295 Responses to Weekend Thread 23rd January 2021

  1. Guest Who says:

    Lurch knows what a ‘BBC audience’ likes.

    Apparently.

       24 likes

    • JimS says:

      What he means is that he only has to satisfy ‘some people’, i.e. his mates standing next to the water cooler.

      He doesn’t have to satisfy the public because the BBC’s income is substantially assured regardless of what it puts out – they always get it ‘just about right’ so the ‘customer’ doesn’t matter.

         41 likes

    • tomo says:

      Lurcher …. of course the epitome of unbiased BBC North America propaganda “reporting”

      I’ve now listened to several BBC -USA correspondents bigging themselves up over their fabled impartiality. I was neutral on DJT at the outset and still think he’s flawed – like anybody… but it’s now getting on for half a decade since I first heard of Trump Derangement Syndrome and the term is still as fresh as the day it was dreamed up….

      How many people did the BBC physically send to the Biden inauguration >> 20?

         33 likes

    • JohnC says:

      These outrageous hypocrites seem to have no problem about the fact that Trump has been silenced online.
      It’s about as far away from democracy as you can get.

         8 likes

  2. Thoughtful says:

    Interesting that Israel which now vaccinated 39% of the population is not seeing any decrease in the number of covid related hospital admissions.

    Whittey says it’s too early to draw any conclusions, and we all know how much the BBC hates Israel, but if vaccination of nearly half the population doesn’t reduce the critically ill, what is the cowardly useless incompetent Tory government going to do? Permanent lockdown ?

       24 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Economist says “A sign that vaccination is starting to give Israeli hospitals some breathing space emerged a fortnight after January 2nd, the day when the proportion of those over 60 who had been vaccinated reached 40%. The number critically ill with covid-19 in that age group grew by about 30% in the week before January 2nd, and also in the following week—but by just 7% in the week after that (see chart 2). By contrast, among those aged between 40 and 55 (who were vaccinated at a much lower rate at the time) the weekly change in the number of critically ill remained constant, with a 20-30% increase in each of those three weeks.
      https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/01/23/how-fast-can-vaccination-against-covid-19-make-a-difference

         17 likes

    • tomo says:

      Israel being the place where 20% fewer people died when the doctors went on strike …. (giyf)

      – a widely applicable metric?

         7 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      The vaccine takes time to increSe your resistance to the virus. For the first week after vaccination there is no benefit and the full benefit takes about a month to develop. Two doses are of course required to give full benefit for an extended time.
      The virus causes an illness which only reaches its full extent after ten days to a week from the onset of the first symptoms.
      Add these two facts together and it’s apparent that the Israelis won’t begin to see the benefits of their programme for a few weeks yet.

         1 likes

  3. Fedup2 says:

    467k vaccinated in the UK in the last 24hours …?

       5 likes

  4. Fedup2 says:

    It’s 478k vaccinations – the number is buried on the BBC website -as though they don’t want to celebrate such a great achievement – 4000 people on respirators is the big headline – ugh .

       23 likes

  5. tomo says:

    I see that the BBC has resuscitated the Cult of Obamessiah in the web shite sidebar of shame. I detect some considerable deflection going on wrt Joe’s bumbling and his team’s toxicity.

    Ohyay, Ohyay, Behold The Promised Land !

    The Democrats are going to need more than BHO’s oratory and tanker loads of CNN_BBC hogwash to turn around what looks like a shambles….

    cue Michelle …… and action!

       20 likes

    • JimS says:

      Obama’s ‘skill’ as an orator is a media myth.

      He can just about read someone else’s script on a pair of teleprompters and never makes eye contact with the audience. Probably just as well as he is so cold that anyone in his eyeline would freeze instantly.

      Observe how Biden’s missus has now become a fashion icon, (according to the media), yet Trump’s super-model trophy wife was slagged off. Tell us often enough and some believe.

         17 likes

  6. StewGreen says:

    Covid : If you look at UK test data adjusted for actual date rather than reported death, you can see we’ve been in a falling phase for a while
    See @LawrenceGilder tweets

    EsbppJNW4Acp4hw?format=png&name=small

    On deaths it’s similar, but 3 weeks behind.
    So far no days have had more than 1,200 deaths, but a couple may pass that line by the time catchup data comes in.

       8 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      typo: “actual date rather than reported date”

         3 likes

    • JimS says:

      Some sort of seven-day cycle going on there.

      Almost as if they clear the ‘in-tray’ on Monday then slacken off for the weekend.

      But, as we learned from the US election, claims derived from looking at the data are ‘baseless’.

      [We could do with someone like ‘Monkeybrains’ of old ITBB fame to produce a glossary of all these BBC stock phrases – some say, mostly peaceful, about right etc.!]

         8 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Stew, that ‘Now you see it, Now you don’t’ R-rate was mentioned yesterday or Friday. It was ‘stated’ on BBC R4 as being between 0.8 and 1.0 whereas other claims have been made that it is more like 0.6. Either of those rates would support your “you can see we’ve been in a falling phase for a while”.

         3 likes

  7. StewGreen says:

    Breaking : Krystina Arielle, Star Wars show, racist tweets
    The BBC put out a cover story 6 mins ago
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55782460
    but have already been exposed on their thread.

    A longer article
    https://boundingintocomics.com/2021/01/22/newly-announced-star-wars-the-high-republic-host-krystina-arielle-calls-all-white-people-are-racist/

    I read it that she has an aggressive personality, and sees herself as an feisty anti-racism worried
    but that causes her to cross over and start generalising about “white people” as if they are automatically all racist.

       35 likes

    • Doobster78 says:

      She is black ….therefore a simple apology will suffice.

      Nothing to see here. No.further action.

      As we all know , t’other way round …would be hounded night and day by the MSM until never worked again !!!!

      DISGUSTING.

