Here you go, a middle of the week Open Thread! Enjoy!
MIDWEEK OPEN THREAD…..
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- Lucy Pevensey Dec 22, 15:04
Weekend 21st December 2024
Less than 5000 signatures to go for the election petition to hit 3 million. - tomo Dec 22, 15:00
Weekend 21st December 2024
Provincial councils are murdering retail… £5.34 per hour to park in York. https://www.gbnews.com/lifestyle/cars/york-parking-charges-local-council-costs-public-transport-north-england - tomo Dec 22, 14:55
Weekend 21st December 2024
BBC to feature similar / same screen health warning in 2025? Starmer’s media team look like they need similar…. [img]https://i.ibb.co/3sc2J86/chrome-h-DA9-Pj2h-Pw.png[/img]… - Fedup2 Dec 22, 14:55
Weekend 21st December 2024
The state broadcaster -BBC news going after the state religion as usual – nice soft target .. don’t hear so… - pugnazious Dec 22, 14:52
Weekend 21st December 2024
Labour reminds me of the Monty Python hole in road sketch when they tell us how awful life was under… - moggiemoo Dec 22, 14:42
Weekend 21st December 2024
Yup, just hang it from a window frame with bungee cords. - pugnazious Dec 22, 14:42
Weekend 21st December 2024
Change churches into mosques and bishops into imams and that’ll calm them down…appeasement, surrender and colonisation is the order of… - MarkyMark Dec 22, 14:27
Weekend 21st December 2024
“When at work I change my CV… ” A Day In The Life Of Rachel Reeves https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e2kqJID2Ac - MarkyMark Dec 22, 14:22
Weekend 21st December 2024
“But they will be interviewed, asked if they are sorry and asked if they want to go on a prevent… - MarkyMark Dec 22, 14:20
Weekend 21st December 2024
“The Army is shrinking – but would Labour make it any bigger?” https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c877yyy7n0xo As of April 2024, there were 75,325…
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agw anti-American anti-conservative anti-Israel anti Israel. pro Palestinian Antisemitism BBC - sickeningly biased at all times. BBC agenda BBC bias bbc bias and balance. bbc bias by omission BBC censorship BBC Question Time BBC selectivity bias Biased BBC climate change dhimmis general thread immigration Islam israel Mark Mardell obama obama bias Obamalove open thread pro-labour pro-palestinian pro EU pro Hamas pro Islam pro Labour bias pro Obama PRO OBAMA AT ALL COSTS. pro Obama BBC agenda question time question time live Richard Black save gordon. USA politics US economy US News US politics US presidential elections
The Times today: The BBC media tree sloth David Aranovich had his usual ‘Comments’ column in The Times today (06/02) ‘Does a paedophile’s art desecrate a church? arguing (to himself) that true Art can only be achieved by Paedophiles (he went on naming some of the most famous BBC architectural ‘sculptures’ elements by Eric Gill (and Gills disclosures of sex with his children and the dog) redeemed by Aronovich in his musings and then compared with (naming several others) before deciding that Woody Allen is innocent of all charges because he made some good films… (Just like the BBC in fact employing sex predators for TV ‘Art’ and film are so alike). So that’s all right then – for a liberal leftie you see luvvie, ‘because it’s Art’, – morality does not come into it.
Just another reason why the BBC campaigns so hard for the abolition of ‘under age’ sex with boys (or girls). No mention that these ‘saddos’ molest because they are young and vulnerable. Who would suspect that old Aronovich was a useful cheerleader for the ‘BBC bias’ going back to Birt’s 1987 consultant team). No doubt the BBC bias will make children work for a ‘one world-fits-all-bugger all’ as an ‘Art’ theme. (As redefined and judged by the EU). It was a ‘Common Purpose’ then and still is now – it still does not make it ‘right’. (EU) Legally or (UK) otherwise. A BBC a perversion hidden behind this Paywalled link, (damn The Times), detestable Aronovich – but you get the ‘jist’ of it – no doubt BBC will follow up with a liberal ‘endorsement’ of such practices as ‘noble’ art.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/columnists/article3996854.ece
The EU spent £65k of our money for a spread in the Evening Standard telling us how wonderful it is. It wasn’t entirely clear that it was an advert, so Conservative MP Mark Reckless complained to the Advertising Standards Authority:
The BBC hasn’t touched the story.
Here’s the most recent tweet by one Riina Luik, PR at the European Parliament Information Office in the UK, in which she links to the aforementioned advert:
And here’s a tweet tonight from the BBC’s Joe Lynam (“Business journalist covering banks, economy, EU, companies, UK & Ireland, management, consumers,government, markets etc.”)
Congratulations to them both.
And if you think the BBC will ever be impartial on matters EU you’re a moron.
Isn`t that the dog that the Russians sent up with Sputnik?
Or the old big boiler bird who Waterman used to knock about?
