Start the Week 2 August 2021

At the start of this month over 75 year olds without TV licences (without Pensioner Credit ) and who watch live TV are targets for the TV licence inspectors again . This , at the same time that the BBC admits it is targeting the young . So when will see the first prosecutions of over 75 year olds or reports of elderly people fearful of the knock on the door ? Defund the Far Left unaccountable anti British BBC

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343 Responses to Start the Week 2 August 2021

  1. Dover Sentry says:

    Thanks, BBC. My mates down the pub have long been asking if Kenya would ever get its first female paraglider.

    “Kenya’s first female paraglider on life from a bird’s eye view”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-africa-58055592

       30 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Dover
      I wonder if the overseas aid giveaway bought a paraglider … helping with female equality tick box …

         13 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      I imagine there have been many African born female paraglider in South Africa.

      One thing is paragliding is restricted in many countries due to military fears.

         6 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Being overseas – and due to return to Blighty next week – I am watching project fear closely . Last week there was a threat to put the country where I am on the red list . Then it was being put on the amber plus list – now – Monday night – it is announced that the -amber plus list is not going to happen and the idiot Shaps will be making an announcement on Thursday .

        Meanwhile – I will be required to take a pre travel PCR test ( £60 ) and a day two arrival test – cost at £50 but up to over £100 if you are willing to be ripped off even more .

        Now I accept the need for tests . But if you look at the UK list of private companies offering tests – it is a bunch of sharks – and does the red tories no credit – in fact I’d put it as shabby .

        For info – in London the cheapest day 2 test is £25 – but it is booked up through august …. So real life it’s over £50 .

        I think if the government demands it – it should pay for it .

           12 likes

  2. Sluff says:

    Well I was hoping to see coverage of the Olympic men’s 3000 m steeplechase final and women’s 5000 m final but instead someone I’ve never heard of is talking about a women’s football qualifying match, GB having already been eliminated.

    Come back David. Coleman, Cliff Michelmore, Des Lynam, all is forgiven – which was never very much back in the days when the actual sporting action was the thing.

    In grainy black and white, with the minimum fuss and simple presentation, 57 years ago the BBC could just do the basics well, and it still gives me the goosebumps. As compared to the dumbed down, PC, tick-box, talking heads dross we get now.

    Tokyo 1964. Enjoy.

       25 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      And what about the theme song “Good Morning Tokyo” ?

      The days of having a ‘song’ for the Olympics is no more. My favourite was ‘Mexico’ in ’68 by the fab Long John Baldry.

         1 likes

      • Sluff says:

        What’s wrong with ‘Tokyo Melody’ by Helmut Zacharias (i think).

        It was the BBC music for the 1964 Olympics and reached the top 10.
        How timesh have changed.

           1 likes

    • Foscari says:

      Sluff-This is what I am paying June Sarpong working in
      diversity three days a week £265, 000 a year for at the BBC.
      She can stick her diversity up her ****.

         2 likes

  3. 1 of 8e9 says:

    Not quite BBC, but betraying the same trait.

    Anyone else notice that some online interviews on GB news that the audio gets strangely get garbled at the most interesting and contentious points (Sebastian Gorka last night).

    Reminds me of the ‘sound problems’ they always used to get just when Nigel farage was on the BBC.

       24 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      I’m surprised mr gorka is still on the BBC – I thought he’d be on the ‘banned ‘ list by now for taking apart BBC droids time and time again …. He’d do well on GBN …..giving a contrary view of the True US President …

         11 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        FEd you read it wrong , Gorka was on GBnews not BBC

           6 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Stew – thanks – I was surprised if he is ever on BBC again as he would rip anyone there now – apart – including maitliss Marr -Newman –

             7 likes

  4. Doublethinker says:

    Just doing my catch up of the weekend on the GBN app and yet another greater example of why the channel is so different to the wall to wall Wokism of the rest of the UK MSM. On the Mark Dolan show Sebastian Gorka , who was an aid to President Trump and is still an unofficial adviser to him, was given nearly 20 minutes to answer Dolan’s questions without a single interruption and no eye rolling which is so common when anyone from the right is ‘interviewed ‘ on the BBC.. There was no orange man bad agenda and no unsupported vilification of Trump and his supporters. A breath of fresh air.

       42 likes

  5. Dover Sentry says:

    GB News Headline (Will Never be seen on our BBC).

    “Mark Dolan: The NHS needs to go from being the national Covid service to the national health service again”

    https://www.gbnews.uk/shows/mark-dolan-the-nhs-needs-to-go-from-being-the-national-covid-service-to-the-national-health-service-again/115297

       27 likes

  6. pugnazious says:

    Humza Yousaf, the SNP’s pet Muslim brought in to win the ethnic vote….the man who tried to use his post as Scottish justice secretary to introduce laws that were designed to prevent criticism of Islam…now he’s tackling racial discrimnation in Scottish nurseries.

