566 Responses to Weekend Open Thread

  1. Deborah says:

    Think I am first. Here’s hoping.

       13 likes

    • R P McMurphy says:

      Mazeltov.

         3 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Welcome to the club Debs !

         8 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      I’m 80th!

      I’ve been lapped!!

      I’m not Up2muchsnuff in this race!!!

      Well done, Deborah.

      You’ve ‘podiumed’.

      🙂

      Hope you don’t feel too dizzy on that top step.

      Don’t look down.

         6 likes

  2. Fedup2 says:

    the politicians are ready to move on from the Londonistan killings and after today al beeb will too…no cure

       33 likes

  3. Guest Who says:

    Katty remains good value…

    …as is her book; yours for just…

       23 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Guest
      I think she deserves a dose of professor Peterson … “so what you’re saying is “….. gotcha

         29 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      She’s been plugging away at that book all week using her BBC handle. As well as changing her icon to the cover. Surely that’s against some regulation?

         20 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Probably an ‘Icons are her own’ exemption buried in the Bbc EdGuds to facilitate a nice little side earner.

           8 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        BBC Editorial Guidelines on Writing Books

        Whatever the subject matter, presenters should not use their programmes as a vehicle for promoting books they have written.
        In some cases, it may be editorially justified to make some reference to the book, providing there has been clear prior approval from the editor or relevant editorial executive.
        But it is essential that the book is not “plugged” on-air.
        (funny, cos Jeremy Vine does that)

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/conflicts-of-interest/off-air-activities

        You can go away from the BBC and promote your own book

        Presenters in all genres may be permitted to undertake some promotional activities for a book they have written, whether or not it is published by the BBC.
        However, such promotions must not undermine the programme they present or jeopardise the presenter’s reputation for objectivity or impartiality

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines/guidance/conflicts-of-interest/advertising

        Having a BBC job, gives you a “box office” profile
        Therefore your own Twitter account is “box office” as an advertising platform
        ie it has financial worth. That is why it is ridiculous to only look at a BBC staffer’s PAYE, when their BBC job brings them other financial benefits.
        If Katty Kay were to be deprived of the right to have a Twitter account under her own name, then she’d expect a bigger salary as compensation.

           11 likes

  4. Guest Who says:

    Popcorn on order.

       26 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The Sistas are mobilising…

      This may distract from the carefully orchestrated ‘both sides’ assault from Lords Hall Hall and A Donut.

         14 likes

      • Lobster says:

        If she doesn’t like it, she can always get a job in the private sector.
        I’m sure the Situations Vacant pages are full of jobs on half a million a year. Or possibly not …..

           60 likes

        • G says:

          This is the one that, 7/10 days before the last US election, seriously told the listeners of Toady that it WILL BE Hilary Clinton who sits behind the desk in the Oval Office within weeks. Small matter of the voters? – Irrelevant to Sarah.
          Needs a serious pay cut for lying.

             51 likes

          • BRISSLES says:

            The ridiculous amount these jobbing journalists receive is obscene, just for fronting a tv programme reading an autocue, or sat behind a mic with bedhead hair with a script. However, I do remember being ‘incandescent with rage’ when back in the 80’s (a decade into the equality bill), I was earning £25 per week less than my male colleague doing the same job as an Estate Agent – and as he came to the company six months after me I had to teach him the bloody job ! I think the parity was something like £75 – £100. The amounts are irrelevant, its the unfairness of it.

               41 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          Poor Sarah – The Bastards! she only earned £133 grand a year – Would barely able to afford a 2002 Sunseeker Camargue 44 power boat every year.
          Oh Sarah I have so much understanding for you being “incandescent” with rage! And that nasty John Humphries earning 650K. I bet when you were a kid you kept a tight watch on how many sweeties your siblings were given because occasionally they got one more – and now its all come back to haunt you again.
          Oh life is sooooooo cruel!
          Its all sooooooooooooooooo unfair!
          I spent the best part of twenty years climbing and cutting trees in all weathers and often not earning any more than ten quid an hour – because I chose to live in a beautiful part of the countryside. But sometimes you just put up with shit cos life isnt always fair.

          What I suggest you and the BBC Sistas do is come down to the West Country and start a mass movement. You being a good socialist an all, I am sure all of us downtrodden masses down here on shite money will all willingly love to show solidarity with you and join you on a March on Parliament. I think Theresa is also very concerned about you too (todays Times)

          We could call it the “Justice for Sarah (and other underpaid luvvies) campaign.

          Of course if you feel that strongly you could always resign.

             60 likes

          • Beltane says:

            I think there is a significant difference between ‘earned’ and received, Oaknash, a point which seems lost on all such complainants.

               30 likes

            • Oaknash says:

              Beltane – You are right – No doubt she a bright woman but she is typical of the liberal metropolitan elite, full of self regard and entitlement completely unaware and uninterested (apart of course from an default inscencere “concern”) about those who earn considerably less money than the likes of her and her well heeled friends.

                 15 likes

              • Beltane says:

                It is indeed an irony that our ‘intelligentsia’ have no idea how to replace a fuse, use a hammer or even raise children – not that I intend to suggest any link between the two.

                   15 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      GW, I hope Sarah Montague – as Lead Presenter on TWatO – is paid no more than her male underlings. That would be so unfair.
      It would unreasonable.

      It would not be equality!

         14 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      That The Sunday Times : pay-gap article has open comments for us all to see
      https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sarah-montagues-rage-over-pay-gap-pjsq90dpw?shareToken=b265a00ac0ccbd0f55049fd00fb105ff

         9 likes

      • vlad says:

        Yes Stew, and every single one of them scournful of her and/or the beebistan.

        Brilliant! Are people starting to wake up at last?

        2 of my favourites:

        – I have to wonder why Sky, Channel 4 and 5, and ITV haven’t tempted such star quality to their stables.

        – Is the extra 450,000 (Humphrys’) for being more sarcastic and dismissive? Simple solution – offer Humphys et al the same package as Ms Montague. If they don’t accept thank them for their services. Ms Montague is happy. The feminists are happy. The tax payers are happy. And I’m pretty sure the level of journalism will remain at its current standard.

           30 likes

    • lojolondon says:

      I guess as the female Lord Haw Haw she thinks she deserves more than she already sucks out of the British taxpayer. What I am most interested to see is if anyone else will ever employ her, even at a fraction of her old salary!!

         8 likes

  5. Scroblene says:

    As we technically won’t need a ‘mare’ in London after Brexit, does that mean that the silly little man can go back to being a bus driver’s son, and let a real person run the police to make London safer?

    Perhaps the BBBC might like to know that bollards outside their people’s palace in W1A could be replaced with hanging baskets and a few window boxes!

    The programme can be introduced by Lily Allen and promoted by Steve Coogan, and guests will be that Abbott person and a few other pathetic flunkies wanting £600 to be seen on the telly.

       65 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    In which Toenails ascends his high horse. Again.

    And then needs to clarify. Again.

       42 likes

    • Jagman84 says:

      So what he is really saying is, only BBC-approved criticism of the BBC is permitted? It is hard to “improve” an organisation that always believes that it gets it “just about right”.

         55 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      To bloody true. We on this site have been doing what little we can to damage the BBC as much as we can for several years. The BBC need to know that a lot of people in this country regard them as the enemy within and the worlds largest purveyor of false news and would love to see them silenced for good.

         73 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Funny thing but when I was in Secondary School we were taught that a broadcaster or print journalist should ask questions that listeners or viewers would ask and require answers to. They should also be prepared to teach their viewers and listeners – without ‘talking down to them’ – but only after taking care of that first objective.

         20 likes

      • - Wild - says:

        There has been concern on the Left recently about elections being influenced by targeted marketing (strangely enough it only seems to worry them if that marketing promotes Trump or Leave, if it promotes Obama or is pro-EU then it is fine but I leave that aside) on the grounds that seeking to influence an election is bad for democracy. Democracy is worth fighting for. That is the BBC’s line isn’t it. Now imagine for a moment that you think the BBC is anti-Trump and pro-EU (it is just a hypothetical) you might think that it is not a good idea that the BBC has such (tax funded) dominance. Certainly I can see if you work for the BBC why you like that arrangement, but if (say) you are not New Labour, then why (if you believe – however wrongly) that it is a political propaganda channel on behalf of New Labour, why (if you believe in democracy) should you be forced to pay for it?

           30 likes

        • - Wild - says:

          Why should anybody be forced to pay for it, even if your agree with the political line it promotes? I detest the BBC (tax funded lazy career Leftist scum of the Earth Guardian readers who seek to undermine our democracy and free debate at every turn) but even if I thought it was bloody marvelous, why should I be forced to pay for it?

          If I was given the choice, if I thought it was marvelous because of all those wonderful programmes telling you about about how wonderfully the State sector spend the money they take from you, I would want to pay for it, wouldn’t I. Is it moral to force others to pay for it just because I like it, because it takes the political line I approve of?

          The answer of course if that (and I am not aware of a single New Labour politician in the last 25 years who has said the licence tax should be scrapped) is that they want a system in which one media organisation dominates our airwaves, and they like it precisely because the BBC seek to tell us (just short of telling us who to actually vote for) what to think.

          They are exactly the same people also hate the fact that it is still possible to go into a shop and buy the newspaper of your choice, oh my God, of your choice, horror of horrors, because it might offer an opinion different from the sort of middle class Leftists who write for the Guardian.