If I stay tuned to the BBC long enough their dating agency will become as much a part of the schedules as those deaths they incresaingly puff up as national tragedies when all they were were aerial fitters.
Hospital radio for the mentally ill…care in their community, but we`re paying for all this so we can just f*** off.
For now.
BBC Bully Boys Bashed
Just reading the bBCs article on plastic bags, while slating the government, they gloss over the fact that the scheme the greens support would tax..all bags including paper ones.
Err hang on?
Yes all bags, now while the greens hate plastic bags, tell me what do you see more of on the streets, plastic bags or soft drink cans, plastic bags or fast food rubbish, discarded chewing gum or plastic bags, why let’s not forget fag ends or…plastic bags.
All I see is just another twist of the screw in which to promote an agenda to shove green policies down our necks. Why. Because for a long time plastic bags have been ..bio degradable. ( tesco,,co op for example) it allows stores to sell plastic bags for hard cash and the so called money for charity, it’s voluntary.
Like all things green it’s just another scam, think it am kidding, light bulbs, electric cars, power generation, recycling air inside aircraft, bin collections, old appliance removal tax, car tire disposal tax, etc.. All of the above just add money to your daily bills and have made very little impact on clearing up the environment. But they do make a lot of so called greens very rich.
Stick a plastic bag in a landfill (which we are not running out of despite all the lies) and it will sit there for the next few millennia minding its own business and doing not a jot of harm whatsoever to the environment.
Watched The Late Debate on ITV.
Alastair Stewart talking to Nigel Farage, followed by a pollster and an academic discussing UKIP. Quite a marked difference to how the Beeb would have handled it. Guests allowed to express their views with no sneering etc.
Quite refreshing!
BBC Under Fire For Spending Public Money On ‘Vanity Portrait’ Of Greg Dyke
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/06/bbc-dg-portraits-cost_n_4731623.html
…Hideously white…apologies for posting this…
It is interesting when ‘tradition’ is held up as anachronistic in this day and age, and by whom, and when not.
From Lordships to Baronesses, Dykes to Abbotts, even the most modern of social engineering champions often seem to suddenly feel certain things need preserving through the medium of oil. Especially when it is their own images for posterity paid for by those with no choice. One day there should be an exhibition of these indulgences showing how they thought they were seen, surrounded by framed quotes, like the one already cited, of how they are truly viewed and will be remembered.
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away”.
Shelley
Won`t make the World At One I`m afraid.
Hardly fresh or inspiring to the yoof and to Marthas muffins is it?
I suggest you listen to the rap about FGM that some prep schoolgirls in Bristol did yesterday for her show…they were THAT angry…they did a RAP…how angry must they have been?
No AiSi!….let ole Shelley put it to a rap with a funky edgy producer-a featuring of some creep with a name like a DDR old combine reference number, and he/she can take his/her place in the queue for Saviles old trailer tent.
Are we talking Peter or Winters here…Gee Baby or US starlet…for THAT matters here at the BBC.
As indeed do you!
“And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command””
“From Lordships to Baronesses, Dykes to Abbotts …….. need preserving through the medium of oil.”
Keith Vaz already is.
Greg Dick!…who`d put a finger in that?
Hands up children(no, not you Savile)
Rest of the class anybody?
Anybody but Evan please boys!
BBC Scam – have you been affected? An article on the BBC website about a scam in India, in which people receive text messages telling them they have won the ‘BBC Lottery’ (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-26012779). I wonder if this is related to the UK BBC scam, in which you ‘win’ the opportunity to watch television in return for an upfront payment of £145.50?
Unbelievable:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2553529/Thompson-portrait-cost-public-20-000-BBC-bosses-fire-agreeing-use-licence-fee-payers-money-picture.html
He wuz framed. Or didn’t hear about it. Or wasn’t told. Or forgot. Or something.
The word ‘complaint’ usually only needs one mention to bring the most predictable swinger in the jungle down, so with eager anticipation, here’s another example of what never happens but interrupts the smooth flow of CECUTT and production of Trust tractor stats..
http://bbcwatch.org/2014/02/07/the-16-month-long-story-of-a-complaint-to-the-bbc/
“Let’s hope that it doesn’t take another sixteen months to put that right. Otherwise, some people may begin to question the BBC’s level of commitment to correcting its mistakes”
Some people, eh?
The news on BBC Radio Devon this morning: Climate Change, Climate Change, Climate Change, Climate Change, and then there was an interview with someone from the Environment Agency who discussed, Climate Change. There is another *storm* due tonight and for tomorrow, which is, obviously caused by……..wait for it……..Climate Change. Even the normal charity being hurt by government cutz hasn’t had a look in this morning. Goodness, what is the World coming to?
The Jewish fear of intermarriage
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26067980
Funny but I’ve never seen a story about how the Qur’an tells it’s followers they can marry non Muslim women, but that women may not marry non Muslim men.
