Busy time – The UK budget and the Scottish First Minister appearing before the Salmon inquiry . BBC narrative – whatever the government does is never enough and the SNP can do no wrong .
Midweek Thread 3rd March 2021
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“Banksy confirms escaping prisoner artwork at Reading Prison”
Personally, I think that he should be charged with criminal damage.
Nothing but vandalism encouraging vandalism.
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He did do some prison time for graffiti before he was famous. When they did still consider it a serious offence.
I knew him as we lived in the same area of Bristol and I worked in the local nightclubs that he frequented.
Are they going to remove that slice of wall to flog it off though, it might be a bit of a security issue.
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It’s been empty for years, and would have been demolished, except for the fact that it had a famous inmate, Stacy Keach, an American actor who played Mike Hammer in the eighties.
Or maybe Oscar Wilde.
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Ah, didn’t read closely enough to see it was closed.
Stacy was in a few Cheech and Chong films too if I remember.
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BBC headlines at 9pm. All very dramatic.
Complete and unadulterated fear mongering about more violence at the Capitol and it’s in lockdown.
You know the narrative …..
However,
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Just in case.
Maybe cbs only watches BBC NA BS?
Or Marianna’s QAnon theories?
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Al Beeb………….
“Are migrant YouTubers influencing others to travel to the EU?”
No, our government is, by allowing them to be escorted across the Channel by the French Navy and booking them into 4 Star Hotels. You could not make this up, especially with a Tory government running this Nation. That’s a nation with a housing shortage and an impending a jobs crisis.
Anyone remember this Tory promise ……….
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-pledges-to-control-and-reduce-immigration
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Absolutely right, Taff.
I don’t know in what way our present government is actually conservative.
They have a taxi service that brings in illegal immigrants and then puts them up in hotels I couldn’t afford to stay in. This would be laughable and understandable if Corbyn had won the last election.
We have a useless, waffling wind-bag as PM and with Priti Patel we have a Home Secretary that talks tough, but does sweet FA. What’s the bleedin’ point?
I voted Conservative last time.
Never again…
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Boris is like the Barbers cat as they say in Australia – Full of piss and wind!
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Not Al Beeb but the odds are 3/1 that Italy will be next to leave the EU, but I have a sneaky hunch it could be the Republic of Ireland?
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Leaving the EU is even more difficult for Euro members than it was for the UK. The Euro is a snare and once in difficult to get out of . Ordinary folks fear that their Euro deposits will be massively devalued in their new currency if they vote to leave. I’m sure that if we had been in the Euro that argument would have swayed enough people to get a no vote. So things will have to get very bad indeed for sufficient people to vote leave if they are in the Euro.
As to Ireland , not only is there the Euro effect to overcome but also their history of loathing for the UK. They will cling to the wreckage of the EU till their dying breath.
Another possible scenario for fundamental change within the EU is that it dawns on the German people that the Euro has saddled them with the debts of everyone else, Italy, Greece, Spain, Portugal even France, and of course they don’t like it and vote in a truly Eurosceptic party who returns the EU to a trading block and downgrades Brussels to a talking shop not a government in waiting. Of course every scenario assumes that the people can vote and that their votes count equally in free and fair elections. We have seen in the US that this isn’t always the case in the 21 st century.
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Has Al Beeb covered the great EU vaccination fiasco ?
You can bet that had we been last to get the ‘jab’ because we left the EU, we would never have heard the last of it .
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Howls of anguish as our NHS heroes get a 1% pay rise – on top of their rock solid job security most can only dream about.
Notes.
800,000 people in this country have not had a pay rise at all. In fact they are newly unemployed. Millions more are on furlough, reduced pay, reduced hours. Some have accepted pay reductions to keep their jobs.
Hundreds of thousands in the NHS were not on the front line but just did their job. Many secretaries for example would not even pick up the phone.
There is no case at all for giving anyone a permanent irreversible pay rise for a temporary extra workload. A one off bonus not pension linked for genuine front line workers yes. A permanent rise, no.
And hidden away of course is the pay rise which is implicit in the guaranteed pension entitlements which cost evermore to subsidise, paid for by the rest of us.
How I wish that someone in power had the b**** to spell this out.
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In 2012 BBC actually Took James Herriot and did a prequel series
It lasted 3 episodes and got cancelled
http://www.jamesherriot.org/young-james-herriot-cancelled/
“His adventures as a veterinary student.
While the plot centres around Herriot, other topics come up like
– the subjugation of women,
– the treatment of students by Professor Gunnell.
– and the rise of the fascist movement in the UK.”
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“Brexit: EU legal action imminent over UK extension to grace periods”
I can see this developing into a growing ‘tit for tat’ trade war. Thank God we have Liz Truss in the cabinet getting all those trade deals done with the rest of the world. Our government needs to ‘tool up’ with more merchant ships to bring in our important imports from around the globe and a bigger Royal Navy to protect it.
All this will create jobs in the ship building industry, if we have one left? More Free Ports should be opened creating local jobs for the rest of the country, because they have been neglected for far too long . Great Britain is more than the people of the South East of England, where IMHO a majority are EUrophiles .
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“Post-Brexit trade: Boris Johnson calls for eat British fish campaign”
I will go for that! Trouble is, in my part of the world there are very few fish shops/mongers left. They rapidly disappeared when we joined the Common Market?
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Remember MacFisheries?
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Oh! look, there is a fluffy black fox over there……….
If we ever get a bought of rabies in the country it won’t be so fluffy then.
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‘Jeremy Paxman has said the BBC is ‘full of boring people doing dull jobs and pretending they’re important’.
