The Midweek Thread 15 April 2020

Surveys of public opinion concerning the performance of the Main Stream Media – including the Biased BBC – are showing great levels of dissatisfaction with the way it is reporting the Chinese Virus . Let’s hope there is a reckoning afterward .

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584 Responses to The Midweek Thread 15 April 2020

  1. Sluff says:

    Two cheers for Chris Whitty.

    At the news conference the Sky news personage played the race card – lots of BAME workers are dying.

    Back came Whitty. No there is no evidence for this. But there is evidence that men are more likely to die than women.

    Wham!
    It won’t be followed up of course and it was only on the BBC because they have no editorial control over the news conference. But a rare if welcome dose of a truth inconvenient to LeftMob.

       51 likes

  2. Up2snuff says:

    Music to clap by ……

    Had been thinking about this on and off since posting last week’s effort from Toto, who were on top form. I had my first Covid-19 related dream last night and it inspired a choice for tonight. I’m going to annoy StewGreen because it comes with a quiz attached. I want to know which famous TV series this was played on and what was the visual sequence on-screen at the time?

    Another live performance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JY__agG_eXc

    Want a clue? It’s ‘medical’.

       3 likes

  3. Thoughtful says:

    Watching todays appalling government broadcast I became disgusted at the way Dominic Raab use his own ‘upset’ about the numbers who have died as a result of the coronavirus.

    They are using this as a shield against criticism. He opened his speech talking of his ‘heartbreak’ over the 13K dead, – didn’t say anything about how he didn’t even mention the 25K who died in the Flu epidemic.

    Then it was a real two fingered salute to those he said were suffering with household finances, and whose businesses were going under, as he said “I’m very upset every time I leave this podium over the loved ones who have died”

    He offered no additional help or sympathy just his own crocodile tears. It made my blood boil.

       9 likes

    • AndyDozefeet says:

      What additional help or sympathy do you think he should be offering? And to whom?

         21 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        those “suffering with household finances, and whose businesses”, he could at least have offered a little sympathy.

        Friend who has been sturying behavioural science has told me that the speech was one of the most carefully constructed she has seen, the ‘pain’ being definitely used as a shield against criticism, and as an attack ‘how could you be so callous? unfeeling?’ etc etc.

        We now have red and yellow chevrons on the podiums which I can assure you have been specifically chosen for the warning signal that sends against the three commands they give.
        Most people probably haven’t even conciously noticed them, but they will have subconciously have done so.

        In the case of the current ‘crisis’ it is being very carefully stage managed. These speeches are being written by very clever people and you need to be picking them apart to see what they are up to in order to protect yourself from propaganda influence which is probably more underhand and subtle that the BBC could ever hope to accomplish.

           8 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          What’s a “cruel torchlight “?

             1 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Thoughtful
          I disagree – I don’t think the speeches are written by clever people – they’re written by a committee . The fun is listening for what is suddenly left out – such as numbers of ventilators ( not mentioned any more ) – or the status of the various new covid warehouses .
          I’d say the stats are designed to both be difficult to see and read as well as data lacking in consistency and regional detail . For instance it’s not easy to find out how may have died in London against the same date in previous years – as well as the rules and practices used to certify someone died as a result of covid infection as opposed to something else .
          As for the signs – the messages used to change each day but now they are playing ‘ keep it simple ‘ .

          I’ll be glad when they stop next week . The quality of the questions won’t improve because it will be MPs doing ‘ gotch ‘ instead of Peston type pseudo journalists

             13 likes

        • AndyDozefeet says:

          I’m pretty sure that 80% of the public, everyone not employed in the public sector basically, has been adversely affected by this.

          I for one am not interested in receiving any sympathy (faux or genuine), I can get that from people who matter to me. I am absolutely interested in my government getting on with practical stuff like making sure that everyone is given the best chance to get through unscathed, I can carry on with my life as soon as reasonably practicable and my young adult children aren’t left without opportunities or paying for all this for years to come.

          Unfortunately these days politicians have to practice “defensive government” i.e. making decisions which attract the least possible long term criticism from an over powerful media.

          I too crave a government that cuts through the crap and takes them on and highlights them for the liars and charlatans that they are but I’m afraid that agenda is for another day. At the moment the agenda has to be one of damage limitation and staving off the very real threat of a far left publicity coup which would lead to civil unrest and attempted anarchy.

             33 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          Sorry, but the only thing subliminally that the red and yellow chevrons are sending me, are to ‘mind the step’.

          Honestly ? I’m not reading too deep into anything these days. The government are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, by so called ‘experts’ on all sides. I think whoever is on the podium answering questions show great restraint with some of the puerile questions being asked.

          If it was me answering, I’d be inclined to say “if you can do any bloody better, then come on in and try”. We’re not talking about dinner ladies not getting enough, or the cod wars, its something far more serious, and if Dominic Raab hasn’t got a suitable ‘face’ or his emotions aren’t good enough for some, then sodding tough.

             24 likes

  4. StewGreen says:

    7:30pm ITV : Corona patients talking about their experiences

       2 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      8pm
      Itv4 – live and let die ….. as I’ve seen expressed by a few ….

         3 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      ITV prog
      – First victim Linda Lusardi and husband
      – First hero the black nurse who looked after her

      The prog claimed the couple claimed that the couple were previously healthy. That doesn’t seem true cos a recent big illness had caused Lusardi to cancel her panto season.

      – next a few quick items
      – Then next special focus victim Leroy a 39yo black hospital administrator

      Presenter “Corona seems to disproportionately affect ethnic minorities
      .. the same for men”

      Many victims say recovery from Covid19 is hard saying they can’t breathe like normal
      ( AFAIK that is cos the machine has breathing for you, so your lung muscles are weak)

      The show ended at 8pm and ITV left the screen blank for 3 mins with just a message “Clap for Carers”

         16 likes

  5. Pretzel says:

    I just want to say, this is the best-designed commenting system I have ever come across. Whoever designed it knew what they were doing :O

       9 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Pret
      You won’t be saying that when you lose something you’ve typed out for 5 minutes and it disappears or when you hit the button once and it
      Repeats
      Repeats
      Repeats ????

         16 likes

    • Banania says:

      One way in which Disqus is better: they will send you any replies to your comments.

         0 likes

  6. pugnazious says:

    Another good reason the BBC likes the lockdown….it wipes out other news providers making the BBC ever more dominant…Amol Rajan pretends to care but gives the game away with the final comments….

    https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/entertainment-arts-52299925

    ‘What’s striking is that, while that business has been in crisis for well over a decade and a half, and in that time been through the global financial crisis and downturn that followed, many titles had still not done enough to prepare for the current emergency.

    The fundamentals haven’t changed; they’ve just been exposed. The market in local news is broken; there is no editorial solution to the commercial problems of publishing; the sooner you can make digital pay, the better; and revenue direct from readers will always, always be preferable to that from advertisers.

    All that was as true in 2005 as it is in 2020. The difference is, for those who failed to adapt in time, it’s now too late. ‘

    Too late boys…ta ta..and thanks for all the memories…but we’ll take it from here.

    Oh if only all those news providers had a guaranteed income provided under threat of bailiffs kicking your door in and you being dragged off to prison if you don’t cough up.

    Liked this line from Rajan…

    ‘ Just as this health emergency has shone a cruel torchlight on the fault-lines in our society, so it has highlighted the ill-health of the newspaper and magazine business right now. ‘

    Yeah…certainly did as well paid, with gold-plated pension and health benefits BBC staff working from home berated those self-employed, those on zero hour contracts, those who had to go to work or starve, and told them they must stop working, don’t they realise how dangerous their selfish behaviour is?

    Just wonder how many of these overpaid, under-qualified, under-cover labourites will take a pay cut in solidarity with the rest of the country in light of those ‘fault lines in our society’.