         38 likes

    • TrickCyclist says:

      Funny how the gatekeepers for Star Wars now accuse others of racism when historically the franchise itself was always accused of such.
      The original film was ‘racist’ because it had no black actors in it (even though it did feature James Earl Jones’s voice). Its sequel was ‘racist’ because it HAD a black guy in it. 1999’s The Phantom Menace was ‘racist’ because it had a weirdo amphibian alien accused of being a throwback to “Stepin Fetchit” kinds of characters.
      Star Wars was created by a white Californian liberal at the time of the Vietnam war and Watergate, saying:

      “The empire is like America ten years from now, after Nixonian gangsters assassinated the Emperor and were elevated to power in a rigged election; created civil disorder by instigating race riots aiding rebel groups and allowing the crime rate to rise to the point where a ‘total control’ police state was welcomed by the people. Then the people were exploited with high taxes, utility and transport costs.”
      https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Revolution_(political_movement)

      Hmm, how does that sound today?

         24 likes

  8. StewGreen says:

    Trump : apparently “The Senate cannot bar Trump from being President again, regardless of the outcome of any ersatz ‘impeachment’ trial.
    according to the Constitution”

       30 likes

  9. Dover Sentry says:

    Trump has not gone quietly into the night….

       19 likes

  10. Loobyloo says:

    Not Al Beeb but its twin sister Sky have had an article up on their website all day about crowds at Heathrow ‘departures’ being superspreader areas because of lack of social distancing. The photo shown clearly shows arrivals, as Twitter users have pointed out. Was this an intentional ‘mistake’ so it didn’t show how many folk are still piling into the country (including Adam Boulton)??

    COVID-19: Crowds at Heathrow Airport spark social distancing concerns

       21 likes

  11. Lovely Luvvies says:

    Well after their absolutely shocking display of silencing free speech I’ve closed my Amazon account, facebook account, Youtube subscriptions gone, working on getting rid of watsap but all the kids are on there hmm. The hardest one is the TV licence I’d have got rid ages ago but the wife doesn’t want me to, she watches tv whereas I dont at all now (mainly because catching adverts or any news enrages me so its not good for my health). So pleased I found this website and a big thanks to all who post, it keeps me sane in this mad world , asiseeit paper revue is my comedy moment of the day, keep up the good work all. LL

       74 likes

  12. Philip_2 says:

    For a change of reading I picked up a copy of Private Eye this week. I am no fan of Ian Hislop (the current Editor) as he has close links to the BBC. But I was mildly surprised that the amongst the corporate shenanigans (profiteers making a mint out of PPE) was the old regular spots of totally corrupt Labour Councils often in league with local property developers who just happen to be have links back to Labour. Mainly up North (North of Watford), but Tower Hamlets is never far away in the fraud stakes and fake council elections is part of the culture. And then more than a few Labour Councils are near bankrupt, but still pay themselves as much as the BBC.

    Private Eye does a good job in lampooning these corrupt individuals, who often as not turn up to collect government contracts and sell them into local councils as a cure-all. We used to call them con-men, and its amazing how they get away with selling dodgy goods to corrupt councils who take a back hander, even when found faulty. There are so many to list, so I won’t. Many of those Dodgy Councils (often with huge debts) end up shouting down the BBC megaphone for more lockdowns, more money (from central government) and feature regularly on the BBC at every opportunity.

    I.e. daft Welsh minster or some idiot mayor of Manchester among many.

    The BBC are not far from corruption either. But at least they have the power to erase all knowledge and never report it on a major stage. A sanitised view of the world, where you only get heard if you hate your country enough to destroy it. Hate the conservatives without the ‘benefits ‘the BBC continue to enjoy (at public expense), private healthcare, private pensions and the highest media salaries in the UK, often as not with a ‘private’ media production company linked to the BBC family of elites), at the same time it has a rotten antiquated civil-service ‘rights’ mentality is run by folk that are entitled to all the privileges (marxist traitors in the past among them) without any public responsibility and are by self obsessed to the point of being abnormally weird until they retire (very rich).

    Anything this country needs is just ridiculed by the BBC. But then who listens to the BBC now?

    So it was refreshing to learn that Private Eye is still lampooning the same cretins that I grew up with and that the BBC will still not investigate or report. Some of this is hilarious, and yet nowhere on the BBC will it ever get a mention. I prefer the previous editor (on retirement set up The Oldie which is another good rag). I find the BBC offensive, but then in context, there is a lot of competition for crooks and swindlers on the public purse. The BBC is a cover up to many of them. I still find it worrying that Ian Hislop works for the BBC, and seems to enjoy his role as (so called) comedian.

    Despite that the magazine is as offensive as ever. Good. Despite the BBC.

       37 likes

    • Dover Sentry says:

      Thanks, Philip_2, you make some excellent points.

      The BBC buy loyalty. They have bought Hislop. That is Corruption.

      You either comply with the far Left BBC or you don’t get paid. Simple as that. Their ‘buying’ power is immense, and immense through our money.

      The extent of BBC corruption and control may never be entirely known. Look how long it took us to escape the EU?

      The BBC and the EU are the two ugly sisters.

         32 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Philip I mentioned on Notalot a couple of weeks ago
      The Eye had an article about councils getting wrapped up with a solar spiv and borrowing hundreds of millions to invest in these sure fire solar farms.
      Of course they are only looking at today’s returns when actually there is huge risk of panels breaking and deteriorating.

         17 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Back in Ingrams’ days, the stories by Paul Foot, about ‘The Slicker of wakefield’ were momentous!

        The Poulson case really did catch so many people with their trosers down! I knew a distiguished architect back then, (I was a lowly rep then, but as he was such a good man, he talked and listened to everybody), and he was on the panel who investigated the professional appointments, shenanigans etc., and he admitted that once ‘The Eye’ had got hold of the story, there was no alternative but to expose the whole fraud!

        Paul Foot – a hard-line left-winger, was a superb investigative journalist, and the complete opposite to all the weak, lily-livered, spineless, sneering, gotcha-like, over-paid, over-privileged, smarmy-smug types at the BBBBC or Sky (never watch actually) and all the other fat ‘institutions’ which deserve bugger-all for their pathetic ‘efforts’ to go first-class to get a non-story about some underprivileged ‘victim’, somewhere in an obscure sink estate in a forgotten old city.

           16 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          That’s interesting, Scrobie. In the mid-to-late-1970s I was introduced to the work of the late Jimmy Forsythe, an incredible one-eyed amateur photographer. There was a Poulson link in that Jimmy was effectively one of Poulson’s evictees.

