319 Responses to MID WEEK OPEN THREAD…

  1. EUTV says:

    I see the BBC have a special event coming up at Wembley to celebrate England’s 1966 World Cup win.

    The event includes watching the game in full with ball by ball analysis.

    What I don’t really understand is why we’d want to harp back to the days of empire and past glories when things are so much better now.

       10 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Oh, I dunno, they seem to do an even better job with the Roman Empire and that was 2000 years ago.

         3 likes

  2. Thoughtful says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0785pdt

    A heads up for a leftie Guardianista love in on Monday morning on Radio 4

    A Girl called Jack.

    “Jack Monroe is an unusual food writer, gaining celebrity from her unique blog about existing on the breadline. During that time, she hit rock bottom but kept fighting to eat well and give her son proper food, rather than live on processed, cheap products. Now successful and no longer on the breadline, she continues to campaign passionately for decent food and standards of living.

    This new drama, starring Jaime Winstone and June Whitfield, revisits her past and her relationship with her beloved Grandma.

    Jack’s blog started in 2012 after a Southend local councillor attacked single mothers. Jack lived in a small flat with her young son. Having been made redundant from a well-paid job, she found herself struggling to get by on benefits while applying unsuccessfully for jobs. Her blog documented the difficulties of living on welfare and, particularly, how to feed her son a nutritious and enjoyable diet on just £10 a week. It became a huge hit, Jack became a journalist, published food writer and social campaigner.

    Sarah Daniels is an award winning radio writer. In 2014, she dramatised Nigel Slater’s food memoir, Eating for England, for BBC Radio 4. She has drawn on Jack Monroe’s written recipe books, blogs and direct conversations to reveal the personal story behind Jack’s years of struggling and subsequent fame.

    “Poverty isn’t just having no heating, or not quite enough food, or unplugging your fridge and turning your hot water off. It’s not a tourism trade, it’s not cool, and it’s not something that MPs on a salary of £65k a year plus expenses can understand, let alone our PM who states that we’re all in this together.

    Poverty is the sinking feeling when your small boy finishes his one weetabix and says ‘more mummy, bread and jam please mummy’ as you’re wondering whether to take the TV or the guitar to the pawn shop first, and how to tell him that there is no bread or jam.”
    Jack Monroe, 30 July 2012 Hunger Hurts blog”

    According to Wikipedia “Monroe is non-binary transgender, formally came out in October 2015,[32] and goes by singular they pronouns, rather than “he” or “she”

    Odd in so many ways as there is no such medical condition as ‘non-binary transgender’ and therefore she cannot have a diagnosis, and Wikipedia’s author should not be stating this as fact. There is no supporting correlation, and I don’t know how to challenge this on Wikipedia – perhaps some one might do this for me?

       15 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Jack’s blog started in 2012 after a Southend local councillor attacked single mothers. Jack lived in a small flat with her young son. Having been made redundant from a well-paid job, she found herself struggling to get by on benefits while applying unsuccessfully for jobs. Her blog documented the difficulties of living on welfare and, particularly, how to feed her son a nutritious and enjoyable diet on just £10 a week….

      Poverty isn’t just having no heating, or not quite enough food, or unplugging your fridge and turning your hot water off. It’s not a tourism trade, it’s not cool, and it’s not something that MPs on a salary of £65k a year plus expenses can understand, let alone our PM who states that we’re all in this together.

      I’d guess nobody has made any attempt to challenge any of this thinly-disguised political agenda because it would be seen as ‘morally judgemental’.

         9 likes

    • Beltane says:

      To paraphrase from the World Cup item above, Thoughtful: ‘They think there’s no such diagnosis as non-binary transgender…..there is now!’

         7 likes

    • zero says:

      Thoughtful,

      According to Wikipedia ‘Monroe is non-binary transgender, formally came out in October 2015,[32] and goes by singular they pronouns, rather than ‘he’ or ‘she’.

      Yes? And so what?

      Odd in so many ways as there is no such medical condition as ‘non-binary transgender’ and therefore she cannot have a diagnosis, and Wikipedia’s author should not be stating this as fact

      Neither is there such a medical condition as; ‘frustrated, lonely and bitter’; yet you demonstrate this fact on an almost daily basis.

         3 likes

      • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

        How very original, Zero. Is there a B-side?

           16 likes

      • Grant says:

        zero,

        I think the feeling among many on this website , rightly or wrongly, is that “Transgender” is the current fashion with the BBC until they move on to the next obsession and that they are giving Jack publicity for that reason rather than for any other talents which he , she or it possesses.

           15 likes

      • Number 88 says:

        Unfortunately, as might be expected, the idiots that have colonised the BBC have signed up to the cause of having gender removed from our passports so that activists (sorry narcissists) like Monroe do not have to suffer the embarrassment of having to answer the question*. Apparently, in future we will all be described as Mx.

        *Actually I might be able to help here. As she has conceived and given birth, it is highly probable that she has a vagina, uterus, womb and other womanly bits…that might give her the clue that she is a WOMAN.

        Keep taking the tablets Jack. Perhaps you and your friends at the BBC might fuck off and leave the rest of us to live happily in our gender. Yours, Mr (that’s MISTER) 88. x

           8 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        And so what?