       33 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Funny thing, pug, “Liked this line from Rajan…
      ‘ Just as this health emergency has shone a cruel torchlight on the fault-lines in our society, so it has highlighted the ill-health of the newspaper and magazine business right now. ‘ .”
      … but on TWatO this lunchtime, a contributor was saying that the Covid Crisis has brought the country together.

      Am sure the BBC would like the country to be divided but I personally feel that that was over-hyped by a small number of vocal Remainers (including the BBC) in a vain attempt to get Brexit cancelled.

         22 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Pug
      Not So sure – France 24 have some very attractive lady presenters as opposed to the faces for radio inhabiting bbc noos .

      Apparently the French are troubled by their language having male and female wording – some wanting to make it more neutral like the proper language that is Eeengleeshh….

         15 likes

  7. Guest Who says:

    Pushing his book… pure class.

       6 likes

  8. Guest Who says:

    There’s a thing.

       21 likes

  9. Foscari says:

    Don’t you want to vomit every time Laura Kuensberg opens
    her mouth?
    But more importantly I would love to think that one day
    “Dr” TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS of the WHO is brought before
    the International court of criminal justice in the Hague
    and charged with culpable homicide. So far as the
    Machiavellian lying bastards WHO run communist China.
    I can’t do anything about that than other than never buying anything with a Chinese label on it,

       46 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      So I suppose ‘sweet and sour bat’ is off the menu, Foscers..;0)

      Yucch – I can’t understand why I posted that, but let it stand for now…

         14 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      Why are we still contributing to this oxymoron of an organisation?

      It seems our government loves to waste our money on ne’er-do-wells ( The WHO ) and white elephants (HS2).

         9 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        The Who? Ah, maybe next Thursday. Must start thinking of the next one.

        Come on you lot, get your answers in to last night’s quiz question.

           0 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    8pm I was on the upstairs back balcony
    Strangely the most noise was from songbirds flying low
    probably chasing the insects that were being pushed low by the sunset.
    Then I heard someone banging a pot from the direction a council building across the fields and then in the other direction a dog backing as someone clapped.

       15 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Someone let off a banger about a mile away.

      Seems it was Plod asking if the driver was on an emergency drive…

         7 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      A guide dog saying why aint you clapping me?

         7 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Do you live near me Stew ? I heard the pot being banged, and my dog was barking in the front garden while we were clapping,

         5 likes

  11. davylars says:

    CF8-F25-AF-CE5-C-4-D75-9204-5-F2-BFE84-A035.jpg

       49 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Gives a whole new meaning for ‘Do you BAT for the other side, Mummy’?

         11 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      And don’t look at me like that or you’ll turn into a kuentsberg.

         10 likes

  12. StewGreen says:

    Local sit-rep
    It’s said that my region has 140 cases and about 19 deaths
    that makes 1 case per 1,500 people
    and and 1 death per 10,000 people
    I reckon London has a death rate of 1 in 2,000 population

    So our region has crawled up from a CASE rate way below London level at 1/50,000
    then to 1/15,000, to 1/5000 which London started at to now 1/1,500.

    Upto now there has been no news of specific victims
    But now there is a newspaper article is about a granddad who is a town councillor, but died in hospital.
    There was a Facebook post about the funeral of another female patient.
    And a cousin says that in their village an woman picked up Covid19 in hospital and died.
    A local steelworker neighbour reckons he was in bed with for a week in February before all the fuss started. He reckons that there was something going around the steelworks due to the hundreds of Chinese there for the takeover. That’s all anecdotal cos he had no test.
    A 78yo neighbour asked me about her holiday
    I had to tell her “at your age you can’t be sitting in a plane for 3 hours unless you are sure none of the other passengers will infect you.”

       9 likes

  13. pugnazious says:

    Not only has the coronavirus ‘exposed the fault lines in our society’ but has also unmasked the racists who are always ready to do a bit of white bashing.

    Afua Hirsch for example, never one to shy away from weaponising any issue and turn it into one about ‘race’.

    Apparently the coronavirus is racist and is ethnically cleansing Bames…

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/apr/08/coronavirus-black-people-ethnic-minority-deaths-pandemic-inequality-afua-hirsch

    ‘If coronavirus doesn’t discriminate, how come black people are bearing the brunt?’

    Naturally it’s all the fault of whitey who has neglected all those poor Bames and thus they don’t have the resources to beat the virus. In other words, presuming her basic analysis is right, that it’s the poorest who die more often, then it’s about poverty not race. Note she makes no mention of whites in poverty…must be a lot more of them…nor does she mention whites dying. White lives matter don’t they? No?

    Here’s the racist head of the BMA pushing a similar line…even more so as he almost openly claims it’s some sort of cleansing…not ‘random’ eh?…

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8209731/British-Medical-Association-chief-calls-investigation-BAME-coronavirus-deaths.html

    ‘Dr Nagpaul told The Guardian: ‘At face value, it seems hard to see how this can be random – to have the first 10 doctors of all being of BAME background.’

    Note the blatant lies from them both…

    Hirsch…‘This may reflect the fact that the NHS has always been heavily dependent on ethnic minority staff, who today make up 40% of its workforce – more then double their proportion in the UK population.’

    Nagpaul thinks the non-medical staff don’t count…‘Although BAME staff make up 44 per cent of medical personnel in the NHS, Dr Chaand Nagpaul said that fact that all who have died were from ethnic minorities was ‘extremely disturbing’. ‘

    Well…no…lots of white NHS staff have died…but thanks for noticing.

    And…..40% or 44% Bame…no….

    ‘As at March 2019, over 1.2 million people were employed by the NHS.
    Of NHS staff whose ethnicity was known, 4 out of 5 (79.2%) were White (including White ethnic minorities), and 1 in 5 (20.7%) were from all other ethnic groups ‘

    Seems when it comes to the NHS you can fiddle the figures to suit…if you want to say Bame migrants [and when they say Bame they don’t mean white migrants…let’s be clear on that…just not interested in whitey] make up a large part of the NHS you limit it to medical staff where the proportions are higher…but the NHS as a whole has near 80% white work force.

    And that ‘clap for Bames’? An extraordinarily racist and insidious idea that is a deliberate attempt to stir up race conflict and hate.

    Here’s the BBC’s Dotun trying his best to whip up a bit of bigotry….and all based on a lie that no black faces were in photos of NHS staff clapping.

    https://www.voice-online.co.uk/news/coronavirus/2020/03/31/why-were-black-nhs-staff-left-out-of-clap-for-our-carers/

    ‘Why were black NHS staff whitewashed out of Clap For Our Carers? ‘

    Just not true…he uses a photo from the Metro with no Bames in it…however the Metro had this…

    PRI_148266427.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&zoom=1&resize=644%2C338&ssl=1

    The photos presumably came from an agency as many news outlets had similar.
    The NHS staff were NHS staff…they were who they were…if not enough Bames turned out for Dotun’s liking how is that anyone’s fault other than theirs?

    Not as if other photos didn’t show Bames…

    The Mail..

    26740504-8181677-NHS_workers_applaud_on_the_streets_outside_Chelsea_and_Westminst-a-71_1585857870701.jpg

    The Express…

    NHS-applause-clap-for-carers-1260809.webp?r=1586448463139

    The Star…

    0_hylton.jpg

    Oh and yes….Bames live in tight packed cities, they travel on Khan’s Death Trains, they have cultural and social practices that make them more likely to catch the virus…don’t take my word for it…here’s a Muslim exploiting the virus for his own ends but revealing the inconvenient truth at the same time…

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/coronavirus-muslim-mosque-closure-prayer-nhs-a9411936.html

    ‘Britain’s Muslims are amongst the hardest hit by the Covid-19 pandemic – senior NHS officials that Muslims are particularly vulnerable to coronavirus.
    Many Muslims live in extended families, often, like my household, with three generations under one roof. This means there are a higher number of carriers who can (and often will) infect an elderly relative. An older person cannot effectively self-isolate when they are living in close quarters with their children, grand-children and perhaps even extended family.
    We are all social creatures, but maybe Muslims are more social than most. We eat together – often from one plate, sharing utensils and side dishes. For many Muslims, social intimacy like handshakes and hugs are so hardwired into their behaviour that the week-old invention of “social distancing” is both alien and absurd to them.
    And in pockets of Muslim communities, there is mistrust – or simple unawareness – of government advice.

