ban it because it only serves to demonstrate the gross hypocrisy, bile, self righteous mendacity of the ‘caring, socially responsible section of society’. Such smug conceit can only help to strengthen the resolve of the majority and speed the backlash which despite the efforts of the BBC et al will arrive sooner rather than later. THe useful idiots are merely adding to the ammunition required by UKIP and even the Post Cameron Tories – I really hope that the Millwall Fans coming back from Wembley get to meet some of the protesting class warriors – wonder whether they will compromise their beliefs and hide behind the Fascist Oppressors or Police when some hairy arsed real working class person that they seek to defend says hello!
Agreed this throws such a bad light on them it’s hysterical how dumb they are! in fact we should force them to play it all weekend on all BBC Radio ! lets see how log they want to actually listen to it nothing but their hate to keep them entertained and from questioning why =
one they suddenly like show tuns and lamps and=
two why such clever anti capitalists have given a nice cash boost to Sony/EMI music corporations !
As for what might happen tomorrow ? well as my Ex Marine grandad used to say
If you live with a big mouth one day you will get punched in it !
What I don’t understand is why the song is number one on Amazon’s download chart. I thought the left hated Amazon. Or have they forgotten that? *confused*
Suharto, Gaddafi, Chavez, Castro, Mandela – old friends who will surely be reunited one day…..
The BBC singles chart show now has very little relevance as compared with its former heyday. (Whatever you do, don’t mention Savile)
This spiteful campaign led by professional activists wouldbe BBC un-funny satirists and anarchist losers plays right into the BBC’s hands giving it the chance to talk in its news bulletins incessantly about itself.
Who really cares what the chief of Radio One has to say about this or indeed about anything else. He is yet another overgrown adolescent.
Who cares what Lefty idiots want to waste 99p on?
The BBC and these people are parasites on oneanother and both are are parasites on the Licence Payer.
Quite. Nobody listens to the charts anymore, not like they did in the 1970s and 1980s.
That’s why Top of the Pops ended.
It didn’t fold because of MTV. By the time TOTP was cancelled MTV played hardly any music at all and had moved over to ‘reality’ programming, the Kardashians and ‘Cribs’
Your clarity is impressive, given you are making an assessment via written word over a person whose family name I doubt is ‘Tee’ but may well have been christened ‘Richard’.
I don’t have children any more. Haven’t for a few years if the scary evolution of my two 16yo’s is anything to go by.
The only chart they follow is via YouTube, and the likes of CassetteBoy.
They do buy music on iTunes and as it is via my account I am amazed when I get the bill how eclectic it is.
A fair smattering of stuff just because it has obscenity shock value lyrically (there was a funny rap that was intercut with a plummy BBC-style readerette making gangsta-styly threats), but otherwise anything from Jazz to Louisiana bayou music. They don’t download anything dodgy or illegal as they can grasp consequences. I doubt they have much from ‘the charts’ of today at all, and if they do it will mostly be from US artists.
Social media is not their big thing, and they consider twitter and FaceBook lame. That the BBC is still throwing its full, and fully-funded UK commitment behind two US-based free outlets is therefore as predictable as it is hard to credit…. or justify.
It’s entirely possible they are completely different to kids you have had.
That’s the funny thing about kids; they come in a variety of styles, not all conforming to the neat parameters some presume apply to theirs and hence all others.
A mistake the world’s least trusted kids’ broadcaster tends to make too.
‘TOTP folded because of MTV’
A quick google shows:
Top of the Pops ended 30 July 2006
MTV started August 1, 1981
That’s a fairly long, slow, assassination process.
I’d guess what killed TOTP was more the web and the fact that most music ‘charting’, especially once reality shows kicked off, was and is now utter pants.
Yes, I remember the streets filled with vile toffs and Bullingdon members guzzling Champers and hooting with joy at the death of Harold Wilson in 1995.
Does anybody (other than the BBC lunatic fringe) remember this event? Does anybody remember the three term Labour prime minister who presided over the decline of the country and the abject surrender to syndaclism that Thatcher had to deal with. He was the man whose solution to over mighty organised labour was to have ‘beer and sandwiches’ sessions and refuse to drive through “in place of strife”in the face of the hysteria of the left (isn’t it strange just how hysterical the left always are?). It is said at one of the sessions that the 9 union leaders couldn’t agree on cheese or ham so it was settled ‘democratically’ – cheese won by 18,350,000 votes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Place_of_Strife
“Amongst its numerous proposals were plans to force unions to call a ballot before a strike was held and establishment of an Industrial Board to enforce settlements in industrial disputes. The Labour Cabinet of the Prime Minister, Harold Wilson, was divided over the issue. The proposals had been drafted in secret by Wilson and Castle. Divisions quickly appeared within the Cabinet when the proposals were presented, with the opposition led by James Callaghan. A settlement was eventually reached with the Trades Union Congress whereby the proposals were dropped…..