        Next you will be telling us that people who have the delusion they are Napoleon or Jesus Christ should be treated by all of society as if they were!
        Transgenderism is a fully recognised medical condition which is treated all over the world. Jack Monroe is jumping onto the newest most popular bandwagon in an effort to appear the victim all over again, except there is no such condition, and no treatment exists as a result.

        It is ridiculous to pander to such individuals who only distract from those in genuine need.

           7 likes

  3. BRISSLES says:

    Just caught sight of ‘the cake’ which appeared to be a plain and undecorated gold blob on top of a purple and gold striped blob on top of a plain and undecorated purple blob. Sorry, but if that’s the best our ethnic winner can come up with, then someone has dropped a bo…….ck somewhere giving her the honour and it could be her undoing, although it will be interesting to see how the media report it. Not wanting to criticise for obvious reasons but not worth the overgushing either. The local WI could’ve created something more worthy I’m sure.

       25 likes

  4. BRISSLES says:

    Now PRINCE has been found dead !! who next ???

       6 likes

    • Fred Basset says:

      Who next? If there’s a God it’ll be Boy George but I suspect it will be someone who has talent.

         14 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        FB – More likely to be some unfortunate found dead in Boy George’s house.

           9 likes

  5. seismicboy says:

    The first thing i thought of when I heard the news was how the BBC will milk the story because of his gender bender agenda.

       10 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Never got to see Prince-but promised myself that I would some day.
      Apart from Stevie Wonder-most gifted musician I`ve ever heard.
      Lacked Stevies heart and compassion maybe?…but a guitarist and dancer that transcended the last thirty plus years.
      A terrible loss…would recommend “The Cross” by him…brought me closer to Jesus, so I`ll be forever grateful to him.
      As for that “American Bowie” crap-only a liberal oaf would link them.
      Poor bloke was to write an autobiography too-and among his last words were “don`t waste your prayers on me just yet”-he said that at his last concert.
      If I feel like this over Prince-hell knows how I`ll be when Leonard Cohen goes.
      Tragic-God Bless and Thank you Mr Rodgers.
      Sign O The Times indeed-not nice are they?

         8 likes

      • Thatcherrevolutionary says:

        Went to the Hydro a couple of years back to see him but £119 per ticket??????
        Not a huge fan but the newer guitar driven post 2006 material appeals to me a bit more but he only did one track from the newest LP, preferring to run through a greatest hits list.
        Controversial but I think a bit over-rated.

           2 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          Any artist who has the common decency to play his hits rather than “this is from my latest album” gets my vote.

             2 likes

  6. Englands Dreaming says:

    The Beeb obviously loves this one

    UK to take thousands of child refugees
    http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-36102709

    Without wanting to sound heartless I do not remember any debate about this in Parliament or elsewhere.
    If the story turns out to be a hot potatoe, they can bury it with Prince.

       12 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Englands Dreaming, Thinking of the transgender debate and the belief in the infallibility of one’s inner truth, culminating in a report I read yesterday about a white male whose inner truth told him he was a Chinese female, brings me to the definition of a child refugee.

      Surely, the length of a man’s beard should not disqualify him from being classified as a young refugee child, according to his inner truth and Cameron’s willingness to kow tow to Merkel.

         7 likes

    • deegee says:

      What steps arebeing taken to ensure these ‘children’ are in fact children? Given the situation in Sweden “Refugee Children” Invade Sweden it’sa fair or even vital question.
      1167.jpg
      Saad Alsaud (left frame, center), an unaccompanied “child refugee,” is pictured in 2012, when he was reported to be Sweden’s fastest “14-year-old”. In 2011, a newspaper reporter from Malmö shared a teddy bear and some laughs with “16-year-old” Ahmad Farid (right frame), an unaccompanied “child refugee” from Afghanistan.

         2 likes

    • deegee says:

      What steps are being taken to ensure these ‘children’ are in fact children? Given the situation in Sweden “Refugee Children” Invade Sweden it’s a fair or even vital question.
      1167.jpg
      Saad Alsaud (left frame, center), an unaccompanied “child refugee,” is pictured in 2012, when he was reported to be Sweden’s fastest “14-year-old”. In 2011, a newspaper reporter from Malmö shared a teddy bear and some laughs with “16-year-old” Ahmad Farid (right frame), an unaccompanied “child refugee” from Afghanistan.

         1 likes

  7. Steve Jones says:

    Given the way the BBC depicts the population of the UK, can anyone else spot something funny about the footage of HM celebrating her birthday?
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-36093306
    And yes the cake is a let-down but it is the tokenism that is important here.

       14 likes

    • JimS says:

      It certainly reveals who shares ‘British values’ and the lengths that the BBC will go to promote their brown-eyed boys and gals!

      (I can’t begin to think what Paul Hollywood would have said about that collection of hat boxes if it had been presented to him ‘blind’. HM seemed a bit confused too – “Does it cut?”!!!)

         11 likes

      • zero says:

        JimS,

        It certainly reveals who shares ‘British values’ …

        And who defines ‘British Values’? You? The Government? Or the People?

        All the people? Or just the ones who enjoy genuflecting in front of the Queen?

           3 likes

        • taffman says:

          Zero
          ‘who defines British Values’?
          Presently, its Al Beeb.