             3 likes

  13. Guest Who says:

    What Twitter was made for.

       14 likes

  14. Guest Who says:

    Apparently Greta has mocked the outgoing President.

    Easy enough when not required to secure votes every few years.

    A bit like the bbc and staff.

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2021/01/23/what-controversy-mr-harrabin/

    Editorial guidelines at the BBC depend very much on creating scenarios out of thin air and then ‘reporting’ them.

    Marianna knows when not to check too deeply.

       23 likes

  15. StewGreen says:

    @sluff I hope you weren’t put off by last night
    We always tell the students “please make mistakes”
    cos those that never give themselves permission to make mistakes end up staying in their shells and never learning.
    Life is a journey and all that.
    And you watched the news
    and then M watched the same news and so he got a “gotcha” on you
    Cherrypicking for gotchas is his thing.

    Posting late at night can be problematic
    I wonder if you mixed what you thought you’d heard on the TV, with headlines on the radio
    cos today I did hear the radio news talk about the 12 week vax and they said the BMA were saying one thing but “ministers say 12 weeks is OK” when as far I know the ministers are simply following the advice of a different set of experts.

    BBC/MSM world seems to be full of this “gotcha” mentality
    I guess here we are not looking for gotchas, but rather documenting systematic distortion of worldview.
    And there two different standards : beeboids are paid so we expect them to proofread etc.
    Here we are just a blog so can be expected to have a lower standard, when it comes to typos, mistakes etc.

       8 likes

  16. StewGreen says:

    Parler has got a US registrar , and Russian own server company, so has a front page open.
    but no Parler service yet.

    Of Dems are threatening it, saying it provides a service for goofballs
    ie people they label “insurrectionists”.

       13 likes

  17. Dover Sentry says:

    Stew, You’ve touched upon an interesting area. The BBC get paid and we don’t. We are unpaid volunteers who hold the BBC to account. We don’t shrug our shoulders and walk away, we research and type our findings.

    We devote our time and energy to this unpaid but just cause. There is no paid group that actually hold the BBC to account.

    Oh, there is OFCOM who are paid a lot, but 20% are ex BBC.

    https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/what-is-ofcom

    Here’s two BBC men in OFCOM whose corporate photos show them wearing a suit without a tie. Badge of not a Tory voter:-

    1. ….joining the BBC as a researcher in 1989. He went on to edit the Ten O’Clock News, becoming Deputy Head of the BBC Newsroom and Controller of the BBC News channel and BBC News at One. During his time editing BBC news bulletins, the programmes won awards from organisations including BAFTA and the Royal Television Society.

    2. …Tim was a BBC producer, editor and senior manager and Head of Broadcasting Policy in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in 2002, responsible for the Communications Act of 2003 and the creation of OFCOM.

    I rest my case. Keep up the good work all.

    ????

       23 likes

  18. ScottishCalvin says:

    I saw that the hate preacher Abu Hamza is asking to be released from jail on the basis that his battle with diabetes could result in him losing more limbs. I’m sure he’ll survive though… by hook or by crook.

    Cartoon and thoughts on Trump+Biden:

       19 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Scottishcalvin …so what you’re saying is ….. President Trump was a good president . As you run through the list the case for the stolen election just grows and grows .

      And there was so much you left out too .

      But mr trump did fail on one big issue – which cost him the election – he failed to drain the swamp – and they fixed the voting because of it .

      But maybe no one can fix it – certainly not now – after seeing what it can do …..
      ….. pizza for breakfast ..?….

         23 likes

      • ScottishCalvin says:

        I don’t think he actually had the desire or graft to do the work involved in that herculean task, certainly after Bannon was gone. There is some truth to the accusations that he spent 4 years enjoying the crowds and playing golf, while outsourcing a lot of stuff like the middle east. Lack of wanting to get involved may be why there wasn’t a ware, most presidents feel that they want to do ‘something’. He did do some good populist stuff like elliminating Nafta but it was more with an aim to get re-elected than “destroy the system”.

        Most politicians have their good and bad points and anyone who claims someone is the devil or messiah probably learnt it from their echo chamber. It’s always a useful excercise challening you or someone else to take a hero/villain and names some things from the opposite perspective. Heck let’s think: Corbyn is probably a good constituency MP if you have a problem. Blair got everyone in N Ireland round the table. The remainers obsessive fight against May’s fake brexit deal is why we ended up with Boris’s proper one. etc

           5 likes

  19. TheRebelUK says:

    I wonder when the BBC will ask a question that we all want answered when Boris or any politician are doing the Covid briefings.

    When will the BBC say, so what was the point of vaccinations?

    The so called government said we need to lock up our own people to stop us all being ill and dying and NHS blah blah

    But now people are getting the vaccine and so we safe again so no excuse to not open up the country again?

    People can’t live like this when it’s tyrannical what they are doing and the BBC should hold them to account but they don’t again

       27 likes

    • ScottishCalvin says:

      “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name”

         25 likes

    • taffman says:

      TheRebelUK
      “the BBC should hold them to account but they don’t again”
      That’s why the Telly Tax is allowed to go on . It won’t surprise me if Bo Jo bails them out from their present financial crisis .

         14 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    BBC Radio 4

    This week’s Radio 4 Appeal is on behalf of the charity Practical Action which works with communities in South Asia, Africa and South America to develop lasting and locally owned solutions for agriculture, climate resilience, water and waste management and clean energy. The appeal is made by TV reporter Seyi Rhodes.

    ***
    So far, no responses. Sunday so everyone under the duvets.

    Maybe they should have used a celeb of blondness?

       9 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Blazing across social media too.

      Agriculture and hydrology clearly more hazardous in these communities than many.

      Possibly explaining the engagement.

         2 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @PracticalAction A charity tweeted
      Tune into @BBCRadio4 this week and you might catch TV reporter @Seyirhodes
      talking about our Turning the Tables on #ClimateChange appeal
      on Sunday 24th at 7.54am & 9.26pm. Thank you Seyi!

      So it is a climate action charity
      even though that is not clear in the BBC blurb.