Speaking of Sunny Jim – the man who gave us the winter of discontent, do you remember all those Tory party galas at golf clubs across the country celebrating his death in 2005? The Conservative Students Association were all wearing T shirts showing piles of unburied bodies and the giant trash heap that was Leicester Square and the slogan
“You can’t go in to casualty, this is an official picket line”
Truly disrespectful and tasteless….
Compare and contrast the two separate boardrooms.
NewsCorp – some years ago….
Guys, we’ve got a blank sheet of paper and an empty office. How do we create a product that will attract ten million UK customers paying five hundred quid a year?
BBC – yesterday
Guys, do we play all of the Judy Garland song, a compromisy little bit of it, or none of it? Tough Tough decision.
Did I say, ‘compare and contrast’?
I meant to say ‘contrast’.
My bad.
Ha ha, so true!
It is simply a question of manners. No soul searching need just a recognition that there are certain things you do not do if you want to respect yourself as well as others.
I do realise that in a time when nothing is considered to be beyond deconstruction and equivallence this notion is foreign to most of our media and academics.
That the chatterers of the liberal left seem unable to grasp this is predictable. Reality is a stranger to them .
I am amused at just how nicely scrubbed middle class these partygoers look. Cossetted and protected by an over indulgent state and doting parents they really do look and sound banal. No grit I’m afraid.
It’s easy when you’re young to criticise the establishment and ‘stick it to the man’, when you know full well you will be guaranteed to make your life’s fortune working for the same establishment.
Funnily enough, unless I`ve got it all wrong; Scott hasn`t said too much that`s wrong has he?
I for one would have been pushing for someone to write scabrous and abusive songs that mocked the death of Mandela. Morrissey or indeed anybody beloved by the BBC ot the Guardian.
Eddie Mairs mum even?…THAT`S how nasty it could all get had the BBC not shown some understanding of the nest of vipers they`d unleash( no can of worms, as Mair implied).
Most of us don`t need an excuse to go for the BBCs throat, and if Russells Groupies are stupid enough to pay 79p for less than a minutes crap from before WW2…then as long as they`re not rattling their welfare, license fee, student tuition stuff or boozefund tins in my face thiscoming week or so, then battle postponed.
Brand/Ross/Savile?….the BBC are busy building up one funeral pyre for themselves. Today they saw a little sense at least.
Beeboids: politically pro-Hamas, and anti-Thatcher in their actions –
“Hamas failed to probe Palestinian ‘collaborator’ deaths”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22118880
Note photo in above report, Beeboids, out of political sympathy to Hamas, and ‘good taste’, censor out photographs of the actual murdered victims of Islamic jihadists being dragged through the streets of Gaza.
In contrast, the ‘New York Daily News’ shows the original photos uncensored, here:-
“Human Rights Watch slams Hamas for failing to investigate the slaying of seven Palestinians who were dragged through the streets of Gaza”
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/human-rights-watch-slams-hamas-rulers-failing-investigate-slaying-palestinians-article-1.1313708#ixzz2QEX750Ex
Note: such is BBC-NUJ’s political sympathy for the anti-Thatcher cause, that it does censor out intended musical insult.
So BBC-NUJ goes easy on Gaza’s Islamic jihadists via censorship, and goes easy on Thatcher haters by non-censorship.
“BBC ‘witch song’ insult to Maggie: Corporation to play single driven up by Thatcher haters”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2307480/Margaret-Thatcher-witch-song-insult-BBC-play-Ding-Dong-The-Witch-Is-Dead.html#ixzz2QEdqtXg7
My view on the BBC playing this clip, regarding the free speech aspect, is well expressed by James Delingpole, in particular that it more reflects the vileness of the mindset involved.