    The BBC tells us…
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-58056234

    ‘Health Secretary Humza Yousaf has reported a nursery to care watchdogs over concerns it discriminated against his daughter.

    Mr Yousaf said Little Scholars in Broughty Ferry claimed it had no availability when his wife applied for a space for two-year-old Amal.

    But he said applications submitted by friends and family for “White Scottish-sounding names” were accepted.

    The nursery has strenuously denied any allegations of discrimination.’

    So it’s Whitey being racist again huh?

    Once again with the BBC the truth is hidden away at the end of the report where few people go…

    ‘In a statement, Little Scholars Day Nursery said any claim that it was not open and inclusive to all was “demonstrably false”.

    It said that its owners were of Asian heritage and it had regularly welcomed children and staff from a range of backgrounds “including two Muslim families currently.”‘

    So just as in a previous report where it was black people being racist but this was downplayed, we have the BBC again headlining a suggestion that white people are being racist yet again.

    You, almost literally, can’t switch the radio on without there being someone of ethnic descent being praised for their brownness and sympathised with over their suffering in racist Britain.

    The casual and deliberate anti-white racism and hatred that pours out of the BBC must surely be a hate crime itself.

    Still could be worse…Times Radio is just as bad and LBC is worse with James O’Brien…..completely off the scale, so woke and full of white guilt it’s embarrassing [Nihal is the brown O’Brien…suffering white guilt on our behalf!]….so many ex-BBC presenters lurking in these other media organisations…wonder if they get a BBC retainer to keep peddling The Message.

       35 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      LBC has Majid
      TalkRadio probably has some lefties tucked away ..like Cristo etc.

         5 likes

  7. StewGreen says:

    Wuhan lab tried to improve afety measures just two years after opening

    + Australian police helicopters circle the beach
    “Leave the beach Covid maybe spread”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZsEjG6cB0c

       3 likes

  8. Guest Who says:

    Brace, brace, brace…

       12 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Perception ^^^^^

      Reality….

         10 likes

    • pugnazious says:

      So….looking for activists who will ‘tell stories’ rather than report the truth….what’s missing is that they have to be Blackish…though the photo in the link seems to make it clear that being of an ethnic persuasion will be of benefit.

         16 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Chris Packham told me this morning, pug, that getting up 15 minutes earlier each day would help to offset all his carbon emissions as he flies around the world and uses lots of electricity.

           13 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Bit like the annual ‘why do we change the clocks ‘thing – which is begging for a referendum – the Scots national socialists will invent Scots time – maybe 23 hour days ?

             8 likes

          • Banania says:

            The Scotch have always accused the English of wanting to organize the clock to suit themselves. They think we can actually reduce their hours of daylight by Act of Parliament.

               0 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Seems about it.

        And any kid looking to get on the BBC Green beat will know what to say to get in, stay in and work up the greasy pole.

        And that will not be journalism.

           8 likes

    • digg says:

      Absolutely bound to attract the junior nutters the BBC are desperate to enlist.

         5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      That video tweet for BBCYoungReport I mentioned that project last Wednesday 28th *
      which the BBC promoted in 7 tweets that day
      eg https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/1419554086832283652

      * https://biasedbbc.tv/blog/2021/07/25/start-the-week-monday-26th-july-2021/comment-page-3/#comment-1131651

         0 likes

    • Sick of it all says:

      ‘tell the story of our changing climate’

      Isn’t there enough fiction out there already?

         5 likes

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

    HELP!

    When I go on the BBC website and do a search for articles on “Greta Thunberg” – I only get 29 pages (290) search returns. When I typed in “Boris Johnson” again I only got 29 pages (290) search returns. I know that the BBC have produced probably up to tens of thousands of articles and references to Greta Thunberg – so what is happening and how can I do a detailed search of the BBC website.

    Thanks.

       6 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      BoBotC, you are very brave doing battle with the BBC search engine. I find it completely useless. Quite how James Purnell was allowed to get away with it for so long – nine years? ten years? – is an absolute disgrace. I can only put it down to the fact that he was a former Labour MP and Minister.

         13 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @Cali the BBC search is hopeless, and is clearly limited to 29 pages which is why it claims 290 results for both

      Use Google

      Googling : site:www.bbc.co.uk “boris+johnson”
      Gives you an estimated 151,000 results
      It will be far less than that but I never get to the last page

      Googling : site:www.bbc.co.uk “Greta Thunberg”
      Gives you an estimated 4,000 results
      actually 27 pages ie 270 results

      BTW searching Twitter is good for giving you the latest stories
      eg from:@BBCNews Greta

         4 likes

    • Garry Lavin says:

      If you search for me or my BBC TWO series on there…you will get…nothing.