The former Newsnight presenter, who hosts BBC2’s University Challenge, claimed ‘any fool’ can read the news and attacked vain reporters more interested in being on television than ‘letting the story tell itself’.
‘I think news reading is an occupation for an articulated suit.
‘I can’t see any point in reading the news at all. Reading aloud, do you remember reading aloud at school? That’s what it is. I don’t think it has any grandeur or skill or anything to it. Any fool can do it.’
He also discussed working alongside reporters in places like Beirut and Uganda.
The presenter, famous for his aggressive interviewing style, said: ‘It’s very dangerous. But I don’t tell war stories because it just switches the focus from whatever’s happening wherever you are to me, me, me.
‘That’s the besetting problem with television. It’s full of vainglorious fools who want to be on telly instead of just letting the story tell itself.’
‘Vainglorious fools who want to be on telly’….could he possibly mean Jeremy Bowen..the most pompous, conceited, self-promoting, truth dodging journo in the ME?
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Will those comments affect Paxo’s pension ?
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Any fool can read out questions and then say, “Come on! Come on!”, when they have the answer on the card too!
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Never read his book about the English, it’s a travesty.
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At least he’s criticising the reporters and newsreaders at Al Beeb.
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Simpson – addy – bowen – sopel – maitliss- and any journo who bitches about online comments – can be added to the me -me -me list
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Jeremy is in a class of his own Pugz, it’s true, but we can’t overlook Orla and Fergal who have brought their special brand of heartbreak to our screens with such professional skill.
How would we ever understand the evils of their worlds without them?
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Paxman himself doesn’t come across as any more attractive for those remarks.
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The £ hits year-long high against Euro. C’mon Al Beeb, Let’s hear it for Brexit.
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lol – such an article wouldn’t past three sentences before the ‘However ..’ started explaining to us why it is temporary, nothing to with Brexit and we are still all doomed.
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The BBC’s other favourite word is ‘But’. This means: “Ignore what the government says or any positive news, the BBC knows best and it’s always all disaster and gloom”. You can have 60 seconds of fun by playing ‘BBC But Bingo’ – scan the articles on the home page of their news (sic) website and see how many you can find that have a paragraph that begins “But…” towards the start of the article. For example, at the time of writing we have:
‘Stamer calls for bigger pay rises’ (para 4)
‘Asthma patients refused vaccine’ (para 3)
‘Cyprus to welcome vaccinated UK tourists’ (para 3).
Bingo!
They can’t help it. It’s as deep within their DNA as their need to talk about race, gender, men in frocks, the EU, Wimmin’s football, black Wimmin’s hair, menstruation, and the Religion of Peace ™.
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Another is BBC ‘calls for’.
And who better in the Moaning Emole, but…
***
By Andrew McFarlane
Starmer calls for bigger NHS pay rise
Sir Keir Starmer during a visit to Royal Derby Hospital
A “kick in the teeth” is how the head of doctors’ union the BMA is describing a proposed 1% pay rise for NHS staff in England. “The public will be horrified. Staff will think it’s some kind of joke,” says another union, Unison. “Nobody would think that is fair in the middle of a pandemic,” suggests the head of the Royal College of Nursing. Now Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is calling on the government to give the NHS’s “Covid heroes” a bigger pay rise.
In recommending the figure to the independent panel that advises on NHS salaries, the Department of Health suggested anything more would require cuts to services. And Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng argues that while the NHS had been “first class”, many people in the private sector face losing jobs. However, Sir Keir says it amounts to a cut once inflation is taken into account, tweeting: “You can’t rebuild a country by cutting nurses’ pay.”
***
Pure opportunistic politics supported by opportunistic #prasnews
They even have an image of the generous Sir Slick, fully masked natch, side by side with a nurse of heft and Covid risk, if not a union steward then surely a QT ringer.
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Just listening to Terry Wogan from 2009 and the news had a report about possible ocean level rises. Afterwards Terry pulled it to pieces and told the scientists to give us the facts, not conjecture.
Then I check the BBC headlines and I see :
National Trust’s climate change threat map a ‘game-changer’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-56284831
A new low in conjecture, unfounded hysteria and cherry-picked information presented out of context, even for the BBC.
Terry was one of a kind. None of the current presenters would dare question anything on the BBC agenda now. Anyone who opposes what we are being force-fed is quietly removed from the picture.
Historically known as ‘fascism’. Oppression of opposing political views. But the Left have conveniently changed the definition so that only the far-right can be called fascists. Which means they know exactly what they are.
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I hope you didn’t listen to ‘Framing’ Today this morning, John, because the ‘Framing the Narrative’ was even sillier. Seaford Council in Sussex thinks that letting farmland go wild will help win the war in the Climate Emergency.
These people are barking mad.
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TOADY Watch #1 – the BBC taking their cue from the Guardian and Mirror but getting it wrong?
Maybe it is because the BBC doesn’t do maths anymore. In the news and in the first Newspaper Review the 1% (guaranteed) pay rise for nurses was stated as being just £3.50 per week ‘for a top nurse’. Not so BBC, £182 p.a. increase would be for a trainee, unqualified, nurse or nursing auxiliary.
Perhaps the Beeboids, so used to their pay rising to stratospheric levels, couldn’t be bothered to think a bit or push a calculator’s buttons (“I’ll get someone in to do it for me”) that they just repeated what the lefty Guardian & Mirror rags stated.
Of course, there was no mention of the non-pay rise for the millions in the rest of the population who not only have saved the NHS – twice – but have among their number those who pay the taxes to fund the nurses and their guaranteed 1% rise in the first place.