    Many minorities whose English is not proficient enough to fully understand medical terms like “quarantine” and “pandemic” are reliant on foreign or social media sources for their information.

    Blogs, TikTok and YouTubers in Asia should not be a primary resource for Brits at a time of national crisis – their own government should be. [Or learn bloody english…knew a Chinese boy from Hong Kong, didn’t speak english, but who learnt to speak it fluently inside a year].

    Hygiene, health and responsibility to one’s neighbours is hardwired into Islamic culture. This includes the responsibility to not infect the neighbours with a fatal disease. But we can only use those values to keep all our fellow Brits safe if we self-mobilise, at the same time as we self-isolate.’

    So….basically it’s their own fault for not complying with the rules, not agreeing with them and not bothering to learn english enough to understand what’s going on.

       55 likes

    • Non Snowflake says:

      Lots of photos there, showing lots of NHS staff just standing round clapping themselves.

      Are they the over-worked over-stretched ones?

         24 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I hope I treat each person as I find them, irrespective of the colour of their skin and when I have a hospital appointment I see NHS workers as doctor, nurse or whatever their profession and do not see the colour of their skin. But the video that the Baroness tweeted just made me very angry. These are people who don’t see themselves as part of British society. I am quite happy to see professionally people of whatever colour, just not these ones.

         7 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @Pug framing BAME as #1 Victims and #2 NHS-heroes
      ..is of course racism itself as it classifies people by skin colour.

      There are plenty of hero BAME but the lists of pervy doctors show plenty of BAME also.
      Sometimes a BAME is a victim, and sometimes another BAME is an oppressor.

      If we look at the world in a full colour way instead of just black and white.

      Did every key-worker infected with Covid19 get it from being a hero to patients ?
      It is entirely possible that some lauded BAME got infected in the community and then brought it in to the hospital or care home where they work.

      Likewise plenty of key workers use their PPE correctly
      but some of them including SOME hero-BAME might not have been, and may have infected patients.
      So some BAME do fall into the perpetrator and non-hero categories, just like some white people do.

         3 likes

  14. LastChanceSaloon says:

    Extension for three weeks minimum.
    Sorry BBBC readers, it’s more rubbish from me every ten minutes.
    Unless it is at night, when I prowl these pages with my garlic and stake looking for Maxis
    to send to the promised land.
    When it will be every five minutes.

    Meanwhile
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52287920
    2020-04-15
    “Coronavirus: Labour calls for lockdown exit strategy this week”

    HYS currently 4948 replies.
    The top 250, after which I gave up, all stating Starmer is a ****.
    We knew that already but it is nice to receive confirmation.

    —————————————————————————————

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52304821
    2020-04-16
    “IMF head warns on Brexit trade deal failure”

    HYS currently 1438 replies.
    The top 50, after which I gave up, all stating the EU and the
    IMF are useless, lying left wing ****s.

       28 likes

  15. Thoughtful says:

    I heard the terminally biased BBC radio 4 comment on how Ramadan was going to cause a likely increase in their brown eyed favourites being infected, however they didn’t elaborate as to why, which I for one found strange because depriving yourself of food & drink during the hours of daylight in late spring in the Northern hemisphere is pretty damn stupid, but it sure isn’t a lethal occupation.

    Here however is an explanation:

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2020/04/guide-for-the-perplexed-infidels-the-coronavirus-and-ramadan

    “for a Muslim who usually prays at home (except for the main Friday prayer, of course), this is the month for increasing the number of prayers in the mosque, and for remaining in the mosque between prayers, catching up on missed prayers. In addition to that, many Muslims will go to mosque early for the sunset prayer, Maghrib, so they can break their fast in mosque communally before the prayer. There will be plenty of old people hanging around inside mosques all day long anyway, prayer or no prayer, to stack up piety credits with Allah, and, not to put too fine a point on it, the prize for dying in a mosque during Ramadan — you guessed it — is that the deceased goes straight to Heaven.

    So where will there be a large concentration of people with weakened immune systems due to fasting? In mosques. Where will people be packed in shoulder-to-shoulder for many hours a day, especially at night? In mosques. Where will large numbers of people be breathing in air directly from the floor, where coronavirus settles after half an hour of being airborne? In mosques. Where will there be a particularly high concentration of old people, especially aware at this time of their increased chances of dying? In mosques. Where is the coronavirus most likely to spread? In mosques. Where will all the prayers for the deceased be said? In mosques. Where will the authorities be least willing to interfere during Ramadan? In mosques. We have the makings of a perfect storm.”

    We all know our corrupt cowardly incompetent useless government are not going to interfere with Muslims doing as they please, they didn’t stop them raping hundreds of thousands of young white girls, and they are even worse today than they were back then.
    The Police once the envy of the world they have turned into a Gestapo, and if the accusations of Saudi backed bribery are to be believed the brown eyed favourites are to be allowed to do anything they please.

    I’m sure many of us either know or have heard of Mosques still operating in defiance of the lock down, and of the Gestapo turning a blind eye.

    We know this is going on, only this time the libtards are going to end up passing a death sentence on a bunch of lunatic religious maniacs who simply cannot and will not behave themselves.

    And I bet you won’t hear one peep of this from the BBC.

       59 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Thoughtful
      I understand the rama thing starts at the end of next week . So if covid takes 2 weeks before the symptoms get going thar could be the time when the new 3 week lock down comes to an end . High muslim areas like Luton tower hamlets newham et et Will ‘ spike ‘ enough in the stats to be noticed .

      The graph watchers will have a field day

         24 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      thank God the schools are off

         6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The police do seem having fun sending out mixed messages.

      I wonder of Surkeer and Carole Cadwalladr were hugging in the melee?

         16 likes

  16. LastChanceSaloon says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52299514
    2020-04-16 21:00
    “Coronavirus: MPs and to quiz ministers via video conferencing”

    HYS currently 475 responses and rising rapidly.
    Most stating MPs (not party specific), are greedy, useless, overpaid, ****s and
    asking why we need to spend £1 zillion repairing their home.

       18 likes

  17. Sluff says:

    Some weeks ago I recommended an article by Janice Turner of The Times where she defined something called the Purity Spiral.
    It is mainly attributable to issues deemed by The Left to be the defining one of the day. And adherence to such an issue alone defines a person. And there is no upper limit to show adherence so people seek to outdo each other to show their purity.

    Almost all LGBTQxyz transgender activism falls into the above description.

    Now we have Coronavirus.
    And the purity spiral is in full swing.
    Clap for carers
    Support for dear old Captain Tom
    Support for our NHS heroes (a special day on ITV today)
    Sorrow for whichever the media decide is the death of the day, such as the pregnant nurse (who turned out to be on maternity leave from a hospital which did not actually have any cases)
    Blame the government for every pair of gloves in the wrong place

    It’s not wrong to be compassionate nor to support front line key workers.
    But I do wish more would accompany this with independent critical thinking.and rather less jumping on the virtue-signalling bandwagon.

       60 likes

    • LastChanceSaloon says:

      Sluff
      Many, probably most, BBBC regulars went through the same 100% left wing education system.
      Then we walked into numerous brick walls called facts, painful, but we learnt from our mistakes.
      We discarded the school left wing bollox and practised empiricism thereafter.