         1 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Donate to this charity promoted by the BBC
        & you are helping brainwash British kids
        They have a division
        “@PA_Schools
        We are the schools team of @practicalaction and provide FREE STEM resources on global issues both for teachers and to support #homelearning”

           1 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          Are they a front ?
          “Our founder was radical economist and philosopher E.F. ‘Fritz’ Schumacher”
          founded in 1966 as ITDG Intermediate Technology Development Group
          based in Rugby since 1984
          I guess they are connected to that hippy Schumacher college in Dartington

          They get millions from DFID
          I can’t see exactly how much

             1 likes

  21. AnneG says:

    I listened to the Radio 4 appeal and smiled.
    Apparently, climate change is the main culprit and why the farmers are struggling.
    Of course the charity will help. Solar panels and Polytunnels will make all the difference. Has no one told them how much of the evil plastic is needed to make these items. Plastic will be banned soon if the eco-mentalists get their way.

       25 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Very true, Anne!

      Just before typing this, I wondered how much plastic stuff I had close by…

      Apart from the desk and chair and a few daffs etc, I had this PC, two transistor wirelesses, an old mobile phone and an iPad, all close to hand, and all capable of giving me any information I wanted at the click of a switch, and all without any stuff from the BBC!

      Not sure what this contributes to the discussion, but it somehow rings a chord…:0~

         18 likes

  22. taffman says:

    Not on Al Beeb yet but it looks as if FaceBook is closing down the lefty ‘lefts’ now?
    I suppose it works both ways ……………
    https://swp.org.uk/press-release-facebook-shuts-down-major-left-wing-group-in-britain

       13 likes

  23. Fedup2 says:

    I overheard the phone call between the false president and princess nut nut ‘s husband ,
    The main subject of the call was where the PM would like the bust of Churchill sent …?

       17 likes

  24. andyjsnape says:

       17 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      Hopefully the BBC is approaching the end times. If the licence payers go on strike they can’t jail them all. The way things are in the courts, the cases would not even be heard before 2023!

         5 likes

  25. AsISeeIt says:

    Return of the Pussy Riots and certain things that aren’t all they’re cracked up to be

    We know the Telegraph has taken somewhat of a turn to the Left but who would have thought it would deliver to us: ‘Meet the new prime minister’ and his name is Sir K?

    As retired army colonels from Sidcup splutter marmelade down their brigade of guards neck ties in disgust and home schooling race studies teachers from Shoreditch throw their bowls of muesli into the air in delight…

    Just checking you were all awake?

    This is Sir Kenneth Branagh (not the other Sir K) on the frontpage of the Sunday Telegraph, who will play the PM in a new TV series.

    At last the show we were all longing to see – a Sky drama about Boris Johnson based on the pandemic. For crying out loud, we’re still living this crap! And they expect us to want us to watch a re-enactment?

    Too soon? – as the old stand up comedian’s disclaimer to a dodgy topical jokes goes. I can see why Sky don’t want to wait for any actual inside info from the impending Public Inquiry – who’s got another twenty years to wait around. Ken Branagh will be old enough to play Biden.

    The Sunday Mirror wants to get a move on: ‘Grieving families call for an inquiry into the PM’s handling of Covid as UK death toll is this week set to reach another grim milestone… 100,000’ – and don’t the press just love it? Of course you can always find someone or other to “call for” just about anything.

    ‘Age appropriate’ – as luck would have it the Telegraph has a feature picturing Joe Biden: ‘The reason 70 is no longer old’

    The BBC devoted a show named 100 Days to Trump and they ran the thing for four years. I give Biden 100 days before he garbles something to camera so demented they have to retire him. At least we know the fawning media, such as the likes of Jon Sopel, will be testing his cognition daily with tricky probing questions like what’s your favourite colour Mr President?

    The Sunday Express quotes the first trans-Atlantic Boris-Biden phone call: ‘PM tells Biden he’s “hope in a dark time”‘

    – “What’s that the snooty Limey is calling me? He says I’m a dope… in what…? What’s that, is it bath time already?”

    The formerly patriotic Times was our anti-Brexit national paper par excellence, although the London Evening Standard, as edited by George Osborne, took the regional Légion d’honneur.

    For a paper that would have had us play perpetual Jeux sans frontières with Brussels, the Sunday Times seems awfully keen on borders: ‘Our disunited kingdom. Majority back border polls in Scotland and Northern Ireland’ – depends how you ask the question, eh? Do you want your laws made closer to home – yes. Do you want to lose the pound and replace it with either some new made up currency or the Euro – not so much.

    The Mail continues its tedious: ‘Jabs for teachers’ campaign. Let me let the Mail into a little secret. The teachers would just as well prefer to stay at home.

    Anyway, jabs ain’t the cure all they’re cracked up to be: ‘Covid: Vaccinated people may spread virus, says Van-Tam’ (BBC)

    The bio-scientific bruiser loves his lockdowns: ‘Van-Tam: Let’s stay patient’ (Sunday Express) – love the pun in the headline there. I guess we’re all patients now, under Matron’s strict orders.

    Our press don’t approve of all street protests being heavy-handedly put down by the authorities and the protesters being labelled as Covidiots: ‘Battle of Pushkin Square’ – if you stir up a crowd for a protest in Russia then the Observer will give your cause a pretty favourable write up.

    I’m surprised by the look of the Rusky protester pictured on the frontpage of the Times, being presumably led away by riot cops to some dungeon deep beneath the Lubyanka. Under the sub-header: ‘Russians revolt’. Is this our typical Navalny dissident? The bottle-blonde, rather well-fed, young lady in miniskirt, ankle boots and puffa jacket, clutching her i-phone, has more the look of a geordie girl on a night out than a tractor factory production line babushka.

    Interestingly if you put the word protesters into Google your top stories (yes I’m afraid they do term news as stories) will be two items on the Russian demos and one on Seattle. Wait about.. Seattle? Yes indeed, you may not have heared it but Lefty Seattle continues to see violent street protests against commercial and Federal buildings and, goodness me, Democratic Party HQ. And they said Donald Trump could control his crazier supporters, seems different rules apply for Biden.

    The Observer reserves its most enthusiastic support for the public sector here in the UK who presumably represent its constituency audience: ‘Minister faces fury over mass Covid outbreak at state agency’- seems there’s been a mass sick note writing campaign in Swansea: ‘500 cases at DVLA as staff told to work on’ – once everything goes online and the last of their jobs are outsourced to India, we’ll see how they like the New Normal.

