Start the Week Thread 30 March 2020

From the 1st April the biased BBC licence fee rises to £157.50 Per year . A well chosen day . I’m sure – to celebrate – those those highly paid lefties employed by the BBC and currently doing nothing as a result of the Chinese Virus – will be donating their huge wages to the NHS .Right ?

The formal consultation on compulsory funding of the BBC ends at 5pm on the 1st April 2020 . Anyone can make a submission.

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468 Responses to Start the Week Thread 30 March 2020

  1. Grumbler says:

    Very interesting stat on the excellent worldometers site this morning.
    UK has only 165 “serious or critical” Covid patients.
    Surely not overwhelming the NHS?

    I’m getting very sceptical of the way all this is being presented.
    For instance Spain 94000 cases and 8000 deaths. Germany 67000 and 650 deaths. Assuming reasonably comparable health services this can only be a definition of cause of death discrepancy. Dying of (Germany) or dying with (Spain).

       33 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Grumbler – that is an interesting stat if correct. Not heard it on the BBC

         2 likes

  2. BRISSLES says:

    Continual headlines about the lack of PPE for health workers. Well, I’m sure there are boxes of the stuff being shifted out, but the Government cant simply conjure up whats needed at the drop of a hat. Clearly unless they have run out of stocks, then they must be shipped over from China which all takes time, so what the hell are the media AND medical staff thinking about ? surely they must realise that the government aren’t deliberately sitting or hiding equipment and protective gear.

       26 likes

  3. G says:

    Yes, yes! Scrap the Human (Bliar) Rights Act 1998 and let’s get back to sanity!
    https://www.civitas.org.uk/publications/rebalancing-the-british-constitution/

       18 likes

  4. chancygardner says:

    Ok, so an update from rural Portugal on how to live in a field. I offer this as both a snippet from my forthcoming book ‘How to live in field’ and as an antidote to the tired BBC, ‘if only we could save the planet by hugging a terrorist’ documentary. You can listen to some plinky plonky music while reading it, if you so wish and I promise I won’t make you feel terrible because you live on the same planet as a coal-burning power station in China.

    No ladies, gentlemen and maximustrollus, this is about the Milk Thistle! Yes, I’m sure you are as surprised as I was that this sharp character is full of nourishment from its leaves down to its roots and I am truly enriched by having found a number of young plants in this field.

    Don’t believe me? Check out the internet for this plant. I imagine vegans everywhere, in the same way that I would eat curry for breakfast, dinner and tea, do the same with this plant. That might explain why so many have such a spiky nature.

    More news to come after I have replaced all the products currently in motorhome larder with pickled stems and crushed seed heads.

    Yummy!

       18 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      chancy, I feel obligated to mention a book by Fergus the Forager at this point (to whom I have no personal or commercial connection apart from Kent Wildlife Trust offering very expensive courses to people which I declined) which helps folk understand the foodstuffs available in the great outdoors.

      Maybe the feeling will pass … but wild garlic got a mention on, I think, last Saturday’s TOADY.

         13 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        We’ve got more wild garlic growing in our garden than in the whole of Western Civilisation.

        I usually strim it after the flowers subside, as they look quite nice next to the rusty buckets and piles of scrap metal, gleaned from the roads here that KCC cleverly ignore.

        We don’t eat it as the dog wees all over it…

           15 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Scrobie, I love garlic and would either stop dog weeing on it or wash it several times and find a way of preserving, probably by roasting. You can buy roasted, minced, garlic in jars now. Handy cheat for lazy cooks.

          Who? Me?

          I could not possibly comment.

             5 likes

          • Scroblene says:

            It’s actually just the flowers. Up…

            The corms are tiny really, although like you say, we’re fierce gardeners and should use them even though it means that the garden gets ploughed up even more – it has actually been doubled, as we’re due to plant about sixty tomato plants everywhere, mainly to avoid late blight, as it’s the turn of yet another scourge like that this year!

            If this was a gardening forum, I’d be on it like a shot, as they get bored to tears on the normal one I inhabit, luckily with more humour than anything BBC…

               4 likes

        • chancygardner says:

          I love food for free. That Ramsons plant that grows around April and May in woodlands s so easy and smells of garlic. Just pluck off a few leaves and chuck them in a salad. Best to avoid doing this in Scroblene’s back garden though, by all accounts.

             9 likes

          • Scroblene says:

            You should see my special Comfrey bed, Chancers!

            Delightful flowers and leaves which are probably the best free plant food in the world!

            And it helps broken legs too…

               3 likes

            • Scroblene says:

              Just to add to all this, we do use some wild garlic leaves, but as I also plant several hundred garlic chives, normal chives and several trays of quick salad, lambs lettuce, rocket etc. leaves every year, we never run out…

              I was just trying to bring some levity into what is becoming a moan-fest brought on by the MSM and especially the BBC!

              But I will instruct JRT to widdle elsewhere..;0)

                 4 likes

  5. Celtic_Mist says:

    According to Wikipedia (not the most reliable) nevertheless –

    “McEwan followed Nutshell in April 2019 with the alternate history/science fiction novel Machines Like Me. Machines Like Me concerns artificial intelligence and an alternate history in which Great Britain loses the Falklands War and the Labour Party, led by Tony Benn, eventually wins the 1987 General Election”

    Other trivia

    “In 2002, McEwan discovered that he had a brother who had been given up for adoption during the Second World War; the story became public in 2007.[67] The brother, a bricklayer named David Sharp, was born six years earlier than McEwan, when their mother was married to a different man..

