I don’t think that Lord Howell said anything he needed to apologise for but thanks to the predictable baiting in the Lords from Labour, picked up and magnified by the BBC, he ended up saying sorry for suggesting that “desolate parts” of the north-east with no obvious natural beauty could be potential spots for tracking. Maybe he should have said the north-west? The BBC seized on this with glee and given the BBC opposition to a/ fracking in particular and b/conservatives in general, they have sneered at this for the last 24 hours. Following the logic put forward by Labour and echoed by the BBC it appears that every inch of the UK is so beautiful that we cannot frack anywhere. How curious.
DESOLATION?
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“Following the logic put forward by Labour and echoed by the BBC it appears that every inch of the UK is so beautiful that we cannot frack anywhere. How curious.”
Labour and the BBC also think that no inch of the UK is so beautiful that it can be spared an array of bird-mincing and semi-useless wind turbines.
Nor are they adverse to having ‘anti-social’ housing crammed on any amount of this green and pleasant land to accommodate labours imported voter stock
It also seems that areas of land covered in solar panels are claiming the lives of birds smashing into them after mistaking them for stretches of water.
> semi-useless wind turbines
They’re only useful for one thing: filling the pockets of rich landowners and subsidy farming corporations at the expense of poor British energy bill payers.
Nicked Emus, if an infected pimple on the arse of humanity like you is not a fan of David Vance that can only be to his credit. That you are an ardent supporter of the BBC speaks volumes about the talentless nitwits who work for them.
I remember Glasgow and Clydeside after 60 years of continual Labour rule where Labour and the Unions thought of it as their own private feifdom and the people were there to serve them.
It was ugly, scarred, deprived, poverty ridden, depressing and desolate….and I make no apologies for saying it.
I was born and grew up on the North West Durham coalfield in the 60s as the coal industry was being wound up (long before Lady T came along, but she still gets the blame, of course). Lord Howell had it spot on, in fact he was pretty complimentary, given the Liebour-ridden, desolate wasteland that it is.
The benefit dependency culture is deep rooted and the only growth industries are cannabis farming and shelling out kids to maximise your benefits. Local street names reflect the stranglehold the Left have on the place….”Lenin Terrace” and “Mandela Close” are a couple that spring to mind…and few can see life beyond their next benefit cheque.
A real green and pleasant land…….grey, featureless and full of people devoid of hope or aspiration, where even the charity shops have given it up as a bad job and left. In other words, Labour’s heartland.
Small wonder they (and their chums at the Beeb) think it’s so lovely.
Ah Lenin Terrace, next to Keir Hardy Avenue, Burnhope.
Just shows the emotional ties that the lefties have to the revolution. Perhaps all of these lefty anti-frackers (and ex communist party member Greenies) actually want the UK to be dependent on Putin and Mother Russia’s gas?
Worth a BBC investigation!
Lenin Terrace, really? What’s next, Chairman Mao Boulevard?, Hitler cul-de-sac.
On a vaguely related note, there was a street in Coventry called Bader Walk. Either ignorance or a screwed up sense of humour.
Douglas BADER was a fighter pilot and hero of WW II.
Andreas BAADER, the German anarchist, was a sad and nasty piece of work.
Interesting – albeit utterly predictable – to see Newsnight last night seize upon this story not to discuss or examine any possible benefits the UK might derive from fracking, but instead to sneer at a Tory Peer. This is the level of ‘debate’ on the BBC these days – and it’s a disgrace.
The belligerent, smug, complacent ‘progressive’ oafs who run the Corporation clearly had no real interest in discussing the potential for fracking to completely change the UK’s energy needs for the next 50-100 years, to possibly create huge numbers of jobs, to potentially reinvigorate industry (yes, even in the Northeast) and to perhaps even drive down high energy prices for homes and businesses.
No, these exemplars of journalistic integrity and impartiality would rather snipe, bicker and insult, indulging in petty-minded mud-slinging and professional sh*t-stirring, whilst ensuring the watching public is neither informed nor enlightened about the actual issue at hand.
Can the BBC sink any lower?
Yup. They can, do, and will.
Indeed. I do not understand those lefties. On the one hand they literally rewrite history to hate the tories for closing the mines and the steelworks and iron works all across the north.
Yet on the other, they hate the tories for wanting to re-introduce lots of energy industry jobs back into those areas.
Labour and the BBC, one bunch of delusional self-victimising idiots running round validating another group of delusional self-victimising idiots.
BBC-NUJ has a political knee-jerk reaction to oppose shale gas development anywhere in Britain.
Its political line is derived from its ‘green’ zealot, Hampstead Harrabin, whose every hostile piece on shale gas must include the unthinking words, ‘controversial’ and ‘earthquakes,’ NOT words ‘economic growth’ and ‘import-saving’.
Note BBC-NUJ double standards on shale gas compared with wind farms.
BBC-NUJ is happy with wind farms located anywhere, but is unhappy with shale gas development anywhere.
propose a windfarm on Hampstead Heath and then see what Harrabin and co. say
It was rather a tactless thing to say but how the BBC has reported it has blown it up out of all proportion and it isn’t far from what they claim when describing what they think Thatcher did to the north east. They also prattle on about the Tories having a northern problem conveniently forgetting that there are whole swathes of southern and eastern England without a single Labour MP.