             39 likes

  7. Nibor says:

    Radio 4. 21.30

    How Ireland will cope with Brexit .

    Listen out for a long list of forms that will be needed to process a load through customs , meaning delays at Dublin Port and the Northern border .
    Except the Beeb is adding in forms and paperwork that won’t be needed unless there is a degree of hostility between the UK and Ireland/ EU , for example an ATA and a TIR carnet , something you might need to go into Kazakstan , but aren’t needed for countries like Switzerland .

       47 likes

  8. Roland Deschain says:

    The first thing I checked this morning on the BBC’s news page was to see what else we’d been told about the Münster driver. To find that the story has slipped WAY down the page, but that no formal identification has been made. Even though they can tell us it’s nothing to do with terrorism and report he was a German national “with mental health problems”.

    I smell shite.

       78 likes

  9. theisland says:

    Feeling depressed, frustrated, angry, disenfranchised?
    Take a trip to the coast today and support Fishing for Leave (it’s about more than fish).
    Apparently, NF will be in Whitstable.
    Man the beaches and say no to the ‘transition’.

       61 likes

  10. AsISeeIt says:

    Who would have guessed, the mysterious stars in the firmament of the grand overarching news agenda align in a certain way and shazzam! We have another ‘chemical attack’ in Syria.

    ‘Unverified’ at present but fear not ye seekers of the truth, the BBC are on the case… and they go to – not Syria – but California (via Skype) to chat to some arabic-american bloke who rambles away making things as clear as mud.

    Meanwhile the ‘unverified’ familiar, slightly stagey, footage of kids in hospital rolls again, and again, and again….

       46 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      In the spirit of darker humour, it is lucky that Russian hit squads do not appear to have access to such chemicals. Or German vans.

         27 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        I’ve said it before and will say it again; if you want the job done forget your ‘Q’ and his gadgets and forget those Moscow trained elite hoods of the likes of George Smiley’s era and instead garner your technical advice from a London housing estate. They get the more impressive results. I can see it now, ‘Hey Boris, tavarish, do you have the momma’s kitchen knife?’ ‘Da, Vladimir, and I have also the BMX bike for our getaway – I peddle, you take backee, comrade, innit doh’ ‘Da, da, hoodies up and off we go, you be sure to get this on film on What’s App… death to the traitors!’

           24 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Looking forward to the part time actors in Salford studios posing as doctors treating gassed Syrian children with time on their hands for a TV interview.
      I don’t buy this crap. Why resort to gas when you are winning?

         28 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        ‘Why resort to gas when you are winning?’

        Why hand your enemies the ace card of a western media propaganda coup…?

        Ah, we begin to see the light… you don’t suppose this could be faked or self-inflicted in some way, who on earth would so casually use their own civilians as human shields…?

           25 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Dear BBC,
          Put yourself in President Assad’s place for amoment. You want to defeat the enemies of a peaceful Syria in a Civil War. (Please note BBC correspondent who speaks rubbish on The World This Weekend – it is a Civil War when civilians fight and get hurt.) You are supported by the Russians and armed by them. The Russian military want to test their latest high tech kit. The make some of it available to you enabling you to target opposition fighters precisely.

          Instead, you reject the Russian support and use hurriedly improvised bombs and chemical weapons instead, tossing them out of helicopters while – I guess – hoping the gases are not dispersed too much (especially over your own side) and the bombs actually detonate on top of enemy positions.

          Yes, that all adds up, doesn’t it BBC?

             16 likes

  11. AsISeeIt says:

    As a favour to some Jewish friends of mine I share this link to a demo planned for today

    https://antisemitism.uk/act/labour-hold-corbyn-to-account/

    ‘This Sunday, 8th April, at 2pm, Jews and non-Jews alike will converge on Labour Party Head Office, 105 Victoria Street, London SW1E 6QT, from all over Britain to stand up for our Jewish community and drive home to Labour that it must finally deliver on its broken promise: zero tolerance for antisemitism. Join us.’

    Previously BBC news has been in the habit of giving out details prior to certain demonstrations for certain causes they seem to be keen on. Don’t rely the BBC news to cover this one even after it has happened.

       56 likes

    • G says:

      You invite a rabid dog into your house, expect to be bitten. Labour sought the support of the RoP and its cult followeres and now, “integrated” into the Labour party, they continue to exercise their proclaimed revulsion for the Jews.

         37 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    OT, but this may not end well.

       61 likes

    • thirdoption says:

      Liz Kershaw – the woman who was chief witness against Dave Lee Travis and ensured he was prosecuted because he “jiggled her breasts” once whilst in the studio.

      Hard to take her seriously but to try and use the excuse that she shouldn’t be prosecuted for breaking the law because she didn’t harm anyone is nonsense. Drink/drug fuelled drivers don’t have to knock someone down before they get done.

         39 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        I don’t know who she is, but she presents a problem with people who live in a 30mph zone, who want to feel safe, caring for their children, walking their dogs, carrying shopping or riding a bicycle, without someone like her exceeding the speed limit and tearing up the rule book.

        The speedometer on her car would have shown at least 40mph (it’s a fact that they are made to do this), so if she is so thick not to realise she was speeding she deserves more than a fine. Perhaps a spell in Stanford Prison Hotel with Kenny Noye might help her to understand.

        She’s a bloody nuisance.

           25 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          So long as she restricts her road use commentary to such as this and not preferences in cab driver for younger relatives, she will be fine.

             9 likes

        • G says:

          Scroblene,
          To avoid any conflict with the police, she could simply change religion and all of these sorts of problems would immediately go away.

             27 likes

  13. AsISeeIt says:

    Sign ‘O’ the Times – as the artist, formerly known as Prince, used to say

    Following a vehicle attack on pedestrians in Germany, isn’t it quite remarkable how the authorities can so quickly assess and publicise the precise citizenship status and mental health characteristics of a man long before something as basic as his bloody name gets released.

    Way to go, Fritz !

       62 likes

  14. Jeff says:

    Looking at the Marr show I learn that Trevor Phillips has stuck his oar in to the “stab fest” horrors we’ve been experiencing in the metropolis. According to Trev’ if these kids had been white there would have been a public outcry and something would have been done.
    That ghastly pain in the arse, Polly Toynbee, was also on, spouting her usual ill informed bile, blaming cuts in youth services etc, for these outrages.
    Surely both these lefties are missing the point. Why is it only blacks that resort to slaughtering each other in such a barbaric fashion. Cuts in services impact every racial group in the capital. We don’t have mobs of Chinese kids murdering each other. Why do we always have to treat blacks as a special needs group? And Phillips’ point about white boys stabbing each other is just daft; because they’re not. White families tend to still have two parents. We aren’t barbarians. Most youngsters in this nation have good lives. They’re not involved in gangs, drugs or turf wars.
    These attackers are always black. Black people need to step up, grow up and own up.
    You are the problem.

       104 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Another predictable bit of Beebing is their promotion of the latest ‘potential’ source of the mayhem, Russian ‘McMaffia’ drug gangs. Yardies? Nah. Paki Pushers? Nah. It dem whitey Slav innit.

         33 likes

    • Oaknash says:

      Jeff – These days Trevor Phillips loves to run with the fox and hunt with the hounds.

      Him and his ilk are partly responsible for the steamrollering of any common sense policing being replaced with the more touchy feely, impotent style whenever “efnik kidz” are involved.
      I once thought he had started to talk common sense – but like so many rentagobs out there I suppose staying in the public eye and being “relavent” helps to pay his wages.

         25 likes

      • miker22 says:

        Is that true though? He does seem to have renounced his earlier opinions. He presented an excellent programme called What British Muslims really think a little while ago.

           3 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          Miker – I thought so too – But his recent little outburst has sent me wondering whether he values acceptance by the liberal media (with all its attendant extra coverage) above the truth.
          In addition as Jeff said “According to Trev if these kids had been white there would have been a public outcry and something would have been done”.
          My response to Trev on that point would be yeah Trev – would that “something” be just as proactive as the action taken to deal with the Telford or Rotherham sex abuse cases.
          They say you cant teach an old dog new tricks and I do wonder whether our Trev has decided to stick with the much easier gig of supporting the liberal status quo rather than carry on exposing the more difficult and more complicated liberal media unfavoured truth.

             4 likes

    • Rick Bradford says:

      The powers-that-be have no interest in addressing black-on-black violence, or any other social problems, for that matter. If there were no underclass to wring their hands about, their purpose would disappear. Or they’d have to invent something, quick.

      As H.L. Mencken noted: “The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

         18 likes

  15. pugnazious says:

    Odd how people gleefully disregard facts when they scent blood and have political points to score.
    So Boris told us what Porton Down told him, that Russia was the creator and producer of Novichok…which it did…the intelligence says Russia is the ony known state to produce it. Everybody has piled onto him and told us he has a ‘loose tongue’ and has irresponsibly undermined British credibility. Seems more that Corbyn and the BBC have done that as they seek to cast doubt and undermine the foreign secretary and thus the British position. The BBC has a dig….‘BBC diplomatic correspondent James Landale said Mr Johnson’s “loose language” plus the deleted tweet represented a “self-inflicted wound” by the UK.’ Has Lansdale thought to ask who at Porton Down spoke to Boris and then asked what he told Boris? No of course not, that would spoil a good story.

    So let’s look at the facts. Boris said the fateful words in an interview with German TV on the 20th of March…recklessly blaming Russia apparently.