Of course in the topsy turvey back to front world of the illiberal left concepts like Homophobia and sexism simply cease to exist !
BBC man Andy Swiss on what to expect from the Winter Olympics opening ceremony : ‘plenty of Russian heritage’
The poor chap seemed a little uninspired at the prosepect.
Perhaps to get him really excited it would require Leftist campaigning by Danny Boyle.
Swiss cottaging?
Nicky Campbell’s Your Call on the Somerset Levels flooding ; “Have we abandoned the victims?” is on now.
Of course what Nicky means here is ‘has the present government abandoned the victims?’ There will be no discussion of EU mandated, Labour enacted eco lunacy which did abandon the victims.
come on Nikki Panto, climate change – propaganda anyone? he s slipping.
send some money to Pakistan, or Syria, or the African money pit eh! Dave, how about aid to help the Indian Space program
They did eventually get a climate twonk on, after 9.30. The usual drivel, backed up to the hilt by Nicky “I have no opinion except when I give it” Campbell.
But if you go on the Radio 4 site, you can find pictures of Mishal Hussein in fetching waterproof hijab and Doc Marten boots…a fantasy for the Today Editors to dream and cream over.
She`ll be posing on the dead body of a floating badger-or if the need is for less emoting there at the BBC…a dead farmer.
Apparently it`s very fetching down there in Cornwall, and Mishals selfies will hopefully raise the profile of the need for grief tourism, and rubbernecking show ponies who will be safely back in London or the Cotswolds by lunchtime today.
WTF?..we`re paying for this empty sandbag to fly to Cornwall( how else did dhe get there?)…and did she even drop a lace hankie from the cockpit as they flew her over the cesspool that is now Somerset?
How offensive do the BBC have to be to us before we strike back?
Other parts of DroidRadio™ bragging about their Rajar figures in an, ‘I don’t like to talk about it me old mate but…’ type way.
Not a peep from Gameshow – Wonder what happened to his ‘three million listeners out there’. Itself a straight lie.
I love rock and roll, mate, don’t you. It’s drainpipetrousertastic.
Luckily you can always tell how the Rajar figures are by just by how much they are mentioned. Silence on Five Live so far, while others stations are parroting their results happily.
It seems, combined with 5 Live Sports Extra, they are unchanged from last quarter, which begs the question were they combined with 5 Live Sports Extra last time around?
“Helen Boaden, Director of BBC Radio, said: “These figures are wonderful news for the radio industry and Britain’s love affair with radio shows no signs of cooling. We are a nation of audiophiles and so, despite the ever-increasing competition for people’s time and the growing range of online audio providers, radio is thriving in the digital age. I’m delighted that the BBC’s distinctive portfolio of stations is proving so enduringly popular and helping the UK radio industry go from strength to strength.””
Of the five main BBC stations Five Live was mentioned… fifth. Not because they were dealing with them numerically, but because they were the fifth best. Out of five.
Bit odd, because Boaden said radio was going from strength to strength.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2014/rajar-q4-2013.html
With Five Live most of the daytime output needs revamping, perhaps, who knows, with presenters who aren’t Labour supporters. As for evenings, somehow they managed, in Phil Williams, to find someone even worse than Livesey and Bacon in that late night slot, which is an astonishing achievement when you think about it.
I only caught this briefly driving back, Stephen Lennon attacked in prison – BBC 5Live approx 8.40am
Taken for a legal visit, taken to a room, locked in
and then attacked sustaining various injuries? (apparently by Muslims).
Appalling, up pops Usama Hasan Quilliam Fnd.
with N Campbell, to “dress” the story.
The bullet points, from islamophile/Hasan
Lennon has an “Islamofauxbic” past? … ( so obviously deserved the attack then?).
Saw the ahem “beauty/peace of Islam” apparently – re the Quilliam Fnd?, (but still got attacked, hmm not an example of great peacefulness?).
Lennon then sidelined – as Hasan then states prisons are violent? … conveniently relays a story about a Muslim terrorist who apparently got punched?? ( no equivalence at all, to Mr Lennon just conflation)
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/edl-founder-tommy-robinson-fear-muslim-attack-beaten-woodhill-prison-1435264
Shocked.
Thought he was a Liberal poster boy for a few days running up to Christmas.
Didn`t know he was in prison, but no news of that-do wonder why.
Also, why the 18 months for mortgage fraud?…we`re hardly talking Lee Rigby here…nor fraud on a scale of David Laws or Dennis McShane, perjury like Chris Huhne are we?
To think we get the whole media machine squauking about Michael Hamza Odeboloajo and his dental records, but Tommy is set up for a battering(so it seems)…and the State call it a minor assault.
Give us proof Woodhill, God knows if Guantanamo Bay inmates can get their manifestos out to Newsnight, then Mr Lennon(the true singer of our songs these days) deserves the same.