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UPDATE I note that in later News Bulletins the BBC appear to have dropped the ‘top nurse’ bit. Maybe someone has done some sums at last.
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Seems the BBC is like all other state media.
Just saw this RTd by the saviour of truth.
????
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This article
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-56288237
still says the lie of “a 1% pay rise would mean an increase of just £3.50 a week in take-home pay for an experienced nurse“.
It is disingenuous of the BBC to state the increase per week to make it look even smaller. Payrises are usually stated as a percentage or increase per year.
By my calculations I make it:
1. newly employed drivers, housekeeping assistants, nursery assistants and domestic support workers on £18,005 per year will get an extra £180.05 a year. Enough to pay for a ‘free’ BBC TV license which is “excellent value for money”.
2. Average salary for a nurse is £33,384 will get an extra £333.84. Enough for 1 BBC TV license and annual membership of the Labour Party plus a Mars bar every week to help them become even more obese.
3. Consultants on a salary of £104,927 will get an extra £1049.27, the equivalent of a BBC working lunch at The Ivy as they dream up a new show called The Dancer where the judges sit with their backs to the performing dancer and they press a button to turn around if they want that dancer on their team. If that idea is no good then what about Monkey Tennis?
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They do it regularly : put up a complete lie to catch whoever they can then change it quietly once the initial surge have seen it for the fact-checking sites.
The BLM guy swinging the wooden plank at police was a classic example where they went a step too far.
It’s dishonest and it’s ethically corrupt.
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And when the word ‘trust’ is in there, you can be sure it is in the ‘mole’ too…
***
Climate threat map a ‘game-changer’
Storm damage, coastal erosion, flooding and landslides never sound good – particularly when mentioned in relation to landmarks such as the Giant’s Causeway. And the National Trust is describing a map illustrating the threats posed by climate change to its stately homes and landmarks as a “game-changer”. The charity says the number of sites facing a high level of threat could rise from 5% to 17% by 2060. But the map also predicts the wider threat to communities if there is no intervention. An overheating and humidity filter shows high-risk areas extending across south-east England, through the Midlands and into Yorkshire, while flooding and landslides threaten northern England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
***
They even have a ‘could’ threat that is accurate from 5% to a mysteriously precise 17%.
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That threat will be similar to the “mini ice age” (1970), “Mediterranean Climate” (2000), “No more snow” (2015). Amazing how accurate experts can be
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Guest Who
So our dear old National Trust would like to stop the climate from changing. Well, good luck with THAT one.
I suppose they are OK with our National Culture and history being changed (wrecked)?
Are the National Trust and the BBC by any chance related? I think we should be told.
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Lefty,
Seems it’s nothing new.
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2019/08/02/the-new-head-of-the-national-trust-makes-an-idiot-of-herself/
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Rich
Yes mate. If this article was using a word for word quote by Hilary Mcgrady which reads — Britain’s formal gardens could be altered irrevocably by climate change– then of course the operative word is COULD. And this, along with other qualifying expressions so beloved of our “experts”always brings out the sceptic in me.
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“Could” is the wrong word. If I “could” do something, I should have the power to do it. Britain’s formal gardens have no power to be altered by climate change, they are not agents but purely passive, so “could” is not the right word. What is wrong with “may” and “might”?
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Time to start defund the National Trust. Anyone who is a member should cancel immediately. If they want to be Woke they can do it with a massively reduced membership.
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“National Trust posts record income of £634.3m
2 Sept 2019 “
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Why did i guess that the BBC news would lead with the NHS pay handout ? The country is bust – taxes will have to go up bigly- and any rise in interest rates will make matters far worse .
And yet – and yet the BBC leads the campaign for a pay rise . There shouldnt be any public sector pay rises at all .
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Yeah, right.
That brave consultant’s secretary we know who………..failed to answer the phone for 3 months.
She so deserves a pay rise.
As do all those brave hero NHS workers who……gave their patients covid.
Not a shred of impartial, analytical commentary from the BBC on this story. Just sentimental pandering designed solely to undermine the government and allow free rein to the Labour opposition to max out on the self-righteous indigation.
My employment contracts were always written in the style of ‘your hours are…….but you are expected to work such additional or different hours as necessary in the fulfilment of your duties’.
Did all those hard working NHS put in extra hours as I would have had to? Or were they paid overtime? Extra money which went straight into the bank. I think we should be told. Oh, and how about consultants on £100k who had their specialty clinics cancelled and were transferred to relatively menial covid duties. Do they deserve a pay rise? Or a pay decrease?
The holes in the ‘pay rise for the NHS’ arguments are gaping. But somehow the BBC manage not to notice any of them.
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Sluff
Couldnt agree more. I work in healthcare and have been able to send people for tests and imaging without any problem..because the staff have little to do…there are some people in NHS who have worked hard…but that is their job it is what they trained for and get paid for..
.try asking the tens of thousands of people who havent been seen or are in pain waiting for operations if they feel the NHS has helped them. It was never overwhelmed which means they haven’t worked significany harder.
I know nurses and physios earning loads from being on track and trace and doing vaccinations as overtime…
BBC with Labour were aleays going to use this but I think public are not so dumb.
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I know a NHS physio who has barely worked at all in the last 10 years. In that time she had 4 babies taking 1 year off work paid maternity leave each time. Was on paid leave whilst her unit was shutdown and refurbished for almost a year. Over the last year she has done absolutely nothing.
Over the last 10 years she has cost the NHS over £300,000 and probably done actual physio on just 10 patients.