    Hang on…on March 13th the government’s position was that Russia was to blame…as the BBC reports…

    ‘Former spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter were poisoned by a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia, Theresa May has told MPs.

    The PM said it was “highly likely” Russia was responsible for the Salisbury attack.

    The Foreign Office summoned Russia’s ambassador to provide an explanation.

    Mrs May said if there is no “credible response” by the end of Tuesday, the UK would conclude there has been an “unlawful use of force” by Moscow.

    There came no response from Russia…thus the government says Russia is to blame.

    On March 18th Labour’s McDonnell said this…

    ‘John McDonnell has said he “agrees with the prime minister” that the Russian state is “responsible” for the Salisbury spy poisoning.
    The shadow chancellor told ITV “whichever way you look at it”, Russia’s Vladimir Putin “is responsible and all the evidence points to him”.’

    So everyone is agreed….Putin done the dirty deed. So how is it that Boris gets it in the neck for saying that Porton Down said the Novichok was definitely something created and produced by Russia?

    The BBC allows and encourages all sorts of nonsense to be spoken on this…we had an SNP mouthpiece attacking Boris’ ‘slippery tongue’…Boris ‘must pay’..however the SNP firmly believe Russia is responsible….oh what? You have seen less evidence than Boris and yet you can make that judgement and still attack Boris? Laughably he went on to state that no-one should engage in playing politics, in political point scoring.

    The same nonsense was freely being spouted on ‘Any Questions’ wthout challenge….Labour attacking Boris despite also claiming ‘Russia is directly responsible/culpable’…cake and eat it spring to mind.

    The British Ambassador said exactly the same as Boris as he briefed the international diplomatic community in Moscow on March 22nd…
    ‘‘Four days later the analysts at Porton Down, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in the UK, established and made clear that this was a military-grade chemical weapon. One of the Novichok series; a nerve agent as I said produced in Russia. ‘

    How is it he is not attacked by Corbyn and the BBC? He was delivering a planned and scripted speech to the world’s diplomats, Boris was engaged in a free ranging TV interview in which the questions came thick and fast and he was interrupted during his answers with more questions….and after all he was only putting what was the Government position as established by May one week earlier and Labour’s McDonnell two days earlier.

    It is apparent that Corbyn has his own political agenda, seemingly closely allied to that of Putin, and the BBC is happy to give credence to Corbyn’s position…thus also allying itself by default with Putin.
    Why the Russians invested so much money and time in RT when they have the BBC so ready to help spread their propaganda and misinformation is beyond me.

       32 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Fair points.

      Certainly there is now a dubious trend for civil servants dropping elected politicians right in it, as much on purpose as by accident.

      And whilst political careers can founder as a consequence, those in ‘public service’ endure ad nauseam.

      With, yes, the likes of the bbc gaily picking cherries on what, from whom, is reported.

      That all said, the savvy operator these days might be alert to caveats and semantics from sources before assigning definitive claims from them.

      The BBC of course pretty much does only that, but is exempted from backing it up, even via FOI.

      For the purposes of being 7nique.

         14 likes

      • G says:

        GW,
        “… for civil servants…”. Drop into any Ministry in London and you’ll see that the ‘civil servants’ are in fact, foreigners particularly asians.

           29 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      pug, it could not be a military-grade weapon for exactly the reasons the BBC produce when bringing news from Syria on TWTW.

      Pounce and Emmanuel Goldstein (our military experts on here) will hopefully correct me if I am wrong but if my limited & hurried research last week is correct, Russia were signatories to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and it’s two updates on the production and use of chemical weapons. To just manufacture the weapon would make Russia liable to severe sanctions including a military response from the rest of the world.

      This is one of the interesting contradictions that have been completely overlooked by the BBC N&CA Dept. I have heard no mention of the various measures taken internationally, to create conventions to outlaw or at least seek to control chemical weapons, on BBC R4 at all, with the exception of four years ago in the context of WW1. The horrors of gas warfare and the frenetic research race for superior chemical weapons led to the first Treaty which was mentioned in some detail when the BBC started their centennial commemoration of WW1.

      There are other contradictions. Perhaps more on those later.

      I suspect that some careless language has been used by journalists to make dry scientific reports, hedged with careful qualifications like “we think” , “probably”, “possibly of a type” “our tests so far demonstrate that” and ” this could be” from some really good and scrupulous scientists at Porton Down to make it a little more dramatic for their listeners, viewers and readers. They may also be confused by the FSB ranking with that of the Russian army. The Russian Security Services (FSB, formerly KGB) have rankings just like the Russian military.

      My guess would be that the New Things/Newcomers weapons are from a Black Operations department of the FSB. I could be wrong, of course. It could be the Russian military have gone rogue and are in fear of, or and in competition with, the FSB. It could be that power has gone to Putin’s head and he has decided to completely ignore existing Conventions and Treaties and has ordered the Russian military to produce chemical weapons.

      The suggestion by the Times Newspaper yesterday that the chemical weapon facility is part of a massive industrial military complex in Russia I find also tests credibility somewhat. The leakiness of the military – in all nations around the world – is well known. On the other hand, ‘hiding in plain sight’ can be a successful plan, but I find it unlikely.

      Be interested to know what Pounce & EG think.

         3 likes

      • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

        Up2,
        I don’t believe anybody from any government.
        Our lot lie to us continuously.
        I can’t understand why the Russians would carry this out. They must have known it would be traced back to them. Maybe Putin wanted it to be traced back to him as a warning to others.
        If it was supposed to be an assassination then they have made a cock up.
        To me it’s like this chemical weapons use in Syria, it makes no sense.
        If we had a government we could believe we could support them but they are all liars.
        In short, I just don’t know what to believe, only that anything we’re told I immediately disbelieve….same as with the bbc I suppose.

           14 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          EG, what about the military bit & the breaching of the ’49 Convention?

             0 likes

          • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

            Up2,
            I’m afraid that’s beyond me.

               1 likes

            • Up2snuff says:

              I thought a fair bit of time is spent in the classroom if you join the Army these days. You know, stuff like ‘How not to be beastly to the enemy., ‘How to Politely ask the Enemy’s combatants to cease all that noisy shooting and mortaring.’ as well as the longstanding Geneva Conventions.

                 1 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          You don’t need to believe anything,
          saying “I don’t know”, is a perfectly valid thing

          Instead of “2+2=5 thinking” idiots that apply draughts rules to a CHESS GAME
          … and then judge when half of the board is hidden.

             4 likes

  16. Pounce says:

    So, regards this tweet

    Has anybody seen the bBC air as many stories about Mrs Trump as they did Mrs Obama

       74 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      The bbc don’t do beauty, Pounce, they want transies, ugliness, and unimpressive people as a sign of equality.

      Otherwise, it’s anyone who’s been shagged by Diane Abbott or similar.

         36 likes

      • Idiotboy says:

        That’s the first post on this forum that has actually made me gag. Just the thought……..

           3 likes

    • vlad says:

      Course not, wrong colour, wrong political party, wrong husband, wrong weight…

         32 likes

    • vlad says:

      This is what turns on beeboids…

      ugly-michelle.jpg

         40 likes

  17. Doublethinker says:

    I watched two BBC productions , both made some years ago, repeated to mark the 100th anniversary of the founding of the RAF. The first one had Dan and Peter Snow as presenters and focused on the Battle of Britain . Although there was plenty of mention of the Luftwaffe bombing London , destroying homes and killing civilians in the process there was no mention of it being a deliberate policy of terror bombing or a war crime.
    The second film was presented by the McGregor brothers and was about the RAF bomber offensive against Germany. Plenty of time in this film was devoted to questioning the morality of bombing civilians and destroying their homes and of course the issue of whether it was a war crime was debated.
    What a contrast, the Luftwaffe bombs Britain and no mention of war crimes, we retaliate , albeit eventually on a much greater scale, and the BBC are telling the viewers that it was a war crime. Anything to Bash Britain by the foul BBC.
    By the way my own view is that in a total war such as the Second World War munitions, oil, food etc are key and destroying the means of their production is legitimate . If to do so it is necessary to cause large amounts of collateral damage because of the limited technology available and this kills civilians it is to be regretted but it isn’t a war crime. If the Getmans had wanted to they could have evacuated their major cities of all unnecessary workers but chose not to.

       56 likes

    • Pounce says:

      That mindset has taken root, a number of years ago the Sgts mess I belonged to adopted an old people’s home. For their Christmas dinner we would in uniform served them all. One old bloke took me to one side and apologised for what his country had done to mine. I told him I was born here.mind you that was nothing compared to the old dears who would grab your arse as you walked by and try and catch a snog.

         28 likes

    • scribblingscribe says:

      When Henning Wehn made caustic remarks about the British bombing of Dresden on Radio 4’s The Unbelievable truth, David Mitchel shut him up with “Yes, it was a shame we had to do it.” It got a round os applause from a BBC audience!

      Its interesting that Hollywood has produced 2 movies in last 12 months celebrating the British heroism in standing up to the Germans when all of Europe buckled. One about Churchill and one about Dunkirk.

      While the despicable BBC cannot bring itself to do one single program that praises the British for their sacrifice and heroism. Bastards.

         74 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        The life expectancy of a young RFC pilot was mentioned in Dan Snow’s R4 WW1 daily thing at 1.45 – 2pm.