    ‘Bird bingo’ – no, it’s not the tabloid newspaper golden formula for success: ’10 feathered friends to spot this weekend’ (Telegraph) – well, you’re not allowed to meet your human friends anymore.

    And in sex news: ‘Male infertility, the hidden shame’ (Telegraph)

    I guess that explains why sisters are doing it for themselves… in the Mirror… and with other sisters: ‘Saiorse Ronan: sex scene with Kate was the best gift’

       40 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Asiseeit
      I “call for “ a round of applause for your effort today . It set me in mind if what are the MSM going to do when they try to compare the achievements of President Trump and those of the False President – if the latter survives 100 days say …

         23 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Fed, AsI’s piece is required reading here, but aren’t you being a bit optimistic about Biden’s first ‘hundred days’?

        What’s the bet on first – say – three weeks…?

           12 likes

  26. taffman says:

    IMHO, The Government wont let the outfit go to the wall. It will step in and provide direct funding . If that happens it should only be an IMPARTIAL news channel with news readers like Ian McDonald?
    Yes , that’s the guy that older posters will remember from the TV news briefs during the Falklands War.
    The Luvvies can migrate over to the other commercial channels and earn their keep, just like the rest of the outside world.

       21 likes

  27. tomo says:

    a rather unfortunate camera angle

    picture , 1000 words ‘n all

    b7b514ea-eb41-48e0-a83b-11731b8810e3_poster.jpg?width=660&height=371&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp

       8 likes

  28. Nodding Dog says:

    Someone posted last weekend that they were now unable to listen to Test Match Special because of the wokeness sorry forgot your name.Have listened to the first two days and it’s been a joy to listen to.

    No women commentators no features about womens cricket they have briefly mentioned it though.The cricket has been entertaining too.Yesterday teatime that had a chap on who’s written a book about the history of cricket in Sri Lanka an interesting listen and thousands of times more interesting than listening to an article about womens cricket or racism.

    If Maxi or any other BBC employee on here could pass on my comments and thanks to the TMS team I would be most grateful and tell the producers to keep to the same format and they won’t lose any more listeners…they may actually gain a few!

    Could you also tell the person who wrote on the BBC website the other week that snow in Britain ‘could’ be a thing of the past that I’ve seen more snow where I live in the past couple of weeks than I have in the last couple of years it’s just stopped here after depositing about four inches of the stuff with more to come later apparently.

       34 likes

    • taffman says:

      We woke up this morning in taffland to the flurry of white stuff falling from the sky. Yep that’s the stuff that the extinction rebellion people said our kids would never see again .
      I can’t see it reported on Al Beeb’s front page yet . Perhaps they will when they see it here and then add “despite Brexit” ?

         29 likes

      • The WestWyvern says:

        Simple, Taff. It only started snowing in London around 15mins ago.

        Out here in the Wild West it came down hard between 04.30 and 06.00 this morning.

        Until something happens in London and the Beeboid bubble becomes ‘aware’ then it’s not a thing.

        Bias by omission.

           24 likes

        • taffman says:

          As always, London-centric and completely out of touch with the rest of the country. Hence falling revenue .

             17 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            London snowflakes blame global warming for snowflakes in London . Labour ‘calls for ‘ public inquiry . Not enough grit – RAF to fly in grit from Turkey. Grit contracts go to red Tory donors . Grit czar appointed . Remainer point to EU better response – brexit to blame …and that’s the review of the Sunday papers ….

               35 likes

            • G says:

              Wonderful, Fed!!
              I wonder what coulour / sex the Grit czar will be…………….

                 17 likes

              • Fedup2 says:

                G
                The Grit Czar must be able to start work in June – must have a good understanding of work life balance – understand the complex needs of a diverse community with regard to grit as well as the need to serve the LGBTXYZ community grit issues . …..
                Applications from overseas candidates are particular welcome

                   27 likes

                • Doublethinker says:

                  The successful applicant will also stand out against a snow covered landscape.

                     14 likes

  29. Pat..original says:

    Put radio on for local news early this morning. Just before 7.30 I heard the tail end of an Oxford professor giving an interesting account of a study he has done on the Doomsday Book. He said it was a marvellous example of how well this was carried out in England, indeed the most powerful example of Mediaeval state organisation. He concluded however that we had to remember that this was after the Norman Conquest so there were big connections to European influences and ideas.

    The news summary informed me of a Hindu charity giving free meals to workers in a covid vaccination centre up country. By 7.35a.m. on a Sunday the Big Brother Corporation had given me my woke ration for the day.

       22 likes

  30. G says:

    “New Domestic Terrorist Laws” for US. Tulsi Gabbard/Fox:

    It is claimed that the greatest danger to America is the, ‘Right Wing’. Now where Have I heard that unsubstantiated claim before……..thinks……..thinks….. All part of the ‘softening up’ process out of the UK Communist playbook.

    In fact, imposing Domestic Terrorist Laws on the US is the first move to separate the armed American’s from their guns. After all, they’ve got a “Second Amendment Right”, right? So it would pay to nibble at the problem in tangential and incremental moves, AKA, ‘under cover of darkness’: Let’s call them ‘Terrorists’. As the Democrat/Communists have shown, they are willing to ‘pick and chose’ what laws they want to pursue and/or use on their road to converting the US.

    I concluded back before the Reagan / Thatcher era (the ‘Cuba Crisis’ period) that, for the US, any war with Russia must end up in, what was known then as, ‘MAD’. No need to explain that acronym here. A lower state of war between the three would entail invasions and the like and I suspect the Russians made a careful analysis of the outcome of invading a country where most of the millions of citizens were well armed. But now, we have ideological warfare. Sow confusion, wear down, erode, degrade, alienate make the population hostile to one another as we see classically with our own, “Worlds Most Trusted Broadcaster” and its daily Marxist output designed solely for that purpose. It’s called the ‘Critical Theory’. Sounds complicated, maybe lot’s of ‘x”s and ‘y’s in the equation, but No. Essentially, simply criticise everything to achieve the undermining. Simples!