             20 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            They speak for the nation you know?

            And tell truth unto power.

            It’s in their DNA.

            Apparently.

               6 likes

            • Steve Jones says:

              The good old subject of British values has popped up again. What a mysterious thing this is and something that can be very difficult to define in an OED definition kind of way. Those that criticise it do so in the knowledge that whatever they say and whoever they say it about they are in no danger of a knock on the door at 3am and still they don’t get it. Recently there have been some changes to my last statement caused by those who can’t seem to grasp those mysterious British values supported by others who will be the first to squeal when they realise what they have done.

                 11 likes

              • Grant says:

                Steve,

                Well said. British values certainly do not include being dictated to by a corrupt BBC which we all have to pay for if we own a TV set. Imagine if all Lefties including Beeboids had to pay £145 a year to the Tory party on pain of imprisonment. They would be squealing like piglets.

                It is also not part of traditional British Values to live in a Police State.

                   14 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Perhaps she will keep a slice of the cake for her visitor from the US, their first Arab President, who is here to tell us to remain in the EU and suck up to the Sunni oil producers.

      I have to conclude that the token cake is a product of long term careful planning. First the selection of the appropriate winner of the bake a cake competition, and then selection of who should bake and present the cake, the making of which is to be featured in the BBC programme. And this was to coincide with Cameron’s birthday address which draws attention to the wonderful cake, and British tolerance of many faiths in our multikulty paradise.. A lot of cooperation and planning here.

         10 likes

      • Grant says:

        GWF,

        I am sure you are right. The whole farce was planned from the start. Pathetic.

           10 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          Well Nadia certainly didn’t win for her baking, which was inferior to the other two finalists. Obviously the white man was never going to win, but the other finalist was both gay and Asian. Sadly for him though, that will always be trumped by muslim in the BBC’s hierarchy of propaganda.

             10 likes

          • Grant says:

            Rob,

            It would have been a more exciting competition if he had been a she and a lesbian Asian. Obviously the baking had nothing to do with it.

               7 likes

  8. Thoughtful says:

    Utterly disgraceful attack on the Queen on the BBC radio 4 dire attempt at comedy ‘Don’t make me laugh’ (don’t worry you never do!)
    Starting off with the subject of Jeremy Hunt (ho ho ho we can all see where that’s going to go) they moved onto the subject of does the Queen use the toilet, when one of the infantile immature kids decided it would be a great jape to make remarks about the Queens vulva.

    Apart from this being in enormous bad taste about any woman, she is the head of state and unable to answer back, but to broadcast this calumny on her 90th Birthday.

    The program was so bad I had to turn it off.

    If I might suggest, others do listen to it, and see if you believe that it merits a formal complaint.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077jb6z

       21 likes

    • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

      Sorry Thoughtful, I didn’t see your post, I was so angry at the Radio 4 crap.

      Still, great minds think alike!

         13 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      What is really funny is the smug way these so-called BBC ‘comedians’ parade their ‘progressive’ Leftist credentials by (so they think) subtly disguising it as humour whilst in reality they are about as humorous and subtle as a very large brick.

      I wonder if Pat Condell has ever offered the BBC a stand-up right wing alternative to these brain-numbing socialist blackshirts.

         19 likes

  9. Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

    The appalling BBC is scraping the bottom of the barrel at this very moment (on Radio 4’s ‘comedy’ slot from 18:30).

    It’s that show where some comedians try to NOT get laughs but they and the audience roar at their puerile efforts.

    So far we’ve had a sustained revisiting of Jim Naughtie’s ‘Jeremy #unt’ mishap (Jeremy H of course, never Tristram!).
    They went on and on and on about it.

    Then, in a deliberate and calculated insult to the Queen on her 90th birthday, there was a long section on the thought of her using the toilet, the idea of her having had sex at least four times, and similar rubbish plus a few republican barbs.

    Other jokes included child abuse, Bill Cosbie and endless sexual innuendo.

    WHAT A LOAD OF UTTER #UCKING RUBBISH!!!!!

       31 likes

  10. Up2snuff says:

    Sorry but as the whole point of the BBC handing over money to comedians IS to make us laugh, I switch off at the beginning of that stupid programme.

    It may not be long before UK people start to ask the BBC for compensation for a lack of comedy, being made miserable by too much news, sports spoilers, a useless web-site, iPlayer constantly misbehaving, not enough work being done by Laura Kuenssberg, a lack of openness, a lack of public debate, a lack of democracy, no comments on HYS, no good questioning by presenters, a lack of journalistic enquiry and a distinct failure to inform, educate and entertain.

       23 likes

    • Grant says:

      Up2,

      Yes, but everything else about the BBC is fantastic……… er……..

         8 likes

      • zero says:

        Grant,

        Leftists have no sense of humour!

           3 likes

        • Grant says:

          zero,

          Yes, I know. Welcome back !

             12 likes

          • Number 6 says:

            Troll number one crawls out from under his rock in the hope that we have forgotten the c4 muslim attitudes survey

            Well we havent. ….