(Links available on the webpage)
We’re in love with Margaret Thatcher
By James Delingpole
For what it’s worth I think the BBC has no business censoring the music charts – even if it involves a song as insensitively timed and crassly-chosen as Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead!
a) we should do everything we can to discourage this idea the BBC has of itself as a branch of the Nanny State
b) I think it’s a good thing that those dancing on the grave of our greatest post war prime minister are properly exposed in all their vileness
c) Relax
But it’s OK. We have an even better chance of getting our own back, now. By going head-to-head against the scuzzballs with a song of our own: I’m In Love With Margaret Thatcher originally released in 1980 by ska-punk band The Notsensibles.
Here’s the Facebook page where you can register your support.
Go on! The song may not necessarily be the greatest song ever written. But think of it this way: if it goes to number one it will make at least one drama teacher from Worthing, Sussex deeply unhappy.
As Delingpole writes, there is a counter campaign for Thatcher supporters to purchase a copy of the ‘I’m in Love with Margaret Thatcher’. There is also another one according to the Mail: Supporters of Lady Thatcher urged the public to download Madonna’s song True Blue – the Whitehall codename for the preparations for her funeral – instead.
Now in the BBC article confirming that they will play a 5 second clip of ‘Ding Dong the Witch is Dead’, they also mention the fact that ‘Rival campaigns are under way to get a song considered to be more favourable to Lady Thatcher into this week’s countdown as well.’
So in the interest of balance, why couldn’t they name those particular tracks involved?
Even in their ‘reluctance’ to play the ‘Witch is dead’ track, they still prefer to advertise that than any other.
I like the way the droids are leading the news bulletins with the ding dong story – or to give it it’s more accurate name – the BBC story’.
More newsworthy than the Korean peninsula, apparently.
World’s most trusted news organisation eh hugs, eh, eh.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/multimedia/archive/00348/page_1_pic_348736c.jpg
‘More newsworthy than the Korean peninsula, apparently.’
—-
They said educate and inform.
No mention who, about what, how or in which order.
One’s a story about a bunch of stirring by some bubble-inhabiting, out-of-touch, delusional midgets banging a drum to make a silly point to their deranged supporters, and the other is about N Korea’s latest sabre rattling.
Apparently Rupert Murdoch owns the rights to ‘The Wizard of Oz’. So these muppets are funding one of their opponents. I think it’s called irony!
Do they? Are you sure? Perhaps that story is put around to prevent potential purchasers from changing their minds?
IIRC royalties go to the corporation that produces the product and are then passed to the copy write holder. So even if Uncle Rupert is not getting a penny he’ll get interest on the sum as it accrues in the bank, before it is passed on.
Don’t tell me you bought it Coldy? Lining Murdoch’s pockets eh? Better wash those hands eh?
If the BBC had played that damn song there might have been 5 minutes of complaints – but giving the story the oxygen of publicity has given the BBC all the emphasis they needed. But the amount of space given in the dead tree press all peddling the same line that this was the first test for Lord Hall, and how difficult the decision was going to be for him suggests a press release (or Twitter, or whatever media methods they chose to use) by the BBC. If this is the hardest thing Lord Hall has to decide upon then why is he being paid £450,000?
However those at the BBC appear too thick to realise that the more publicity they give to the anti-Thatcher campaign run mostly by people who hadn’t been born when she was PM the more decent people will dislike the Left.
I loathe Gordon Brown and what he has done to this country. What would I do should I hear of his death? Certainly I would wait for a better reason to drink champagne. I consider he is already a has-been, beyond inflicting further damage on the UK – I would get on with life.
It’s probably been posted elsewhere on the site but I haven’t come across it.
Richard Littlejohn with a tongue in cheek and very humorous ‘send up’ of the BBC upcoming funeral coverage.
For an impartial view, it’s over to Arthur Scargill…
It’s widely presumed on ‘the left’ that Margaret Thatcher had no sense of humour, BUT, watch this BBC video clip (2 min) –
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=margaret+thatcher+in+yes+minister&docid=4939204720263523&mid=B1F68C0FD6A20665E85AB1F68C0FD6A20665E85A&view=detail&FORM=VIRE3
She also came out with the line, supposedly in praise of Mr Whitelaw, “Every Prime Minister needs a Willie”. The Left tried to pretend that it was a gaffe and that she didn’t know what she said. She clearly did know and knew it was a double entendre.
We had a real comedian for a PM, Brown, and look where that got us!
When ‘The Risen Christ ‘ Nelson Mandela dies, will the BBC play ‘ Ding, dong, the Witch Doctor is dead.’
Somehow I doubt it.