Trivia Question : Name a north-eastern seat gained by Maggie from Labour in 1983 and held in 1987. Clue : it was in the South from a Geordie point of view.
How about Darlington? (With Michael Fallon, though he’s an MP ‘down South’ nowadays).
‘Darlo’ it was – got it in one !
Could have been phrased a lot better – didn’t show much political wisdom.
On the other hand, Northerners (of which I’m one) never stop reminding Southerners that the North is less densely populated, so much of the outrage is false.
Everyone knows Northerners can dish it out.
Could have been phrased a lot better – didn’t show much political wisdom.
On the other hand, Northerners (of which I’m one) never stop reminding Southerners that the North is less densely populated, so IMO much of the outrage is false.
And everyone knows Northerners can dish it out.
Oh dear – the multiple personality disorder seems to have returned.
I blame Thatcher.
Radio 4’s ‘Today’ had Cuadrilla’s chief executive Francis Egan on the programme.
Justin Webb tried to so hard to push his and the BBC’s myopic views about the fears for fracking in this country. He failed miserably and Mr Egan gave as good as he got.
However, just a little point, I am surprised with all the help of an army of well-paid researchers, Webb cannot even pronounce the name of the village where these professional protesters are wasting police time.
It is Balcombe (sounds like Salcombe) not Baalcome. Come on BBC, keep up!
Webb just ignored Mr Egan’s correct pronunciation and blundered on.
Listen and weep..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b037j0h8 at 1hr 13m 14 sec
The pronunciation of a place name is as defined by the BBC, the ‘locals’ are plebs to be ignored. There is though a certain, mainly southern, arrogance.
Some years ago the BBC interviewed a couple who had moved to Southwell, near Nottingham. Even the BBC interviewer was surprised to hear them call it South Well. They just said “the locals call it Southwell but we call it South Well”.
But I think even that was topped by the southern lady who, realising that the lady next to her in the museum was Japanese, enquired where she was from. On receiving the reply “Osaka” (the Japanese use short, even vowels) responded with “Oh you mean Ohsarka!”.
We just need to know our place.
Well, as my old latin master used to tell us:
” you’re putting the wrong emphASSis on the verb!
“There is though a certain, mainly southern, arrogance.”
Don’t be chippy ,let me assure you ,as a kentishman (as opposed to a man-o-kent) born and bred. The BBC cannot (be bothered to?) pronounce properly the names of any English town they are not familiar with
i.e. Erith is pronounced ‘ear-rith’ not ‘air-rith’
and Eynsford is ‘ains (as in pain) -ford’ and not ‘eins (as in stein)-ford’
It is relevant if the BBC are building it up out of all proportion.
However, I didn’t come here seeking your approval, whoever you are.
Misread post. Bad computer day.
When a Tory politician says something mildly derogatory about a small part of the English landscape the BBC devotes much attention to it.
When a liberal politician, David Ward, keeps repeatedly making anti-Semitic comments about Jewish people and Israel the BBC turns its attention elsewhere.
Presumably this is because in BBC land Fracking, Tories, Jews and Israel are all evil whereas Liberals are all saints. This is what they mean when they describe themselves as impartial: hating the right things.
When I passed Media City in Salford recently, my canary developed a bit of a tickly chest-which tells me that there may well be gas under the BBCs new buildings….can`t ALL be halitois and flatulence, seeing as they`ve planted plenty of disability scooters and shopping trolleys in the surrounding area specifically to absorb these (very) natural gases, emanating from Beeb Bottoms Crinkly.
If I were Godzilla, I`d take an axe to the nice floor at reception. a,d see if we can create a few Jed Clampitts for the 21st Century.
Failing that?..Tower Hamlets, Newham and North Tyneside…or any place that elects the likes of Hodge, Vaz and Ward, Tonge or Galloway…past or present.
Frack off!
Woot woot woot phone in if you live in the north-east woot woot woot.
How’s about
‘Phone in if you want to see the gas price fall by two thirds and your energy bill to halve.’
They (we) not allowed to phone in then.
The droids truly are pig-thick.
So did Howells say ‘desolate parts of the north east’ or ‘the desolate north east’. Jeremy vine definitely trailed the latter for his show, so if Howell actually said the former what kind of word-twisting is that from the BBC?
these poncie middle class flower power socalist greeny leftie idiots who can afford to pay there high gas bills in there leafy surburbs are the most selfish people in the uk,if fracking brings down the gas bills for the ordinary working class familys who are struggling to pay there bills well what the hell is wrong with that you lazy hippie lefties,frack the who damm country as far as i am concerned if it brings us cheaper energy bills.
A view rarely seen on Beeboid Harrabin propaganda territory:-
“Fracking can deliver UK energy security and lower fuel bills, what’s wrong with that?”
http://www.ukip.org/newsroom/blog/entry/fracking-can-deliver-uk-energy-security-and-lower-fuel-bills
Being from Newcastle I welcome the statement that they should frack in the north east, it will bring much needed non-governmental jobs, investment and development to the region.