489 Responses to Midweek Thread 3rd February 2021

  1. Old Goat says:

    Macron wouldn’t dare impose another lockdown – his position is already shaky, and he has an election to contend with next year. He, no doubt, will be keeping his tete down…

       9 likes

  2. Guest Who says:

    So beyond HuffPo, in the red corner we have J’Obsworth and Emma of the BBC, and Newsnight.

    I think I err on Mac and Keri so far.

    Maybe Timmeh! Or Franny or Wendy would care to comment, assuming the BBC has not actively misrepresented to propagate a pile on on a person of color for ideological reasons?

    Or are they going to retreat behind all the expeditions the BBC wheels out for behaviour over which they would try and ruin the careers of those less’ unique’?

       10 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Its’ the usual playground stuff, isn’t it ?
      The minister interpret the tone of the short msgs a being impertinent
      and to back that up published both short messages.
      There is a difference between such mgs and ones with privileged info in.
      There was a pile on against the journo
      All the media girl circle the handbags and shout “you are being mean to my friend”
      Nope the minister didn’t lie
      .. if there was abuse take that up with the abusers

      BTW @jessbrammar above is the editor for the journo and did not object to the the mgs being published
      only later journo did.

      The whole point of the ruckus is that word “REFUSED” cos it set the tone the minister is objecting to.

         5 likes

  3. StewGreen says:

    Greta’s PR team accused of organising “Indian insurrection”
    Deleted tweet scandal
    Indian twitter thread

    https://nypost.com/2021/02/04/greta-thunberg-faces-probe-in-india-over-farm-protest-tweets/
    Greta Thunberg accidentally shared a message showing she was getting told what to write on Twitter about the ongoing violent farmers’ revolt in India — sparking a police investigation and a political firestorm, according to reports.

    The 18-year-old left-wing eco-activist shared — and then quickly deleted — a message that detailed a list of “suggested posts” about the ongoing protests, according to the posts that were saved by Breaking 911.

    The list gave a series of tips on what to post, asking her to also repost and tag other celebrities tweeting about it, including pop star Rihanna.

    As well as the Twitter storm, the “toolkit” she shared also suggested highlighting planned demonstrations at Indian embassies.

    The campaign material and social media template was created by Canada’s Poetic Justice Foundation
    Delhi police on Thursday confirmed that it had launched “a criminal case against the creators of the ‘Toolkit document’”

    “The call was to wage economic, social, cultural and regional war against India,” police said of the plot supposedly taken up by the celebs.

       11 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Between Greta, AOC, Marcus, etc, using ‘Fronts’ for heavy duty ideological manipulation can unravel pretty fast once spotlights revolve to the mouthpiece and cast a shadow behind too.

         8 likes

  4. digg says:

    BBC weasel spotting…

    Covid-19: Avoid ‘setting dates’ for lifting lockdown, scientist warns

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-55947028

    A Sage chappy has spouted…

    “The UK government should avoid “setting dates” for when to lift lockdown and instead react to changing circumstances, a scientist has warned.
    Prof Graham Medley, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, said leaders should not be “driven by a calendar”.

    Long article blah, blah, blah ending with….

    “The government has always insisted it is guided by the science – but Prime Minister Boris Johnson has often given dates when expressing hope about the future of the pandemic, for example saying things will be better by Easter and being hopeful about summer holidays.”

    So that’s it SAGE thinks Boris is an idiot, the key reason for this article and job done BBC!

    Not to mention Boris breaking the cardinal rule that there must be no optimism whatsoever regarding Covid, Its here to stay until the boffins say otherwise so suck it up!

       26 likes

    • Tabs says:

      When SAGE advisors are being paid £7000 a DAY I don’t think “following the science” comes into any decision making.

         24 likes

    • JimS says:

      University professors said that the government needed to come up with a firm funding programme so that they would be able to plan for future research projects.

      A treasury spokesman said, “We are guided by the science, it would be foolish to allocate funds until such time as the budget is under control.”

         13 likes

    • Lefty Wright says:

      digg
      I think we must never forget that “experts”, like most of us, are very likely to have politcal views and allegiances and I for one do not accept that this fact has no bearing on their utterances and the scientific? advice they give to our elected representatives. I feel that a few pinches of salt would sometimes be useful.

         20 likes

      • digg says:

        Yes I think it’s probably safe to say that most profs who are always right are left

           15 likes

      • digg says:

        Yes I think it’s probably safe to say that most profs who are always right are left

           2 likes

    • digg says:

      Not to mention that Prof Medley is apparently very busy writing theses on the spread of infectious diseases and the political considerations so certainly wouldn’t want the whole thing over too quickly really!