       10 likes

  6. Scroblene says:

    I sincerely hope that all those companies set up by BBC slebs and sports reporters are not going to get any handouts from HM Government!

    As there’s no sport anywhere, presumably Lineker and Co can at least donate some of their eye-watering money back to help the NHS, or even Scroblene Inc., an offshore company dealing in various commodities not unconnected with the 45% ABV drinks industry…

       28 likes

  7. StewGreen says:

    Vine :

    I’d like to think the lefty commenters saying Corbyn is a god , are being sarcastic
    .. but they are not.

       46 likes

  8. G.W.F. says:

    I believe she died in the first 20 minutes of the film, so maybe she is not the best person to teach us how to wash our hands

       21 likes

  9. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    Megha Mohan is one of the BBC’s “Gender and identity” correspondents. Here she has produced an anti-India feature article for the BBC news front page. (The BBC are anti Hindu India and pro Islamic Pakistan).
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52063755

    Britain has been changing and it comes from the same source that that saw the Ministry for Women being set up at the heart of the UK government in May 1997. That has since been renamed the Ministry for Women and Equality. That is why Islamophobia is now considered a hate crime in the eyes of UK law.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minister_for_Women_and_Equalities

       17 likes

  10. Kaiser says:

    the aussies are getting angry

       16 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Kaiser -how can Sky Australia produce straight talking stuff like this excellent 12 minutes but Sky UK behave like the woke snowflake soppy BBC ?
      How did it happen ?

         8 likes

  11. StewGreen says:

    8:45am Radio Lincolnshire : BBC disinformation correspondent Mariana spoke

    13:10pm Radio2 Damien Collins MP : repeating almost the same words

    Dr Sara then spoke, misrepresenting as if all skeptics are “conspiracy theorists”

       12 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Dr Sara Jarvis then said “a 21 year girl old died of Covid19”
      .. as we know the Guardian on Friday ran an article saying that she’d never been tested
      .. then later suspended that article ..so we still don’t know the truth

         23 likes

      • Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

        The BBC ran the story on their news front page. The story was based on nothing more than the family’s facebook page. Later the hospital denied it had anything to do with Covid19 – the death wasn’t registered as being due to Covid19. It may be due to unknown causes but not Covid19.

           18 likes

      • JamesArthur says:

        Why does anyone believe Dr Sara big head knows any more about cases than the general public with access to the internet?

           4 likes

  12. Venutius says:

    Totally agree. Unless you’re ‘an expert’ your opinion has no validity. It’s an increasing sentiment across the BBC and wider media, and it’s dangerous.

    They tried the same intellectual arrogance with Brexit, “You simply don’t understand the intricacies of the EU” …therefore your opinion is less than mine. You’re stupid, shut up basically.

    Interestingly, Maajid Nawaz hosts a weekend show radio show on LBC taking precisely this position. He epitomises intellectual arrogance. Every caller with no academic credentials is shouted down. ‘What qualifications do you hold?’ He asks. ‘Are you saying the experts are wrong and you are right?’…I listen only out of academic interest (ironically).

    My personal feeling is the ‘experts’ on the current ‘Kung Flu’ are simply a ‘get out’ for weak dithering politicians. Every day they parrot…”We are just following the science,” “We must all stay indoors to save the world” …..ad nauseum. We all see the scientists at 5pm everyday. We assume they know better than we do. We then follow like sheep.

    The problem is we never 100% follow medical advice for everything. We place it in the ‘mix’, give it due, courteous consideration and make personal informed decisions. Alcohol is a perfect example.

    We also see the policy inconsistencies. Dog walkers arrested or police cars swerving to intercept the elderly for the crime of shopping. At the same time, planes have continued (and still continue) from infected countries. Trains arrive from flu ridden Paris everyday. The tubes are full.

    For me the BBC and the Government are just weak. A very dangerous combination.

    They had no backbone to shut our borders when it mattered (early March), scared of the economic and lefty political backlash. They had no balls or vigilance to temp test and quarantine every UK arrival at the very beginning, and no forethought to buy what’s necessary for the worst case (test kits/ventilators etc). Now we’re in the Sh@t and the resulting lockdown is just a humongous ‘expert safety blanket’ designed to protect Them.

    Well, the government and the BBC are all now prisoners to ‘experts’ and your freedom has gone. Let’s see what happens when the Kung flu cases just continue, Easter comes and the sun starts to shine. How compliant will the sheep be then? God help us all.

       28 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      V, “Totally agree. Unless you’re ‘an expert’ your opinion has no validity. It’s an increasing sentiment across the BBC and wider media, and it’s dangerous.”

      Well, you could always say “So” a lot, usually at the start of your first and any succeeding answers you provide to Presenters’ questions. If you have a bit of a transgender moment as well and can present as female, that may also help turn you into an ‘expert’.

      Definition of expert:
      Ex = has been
      Spurt = drip under pressure

         18 likes

  13. Oldspeaker says:

    Whole load of forumites at a loose end hanging around like a box full of Linekers. Going to be a real goal mouth scramble for first slot on the mid week.