This may be news to you Coldtits but Mandela isn’t in prison, he’s been free for 20 years.
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The BBC have been mercilessly plugging the Witch song all week by giving it excessive amounts of attention.
Not quite so loud about the pro-Thatcher song that’s now climbed up to number 6 in the itunes chart though are they?
One wonders what would happen if the BNP clubbed together with other Neo Nazis and bought sufficient copies of the “Horst Wessel Song” to get it to number one?
For products of recent education this song is a Nazi anthem.
Can you spell the word ‘hijack’?
“Craven BBC wants to have its cake and eat it.”
By DAILY MAIL COMMENT.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2308370/Craven-BBC-wants-cake-eat-it.html#ixzz2QKSvf1O2
“Labour-run charities – freed to indulge in political campaigning (or propaganda) by the Brown government – now wage open warfare against the Coalition over cuts.
What is most depressing is the way David Cameron has utterly failed to remove these Labour activists from the political system and replace them with men and women more sympathetic to the Coalition’s cause.
In his first full year in power, an astonishing 77 per cent of people who were appointed to a public position and had a known political allegiance were Labour supporters.”
so so true…
“The nasty side of Labour that proves it’s unfit to govern”
By SIMON HEFFER.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2308274/The-nasty-Labour-proves-unfit-govern.html#ixzz2QKXACjmH
79p to knock Ding Dong the Witch is Dead off the top slot.
Got to be worth it – but hurry you must buy it today as chart comes out Sunday
Did it yesterday. Not a great piece of music, and was no doubt meant to be tongu-in-cheek at the time, but it makes a point.
Yep not a big gay Al show tune like the other offering but I find it very difficult not to want to wade in and laugh at the idiots buying Dorothy s song and therefore putting money in Murdoch’s pocket !
But just think of the bad taste it will leave every beeboids mouth when they have to say ‘ I’m in love with Margaret Thatcher’.
Classic!
BBC News (UK)
@BBCNews: VIDEO: Carol Thatcher makes first public statement since death of her mother, former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher http://t.co/ygUZFWpDbK
—
Seems only yesterday the BBC kicked her off our screens for saying things (in private) that the BBC rushed to make public that they would not wish to be associated with.
There may be irony there somewhere, given relative values at this time.
But then, one is sure now is a different time.
And the BBC still seems untroubled by highly selective multiples of standard.
Ding-Dong the BBC’s dying.
And will BBC-NUJ be anything but respectful towards the funerals of IRA leaders Adams and McGuinness, intimidators of the British people, and influential in the bombing of the British Government in Brighton?
Absolutely !
BBC-NUJ: When Chavez dies.
BBC-NUJ eulogises its Chavez.
“How will Hugo Chavez’s legacy impact Venezuela’s polls?”
By Irene Caselli
BBC News, Caracas.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22106852
‘We are all Hezbollah-Chavez-Ahmadinejad now.’
Is it only the BBC that pushes the “Thatcher was divisive” line. How can a leader become great if they are not sometimes controversial. In politics nice guys (and girls) don’t do what’s needed.
Now that the BBC have seen as much sense as perpetual Leftys on the lam can be in the face of national revulsion, it only remains for us to see how many Maggie Munchkins troll along to pay their 79p for a 55 second tune(so I understand).
Will Dorothys Red Shoes be given to Glenda Jackson or Bob Crow…and would we notice the difference?
Was that house that fell on the witch and killed her one of Billy Braggs or Polly Toynbees…or was it revenge deserved for Fatch selling it off to a Council tenant?
Oh the questions…
Anyway let`s not hear any more crap who the “nasty party” are…Damien McBride?…David Kelly?…TUC “Thatcher dead” T-shirts for sale last September at their conference?….so shut Theresa May up once and for all.
She can have the Red Shoes if that`ll get her out…Thatcher really would not recognise the likes of May as being anything but a pale Munchkin.
Labour…the nasty party…and I MEAN nasty!
Craven BBC wants to have its cake and eat it
This Daily Mail Comment touches on the hypocrisy evident in the BBC decision to air the song. It is clear from many examples that when it suits their agenda they find reasons to ‘bury’ it.
I and most people here who are very critical of the BBC and most of the MSM have a desire for freedom of speech and a balance on what is reported.
I have absolutely no problem with those that want to demonstrate their hatred or dislike of Lady T by saying or doing whatever they like. In my book it demonstrates their lack of manners and humility. Traits that they publicly say they support.