        Reminded me of the short average lives of WW2 bomber crews … overlooked by the BBC on R4, somewhat, during their 70th Anniversary coverage of 1944.

           26 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          Snuff – Young Dan probably, by far prefers talking about WW1, RFC – perfect for a liberal historical revisionist – you know “Lions led by Donkeys” and all that stuff far easier to preach to us about what happened – no one to question him cos they’re all dead.

          These bastards are always economical with the truth when it comes to talking about the Bomber Command campaign. Its all a bit embarrassing really because on many occasions we did deliberately drop bombs on civilians.

          This of course probably in the eyes of Dan and his friends is a despicable war crime.

          What these revisionist twats however forget is the context of the times.

          1. For quite a while Britain was on its own. With the “Cheese eating surrender monkeys” doing their thing and the US Ambassador Kennedy sowing doom and gloom about our ability to resist. Consequently – America (in a very Sharia May sort of way) decided to sit on the fence for a bit and see which way the wind was blowing.

          2. We already had, had large areas of London and other cities flattened by the Luftwaffe in the Blitz and our commerce devastated by the U boats we therefore needed to demonstrate to our own people we could hit back. Hey Dan could the torpedoing of merchant vessels be considered a war crime?

          3. The Germans were the first to start deliberately bombing civilians (ie Guernica) but this always seems to become forgotten. All the liberal revisionists want to talk about is Cologne and Dresden. From the comfort of an academic seat over seventy years later it is always easy to forget we were at total war with an enemy who thought nothing about gassing over 6 million Jews. And remember all of them were “just following orders”.

          4. For total war we needed a very single minded Commander. And in this we had in Arthur “Butch” Harris. Whilst he made a number of serious of tactical errors (and probably not recognising the importance of the destruction of the Ploesti oilfields being the worst of them). We needed someone who could inspire his crews to make the sacrifices needed to do this unpleasant work. And as Bomber Harris said it was the Germans who sowed the wind and now they must reap the whirlwind.

          Not very politically correct I know – but such is the nature of war. When you are in the thick of it where do you draw the line……….

          I have never held any sort of proper gun in my life and therefore my understanding of military matters is limited. However my Dad flew in Bomber Command in the later war years and felt very keenly the rejection of much of the sacrifice of members of Bomber Command because the liberal revisionists idea of what warfare is does not concur with the reality.

          It is no surprise that in many cases these are the self same people who think that all unrestricted immigration is great. The EU is a force for good. All policing should be of the politically correct type and of course Islam presents no threat to our society.

          Why am I not surprised?

             35 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            Oak, I agree.

            The result of that bombing of Germany was awful – no way of escaping that – but had it not been done by extremely courageous crews flying for a visionary leader, Harris, who himself had guts in the face of opposition in his day and a respect for his men and the ability to inspire them to go on in the face of death, then there may have been no guarantee, even likelihood, chance perhaps, of winning that war. It was awful in the same way that sacrificing Coventry & Bristol and some other cities to German bomber raids in the short term was necessary to gain a strategic advantage that would save other lives and bring a conflict to a speedier conclusion.

            I have not served in the military but as a child I took a great interest in the flying side of WW1 & WW2 as well as reading some history, as well as fiction, about it. Those Bomber Command crews & their Chief deserve to be lionised just as much as The Few have been for their part in the Battle for Britain.

            My parents were bombed, night after night, during the Blitz and then faced V1 & V2 attacks. My father did Fire Watch duty after a day working in a reserved occupation that effectively kept a chunk of the war effort going. They would occasionally tell the stories of what it was to wake to a siren, drag yourself to a shelter and then try to sleep again while knowing that the shelter was no protection from a direct or adjacent hit.

            Although London never fully suffered fire storms on a scale equivalent to Hamburg and Dresden, they did occur and for those caught up in them, they were just as deadly.

            The nature of war? If “Politics is foul” according to Churchill in his ‘Wilderness Years’, then ‘War is Hell’ for those caught up in it.

            Interestingly, in his History of the Second World War, if I recall correctly, Churchill recounts how – before Harris was put in charge of Bomber Command – that he, Churchill, occasionally had to almost grab some of his military chiefs and knock their heads together to get them to see sense and get the right things done.

            It has always puzzled me that, when Putin made his first serious moves in the Syria conflict in support of Assad, Western nations did not swing in behind him and say “Let’s finish this fighting and together drive the combatant groups to the negotiating table.”. Especially so after those two UN Inspections of President Assad’s weapon & chemical component stocks.

            They instead kept bringing up the divisive (diversionary?) ‘Assad must go first’ chorus.

            Blessed are the peacemakers.

               9 likes

            • Oaknash says:

              Totally agree Snuff – And Putin (personally unpleasant though he may be) posses the one thing that none of our Western leaders possess – A single minded approach to war and a complete lack of squeamishness when it comes to getting the job done.

              They always say that in war you need to have clear objectives and I believe we have none.

                 4 likes

            • Pounce says:

              Oaknash wrote:
              The Germans were the first to start deliberately bombing civilians.(ie Guernica)

              Actually the Zeppelin raids of WW1 again the UK have that infamous honour. As they bombed indiscriminately they were named ‘Baby killers’ Ironically for the Germans, the ability to wander over to the UK and bomb away, led to the formation of the RAF and the defence organisation developed by the British was an important precursor of the fighter direction system that would prove vital in winning the Battle of Britain.

                 8 likes

              • Oaknash says:

                Too true Pounce – I once had a few pints at the Leif Erickson in Harrow (named after the 1st RFC pilot to shoot one down)

                   2 likes

                • Up2snuff says:

                  Oak, think you mean ‘the Leefe Robinson’, named after Flt Cdr William Leefe Robinson VC but can understand the confusion. I have stood at the memorial in Cuffley where the airship that he shot down crashed.

                  I also seem to recall (helped by Wiki) that toward the end of WW1 large German bombers, the Gotha, and other craft (seaplanes) were also bombing here. I have a dim memory of a German bomber called the Hannover but cannot find any reference to it so far. May be a fiction from the Biggles books.

                  In the BBC factionalised Radio4 series based in Folkestone they refered to these bombing raids on the UK mainland. Haven’t listened to the whole thing. Found some BBC 21stC political correctness elsewhere on radio about WW1 rather off-putting.

                     1 likes

                  • Oaknash says:

                    Snuff – oi stand corrected. I probably tried to forget it, as the pub lacked character and the beer was crap.

                       0 likes

    • Nibor says:

      In a long war , the scientists and technicians of both sides are trying to make better and newer weapons to defeat the enemy . If the war is protracted over years , the capacity for death and destruction is far greater at the end than at the beginning and the losing side would have a worse time of it .

         13 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        The second contradiction from the BBC, Nibor, is actually centred on the very good point you make.

        We have been told that New Things/Newcomers chemical weapons are exclusively Russian and are ‘NEW’, dating from the 1980s onwards.

        We have also been told that they are organophosphates. That rang an alarm bell in my mind, so I did a little journalistic research (BBC, please note: journalism, research go together like horse and carriage, love and marriage, etc.) also on that last week.

        Organophosphates are not new and are not exclusively Russian. They are not even exclusively Russian when used as chemical weapons. They have been around for a long time and were, if I recall correctly from my research, were first tried for weapon creation by German chemists and probably followed equally quickly in the military-industrial complexes of Scandinavia and Britain during the last years of WW1. The Germans were, I think, still researching them in the 1920s when the first chemical weapon treaty was mooted and then effected in a specific Geneva Convention. 1923 is the date still echoing in my brain.

        The men in white coats who visited in a van last week after I posted too much on the Skripals were not nurses with a special jacket for me. Didn’t say who they were. Instead, they asked me lots of questions about Pippa Greenwood and Bob Flowerdew and hurried away.

        Skripal poisoning: suspects?

        Maybe add Eric Robson plus those two above, together with their colleagues on GQT, to the list.

           4 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Nibor
        As time distances matters ww2 will be seen as a race for the bomb. If the krauts had got it first they’d have used it to blackmail us for a deal. The bomber command crews should be proud of doing their duty and we for ever grateful

        As for dan snow – a. Man whose grandfather was a murdering Great War general .a c—t

           2 likes

    • imaynotalwaysloveyou says:

      To stop or deter invasions you need to eventually load up weapons with live rounds and have the intention to fire them.

      I can’t see that happening in the UK anymore, it’s not a good sign when your navy is helping bringing the buggers in!

         21 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Just like the Gaza border, where that utter tool of an anchor had his arse handed him for suggesting the hordes are allowed to overrun like idiot EUmonkeys do.

           15 likes

  18. Guest Who says:

    https://twitter.com/alan_tidy/status/982913726616670209?s=21

    Yes. And that would be the ex-Economics Editor of the bbc Newsnight programme he is referring to.

    Never go full Mason.

       37 likes

    • The Sage says:

      Are you referring to the failed music teacher and Marxist whom the BBC chose, somewhat bizarrely, as its Newsnight economics editor?

         12 likes

  19. fakenewswatcher says:

    The past is past. We can do nothing to change it. But the future we can still make a noise about. I gather that the new Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces, Sir Nick Carter, is a PC man all the way. It’s all going to be about ‘inclusivity’ and ‘diversity’ and other PC pet projects.
    In other words, the army’s going to be stuffed up the way the police have been stuffed up….
    I hope we don’t get attacked by San Marino or someone…

       36 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    Fingernails all gone in the Hill household?