      Even if 70 million people have to wait until he’s done!

         13 likes

    • digg says:

      There is also a huge difference between “setting dates” and “being hopeful”, totally (wilfully) missed by the beeboids of course!

         7 likes

  5. StewGreen says:

    Saturday : furious passengers ‘leap over’ malfunctioning passport barriers after queuing for hours following indirect flight from Dubai
    Security stepped in
    https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/04/chaos-at-heathrow-as-dubai-passengers-jump-over-passport-barriers-14019850/

    Chaos at Heathrow after passport checking machines malfunction
    Adnan Raza, 34 from Birmingham, said passport machines at the London airport stopped working, prompting chaos and a ‘mutiny’.

       13 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Stew
      That kind of thing supports my view about the failure to manage airport bio security . The distancing isn’t enforced – the ventilation – fresh air – isn’t controlled and its dirty – and that’s t5 Heathrow – a new one …

      The MSM is going to have a field day with lock down hotel stories …..

      … it’s policy just made to make the government even more dumb …. just limit flights to an extreme –

         14 likes

    • tomo says:

      Been there – done that

      The attitude of *some* of the passport / immigration staff needs extreme adjustment.

      I loved the major passenger mutiny at Portsmouth ferry terminal passport control a few years ago.

      I’ve literally had to wait longer at Heathrow to get through passport control than the flight segment from Paris/Amsterdam/Frankfurt took.

      High time some butts were kicked.

         21 likes

  6. tomo says:

       18 likes

  7. Doobster78 says:

    HYS open on BBC regarding the scientists advising against setting dates for lifting lockdown.

    One of the top comments hits the nail on the head imo

    Expect a media frenzy about setting dates for ending the lockdown.

    DianaP replied:
    The government must stand firm. The Media does not run this country – even though they think they do.

       26 likes

  8. Doobster78 says:

    Trump derangement syndrome still alive and well !!!!

       21 likes

    • tomo says:

      The “liberals” need DJT …

      – since without him – people will have no alternative but to look at what Granddad Earpiece and the drunken old bat from San Francisco are up to.

         21 likes

  9. Guest Who says:

    This complements well with something I noticed earlier, working outside with the radio on. Classic FM.

    As it involved whirring blades when the top of hour arrived I left things running.

    Most ads appeared to be govt. supporting global with various ‘don’t go out, in, up down, shopping… travel’. With one about blokes can with a pass if headed to donate plasma.

    But in amongst there were ads pushing the wonders of shopping, or going places…

    And then the news, where we were back to staying in.

    What… is going on?

       14 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    Back in November BBC said UK used to have WHITE only nightclubs
    … Nope AFAIK come rogue doormen might have blocked a category of young black male etc. jut like they would block young white junkies.

       39 likes

  11. BRISSLES says:

    How old are these idiots ??? clearly have parents who either didn’t bother to haunt nightclubs or dances and went to church instead, or created such havoc that they would be thrown out for drug dealing !

    In my ‘bopping’ days of nightclubs and discos, they certainly weren’t white only. What a load of garbage.

       26 likes

  12. StewGreen says:

    Birmingham nightclub operator complains about the way a guest was allowed to dis his nightclub yesterday afternoon
    He doesn’t say which prog
    .. Maybe Inside Culture with Mary Beard

       15 likes

  13. theisland says:

    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/573209

    Now at 100,700 +

       16 likes

  14. Guest Who says:

    BBC staff have a bit of a habit of blocking any who might check up on their ‘reporting’, but off next to see what BBC American BS are up to on this.

    https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/nb/tim-graham/2021/02/05/column-aoc-goes-fact-check-free-sex-assault-claim

       2 likes

  15. G says:

    I’m certainly not knocking the commentator in this video but, there is a clamour to endorse the Sputnik V vaccine. Russia is full of corruption. It cannot operate otherwise. That’s a feature of communism.

    Oh the accolade is flowing. But, in getting older (as many here would vouch) the memory is extended and embraces other co-considerations. Are the memories of younger people that short?

    Can’t help recollecting the utter dishonesty of Russia. Sputnik V, nicely peer reviewed by the Lancet. Any unusual rise in the bank balance……………..

    Leopards and spots comes to mind.

    Remember? the Olympic drugs debacle?…………….

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doping_in_Russia

       2 likes

  16. StewGreen says:

    Tonight’s TV …not much
    9pm Channel5 Rail journey in Bavaria

       2 likes

  17. Kaiser says:

       5 likes

  18. StewGreen says:

    Belfield on the £400 plan ( Moderator warning – he uses fruity language )

    https://youtu.be/UknU6svqI3A

       6 likes

  19. Guest Who says:

    It’s Friday,

    It’s 5.30, and…

    It’s funny, Jack!