    I thought long and hard back in 2015 when Merkel beckoned the third World to come to Europe. But why I thought, were muslims any good for communism in the long term? They’re a problem wherever they are. The importation didn’t fit the communist long term aspirations but it sure fitted in with the policy of eroding the fabric of the country where they took up residence. So, I concluded the muslims were and still are, merely a tool to undermine nation states in the West. It was no ‘Joint Venture’. This might ultimately be the communists ‘Achilles Heel’ for their Grand Plan because we know islam and its followers are incompatible with any other ideology. Well, simply, anybody else. And there’s as many out there as are communists and they are prepared to sacrifice their lives to achieve their own preferred bellicose ‘Klingon’ style of existence. For sure I will not be around to see the outcome.

       31 likes

  31. Beltane says:

    David Garmston – BBC South’s very own Jon Snow – made eye-rolling much of the ‘UK holding world’s worst covid death-rate record’, as he and others evidently feel they must. But are things really any different from our slavish adherence to each and every absurd EU ruling, to our own detriment while all the others simply bent the rules?
    Are our figures really the world’s worst, or do we publish more honest reports while the rest peep from behind gloved hands and keep their masses quietly in the dark?
    Just like America’s politics there are those who continue to delight in undermining the government at every turn and our lot – for all their many faults – are faced with the same nightmare as all the others.

       20 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      There is no international agreement on what constitutes a Covid death. In the UK it’s the death of a person who had Covid within the past month . In other countries it might be the death someone who died whilst they still had Covid. The difference in the number of Covid deaths recorded using the two criteria would be significant.
      Perhaps , given the duration of the pandemic , the easiest valid comparison would be to compare excess deaths over the period since Covid in a country and attribute them all to Covid. Of course this would require that the countries involved had systems which accurately measured deaths and also that they didn’t massage the figures.

         11 likes

  32. StewGreen says:

    The Sun’s Charlie Rae’s massive disinformation re The Capitol
    11:22am Saturday @TVKev show on @TalkRadio
    “We all know these lunatics with their guns storming the place”
    That’s an outrageous narrative
    cos that day there was a gun ban in Washington,
    the protesters did not have guns

       29 likes

  33. JohnC says:

    I see we have a bit more tactical photo-blurring going on:
    Covid: Birmingham student party guests ‘travelled 200 miles’
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-55786863
    The most noteworthy thing about this one is they haven’t just blurred it so you can’t identify people’s faces, they have absolutely covered it so you can’t even identify the race. Unfortunately the idiot who did it forgot to do the hands as well so the reason why is revealed.
    The article is also a very good example of why this virus is ‘racist’. White-mans rules are for white people.

       27 likes

    • G says:

      JohnC,

      “White-mans rules……”

      Not forgetting the Eastern Europeans, including the Lithuanians.

         11 likes

  34. tomo says:

       25 likes

    • Old Goat says:

      So, now , rather than learning their “times tables” by rote, they have to be able to spiel off all the possible available genders. Are they then invited to select one, to which they can convert?

         19 likes

    • Tabs says:

      Only 100 genders? The BBC is not very woke then. I heard there is a list of over 300.

         11 likes

    • digg says:

      1. In general couples tend to have a natural desire for offsprings to nurture and in normal times this would either be a boy or a girl child which would have the effect of strengthening the family unit.

      2. The MSM along with the Globalists masters believe that the family unit stands in the way of their ambitions along with sundry other stuff like Christianity and natural genders.

      3. Cancel the parents expectations about their children and the deep-state can take over their welfare, ideology and views on mankind and finally bring about the end of the family unit.

      4. Cancel the child’s normal attachment and reliance for guidance from their parents and they must look elsewhere for a sense of belonging.

      Make no mistake, this is not a trend, it’s all ruthlessly planned.

      Adolph H knew all this long ago hence The Hitler Youth, wrenched from their families and indoctrinated with the “Great Plan” for the “Motherland” which is now “The Great Reset”

         25 likes

    • tomo says:

      Perhaps there might be a mnemonic limerick competition ?

      – to remember all them genders?

      – I mean, it’s poetry of a sort – could be updated to be a rap mebbe?

         6 likes

    • Doobster78 says:

      DISGUSTING

         5 likes

  35. Guest Who says:

    The bbc is usually quite prompt and severe on mixed messaging from powers needing holding to account.

    #itwasadifferenttimeagain

       12 likes

  36. Jeff says:

    These are strange times indeed…
    Hancock has just announced that there will be no let up in the lockdowns for the foreseeable future. Even if you’re vaccinated you shouldn’t consider yourself safe. I’m forced to ask the question “Why have the bloody vaccine in the first place?”

    Listening to the radio this morning I’m depressed at the endless health propaganda. “Stay at home, save lives.” “Wear your mask” “Keep your distance” And perhaps the only amusing one, as the snow fell, “Open your windows to let covid out.” Oh yeh, Hancock, I’m really going to do that, you pathetic, rat face runt.

    We’re told that there are new and virulent strains coming in left, right and centre. This is fear porn on an incredible level. The Bubonic Plague was a mild cold compared to this…

    Just in case you hadn’t realised, we’re clearly being prepped for another entire year of imprisonment. By the time we come out of this, or should I say IF we come out of this, our nation will be a very different place.

    There will be very few small, independent businesses, they can’t possibly survive. Pubs, restaurants, the entire hospitality industry will be but a fond memory. Theatres, cinemas and football matches with paying punters…a few old timers will remember them, but the youngsters will ask “what are they?”

    We’ll be a poverty stricken, suspicious, health obsessed, miserable little country. Britain will be like an unhappy cross between North Korea and Venezuela, with a few windmills and electric cars thrown in. The Great Reset will have succeeded.

    This is no longer a conspiracy theory…
    This is happening.

       53 likes

    • digg says:

      The entire Covid response is being driven by Scientific and Medical Global Bigjobs and the Government are running scared of not doing everything they demand to avoid being seen as rash or dangerous.

      Global Scientific and Medical and Health high-ups tend to be closely aligned with the World Order, hence this perfect storm.

      This is the biggest human con in the history of the World and the aim is Global Domination and Biden has just announced that the USA will be rejoining this satanic club.

      Trump could see through it and so the Globalists set about demonising him and probably even cheating to cancel him.