       10 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Old
      The next thread must adhere to the tradition of the day – despite brexit – sorry despite covid ….. all this indoors stuff has generated comments / discussions long way away from the Bias of the BBC – and the comment by Scrob earlier including the detail that his dog wee s on the wild garlic in the garden must lead the way …..

         13 likes

      • Oldspeaker says:

        Your right, it’s more than ever a sanctuary from msm madness. Been watching RT as an alternative, interview raised the BBC hobby horse of ppe. Interviewee is speaking from an American point of view but raised the issue about strict regulation to prevent the stockpiling of medical ppe. Made me wonder if Lean or similar has a hand in the NHS situation, probably never find out as it’s an unlikely question to be asked.

           7 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Olds, you do find Best Before dates and Use By dates on some very strange things. I understand from ‘a contact’ that in the NHS stuff that would still be usable gets chucked in a skip because of those dates.

          Even if still safe to use when examined critically by someone with a brain & some experience.

             10 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Thanks Fed, I’ll tell her…

           3 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Olds, brilliant post.

      Post, not back of net.

      Still LOL x 10, though. 🙂

         3 likes

  14. john in cheshire says:

    Neil Ferguson, Imperial College, modeller. His advice caused millions of animals to be slaughtered during the BSE situation.

    Modelled the effects of the China virus and concluded half a million of us would die. Has a strong influence on government policy and helped persuade our country into lockdown. Then ‘conceded’ he’d made a mistake and revised his fake figures down to a lower fake figure of 20,000.

    What a great example of an expert he is:

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/imperial-college-scientist-who-predicted-500k-coronavirus-deaths-in-uk-revises-to-20k-or-less

    Edit: Sorry, Fedup2, despite covid!

       20 likes

  15. The Sage says:

    Now the government (via the BBC) is lying about the death figures (a kind of China in reverse):
    The spokesman said: “The PM said the rising death toll in recent days showed the vital importance of the public continuing to stick to the social distancing guidance which has been put in place by the government, based on scientific and medical advice.”

    But the death toll has been going down!!!!!!
    As mentioned earlier here, it has fallen for the last three days and pretty dramatically. Of course, it may well go up again today and I am not arguing that it won’t.

       17 likes

  16. Celtic_Mist says:

    Thinking out loud – can’t find the BBC FAQ

    “One of our staff [in GP practice] has tested positive for the virus. We’ve all been in contact with him and this is a new concern as we still have to carry on in the environment where he was working”

    Thoughts?

       7 likes

    • Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

      Everyone in contact with him have to go in self-isolation unless they are tested negative for it. The surfaces of his office / workplace need to be disinfected – or at least the same cleaning practices adopted that are used when caring for someone with the virus.

         10 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      Isn’t the correct response to put all of the racist far-left bbc into quarantine until further notice and to disconnect so their hive members from internet access and mobile phone signal?

      It won’t affect the outcome of the China virus situation but it will reduce fake news and irrational behaviour almost to nothing.

         23 likes

  17. digg says:

    Snarls from the holy trinity BBC, Guardian and Independent concerning Trump committing the ultimate blasphemy by saying that a lady Democrat governor (who happens to be black) is useless.

    And this just because she is useless.

    The scoundrel!

       31 likes

  18. StewGreen says:

    BTW I spot a journo being told not to do stories about how many Covid19 cases originate in hospitals
    “I think you have to be careful of raising doubts in peoples mind about hospitals.
    It may be headlines, but it is alarmist, it causes panic.

       12 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Stew, did you note that ‘1 in 4 hospital doctors ‘off sick’ mention’ by someone on a main R4 News Prog. Think it may have been TWatO or TWiT @10pm. I should have noted it down.

         9 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Yes I did actually here that on the local news TODAY
        .. and thought ‘That breaks the too wow to be true rule”

        Mostly I isolate myself from Radio4 news

           14 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          V. wise, Stew, v. wise. I hit the off-switch several times on TWatO but couldn’t resist turning back on to see if they had gone sensible. Unfortunately, no, so off-switch activated for last time before halfway mark.

          I like to think Doctors would not pull a sickie at a time like this. I like to think almost all Nurses would not pull a sickie at a time like this. But I suspect that figure may have been a damp finger in the wind estimate or applied only to one hospital in a Trust or area but had been assumed to be true of all.

          As you say, too Wow to be true.

             7 likes

          • StewGreen says:

            @Up2Snuff re One In Four
            Sky made the claim
            “.Around a quarter of NHS doctors are off work because they are sick or in isolation, the head of the Royal College of Physicians has said.
            Professor Andrew Goddard warned the level of illness and self-isolation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic was already seriously affecting emergency departments”

            Is that backed by hard evidence ?
            ..nope not fully

            “Two official sources told Sky News on Monday night that across the NHS in England, which has 1.3 million full-time equivalent staff, about 10 percent of workers are currently absent due to symptoms, a member of the household isolating or other non-COVID-19 related absenteeism”
            (I guess as ever some docs are off , cos of sex charges)

            https://news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-one-in-four-nhs-doctors-sick-or-in-isolation-11965886

               6 likes

            • StewGreen says:

              BBC had a paragraph a couple of days ago buried away

              Prof Andrew Goddard, the head of the Royal College of Physicians, said “about one in four” of its workforce was currently off work, either with symptoms or isolating because family members have symptoms.