       7 likes

  20. Tabs says:

    Euston tunnel protests: Father fears for children’s lives
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-55887124

    Roc Sandford’s children Blue and Lazer have been in the tunnels, near Euston station, for the past nine days.

    His daughter, Blue, is called the UKs Greta Thunberg and both kids are now full time protestors currently underground in tunnels with professional layabout Swampy. The BBC didn’t mention that the father, Roc, is a millionaire and identifies as non binary. Not that it is important but it does high light how messed up this family are and that protestors always come from privilege backgrounds – a bit like BBC staff!

       23 likes

  21. Guest Who says:

       22 likes

  22. Guest Who says:

    Business Plan:

    1) Use MSM to take out competitors.

    2) Use MSM for free advertising.

       3 likes

  23. Calon lan says:

    Read this and weep (what bill gates is up to)

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/bill-gates-neo-feudalism-farmer-bill/

       3 likes

  24. StewGreen says:

    Rufus Clownd the ITV Dancing On Ice star
    “oh Tories smell they don’t care about the kids, this is so important”
    … “Oh I’ve got Covid .. let’s go down the park and infect some kids”
    Belfield Vid

       8 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      “Rufus Hound” (not his real name, that would be Rufus Yaxley-Hound) is a truly disgusting creature.

      He is typical of the sort of smug, North London ponce for whom no talent is required. I was once unlucky enough to see him on a game show where he had the cheek to slag off Peter Kay, a man who is genuinely talented and funny, indeed loved by his fans. “Rufus Hound” should stick to pissing up lamp posts and rolling in fox shit, that’s about his level.

         18 likes

  25. StewGreen says:

    Twitter shoved this Sky Group UK advert tweet at me
    Their Twitter homepage has this “Principal Partner UN Climate Conference 2021” graphic
    How can you be that & impartial at the same time ?

       6 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      How can a broadcaster like Sky be carbon neutral?

      Apart from the fact that everyone who takes their output has to use electricity (source Carbon) to watch it, their journalists, producers, administrators all use computers (source Carbon) powered by electricity (source Carbon) in a building heated and lit (source Carbon) built (source Carbon) and maintained (source Carbon).

      Their journalists travel out (source Carbon) with camera operators carrying cameras and sound equipment (source Carbon) with battery packs that are recharged (source Carbon) to record onto digital memory (source Carbon). When they return, their efforts are downloaded using electricity (source Carbon) and prepared for broadcast on editing machines (source Carbon) using more electricity (source Carbon) before broadcast using even more electricity (source Carbon).

      There’s a limit to how many trees you can plant and how much electricity you can get from renewables to ffset all that use of Carbon.

         11 likes

    • Nibor says:

      I’m pretty neutral about carbon myself. I wouldn’t take its side if it was up against oxygen . I don’t have a dog in any elements fight .
      I’d back it against unstable molecules.

         3 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Nibor, as I’m a carbon life form (think Star Trek and the pointy-eared one) I just happen to be extremely, very, determinedly pro carbon.

        Self interest? Moi?

        I couldn’t possibly comment.

        Live long and prosper.

           7 likes

  26. Doobster78 says:

    Well well well, BBC 6pm news, Simon Jack in the City telling us how it’s likely to see NO negative impact from Brexit.

    Funny that, the BBC spent 4 years telling us that every financial institution in the City would be off to Frankfurt when Brexit was done and dusted.

    Yet again, no apology, no admitting they were very wrong, nothing .

    4 years of lies and fear mongering just brushed under the carpet !!!!!

    DISGUSTING

       44 likes

  27. Northern Voter says:

    Not about the above but the Bullsh*t Broadcaster is trailing a programme entitled ” When Trump took on the world. The true title should read “When Trump took on the world media” and we stuffed him.

       17 likes

  28. Guest Who says:

    BBC Local Radio runs a ‘damned both ways’ story supplied by… who?

    ***

    A teacher with Tourette’s syndrome from Droitwich said she was left in severe distress when she had to wear a mask for her Covid-19 vaccination, despite being exempt.

    ***
    There is a picture too.

    About nothing to this reflects well on the bbc.

       13 likes

  29. Guest Who says:

    Lucky Hills took out the snipers first from the helo, or it could have been so much worse.

       4 likes

  30. Guest Who says:

    https://rumble.com/vdlbj3-hysterical-squad-member-gives-oscar-worthy-performance-while-aoc-rubs-her-b.html?

    Did she burp too?