I`ll wait…
update … now on iplayer 2h 44
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03szmpd/5_live_Breakfast_07_02_2014/
It looks suspicious. His lawyers warned that he feared an attack. Any bets that it was an official ‘blind eye’ order? Home Office pay back time to sweeten the moderate ROP? Theresa and Dave – are you up to something? A case for the EU Court of Human Rights? Expect more incidences like this involving dissidents. Oh Yes. Don’t expect BBC/Guardian to demand an inquiry.
Just curious, but why has the BBC gone crazy over the Winter Olympics? Winter sports are something in which the vast majority of the UK population has absolutely no interest and, more to the point, do not participate either actively or (eg football and rugby) passively. It’s rather like women’s cricket which has a following of about three (which includes said cricketers’ families) but about which BBC News 24, for instance, insists on giving unwarranted publicity while trying – and failing – to avoid broadcasting pictures of vast empty stadia where the matches are taking place.
God knows how much the BBC is spending on this borefest (which includes over-frequent commercials for the BBC coverage) in the hope that our “heroes” will win a clutch of medals (wonderful for the winners – and good luck to them – but meaningless to the rest of us). Of course, there’s a collateral benefit to the BBC in that the part of the Narrative which involves LGBT politics can be endlessly broadcast with the concomitant effect that any reasonable budget and impartiality constraints can be removed.
Awful, isn’t it? Channel 4 are equally as bad.
I, for one, am utterly sick of Olympics this, and Olympics that all day, every day – they still keep harping on about the last lot. For crying out loud, give it a rest.
And whilst they’re at it, please can they shut the fuck up about the gays, too. I’m weary of these bastards demanding their rights all the time – I’m not interested in their sexuality – they should keep it to themselves. Could we also have our innocuous English word “gay” back, please, in it’s proper context, which they’ve hijacked for their own purposes?
I can only get excited by winter sports if they are accompanied by David Vine on a crackly phone connection from Val d’Isere.
I still remember when our great British hope, Konrad Bartelski, accidently came 2nd in the mens downhill at Val Gardena. It was such a surprise that the Italian TV didn’t even bother filming him, especially given that he was a British skier.
If you think the Winter Olympics are a bore wait until the summer when the BBC will go completely overboard on the Commonpurpose Games in Glasgow.
I happily disagree and am looking forward to going to watch some of the events. That’s assuming the Commonwealth Games aren’t blighted by an African protest against Cameron’s views on gays, or someone else not happy with the price we charge for milk etc etc …
Totally agree, flexdream. I’m looking forward to watching the games….and guess what, trendy lefties? We will see WINNERS and LOSERS. All shall not have a prize. Ha!
I don’t see how it’s any worse than football getting its regular slot in the sports news, week in week out, regardless of whether there’s anything newsworthy to report.
Overpaid, overrated, snarling, semi-criminal morons, many of them.
‘I don’t see how it’s any worse than football getting its regular slot…’
Other than that tens of thousands of people voluntarily pay to watch the sport of football week in week out.
So TV should cover sport which is readily accessible live, and ignore sport which isn’t?
Makes sense now.
So our Licence Fees should be directed towards coverage of the most obscure, most unpopular of pastimes?
So our Licence Fees should be directed towards coverage of sport which, due to its popularity, should be more than capable of standing on its own two feet commercially?
Accessibility and popularity are not the same thing.
children… children… please.
“Overpaid, overrated, snarling, semi-criminal morons, many of them.”
Footballers or the BBC?
A History of Mathematics with Marcus Du Sautoy on Radio 4, and like me you’re probably thinking what could possibly be biased about that?
Well about halfway through the program on Gaussian distribution up pops Trevor Phillips of the CRE to explain how this dispels stereotypes of athletic ability between white and black people.
It almost beggars belief the way the BBC can bias even the most neutral of topics !
“how this dispels stereotypes of athletic ability between white and black people.”
Didn’t hear the programme but does it mean that, using arguments employed in other spheres by the race relations industry, organisers of track events must be practising racial discrimination against white people?
No, as usual it was much more vague, and that there was a distribution of abilities across both black & white people so some black people would be rubbish at 100 metres and some white people would be very good.
It didn’t adequately explain why the 100 Metres is almost exclusively black though.
However as any A level statistic student knows you can take two different samples of people work out their mean and standard distribution for a particular attribute and then decide how confident you are that they come from the same main group.
But if you assume any left-wing orientated person knows more than one-two-many you do so at your own risk.
I did hear the other week (but I’ll let Dopy Dez The Dimwit Droid wikipedia it) that there hasn’t been a honky in the Olympics 100m men’s sprint final since 1988.
Think it’s longer ago than that, probably Allan Wells in 1980 or 1984.