      “But I do wish more would accompany this with independent critical thinking.and rather
      less jumping on the virtue-signalling bandwagon.”

      Your wish will not be granted, there is no thinking at all in this group, let alone critical thinking.

      “My great great great grandfather got up in the morning half an hour before he went to bed.
      He worked 29 hours a day at the mill for a stale crust every month with a Z in it.
      He was Captain of the British moaning team for 211 years.”

      “Four legs good, two legs bad.”

         21 likes

      • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

        “… went through the same 100% left wing education system.”

        This is interesting. It makes me return to that old lament ‘Ubi sunt?’; that is, “where are all the …” (you may fill in the blanks, e.g. people capable of critical thinking).

        I went to an academically rigorous grammar school in the north of England many years ago. I’ve often wondered in very broad terms what happened to some of my contemporaries, many of whom were clever than me, in view of the general drift leftwards in public policy and national discourse in the UK. I conclude the following: given how we were all taught to think then, these contemporaries were either (a) brainwashed later by universities and the media into suspending critical thought; and/or (b) still think critically but are somehow marginal to the public discourse, even as lawyers, doctors, teachers, etc. I incline more towards option (b) since life experience, as you say, would teach a more empirical approach.

        I do recall being struck by the less intellectually rigorous and “soft Left” thought of some (especially female) fellow students when I did my degree down south. Perhaps we of my school were more blunt, having grown up in an all-male school in the north, and more used to friendly but vigorous exchanges on matters. Some of the Home Counties females were notably xenophile, unpatriotic and (already in the 1980s) dangerously morally non-judgemental.

        It was a pleasant surprise to come across non-graduate youngsters in two places where I worked (later 1990s to 2010) who were refreshingly sceptical about the BBC and MSM; as contrasted with the lazy pro-EU globalist Leftism of the graduate colleagues I had worked with in the earlier 1990s.

           14 likes

        • Nodding Dog says:

          Talking of school contemporaries at middle school in the mid 1980’s there was one lad who’s favorite word was fascist.If you ate meat you were a fascist! If you took glee in winning The Falklands War you were a fascist! If you said something good about Margaret Thatcher you were a fascist! I can also remember him giving out some PETA leaflets at the back of the classroom one day.I can’t remember any other kids being politically active or even aware the rest of us were more interested in football and music.

          Anyway a while ago this lad popped up on a twitter thread about the old school so thought I’d click on his bio to see what had become of him.I kid you not he’s now a news editor at the BBC !

             15 likes

  18. Deborah says:

    BBC1 news 10pm and it was reported that a hospital contacted the BBC for contact details for Burberry because the hospital is hoping that Burberry might make scrubs for them. I found their phone number within seconds using Mr Google. It may be Burberry are not manning their phones, I didn’t try it. But If I needed contact details for an organisation, I wouldn’t phone the BBC for them unless I was trying to make a story.

       56 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The process by which ‘a story’ comes to air intrigues, as ever.

      Do such folk lob up on the blower and get whisked by reception straight to the bash desk?

      Or are they ‘known to the BBC’ and get called when a bit of bashing is required?

         50 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Utterly disgraceful. I did not watch the BBC television ‘news’ for obvious reasons, but the story is currently on their website. An unnamed director of an unnamed NHS Trust who, if he or she is exists, is presumably dim-witted at best or retarded at worst if they think that the BBC run directory enquiries, haven’t heard of the internet and can’t be bothered to call the Department of Trade and Industry.
      But don’t be surprised if this story runs and a suitable straw person steps forward to claim that it was them or ‘could have been me as we all have this concern’. Such a person will be a supporter of the Labour Party and/or associated with the BBC or one of its senior employees.
      #FightCoronaVirus
      #BoycottChina
      #ShutdownTheBBC

         40 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Top billing on the Moaning Emole too.

        ***
        NHS boss in Burberry gowns plea

        Story detail

        It’s emerged that the boss of a NHS trust contacted the BBC to get phone numbers for Burberry and Barbour to ask them to supply gowns for medics because his hospital has “less than 24 hours supply”. The BBC’s Simon Browning says the un-named NHS executive criticised the official line that there is no shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) for medics – calling it a “fantasy”. Burberry said at the end of March it would repurpose its trenchcoat factory in Castleford, West Yorkshire, to make non-surgical gowns and masks for hospital patients. But the NHS boss says the situation at his hospital is so critical staff are reusing single use PPE and that it is investigating using hydrogen peroxide to decontaminate items including masks. While UK factories are gearing up to make gowns and other equipment, there have been delays in getting the items certified and having the necessary paperwork signed off. The Department of Health says it is working “around the clock” to provide protective equipment where needed.

        BBC News has been looking at whether the NHS has enough PPE.

        ***
        Utter Bronzed Strumpet (reverse acronyming).

           23 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        …and….Krankie too…

           10 likes

    • DickMart says:

      This was the first item on the BBC news this morning and it is utter garbage. Apart from the ridiculous notion of phoning the BBC for Burberry’s telephone number, why did the Hospital Trust want to remain anonymous? Surely if they’re desperate for PPE, it would be best for this to be known, in case there were supplies available that could be ferried quickly to them. Whether the Trust is incompetent or malicious is open to speculation, but what is certain is the BBC’s malevolent intent in carrying this story from an anonymous source. [Sorry, this was supposed to be a follow-up to Deborah’s 10:28]

         15 likes

  19. taffman says:

    “The UK will refuse to extend the Brexit transition period, even if the EU requested a delay, Downing Street says. ”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52313042
    Mr David Frost appears to be a better Brexiteer than Oilly Robbins was ?

    Oilly’s résumé on Wikipedia makes interesting reading, ………………\\ the former head of the Secret Intelligence Service Richard Dearlove said Robbins had “serious questions of improper conduct to answer” //………………
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olly_Robbins

       23 likes

  20. vlad says:

    The BBC are quick to endlessly denounce Trump’s behaviour towards grown women, yet strangely uninterested in Creepy Joe’s groping of young girls.

    Almost as if they defend paedophiles. Oh, I forgot.

       26 likes

    • JimS says:

      Now that’s what a girl groomer looks like!

      Give him a set of horse brushes and he could really go to town.

         8 likes

  21. lauraeva says:

    BBC 10 pm news began showing a family “struggling” with lock down, Alan and Lucy with their gorgeous kids Bonnie and Rocco (youngest of five) .

    A picture perfect middle class family in a beautiful detached home, large garden with swings and slide for the kids.

    It was like property porn, £20k fitted island kitchen, office decked with books, including a full 23 volume set of final print publication of Encyclopedia Britannica (15th edition), computer, chess set.

    They then spent about all of minute on the plight of a black mum stuck in a tower block.

    So I check out the family … Lucy and Alan Rook of Black Rook Media, on lucrative BBC payroll.
    Disgraceful that this is how the BBC consider an “average family”.

    Piss on real average families living in a small semi, worrying about job and income, just like the Tories have done for a decade.

       39 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      That is bbc propaganda.

      Then there is what they suppress. This, from the open thread on ITBB:

      Arthur T16 April 2020 at 14:34

      Laura K has been putting out a skewed version of the social care story:

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-52304918

      … ‘Coronavirus: Social care concerns revealed in leaked letter.’ …

      The letter ‘that the BBC has seen’ comes from a charity ADASS. As with all public sector funded charities the question of who funds them is never addressed. A senior spokesperson from ADASS was given free reign on the BBC lunchtime news – claiming the government’s response to deficiencies in social care were ‘a shambles’. The letter, Laura is keen to tell us was written on Saturday.

      If you look at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/national-action-plan-to-further-support-adult-social-care-sector

      … ‘National action plan to further support adult social care sector’ …

      This was published on Published 15 April 2020.