         1 likes

  10. vlad says:

    According to the Standard, Angelos Frangopoulos, the Australian chief executive of GB News, “has seized the editorial reins and is overseeing plans for a widespread refresh of the output in September”.

    But here’s the good bit: “Frangopoulos seems to be drawing on the playbook of Right-wing channel Sky News Australia, which he built by hiring firebrand politicians.”

    That, and the appointment of Farage, “has left a lot of people uncomfortable”, according to the Standard.

    I hope so, I certainly hope so.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/insider/chaos-live-can-gb-news-channel-survive-tv-b948773.html

       32 likes

  11. Fedup2 says:

    Vlad – I might have misread it – but we’re they really thinking of pairing Alistair c word Campbell with Lord Farage on a weekend show ? Minds do boggle ….

       7 likes

    • vlad says:

      That’s what it claims. Thank goodness that didn’t happen.

         6 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Farage often has Campbell on his shows and Lord Adonis
        ie both sides
        unlike the BBC where it’s Guardianland only

           12 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    Dontcha just love it that reporters are now told what to say.

    And do. Many going even further.

       15 likes

    • Kaiser says:

      I see hot lady weight lifter failed to clean, then failed the jerk and couldnt even manage to produce a snatch ….

      wimmim today huh

         12 likes

  13. Guest Who says:

    Hay? Isn’t that the nice little earner for BBC ‘talent’?

    I remain unclear on what exactly led to this.

       5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

         8 likes

      • Garry Lavin says:

        I have a lot of friends down Herefordshire and Forest of Dean area…and we used to swing by the last night of the festival for the music. It was a good party.

        Mind you, that Curtis chappie and similar would be there….being fawned all over. We are fairly well educated and worldly wise….but it did seem like another world….

           1 likes

    • Banania says:

      What did Peter Florence do that was gross? Do tell.

         0 likes

  14. Guest Who says:

    Sopes has trouble getting his brain cell around rigging stats.

    He is employed by the BBC.

       19 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      The US always do it that way
      USA won most medals overall in 2008 and 2012 and 2016
      However they have the most athletes competing
      They get more golds as well ..46 last time vs China’s 26
      Is Sopel predicting that the US won’t win the most gold’s in 2021 ?

      “If U.S. Women Had Competed Alone at the 2016 Olympics,
      They Would Have Ranked 3rd Most Medals Overall”

         10 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      He is confused isn’t he!

      If the games had been done under President Trump, he’d have been even more confused, but that’s Sopes for you!

      You heard it here folks, Sopes is a beeboid understatuement…

      (YES I did spell it right)!

         15 likes

  15. StewGreen says:

    ITV local news
    – council want to build on allotments near to Nottingham
    surely this is too far southwest to be in our area.
    – Here’s an Indian doctor who wants to go to India to help with Covid

    – “Now it’s South Asian Heritage month so here’s an item with Rafi the para-athlete”

       12 likes

  16. Guest Who says:

    Ok, not up long but the comment is funny.

    And… woah!….. WEATHER??!

       15 likes

    • Banania says:

      There is no such thing as “UK weather”. “UK” is a political expression, not a land mass or a real place.

         0 likes

  17. StewGreen says:

    Local BBC news the local enviro cutNpaster is very excited about power station cooling towers at Eggborough being demolished as we move to “better” solar and wind

    … Actually they are not proper electricity, but rather on/off intermittent leccy that put a strain on the grid

       19 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      He actually said “as we move towards power sources like Wind and Solar that are better for the planet”

      ..that’s purely his opinion I don’t agree cos they have many negatives and are not proper electricity supply sources.

         15 likes

  18. Guest Who says:

    So young…. Yet… so specialist… and a rock, a shoulder… as illustrated.

       9 likes

    • Docmarooned says:

      It would be fascinating to hear from the great Springster as to how one so worldly wise in all matters globally where she gets the experience to comment profoundly on everything at variance with her OPINION and declare it as fact.

         21 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      Décolletage, du monde au balcon.

      We’ll be getting the Express’ ‘side-boob’ next.

         9 likes

  19. Guest Who says:

    Well worth the repeat.

    Tell. It. Often. Enough.

       23 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      On the subject of veg, I was unaware they were ‘produced’.

      Not all comments likely to tickle Femi’s fancy.

         9 likes

    • BigBrotherCorporation says:

      He looks like a vegan.

         4 likes

    • digg says:

      Bill Gates told them to?

         3 likes

    • Kaiser says:

      man who sells expensive stuff that isnt meat and is riotously expensive (and tastes like cr*p) , supports tax on people selling meat

      well what a shocker

      ps disclosure for the sake of clarity im a veggie, but dont care whether your not , and dont force my family to do the same as me , its just personal choice and f all to do with saving the planet

         23 likes

    • Banania says:

      He has beautiful gnashers; pity not to use them properly.