            And dont let them forget it……especially when the turkey that votes for Christmas JERROD comes back to regale us all with her stroppy teenager attitude and ‘intelligence’

               14 likes

  11. Jeff says:

    “Don’t make me laugh” is clearly the perfect title for any Radio 4 comedy prog’. They are always abysmally unfunny and choc full predictable left wing bile. They’re not comedy programs at all in the real sense. They’re more on the level of a bunch of fourth form, adolescent pillocks all chortling at their own supposed wit. The only people they do make laugh are the in house audience who shriek and whoop in the most peculiar fashion.

    I’m guessing in the weeks to come there will be the usual talentless suspects turning up. Marcus Brigstocke, Jeremy Hardy, maybe Steve Punt and Sandi.
    And the thing that really certainly won’t make you laugh?
    We’re paying for it!

       26 likes

    • Number 6 says:

      I certainly aint paying for it……nor have i done for several years im proud to say

         4 likes

  12. Thoughtful says:

    I wonder if readers have seen the suggested BBC favourite for the new Doctor Who companion?

    _1457038630.jpg

    http://www.cinemablend.com/television/Doctor-Who-Might-Have-Found-Its-Companion-122287.html

    Shabs_DoctorWho.jpg

       5 likes

    • Grant says:

      Of course it is safe because Dr. Who appears to be asexual. The big breakthrough will be when a muslim stars as a Bond girl !

         6 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      Will this Dr Who character also go around screeching, “Exterminate!”.

         11 likes

      • Grant says:

        Steve,

        That is a sick, disgusting, Islamophobic joke. Let’s have some more, please !

           5 likes

  13. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    I know this is the biased bbc site but I’ve just watched a pile of shite on itv called Europe, in or out.
    Robert Peston presented this and it was full of subtle messages, half truths and misleading comments, worthy of the bbc.
    More comments from the in lot than the out lot.
    Selected commenters to give the inners a more sensible image.
    Lots of warnings about Brexit with all the usual ‘could, might and the other weasel words predicting doom and gloom.
    Giving the impression that we would adopt a Swiss style deal.
    Saying we export 44% of our total exports to Europe but no mention of the Rotterdam effect.
    Some plonker suggesting we should leave NATO and the UN plus other world organisations.
    Somebody saying they want to stay in because they want to visit European countries, the implication being that if we left then he couldn’t go to Europe.
    In all, a biased grubby offering and I will definitely give next weeks part two a miss.

       30 likes

  14. Save Our Sense says:

    Looks like the BBC sub editors were asleep when this copy was filed…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-36090188

       8 likes

    • Number 7 says:

      Has Mardell been talking to or reading Breitbart?

      That is quite an amazing article to be seen on BBC.co.uk!

         9 likes

      • taffman says:

        Has Al Beeb undergone ‘a road to Damascus’?

           8 likes

      • feargal the cat says:

        Just as the migration issue eases? Which planet is Lardell referring too?

           12 likes

        • Number 7 says:

          “Just as the migration issue eases?”

          You’ve been watching too much Beeboid “News”.

          🙂

             7 likes

      • Stuart Beaker says:

        No change of heart here, I regret to say – merely another arm of an already established anti-Brexit strategy.

        Mr Mardell talks in this article only of the (further-) left-wing, anti-austerity movement typified by Greece and Portugal. He makes no mention of the notorious ‘far-right’ Eastern Europens attacking the present EU regime on quite different grounds.

        The point of what he is saying is to distance the left-ish voters in this country from any temptation to vote ‘Out’ on June 23rd. He is preparing for a grand piece of EU theatre-politics nearer to the time, when the Council of Ministers will make a stunning and news-blotting series of announcements in conjunction with the major (non-right) European Parliamentary groups. The ‘reforms’ they will announce will include a renunciation of austerity, a major shift/amplification of North-South funding flows, including a vast swathe of ‘exciting’ capital projects, coupled with rather well hidden moves to further remove the tattered remnants of sovereignty so far retained by ‘client’ member nations.

        The UK will ostensibly, and very visibly, be ‘exempted’ from these policy initiatives, but they will be intended, as a by-blow, to gain the sympathy of the many traditional left voters in the UK, as a sign of a more humane, communitarian, class-rooted EU, that it would be madness to abandon in favour of a ‘loose cannon’ right-wing libertarian state that the UK might ‘risk’ becoming upon Brexit.

        It’s all just part of the stage-setting, I’m afraid.

           8 likes

        • Peter Grimes says:

          ‘Exciting capital projects’?

          Is that code for more £1 billion Spanish airports that never get operational and sold off for only £10k or Spanish and Portugese motorways which speed their youth here to take our jobs and benefits, all at my expense?

             7 likes

          • Stuart Beaker says:

            Of course – infrastructure is a favourite money-sink, as it provides a near-perfect mechanism for recycling funds straight past the noses of the natives, back into the hands of the Euro-global engineering, design, finance and FM corporations. That way, the magic money-pot is never actually accessible by any of the local companies (see under ‘European Procurement Framework Directives’), who have to content themselves with the smell of it as it wafts past.

               5 likes

            • Rob in Cheshire says:

              As my car bounces over the potholes and broken road surfaces of my local area, I always think how glad I am that our taxes have built those lovely unused motorways in Spain and Portugal. Just another benefit of the EU I shall bear in mind on 23rd June.

                 12 likes

    • Englands Dreaming says:

      This article is pretty much inline with others I read written by financial commentators rather than those pushing a political agenda. We are only surprised that it is on the BBC because they have moved so far from living in the real world.