              “I’ve got lots of colleagues sitting at home… They themselves don’t have symptoms and are chomping at the bit to try and get back to work,” he said, adding that widespread testing would mean staff who are well can return to work.

                 3 likes

  19. JimS says:

    Not only do experts on a given subject sometimes have different opinions there is always a conflict of interests in the real world.

    Education experts might all agree that more money should be spent on education, medical experts agree that more money should be spent on health and defence experts that more money should be spent on the army but someone has to determine how to apportion finite resources.

    Of course the final outcome, to the glee of journalists, is that none of the experts are happy!

    Don’t forget the BBC prayer!

    ‘Where there is harmony, may we bring discord. Where there is truth, may we bring error.
    Where there is faith, may we bring doubt.
    And where there is hope, may we bring despair.’

       21 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Pug et al.

      The BBC have their own definition of expert – somebody who says what they want to hear…
      I remember all those BBC Brexit ‘experts’ who said the UK would collapse if we voted out….

         9 likes

  20. StewGreen says:

    Glance at revised stats
    Seems they added some deaths onto the old tally from before March 20th
    ..they reckon they missed 40, cos those people didn’t die in hospital.
    So the new count for up to March 20 is revised up from 170 to 210

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52103808

       5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      A Have Your Say has just started there
      a few cultists have piled it
      but they don’t yet have full control.

         4 likes

  21. Darcy3 says:

    It did not take long, remote and LITTLE USED countryside car parks now full of illegal home made signs saying car park closed / villagers only / go home etc, ( one even saying “Govt legislation” FFS) a short step to the reinstatement of gibbets and witch ducking stools,

    I feel we should do the same if we spot anyone from one of these villages daring to travel to a Tesco store near us: bugger off and use your village store.

    They need little encouragement to put “private” signs close to public footpaths and block them / plough them up or dump horse shit in the way, especailly the bitches with a field with a horse in it with a public right of way, who think they own the countryside.

    This crisis is made for the NIMBY tw@ts RE North Wales for example, they must be loving it.

    Just hope all potential visitors take note for when this is over…..

       28 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      You know where you can stick your farmers markets, overpriced tea rooms and craft fairs…..

      I was quite annoyed at their attitude seen three times this week as I drive out of a busy town to safely exercise by walking the countryside with its psychological and physical benefits as I do not have a garden, and considering supporting the cutting of rural bus services to help them self isolate in the future

         11 likes

  22. Tabs says:

    Didn’t take long for the Coronavirus to become a celebrity virtue signalling circus with touches of me, me, me.

    James Corden’s Homefest: Star speaks of ‘anxiety and sadness’ over coronavirus
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52105059

       23 likes

  23. The General says:

    My router packed up and the Virgin Engineer has been to replace it. I switched on my computer and immediately a message popped up

    YOUR VIRUS PROTECTION HAS EXPIRED

    Oh dear…bad timing !!!

       22 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      The General, Sir! Frustrating when things like that happen. Just had a weird thing where clicking on a letter (known reliable source) already open in a window, completely wiped my browser pages out. Had to sign back in to stuff, incl. here. More time gone.

      Hope you fix the vp easily.

      Trouble is that this virus thing has driven everyone on-line, for all that can be done on-line as much as possible that would previously be done off-line maybe, so all the ‘crims and hackers’ can go open season on us.

         6 likes

  24. StewGreen says:

    New daily death toll about 400, it’s a big spike, but figures are a bit fuzzy many say 393

    “Thats up from 180 death the previous day.
    They were aged between 19 and 98.
    28 DID NOT have underlying health conditions”

    (of course yesterday was a blip down as if some expected to die yesterday hung on until today)

       5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Daily positives rose to 3009 today
      Yesterday 2619 were positive
      but 12% more tests were done than yesterday, so it is possible that the count increase is due to MORE testing

      I just noticed something important
      10,000 tests a day doesn’t mean 10,000 people were tested
      cos a lot of people are tested twice
      (you would do that cos you want to guard against false negatives)

         6 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Plenty of twitter chatter about not stopping the economy for a load of people “ who were going to die anyway “ .

        Very easy to type that when sitting nice and healthy somewhere . Not so easy for the next of kin . Having had experience of the effects of a DNR form – the Do Not Resuscitate form and procedure – people starting to suggest convenient ways to end lives to make it nice for the NHS are on a slippery slope .

        It’s also easy – in my opinion – to detach the individuals and families affected – from the numbers .

        It’s a shame that there is not more detail about where people are dying – particularly the good and the bad hospitals at dealing with patients .

        The medical profession will know – but for various reasons the people who pay for it will never find out .

           14 likes

    • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

      Stew,
      I think they are using a different counting system for deaths now.
      Something about including deaths not in hospitals.
      I’ve heard they were expecting a big jump because of including this second number.

      It must be true because none of the msm are mentioning it, they only mention the big jump.

         10 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Stew
      R4

      Just announced that a 19 year old has died without underlying conditions- didn’t say of CV19 just made the statement….