We have had all the hoopla from the MSM about ding dong…………I personally think Lady T would be tickled pink by it all because she knows she got under their skin.
Its the lack of balance I have a serious problem with. Some news items highlight the current imbalance of the left dominated MSM, Police and Judicial system in this country. Along with Lady T’s death comes news of North Korea and the mock outrage of the media that anyone opposed and showing opposition to the regime is jailed and put into forced labour. Well we are heading the same way and here are some examples of this;
Fabrice Muamba is famous for? Going into cardiac and respiratory failure on a football pitch and being resuscitated. Not for football but because he is black and had a cardiac arrest. This is a man who is in this country because his father was part of a genocidal group in the Congo that got their backsides kicked and now are threatened with the same end.
A young Welsh guy has a few to many ales and makes an inappropriate tweet about wishing the guy had not survived. The media go into outrage, he is arrested, pleads guilty and is jailed. I am not condoning what he said, but he has a right to make a prat of himself.
Now contrast this with a far more serious incident this week. A POLICEMAN (civil servant who is bound by rules regarding public political statements) tweets celebrating Lady T’s death and suggesting that a similar fate should befall the Prime Minister, the Chancellor and the Home Secretary.
Did you notice how swiftly he was arrested and brought before the courts? Have you seen the outrage and all the interviews with members of the public about this?
Free speech in the UK has the same parameters as North Korea; you can only say what is acceptable to the left anything else is punishable in the courts. This country is heading in a dangerous direction and it was a direction Lady T opposed with all her strength.
BBC employees number about twenty thousand don’t they?
mmm
In the age of the internet, and with ‘votes’ but the click of a mouse away, you highlight the utter nonsense of all these petitions and ‘likes’ or ‘dislikes’ on forums, etc.
That’s just one organisation, all connected with each other internally via intranet (and a rather spooky commonality of thought, probably due to hiring policies spanning decades), and thence outwards via email or ‘views nothing to do with the company I have plastered all over my bio’ social media to their fellow travellers.
The miracle is several hundred thousand little-ebox ticks can’t be and aren’t conjured with one wave of Stuart Hughes’ wand on anything that threatens the hive.
Then beyond this merry bunch, all in control of 99% of the traditional media estate, are the drones ready and willing to absorb whatever instruction they are given.
http://www.cyberpunkreview.com/images/i-robot08.jpg
Press 1 for outrage.
Press 2 for petitions.
Press 3 for buying a protest symbol.
And it’s not like such an audience may not have an inherent conflict of interest that can often ‘escape’ the analysing market rates spinning the voices of the nation they are witness to.
Take the recent daft, inaccurate petition by the bloke who thought he was owed a personal foot washing by an elected public official.
It has garnered some 470,000 ‘votes’, requiring no more than anyone keen to stick it to a Government Minister to add a few details and hit ‘enter’.
Now, presuming those on benefits are unlikely to be of the Christmas-spirited turkey variety, that there are 6M in that catchment alone makes one wonder what happened to the other 5.5M who could have been weighing in too.
ps:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/more-than-100000-sign-us-petition-to-deport-piers-morgan-8436651.html
‘”Keep Piers Morgan in the USA”, has garnered over 8,000 signatures, stating: “No one in the UK wants him back.””
You hum it, I’ll play it. Then it may even chart at those numbers.
Glenda Jackson – a bitter and twisted has been who’s only hope of making a comeback to the silver screen would be round the cauldron in Macbeth.
The witch is alive.
I dunno there must be a chicken suit in need of a squawking filler!
I seem to recall she was what our Antipodean cousins would have referred to as a ‘good sport’, being the calibre of actress who, if the role demanded it and the director was prepared to handle it all in good taste, would graciously keep her kit on for a role.
Unfortunately for her, most teenage boys like me offering loyal support to actresses willing to go the extra mile for their art, were often better served by the talents offered by Sarah Miles or Julie Christie.
We may have been governed mainly by one thing, but knew what worked and what was lesser fare.
Don’t want you mean ‘take her kit off for a role’? Though in Glenda’s case it would be more gracious for her to keep her kit on. In fact the UN should draft a resolution forcing her to keep her kit on.
Oh I forgot to add – Sarah Miles, now there’s a national treasure who doesn’t seek tacky tabloid recognition.