This is not an innocuous comment by Trev. Of course he wants to rubbish the thought that there’s any difference between races concerning physical prowess or – and this is the point – intelligence. Unfortunately for Trev the conjectures concerning differences in intelligence which could be due to race which Charles Murray in his book “The Bell Curve” put forward in 1994 have caused – and still cause – much grinding of teeth in the race relations industry.
If there is a perceived – indeed, statistically proveable – superiority in physical prowess by those of black African descent then why shouldn’t any other human attribute also be down to heredity? If Trev admitted that black athletes are innately superior to white (or yellow) athletes then he would have to admit the possibility (actually the near certainty) that whites are innately superior in other areas of human endeavour. Hence the sheer mendacity – as reported by Thoughtful – of Trev’s denial (which I’ll bet was not contradicted by du Sautoy – one of the keepers of the BBC’s flame of general humbug) of the clear evidence of black superiority in many areas of atheltics.
A case of
‘The lady (in this case aunty) doth protest too much, methinks’
No black swimmers, their body mass is more dense. No cyclists either, none in the Tour de France. East Africans, Kenyans and Ethopians are good at long distance running while West Africans are good at short distance running.
Heratic! Dont you know its all a social construct.
If ‘race’ is a social construct as the Left claim, then you can’t be a racist because race doesn’t exist !
It is an artificial social construct. If West Africans are different from East Africans (and they are), they can’t be part of the same “race”, can they? And blacks can’t swim properly due to body mass? Oh, dear. Next you’ll be saying that blacks can’t be astronauts for similar reasons. There are plenty of black cyclists. None at the top, but perhaps that’s because they aren’t doped up like all the rest of them. You really are out in the twilight zone.
Only racists use race, and they use it either to divide or control. Some of them don’t seem to quite understand the concept themselves, and just cling to it reflexively. For a good laugh, check out the “racial” animosity between some baseball players over who’s actually black and who isn’t based on the language they speak.
Funny you should say that, I can swim, but i can’t float, If I stop treading water I sink like a brick. Funny enough in all my years of: Karate,Ju-jitsu,Boxing, I have never ever broke a bone. In fact I have never had a blister on my feet and I have completed Nijmegen 3 times, I did 60 miles of the South Downs way in 16 hours , Gold and silver D of E and the Cyprus walkabout (run from Epi to the top of Trodos and then back again the next day and plenty of march and shoot competitions and never suffered a blister. I just used to explain that as my parents never wore shoes when living in india, I must have their hard skin on the soles of the feet genes.
Hasn’t he also had something (non racist of course) to say about the overwhelming contribution of Islam to maths?
I wonder what his thoughts are on the distribution of Nobel prize winners and the frequency of white Jewish male winners.
Does this story remind you at all of BBC reporting of Food Banks?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26076612
‘A plan by President Rouhani’s government to address poverty in Iran has backfired after it was ridiculed on social media. The Iranian government decided to give out free food baskets in a bid to reduce inflation and the benefits bill.
But the actual handout of food led to large queues and chaotic scenes, images of which were shared on social media.’
Seems people the world over just can’t get enough free stuff.
Claire Balding preaching politics in the first couple of minutes of the opening of the Russian winter olympics.
/OFF.
At least they’re not employing Trevor Nelson this time. 😉
Warbler Pat Kane on 5live today dissing Cameron’s speech on Scotland, also making references to his good friend Billy Bragg.
fkn commies…………..
Is Pat Kane, the perennially quoted Scots nationalist, the same as the Pat Kane of ‘Hue & Cry’ may years ago ?
“….MANY years ago” that should be.
What was their song again? The Birdie Song? Shaddapa yer face?
Birdie song – The Tweets (not necessarily BBC ones)
Shaddapa yer face – Joe Dolce (Kept Ultravox – Vienna off the top spot for 4 weeks. Vienna now recognised as best ever no 2 pop single.
Let’s have no dissing of Papa Joe thankyouverymuchindeed since, by keeping that ruddy dirge “Vienna” away from the Number One spot, he’s provided people of my age with an infallible method of spotting pseuds: they’re the ones who regard this joyful, poptastic outcome as a ‘tragedy’ (as if their nine year old selves were entranced by Midge’s angst pop rather than the man with a tape recorder for a backing group).
I’m sure someone has done this – Labour peer Lord Smith getting it in the neck for his performance running the Environment Agency:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26078592
Word count: “Labour” 0, “Conservative” 1
The other nonsense media obsession: the must-have ‘apology’. Sincerity very much optional.
Interesting clip.
Looks like the same one I saw on the Guido link, only if you didn’t hear it, the bit I credited about Lord Smith’s affiliations being mentioned can no longer be there (currently it’s ‘content doesn’t seem to be working’; maybe to see the story ‘evolve’ more?).
If so, maybe ‘on high’ had a wee word, and nice to control the edit suite when one of your own goes ‘off reservation’ live.