       21 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Then again Horsey, it may not.

         27 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      One awaits the result with interest.

         16 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Looks like Jenny from da hill has called it.

      Does the bbc have a Wishful Thinking Editor?

         12 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      fnw & Guest, better not be in the British military with Carter in charge. The Army like painting things if they do not move and they cannot salute them, so it will probably be the fingernails that get painted first.

         2 likes

    • lojolondon says:

      Lovely to see the Biased BBC watching something happening and looking totally the wrong way, once again – Brexit, Trump, “Global Warming”. etc.

         2 likes

  21. Tabs says:

    Watched a bit of BBC1 ‘Big Question’ this morning. I always wonder how the front row people get invited onto the show to speak. They are not household names and often have obscure job titles.

    One lady today, Sara Hyde, is a “criminal justice consultant”. That got me thinking how does she make a living so a bit of Googling shows she worked in theatre, HMP Holloway then managed “holistic support services for women”.

    It goes on… feminist campaigner, selected as a council candidate in Caledonian ward for May 2018 elections, Labour List candidate for the London Assembly in 2016 and a parliamentary candidate in the 2017 General Election, Vice Chair of Fabian Women’s Network, patron of a domestic abuse charity.

    Then it begins to make more sense…
    She was part of the inaugural Jo Cox Women in Leadership cohort. Her twitter account @sarakhyde shows she is a Labour doorstep campaigner, Sadiq Khan supporter, anti Tory, and also retweets “hands off the hijab” protests. There are Google search images of her and Corbyn together.

    Not such a carefully chosen audience as the BBC like us to believe. Either that or they deliberately choose a job title to hide the real activities of that person.

       77 likes

    • G says:

      Tabs,
      Long Live The Internet!! (for now…………)

         32 likes

    • Beeb Brother says:

      They should call it ‘The Big Answers.’ With political correctness we already know what the truth is from the outset.

         27 likes

    • Beeb Brother says:

      I applied to be on Question Time once and they asked a ridiculous number of questions. They stage manage these shows but try and make them look organic and representative of normal people when they are not.

      They had the chutzpah to warn of fake news! Their entire liberal house of cards requires so much deception to keep all their massive lies spinning at the same time.

      I wish they could record one of these current affairs programmes live with an audience selected by ballot. That really would be free, fair and impartial.

         51 likes

      • Ian Rushlow says:

        “I applied to be on Question Time…”
        Ah, well there’s your problem, BB. You don’t apply to be on Question Time, you get invited. Join your local Labour Party, get involved in a couple of activist/advocacy groups, make friends with any of the Beeb-types or Beeb-partner types you invariably find there, and you’ll soon be on the invitation list!

           27 likes

    • imaynotalwaysloveyou says:

      You can be pretty sure that any ‘disinterested’ expert, consultant, or concerned ‘joe public’ being interviewed by the beeb is a left-wing stooge!

         30 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Tabs, I applaud your research. Well done – shows the BBC up for what it is not at present!

      You could say, however, that it was ‘a carefully chosen audience’ as far as the BBC’s favourite political line is concerned.

         11 likes

  22. Beeb Brother says:

    I have spoken often on here about the link between rap/grime music and gang culture. There was a good article in athe Times yesterday about ‘drill’ music videos posted by London gangs they have urged YouTube to take down, as they are all about stabbing rivals, criminality etc.

    In the videos they all seem to be having a great time: smoking drugs ostentatiously; making gun and knife signals; all shot during the day so clearly none of them have jobs and make a living through crime. They must also all feel such a sense of belonging being part of a ‘crew’, especially as most of them come from broken/fatherless families.

    Toynbee on Marr and countless others talk of ‘partnership’ and ‘counselling for mental health problems’ and ‘mentoring.’ They do not consider that this is a complete way of life and probably not such a bad one: darkly glamorous, they do not have to work and it probably pays immeasurably better than any job they could hope to get otherwise. God, who does not wish they did not have to work?

    I would love Toynbee to make an appearance during the filming of one of these terrifying ‘drill videos’ where they are wearing skull masks, waving knives around and boasting ferociously of all the mobiles they have stolen that week.

    “Excuse me, could you stop waving your guns around and put the crack pipes down for moment? I think you chaps have mental health problems and could do with some mentoring. Right, you with the shotgun, has anyone upset you with a microaggression recently?”

       48 likes

  23. BRISSLES says:

    Nice bit of detective work Tabs. Clearly the ‘extras’ behind the front row are picked from the canteen at the Beeb, as its such a diverse employer. Brief: sit there, try to look interested, but don’t say a word. Lunch afterwards.

       25 likes

  24. Foscari says:

    This website is “Biased BBC” so please excuse the
    seemingly utterly lack of importance of this bias .
    The BBC is utterly obsessed with Tiger Woods. When he started
    on his first round in the Masters. Every leader on the front page
    of the website told us how he was getting on, for half a day.
    The fact that he wasn’t doing very well was of no consequence.
    BUT just watch ” Shot of the Day” on today’s Golf page. We see
    the ball being holed from many crazy positions. BUT in the middle
    of this we see Toger Woods hit a good tee shot. The kind of shot
    you will see maybe at least one hundred times during a round
    during the Masters. What is this obsession or bias with Woods who
    was once a great player?

       36 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Returning sporting ‘has-beens’ have always made good copy. Remember how many times we witnessed the come back of boxers Joe Bugner, or Frank Bruno ?

      (Sporting snippet : A few years ago I was in the modest home of Ian Poulter’s father. On the wall was a huge signed photograph of his famous son. I found it amusing that he had written “To Dad, Ian Poulter”. Clearly his dad was not dementing, yet he found it necessary to write his name in full. )

         8 likes

    • lojolondon says:

      You clearly haven’t been paying atttention. DIVERSITY = good. Serial adulterer, perv, cheat, creep = unimportant.

         3 likes

  25. wronged says:

    I have a close relative who works in the Met police. He said the problem with the police who patrol the streets (the few), was that many of the those of whom they did not stop and search, the very aggressive known criminals was out of fear, yes I’ll say that again, out of fear. It is far easier for these police men/woman to get their stop and search figure on an easy target.
    The police need to man up a bit and not be so frightened of the agressors on our streets.
    This might explain the 92% figure of stop and search which yielded no knife handling.
    It might also explain the repeated stop and search of innocents.
    It is not good enough, as my relative said, the police officers are only human, WPC’s are not going to challenge a thug, given the choice they will stop and search an innocent. Why have the aggro’ when the CPS and courts don’t back you up anyway.
    Weak Theresa May only looked at the stop and search figure of 92%. She assumed the Met police officers were doing their job.

    His side of the argument is that he has witnessed his colleague arresting and charging a repeated known villain who regularly attacked people, drug dealer, resists arrest, attacked a policeman, vomited and smeared excretia in the back of a police van. He no longer gets sent to jail on the grounds of mental health. He is playing the system and getting sympathetic lefty judges to support him.

       46 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      You see a G reg Nissan down on its back axle full of likely lads, with no tax, MOT or insurance.

      And you see a pristine new Volvo, all docs ok, doing 56mph past a fallen temporary speed restriction sign on a dual carriageway.

      Who do you stop?

         29 likes

      • MartinW says:

        … or, indeed, a top-of-the range BMW driven by a bulky 20 year old Caribbean yardie, with all his mates on board ….

           23 likes

      • Rick Bradford says:

        Neither. That would be discrimination, according to the “progressives”.

        They will seize on anything which makes it harder to operate a functioning society.

        And they’ll always claim it has to do with diversity, inclusion and equity, 3 of the most dangerous words in the English language.

           14 likes

  26. ScottishCalvin says:

    Cartoon + News summary I did on London

       20 likes

  27. Sluff says:

    Just found this…
    The BBC has been accused of being ‘imperial in its ambitions’.
    The BBC website risks ‘crowding out’ daily newspapers and showed the BBC wanted to become ‘a national newspaper as well as a national broadcaster’.

    The quotes are from…..George Osborne !!!
    The article is from the Daily Mail on July 6 2015.

    Plus ca change, plus la meme chose.

       21 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      BBC revenge: they do not feature the Standard very often on their The Papers feature but they do include the Metro quite often.

         8 likes

  28. wronged says:

    Gender pay issue
    Should women police officers be paid the same as their male counterparts if they physically are not strong enought to tackle a male villain?
    Why do woman police officers always stand at the back of a police raid?

    Raising the number of women police officers at the expense of their male counterparts has had the effect of weakening our police service.
    Why aren’t more ex servicemen employed as police officers as they used to be. Instead we now employ weak lilly livered graduates who seemed scared of their own shadow.
    Do you feel safe in their hands, I don’t?

       50 likes

    • Beeb Brother says:

      Imagine if your family were in a burning building and a female member of the fire brigade turned up and lacked the physical prowess to do the job properly? It could cost lives. Men have on average 40% more upper body strength.

      It is like in the US when they employed a Somali man to be a police officer then he panicked and shot a woman dead as he so clearly was not up to the job.

      Political correctness has gone from beyond being a mere annoyance to being dangerous.

         47 likes

    • vlad says:

      Bang on, wronged, Beeb.