      The MSM are behaving like a gang of school kids whooping because the kid they hate has got a detention.

         36 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Any ideas then on what you suggest we do ? As for the hospitality industry, we’re paying the price for dismantling our manufacturing industry with engineers and skilled workers, replacing it with waiters from abroad and events managers. So that was a good move wasn’t it.

      At the moment I’m thankful not to be in a care home or hospital bed. As long as my pension is paid into my bank account, I can walk my dog in the countryside, get my paper, have a good breakfast and watch a good thriller on Netflix with my 40 year old Port in hand, then I’m happy to be honest. I was never into hugging everything and everybody, and will be delighted to continue the social distancing once this lot is over. !

         27 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        I tend to agree. I live in the wooded hilly wilds of France Profonde. No masks, or snooping gendarmes around here, and only the occasional neighbourhood cottage whose occupants ignore the “restrictions”.

        I have the ability to carry on as normal. I came here to escape much of the rat race, and am happy with the isolation. If it weren’t for the internet, I’d never have known about Covid, anyway.

        People stay away, as they always have. Bliss.

           20 likes

      • Jeff says:

        Good for you then, BRISSLES, I’m alright, Jack!
        I happen to like mixing with people. I rather enjoy going out for meals, a few beers, maybe a football match, perhaps even a trip to the theatre. I know, it’s unnatural, but don’t fret, these things are all gone now.

        There’s more to life than watching something on Netflix, or even reading a good thriller…though I enjoy both. Call me a mad, impetuous, freedom loving fool, but I rather like taking a trip to the park on a Sunday afternoon without being followed by a Daily Mail photographer and shamed on nationwide TV by some podgy, hypocritical gobshite like Piers Morgan. Odd, aren’t I?

        The truth is, we were told we had to comply to a THREE WEEK lockdown to save the sainted NHS. I had no problem with that whatsoever. I don’t think many of us did. That was in March. You do remember that?

        I’m not remotely keen on all this continental kissing malarkey either, I just want to be able to enjoy my liberty.

        Until this lunacy began I had no real concept of how absolutely precious liberty is.

        As for any ideas, here’s one… For those health neurotics, stay indoor for as long as you like. Have your food delivered. You never need set foot outside again. Just don’t expect all of us to be imprisoned.
        We’ve been employing one form of lockdown or other for nigh on an entire year. When they fail the authorities blame the public. Matt Hancock isn’t the health minister, he’s a prison governor. And there’s something even the most obtuse lockdown fanatic must have realised by now…

        They ain’t bleedin’ working!

           35 likes

        • The WestWyvern says:

          Spot on Jeff. Spot on.

          Only one thing wrong with your description of Hand Cock. He’s not acting like a prisoner governor more like a camp commandant.

             10 likes

        • Lefty Wright says:

          Jeff
          We are all Winston Smith now.

             7 likes

  37. Guest Who says:

    ITBB in sterling form noting the multiple ways the BBC has engaged multiple standards to adapt to stuff folk they like doing what they criticised folk they don’t like for even thinking, or made up them doing, in one they made earlier.

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.com/2021/01/hugs.html

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.com/2021/01/frustration-at-panorama.html

    One is sure Timmeh! Could explain if Ollie asked, not that he is likely to, given he an BoJo know OFCOM are doing such a bang up job. Apparently.

    Quite how long ‘because I can’ or ‘I felt like it, so it’s ok’ will wash with viewers rather than folk whose ‘Toenails’ Nick-names are being conjured by folk, possibly ☺️, as we speak, might not take long to reveal.

       7 likes

  38. Beltane says:

    Mild mannered Dr Chris Whitty is apparently incensed by a Guardian article which repeats – and no doubt makes much of – the, since refuted, Israeli figures that show a 33% effectiveness for the first Pfizer dose.
    Dr Whitty describes the research as ‘utter rubbish’ and assures us that the true figure is closer to 89%. He has also threatened to report the Guardian to the Press Council.
    Good luck with that Chris. For some obscure reason the Guardian is not signed up for the sort of petty bourgeois rules which might stifle the superb quality of its investigative journalism, they leave such trifling things to rest of the UK press.

       23 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Beltane, the problem with folk at that level in science and academe is that ego and all sorts of past spats and petty jealousies and resentments get in the way of their relationships and any progress for the rest of us who have to make the real world work. The PM has unleashed a Pandora’s Box of wild spirits that are now swirling around his head like angry bees or wasps and they are trying to sting each other while leading him and his Government Ministers on a merry chase, this way and that.

         4 likes

      • Beltane says:

        Too true Up2, the same mindset that yearns for fame in the form of ‘a paper’ on some subject in the public eye – or even painfully pushed into the eye by the MSM and BBC heroes.
        The various contradictory yet increasingly popular theories on climate change, as opposed to the forcefully muted actual science, are prime examples.

           5 likes

  39. Guest Who says:

    Given BBC American BS is mostly The HIll RTd, this one is ever so special.

       10 likes

  40. G.W.F. says:

    We rarely hear of Tommy Robinson these days, but when he was attracting media attention it was obligatory to state that his real name was Yaxley Lennon in every article that mentioned him.. In a disgusting interview Andrew Neil spent almost the entire allotted time focusing on his name.

    So why not give the 46th US President the same treatment and insist on adding Robinsonette as his middle name as in Joe Robinsonette Biden.

       28 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      And ‘Miss Shouty’, aka Sarah Montague, is actually Lady Brooke…but you wouldn’t know that from Al Beeb.

         14 likes

  41. G says:

    Notice that Covid is being used as an excuse for anything now. Bought a new tv late last year – now with problems. Getting any warranty attention, “due to Covid” is non existent. Hence:
    “For expediency and to help your company in these Covid times, perhaps I should engage a local repair company to ascertain the problem and pass the bill on to you? Is this OK?”

    Online Small Claims are a bitch…………..