      It is really a case of When not If there will be another euro crisis. Italy looks a likely candidate to precipitate, the new arrivals from Libya will add to tensions.

         4 likes

  15. Save Our Sense says:

    So, in a single evening, on the Queen’s Birthday, both QT and This Week were almost from a different universe…

    Brexit won hands down on QT.

    Livingstone was goaded into (almost) admitting he supports the EU because of big business interests, and, that even as a Republican, he thinks the Queen has done a wonderful job and is nigh-on irreplaceable.

    Farage and Portillo combined annihilated both Natalie Bennett and Livingstone – Farage accusing Bennett’s Green Party EU Election Campaign of being funded by the EU and Bennett unable to deny it. Even Brillo joined in to nail her.

    If Carlsberg did Thursday evenings eh..!

       32 likes

    • taffman says:

      Save Our Sense
      Al Beeb on its ‘road to Damascus ‘
      Will It be Zero next ?

         9 likes

      • Save Our Sense says:

        Ha, there’s more chance of Jerrod admitting he’s really Paul Mason

           6 likes

      • Number 7 says:

        Shwmae taffman.

        There’s more chance of Plaid/Liebore keeping UKIP out of the Turtle (Assembly)

           4 likes

        • taffman says:

          Shwmae Rhif Saith
          Plaid/Liebore – They look more worried than Dai’s sheep when Zero is in the field amongst them, wearing his wellies.

             7 likes

          • Grant says:

            taffman,

            LOL !

               2 likes

            • Oaknash says:

              Dai-s sheep have very little to worry about.
              I should think it is very difficult running across a field in over sized, non threatening, ethically sourced rainbow coloured wellies.
              I suspect Dais sheep would be of very little interest to him anyway unless they are of the non binary gender variety and definitely not hideously “white faced”

                 8 likes

  16. Oaknash says:

    You could be right Grant – But wouldnt the Rams be of more interest? After all they all have three bags full!
    ENOUGH!!!!!!!!!! – I dont like where this is going!

       7 likes

  17. seismicboy says:

    I’ve had a funny start to the day. (a right) Charlie (in a right) Stayt has just said, regarding Obama’s comments in the Telegraph, – (paraphrasing) ” some people might see that as interfering in our democracy” – That’s rich coming from the bbc who have done nothing else for years.

       22 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Looking at social media, the BBC may be a smidge perturbed.

      So far Barry’s stepping off AF1 and telling the UK how to vote has gone down about as well as Ian Katz’ wheeze did in Clarke County.

      But the girls at the BBC seem in awe. And some of the women.

         12 likes

  18. StewGreen says:

    #PrinceRIP #bbcOperationBangingOn #bbcDo4death

    “Shall we use the world’s biggest news operation to explain the complex real world ?
    ….Naw..some celebrity has died so lets bang on and on about it
    ..cheaply stick a microphone in front of faces and say “prince has died how do you feel about that ?”

    (Google search of bbc.co.uk for the last year shows not much just a couple of news stories)

       7 likes

    • JimS says:

      More or Less ’caused*’ all this by concluding that the advent of TV had created an increasing larger group of ‘celebrities’, of which, inevitability, some were now ‘life expired’. Expect things to get worse.

      * MoL’s mantra ‘correlation is not causation’.

      While on that wonderful programme some may recall that a few weeks ago they did a sneering piece on the ‘EU Cabbage Regulations’, which apparently is the main plank of the ‘leave’ argument. It is all totally false as it started as a US story 70-odd years ago, flew the Atlantic, changed vegetable and became a BBC meme for the ‘stupidity’ of UKIP as, it turns out, there are NO EU rules for cabbages! Wow! Count me in as a ‘remainer’ then.

      Meanwhile the fastidious Dr. Richard North does a bit more probing and finds that the BBC is right, the EU has got rid of the ‘Cabbage Rules’, because there is a rule-making body above the EU, the UNECE, which has replaced them!

      The UNECE is an interesting lot, operating under the UN umbrella, it has countries like the USA on its panels, (despite the last ‘E’ being ‘Europe’), Norway gets a seat too. Anyway this gang make up a lot of the stuff that the EU Commission adopt so getting a seat at their ‘big table’ is quite important. Of course as ‘the world’s fifth largest economy’ we get a seat don’t we Dave? Sorry, the EU speaks for us. So little Norway gets to make the rules that the UNECE sends to Brussels that Brussels then faxes to Norway for confirmation. At some point Dave gets to kneel at the EU throne and told to “jump!”, much to Norway’s amusement no doubt!

         10 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Jim, I seem to recall that in de-bunking the Cabbage Rules myth, it was discovered by More or Less that the situation is actually worse: 32,000 words of regulation from the EU not 29,000 as claimed by UKIP & others.

        But it is shared among all fruit and vegetables, not just cabbages.

        “Its regulations, Jim, but not as EU know it.”

        😉

           8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      He was a cultural icon, talent and such a sad passing deserves being noted.

      However, ‘celebrity’ death has become a cynical industry to exploit by media with too many staff and not enough to talk about. And it is very, very, cheap.