         0 likes

  20. Northern Voter says:

    Was watching the Olympics earlier, and team GB won the eventing team gold medal, well done. However, all the riders on the podium, nine in all were white, whilst of the nine horses only one was white(grey really) the rest were brown. Why isn’t the Bloated Broadcasting Corporation railing against the exploitation of the coloured horses?

       33 likes

  21. Tabs says:

    I managed about 3 minutes of The One Show. They were all fawning over the Olympians who bang on about their mental health. Then Sarah Ferguson started on about how the 2 high jumpers who shared the gold medal is “everything the Olympics is about”.

    I can remember all the way back to the 2016 Olympics where taking part and winning was what the Olympics used to be about but that was a long time ago (4 years).

       23 likes

  22. theisland says:

    To date, no senior police officer or council official has been imprisoned, lost their public sector pension, or otherwise been meaningfully punished for allowing grooming gang abuse to go on, with various national and local investigations managing to spread blame vaguely across institutions rather than zeroing in on individuals to be sanctioned.

    The above has been a common ploy used successfully for decades (to cover up all manner of things) to make it almost impossible for individuals to be made legally accountable.

       45 likes

    • digg says:

      We used to have people elected into power and enlisted into our police to look after the welfare of all citizens. What we now have is jelly-bellied time servers who would rather bury a contentious issue and see victims go unprotected rather than try to defend the abused. I for one despise their craven and grovelling gutter level cowardice.

      Men and Women from forty years ago would buy and sell these stupid cretins.

         21 likes

  23. Guest Who says:

    Even for Sopes’ Washington, this seems odd.

       15 likes

  24. StewGreen says:

    Companies tell people they are running on 100% renewable electricity
    and the Advertising Standards Authority get away with that falsehood.
    On a low wind day like today, do you really think your Electric Car is being charged by wind-power.

    E7za0EAWEAk85JL?format=jpg&name=small

       15 likes

  25. Up2snuff says:

    BBC WEB-SITE Watch #1 – another oops! moment

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/england/london
    I was looking for news from central London for the weekend and note that the page contains:
    Nottingham
    Wales
    Hertfordshire
    Tokyo
    Northampton

    Do the BBC need a really good atlas?

       6 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      The page shows a block of 7 London stories
      then below that
      a bar marked in the html role=”region” data-test-curated-topic-five-slice=
      ie it’s a bar of 5 curated stories from the regions

         2 likes

  26. digg says:

    The BBC have decided to get behind an organisation called beyond meat. These people want to force us all to eat grass instead of meat.

    So they are pushing world governments to add punitive taxes on real meat to make their meat free products more competitive.

    This sort of anti-competitive manipulation also known as cancel culture is a new and particularly nasty trick by the woke.

    All you need to know that key players in this are in it for payback. Plus they are already rich twats.

    https://thearmageddontimes.com/2021/02/19/bill-gates-a-beyond-meat-stakeholder-wants-all-first-world-countries-to-eat-synthetic-meat/

    This has to be resisted as strongly as possible. Just don’t buy their crap and it should strangle it at birth.

       33 likes

  27. harry142857 says:

    Watching University Challenge (illegally)

    How dumbed down are the three bonus questions.

    Name the real life person by the description of characters portrayed in the recent “RuPaul’s Drag Race”.

    Bamber must be spinning in his grave. 🤐

       21 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      I’d just written
      Tonight’s TV
      can’t see much except
      8pm BBC2 the woke-yfied quiz progs

         5 likes

    • harry142857 says:

      Apologies. It appears Bamber is still alive and kicking.

         6 likes

  28. StewGreen says:

    @Digg 5 trustees resigned from the Vegan Society last month amid accusations of institutional racism and transphobia sparked by a bitter dispute over whether the word ‘veganism’ was ‘cultural appropriation’

    Vice President Eshe Kiama Zuri had posted racist comments online

       11 likes

  29. vlad says:

    The BBC have reached a new low by threatening to report women to the police for speaking out on the destruction of women’s sport. Hardly surprising given more than 70% of TV licence prosecutions are of women.

    Stop the BBC’s war on women and #DefundTheBBC

    KVH-yxDB?format=png&name=small

       18 likes

  30. Docmarooned says:

    It has gone beyond belief. It is simple. XY = Male XX =Female. End of.

    I know there are some chromosomal abnormalities related to X or Y abnormalities but not huge numbers.

    This woke mentality is an all pervasive menace.

       27 likes

    • digg says:

      This shit is coming from our new breed of “school teachers”, or in other words from our shit depraved universities.