      But using all updates as an excuse to slag Government …and getting WHO Prof Costello to slag off UK…he must be a BBC expert

      Why the BBC think ‘mass’ testing is the solution is stupid – only test NHS staff and then focus on antibody test so you know who has had it

      I was tested weeks ago – didn’t have it and then got it…waste of a test…

         13 likes

  25. theisland says:

    Have I found the missing ingredient in a coronavirus vaccine?
    by ANGUS DALGLEISH
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/30/have-found-missing-ingredient-coronavirus-vaccine/

    Read with no paywall
    https://www.pressreader.com/ireland/irish-independent/20200331/281878710474583

    A mycobacterial product known as IMM-101, which has proved an effective treatment in cancer studies, also appears to guard against cold and flu symptoms because it stimulates the innate immune system that protects us from attack by viruses. Interestingly it shares properties with the BCG (tuberculosis) vaccine.

    (Sorry – not the bBC).

       10 likes

    • Van Helsing says:

      My thanks to theisland for sharing such an interesting article. I wonder if the BBC will carry it?

         7 likes

  26. Fedup2 says:

    I understand the MSM have a new hero – the governor of New York and his daily briefings . As I wait for the awful daily UK briefings the Governors ‘ briefing is live on TV .
    They are even talking about Coamo?
    as a potential democratic opponent to President Trump rather than sleepy joe Biden or the American Corbyn .

    I get the feeling the BBC drones will be in the Coamo fan club …. the white Obama?

    I bet the emir of Londonistan tries to do the same thing ….

       14 likes

    • Van Helsing says:

      His father, Mario Cuomo (long-time Governor of NYC), was often touted as a Democratic candidate but never actually stood in the Presidential elections. Like father, like son?

         8 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Van
        Yes and I understand he is married to one off the Kennedy Mafia and its’ money ….

           10 likes

        • Van Helsing says:

          I think that marriage foundered quite a while ago. Still, I’m sure he wants for nothing in terms of powerful friends.

             3 likes

          • Cooper_Man says:

            And he’s just officially denied that he’s running for President – which is a sure sign that he is! He may not actually be running, but I’m positive that he’s being groomed to be the consensus nominee at the Democratic Convention – why else would the U.S. networks be live screening his press conferences every day?

               6 likes

  27. Kaiser says:

       2 likes

  28. john in cheshire says:

    This video by James Corbett, of the Corbettreport, is 20 minutes long but worth a watch.

    He covers the virus situation by talking facts rather than emotions. He even speaks about the Neil Ferguson fake figures.

    https://youtu.be/bM9aZflBoOU

       6 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      they do like extended families, hugging, kissing each other and sharing food

         5 likes

  29. Darcy3 says:

    One benefit of this lockdown: first time in years been able to park outside my own home on the road, seems the single mother up the road has given up on her world record attempt at 24 hour round the clock mass insemination, each attempt requiring a screaming match on the doorstep the best ones from 1 am – 5am, hope she has informed Ross McWhirter so he can stop counting,the field is now open for Roy Castle to try and beat her with a trumpet in his hand

       10 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      Have not heard much from Roy recently, hope he is not in a deserted bbc studio still tap dancing since 1978 and thinking someone is counting

         6 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        That’s ‘cos he’s dead, mate, that’s why.

           5 likes

        • Darcy3 says:

          And how can you be so sure ? Elvis was seen recently in Waitrose, and I am sure I have heard tap dancing and trumpets recently close to broadcasting house

             5 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            Darcy, that tap dancing you can hear from the region of BH will be the drip, drip, drip, of anti-UK, anti-UK Government propaganda. The trumpeting is the supposed triumphalism of the State funded, State Broadcaster, and its compulsory funding, thinking it is essential and key and about right and …

               6 likes

            • Darcy3 says:

              And what about Elvis in Waitrose then ? hang on, might have been Lidls, or was that John Lennon and Harry Nilsson in the off license, its the lockdown, things are confused

                 5 likes

          • JimS says:

            Tap dancing? I thought you were talking about the ‘two-metre two-step’ symbols at our local supermarket foyer!

            As an aside, the French chose a metre, the Australians one and a half metres while we have gone for two metres. And yet I bet Mark Easton still thinks there is plenty of room for all of Africa and the Middle East to come here.

               7 likes

  30. Cane Corso says:

    Fed
    It is indeed difficult just to concentrate on the savagery of the BBC when it is now outstripped by much else. And who can watch or listen and therefore comment? I and the bitch are down to parts of R3 (or the Third). At 6.30 and 7 am the bitch switches off neatly to avoid any “News” propaganda.
    Otherwise Breakfast with Pedroc is so good.

       6 likes

    • JimS says:

      Listen to Radio 3 long enough and you will be treated to ‘music-by-women-that-no-one-has-rightly-ever-heard-of’ and guests who were probably at the party the presenter was at last month.

      Either that or selected for the sexual preferences or skin colour of the composer.

      Of all the BBC channels it probably is the least worst!

         7 likes

      • Darcy3 says:

        If it is Hildegard von Bingen then deserved

        Hildegard of Bingen OSB (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis; 1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, visionary, and polymath.[1][2] She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most-recorded in modern history.[3] She has been considered by many in Europe to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.[4]

        Hildegard’s fellow nuns elected her as magistra in 1136; she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. She wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs,[2] and poems, while supervising miniature illuminations in the Rupertsberg manuscript of her first work, Scivias.[5] There are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages, and she is one of the few known composers to have written both the music and the words.[6] One of her works, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.[7] She is also noted for the invention of a constructed language known as Lingua Ignota.