         4 likes

  19. Oldspeaker says:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-3553000/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-Gang-rape-Kent-shocking-conspiracy-silence.html
    Richard Littlejohn speaks out regarding the horrific crime alleged to have taken place at Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, shameful silence on the part of the BBC.

       22 likes

    • embolden says:

      Please get a sense of perspective, the BBC have a much bigger and more important story…look! a man from Minneapolis has been found dead, he was black, wore purple a lot and made “sexually charged” music, he was the David Bowie of the 80s generation and people are lighting candles and dressing up in purple to pay tribute… even Madonna and Mick are talking about him so……have a heart will you?

      Gang rapes are not news.

         23 likes

      • Peter Grimes says:

        Al-Beeb undecided as to whether or not to make Prince’s passing or The Obsmamessiah’s celestial visitation and sermon their main story. They must be really pissed off having to cover both at the same time and perhaps detracting from the Big O’s message!

           10 likes

  20. AsISeeIt says:

    I’ve been amused recently watching Channel 4 News where cycling Jon Snow and Michael Crick persue their increasingly hysterical attack on the tories. The tory baiting is almost pathological. There’s a deep-seated need in these media liberals to ‘prove’ the result of the General Election was somehow not a conservative win but actually the victory of their favoured rainbow progressive alliance ranging from bad boys Sinn Fein and Galloway’s Respect through Labour, Greens and the Scots Nats to the comfy west country Lib Dems – in fact anything but the blues. One wonders, was there some odd incident in Snow’s childhood that planted this mindless antipathy? A baby-blue blanket in his cot that annoyed him? Did the rugby club yahoos mercilessly rag young Snow Minor? Night after night Channel 4’s increasingly unwatched http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/01/channel-4-news-ratings-david-abraham bulletines attempt to alter what they see as the false consciousness in the public – or perhaps do they know they just preach to the converted few and feather their own nests? There was a moment in last night’s Matt Frei report from mass migrant destination Sicily when as in voice over Arbeit Matt Frei assured the viewer the locals were by nature welcoming to newcomers the vox pop went somewhat awry. “Scusi Signore….” The locals didn’t want to talk on camera. Savvy enough not to be monstered by channel 4 as racist maybe – off camera they told the fly-in liberal ex-BBC man that the migrants were involved in drugs, were too many, caused trouble, Sicily was full and they didn’t want any more. Views not far we guess from what the British think. Will Jon Snow take note or will it simply encourage him to doubledown?

       15 likes

  21. Peter Grimes says:

    Justin Webb interviewing Raab and the U.K. Ambassador(ex?) to the US on the Toady programme this morning about 8.10. Sneeringly referred to The Obamamessiah having given the interview to ‘the Telegraph, of all places’.

    It’s true that the Torygraph is but a shadow of its previous existence, I called it the Labourgraph before its recent makeover which has removed its newspaper status imo, but it is still nowhere near as bad as Al-Beeb!

       15 likes

  22. GCooper says:

    The outpourings of grief over the death of ‘Prince’ were (and are) absolutely excessive. The BBC’s ‘World Service’ (sic) even devoted a section on its already tenth rate ‘In Business’ to the story last night – and they weren’t reporting on the effect of his death on record sales.

    As so often, what we are seeing here is a reflection of the age and intellectual level of the people who run our media organisations today, not an accurate representation of the importance of any one story.

       15 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Looking beyond Clive Myrie, ethnic sports reporter, Reeta Chakerbati and Sabet Choudary reading the following local news, last nights News At Ten gave 7 minutes to the death of Prince compared to 8 minutes for the Queens 90th…

         16 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Better get your tin hat on or go for a double duvet. If Bowie’s death is any indication we are in for a week – or more – on this.

      Prince is definitely a BBC favourite along with Kate Bush and, perhaps, Madonna. They received massive amounts of BBC advertising for recent tours.

         7 likes

      • Geoff says:

        Bush is worth it, talented, intelligent and a Kipper.

           9 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Sure, Geoff, would not disagree but the BBC is not meant to carry advertising, is it?

          Look at Prince’s output – it’s colossal – but the sales per album were none too good. He was far from mainstream. As was Bowie. This was evidenced by the fact that Bowie has now had more No.1s since his death.

             5 likes

          • Geoff says:

            Correct.

            The Wurzels had more number ones than Prince, but will the lead singers passing be so noteworthy to the BBC? Far too culturally British and far too white…

               16 likes

    • Grant says:

      GC,

      Prince ticked many BBC boxes. Black , Bisexual, Drug Addict. Therefore, top story for the next week.

         14 likes

      • ObiWan says:

        Grant, I don’t think Prince ever ticked the bisexual box. Like that other faker, Bowie, he merely danced around the edges for the sheer publicity of ‘scandalising’. Neither, in their personal histories, ever provided any proof of anything other than their heterosexual credentials. Both were married (multiple times), both had children (sadly Prince’s baby died very soon after being born) and both had a very public preference for very attractive women.

        This is worth repeating because just as Bowie is (wrongly) celebrated as some kind of LGBT icon, so will Prince be – in both cases their real lives away from showbusiness reveals a very different story.

           11 likes

        • Grant says:

          Obi, looks like I got the wrong end of the stick.