      You will see that not only is there a clear set of proposals that Laura fails to mention – not only that, but she doesn’t refer to the action plan at all – but also that she waits until today (when the action plan was launched yesterday) to refer to a letter written last Saturday.

      Also, the action plan refers directly to ADASS as contributors to the plan. No doubt, ADASS preferred to get their retaliation in before the action plan was published, but Laura, slow off the mark, waited – trotted out ADASS’s line and failed to mention the Government’s action plan. This typical agenda-driven journalism.

         25 likes

  22. Cooper_Man says:

    I couldn’t clap tonight as I had a changed shift and had to work at the supermarket instead – who was it for this week anyway? Hope it wasn’t for us supermarket workers because many of us would’ve still been at work and therefore none the wiser. When do we clap for the ice-cream van that I still inexplicably heard tonight (though didn’t see)?

       20 likes

  23. Halifax says:

    EVERYONE PLEASE LOOK AT THIS
    This is the media at its best. Dealing with real people in a real life situation with NO PC AGENDA no POLITICAL UNDERTONES no DRAMA….just honest reporting. Hang your heads in shame BBC you couldn’t create a report like this, you can’t give us reports into the biggest crisis to hit our amazing country without using it to push your biased one world agenda.
    Let’s all hope that the standard of reporting and the use of tax payers money to “fund” your agenda is even more blatantly obvious to everyone now and that your days are well and truly numbered., and that day cannot come soon enough.

    WATCH THIS. Well done ITV Calendar we should be applauding you.

       22 likes

  24. Halifax says:

    Please ignore the top message from me….pressed send before I had finished…Can a mod remove the shorter version please?….thanks.

       3 likes

  25. Darcy3 says:

    This guy is better than Icke at conspiracies, bbc get a mention at around 12 minutes..

    https://www.simonparkes.org/post/30th-march-update

       4 likes

    • Non Snowflake says:

      He was going well until near the end when he says (with a straight face) “There is a God. There really is”.

      At which point it collapses into the absurd.

         2 likes

  26. fakenewswatcher says:

    The tattle talers LEAD the news on R4: three little beeb boys, party to a confidence, but eager to TELL on government, Nick and Zeb and Nick 2 (?), relate how an NHS trust boss called to tell them he was afraid of running out of PPE this weekend and asked to be directed to a supplier. This is the biggest item they could find for the news this morning. (Tucked away much
    later: Chinese hid half the initial outbreak in Wuhan.)
    Like all little boys, bursting with a secret they gleefully need to tell everyone, in order to ‘get somebody into trouble’, they spill the beans as far and wide as they can. Target: government.
    I remember that childish, spiteful behaviour from long,long ago, when I was at the beginning of primary school.
    BBC level of maturity. Or rather, immaturity.
    Pat on the back from Keir and Jonathan Ashworth, and our deity since WW2, the NHS.
    Oh yes, I do now recall our excited little verse, in retribution against the ‘tellers’: “Tattle tale tit, your tongue shall split!”
    Maybe that’s where beeb gets its forked tongue from?

       22 likes

  27. Fedup2 says:

    Fake
    Can you imagine any other organisation – with so much money and so many managers – which has no plan or capability to run itself without running to the government every five minutes Not getting criticised or – indeed – fried for such failure . ?

    Instead – free pass and unthinking worship .

    There are a number of staff who are regularly exposed to the virus hazard and deserve their pay – but there are hundreds of thousands of ‘ support ‘ which appear of no value at all – and they all receive the freebies and well intentioned giveaways being thrown around .

    And listening to the CMO advertising that people should use the A and E again – because the public has been frightened away – and you think “ how much are these muppets paid “ ? Save the NHS – die at home . Let’s all clap .

    Funny isn’t it – ‘many people ‘( bbc speak) thought that the biggest issue for the UK was the EU – instead it’s a far more difficult monster – The NHS and health industry

       32 likes

    • fakenewswatcher says:

      Fed: And floating in the background we have the mysterious and, no doubt, well-remunerated members of PHE and SAGE and all the countless ‘Trusts’.
      I hate to say this, but when I lived in Germany you simply went to the doctor or the hospital and got treated. There was no fuss or hype about a national health service. Yet, with a far larger population, the Germans have 3,800 COVID deaths and have conducted over half a million tests. We sadly have about 14,000 deaths and have done about 20,000 tests (?) with a target of 100,000. Heavens knows, I respect our frontline staff and rely on them, as much as the next person, but I don’t know about those running the show?
      I don’t understand it! We seem to have many, many bosses in all sorts of guises; the poor old underpaid front liners have to do the heavy lifting for a pittance. (In the very challenging care sector, for a basic wage, which means someone looking after the well-being of our elderly, sometimes down to feeding them and washing their bottoms, get paid the same as the most unsophisticated manual labourer).
      What is going on?

         17 likes

      • Non Snowflake says:

        It’s worth remembering that in Germany, they only count a COVID-19 death if it was the actual main cause of the death. Whereas in Britain (and probably countless other countries) you can die from a heart attack, but if you *happen* to have vague COVID-19 symptoms then you’re automatically a “COVID-19 death”.

        This is one of the reasons why the death rate figures are quite high. Because they’re not strictly true.

           23 likes

        • fakenewswatcher says:

          NS – Then the system of reporting (especially via our ‘impartial’ media) is seemingly at fault?
          I have noticed they now say “died WITH COVID”, rather than “died OF COVID”.
          So, it’s not easy trying to figure out what’s going on. “Damned lies and statistics!” Or is it the other way around?

             17 likes

          • Ian Rushlow says:

            As the old saying goes: “There are lies, damned lies, statistics, and BBC reports”

               16 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Fake
        ‘What is going on ?”
        I think the biggest reason it consistently needs more tax cash is that it is treated like a religion – so emotions are attached which politicians can exploit for their own purposes .

        All of those reforms carried out for as long as I remember – have achieved what ? When a foreseeable plague finally hit .

        There has been a fine twitter discussion today under ‘tosh ‘ with anecdote after anecdote of procurement and simple waste of money because of people who could care less because it’s not their money and it can never fail .

        One has to judge whether such stories are true or not – but reading about simple failures costing thousands is a good indicator of how ill the NHS is .

        As an aside – the money being collected for ‘NHS charities “ – does anyone know what they are ? As the website is less than – er – transparent . ….

           19 likes

      • G says:

        Fnw,
        “We seem to have many, many bosses in all sorts of guises;”
        Margaret Thatcher had the expression to cover all the waste of spaces’ – “Structural Unemployment” – those, ’employed’ but simply doing worthless tasks. And what can we expect more?
        It’s all to do with the lack of quality workmanship these days. You buy a product and, quite often, it doesn’t work. Sloppy, half-hearted manufacturing. Is this intentional? Certainly employs more, ‘structurally employed’ people in the chain.

           9 likes

  28. JamesArthur says:

    I look forward to dipping into R4 at lunch and 5 to vent…it will be more CV 19 is affecting more BAME victims without facts – More we need to know when Lock down will lift (exactly) and more blame Govt for everything with a dash of Trump failing to [insert whatever]

    The BBC are bringers of doom and gloom…

       28 likes

  29. DYKEVISIONS says:

    8.10 am on Radio Bore.

    The ‘Gotcha’ spot for Tory interviewees.

    But no, it was ‘gazumping Cobra meeting’, Wee Willie Krankie, who was to be ‘grilled’ by Martha Kearny.

    There was not a hint of an interruption during the 9 minute chat with questions like was Scotland going to ignore the English and trying desperately to drive a wedge between the ‘no borders’ countries.

    Marth failed miserably and Krankie to her credit was not to be drawn.

    Strange how there was not the usual divergent question at the end. Something like how are you feeling inside, that Alex Salmond has been cleared of all those nasty charges?

    Maybe they ‘ran out of time’. ..

       39 likes

    • JimS says:

      Nicola provides a useful non-Labour extra socialist voice with which to beat the government.