        Although the history of her formal canonization is complicated, branches of the Roman Catholic Church have recognized her as a saint for centuries. On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard to the entire Catholic Church in a process known as “equivalent canonization”. On 7 October 2012, he named her a Doctor of the Church, in recognition of “her holiness of life and the originality of her teaching.”[8]

           8 likes

  31. Fedup2 says:

    Cane
    Personally I welcome non BBC related comments in the current circumstances – and it’s tricky for me to comment about the BBC because I’m avoiding it through Lent .

    I heard that TV licencing isn’t doing visits because of the covid thing so they’ll be using drones to look through people’s windows

    I’m not sure if they are still sending out the threatening letters which I have been using as surrogate toilet paper .

    For a replacement for the BBC – I have given in to Netflix at £6 a month …. been wanting to see the US version of House of Cards for ages .

       12 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Do you mean ‘Washington behind closed doors’. Fed?

      Fabulous programme, Robert Vaughan was just magnificent as the hard man, and so much better than the sort of bloke in that job whom we get here nowadays! Campbell springs to mind…

      If you mean the Brit ‘House of cards’, we’ve just switched off the third part of ‘To play the King’, and are still shaking a little bit…

      Back thirty years, the BBC did real, exiting programmes, and even woke, LBGT issues were in evidence but not stuffed down your throat at knife point, unlike today’s poor stuff, which we always ignore…

         8 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Scrob – the original House of Cards is still worthy of a watch – I have it on DVD – but the American one – which Mr Dobbs helped adapt is also pretty good .

        I remember ‘Washington behind closed doors’ – it was fantastic at the time and deserves a re run somewhere ….

           3 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Based on Watergate, iirc, Fed. W-BCD was TV and was followed by Redford & Hoffman in ‘All the President’s Men’ film.

          Was there a rival TV miniseries to W-BCD?

             1 likes

          • Scroblene says:

            Of course, Up! Forgot Redford and co!

            Blimey, all those DVDs to buy now…

               1 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          I didn’t know there was an American one, Fed, but will check it out certainly!

          ‘Washington behind closed doors’ was a total classic – I’d love to watch it again too!

          We’re still getting over ‘Foyle’s War’, so Michael Kitchen seems to have two hats on at the moment! What a superb actor he is!

             2 likes

  32. StewGreen says:

    ITV local news … camera teams doing ESSENTIAL journeys
    – One with a reporter standing in the street outside Harrogate Conference Centre SPECULATING it will get turned into a Nightingale Hospital.
    – Another down the street down the road where the MP was SPECULATING.

       15 likes

  33. Cane Corso says:

    Fed
    Indeed it is part of the rich tapestry of this site.
    Do enjoy HOC – dog and bitch watched the first series over New Year.
    On non-Beebishness, we’ve just had our first neighbour death (in hospital, no doubt ascribed to Covid 19), our first neighbour job loss, and our first neighbour complete failure of food delivery. All in one day.
    Has anyone read the Mandibles?

       2 likes

  34. Darcy3 says:

    Hitchin teenagers face common assault charges after ‘coughing in faces’ of elderly couple

    Three Hitchin teenagers will be summoned to court following an incident which left a woman in her 70s with bruising to one of her eyes.

    An 18-year-old man, a 19-year-old-man and a 16-year-old boy will answer to charges of common assault and criminal damage, after authorisation by the Crown Prosecution Service.

    On Friday, March 20, an elderly woman and her partner were walking through Paynes Park in Hitchin, when they were approached by three teenagers. One teenager reportedly coughed in her face, making the couple feel very distressed and uncomfortable.

    An altercation then ensued after passers-by intervened. The elderly woman was allegedly assaulted and suffered bruising to her eye.

    The two people who intervened were also reportedly assaulted and a vehicle was damaged.

    Two males were arrested by police that afternoon, and a third male was interviewed by officers the following day.

    All three were released under investigation while enquiries continued and a charging decision was considered by the CPS.

    North Herts Chief Inspector Sally Phillips said: “At this uncertain and difficult time, we are taking all reports of this nature extremely seriously and anyone found to be involved in such activity will be dealt with robustly.

    “We acted swiftly to bring people into custody in connection with the incident and I am pleased to see that charges are due to be answered, following advice from, and consultation with, the CPS.

    Ms Phillips added: “As this is a live, ongoing investigation, it must be allowed to continue unimpeded. We cannot stress enough the importance of avoiding social media commentary around those involved, as this could have a significant impact on proceedings move forward, under the Contempt of Court Act.”

    https://www.thecomet.net/news/hitchin-teenagers-receive-court-summons-after-alleged-common-assault-1-6586059

       9 likes

  35. Darcy3 says:

    Notice they are after TR also with the “contempt of court” comment despite his timely intervention..(how many times have you heard the police say something like that ? hmm never seen it myself) I hope he plays this one with a bit more circumspection RE his website

       9 likes

  36. Doobster78 says:

    Oh look. It’s the bbc’s new stick to beat the Government with ….. Not doing enough to get people home from Pakistan now !!