    At what point do what remains of any MSM integrity well up in someone in the media and they acknowledge this is headed to a very dubious place.

       8 likes

  31. StewGreen says:

    New election conspiracy video
    Fox breakfast tweeted
    “Mike Lindell, promoted false conspiracies about election fraud.
    He is banned from Twitter. Details on @FOX9”

    (CEO of corp called my Pillow)

    The new 160 minute video dropped at 5pm and was banned by Youtube and Vimeo
    billed a “absolute-proof”
    I did a quick scan and Lindell is pictured at a big desk throughout whilst various “experts” how him charts “look this is when the election server was hacked”
    Unfortunately despite the framing that is not proof.
    And of course is the Lin Wood, Sydney Powell end of the argument.

    https://tv.gab.com/channel/realmikelindell/view/absolute-proof-601d73a5a5ca1b4ef4f0e602

       3 likes

  32. Patriot says:

    Against my better judgement, today I decided to browse the BBC local news website to see what the latest COVID infection rates where in my area. To my astonishment????, and as predicted now that things are beginning to improve, the colour coded map had disappeared. It seems as though they don’t wish to tell us about any green shoots of hope. They’re quite happy for us to continue as transfixed observers of the doom and gloom they predicate. This will never stop unless we admit that we are all racist, mentally deranged people in need of diversity training and psychiatric reconditioning courtesy of the BBC. The hate and their desire to control and influence us is so shamefully obvious.

       19 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Patriot – try this instead: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-51768274
      although I have to say that the information presented on this page has had its goalposts shifted more than once.

         9 likes

      • Patriot says:

        This is what it is. Doctoring and manipulating figures to show the worst case scenario in order to fit their Marxist rhetoric, Up2snuff. The information is there, but it’s the presentation that gets me. Always highlighting the worst before the best.

           8 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Well, at least the ‘Now you hear about it, now you don’t’ ‘R’-rate was actually spoken about by Martha Kearney on TOADY this a.m. and I forgot to post about it – oh dear!

          There was only one problem. She described it as very low.

          But she did not ask the contributor, I think a statistician, what it exactly is currently.

             7 likes

      • JimS says:

        Something is wrong with that article’s picture, I can’t quite put my finger on it.

        Three men, three women? No that can’t be it.

        Ah, got it! No (BBC) British people!

           5 likes

  33. StewGreen says:

    There is another substantiated Conspiracy Theory report from Time
    about how Big corps and union side got together to plan to lockdown the election : push through mail in voting laws, recruit their own activist as election monitors etc.

    https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis/time-mag-trump-was-right-there-was-a-conspiracy-well-funded-cabal-powerful-people-changing-laws-steering-media-and-controlling-the-flow-of-information/

       10 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Stew, Time magazine 15 February 2021 – article by Molly Ball. Likely to be a big seller.

         4 likes

    • JimS says:

      “As I was reporting this article in November and December, I heard different claims about who should get the credit for thwarting Trump’s plot.”

      What a curious statement. What was Trump’s plot? To ask people to vote for him?

      I must say I am a bit confused by this article as to who they were trying to get to win.

      Sidney Powell has claimed for many years that the system is corrupt and that it involves both main parties, i.e. individual representatives/senators may have had the results massaged in their favour locally, going against the national tend.

      If that is true then either the congressperson has bought the vote or those with a specific local interest might have. For example ‘Big Tech’ might favour the Democrats nationally but if the local candidate has objected to plans for a new data centre they would have an interest in an ‘America First’ Republican getting in.

         6 likes

  34. StewGreen says:

    Now almost 14 months since the first UK resident picked up Covid
    His daughter had symptoms before him in mid-December 2019
    He’d not travelled and both lived in Chatham

    The first UK Covid victim Peter Attwood was from Chatham Kent. Show symptoms on Dec 15 2019 died 30Jan 2020 and had never travel abroad. 2

       7 likes

  35. Nibor says:

    If you want a review of The News Quiz here it is .
    Crap .
    Here’s a preview of next week’s show.
    Crap .
    The week afterward.
    Crap .

    Value for money to anyone who pays the telly tax 0/10.
    Impartiality 0/10
    Fun 0/10

    For smugness, hive mind, arrogance, two faced hypocrisy, adolescent humour it gets full marks .

    This £450 a year that the Beeboid said that should be charged to get value for money – we charge nothing here but if he wants to donate

       12 likes

  36. Fedup2 says:

    From the Daily Telegraph

    ‘ The BBC is facing a licence fee rebellion amid complaints of “harassment” and “pressuring” of the over-75s, as three-quarters of a million households refuse to pay.