             3 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            Don’t get me wrong, I consider Prince and Bowie to be talented. Prince worked incredibly hard, maybe Bowie less so but he was more of an all round entertainer & Rennaisance man. Both, I think, were very clever people and in the nicest sense or use of ‘clever’.

            But in terms of musical impact there are so many others that the BBC should be considering. Why do they advertise – if they are going to break their own rules – a few? Should they be so selective? When was the last time Genesis or Dire Straits were lionised by Radio 4? Given plugs? Invited onto news programmes?

            I seem to recall that the combined earnings of those two bands in the 1980s provided a GDP that medium sized countries would be proud of. Music wasn’t bad, either. Or so the sales to the public seemed to indicate.

               5 likes

  23. conanthelibrarian says:

    A clip on Fox News reminded me how the political situation in the UK has parallels with the US.
    The commentator was saying that people in the US felt betrayed by the White Elite and the Elite-driven media.The vote for Trump was an indicator of this and that, if Trump was denied the candidacy by GOP conspiracy , this would only fuel more unrest.
    It seems to me that ,in the UK, if the Referendum is fiddled , ignored , or set aside, this will fuel unrest in the UK in a similar way.
    The Left-Liberal elite and its propaganda arm ,the BBC (closely followed by the craven Press and radio) should be brought to account for its lies and dissembling on immigration and the costs of EU membership.

       19 likes

    • GCooper says:

      I certainly think that if the referendum is lost it will be in large part due to the influence of the broadcast media, which controls so much of the information consumed by the intellectually undernourished.

      And if we don’t lose it, then whoever replaces the newly imprisoned Cameron (he should face criminal charges over the £9 million pro-EU leaflet) should set about the BBC with an axe.

         19 likes

  24. Oldspeaker says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36108184
    Hmm, there may just be a pattern developing in the BBCs impartial EU referendum ‘reporting’, or should that be so called BBC as there’s not a lot British about them anymore. A fair representation from both sides was always unlikely but it now looks like the remainers are going to run away with the media campaign, with Obama chipping in I was reminded of Webster Tarpleys observations on oligarchies. Now Webster says a lot of things on a whole range of fringe topics, usually with a book to sell, but I think he’s right on the money with his oligarchical world view, a bunch of largely self serving elite intrests, who when required, will pull together if it suits them, pretty much what we are seeing now regarding the EU debate.

       4 likes

  25. GCooper says:

    The way things are going I think we are going to have to add Cameron to the list of Great Traitors, along with Heath and Blair.

       0 likes

  26. G.W.F. says:

    Obama has arrived and tells us we are safer from terrorism inside the EU.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36108184

    Mr Cameron tweeted: “The US is one of our closest allies. So it’s important to hear Barack Obama on why we should remain in the EU.”

    Meanwhile Cameron’s street thugs in the UAF are preparing to No Platform Marine le Pen, who is coming to speak in support of Brexit. Expect street violence and no arrests.

    .http://uaf.org.uk/2016/04/protest-against-french-fascist-leader-marine-le-pen-visiting-britain/

    cambridgelepen.jpg

       13 likes

  27. Sluff says:

    Here’s a table Al Beeb won’t be showing

    Age and sex standardised prevalence rates (per 100) of type 2 diabetes … according to ethnic group

    White All ethnic minorities African Caribbean All South Asians Indian or African Asian Pakistani or Bangladeshi Chinese
    1.7 5.7 5.3 6.2 4.7 8.9 3

    Source “CHD, coronary heart disease. Adapted with permission from Health Inequalities Life Course Approaches edited by George Davey Smith”

    Now according to Diabetes UK, the cost of Diabetes treatment in the UK in 2012 was £12 billion pa.
    Funny how this sort of thing never gets mentioned by our national state broadcaster.
    Or indeed by the government. Or the NHS. Another ‘benefit’ of Al Beeb’s multi-culti open door immigration agenda.

       13 likes

  28. Steve Jones says:

    Oh dear, all is not well in student politics. No sooner does the NUS elect a popular, unifying, leader than some universities decide they don’t want to be in the NUS.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-36109164
    Stand by for the vilification of any detractors by our national treasure.

       7 likes

  29. scribblingscribe says:

    Mark Mardell on The World at One moved brilliantly into comedy today with the ‘sound of climate change.’

    Sadly, they only played the piano to represent temperature change from 1880, thus the notes went generally upwards. Obviously if they played the notes representing temperature from the Medieval Times the notes would have descended, with a little ripple after 1860, but finishing lower than they started. If they started from Roman Times, then the decent would have been more dramatic. If the scale began about 8,000 years ago there would have been an even more dramatic decent as it is far colder now then during the Holocene Optimum

    This is deceit at its worst. It’s not propaganda, it is not colouring an issue, it is not simply seeking to influence people. It is fraud at its foulest.

    Erm, no it isn’t, because the deception grew worse as Mark Mardell then said something along the lines of ‘this represents temperature rise above the long term average’. Bollocks. 1860 ended the Little Ice Age, thus it actually reflects a temperature rise following the coldest period known for tens of thousands of years.

    For impartiality they finished the piece by bringing on the Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute, whose mission is to ‘promote green growth.’

    This nonsense starts at about 39 minutes in. Be angry, very, very angry.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077jp17

       11 likes

    • Grant says:

      Who did they interview to put the other side of the argument, in the interests of balance ?