‘take her kit off for a role’? MP Glenda ??
yewwwwwwwwwwwwretchwwwwwwwwwwwwwwpleasewwwwwwgougewwwweyesoutwwwwwwwwwww service revolver wwwww !
Whatever you do don’t watch The Music Lovers.
has everybody forgot this comrades,,,, nelson mandela belonged to a terrorist group called the anc who bombed bus and railway stations that resulted in innocent civilians including children being killed..that the left never likes you to know,,,,,but them lot support and appease all kind of terrorist groups like al qaeda dont they…another thing mandela and the anc used to do is burn alive and neckclace there fellow poor black citixens who they suspected of trying to earn a crust by working for the south african goverment,,,that the left also dont like you to know…will i raise a glass when mandela dies,,,maybe…but i wont hold street partys like the far left sickos are going to do over thatchers death,,,in fact,,when galloway dies,,,,fidel casrto dies and that commie loonie leader dies of north korea dies i will also raise a glass and sing ding dong the commies are dead,,,,there i rest my case comrades….
An interesting exchange linked here:
http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/sweet-shop.html?
Some may feel Mr. ‘Loveable Simplicity’ Mair pulls wings off Mr. Cooper, some may feel he came across as a rather nasty piece of work.
Hard not to see this as the BBC doing what the BBC does best, and that is suddenly becoming a ‘them over there’ 3rd party entity as far as the BBC is concerned. And looking bonkers.
I wonder if the information promised was actually found out before the end of the programme, or this was another in a series of fudges packed into a glorious mano a mano exchange.
D’you know what, I was absolutely unimpressed, and shocked, I tell you, shocked, that Mr. Cooper came away from a meeting with the man overseeing his career feeling he was the best thing since sliced bread.
Here’s how another (oddly prone to closing comments too) medium felt about the kind of awesome leadership all that money buys:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/margaret-thatcher/9991129/BBC-tying-itself-in-knots-over-song-mocking-Baroness-Thatchers-death.html
Maybe it needs one of those helpful BBC bolt-ons as they did with Palestinian collaborators, for the less sharp knives in the 15 to 23 demographic in whom Mr. Mair has so much faith: ‘Within BBC marketratedom, sucking up is deemed a very good thing’.
Oh, just play the damn song already and quit running scared, BBC. This is just the kind of thing that makes critics from withing the BBC – and fellow travelers in other media outlets – say that a major problem with the BBC is that it has become too timid, too worried about poll results and maintaining what they think is a facade of propriety. On the other side, of course, are those who think it’s disrespectful and plays into the hands of the haters. Which it does.
I say tough. Play the stupid song. The whining from Thatcher supporters will blow over long before the harsh infighting within the BBC and criticism about censorship will even begin to die down. This is hardly going to help what’s been revealed from Pollard et al as a serious schism between top management and everybody else. If anything it will make it worse.
Cooper had a point about the feelings of the Thatcher family, but that’s about as far as it goes.
It’s idiotic for Eddie Mair to ask if making the song a chart-topper now is “disrespectful” and “distasteful”. Of course it is. That’s the whole point of it.
Is it a news story, as Cooper says? Yes. Again, that’s the whole point. The real question is: what does the story reveal about the participants? Playing the song may be offensive to many, but it also reveals the character of the people who downloaded it, hyped it, put it on their playlist, and are using it to celebrate. That’s something about which the public should be informed and educated, a task which Cooper said was his duty as a BBC employee.
Play the song and be damned.
I feel the positives in playing the song, far outweigh the negatives:
1. It shows which mindset can tolerate opposing views without the insecurity or feeling undermined.
2. It shows the crass and vile mindset, that think the death of an old woman is something to celebrate. Anybody with half a brain would see that there are good and bad things that came out of her reign and focus on what should be done now to make life better. Instead they think their disrespectful actions makes our society, or their ’cause’ better.
3. It makes the next time the BBC avoids running something for fear of offending a certain group stand out far more than it has before.
It’s all ammunition.
The other positive is that it must surely assuage some of the wrath aimed at the top brass by the lower orders at the BBC. Plus the high-profile agitators like Paxman won’t be able to bitch about this being caused by “biddable” people. That’s got to be as much of a concern for the BBC right now as weathering yet another Mail/Telegraph storm-of-the-week.