      But the London-centric BBC ignores what she is doing in Scotland, there is no ‘holding power to account’ there.

      We used to (still) see exactly the same with the EU as Katya is given free-reign to tell us how bad we are in the UK and how marvellous the EU is. Whenever did the BBC get the likes of Junker on and ‘hold his power to account’?

      Curiously the same doesn’t apply to President Trump where they even query the shade of his tanning cream. One would think that our Bronzed Strumpet might be an expert on that!

         15 likes

  30. The Sage says:

    Not related to the BBC as such. But a rant is required this morning.
    We now have a situation where some 91% of those dying from CV-19 have a serious pre-existing medical condition.
    So if you are fit and healthy your chances of dying from CV-19 are 0.18% – and that’s for all ages, including those over 70.
    We are totally wrecking the economy, putting millions out of work or on furlough (nine million in fact), generally ruining people’s lives, increasing all kinds of domestic abuse and harming those who can’t get treated because operations are being delayed. These people are now dying too.
    Your chances of contracting CV-19 in the open air are practically zero. Whereas and as even Sir Patrick Vallance acknowledges it’s in hospitals and care homes that contagion is greatest and above R1.
    So please ease this stupid lockdown or there will be mass rebellion and irreparable economic catastrophe. If only we had Donald Trump at the helm here instead of Captain Wimp (sorry Dominic Raab).
    Don’t forget all those on the SAGE committee get their salary in full each month so why should they worry.
    I, for one, am now going to ignore the petty lockdown rules and to hell with the consequences. I encourage others to do likewise.

       32 likes

  31. Darcy3 says:

    Working from home poses little problem to most, and I have no problem contacting private organisations as part of my work, but local authorities are a different matter alltogether, cannot answer the phone and no response to emails or phone messages for days

    they need little excuse to down tools it seems, I have always been an advocate for some working from home, saves time, traffic jams etc etc but many organisations are wary of it

    local authority “workers” may give them the excuse they need to object to it.

    I am still awaiting a response to some messages left Moday 8:45 am there is NO excuse for this kind of inefficiency.

       13 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      “Working from home poses little problem to most..”
      Are you sure about that . Most jobs can’t be done from home.

         11 likes

      • Darcy3 says:

        Working from home for poses little problem to most who are currently doing so

           8 likes

      • JimS says:

        I suspect that most work that can be done from home probably didn’t need doing anyway.

        Give people a computer and they will make lists. When they have done that they will make lists of lists.

        Growing things, digging up stuff and putting it all together to make things can’t be done from home.

           15 likes

  32. theisland says:

    I’ve just read a rather upbeat article by historian Andrew Roberts from two weeks ago, where he compares BoJo’s current political strategies with those of Winston during WW2.

    The jury is very much still out imo, but what Roberts has to say about the bBC is relevant:

    Of course, Churchill was fortunate not to have the BBC to contend with, with its present-day interviewers insisting on Radio 4’s Today programme that Ministers ‘come clean’ over how long the lockdown will last, as though the Government had an exact date in mind and was deliberately covering it up.

    Boris wrote that Churchill in 1940 was ‘patriotic to a degree that many have always considered hyperbolical and unnecessary, but which now, in the present crisis, seemed utterly right’.

    What a shame, then, that the BBC’s constant griping against the Government presents such a tin ear to the public’s needs in this crisis, treating this massive national emergency as though it’s normal, Brexit-era business as usual.

       24 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      Government needs to admit they are clueless and making it up as they go along.
      Then people wouldn’t imagine they’re hiding stuff.

         15 likes

      • AndyDozefeet says:

        Of course the alternative to “making it up as they go along” would be to have devised a fixed plan of action with fixed timescales at the start of February.

        Not a great idea when trying to deal with an unprecedented situation with so many unknown unknowns.

        But please feel free to join the rest of the touchline internationals with their PHDs in hindsight and clevertwattery!

           5 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Eddy, people (ie. most of us) are intelligent enough to know that the UK Government is dealing with a shed load of known unknowns and unknown unknowns re Covid-19 as are their scientific advisers and the medical advisers, too.

           6 likes

  33. Doobster78 says:

    Guest posted a similar picture earlier, however, different angle here.

    Now remember, this is the over-worked, over-stretched Police force who are unable to do anything about your burglary or assault other than issue you with a crime reference number because they are so over-whelmed !!!!!

    Disgraceful use of resources. But, virtue signalling is now a more important part of police work than solving “actual” crime.

    Not a great advert.

       20 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Doob – at least it shows that all the peacetime bleating about plod needing more resources is a fiction . I used to favour bigger police forces but I’m sad that they are so infected with snowflakes that they are becoming Generally embarrassing . The conduct recorded on Twitter of people being bullied in the open air and talk Of examining ‘shopping ‘ proves this .

      I just hope They don’t lose the ability to kill the next Islamic terrorist – wonder how the enemy is getting on in belmarsh ..?

         23 likes

      • john in cheshire says:

        I wonder how Julian Assange is getting on in Belmarsh?

        Mrs Patel should have released him on humanitarian grounds if for no other reason.

           7 likes

        • G.W.F. says:

          john in cheshire

          Bit of a disappointment isn’t she. Perhaps if they have a Tory Party Conference she will make a speech or two

             0 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      “ not a great advert” – but a suicide bombers’ dream – they like bridges ….. naive

         11 likes

  34. Sluff says:

    When you go through the till at the supermarket, each product that goes through triggers an entirely computerised supply chain system into action and the stock gets replenished. Yes I know they have been short of loo rolls but in the vast majority of cases we can get what we need. I mean, have the BBC featured disgruntled customers who could not get their favourite brand of extra virgin olive oil ? Well, so far anyway.

    In manufacturing companies, similar systems operate (Enterprise Resource Planning from SAP and the like). Think of the complexities and componentry required for car assembly and just-in-time deliveries.

    In all the furore over PPE have the BBC (he asked rhetorically as the answer is no) bothered to enquire how the NHS order and manage stock and distribution of PPE?

    They’re not using any one of about 27 different legacy systems, counting boxes, using old green screens and FAX machines by any chance ? How do they electronically monitor usage and hence place new orders? Wouldn’t it be good to ask, just once, rather than get the likes of ‘random’ A and E nurse Mark Boothroyd i.e handpicked Labour activist (thanks GW for post at 0819) on for the daily whinge.

    But no. The BBC will never risk the NHS appearing to be incompetent.

       44 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Sluff
      Exactly..How come the Govt have been getting all the flack and not the NHS procurement? I just don’t understand it..

      Interesting though – I was talking to somebody involved with Irish Health Auth and have heard this from other sources (sound like BBC now) that a lot of the Chinese masks arriving are not fit for purpose and this chap had just place an order with a British company.

      It made me wonder for how long the NHS has been ordering cheap defective masks from China…and nobody could be bothered to check until now if they actually worked?

      BBC . I am sure won’t fact check that…it will be the Govt’s fault

         34 likes

      • Northern Dreamer says:

        I think the government missed a trick here. I would have put all PPE in Amazon warehouses, and let individual authorities order via restricted online logins for them. They are experts on delivery logistics, clearly, NHS/PHE are not. This would be a small way for Amazon to repay the country for the low tax they pay.

           23 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Northern – far too sensible to be of value – who’d want to take over a network which works efficiently ?

             2 likes

        • LastChanceSaloon says:

          ND
          I would put Amazon in control of the whole public sector.
          24 hours and all diversity officers would have a P45.

             1 likes

    • G says:

      Sluff,
      “But no. The BBC will never risk the NHS appearing to be incompetent.”

      A ‘fellow traveller’ on the same merry-go-round.