         17 likes

  31. digg says:

    In my view Companies that hand over the perceived stance of their company and brand to their customers to the stupid woke advertising agencies will increasingly need to question the wisdom of this.

    More and more ads on TV are excruciatingly false in representation and it’s surely a matter of time before the average punter or buyer is turned off and antagonised by the lying mantra they are trying to force feed to the public.

    The sooner the better in my opinion.

       27 likes

    • Docmarooned says:

      Correct Digg. I now actively discriminate against such companies
      by not buying the products they advertise and target the less woke for alternatives.

         23 likes

  32. StewGreen says:

    “Mummy if you don’t what I want … I’ll sew my lips together”

    … That action to me is *bullying* and terrorism

    This is the First tweet of their thread

    Tweet #3 says this
    Rather than engage in dialogue about why this is happening
    News Corp have now responded by preventing people approaching Rev Tim Hewes outside their front entrance and directing them to their side entrance.

    FFS “engage in dialogue” … How can they ? his lips are sewn together

       20 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Next to him are 20 imams who sewed their lips together 20 years ago,
      .. so they don’t have to talk about Pak/Bangla Raping gangs

         18 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Personally I find that picture very distasteful and upsetting and wish you hadn’t put it up .the character must have mental issues which need not be publicised

      In fact – ask me to take it down and it will be gone .

         6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      BBC News

      The new E10 petrol will replace existing fuel supplies, and is much better for the environment – but many cars will not be able to use it.

      ***

      Hopefully Rev Timmeh! will use E10 when going full monk (never go full monk) to get Dr. Gail, Rog Hallam and Rog Harrabin in full irony free gush.

         8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Interesting the XR Alinsky replies.

      They know the power of one medium in particular.

         12 likes

    • Sick of it all says:

      What a putz.

         2 likes

    • dhunter says:

      seems to say – “Extinction Rebellion and 2 others” under the photo !!!

      what a nutter – why did he not superglue his lips instead (or is superglue oil based)

         1 likes

  33. StewGreen says:

    After a few minutes I thought not only is this bullying
    this is promotion of self-harm
    there is a risk kids will copy him, and may not get away as lightly as he will
    Such promotion of self-harm is against all the social media rules IT’S ILLEGAL
    I trawled through dozens of replies and none of them saw this
    until I got to Mallen Baker ..an old style green
    Now the video has already been pulled

    Now I just spot 1 or 2 others saying the same.

       19 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Twitter tells me after 2 hours he removed the stitches
      so of course is pretty OK
      but mutilating yourself is NOT peaceful protest ..it is violence.
      It causes trauma anxiety to the observer.

         21 likes

      • BigBrotherCorporation says:

        It’s the act of a lunatic.

        Far from encouraging me to listen… oh, hang on, I mean READ what he has to say, it’d just encourage me to avoid him like the madman he clearly is.

           24 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The 2018 XR training videos were actively pushing impressionable young to be martyrs.

      Quite how rushing towards a fire not shouting anything help is the new media coverage.

         6 likes

  34. tomo says:

    It is quite long – but I would say it will repay the time.

    A synopsis of the whole Fauci science bureaucracy thing that seems in large part to have landed us all in the present pandemic pickle.

    https://www.theblaze.com/op-ed/who-watches-the-watchmen-faucis-noble-lie-exposed.

    Archived minus a lot of the adverts

       6 likes

  35. JohnC says:

    Todays ‘Must see’
    How South Korea’s migrant wives are breaking the glass ceiling
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-57716704
    When you read it, it’s utter agenda tripe. 3 non-Korean women got jobs in Korea. Chock full of the usual vague statements such as ‘Some face stigma once they move to South Korea, and there have been reports of domestic violence and abuse.’.
    Absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with ‘glass ceilings’ which are where women only get promoted to certain levels.
    Just another indicator of the decline in BBC journalistic standards as the agenda increasingly trumps quality.

       23 likes

  36. Halifax says:

    I wonder if they will remove his “statue” from Madam Tussauds ???

    Do you think we would have heard about the police “visit” earlier if he wasn’t one of the BBC hero’s?

    Rapper Dizzee Rascal has been charged with assault, following an incident in south London.

    The 36-year-old whose real name is Dylan Mills, was charged after police officers visited an address in Streatham on 8 June.

    A woman at the property had suffered minor injuries, but did not need hospital treatment, police said.

    Mr Mills, from Sevenoaks in Kent, is due to appear at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on 3 September.

       15 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I went to look and found exactly what I expected : a very brief article with just the basic facts. Same as the Muslim woman who got burned alive by two Muslim ment recently.
      This story will disappear just like the Sasha Johnson story because blaming black people for anything is racist.