The BBC similarly took the film ‘Greenmantle’ out of the schedules
As far as I know, Greenmantle has never been adapted into a film. Maybe you mean the Radio 4 Classic Serial adaptation, which had been due to air in July 2005. Its broadcast was delayed, maybe because it was inappropriate in the immediate aftermath of the 7/7 attacks. The play was broadcast a few months later, and has been repeated several times on Radio 7/4 Extra since.
But hey. Don’t let actual facts get in the way of a bit of simple-minded bigotry. Not that you ever do.
Yes Scott, facts are interesting things…things you seem to ignore…just why did the BBC shelve ‘Greenmantle’?
What does Charles Moore think Greenmantle represents?:
‘A warning from the past that the BBC does not want us to hear’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3618396/A-warning-from-the-past-that-the-BBC-does-not-want-us-to-hear.html
A small news item this week announced that BBC Radio 4 had dropped its dramatisation of John Buchan’s Greenmantle from the schedule. It contained “unsuitable and insensitive material” at this difficult time.
The big idea is that, to win in the East and thus to win the whole war, Germany needs to annex the dreams of Islam (“I fancy religion is the only thing to knit up such a scattered empire… There is a jihad preparing”).
To do this, Germany needs to control a mystical Muslim figure who can “madden the remotest Moslem peasant with dreams of Paradise”.
Yes, as I said, the BBC don’t want you thinking Islam may present a few problems to a secular/Christian society.
An awkward little ‘fact’ for you Scott.
And isn’t ‘Ding Dong, the witch is dead’ a tad ‘unsuitable and insensitive at this difficult time’?
Great book though
The BBC “doesn’t want you to hear it” – so it has broadcast it multiple times.
Keep digging, Alan. The sight of you demonstrating just how dense you are is really quite amusing.
Well Scott, it was taken off air because the BBC didn’t want you to make the connection between Islam and the claims of the bombers that they were acting in the name of Islam.
Seems the BBC were successful in your case.
They can’t fool all the people all the time Scott, but it seems the BBC certainly can with you.
because the BBC didn’t want you to make the connection between Islam and the claims of the bombers that they were acting in the name of Islam
It would have nothing to do with respect for the people who had just lost their lives and the family and friends they left behind, of course…
But no. Respect for others always comes secondary to your own petty prejudices. What a truly pathetic individual you are proving yourself to be.
‘…nothing to do with respect for… family and friends they left behind, of course…’
At risk of again brutalising you by quoting your own words and asking a polite question, as a habitual apologist for usually selective rights of speech, does this count as a Damascene conversion?
I checked it out (easy to do with internet) it went out 5 years(not months) later twice on radio 7 and once on 4 extra,” currently available on BBC iPlayer “(Thats according to BBCs own web site,so what tust you can place in that is for the reader to decide.)
So exactly the same deal as C4 with ‘Edge of the city’
and Tom Hollands “Islam: The Untold Story”and for same reason.
Put out in middle of the night without telling anyone
Sorry should be “NOT currently available on BBC iPlayer”
Long shift
I checked it out (easy to do with internet) it went out 5 years(not months) later
It was broadcast in December 2005 on Radio 4. The programme database that powers the BBC’s current website is sketchy when going back that far, but here’s an independent review to verify it. Like you say, “easy to do with internet”.
“[not] currently available on BBC iPlayer… So exactly the same deal as C4 with ‘Edge of the city’
You do realise that most radio programmes are only available for seven days after broadcast, don’t you? So you might as well say “exactly the same deal with Quote Unquote“. Or “exactly the same deal with Twelfth Night“.
If you’re trying to insinuate that it’s somehow being suppressed, then congratulations – you’ll be able to keep Alan company in the dunces’ corner.
I stand corrected( and with your usual good grace)
But yes I do say it has been hidden away for reasons of moral and intellectual cowardice your not required to agree with me
“But yes I do say it has been hidden away for reasons of moral and intellectual cowardice”
With no proof. And no justification. And despite every other radio drama being subject to the same lack of availability.
Congratulations. With lunacy like that, David Vance’ll promote you into posting regularly. He’s always looking for mindless idiots whose inanity makes him look like a towering genius by comparison.
Oh dear ,you asked I answered.
A pleasure talking to you though,as always.
Scott puts some reasonable arguments together but then can’t stop himself closing with an insult. Not the sort the BBC would want as an ally, if they have any sense.
Oh, hang on……
Agreed on both counts.
Does he realise,I wonder,that his style perpetuates a negative stereotype.
When Gordon Brown pops his clogs I wonder if they will ban the song Gordon is a Moron?