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In the name of political correctness , inclusiveness, virtue
signalling , wokery should London have its name changed ?
New Amsterdam became New York. Istanbul was
Constantinople. We now know Bombay as Mubai.
Why not Londonistan or something similar for the capitol?
I am sure that the BBC could very much involved with this
and that their London regional programme could be at
forefront for this exercise.
We have an ethnic mayor who is all for changing the names
of streets getting rid of statues. So why not the name of the
city.?Yes Riz Lateef , Assad Ahmad and the rest of the splendid
editorial, presenting , researching crew, lets start by
officially changing the name of your programme to the
Londonistan programme !!
c
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And then put a hard border around it?
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What about Mandelaville?
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1. What were your ancestors up to Mr. Khan? Shouldn’t you be apologising?
2. The mayor of London is just the chief steward of the city, he doesn’t own it. It is his in trust to pass on, hopefully in a better state than he found it.
3. London is the nation’s capital, (not the marble mammary in D.C.). Lots of ‘stuff’ is there because of that. London has it in trust for the nation. If London won’t look after it then it should go where it will be appreciated.
4. Wasn’t London named by Italian colonists anyway?
5. Karachi is still open for business, if some people like it, well go there, let’s leave London as an English city, that is why people from all over the world come to see, live and work in it. (Nobody is stopping them going to Karachi either).
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London is safer now since Sadiq Khan took over – well that’s what he says.
https://www.express.co.uk/videos/6051552661001/Sadiq-Khan-insists-London-is-safer-on-his-watch
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TOADY Watch #2 – follow me, follow, follow me swallow
For the next year the TOADY programme is following swallows from Europe to South Africa and back again. Or vice versa. Purpose? Probably to try and prove a Climate Emergency or Climate Change.
Good use of BBC resources?
Probably not.
Promoting worship of creature instead of Creator.
Probably.
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Foscari
I agree – but perhaps it shouldn’t be a ‘name ‘ just a postcode – and as for statues – why not remove all of them ? Places like Trafalgar Square can be turned into accommodation for NHS workers – free of charge – of course . Traffic in XX1- as I think London should be called – should be replaced by bicycles only – all designed to meet the needs of a ‘diverse community ‘.
Actually – if not calling london XX1 – why not ‘Grenfell city “…
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I dipped in to toady to see what the 0810 interview would be – heard it was about schools – and turned off . I know that the comrade teachers will strike in solidarity with hardworking NHS staff – who will also strike and we will be encouraged to overthrow the government and bring comrade Corbyn back – fully supported by the BBC ….
… elsewhere – how will the BBC get back at paxo for going rogue ? I guess he will be fired from UC university challenge and replaced by a female coloured ex footballer like that one who does MOTD – match of the day – UC will be renamed ‘the Alix Scott show ‘ and will be more ‘inclusive ‘ with students from special needs education establishments includes in the early rounds …..
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I always thought that Joyce Grenfell was brilliant with her monologues and thoroughly deserving of a statue and streets named after her.
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Was that “tower” named after her? Oh dear!
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Three variations on a theme concluding with the return of a much loved old friend
The BBC this morning shows just how a newspaper can push itself to the top of our national broadcaster’s online press line up – go with a Labour narrative supporting headline….
And all three of our more left-leaning titles duly oblige. And hey presto… here they come in gold, silver and bronze positions.
Top of the pile, taking the laurels, standing proud on the very highest podium, we have the Guardian: ‘Sunak under fire as NHS staff offered 1% pay rise‘ – on the basis we forfeit our freedoms, closed private businesses, postponed holidays, curtailed social intercourse, banned public entertainment and lost jobs – all to protect the NHS, surely the calculation is that the NHS owes the public something in return?
But no. That’s not how the game plays out.
Next up, just pipped at the post, into a creditable second place over there at the BBC, is the Daily Mirror: ‘Insult to NHS heroes‘ – here we go again: ‘Health workers to get just £3.50 a week extra despite their toughest year‘
Has this been their toughest year? Surely every year the NHS has to deal with illness and death on a pretty large scale? That’s the industry they are in and that’s what they signed up for. Many of them, as the BBC will endlessly remind us, crossed continents leaving their homelands, just to work in the British health sector.
I’d hazard, we non-NHS workers have had a pretty a tough year, as the Mirror puts it. By the way, the year ain’t done yet.
Running in a close third of the victorious triumvirate of BBC picks for top of the heap today we have the ‘i’ newspaper: ‘NHS fury as heroes of pandemic get 1% pay rise‘ – this one is corker of a headline. Not only do we have the inevitable political criticism of the Tories for their treatment of the NHS, we now get the NHS workers themselves apparently furious. Of course they are described as pandemic heroes.
I prefer my heroes not to display anger at their mediocre pay rise. It’s frankly unbecoming of a hero.
Now if the number of hospital acquired infections had been fewer, if there had actually been overspill of admissions into the expensive temporary hospital facilities and if there had been some semblance of normality with maintenance of NHS services to patients with other conditions… well, I’d have a tad more sympathy for the gaping black hole for tax payer cash that is the NHS and its blob-like payroll.
Why this sudden surge in volume from the left-leaning media? Here’s a clue: ‘Tax-raiding budget gives poll bounce to Johnson. Conservatives open 13-point lead over Labour‘ (Times)
Tucked away as one one of those smaller headlines within the dense recesses of the FT we have: ‘Tariffs on UK exports suspended by US‘ – as is the way with the FT the wording is confusing making this seem at first glance like bad news. In fact it is rather good news for British exporters. Despite Brexit.