    And, amazingly, for what seems the 99th time out of 100 , the person in question has a disabled / ill child !! Wouldn’t you just know it .

    The BBC love a sick kid involved. DISGUSTING!!!

       32 likes

    • theisland says:

      David Vance has been talking about this recently.

      See also here
      here
      here

      It was only a matter of time before the bBC rushed to the aid of their favourite ‘community’.

         22 likes

      • Darcy3 says:

        “they are entitled to zero assistance” … perfect, enough said

           15 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          Too right!

          If idiots chose to go on holiday when there was a clear issue with disease, then they can just stay there, pay their own way back, and for best results, better not ask the BBC to publicise their pathetic pleas, as the more they do, the more the thick wokers and SJWs in W1A will gather opprobrium and dismissiveness!

          I was pleased to see George Alagiah this evening though. He is still a perfectly decent man, fighting for his health on all sides, and deserving of friendship and care, which Sophie Rayworth was so able, genuinely to show.

          The BBC only have to drop their obsessive woke, SJW, snowflake mantras and actually work with British people, rather than continually moan, snipe, gripe and generally make themselves unwatchable. If they did, there would be fewer posters here!

             9 likes

  37. StewGreen says:

    Local BBC News : horror the kitchen factory is still working
    … look it’s BBC favourite Diana Johnson the Labour MP giving her opinion …again

    BTW the factory is not in her area but rather south of the estuary in Martin Vickers the Tory MPs constituency.

       13 likes

    • Northern Voter says:

      Living in France, don’t usually watch Peter Levy on Look North, but he was positively over the moon, that Hull could be hosting Euro Pride after it’s success hosting UK Pride. Mrs Voter said he’d fit right in.

         10 likes

  38. Up2snuff says:

    Bad news for Kent: big jump in cases today up to 383. The update yesterday came too late for me to post here: that was 296.

    The three day increase has been 10%, 17% and 29%.

    One possible explanation is that if the UK tests have to go to a pathology lab for processing then the results may be released in batches. I thought the UK had developed an instantaneous, self-revealing, test. That was the goal of someone on the medical side at senior level. Chris Witty, perhaps?

    The German tests seem to require lab processing, from what someone said this a.m. on TOADY.

       5 likes

  39. Darcy3 says:

    It seems apparent that the bbc are drifting towards the same attitude but with respect to white males, bbc racist comments that go unchallenged such as “hideously white” are no different whatsoever than the following: bbc nazis

       5 likes

  40. Nibor says:

    Sorry if this has not been mentioned before .
    But I will repeat it in the next and future threads.

    Every ones first line of defence against the Corvid 19 , Coronavirus or any other plague is
    The sewage workers and the power workers .
    And after that the bin men .

    No matter how good the NHS is , those three key workers are more important than the good folk of the NHS .

    Less dramatic they may be , less photogenic themselves and the infrastructure they work in , no pretty nurses ( or BAMES in some areas ) , no hospital beds with equipment surrounding them , no sense of urgency .

    Go on BBC , an eight o clock round of applause for sewage workers .

       27 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Nibor – totally agree – but perhaps for those with a need for some simultaneous communal meaningless act – perhaps a more appropriate commemoration would be a mass flush or mass light switch off or mass wheely bin lid lift

      Having to live under house arrest is one thing – no power or water would be far worse ….

         16 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Nibor, most large hospitals (possibly all hospitals?) abandoned their laundries and their re-usable metal instruments, trays and autoclaves years ago. They do have emergency generators, especially for operating theatres, A&Es and ICUs.

      So a key group of people keeping the NHS going, after the essential water workers, are the people doing laundry and prepping disposable instrument trays off-site and the truck drivers who deliver all this stuff to the hospitals on a daily or multiple times a day basis.

      Same for pharmaceutical supplies. Around the Middlesex, St Thoms, Barts, Guys and elsewhere in London you see the small vans, Ford Fiesta size, with various logos and you know they are taking just-in-time and/or emergency meds to a hospital. Hospitals sometimes share things between them, or did, and so the same applies again there.

      After that come the bankers and the oil companies. No fuel and/or no means of paying for it, mean no clean supplies into the NHS and a shutdown. That is why, I think, RBS had to be rescued in 2008/9. Had the credit/debit card network gone down (it probably came very close to that point), most hospitals would have needed the military to step in and deliver the supplies but there would still have been a temporary shut-down for a period of time.

      The modern economy is a finely interwoven web. Break a key strand holding it in place and it will flap helplessly in the wind until repaired in some way.

      I agree: applause for water workers would be a very good thing indeed. We do not realise how fortunate we are in the world to have potable water on demand and flush toilets.

         15 likes

  41. G.W.F. says:

    Nibor,

    But sewage workers are never interviewed with neat little bookshelves in the background. They are not suitable material for
    a handclap

       15 likes

  42. Darcy3 says:

    Yes and as a thought exercise, if one had no access to media all one would probably notice was shortage of some foods and some queues if one is fortunate enough not to have witnessed anyone particularly ill, but if services such as power and water treatment become affected then real concern will ensue, and even then, not the “panic” that the msm seem so keen to stoke up, it is interesting to see the local papers (significantly non – johnston press and their agenda) who are promoting community efforts to help in any way

    its not just the police who will be judged over their conduct in a national emergency, note well bbc and Corbyn and his cronies

       10 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      BTW:
      A Johnston Press memo has revealed that editors have been asked to stop ‘the old practice of reading every story’.