Colonel Blimp, thanks for that. I have just been and checked since I thought the BBC is not that blatantly institutionally biased surely? But you so right, they never even mention the Labour Appointed Peer nor that he was a Labour Appointed EA Chief who like the rest of the shower totally fouled up everything they touch.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26078592
It is brazenly quoted in that link as though we would not notice:
“Ahead of Lord Smith’s visit, Conservative Mr Liddell-Grainger, who represents Bridgwater and West Somerset, said: “I will tell him what I bloody well think of him – he should go, he should walk.”
OT, but in complement, further to this, and by happy coincidence, I just had two emails on the subject. One from the Telegraph, the other Ch4.
It seems no coincidence the difference between them:
“Chris Smith, chairman of the Environment Agency, went to flooded Somerset and was shouted at. So did David Cameron, who was not. The stark contrast between the two visits is evidence of something that’s gone largely unremarked this week: Mr Cameron is having a good crisis.
Lord Smith has helped, of course. By inelegantly suggesting Britain has to make binary choices between rural and urban interests, he has helped to make himself the lightning conductor for public anger over flooding and the official response.
It’s worth remembering that the EA ultimately answers to ministers and spends a budget set by them. So the fact that the agency, not its masters, is taking bullets this week suggests that those ministers are managing the politics of flooding quite deftly. Certainly, Labour’s half-hearted efforts to pin the blame for flooding et al on the Government have gained little traction”
—
“As a new storm approaches the south west of the country we are obliged once again to kick off with the biblical weather. People in the Somerset Levels are sick and tired of blaming mother nature, they have turned their ire firmly against the politicians. Two of them waded into the crosshairs today. One was Lord Smith of Finsbury, formerly the Labour culture minister Chris Smith, who donned his wellies as chairman of the Environment Agency, and finally made it down to Somerset.
His reception was unkind to put it mildly. He was mobbed and mocked by the people who’ve been waterborne since the beginning of the year. The other politician who popped in – far too late, his critics would say – was none other than David Cameron. His visit is taking place as we write this and by the time the programme goes on air we can tell you whether his popularity ratings in the Somerset Levels have flat-lined or worse.”
I’ll leave it to you which was which.
All seem agreed that Lord Smith has not excelled.
It seems a pity that the BBC has steered away from some rather pertinent aspects of context in association.
Wow! Make that local BBC reporter who went after Smith head of BBC News…
Smith gets a pasting
Heroic stuff from the bbc reporter here who really stuck it to Lord Smith. Credit where it is due.
No. He’ll be called to the Head of HR first thing Monday morning for an ‘interview without coffee’.
Live on a BBC News channel (as captured originally, elsewhere). 3′.38″
“Lord Smith, Minister under the Labour Government”
Meanwhile:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26078592
7 February 2014 Last updated at 21:46
Content still doesn’t seem to be working (on my browser), having tried again 12 hrs later.
Guess it’s still back in edit?
So much can be sorted in post.
Hope that plucky reporter’s comment hasn’t been consigned to the memory hole due to any of the managerial influence on editorial we’re told, in a trusted and transparent way, never happens.
In the spirit of balance, I was a) surprised this was a BBC story and b) halfway through, the reporter specifically calls out Lord Smith’s political affiliations.
http://order-order.com/2014/02/07/watch-another-successful-media-appearance-for-chris-smith/
Seems in Top Trumps terms, Labour, gay or climate luvvie all pale before the ultimate sin of ‘not talking to the media’.
Otherwise, as a piece of useful reporting, it was typically dire. Half the scalp hunters were chanting ‘when you are going to resign’ and the other half wanted to know when he was going to ‘meet the people’.
Like that would get anything sensible done at all.
Anymore than a PM with a degree in gurning to the camera will ‘assess’ any better walking round a photo op in a field seeking a wet sheep to hug.
So the actual issues, namely the appallingly bad, long term calls made by EA & successive governments, will get lost in a tacky tabloid scrum, of which the BBC is also more than part.
Shunting the spotlight even further away from the malign role of the EU in this… again.
So… job done?
The Now Show – BBC Radio 4 18:30.
It was always a load of lefty crap but tonight’s show was just blatant slagging. How the hell can the BBC claim to be impartial when they broadcast sh*t like this? They are just rubbing our noses in it. If Cameron had any cojones he’d make a manifesto pledge to abolish this parasitical bunch of traitors and fifth-columnists. Sell it to Old Rupe for a quid – I’d vote for him on the strength of that alone.
Great article by an American journalist : not sure this will be reported on the B-BBC…
http://mychal-massie.com/premium/why-i-do-not-like-the-obamas/
It’s a place where locals have buried their loved ones for generations. Where they pay their respects and love bringing fresh flowers to the graves, and perhaps think through problems feeling their departed friends and family are there with them.