Who knows whether we will ever return to post-pandemonium – I mean post-pandemic… normality?
We can, however, clutch at straws. There is at least the welcome return of the much-missed female celeb angst interview. And it’s a good one. A classic of the genre. One which in its simplicity seems to stand for them all.
Over there at the ‘i’ paper Swedish singer and songwriter Zara Larsson tells us: ‘I crave outside validation‘ – don’t we all, luv.
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Local Radio switch on bingo
8:13am the presenter was banging on about how people want NHS workers to be paid more
I wound back to 8:04am
“People are NOT happy, 1 % potential pay increase for NHS staff, people arrrn’t appy, people are NOT happy,
Jonathon says “they’ve had 12% on the last 4 years of course, they are worth more, cos people like me got nowt”
“What are you saying ? I’m not sure what you are getting at, with that one
What are YOU representing ? What industry”
“Phil says insult doesn’t even cover it, mPs are getting a 3.1% bung this is a kick in the teeth
Mr Hindsight is hilarious, if only we had a decent opposition this gov would be in big trouble
Get in touch, let us know what you think about this 1% to NHS staff
Is it a bonus , or is it an INSULT ?”
“HONESTLY the papers are pretty much full of furious reactions from unions, from the Labour Party about the governments PROPOSED 1% payrise to NHS staff in England
and I am not going to lie, rightly so !
I’d be mad
I am pretty mad to be fair
I honestly think it’s a bit of an insult
I think it’s like hmmmph I dunno
After all they’ve been through
And they’ve had this discussion before , back end of last year ?
And 1% is what they come out with
It doesn’t look good
It’s not great, it’s not great
Anyways, the gov is saying that other workers are having their pay frozen”
Over to clip from a reporter who explained in a more technical way
“… This a recommendation that the gov has put to the Independent NHS pay review body , and they will answer back in the Spring
Multiyear deals in the past have delivered pay rises for newly qualified nurses and junior doctors too”
Dr Dukes local doctor “I have conflicting thoughts
.. pay reflects risk, and this year the risk was really high
but not sure this is the way our pay really works “
(she is saying it’s built into the basic pay , same for police, rather than pay rises ..she more accepts the economy is in a bad way )
she continues “maybe when the economy is better, more people can get better pay”
8:14 He finally moves onto another issue
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0971f7x
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I bolded that cos what I put in quote italics is the BBC presenter
The BBC presenter clearly admitting he is not impartial.
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The Current BBCNews homepage
Laying it on a bit thick about the 1% NHS pay rise proposal.
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NHS Nursing Pay increase 1%
I just did some journalism in my chair: “Oooh Matron!”
Starting salary for newly qualified NHS nurse: £24,907
1% pay increase = £4-79 not £3-50. Tax on that @ 20% = £0-96*. Net 1% increase = £3-83 not £3-50. It was claimed by the BBC that was the pay increase for a top nurse although in later bulletins that was dropped.
It appears there is a major disinformation campaign being run by ‘the Left’ on this pay increase for NHS nurses and the BBC appear to be willing, more than keen, to join in.
* Individual situations may change that rate.
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Big pay rise – then increase income tax rates and reduce thresholds – which will come- Chuck in NI to ‘pay for the NHS ‘ as well – then go clapping …
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All public sector workers who have been on full pay throughout this crisis should have their pay frozen. Especially teachers.
Thousands of people in my position (Limited company, one employee, based from home) have not had anything at all to help and are in line to get stung the biggest when all the inevitable stealth taxes are brought in.
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And…. ‘what about’… the cosy cabal primed and ready… with synchronised soundbites.
All part of a carefully crafted campaign between pols, The BBC, pols again, limbo media, and… activists whose wedge doubtless is uniquely funded essential or on par with a BBC Pidgen Trans Reporter.
BREAKING: Did you see this Rube?
The government have just released their recommendations to the body that reviews NHS staff pay. And it’s outrageous. [1 – see, all the usual suspects say so to each other] After a year of working flat out to keep us, well some, safe – and putting their lives at risk – the government think our NHS staff deserve a measly 1% pay rise. [Let’s not mention those with any pay rises, or pay]
They say any higher pay rise would require “re-prioritisation” and that the context of the pandemic has to be taken into account. [3] But if our NHS workers battling Covid from the frontline aren’t worth prioritising, what is? Especially as this is a brilliant opportunity for us to gouge funds to activise this to essentially overpaid media to point at us doing so.
To make matters worse, after inflation a 1% pay rise for NHS staff would be a real terms pay CUT. [4] Which is still a heck of a lot more than those getting NOTHING.
The backlash by us has already started [Ok, we know it is by us and our mates]. And a petition signed by hundreds of thousands of us (note that careful phrasing – it goes though us at 38 Beegees, we do very nicely off the back of ‘our’ NHS and ‘us’ stirring folk up via ‘ ur BBC’) tonight – as this news breaks (ta da!)- will leave the government in no doubt that the British public (well, those we can reach), exc. other voters) won’t stand for our NHS heroes (Don’t mention the war hero) being fobbed off with this “pitiful” (self-quoting) amount. For every 1000 of us that signs, we’ll send an email alerting Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Chancellor Rishi Sunak. And if they are smart they will see it for what it is after the first two.
Will you add your name to the petition right now? Every rigged extra name – and second – counts.
ADD MY NAME
Thanks for being involved,
Quids In Megan and the 38 Beegees London weighting team
PS. This might be the second email you’ve had from us today, but this felt so urgent we thought it was worth it. Our NHS heroes need our help today.