    An investigation by The Telegraph shows how official letters have been sent to vulnerable elderly people threatening them with being “interviewed under caution” and a “criminal conviction” for non-payment.

    A 90-year-old grandmother, in a nursing home after suffering a stroke, was sent a letter warning her to “expect a visit” from enforcement officers during the pandemic. Her son-in-law accused the BBC of “corporate thuggery”.

    Another letter sent to a couple in their 80s living in a retirement village told them an enforcement officer would be sent round in the week before Christmas.

    The Telegraph investigation can also disclose a series of bureaucratic obstacles that has left some of the most vulnerable elderly people in despair and being hounded for the £157.50 cost of the TV licence.

    One demand for payment was addressed to the specific room number of a care home resident – in this case a 96-year-old widow – who found it “massively stressful”.

    In another example of bureaucratic failing, a 93-year-old widower, Eric Wright, who has been visually impaired for 28 years, was told he did not have the right documentation to claim a 50 per cent TV licence discount.

    His daughter said the only way to acquire the documentation would be to visit a hospital during the Covid-19 pandemic to have his eyesight formally tested by the correct health authorities in order to qualify.

    A war veteran, who flew a glider at Arnhem in 1944 and survived capture by the Nazis, said he had been inundated with demands for payment over the past two months. Frank Ashleigh, 96, told The Telegraph: “The BBC couldn’t care less what I did for my country. It just wants the money. It’s disgusting.”

    The BBC has said enforcement letters are not sent to older people who previously held a free licence, but admitted there are rare exceptions when TV Licensing is unaware of a customer’s age as they did not previously claim the concession, or had moved.

    Latest figures obtained by The Telegraph show that the BBC has still to collect a licence fee from 750,000 households occupied by the over-75s, out of 3.5 million now eligible to pay.

    Until August 1, the over-75s were exempt from payment. Campaigners said that collection of payments had stalled to a near trickle in the past two months, raising fears the BBC will have to increase its pressure on non-payers to make up any budget shortfall.

    Lord Botham, the former England cricket captain turned charity campaigner, has received more than 2,000 emails of support since he first raised concerns about the way the BBC was collecting the licence fee from the over-75s in two articles in The Telegraph over the past month.

    Lord Botham said: “The truth of the matter is we should not be harassing people who are that age. A lot of them will be scared and intimidated and feel threatened.

    “Society needs to look after them, not put them under pressure. I don’t know what the BBC’s excuse is for it. I had no idea of the extent of the problem but the response from the emails says it all.”

    Dennis Reed, director of Silver Voices, a campaign group calling for the licence fee to be scrapped for the over-75s, said: “The BBC is now finding a big hard core group of people who won’t pay. They are now sending out more and more of these reminder letters because they are getting more and more desperate.”

    He said the BBC had promised not to send enforcement letters to the over-75s but it was clear that some are slipping through the net.

    He added: “The main problem we are facing is the number of reminders that are coming through. Some of our members are getting three or four reminder letters. The BBC are calling them ‘gentle’ reminders but to a vulnerable old person it feels very threatening.

    Rebecca Ryan, campaign director of Defund the BBC, launched in the summer, said: “It’s frankly outrageous that the BBC is sending pensioners extremely threatening and deceptive letters during a pandemic when they are understandably fearful.

    “We have seen many of these letters via our supporters and they have one purpose and that is to frighten and confuse the recipient into paying the BBC money, whether they need to or not.”

    She said the BBC was “hounding them relentlessly at a time when they are isolated and living in constant fear”.

    A TV licencing spokesperson said: “We have implemented these changes with the greatest care and have worked to make the process as fair and straightforward as possible.

    “We have processed more than 3.5 million applications and the vast majority have been dealt with quickly and without an issue.

    “We do recognise this is a tough time which is why we have ensured no one needs to leave home to apply, there is a dedicated phone line and online support if people have questions, we are giving people plenty of time to get set up and there are flexible payment plans to help spread the cost.”ENDS

    it is helpful that the BBC is digging its ‘ own grave with an attitude described in the article .

    Any other organisation targeting and victimising the elderly and sending ‘demand for money ‘ letters would be investigated by the BBC – wouldn’t they ?

       14 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Thanks Fed!

      Presumably Stew will copy this across (he’s better at it than me), but there’s a lot to read there, and if The Telegraph needs some extra income, they’re going the right way about it!

         3 likes

  37. Fedup2 says:

    Scroblene
    Thank you – I put this up on the ‘old thread ‘ because I wonder what sort of attention stuff gets once a new thread is ‘up’ if you see what I mean . Threads are running at about 500 entries which can take up a lot of time to read .

    Anyway if some one does copy it over later Saturday I will …

       1 likes