         26 likes

  37. JohnC says:

    Covid third wave: Americans ‘scared and angry’ as pandemic worsens
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-58014719
    I went to this article for one reason : to see if they even mentioned Biden, because every story like this was Trumps personal fault.
    And – as suspected – his name does not appear once.
    The usual disgusting double standards showing why you seriously CANNOT trust the BBC.

       32 likes

    • G says:

      What with a high percentage of carriers freely coming over the Southern Border and being dispersed throughout the US, what can one expect? Not only that, the time interval between 1st and 2nd jabs is apparently concerning. See:

         4 likes

  38. vlad says:

    “Americans are feeling a sense of whiplash as leaders scramble to account for a surge in Covid cases and a rise in hospital admissions.”

    What? I thought the combined magic of Sleepy Joe and his black / brown / female Vice President were going to fix everything.

    Unbelievable. Next they’ll be telling us the election was rigged and the BBC lied.

       29 likes

  39. Fedup2 says:

    Below is a long robin aitken piece in the Daily Telegraph today regarding the BBC new drive to threaten and prosecute over 75s in order to pay the June Sarpongs’ salary –

    STARTS

    To many people, £159 is not a huge sum of money; it’s the kind of amount they’d spend on a special meal or a night out. But to many others, hard-up state pensioners among them, it is a significant sum. And, from now on, it’s the amount that everyone is going to have to stump up for the privilege of watching the BBC – with, bar those on pension credit, no exceptions. Because at midnight on Saturday, the Corporation ended, for good, the concession (delayed by a year) which exempted over-75s from paying the licence fee.

    The fact that the BBC is taking such a hard line with one of the least affluent and most disadvantaged groups in the country tells us something about the fast-developing cash crisis at the Corporation. Last year, for the first time, revenue from the licence fee dropped by around £170 million, as upwards of 200,000 people stopped paying it. And that seems likely to be a continuing trend: younger people, who are used to getting their news and entertainment online, seem increasingly resistant to the demands of the national broadcaster.

    What’s more, some of BBC’s best-known faces and voices have been moved on. Older viewers and listeners tend, for obvious reasons, to be set in their ways, and such changes always cause resentment. Shows such as Holby City are being retired, old favourites such as All Creatures Great and Small haven’t been picked up, and the replacement fare often seems lacklustre. It seems a long time since we had a ratings-busting costume drama from the BBC, and serious arts programming is at a low ebb. Expert broadcasters such as Mark Pougatch and Cornelius Lysaght on Radio 5 Live, or Ian Skelly on Radio 3, have disappeared. BBC Four, the BBC channel with the oldest viewership, will become a repeats channel, while an extra £40m is diverted to BBC Three.

    On top of that doubled generational pressure, there is the increasingly well organised “Defund the BBC” campaign, which urges people (young or old) not to pay because of the woke bias of BBC output. The Corporation’s finances have thus become trapped in a pincer movement: changed expectations on one side, vengeful culture-warrior opponents on the other – all compounded by the additional problem that older viewers are no longer content.

    It’s worth reprising how we reached this point. The original decision to exempt the over-75s was taken in 2001, when Gordon Brown was Chancellor of the Exchequer. In the 1997 election campaign, Tony Blair had promised to stick to Tory spending limits for a few years; that meant money was tight. But the offer of free TV licences to the oldest was a cheap measure that generated good headlines and doubtless some gratitude from older, poorer (and usually Conservative) voters. Yet the cost kept rising. By 2016, the estimated cost to the Treasury was around £750 million – not chicken-feed – and George Osborne, then Chancellor, wanted to offload this commitment.

    The BBC’s charter was due for renewal in 2017, so a deal was struck: in return for an inflation-proofed licence-fee settlement, the BBC undertook to fund the exemption out of its own resources. They said it would be reviewed after three years, but most people assumed it would be honoured; after all, a financial concession for the elderly is the kind of issue the BBC generally likes to get behind. After the negotiation was settled, the Director-General Tony Hall – he who was embroiled in the 25 year Martin Bashir cover-up – described it as a “good deal”. All seemed to be set fair.

    For decades, the amount of money the BBC raised through the licence fee had kept rising, but now, alarmingly for the Corporation’s high command, it’s dropping, and quickly too. There are said to be 260,000 pensioners who have yet to stump up. To be fair to the Corporation, they are the biggest consumers of so-called “linear TV” – that is to say, the kind of telly-watching where you sit down, switch on and consume what the schedulers are serving up. So, all else being equal, there’s a kind of rough justice in making those viewers pay their fair share.

    But what sticks in the craw, and weakens the BBC’s case, is that you don’t have to look hard to find stories of BBC profligacy. It’s not a good look for any public organisation to be wasting money while coming down hard on individuals, some of whom will have to make savings elsewhere to find that £159. According to some pensioner pressure-groups, many will be forced to economise on essentials such as food and fuel to meet the BBC’s demands.