It will be interesting what The BBC ‘reports’, from whom, and when, and then again…. including numbers, Marianna.
If it is just self driving PR, my dear… The BBC is a willing, partial accomplice in and attempt to drive policy in defrauding the public.
All… hundreds of th… 70,000,000 of ‘them’.
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….and what about all these little (????) annual incremental service-length pay rises, and the annual, virtually automatic, upgrade (e.g. from staff grade level 15 employee to level 16 employee, etc.) so beloved of the public sector – has that all been factored into this ? You can bet your ‘arris it has not, and never has been, because these are not classified as basic pay level rises.
What would really be interesting to see is just what a public sector employee entering the payscales is actually being paid after 10 years or so, compared to what they started at – and how many are actually doing a job really significantly different to the one they were doing the day they started.
And the medical profession is no different to the rest of the public sector in this respect.
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BBC WEB-SITE Watch #1 – Interesting use of language change from Home Page to here
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-56152069
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@Up2Snuff that’s a bit cryptic
All I see is a couple of Americanisms from the writer Dhruti Shah.
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Sorry, Stew, the HP has been changed now. First thing this morning and at the time of my post the Home Page strap was ‘Artists leading the war against Covid’ but the article was a Pythonesque something completely different: about International Womens Day and titled differently as well. It begs the question why cannot the BBC be straightforward?
An example, I think, of BBC devious use of language or just plain BBC deviousness.
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@Up2Snuff not the homepage story is still there
see the screenshot below
The Link words : “The women using art to explain Covid-19 science”
Links to the story “In Pictures : International Women’s Day: Illustrating the Covid-19 pandemic”
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Stew, the BBC w-s Home Page normally changes during the day to reflect changing news, etc.. But that was a very quick change this morning. It rather suggests that someone at the BBC does read posts on here and responds accordingly. Not the first time that has happened. Also, during TOADY, I suspect someone at the BBC hurriedly did some sums and said “£3-50 per week pay increase cannot possibly be for a top nurse – better change the News bulletin.”
TWatO today: if what Jonny Dymond stated is correct, the average pay for a nurse is close to the median pay for the UK as a whole : £34,000.
Incredible!
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Up2snuff
Just looked at that link . Are the BBC now based in Mumbai ?
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The BBC’s favourite Scotch politician knows it all.
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Simple answer – like other public servants – politicians must wear body cameras all the time ….
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I think she should ‘circle back’.
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Harewood’s BAME Covid doco : I just looked for other reaction videos apart from Sargon’s which pointed out that both presenters have rather posh accents.
#1 I found someone has uploaded the entire BBC doco to Youube
which means the entire international audience can see it for free.
That makes it look like the BBC is being lax in enforcing its copyright.
#2 I see BBC Ideas put out a video last week saying “genetic race does not exist”
That seems rather clickbaity
BBC Ideas: Short films and videos for curious
Tired of clickbait? Satisfy your curious mind with this selection of thought-provoking short films and videos from the BBC.
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So that vid too is available to international audiences for free, even though UK licences fee payers paid for the prog.
I note it has open comments
But I guess the BBC may delete them.
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Hmmm – if, as you point out, StewGreen, the BBC has put forward the view that ‘genetic race does not exist’ – then the corollary of this surely means that BLM is a complete waste of time, based on a lie, and obviously, any claims for race-based reparations fail at the first hurdle.
Geez – does that mean I agree with the BBC for the first time in a long time ?
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Further proposed State powers on you and inside your home:
S.52 Offensive Weapons Act 2019. And remember that, for the law, any item can be an ‘Offensive Weapon’.
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/17/section/52
Not yet in force but you can bet your bottom dollar S.52 will be at some point in the future.
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G
That is truly frightening – an casual removal of such a fundamental freedom so easily drafted – all done in the name of ‘community safety ‘…
I can’t see how it equates with rights of privacy … but they are disposable too – in the name of ‘community safety ‘ ‘equality ‘ ‘diversity ‘ or some other buzzword bingo terms
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What is the problem with that law ?
It just says it will become an offence to threaten somebody with a weapon
So yes saying to a kid “I’ll thrash you with a slipper”
would become an offence
but surely that’s already an offence ?
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Stewgreen
Laws controlling private places – excellent – why stop with that one ? Drunk in a private place ? Using unapproved language in a private place ?
Power to enter without warrant to arrest – no problem – seems you like the idea .
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Fed,
I agree. It’s simply a glaring gap in seeing the, ‘bigger picture’.
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Logical fallacy there
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“That’s already an offence ?” Really, why?
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Can’t the BBC be at least neutral when it comes to India
playing England at cricket. Call me paranoid but why do
I see nearly every time on the main p internet page
a picture of the Indian cricketers celebrating something
even when England are holding their own.
But I expect that with every main page picture BIG BROTHER
from the diversity and “inclusiveness ” dept is in complete
control of the picture virtue signalling output.
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To show how agenda pushing the BiasedBBC is
I removed the normal news stories
to leave only the BBC agenda ones
: Of pushing BAME issues, Global Warming PR, pro Labour etc.
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Why is that White Helmets story still on the BBC page after 6 days ?
“How the White Helmets and James Le Mesurier got pulled into a deadly battle for truth By Chloe Hadjimatheou”
The BBC uses a headline
‘Floating ship’ photographed off Cornish coast by walker
“Flying ship” is the word they should use
Some weather effect causes the ship not to be on the horizon between the sea and the sky, but rather to be in the sky.
BBC meteorologist David Braine said the “superior mirage” occurred because of “special atmospheric conditions that bend light”.