         16 likes

  29. StewGreen says:

    Enforced diversity : Where 50% of engineers/scientists/experts must be women etc. but no one is bothered about getting nurses or teachers, librarians to be 50% men.
    We have a European festival of hitch-hiking ..I just looked at the group photo ..pretty much all white (48 out of 50) ..not the 15% BME you’d expect from a bunch of libs
    But then people make their own FREE choices
    .. Just like I used to volunteer at lots green festivals and the only black people you’d see would be the reggae bands,
    Then you’d do Notting Hill Carnival and suddenly there’d be loads of blacks.

       21 likes

  30. Richard Pinder says:

    A French security expert, Paul Barril, who has had senior roles in internal security has come forward to reveal the existence of “Operation Beluga” A CIA-MI6 plot to discredit Putin and destabilize the Russian Federation.
    He is well known in France as “Superflic”, he was the second in command of the elite French special forces unit GIGN, and had other high ranking internal security positions in the French government.
    According to a Security Council report the Russian Federal Security Service was contacted by Yulia Skripal, who was preparing to return to Russia to marry a Russian security official, to ask if her father could return with her, and in exchange for his being allowed to do so, would, in turn, provide proof that MI6 had created the fake “Trump Dossier” in cooperation with the CIA. This presumably would reveal Sergei Skripal and MI6 agent Pablo Miller were working in Salisbury for Orbis Business Intelligence Ltd, with contacts with his former colleague, Christopher Steele, who payed for information that turned out to be lies, given to him for the money, creating the fake “Trump Dossier”
    Also the 2003 “dodgy dossier” shows that a clique of politicised senior officers in MI6 have provided information to Boris Johnson that has turned out to be lies. If Boris had looked on the internet he would have found out that he was being misinformed by MI6.
    They say that when it comes to the use of chemical weapons, the groupthink of MI6 officers is formed by a small Common Purpose cliché at Porton Down. These MI6 officers are pressurising the chief scientists at Porton Down to tell lies, and must have been the people who told Boris that it was proven that the Russians did it. The MI6 officers did not know the (OPCW) Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons rules, so only now at the beginning of April, did the OPCW visit the site in Russia in which MI6 say the Russians are making the nerve agent. Now its said that the MI6 officers concerned have ran off to the states to meet and talk with their counterparts in the CIA about what to do next. It looks like the Skripals could disappear from the Hospital with MI6 saying that they have been sent to America with new identities. There are also reports of a chemical weapons attack targeting a hospital in Douma, Syria. What next? I guess the cliché would need a chemical attack on New York leading to World War Three, to deflect attention from Salisbury, as well as to stop Brexit.

       17 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Richard, please can you ask your contact for his/her views about the organophosphate vs. new things/exclusively Russian contradiction.

         2 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        As far as I understand what Dr Robin Black said, we already knew that Porton Down would not be able to identify Russia or anyone else, because the two parts that make up the nerve agent used are obtained from common pesticides made all over the world, and mixed together. That’s how Novichok is designed not to be detectable. So Porton Down already knew that what’s left after the Novichoc breaks down cannot even be proven to be or have been Novichok. But I suppose they have proven that the residue is an organophosphate.

           4 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Thanks for that, Richard. Looks like the BBC have been ‘jumping to conclusions’ and ‘speculating’ although ‘some people’ might call it telling porkies!

          Maybe I’d better keep quiet about the GQTers in case it gives Putin ideas!

             0 likes

    • wronged says:

      Richard.
      Makes one wonder where the power behind the throne lies, not much surprises me these days.

         1 likes

  31. Richard Pinder says:

    This is the draft for a planned pamphlet to be delivered to every address in Britain, if they can get the money for it?

    Man-made Climate Change proven to be a Hoax

    Since 2009, many scientists have proven that Carbon Dioxide induced Climate Change is as President Trump has said “A Hoax”. In 2009 the scientist Gerhard Gerlich proved directly the “Falsification Of The Atmospheric CO2 Greenhouse Effects Within The Frame Of Physics“. Further confirmation of the carbon dioxide warming hoax was obtained through thermodynamics and successfully finding a formula that works for both of the carbon dioxide atmospheres of Venus and Mars, as well as all the other planetary atmospheres. In 2011, Ned Nikolov & Karl Zeller introduced the “Unified Theory of Climate” which proved that the temperature relationship with the altitudinal changes of pressure, prove that the physical nature of the so-called Greenhouse Effect is in fact a Pressure-induced Thermal Enhancement or Thermal Inertia which is independent of the atmospheric chemical composition. Ned Nikolov spoke at the London Climate Change Conference on Thursday, 8th September 2016 about this. By early 2018, the scientist who had just proven that Climate Change is caused by Galactic Cosmic Rays regulating the Earth’s Cloud Albedo, Professor Henrik Svensmark, was invited to speak in the Committee rooms of the Houses of Parliament on Tuesday, March 13, 2018. Also at this time Astronomers noticed that the Galactic Cosmic Ray intensity in the local proximity of the Earth-Moon system, was at its highest ever recorded level. In fact, for two hundred years, Astronomers from William Herschel onwards had known correlations between Climate Change and Sun Spot numbers, this was followed by more accurate correlations with Solar Cycle Length and then finally, the Hale Magnetic Solar Cycle. By 2018 it had been established that these correlations are caused by the speed of the centre of the Sun relative to the centre of mass or barycentre of the Solar System, which determines the length of the solar cycles, or more importantly the twenty-two year, two cycle, Hale Magnetic Solar Cycle. This in turn is caused by the orbits and masses of the Planets, short Hale Magnetic Solar Cycles have higher Solar Magnetic activity due to the increase in the speed of plasma within the Sun. Long Hale Magnetic Solar Cycles have lower Solar Magnetic activity. Between 1913 and 1996, only one of eight Solar Cycles was longer than the mean Solar Cycle length of 11.04 years, the last of these was the shortest Solar Cycle for more than 200 years, the strength of the Suns magnetic field more than doubled, the cosmic ray flux fell by 11 percent and there was a 8.6 percent reduction in clouds. This caused alarmism about Global Warming which lead the United Nations to set up the International Panel on Climate Change, but this organisation was corrupted by environmentalism, politics, conflicts of interest and the corruption of the scientific method, as well as the fact that amongst the 40,000 delegates at the 2015 Paris Summit of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Causational Climate Scientists did not dominate the debates that produced the agreement. This lead many Causational Climate scientists to call for the IPCC to be disbanded as well as to set up the 2016 London Climate Change Conference, which was dominated by Causational Climate scientists such as Atmospheric Physicists, Solar Astronomers and Meteorologists. This also resulted in the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, to end United States funding for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2017, and to say that man-made Climate Change is a “Hoax”.

       30 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Richard, it struck me this week that a specific change point in the Skripal Affair was reached this week. If the ‘status quo’ as set out by the PM and enlarged upon by the Foreign Secretary is questioned or doubted, then you are ‘an apologist for Putin’ and ‘on the side of Russia’ and are ‘spreading disinformation in a propaganda war’.

      There is an interesting parallel with Anthropogenic Global Warming and Climate Change.

      The pressure is on to ‘believe’.

         5 likes

      • - Wild - says:

        “If the ‘status quo’ [about the likely Russian source of the poison attack on the Skripal’s in Salisbury] as set out by the PM and enlarged upon by the Foreign Secretary is questioned or doubted, then you are ‘an apologist for Putin’.”

        In a word, yes.

           2 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Wild, in gullibles’ travels the rush to conclusions can merely be the wrong destination reached very quickly.

          Yes, the OPCW seem to require lots of time but in this instance would that not be worth it instead of having some serious minded people actually talking about a military conflict with Russia?

             1 likes

      • Richard Pinder says:

        “Man made Climate Change” and “Russia did it” both seem to be based on the idiotic process of finding a consensus of belief, and then pressurising people to follow the consensus by threatening to remove, retire or demote the scientists who do not believe. With the scientific method, you can be free from belief.

        With Climate Change it has taken ten years to prove (1) That it is not Carbon Dioxide, and (2) It is Solar induced Cloud Albedo changes.
        With the Skripal case, the only solid proof we have is that the Government has lied about were Novichok can be made.

        As regards “Likely”. It reminds me of this BBC complaint:

        “Surprisingly the most blatantly biased statement by the BBC said that “Anthropogenic Global Warming is a fact” the IPCC using an assumption says “very likely” and the BBC which claims to be impartial says “fact“. This also does not come from the Royal Society. This evidence proves that the BBC takes a more extremely Biased view than the IPCC or the Royal Society and conflicts with the BBC Trusts claim that impartiality is important”

           1 likes

    • RobRoy says:

      Richard, hope they also mention that the Climate Change Act costs each household nearly £500 a year, and the UK over £11 billion a year. And for what? I believe the total CO2 reduction in the UK would reduce world temps by a ridiculously small amount (around 0.05c I think), and that’s assuming CO2 influences temperatures.

         11 likes

  32. Thoughtful says:

    I’m surprised no one on these pages has mentioned the South American ‘Caravan’ and how it has been stopped in its tracks by the decisive actions of President Trump.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-us-canada-43673330/the-migrant-caravan-from-central-america-travelling-north

    The BBC have kept quite quiet about this, although other MSM have been their usual hysterical selves. Trump has declared that rape in the ‘caravan’ has been talking place at unprecedented levels (something like 80%) to cries of fake news and falsehood, odd though how they didn’t say that when it was Amnesty who said it or the Mexican President.

    Trump send a couple of army units to the border to make sure that the ‘caravan’ did not get to its objective – America, and as a result it has largely now disbanded.