         5 likes

      • Roland Deschain says:

        Didn’t you know? There IS no other side to this argument.

           6 likes

        • scribblingscribe says:

          Roland.
          Exactly a BBC musician gives one side and an environmental activist gives his side. A scientist’s view or the facts? Don’t be silly.

          If I wanted to know about Quantum Mechanics would I seek guidance from a BBC musician and an environmentalist?

             5 likes

        • Grant says:

          Roland,

          Sorry, I forgot. It is the BBC !

             2 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        I heard that, scribbling, and being a bit vaguely musical wondered how far the piece would go up the scale. Don’t have perfect pitch but for me it generally didn’t shift much beyond an octave. So much for the warming from a mini-Ice Age to our present boiling, sunny April single-digit heatwave in the 21st century. Pass the firelighters after you’ve filled the coal bucket!

        Now, I’ve an idea. Why don’t they get a singer who can do a nifty falsetto to do it … um .. how about someone like …

        Prince?

           4 likes

  30. Guest Who says:

    http://order-order.com/2016/04/22/bbc-critique-of-osbornes-dodgy-dossier-mysteriously-toned-down/

    Yes, a mystery, given that famous BBC editorial integrity, trust and transparency.

    The truth is… well, somewhere, Mulder. Nowhere near W1A, mind.

       1 likes

  31. Guest Who says:

    Just listening to the latest media-filtered hissy fit on who said what about who and why it is bad, or good.

    I merely note that when the Prime Minister of the UK, David Cameron, stuck his oar in the US election to offer his unique insight into candidate Trump, the media seemed onside.

    Mr. Trump offers a view on domestic policy, and the media here go into a meltdown that persists to the present.

    Equally, when The President of the United States, Barak Obama, stuck his oar into the EU Ref with why the UK should do what the US would never dream of, the media seem pretty OK with that too.

    Boris and Nigel offer this is not on, and the ‘not helpful’ brigades have a conniption.

    Funny old world.

       2 likes

  32. GCooper says:

    As if proving the old saying about lies, damned lies and statistics, the BBC’s ever-slippery More Or Less today decided to look into the Treasury’s dodgy dossier. Yes, the one ripped to pieces by the Telegrpah’s Alister Heath and which even the mild mannered Mervyn King cast a sceptical eyebrow at.

    So to whom did our mathematicall guardian (guardian – geddit?) turn to for an ‘unbiased’ opinion? A hack from the pro-Labour, Europhiliac, Financial Times!

    I think they call that sort of thing an ‘epic fail’ don’t they?

       2 likes

  33. Guest Who says:

    Just perusing a few of the latest BBC FoIs (those that have had a reply, albeit from long grass) over a cuppa…

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/extraction_of_cash_from_iplayer?

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/pay_and_tax_arrangements_of_top?

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/misconduct_or_unfitness_due_to_a?

    They suggest a marked reluctance to live up to the transparency claims made by senior members of staff and especially the odd, forgetful, roaming ronin.

       2 likes

  34. taffman says:

    Question to Mr President, would the US give up its sovereignty or open its borders to say, Mexico ?
    Answer …………

       3 likes

    • GCooper says:

      Obama would undoubtedly say yes. Kenyans too, I shouldn’t wonder.

         1 likes

      • taffman says:

        How many refugees has the US helped Europe with in the recent ‘invasion’. In space, the US is vast compared with the UK.
        Like Car Moron, Obama is on his way out – perhaps Trump would make a comment some time ?

           2 likes

  35. Captain Panick says:

    Last night , we were treated to beeboid emoting over the death of a prince. No, not one related to Her Majesty, but some US singer/musician, who appealed to the BBC physce. So, how many UK Number 1 Singles did he achieve? The answer was ONE. It was not some song called Purple Rain, but some other song called The most beautiful girl in the world. So how much emoting did Sir Terence Wogan get on his death for his Number One hit, The Floral Dance, or Clive Dunne for his Number One hit, Grandad, or the various original members of The Wurzels for I’ve got a brand new combine harvester? Let us also never forget the late Benny Hill with Ernie, the greatest Milk Man in the West. Traitors in the BBC, one and all.

       5 likes

  36. chrisH says:

    Would argue that the death of Prince IS a big event.
    But there again, so too were deaths like Valentino, Lanza and Presley.
    Guess it`s down to your age, your musical abilities or rating of music as a soundtrack to your life….as well as your links to common popular culture these last thirty years or so.
    Not everybody will be affected-and the lame stuff about how many awards he got, how many units he sold means nothing.
    The dafties who emote to order from Buzzfeed DO take over, and display their ignorance in cliche-but Prince was a phenomenal talent , and most of us who were of age in the 80s-early 90s and who played, appreciated the race, gender diversities as told-will thank God for his abilities.
    That said, he`s not for everybody…but the composite musician, dancer and virtuoso is a hero to my likes.
    As complete an artist in music as I`ve known-but Stevie and Leonard shade him re being the complete human being.
    Will his songs be sung for years?…no…but will musicians try to work out hos he created “Sign O The Times” or “Let`s Go Crazy”?…they sure will, the gold standard of technique and technical wizardry.
    Like Eminem-a pioneering Christian who`s done more to shake up world faith perceptions than anybody I know.

       3 likes