He said the illusion is common in the Arctic, but can appear “very rarely” in the UK during winter.
You get two zones of air cold at the sea and warm in the sky, and the light gets bend in slightly different way from each zone
so the sky looks lower into the sea than it actually is.
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They’ve changed “floating” to “hovering” now
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Did you watch the ‘Worlds biggest Afro ?’ video ?.
2 and half minutes of utter woke tripe. Complete with activists.
Doesn’t mention how they know it’s the biggest in the World. Must have spent years going round the USA and Africa to find out.
‘Big, bold and beautiful’ it starts. Big, bold and totally ridiculous was my first thought.
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Maxi-gold.
“I removed more than half the stories using my biased thinking to show how biased the BBC is”.
As Homer Simpson says, “Doh!”
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“did we give the troops who went to Iraq or Afghanistan a pay award ?
– it’s a job.
The issue is the NHS is broken and needs fixing.”
Bet they would have done if they’d done some Tik Tok dance routines.
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Here are the over stretched cops rehearsing their tik tok routine, see why they are so popular.
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Actually the video shows Jersey Island which is NOT on lockdown
https://www.gov.je/Health/Coronavirus/SafeExitFramework/Pages/SafeExitFrameworkForIslanders.aspx
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Regardless of lock down rules, it looks like a waste of publicly funded resources.
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BBC story
Actual words when being asked if the grants were “pork barrel politics”
So he said ” failings of socialism”
and they cut that to “socialism”
One context is that the area did get a licence to allocate freeports, so if it had got cash as well
that would be two gifts from government
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It is always worth a look at Trading as wdr blog, just to get a backgroung look at the ‘movers and shakers’ at the Beeb.
Here is an interesting statement on this week viewing numbers:
“Channel 5 has ‘won’ the 9pm slot twice this week. Last night, an average audience of 2.2m watched Ben Fogle in Chernobyl. Gordon Ramsay’s Bank Balance eased down to 1.5m.
On Monday, Ben Fogle’s New Lives In The Wild attracted 1.8m. On BBC1, David Harewood’s Covid documentary was watched by an average audience of 1.4m. ”
When no one is watching BBC1 will anyone tell them.
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I used to get 2.7 million. Brilliant for a complete unknown. The BBC 2 average was about 1.9 million at that time.
The wrong kind of success obviously.
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Ah – but Anne ‘ratings don’t matter ‘ when they are low …. but don’t worry – BBC 3 the grown up kiddie channel is coming – with continuous repeats of ‘fleabag ‘ and the tedious ‘killing eve’ – those 2 achievements ….
1.4 million for a 9pm programme – maybe Coloured lives don’t matter as much as the BBC think ….
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The BBC this morning were punting the point that, since it is ‘forecast’ that the rate of inflation may rise to 1.9% in the next year, then a 1.0% pay rise, is really a pay cut.
Will the BBC be supporting the view that, if inflation is ‘forecast’ to drop at any point in the next year, then public sector pay rises should be cut accordingly. Somehow, I think not.
They certainly haven’t been advocating that approach over the past few years with nurses pay rising by huge amounts compared to inflation rates.
But then, the BBC is perfectly happy with its own hypocrisy at any time – if it suits their agenda.
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BBC rabbiting on this morning about the UK breaking international law by trying to ensure food and other necessary items arrive in part of the UK….
EU forces Astra-Zeneca to break their contract guarantees with an external country, because the EU failed to agree contracts with AZ which guarantee specific deliveries/dates to their members….
….and this somehow escapes the BBC as a potential breach of international law ??????
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NHS pay has done pretty well recently
2018-2021 was a 3 year deal
– around half of staff got 6.5% rise those who are already at the top of their pay grades
– Staff at the bottom of their pay grades got the highest rises eg 29% for staff earning just under £32,000 in Band 7.
– some higher-paid staff got lower increases e.g. 4.5% for those earning over £100,000.
https://fullfact.org/health/nhs-pay-whats-deal/
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Today’s R4 Art’s show : Feminist films discussion
Critics Karen Krizanovich and Jan Asante
discuss two films with different perspectives on feminism:
– The Glorias, written and directed by Julie Taymor and starring Alicia Vikander & Julianne Moore, which focuses on the life of the American feminist, writer and activist Gloria Steinem,
– the US high school drama Moxie, directed by and starring Amy Poehler.
Jan is related to Amma Asante who had a 1 hour biography on BBC4 last night.
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The one percent figure is being bandied about a lot today by the representatives of ‘our any chess ‘
Given that we have locked down for a year, the economy is tanking and millions are unemployed or furloghed, 1% seems reasonable and acceptable given we are all having to stay home, save lives and ‘protect the NHS ‘
After all, it’s what they wanted.
A price worth paying. I’m sure they’d agree.
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TWW,
Unions have raised £35 Million to fight the Government over their seeking 12.5%. Made me splutter when I heard that. Perhaps they ought to donate the £35 million toward what they are seeking instead of financing the legal profession?
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G, or is that a ‘strike fund’ to give to nurses as pay when they are on strike? The nurses get paid to strike. We, the locked-in and unpaid, have to save the whole NHS – on two occasions!
But your conclusion is right: if the Union has that amount of money (not much more than Capt. Tom raised on his own) either it can: 1. help nurses who might struggle after their 1% pay rise or, 2. cut its Union dues which are obviously too high.
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G, I find it amazing how quickly they can plan a strike to further their needs, but have such poor systems and processes in place that we all were told to literally stop using the service as they couldn’t cope with an increased number of patients over the winter period.