    This is how an invasion of scroungers should be dealt with. Nipped in the bud and stopped dead miles before they even reached their objective. Compare it to the Left wing version of the EU and the utter capitulation of Angela Merkel.

    No wonder the BBC are so keen to supress this story and only show the side of it they find attractive.

       41 likes

  33. NISA says:

    And then my heart with pleasure filled when I heard a BBC radio interviewer cry “Stamp out the intruder”. A pity she was only referring to a cultivated variety that had grown in the midst of native daffodils in the Lake District.

       13 likes

  34. vlad says:

    Beeboid Quote of the Week: Sarah Montague, upon discovering she earned a slightly less obscene salary than her male colleagues for chatting on the radio now and then, was ‘incandescent with rage’, poor diddums:

    “I had been subsidising other people’s lifestyles”, she moans to the Sunday Times.

    NOW YOU KNOW HOW WE FEEL, SARAH!

       64 likes

    • vlad says:

      Here’s the little poppet showing off her tits for the lads.

      DOQRiYSX0AIhmuf.jpg

         17 likes

    • vlad says:

      Funny how these high-minded, moralistic sjw’s, who are paid good money to be permanently offended and support every modish cause going, only get really ‘incandescent’ when it touches them, and in particular their pocket. I don’t recall the bbc autocuties wearing t-shirts demanding justice for the thousands of muslim-abused girls across the land.

      (But put a drunken hand on their knee at a drunken party and all hell breaks lose. Rape, rape, they squeal.)

         44 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        Isn’t it amazing how some well-placed people in the media are able to disguise their efforts to increase their own pay packets with the cover of some social justice.

           31 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Vlad
      The thought of the Head Girls alarm clock going off at 3am for Toady – and the thought that her vo beeboids we’re getting more cash is very warning for me. The sad journo. Shall we have a whip?

      Shows how out of touch they are when compared to decent people who work for a living .

         11 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        “Warming “ not “warning” . Have selected ‘correct word ‘ on the dripdown this time .

           2 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        Fed:

        I agreee. If everyone who gave a toss could only put 50p into the collecting tin for poor Sarah, she’d soon have… an empty tin.

        Because she’s worth it.

           6 likes

  35. StewGreen says:

    £3.5bn of resources and BBC F1 pie charts use the SAME colours for different drivers


    Still on this page
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/43676388

       18 likes

    • vlad says:

      Gratifying to know our money is being well spent by the world’s most subsidised on its massive IT department and researchers.

      bbc09-6s9.jpg

      P.S. Is it just me or do others also feel sick whenever Big Brother Corp roll the footage of all their repulsive bling technology at the start of their ‘News’ programmes as the credits roll? All that money and equipment wasted in the service of Evil, yuk.

         37 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        #1 No one sane watches BBC News
        #2 That image looks like some kind of temple/shrine

           25 likes

        • vlad says:

          Yes, a shrine to Beelzebub or Shaytan.

             14 likes

          • BRISSLES says:

            What EXACTLY do all that lot we see as featured above in the newsroom actually do ? because they clearly aren’t worth their salary for the news that’s aired.

               5 likes

      • taffman says:

        Can anyone spot maxi?

           3 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Stew, they did a ‘Guide to the Teams for this F1 Season’ recently and I referenced it here with a little quiz.

      Don’t think anyone came up with an answer let alone the correct one which was that the BBC had forgotten to include the drivers’ names. Dedicated fans would no doubt recognise & name them all but for those without such interest or those who have lost it, it is pretty much essential. Bet the sponsors were delighted with the BBC!

      I suppose that could have been some AGW/CC wishful thinking from the BBC: an F1 Season with no drivers and the mechanics pushing the cars around for a lap of the track.

         2 likes

  36. Tabs says:

    Fake news alert! BBC News Channel at 2pm showed some people “running into the scene of an airstrike in Syria” and “these people are called the White Helmets”.

    Two points to note here…
    1. the people in the BBC video were not wearing any white helmets or uniforms whatsoever.
    2. White Helmets fake their rescue videos.

       26 likes

  37. pugnazious says:

    That complete liar Polly Toynbee was allowed to get away with murder as she blamed cuts in youth and mental health services for a rise in murders.

    Odd then that the number of murders is at a similar number to that in 2009 under Labour ….Marr decided not to point that out…he did mention though that Boris, in his infamous German TV interview, was in fact just saying that the nerve agent was Novichok and to that extent it wasn’t a slip but the Russians will aggressively dive straight in and exploit the slightest hint that they could work an angle on….as did Labour…thus helping the Russians. Why does the rest of the BBC not qualify its reporting with this line instead of pressing Corbyn’s claim that Boris misled and lied to the British Public, despite the fact he was actually talking to the German Public?

    Amusing to hear how nervous Marr is of the Labour Blackshirts who patrol the airwaves…he said he would ‘nervously and worriedly’ not stand up for Corbyn as he was acccused of being the Kremlin’s useful idiot…not much of a defence possible I might suggest.

    Marr also claimed that the Israelis were killing ‘lots of kids’ on the border….except of course they are ‘youths’…highly aggressive youths throwing rocks and molotov cocktails and attempting to invade Israel.

    Then we got onto Cambridge Analytica…. Marr didn’t do a bad job putting up relevant questions and points but the problem is nobody knows the truth until it has been fully examined by the relevant authorities and so it is a complete waste of time bringing on Wylie to make his sensational claims whilst we cannot judge the evidence for ourselves….and he is demanding the referendum be rerun on the basis of his dramatic claims.

    Zuckerberg himself tells us Facebook was as culpable as anyone…. ‘In 2013, a Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan created a personality quiz app. It was installed by around 300,000 people who shared their data as well as some of their friends’ data. Given the way our platform worked at the time this meant Kogan was able to access tens of millions of their friends’ data. ‘

    A Cambridge University press release about the project said ‘A new study conducted in collaboration with Facebook using anonymised data from the social networking site’…but who else has Kogan and other academics been working with as he praises so many?…‘ “Having the opportunity to work with companies like Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft and Google should be something that’s hugely exciting to the academic community.”’

    Wylie claims the US election and Brexit were won by the misuse of the, em, anonymised data…but Kogan says..
    ‘He also doubts it could have been useful. Kogan, who works at Cambridge University’s psychology department, said: “The accuracy of this data has been extremely exaggerated. In practice my best guess is that we were six times more likely to get everything wrong about a person as we were to get everything right about a person. I personally don’t think micro-targeting is an effective way to use such data sets.

    “It could have only hurt the campaign. What Cambridge Analytica has tried to sell is magic. And it made claims that this is incredibly accurate and it tells you everything there is to tell about you, but the reality is that it’s not that. If you really work through the statistics … those claims quickly fall apart.”’

    Here’s a question…if all data was anonymous…how could it be used to target people?
    ‘For the second study, the ‘global’, the team approached Facebook directly, who provided data on every friendship formed over the network in every country in the world at the national aggregate level for 2011. All data was anonymous. The dataset included over 57 billion friendships.’

    Here are Dominic Cummings’ own thoughts on the matter to present. Wylie comes across as completely untrustworthy.

       22 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      pug, Wylie claims the wrong thing for the EU Referendum. Young people on Facebook all voted Remain we are constantly told. Only the old voted Leave. The old were all ignorant, unlearned, uneducated and would certainly not use computers or be on Facebook.

      Surely Brexit won the EU Referendum IN SPITE of the Cambridge Analytica access to Facebook users’ data which turned out to be, in effect, useless. Had it worked as well as Wylie claims, then (300,000 x tens of millions + 17m) some 27 million+ would have voted to Leave the EU.

         15 likes

      • pugnazious says:

        It’s pretty much nonsense all this micro-targeting and psychographics….during the 2017 election I had Labour ads [targeted at their base and the ‘youthquakers’) coming at me on youtube and othertimes it’s been ads trying to dissuade me from becoming a jihadi suicide bomber…all based upon some of my youtube watching habits….and I’m least likely person to need such ads directed at me, never going to vote Corbyn, never going to submit to the religion of war….so obviously, at least in my case, their interpretation of what I watch and why was very wide of the mark.

        They also have a blanket approach…I watched a Jordan Peterson video on his thoughts about Islam and the first thing that came up was an attack ad about the EDL and how an EDL member had met a lovely Muslim and was now persuaded about the wrongs of his previous anti-Islam thoughts. So anyone who watches Jordan Peterson or videos on Islam is clearly being targeted by someone….government or Youtube or both in concert….Peterson is likely now marked as a extremist of some kind as is anyone who watches him.

           10 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Nobody makes anyone go on social media . And if you are stupid enough to put your personal life in it what does anyone expect?

      No face thingy for me or twittering. Anyone monitoring on this site can build up a picture of me – the swines would know I don’t watch question time and don’t have a fondness for beeboids .

      Maybe they’ll be off to court again to get the brexit vote declared void. Desperation .

         10 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        …Anyone monitoring on this site can build up a picture of me …..

        Ooooooooh, my imagination runs riot at the images I conjure up of you Feddy !!

           5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      It’s daft talking about the effect of Cambridge Analytica on Brexit via Facebook
      when the libEstab rig EVERY news bulletin &every current affairs show DAY IN, DAY OUT.