But for the BBC it’s a place where they can film a TV series about Zombies. Their justification for angering these residents is:
‘Wherever possible we try and be as authentic as possible in our filming locations
That they deem this location as ‘possible’ shows their complete contempt for what it means to people there.
They did get permission from the local council, and no prizes for guessing that it’s a Labour majority one.
BBC anger grieving relatives by turning cemetery into film location for a ZOMBIE television series
I expect it would appeal to the viewers of BBC3 – about their level I should think.
What is it with the BBC & Gerry Adams love in? While he no longer has any elected office in British politics he is still the BBC’s ‘go to’ guy for a view from Northern Ireland. This happened on the death of Baroness Thatcher, and again now as the Prime Mininster speaks on the Scottish Independence Referendum.
“Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams also waded into the debate, telling BBC Radio Ulster it was clear …”
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-26071166)
He didn’t ‘wade’ into the debate, he was given a platform and a voice by the BBC. There seems no place however for any of the Northern Irish politicians to have a voice, not even Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister.
So is the BBC fondness for Adams a result of the vicarious thrill some get from associating with men of violence, or is he just well connected? I know the BBC has been infiltrated by pro-Irish Republicans, that’s been obvious in drama and arts for decades.
Following complaint now sent to BBC
“The piece relates to the Prime Minister’s statement regarding the Scottish Independence Referendum, and quite properly gives a response from the Scottish First Minister. These are both leading elected figures with relevance and involvement in the debate. The article editor has then shown clear bias in including the opinion of Gerry Adams. No Northern Irish or other British politician is mentioned or quoted. Instead we get the opinion of a Southern Irish politician whose opinion is entirely predictable. Where are the voices of the Welsh and Northern Irish, or even the Scottish politicians? What is so special about Gerry Adams, beyond the fact that he has often been named as a former member of the IRA?”
I’ll let people know the response.
I have no doubt it’s the vicarious thrill of getting close to men of violence, and safe in the knowledge it’s in the past……they hope?
Of all the possible people from whom to elicit an opinion. bbc go for the ‘alleged’ godfather of the provos, who maintains he was not in the IRA and who ‘allegedly’ covered up for his paedo brother now serving time for abusing his own daughter. Nice work, bbc.
Radio 4, 6.30 p.m. news headlines “In Bangui, capital of the Central African Republic, thousands of Muslims have fled to avoid gangs of murderous Christians”.
Would we ever hear the bBBC use those terms to report the opposite?
Errrrr…..nope!
While hordes of BBCers descended on South Africa for Mandela’s funeral, it was left to Channel 4 to report what was going on in CAR, including the coup supported by foreign Islamist soldiers. Now that the inevitable has happened in a largely ‘Christian’ country the BBC is interested? The racist BBC patronises black Africans and doesn’t realise how little traction the BBC’s narrative has with black Africans, whether that be Kenyans black and white being told that the mall terrorists weren’t targetting non-Muslims or CARers being told that the violence there is caused solely by Christians.
Hmm. Let me just try that phrase out…
“Gangs of murderous muslims”, “Gangs of murderous muslims”, “Gangs of murderous muslims”.
Yep. It has a nice rhythm and alliteration thing going on, but I don’t think the BBC style guide would allow this phrase – ever.
This seems interesting on a variety of levels, not least the blurred line between reporting news and promoting campaigns.
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/benedictbrogan/100258704/whisper-it-labours-ae-winter-crisis-hasnt-happened-thats-big-news/
Just one more thought about the awful flooding in Somerset and the puzzling silence from Labour and in particular Olympic Bandwagon Jumper, Miliband.
Why so quiet? It’s not like him, it’s eerie. Perhaps it’s got something to do with the hapless clown, Wallace, being the former Climate Change Minister, a Minister at the time that the Environment Agency were enacting their decision to turn the pumps off and return the Levels to nature (rather than safeguarding the lives and livelihoods of the people there).
As Climate Change Minister he should have understood the impact of that decision had on land below sea level, especially as he claimed to be a global warming believer and activist. No wonder he has gone to ground.
Just as puzzling as Miliband’s silence, is the BBC failure to mention this…or is this another, ‘Is there anything that you don’t want us to report.’ moment to add to the BBC’s, ‘fingers in ears’, list.
Maybe part of the reason is that up until quite recently, one of the main tenets of climate change loonery was the firm belief that we would be suffering droughts due to warming. The idiots no doubt thought the levels would be dry as a bone by now, just as they thought the polar ice caps would be nearly gone.
I have been saying for days now, why the silence from all of the Labour Party? And come to that, any of the Greenies that infest our society, strange that whenever a perceived eco disaster takes place every greenie and their dog is in the queue waiting to be interviewed by the BBC, but where are they concerning the Somerset Levels?
‘why the silence’
Because “there’s a storm coming, Ned”.
And adding full colours to the mast will bring them down with it.
They may be venal on top of scientifically lacking, but politically they are not daft.