Let them strike, I’m pretty sure the views of the taxpayer and silent majority will not be what they and their shrills in the Labour Party and Beeb think.
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Give or take there are 300,000 nurses employed in the NHS
https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/workforce/nhs-nurse-workforce-in-england-increases-by-12000-in-year-26-06-2020/
If a third went on strike £35m would cover just one weeks wages and they couldn’t afford to stay away any longer.
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Two scenarios.
Private sector worker with pension pot.
In the last 3 years, annuity rates ( the amount of guaranteed pension your pension pot would buy) have gone down by 12%.
Public sector worker (e.g. NHS) with guaranteed pension entitlement related to salary, to be paid out of future taxation.
No change in entitlement. Fully protected.
So your typical public sector has had a total package, benefits-in-kind rise as compared with the private sector. And by quite a bit. Even without a headline pay rise. But the NHS got 6.5% pay rises over those three years on top of the pension protection.
A fact which strangely the BBC always manage not to mention.
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Rhondda: ‘Number of casualties’ involved in serious incident
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-56293384
Doesn’t Rhondda have asylum seekers housed there?!?
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The public has been urged by police to “refrain from speculation” about the incident. hmmmmm
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BBC are not going to give details on this one but I’ve heard elsewhere it was a “domestic stabbing with one dead and 10 others injured”.
Something like this will need some serious spin before the BBC release it.
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“one person feared dead and multiple casualties after knifeman’s stabbing rampage in a Chinese takeaway in Treorchy, Rhondda”
witness reported “Chinese woman in the street screaming”
Welsh Police have deployed a Pronunciation unit SWAT team, to arrest people who say “Ron-da”
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I know it is not needed to be said here, but, yet another example of the gross mismanagement of the UK.
“More than 23,000 UK-based applicants failed to gain training places last year even as the country faced the initial onslaught of Covid. 36,200 people were rejected even as Ministers put nurses on the shortage occupation list in 2016.”
https://www.migrationwatchuk.org/briefing-paper/489/outcomes-for-uk-based-applicants-for-nursing-courses
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Not BBC, but just a musing on the Megan Markle interview with Oprah.
One privileged black woman whinging to another privileged black woman about her perceived lack of privilege.
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Just been listening to BBC Radio Five Live. They were talking end of home schooling – time of celebration?
Nah, they just had a mother phone in whinging about how she has to buy school uniform and pens and paper. The usual mother, 3 kids, 2 with special needs, on benefits, no mention of the father(s).
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Government briefing watch
Comrade Victoria ‘vicky’ young got the first journo question in the covid brief . I’m happy to report that comrade young had no questions about the Chinese virus but lobbied on behave of our nursing comrades for a pay rise – whilst the private sector wonders if it has a job at all .
Well done to comrade young …..
… another ‘ journo ‘wondered whether English NHS employees would get a £500 hand out like our comrades in Scotland got .
I’m predicting the SNP will offer Scots NHS staff a 10% pay rise to buy the election and make the UK government look bad . Crankie will get a couple of braceheart approval votes back too…
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I watched a bit of the ‘debate ‘ about defunding the BBC – the Tory vicar ( wittingdale ) who chairs the media committee obviously doesn’t listen too – or watch the BBC … he was just concerned about wi if coverage for other sources of TV.
Back to BBC news – a dr – who wasn’t introduced as a Labour MP -just captioned as one – was given free airtime to campaign for a pay rise .
It wasn’t mentioned that doctors are employed outside NHS rates and do very nicely thank you . Let’s privatise the NHS
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Simon Webb on the Denmark immigration change
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I looked at that photograph and thought it was a “Children in Need” ramble.
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Local ITVnews leads with Matt from the nurses campaigning org “Nurses United”
Bio “Mental Health NHS Nurse | Activist | Father | Socialist | Views my own | Dislikes the Health Secretary
… rainbow flag”
“Me and my wife are both NHS nurses.
but …… expecting a baby”
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Final item : school kids 5-6 year old forced to do a “Thank The NHS” video
(That’s not how they worded it)
… lovely the presenters said
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Jeepers, she’s headed right! Is that allowed?
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Dear me. It’s all just so weird. What’s the reason for personification and hero worship of this mission they’ve conjured up?
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Simon says…
Certainly a pay rise for him too.
Not for the troops headed back into Napier Barracks to clean up the loos.
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Tonight’s TV
BBC1 8.05 MasterChef: British pudding
BBC2 6:30-9pm Athletics from Poland
10pm Tom Jones on The Jools Holland show
Channel4
10pm Alleged Comedy show : guest : Nish Kumar
BBC4 Entirely 80s, 90s music
heavily edited Top Of The Pops etc.
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BBC local news
first the road litter problem
then the Nurses United activist group.
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C4 news – isn’t that great ? They got a leaked email from the foreign office discussing cuts to overseas aid ( tax giveaways ) to various failed statelets ….
… apparently public opinion strongly favours such cuts – to a policy created to make politicians feel good about themselves whilst spraying billions of pounds of taxpayers cash around …….
…. maybe divert some of the money to something useful at home – say cutting the huge public debt or digging up cycle lanes ……..
By the way C4 News dug up a failed Tory MP Rory Stewart to justify giving away our money as well as a Tobias Elwood Far Lefty Tory to argue for giving our ( borrowed ) taxpayer cash away ….
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I was reading the Express on line, and noticed a piece about Naga Munchmybunch, was getting a reaming about the way she had interviewed a Tory Minister this morning. Anyway, at the bottom of the piece were comments. The one that caught my eye was “Naga, a poor showing for the BBC’s diversity quotient” Made my day.
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