         9 likes

  38. StewGreen says:

    I saw Jonathon Dimbleby as a signatory to a Campaign to Protect Rural England letter in the Times the other day
    Bottle deposit plan would fix ‘dirty Britain’ 26 Mar 2018

    – Now I see BBC editorial Guidelines say
    “Regular BBC news presenters should not undertake promotions, *endorsements* or advertisements for any company, *outside organisation* or political party”
    ..Seems to me he broke that rule

       14 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Stew – the amount of low tax dividend he and his brother got out of their production company I’m sure he does want to protect it since he probably owns quite a bit of it. Wonder if he owns agricultural land with grants from the the EU.

      All comes down to self interest in the end

         12 likes

  39. Beltane says:

    There was a time when the sons of the rich and generally useless went in to the army, the church or the law in order of birth or precedence. Two World Wars changed things somewhat and it became advertising and PR, both equal in their reliance on human frailty and dishonesty, without making unduly onerous demands on acolytes whose understanding and appreciation of everyday life was inevitably limited.
    Now it appears ‘IT Science’ is what attracts society’s moths, although sexual ambiguity seems to play an equal part.

       10 likes

  40. G.W.F. says:

    Looks as if Putin and the Russian enemy have pulled a fast one over Smiley’s People. First , they let us think that they had used the most deadly poison known to man in an attempt to kill a spy in Salisbury.
    The UK bought it. Very likely, highly probable, Enough is enough.
    Then the victims recover and the UK look chumps for accusing the Russians of such a misdeed.

    Never mind, we will always have Syrian gas attacks

    30414901_2097324003879172_4387499020612796416_n.png?_nc_cat=0&oh=928c35940b50ec5dafcaa68f38f59771&oe=5B2D5A34

       14 likes

  41. Roland Deschain says:

    I see the “Germany van attack” story has now been updated.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-43687875

    It seems “the driver was “probably” a 48-year-old man from Munich”.

    Probably? The man they have may not be the driver? Or they haven’t managed to identify him yet? Seems unlikely to me, but maybe I’m just the suspicious type.

    But here’s the clincher. “The public broadcaster ZDF suggested he had links with far-right extremists, but said he was not known to be one himself.” Is it only me that thinks that’s just too convenient to be true?

       27 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Roland, if there’s any small comfort to be derived from the news then it is that the German health service is just as poor at dealing with mental health issues as the NHS and their police and judicial processes may be equally as deficient as ours are in the UK.

         14 likes

    • Tabs says:

      At the time of the incident there were reports of someone running away from the van but that seems to have been forgotten about now. If the shot man was innocent but provides a scapegoat for the authorities then it will be a “case closed and nothing to see here” event to add to all the others.

         9 likes

  42. StewGreen says:

    Countryfile : Any Immigrant and Remain promoting today ?
    No, not that I can see
    but they will be promoting veganism
    – “She then meets Michelle Anderson Carrol, a vegetarian who rears rare breed pigs for meat.
    ……..
    – Tom Heap takes a look at the rise in popularity of a vegan diet”

       9 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Country side – mud and blood but not on the sanitised al beeb.

         6 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Now Jack Monro (the non-binary) is on screen saying how good vegan is
      another BBC cheque for her/him ?

      Presenter Heap was wearing a sheepskin bodywarmer ..not very vegan

      I guess if you are white there is no point in sending in your tape for the Young Presenter competition,

         2 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        What is the difference between vegans and non-vegans ?
        Vegans are the one that’s cruel to humans.

        BTW the presenter was black, so they didn’t have an immigrant promotion item.

           2 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      They were promoting farm glass bottle milk
      “just a few pence more” the presenter said
      It’s difficult to find the price
      The Guardian said
      ” four-pint plastic bottle of semi-skimmed costs just £1.10 but in glass bottles from the milkman, the equivalent sets consumers back £2.72.”

         1 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        I’ve had milk delivered since the year dot – so all this plastic nonsense has passed me by, but I have kept the milkman in a job, and my fridge is full of glass jars. Instead of persecuting the consumer, the vitriol should be aimed at the manufacturers of everything that’s encased in plastic – from toys to door handles to remote controls to lampshades to everything we use in everyday life !

           3 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Bris – I’ve always had a theory that good in contact with plastic is affected by it but is hard to avoid . Glass containers are much healthier . Shame technology couldn’t be applied to provide cheaper lighter tougher glass to replace plastic.

          I don’t believe in global warning but do believe oil consumption should be reduced to fuck the Arabs

             4 likes

    • Holly Selassie says:

      Should that be Carrot Stew?

         0 likes

  43. thirdoption says:

    Lily Allen claims she has been sexually harassed and indicated she may be taking action against her tormentor

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-5589801/TALK-TOWN-says-Lily-Allen-reveals-sex-harassment.html

    My thoughts and prayers go out to her poor attacker. I hope he recovers.

       41 likes

    • Jeff says:

      “Lily Allen claims she has been sexually harassed…”
      Breaking news.
      Stevie Wonder has gone into hiding…

         22 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Jeff – she sure likes to be a victim poor darling . Who is she? What does she do? Is she on blue peter?

           13 likes

      • Some_People_are_Saying... says:

        He said he felt a bit of a tit but that’s all.

           11 likes

  44. Fedup2 says:

    Al beeb getting ready to either ignore the Hungarian election result ( if victor wins) or rub his nose in it if he doesn’t win.

    Apparently the polls can’t be trusted because a bit of conditioning has been going on to make people feel guilty about voting anti immigration . Heard that before somewhere ?

       22 likes

  45. Beeb Brother says:

    Why is the main news bulletin reporting on Peter Kay, accompanied with a plug for his BBC show? Total cop out. We do not pay £3.5 billion for celebrity gossip and plugs for BBC shows.

       17 likes

  46. Beeb Brother says:

    Why is the main news bulletin reporting on Peter Kay, accompanied with a plug for his BBC show? Total cop out. We do not pay £3.5 billion for celebrity gossip and plugs for BBC shows.

       5 likes

  47. Fedup2 says:

    Al beeb seems to love tiger woods . He’s American but you’d never know it. The uk golfers barely get a mention . Is it racism ?

       14 likes

  48. vlad says:

    Another day, another few stabbings in London, Leicester…

    Couldn’t find the Leicester one on Beeb webshite, maybe they’ve given up, like the police, unless it’s white-on-black, which it hardly ever is.

    So the beeb put on their serious, perplexed face and ask ‘why is it happening?’ Usual lefty stuff, austerity, cutbacks, but amongst all the guff, one comments is very off message: “I think it’s good that cuts mean community centres are closing, otherwise community centres would have more murders. Each community centre has a gang and they are going to attack each other.”

    Oh dear, so it’s not the cuts in services after all.

    All a bit disingenuous of the beeb after decades of mocking Englishness, courtesy, tradition, authority, role models; self-restraint; middle class values, morality and lifestyles; the family, the Church – in favour of unfettered social liberalism, post-modernism, cultural Marxism; everything edgy, radical, ‘street’, ethnic; endless ‘ground-breaking’ swearing, sex and violence on TV – look at us we’re so NOT Mary Whitehouse, ha ha, silly old prude.

    Chickens coming home to roost, beeb. You sowed the wind, enjoy the anarchic whirlwind.

    It’s a hard rain’s a gonna fall.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43654831

       31 likes

  49. Pounce says:

    Untitled-1.jpg

       64 likes

  50. pugnazious says:

    The Sunday Times is reporting this:
    ‘Mass migration has pushed up house prices by 20 per cent, the housing minister has confirmed, admitting the link between open borders and soaring property prices.

    Data from the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government (MHCLG) drawn from Office of National Statistics (ONS) data shows that house prices have risen by a fifth over the past 25 years as a result of immigration, said Dominic Raab.’

    Don’t see anything on the Beeb website despite an obviously important story…considering the BBC is always on about the poor old Millenials who have been squeezed out of the housing market by high prices.
    They do report on Sarah montague’s incandescent rage at her gender pay gap, also in the Sunday Times [odd what catches the BBC’s attention and what doesn’t]…and note she has been not been a full BBC employee for 20 years as the BBC encouraged her, and so many others, to use a personal company as a vehicle to pay her…and to allow the BBC to avoid tax, NI payments and pension and holiday liabilities of course….

    ‘When I joined the BBC more than 20 years ago I was told to set up a company, which means I haven’t taken a penny in benefits or accrued any pension. Because of that, the pay gap will last my lifetime.’

       27 likes

    • crist says:

      So having agreed to participate in the BBC tax dodging scam, she failed to make any personal pension provision, presumably preferring to spend her cash instead. Still as the wife of a wealthy old Etonian businessman, Sir Christoper Brooke, I doubt she’ll be subsisting on beans on toast in her dotage, even give her meagre earnings. However Lady Brooke, to use her formal title, should probably not apply for any future broadcasting role involving financial advice as it clearly isn’t her forte, despite an earlier career in the city #poshwomensproblems

         17 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Crist
        I am shocked that the head girl is actually Lady Brooke – if ever there was an example of how disconnected to the listener a beeboid would be is some one called lady Brooke .

        It’s almost as surprising as a socialist shadow foreign sec called Lady Nugee.

           4 likes

    • countryblues says:

      I’d have thought mass migration would lower house prices in areas where it occurs and push prices up in areas that it was yet to reach…or is that illogical? 🙁

         13 likes

    • Holly Selassie says:

      Is there a helpline I can ring to pledge her some money? Am happy to swim with dolphins somewhere nice for a few weeks if it helps poor Sarah make ends meet?
      Dare we lose this talent?
      Lady Nugee-Brooke Appeal.

         5 likes