         17 likes

  35. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

    Well, the lockdown seems to be working here. It’s strict too.
    Today’s figures have been released and there were only eight new cases across the country despite the increasing amount of testing done.
    Most people are supportive of the lockdown and a large number have been asking the government to increase border restrictions.
    Whereas in the UK there seems to be only a partial lockdown, with Matt Hancock acting like an open-borders advocate. (Was he a Remoaner?)

    Rather than worrying about a few petty restrictions I would have thought the main concern for thinking people would be stopping the ceaseless flow into the country, not to subvert the governments rather gentle response. I thought that was the BBC’s territory.

       24 likes

    • theisland says:

      Some reasons not to trust Matt Hancock.
      He voted Remain and three times for Treezer’s ‘deal’.
      (And he ‘loves’ the bBC – as well as the NHS naturally.)

         15 likes

      • fakenewswatcher says:

        Island – Never mind, he has good points (if you like that sort of thing) : he’s a smooth talker and a born PR professional.

           6 likes

      • The WestWyvern says:

        Traitor to his country I’m afraid.

           4 likes

  36. Tabs says:

    The BBC are busy making up fake stories today (more than usual it seems):

    Coronavirus: ‘My housemate refuses to social distance’
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-52281443
    “My housemate came back to the flat at midnight, during lockdown, with two women.”
    Illustrated by an angy white couple. The BBC only ever use non BAME to illustrate bad people.

    Coronavirus: ‘I need gowns, can I call Burberry?’ NHS trust boss asks
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52319576
    The director of a large NHS trust has contacted the BBC asking for the phone numbers of Burberry and Barbour…
    The internet or directory enquires would be my first choice! Even if this was true, which it is not, then it shows the director of large NHS trust is incompetent and most likely the reason they have no PPE.

       39 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      If mass immigrantion and an economy based on rising house wasn’t paramount, there wouldn’t be do many people sharing accommodation.

         15 likes

    • JimS says:

      Don’t they have laundries in ‘our’ NHS?

         9 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        To best of my knowledge, Jim, no laundries and no autoclaves (sterilisers). Laundry can be done as far away as 100 miles from the major London hospitals, eg. Dover. The instrument trays for surgery are done in the home counties, Hertfordshire for some London hospitals again.

           4 likes

  37. The Sage says:

    Apparently, the BBC believes Capt Tom Moore fought in Myanmar during WWII.
    I remember now it was that hard-fought Myanmar campaign against the Japanese and those heroic members of the Myanmar Star Association.

       23 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      As ever, the BBC are ignorant and inaccurate. If Captain Tom Moore fought in Myanmar during WWII, alongside other heroic members of the Myanmar Star Association, surely it would have been against the cruel and dastardly Nihonjin from the Land of the Rising Sun? At this rate they’ll be refering to Bharat as India, Magyarország as Hungary and Beloved Angela Merkel’s Deutschland as Germany. Anyway, I’m off to eat my lunch of Peking Duck.

         15 likes

  38. G says:

    The EU?
    Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail, fail (and infinitum)
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15892/eu-failure-coronavirus

    I look forward to the, ‘Worlds Most Trusted’ broadcaster covering this topic. Now, wouldn’t that be interesting…………

       19 likes

  39. vlad says:

    Al beeb are loving this pro-immigrant propaganda vid.

    They even manage a few digs at Brexit.

    While the beeb drool over the ‘positive’ message, it’s actually in-your-face cry-bullying, and mildly threatening.

    Coronavirus: ‘You clap for me’ film celebrates ethnic minority workers

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52294950

       16 likes

    • Tabs says:

      The BBC always promote immigration so we can staff our NHS without ever giving a thought to the countries those doctors and nurses left behind.

      Now with a world pandemic and poorer countries struggling shouldn’t the BBC be asking for our foriegn doctors and nurses to do the right thing an return to help their fellow countrymen.

      The UK is hoarding doctors like those shoppers who hoarded loo roll. It is very selfish to others.

         8 likes

  40. G says:

    The European Commission against Racism & Intolerance? Look no further than the Council of Europe.
    https://www.coe.int/en/web/portal/47-members-states
    Never heard of them. Surely something to do with the EU? No. It’s closer to the European Court of Human Rights than the EU but intricately intertwined needless to say. Snouts in the trough? Yes, streaming out reams and reams of dicta to tie everyone of the 47 members’ public. Take for example the UK’s “Permanent” Representative: Christoper Yvon –
    https://www.gov.uk/government/news/change-of-the-united-kingdoms-permanent-representative-to-the-council-of-europe

    As Brucie would have said, “Didn’t he do well”……
    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15806/germany-ecri-free-speech

       4 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      G, Monsieur C. Yvon* spent a year or more – at taxpayer expense – on language training (!) so he was then sent to Bangkok. Makes sense. His first senior post was as Vice-Consul in Riyadh.

      I recall Frank Gardner (BBC) complaining in his book ‘Blood and Sand’ that most F&CO postings to the Middle East could not speak Arabic.

      Somewhat ironic, that Hancock and Hunt were both saying there should be no naming and shaming in the Health sector, this is not the time for blame. Well, when will it be? When everything has been forgotten? Too late then.

      We need to hold out failing public servants, very publicly, not least ‘pour encourager les autres’.

      (* As I thought, Yvon is probably French in origin, so the poor UK taxpayer spent money training him for a year in one of his ancestral languages! At this point, words fail me.)

         7 likes

      • Peter Grimes says:

        “ I recall Frank Gardner (BBC) complaining in his book ‘Blood and Sand’ that most F&CO postings to the Middle East could not speak Arabic.”

        That surprises me. I met Gardner when he worked for a Saudi bank in the City, pre Al Beeb. I also have lots of friends from the ME, mostly Palestinian emigres and mostly Christian. The FCO used to have a language school in Lebanon which my friends called the ‘Spy School’. I don’t know where they do their Arabic language training nowadays but the recent head of counter terrorism, who I know well, learnt both Arabic and Pashtun (for obvious reasons) early in his career. He is bloody clever though!

           5 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Peter, good for him. (Your friend.)

          Gardner, made a point of learning Arabic while at Exeter Uni, iirc, and yes, he was originally a banker and lived & worked in the Middle East before joining the BBC. I had to do a spot of Jury Service some years ago and his book was just the right thing for any waiting periods, of which there were a number. I therefore recommend ‘Blood & Sand’ for any lockdown tedium relief that may be required.

          I had a Lebanese temporary assistant in a previous career. He sneezed one day and as an automatic reflex I said “Gesundheit.” His responses was a surprised “You speak Yiddish?”

          He was a Christian but had lived in a mixed Christian/Jewish/Arab community in Lebanon before the Civil War there and could converse in Arabic, Yiddish and English, some German and Italian, too, I think.

             2 likes

  41. vlad says:

    Al beeb loving this pro-immigration propaganda vid.

    They even manage some digs at Brexit.

    While the beeb drool over its ‘positive message’, the vid is actually in-your-face cry-bullying and the tone slightly threatening.

    “Coronavirus: ‘You clap for me’ film celebrates ethnic minority workers”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-52294950

       8 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      The BBC and other hard leftists are in a state of desperate denial as their end approaches. It’s all rather akin to Hitler in his final days in the bunker, still declaring that the Reich is going to last for 1000 years, whilst in reality the Red Army are but a few blocks away. It’s quite simple, BBC: the era of globalism, open borders and the EU has been thoroughly discredited. Ordinary people are sick of your obsessions with race, gender, flatulent feminism, bogus environmentalism and Islamophilia. The future is about family, tradition, nation, bringing jobs back home and friendly co-operation with other countries that have similar values. Get with the flow or become history.

         35 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Not all in BBC box tick heaven are as thrilled.

         13 likes

      • Doobster78 says:

        Yep. Let’s see the BBC and MSM drool over a video celebrating “WHITE” front line workers only shall we ??

        No. Because that would be racist wouldn’t it.