This one is shining light on a bunch of places, and people and decisions, that they are desperate no one connects with the EU, a certain party in power, its climate change Minister and placemen now placed well and truly out of their depth by events.
So no ‘Labour says..’ press releases anywhere near this one.
The fax machines of the BBC ‘newsroom’ must be curiously silent. Astoundingly so.
It’s wonder more reporters are not motivated to investigate.
I agree that the silence of the Miliband is for the reasons you suggest. There was another ‘crisis’ where the Miliband was far from silent, and it seems the BBC was geared up to report it. How did that one go? Not so well.
And every time the BBC switches to the hospital I find myself wondering: whatever happened to the winter A&E crisis? Do you remember? The one Andy Burnham and Labour talked about with growing alarm in the autumn? For weeks we were told that the system was going to go into meltdown as shrinking resources collided with increased demand as the flu season set in. No10 was said to be a in a stew about it and put Jeremy Hunt under intense pressure to manage a looming PR disaster of the sort that regularly beset the last government. Perhaps that’s why the BBC dreamt up its NHS Winter project in the first place, anticipating a crisis so vast it would need its own website. There is a BBC NHS Winter: Weekly A&E tracker site, currently in week 13, which allows users to check how the NHS is “coping”, but what’s this? The stats seem to suggest it’s coping fine, thanks. It says 95.3 per cent of patients in all A&E units are seen within the target time of four hours. Not bad. In the interests of research, I googled “a and e winter crisis” and found articles from November and December, but nothing more obviously recent. Search under news and there’s nothing at all bar a mention in the East London Advertiser.
Tough luck chaps.
I don’t have a T.V. so I listen to the radio, that being a eclectic mix. I listen to my local radio, which is BBC Radio Devon in the mornings and only for the travel news and weather bulletins. The travel news to make me feel good and sanctimonious because I can walk to my business in 30 minutes, and the weather reports just so I can shout at the radio, wrong again.
Over this last week, BBC Radio Devon have really pulled out the stops concerning the weather and of course to push the climate change agenda for all its worth. Over the last two nights, where their local radio would end (7.00pm) and national take over (because of cutz) the BBC have extended their local BBC Radio Devon coverage of the bad weather and offer a public service by reporting the additional flooding and problems with high winds etc. Trouble is, that despite the met Office in Exeter forecasting Armageddon for the last two nights, they have got their forecast wrong and nothing more has happened concerning this bad weather. It has left the met Office and the BBC looking a bit silly and even this morning on their BBC Radio Devon programme the anchor presenter said that the weather overnight that had been forecasted didn’t materialise. That would be a wrong forecast then would it?
However, we do have a bit of a blow coming in for tonight and what is worrying is the direction it is coming from. Thankfully (to a degree) the height of tides is dropping but anyone on the westward coasts around the U.K. had better take care and those at the head of any coves had better make good a look out.
And while I’m on about it, watch out for Tuesday in the Southern counties of England, a flood is coming near you, sand bags at the ready?
Any ‘lessons being learned’ anywhere, today?
Interesting article on Beeb website
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26067980
Can’t wait for the follow up on other religions which do the same – all that first cousin business – won’t hold breath …
what is often most revealing is what the bbc doesn’t tell us
the food scandal in west yorks covered in the guardian but noting yet on th bbc. guess they must be turning themselves inside out working out what to say, more importantly, what not to say
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/07/fake-food-scandal-revealed-tests-products-mislabelled
‘turning themselves inside out working out what to say, more importantly, what not to say’
As eloquent a summary I can imagine of what should just be ‘news’, but with the BBC needs time, staff and many layers of non-interfering management to filter first before being offered to a force-funding public.
They must be so proud, professionally.
Headline in ‘Daily Mail,’ not a headline of BBC-NUJ for which instead, the priorities for foreign aid, mass immigration and a £20,000 tax-payer funded portrait of MarkThompson are evident.
“Spend our foreign aid on British victims of flooding: MP’s impassioned call as crisis deepens”
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2554324/Spend-foreign-aid-British-victims-flooding-MPs-impassioned-call-crisis-deepens.html#ixzz2sjL5dhsH
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Those who may have an interest in the prognostications of the Met Office (and promoted by the BBC) will, no doubt, recall their recent proclamation that “within 50 years the UK will be much warmer and drier, and will be experiencing a Mediterranean climate”.
I can tell you, that living as I do in south central France, that those in the UK are welcome to our “Mediterranean climate”, which, at the moment, is probably just as wet and windy as theirs.
To those who continue to believe that humans are accidentally changing the climate, and can miraculously change it back again (to what, is anyone’s guess), and who fervently still believe that due to the presence of humans the planet is heating catastrophically (and will continue to do so), I would say “you silly buggers are completely off your respective trolleys”. And that would include HRH Prince Numpty of Wales.
Us *Headless Chickens* must stick together, hey, Old Goat?