      The National Union of Journalists has written to the Press Complaints Commission claiming that the way the new Johnston Press Atex content management system has been introduced is leading to journalists breaking the Editors’ Code of Practice.

      Clause one of the Editors’ Code is accuracy. The introduction of the new system at Johnston Press titles has been linked to a number of production errors appearing in print.

      In its evidence to the PCC the NUJ has submitted a memo sent by Paul Bentham, managing director of South Yorkshire Newspapers, to journalists on papers including the South Yorkshire Times and the Doncaster Free Press.

      In it he says that best practice is now for all editorial pages to be templated, rather than designed around particular stories.

      He says that editors should not “continue with the old practice of reading every story”, adding: “Editors should evaluate the risk for each story based on content and the seniority of the journalist and act accordingly.”

      Bentham also suggests that page proofs be viewed as PDFs by the editor and that they should not be printed out as ‘this creates a further strain on the network speed”.

      Northern Organiser of the NUJ Chris Morley said in a letter to the PCC: “The memo from the managing director contains a number of extremely worrying developments which strike at the heart of an editor’s responsibilities.

      ‘I believe it is important for the PCC to take a formal view on this as the PCC’s code is written in to JP employees’ contracts. I’m hopeful that the company will think again, in light of the seriousness of our concerns.

      “But if employees were to carry out these instructions of the company, it is entirely possible that editors and other journalists will be in breach of the code and therefore their contracts, not to mention the NUJ Code of Conduct if they are a member.

         2 likes

  43. Up2snuff says:

    Now, the hard question that must – inevitably – follow that dose of realism in the last few posts: how truly essential is the BBC, especially in its present form?

       11 likes

  44. Up2snuff says:

    pug, the UK death rate falls as the weather warms. I found it impossible to convey that fact to a friend (who is older) and who is also a fanatical believer in AGW/CC/C-E/98% Scientists/settled science that global warming of around 2 degrees or more would be beneficial to poorer, older, people around the globe. Just refuses to believe it.

    But it is true as you say.

       8 likes

  45. Darcy3 says:

    Virus benefit No.2:

    safe to cross a road next to a school between 8 and 9 am without some mumsnet harridan in a nissan quashqai mowing you down so her obese brats arrive on time without having to walk a step to school

       12 likes

  46. Celtic_Mist says:

    Maybe it should be called the Beijing Broadcasting Corporation

    21.00hr BBC World News parrots China’s economic recovery figures

    However

    China’s V-shaped recovery looks too good to be true
    https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-markets-eaba27cf-0f53-4d4c-a7bf-aab4fd70c116.html?chunk=3&utm_term=emshare#story3

    In other news – Germany good; UK bad

       8 likes

  47. StewGreen says:

    Ok so they are speaking about the death of the 13 yo and 19yo
    Seems that boy was a Somali migrant who lived in Brixton with his mum and his sister who works at the Islamic school.

    The BBC story, tells you nothing so far.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52114476

    https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1244887920626077696.html

    EUYvIo-XQAUjoir.jpg:small

       3 likes

  48. Celtic_Mist says:

    On R4 this morning Sopel named the BBC’s choice for the next US President

    Apparently, everyone watches Cuomo’s daily briefing and many say that he would be a better choice than Biden

    Obviously Sopel has been radicalized by the New York clique –

    “American journalism has long maintained a sort of egalitarian myth about itself. While our country’s free press requires no formal training or licensing, an honest history of the profession shows very distinct hierarchies, from the vaunted Runyonesque blue-collar beat reporter to legendary insiders, like Washington uber-columnist Scotty Reston, who act as handmaidens to the powerful. And it is no coincidence that arguably the nation’s two preeminent newspapers—the New York Times and Wall Street Journal—stand apart as the most rarefied of perches in our nation’s news ecosystem. It’s at these outlets that these class distinctions are the most glaring—and most problematic.”

    https://fair.org/home/journalism-of-by-and-for-the-elite/

       8 likes

  49. Up2snuff says:

    I don’t know if this Interactive still works but if Covid-19 has got you wanting to try the ER thing, have a look at this & give it a go:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/taster/pilots/casualty-first-day

    (Found it while searching for something else.)

       1 likes

    • Celtic_Mist says:

      Darcy,

      Trump is one of these people who can say what the rest of wish we had said at the time.

      It’s rest of the BBC video that is very questionable

      The MSM are all touting South Korea as being the most successful because of its number of tests

      The alternative explanation is that the population already had limited immunity

      “The common-cold-causing coronaviruses are different enough that an infection from one won’t produce immunity to another. But the novel coronavirus overlaps enough with SARS that survivors of the 2002-3003 outbreak might have some immunity to the new arrival, Sheahan said: “Is it enough to prevent infection? I don’t know.”

      https://www.rokdrop.net/2020/03/how-significant-is-reinfection-of-coronavirus-patient-in-south-korea/

      However, the testing argument suits the BBC narrative

         1 likes