        Racism only ever works one way !!!!!!

        DISGUSTING.

           24 likes

      • Tabs says:

        It’s the narrative that all these people have come so save us that annoys me. The truth is they have come to the UK get a well paid job.

        You can be a doctor or delivery driver in your country of birth but it is the riches of a UK salary that they want.

           17 likes

  42. Sluff says:

    Compare and contrast.

    Two people sit on beach 2 metres apart. A squad of police officers arrive threatening to arrest them.

    Twenty odd illegal immigrants on an inflatable boat, sitting shoulder to shoulder land on beach. A squad of police officers……..are……errrr…………either mysteriously absent or else assist them with help from the Open Border Force.

    Now who is posing the greater risk?

       42 likes

  43. digg says:

    The BBC tell us that they had a call from the Director of a large NHS trust in the South of England asking them for the phone numbers for Burberry and Barbour so he could phone and ask if they could make protective gowns.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52319576

    Two questions: Is this “Director” unable to find the phone numbers without the help of the BBC and if not why is he a director and why do the BBC decline to name the Trust?

    Setup Job?

    So BBC!

       33 likes

  44. AsISeeIt says:

    From box-ticking on the BBC box to box hedges

    Apropos of nothing in particular…

    For what seems like the fifth year running I’m fighting a losing battle in my garden against box tree caterpillars.

    They are the spawn of what Country Life on-line charmingly term “the rather beautiful box tree moth”

    They do recognise the devastating effects on British gardens “It was as if a swarm of locusts had passed through” and acknowledge this pest “is a recent alien import”

    I’m guessing you will either know or have guessed by now “…whose natural home is East Asia”

    Sadly there’s no solution in the form of any pesticide available to the general public without prior training in pesticide use.

    This year I think I may finaly give up the fight and dig out and burn the disfigured hedges.

    Some stately homes will, I’m sure, have access to professional supplies of the strong stuff. Ultimately I’m afraid all our private suburban garden box hedges are doomed.

    Do we blame globalisation… lack of border controls….?

    https://www.countrylife.co.uk/gardens/get-rid-box-moth-caterpillars-177100

       8 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      AISI, have you tried the soap spray method?

         3 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        I’ve attempted everything from picking off by hand to various spays – used at double recommended strength. The cycle of reinfestation is so rapid that you turn your back for two days and they are back. After the initial arrival every year they return. Someone may know the evolutionaty science but I get the impression that a native pest would not obliterate its own food source in this way and would have natural predators.

           5 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Yes, pain. Complete pain! This neck of the woods is heavy on slugs, snails (with amazing altitude and gap squeezing through, shells not withstanding, capabilities) and then the large whites come by. Saw two – probably a mating pair, aauugggh! – early this month.

          All I can help with now would be the suggestion of an e-mail to Pippa Greenwood of GQT fame.

             4 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            Up2 – waddayamean’aauugggh?’- I pay good money for my snailporn account ….

            I looked out of the window the other day and saw a fox sunning himself about 20 feet away from me – I reached for my kimono and baseball bat and Twitter account and the rest is history……..

            ( no animals were injured in the making of this post )

               7 likes

            • Up2snuff says:

              Fed, my few attempts at growing food proved to have magnetic qualities for snails, slugs and the little caterpillars of the Large White a.k.a. the Cabbage White butterfly. The latter may look pretty on a summer’s day in sunshine but I felt I needed a miniature AK of the Heinz limited to 47 varieties to see them off my crops.

              It’s going to have to be kitchen window sill or raised beds if I’m going to get into serious food growing.

              As for foxes, without thinking one sunny morning a couple of years ago – may have been in early winter – I slid open the patio doors and went outside without thinking what might have invaded during the night. There was a furious scrabbling, claws on wood, noise from the end of the old estate and a still sleepy, elderly fox was trying to get up and over the fence. He (or she) had been sleeping on a nice pile of hay that had been parked down there after being cleared from the meadow a.k.a. lawn.

                 2 likes

  45. Fedup2 says:

    Asiseeit
    On the theme of unwanted imports – brillo is on form again highlighting the insanity of allowing flights into the UK from high covid places like New York and Italy and et China …..
    His calculation in 105 thousand a week . No medical checks – mostly long haul – a plane load of infected people .

    Someone somewhere has been bribed to allow this – surely …? Puts a bit of nonsense on heavy handed plod telling people to ‘ go home ‘

    If you recall – the brexit battle involved ignoring ‘ experts ‘ then with covid ‘experts ‘ came back into fashion – but now ‘ experts’ – ? Are they really ‘ experts’?

       32 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ‘No medical checks – mostly long haul – a plane load of infected people’

      Lockdown, what lockdown?

      Clearly the priority is not quarantine as such.

      I do believe however, the great fear nagging at the government was the image of NHS hospitals, already inflexible and unadaptive, failing to cope – or rather the stick such images would have provided to the media opposition with which the government would have been beaten mercilessly.

         13 likes

      • The WestWyvern says:

        As, Lockdown is over.

        It finished yesterday around 18.00hrs in England. Around this time the first plane of Eastern European veg pickers arrived.

        Listening to the vehicles driving up and down the main road near to my dwelling today, I’d think a lot of others out there are beginning to think the same.

           12 likes

  46. Up2snuff says:

    The Parliamentary Health Select Committee is making a big mistake looking at UK deaths, a point I have been making for all on here for some time.

    Yesterday we learned an important statistic from the ONS: for at least the early deaths, if not all of them so far, 90 per cent were in the over 65 age group, all had on average three underlying, pre-existing serious health conditions. Jonny Dymond for the BBC is compounding the same mistake in his interview with Jeremy Hunt, Chair of the PHSC, on TWatO.

       10 likes

  47. Doobster78 says:

    Not BBC but ITV. Coming up …….

    The government under pressure to clarify position on use of face masks !!!!!

    Under pressure ????? You mean the media are desperate for change in policy to put it down to a Government u turn !!!!!

    Day after day at the press conference they have told us clearly with full scientific reasoning why the advice is as it is.

    The media are pure scum. Every day it’s another attempt to find something to beat the Government with. It’s just sickening.

       39 likes

  48. StewGreen says:

    R2 “over to caller Stella”
    … eh up Stella has a deep voice
    i did have a severe week, but I survived
    .. I think I have had Covid19, cos the doctor says I have lung damage
    .. and you just mentioned that females withstand Covid19, well as a 65 yo I’ve been taking estrogen for a while
    So would it have been that estrogen that protected me .

    Only then to Vine say “Oh are you transitioning ?”

    * BTW after menopause women don’t have a lot of estrogen
    so it is not that alone that protects women. It’s more likely that cos they have 2 different X chromosomes this gives them better immune systems than males.

       9 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      oops I forgot the quotattion marks
      Stella “i did have a severe week, but I survived
      .. I think I have had Covid19, cos the doctor says I have lung damage
      .. and you just mentioned that females withstand Covid19, well as a 65 yo I’ve been taking estrogen for a while
      So would it have been that estrogen that protected me ?”

         4 likes

  49. StewGreen says:

    BAME more susceptible ?
    Funny cos the NHS case registration page
    https://www.nhs.uk/coronavirus-status-checker/

    does ask age, location, symptoms etc.
    BUT not ethnicity …nor even sex

    So they’d only have data for the 1/10th of cases that are severe enough to get to hospital.

       10 likes

    • Tabs says:

      Most cases are in highly populated cities like inner London where BAME populations are close to 25% hence why disportionate number BAME covid19 cases compared to the 13% BAME UK population.

      But BBC don’t do facts, they just say “Covid19 is racist like Trump”.

         13 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        And the funny thing is that Barnet, less BAME inhabitants than most London Boroughs has more cases of Covid-19 per head of population than Tower Hamlets or Newham, the two poorest of the London Boroughs.

           3 likes