START THE WEEK OPEN THREAD…

201 Responses to START THE WEEK OPEN THREAD…

1. Guest Who says:

   June 30, 2015 at 11:09 pm

   Interesting tweet from Andrew Neil, especially the notion of a news programme pushing something:

   “Newsnight pushing some kinda deal in offing. Before referendum. Not gonna happen.”

      12 likes
2. rampage says:

   June 30, 2015 at 11:10 pm

   There seems to have been a non too subtle shift in the tone of reporting on Greece. Previously the Greek Government were the champions of an anti austerity agenda. As this crisis approaches its zenith though the BBC seem to have seen the danger signs for their beloved EU and are now suggesting the Greek Government has been irresponsible. Cue lots of interviews with Greek citizens who love the European Union and want to stay in the Euro.

   Evan Davis just did a piece on Newsnight showcasing the remarkable benefits the EU had given to countries like Greece and how deeper integration had been the post war dream. The EU had apparently been spreading democracy??? No democratic deficit to see here. move along.

   My guess about the latest in the on going Greek farce/tragedy is that it will be kicked into the long grass. Again. Cue much rejoicing at the BBC. Till the next time……………..

      17 likes
   • More Like The Soviet Bloc Every Day says:

     July 1, 2015 at 1:20 am

     I wonder if the EU won’t actually roll into Greece and make it a protectorate at some point in the very near future. I too noticed the shift in emphasis from the media and BBC regarding the position of the EU. Ultimately, the EU trumps everything else, including a plucky hard left government, and now it’ll be all hands to the pumps. But the EU’s options seem to be shrinking somewhat. They can’t help Greece too much, it will anger the citizens of the larger countries against them, not to mention the PIGS countries that tried to adjust their spending.

     On the other hand, they can’t let them leave as they know that would be a very large signal for the beginning of the end of the Union.

     Either way (and I do have some sympathy for the Greek people) these are positive developments for anyone who is anti-EU, as I know most of the readers here are.

     But I think the EU will find a way to bail them out again, extending the misery, and the BBC and its ilk will do more spinning than all the 7th Cavalry helicopters in Vietnam.

        8 likes
3. Dave666 says:

   July 1, 2015 at 8:19 am

   BBc Breakfast Kirkwood is still telling us the weather from Wimbledon. But it’s value added as she tells us how many balls they use in the competition. Whoop whoop!

      5 likes
4. Dover Sentry says:

   July 1, 2015 at 8:24 am

   BBC Trending

   “The Rappers Turning Hit Sons Halal”

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-33314584

   Almost Monty Python. But belies a sinister unblinking support by the BBC for anything Halal/muslim related.

   ..

      7 likes
   • The Lord says:

     July 1, 2015 at 8:57 am

     ♪ All you need is hate, lah la la lah ♪ (altogether now)

     And who could forget; ♪ I left my head, dada, da dah, in downtown Raqqa ♪

     Keep em coming. 😉

        6 likes
     • flexdream says:

       July 1, 2015 at 9:34 am

       How about,
       ‘Don’t cleave me this way’
       ‘The first cut is the deepest’
       ‘This is an Imam’s world’
       ‘Cartoon, Hebdo’s’
       ‘Ramanadam, da da di de da’ (to the Muppet’s theme tune)
       ‘If jihad’
       ‘Runaround suicide bomber’
       ‘I shot the tourist’
       ‘Jew, you really want to hurt me’
       ‘2 and 70 virgins lived across the border’
       ‘Is lamore’

          5 likes
       • The Lord says:

         July 1, 2015 at 11:02 am

         ♪ Sing if you’re glad to be flying off tall buildings,
         Sing if you’re happy that way ♪

         Hang on, that doesn’t ‘scan’ very well. I’ll get back to you.

            2 likes
5. AsISeeIt says:

   July 1, 2015 at 8:32 am

   What is the typical template for a BBC current affairs report?
   It goes something like this – ask a question that suckers the audience in, put on an authoritive-sounding self-important tone with which to lead us through some information that is readily available elsewhere, fail to answer the question posed at the outset, and of course never forget to have a sly swipe at something British or conservative.
   Check this report from the BBC

   http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-33245094

   ‘Why do African presidents insist on calling themselves doctors?’
   There’s your interesting question.
   ‘I [Elizabeth Ohene] simply couldn’t resist it after the announcement from the Office of the Gambian President that another title was being added to the already absurd long list of titles held by the president. According to an official release, the Gambian leader will now be known formally as “His Excellency Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr Yahya AJJ Jammeh Babili Mansa”.’
   ‘The practice of acquiring a long list of titles started with our earliest presidents as soon as independence came’
   ‘That, after all, is how our traditional chiefs are addressed and the new presidents saw themselves as big chiefs – that probably explains why they couldn’t come to terms with term limits and wanted to be presidents for life.’
   Careful now, we may be straying onto slightly un-PC ground here….
   ‘Exactly why the title of “Dr” had to be an obligatory part of that list, I haven’t worked out.’
   Looks as though we’ve given up on answering that opening question. Perhaps we should be hearing from someone actually willing to stick their neck out?
   Anyway we get a quick tour of ludicrous titles assumed by Ghanaian, Malawian, Zimbabwean and Ugandan head honchos.
   But wait, what about the BBC trade mark sly side swipe at Britain?
   ‘The obsession with titles as I have pondered in previous columns is not reserved for only our leaders, it seems to be an African disease. Or so I thought until a friend of mine pointed out to me recently that it is not unlikely that it is something that we inherited from the British colonialists. Indeed who else has all these Sirs, Dukes, Duchess, Baroness, Viscounts, OBEs, CBEs etc etc? We have probably simply been trying to emulate them.’
   There it is! It’s still all the fault of the BRITISH.
   But wait, I’m no African expert but somewhere in the back of my mind I recalled the big daddy of African super-titles, someone I would have thought our intrepid BBC African expert would have remembered : Bokassa I of Central Africa and Salah Eddine Ahmed Bokassa, was a military officer and the head of state of the Central African Empire.
   A former FRENCH colony.

      8 likes