    The chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, Julian Knight MP, has suggested that the Corporation “love-bomb” the elderly, by adopting a softly-softly approach to remind recalcitrant oldies of just what good value it is. But I have another suggestion: the BBC should strive much harder to make economies, without the kind of cheese-paring measures that diminish the quality and appeal of its programming.

    According to the BBC’s Annual Report & Accounts (2020/21), for instance, more than 185 BBC executives earn £150,000 a year or more; that’s a lot of highly paid desk-wallahs. Among this gilded company is the BBC’s “diversity tsar”, June Sarpong, who commands the salary of £267,000 for a three day week. That works out at about £1,700 a day, and paying for this righteous woke warrior takes the equivalent of nearly 1,700 licence fees.

    When that final demand comes clattering through the letterbox of some hard-up pensioner, no longer able to watch Holby or listen to their favourite radio presenter, they might well resent the fact that their widows’ mite is being used to keep Sarpong, and many others, in clover. The BBC’s drive to get old people to pay their dues would be on firmer ground, and yield better results, if began to trim some of its salaries – and focus on giving older generations, as well as younger, the programmes and presenters they want to see and hear.ENDS

    Our quest to end or /and defund the BBC is a painfully slow process . However in a way we have an Allie in the BBC itself making serious errors along the way gradually killing its own reputation …..
    The latest being a reported dire coverage of the Olympics …

       45 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      “Linear TV”?

      Surely they mean ‘lineker tv’?

      But wait, how many pensioners want to watch millionaire footballers scream at each other, laugh inanely at their own crap ‘jokes’ and generally go down like a cold cup of sick?

         29 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        22000 covid infections reported on Monday – the lowest in 5 weeks – and 2 weeks after reducing the lock down provisions a little bit .

        Now if you assume that there is any value in those numbers it points to a positive outcome and not the one the BBC choir of pessimist experts predicted ,

        Other interesting stats – not connected – the pay of UK HGV drivers has gone from £300 to £850 a week – because of Brexit –
        And even better – there’s a shortage – so maybe the food companies can employ and train a few British people to pick up the slack

        And I was wrong the other day – furlough is cut by a further 10% this month and is due to end completely in a few weeks ….

           19 likes

        • JohnC says:

          80% furlough was madness. Nobody wants to go back to work : they saved a few thousand by not going out and won’t bother until they absolutely have to.
          Meanwhile we will be paying for the consequences of this government spending by the inevitable hike in prices which will soon hit the fan.
          And it says everything I need to know about our ‘experts’ that not a single one of their models predicted this fall.
          Life is going to be very interesting for the next year or two : and not in a good way. Inflation is going to shoot up and I wonder if interest rates will go up as well.
          I see they are already blaming ‘Brexit and COVID” for everything. But they don’t tell you it’s 1% Brexit, 99% COVID.

             24 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            JohnC
            Chuck in a sterling devaluation to the mix and it’s a real horror show

               9 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          The trouble with stats Fed is that – even if the stats are accurate this bunch of WEF puppets that we have in place as a government do not seem to act logically to the figures.
          Deaths up = more lockdown
          Deaths down also often = more lockdown
          Not only that so many of these controls seem completely contradictory and arbitrary and make no sense . It is an abusive relationship where the electorate are constantly kept on their toes worrying about the next “varient” or the next restriction to their lives or business , constantly grateful for any small crumb hinting at freedom the blonde crook and his cabal throw our way.
          The BBC and MSM constantly making excuses for the abuser and why we deserve the next black eye

          This to me appears almost scripted.

             20 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            Oak – I wonder how long the ‘ordinary ‘ voter will have ‘affection ‘ for nut nut as bad news comes along – such as being forced to work ?

            I think the cracks are already appearing and sunak will need to distance himself from nut nut to avoid getting dragged down as well . But I guess it’s not worth focusing on these individuals because there are no obvious conservative replacements – or – indeed any Party to do so ( in reality ) …..

            Funny and sad that at the very time we needed an analytical mind we landed up with nut nut – a mr toad so far out of his depth …

               18 likes

        • Sick of it all says:

          I believe the backlog of applications is soon to be addressed by hiring up to 45,000 new drivers. One hopes they will be on the same salary upgrade you mentioned.

             2 likes

    • Dover Sentry says:

      Our BBC regard the over 75’s as being white and of no value to their woke purges. Let them eat cake, springs to mind.