       16 likes

  42. StewGreen says:

    Addressing the problem of people dying in car accidents after being tested for positive for Covid
    and that being partially corrected by setting a 28 day limit for counting Covid deaths
    LockDown fanatic Christopher Snowdon claimed skeptics don’t care about the resultant undercount , by omitting those who die 29-60 days after the test.
    In the stats the researchers say that 64% of those people do have Covid on their death certificate
    So 36% just die from other factors like car accidents
    but even in the 28 day tally some will have died in car accidents and still show up as a Covid death.
    As ever raw deaths are just useful for trend spotting
    True Health impact is only known by counting months/years of life lost

    Obviously if you spend 7 weeks on a ventilator and die, that is a True Covid deaths
    However bizarrely that seems not to get included in the daily stats cos you’d be over the 29 day limit.

       11 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    One for Rog, Matt and Justin to draft in Marianna and Wendy to ‘check’.

    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2021/01/24/mark-steyn-files-an-eviscerating-motion-for-summary-judgement-in-the-michael-mann-libel-suit/

    Or avoid? Like most other news. Even Greta is proving dubious territory now.

       10 likes

  44. Up2snuff says:

    TWoTWee Watch #1 – how very interesting, could it be said of the BBC?

    Sort of linking to G’s post @10.42 a.m. above, a little bit from the World This Weekend with Ed Stourton jumped out at me. Apparently the Wee Nippy was on Andrew Marr’s show this a.m. and a short clip was played and mention made of the Salmond/Sturgeon barrel of fish. The Wee Nippy pointed out she was not in his pocket, neither he in hers.

    However, it became apparent that the Wee Nippy is in the EU’s pocket. And of course, the BBC who are also in our pockets if you are watching TV and paying for a TV Licence, is also apparently in the Wee Nippy’s and SNP’s pockets and probably in the EU’s pocket as well. There was an almost obligatory Brexit bashing bit of generous length on the programme.

    Ed Stourton was not sharp enough to ask the trio of businesses 1. whether delivery firms were deliberately hiking the cost of transporting goods to and fro with the EU just to make an extra profit. Ed was also not on the ball enough to ask whether a WTO (No Deal) Brexit would have been better. Could not risk a possible wrong answer about Brexit, could we?

       17 likes

  45. Tabs says:

    I just caught 5 minutes of the BBC News channel about 15:15. The anchorman was “interviewing” a Scottish Labour MP. He kept interrupting her within seconds of her starting to speak. He did this about 5 times in a row.

    Pointless getting people to come on when all we get to hear is BBC staff opinions. How she kept her cool I do not know.

       14 likes

  46. Beltane says:

    I wonder how the Great Dame Bakewell’s court action is going? A week or so ago she was given plenty of air and print time to moan and gripe about having to wait 12 weeks for her second jab – having been ‘promised’ a 3-week wait and had hired Leigh Day, (allegedly) the Islamic State solicitors, to sue the government.
    With yet another highly rated virologist condemning such selfish behaviour by saying: ‘Would you really keep two doses for yourself or share the second with another…’ I’d guess she might just have the grace to blush, a little.
    Then again, for someone who made her name as the Thinking Man’s Crumpet, when in reality most of those men were simply enthralled by the size of her knockers, perhaps not.

       9 likes

  47. Ian Rushlow says:

    The BBC website is giving front page coverage to a ‘YouTube star’ (i.e. an American girl with a silly name that you’ve never heard of) because she has ‘come out’. This term is used when a person who was previously believed to be heterosexual declares that they are in fact homosexual (although in this particular case the person in question doesn’t yet have a ‘label’ so we must not jump to assumptions). The media always promotes these stories heavily, for example the former BBC employee Phillip Schofield pantomine last year.

    But in the same way that ‘man bites dog’ is news but ‘dog bites man’ never is, we never hear about the many cases where a homosexual becomes a heterosexual. And this is by no means uncommon, nor are the cases where a person who supposedly transitioned to the opposite sex subsequently realises that they made a terrible mistake and wants to revert to their natural born state.

    So why is the reporting on such cases always one way (in fact, why is there even any reporting whatsover on such things)? The reason is that the media wants to portray homosexuality not just as normal and acceptable (which many people don’t really have a problem with) but as superior and something to be aspired to, and this is part of the wider Left mission to undermine the family and traditional gender roles in its pursuit of a rootless, confused and more malleable population. Children and teenagers are a particular target here, as they can be confused about sexuality during their formative years. It is also interesting that the media spends so much time and effort in proselyitizing for homosexuality – it’s almost as though they don’t believe their own propaganda that people are supposedly born the way they are but need missionary work to convert them.

       17 likes

  48. Fedup2 says:

    I see the following numbers as ‘good ‘ – 492k vaccinations reported in the last 24 hours – UK total now at 6.3 million ….

    … those numbers not that easy to find .

    The local bbc London news manages to spin a shortage of vaccines in a centre in Margate where they are doing thousands each day …

       9 likes

  49. Guest Who says:

    BBC News

    Followers of the baseless conspiracy theory are now split over failed inauguration day predictions.

    ***
    Not sure which impresses most; rerunning this as anything the current admin is up to is going pear-shaped, or shoehorning in editorialising to try and sway an audience likely already on the floor laughing.

       7 likes

  50. StewGreen says:

    Countryfile
    – The Green politics bit : “Joe Crowley investigates if large-scale schemes such as HS2 tally with the government’s pledge to go green

    Matt Baker discovers some hidden historical gems revealed by a revolutionary new mapping technique,
    – heads deep into the woods to learn about the ancient art of bodging
    – rolls his sleeves up to help clean up ponds which are so desperately needed by wildlife.
    – Adam calls in a horse whisperer to help with a nervous Exmoor pony.

       3 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Crowley tweets
      ” Chilterns tonight HS2 is having a significant impact there,
      we’ll be looking at the compatibility of the government’s dual aims of big infrastructure projects
      – incl HS2 – alongside a green recovery.”

      Hmmm .. “GreenRecovery” is the kind of PR buzzword
      that weaponises sympathy for green
      in order to promote businesses
      that depend on
      subsidies, priority market access, banning of opposition etc.
      ultimately leading to a whole heap of problems
      Buying stuff to make yourself or your country MORE GREEN
      is one of the biggest problem with green politics.

         5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      your coverage of *blackthorn* habitat being destroyed all the stock footage was of brambles.
      Quite misleading when talking about habitat that needs to be protected.

      90% of tweets to countryfile are about HS2
      90% of those opposing it.

         2 likes