         15 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        True , but they whilst they may not value them as human beings they do value their license fee payments, but they still insist on biting the hand that feeds them. I wonder if the BBC believes that even if another million or so refuse to pay the License Fee they will just get an increase in the Fee from government so covering loss in revenue. Hopefully this theory of theirs will soon be put to the test.
        One thing is certain. Once afew hundred thousand refuse to pay the License Fee the BBC and the government will be unable to prosecute them all and , provided this rebellion is given sufficient coverage in the rest of the media, the number of refuseniks will grow exponentially. Some will become refuseniks out of principle and some because they want something for nothing, no matter, once momentum has been gained the License Fee is toast.
        How will the government react to this clear and unambiguous message from the people? Will they fund the BBC out of general taxation , a model widely adopted in other countries , or will they force the BBC to become a self funding subscription service. Surely even this TINO Government would choose the latter ?? However, a more ‘liberal’ government , eg a Labour / SNP Coalition , would certainly go down the general taxation route. That alone is worth keeping this palid blue lot in power.
        Cutting the BBC down to size is the first practicable and essential step to trying to salvage something from the mess our country is in. Refusnikism is the greatest patriotic act that ordinary folks can perform in the 21 st century.

           14 likes

        • Sick of it all says:

          ‘Refusnikism is the greatest patriotic act that ordinary folks can perform in the 21 st century.’

          Agreed. The number of people going maskless on the London train network is growing exponentially by the day. They can’t police us all. Very soon a mask on the underground will be as rare a sight as it was in March of last year, regardless of the wittering from Citizen Khan.

             2 likes

    • JohnC says:

      £159 quid on a meal ?.
      Can you lend me £50 till next Wednesday ?.
      I’ll use the Thai definition of lend : If you have enough money to be able to lend it out, you have plenty and so I don’t need to pay you back.

         3 likes

  40. Foscari says:

    I and my wife are 76 years old and we have to pay
    for June Sarpong’s exorbitant salary for a part time job.
    And what is this part time job? To make the main feature
    on the BBC internet pages and Olympic coverage that an
    American athlete Simone Biles is NOT competing in her
    gymnastic events because basically she is scared of not
    winning.
    BIG BROTHER or BIG SISTER or BIG IT at the BBC Diversity
    department. The UK are going to have some ethnic medal
    winners at the Olympics , so stop shi…..ng yourself. When we win some boxing medals
    me and everybody else in the UK will be as
    pleased as punch whatever their ethnicity is. BUT stop this nonsense of making this
    American your poster girl. I’ve never seen
    so much bile !!

       33 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Sarpo?

      She’ll like this one, whatever the heck it is saying…

      ***
      BBC News

      “Black does not just exist in the contemporaneous… it felt really important to speak not just to the here and now, but to the roots of who we really are.”

      Artistic Director of the Young Vic Kwame Kwei-Armah explains his decision to reopen the theatre by reviving a 4,000 year-old poem.

      BBC Newsnight https://bbc.in/2Viv3h5

         7 likes

  41. Guest Who says:

    Interesting ‘balance’ from Frank in the BME…

    ****

    West faces dilemmas over tanker attack

    Angry words are being traded, diplomats are being summoned to foreign ministries and threats of retaliation made public after a deadly drone attack on a merchant tanker last week… There have been several previous attacks on Israeli-linked shipping this year, all blamed on Iran and all denied by Tehran.

    Israel is also presumed to have been behind a mysterious explosion on the hull of an Iranian military supply ship, in April, in the Red Sea. This is all part of what’s been called “the shadow war” between Iran and Israel. It’s a dangerous game of tit-for-tat that includes Israel’s suspected assassinations of Iranian nuclear scientists and its successful attempts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear development.

    Read full analysis >

    Frank Gardner
    Security correspondent

    ***

    ‘Presumed’…. ‘Suspected’.

    BBC happy with baseless accusations when it suits.

       17 likes

  42. Oaknash says:

    Aunty loves are good effnik victim – even if they are not.
    Wait for the next BBC articles detailing “hate crime” posts visited on Simone Biles

    However if you are a genuine victim but white (ie Rotherham) then you are merely a boring statistic to be forgotten asap.

       32 likes

    • JohnC says:

      The victims have to be victims of whitey males in some way to count.
      Just as Sasha Johnson has proved, black lives have to be taken by white people before they matter.

         19 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    BBC News

    To ultra-nationalists, anything less than a gold medal is being seen as athletes being “unpatriotic” – and they made their fury known online.

    ***
    Two extremes. No fun not being a Chinese athlete. Pressurised, even.

    Meanwhile in Beebworld not attending is glorious, and everyone sharing a Gold.

       9 likes

  44. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1 – what voice am I hearing?

    Interesting interview between Amol Rajan and a former military person Sir Nick (Carter?) about Afghanistan, immediately after the 7 a.m. News. The voice I was hearing (Sir Nick was on a mobile, not in the studio) sounded very like that of Tony Blair. I did a double take. But it wasn’t just the sound of his voice.

    It was the phrases General Sir Nick Carter used. Exactly the same words that that I used to hear from the mouth of Tony Blair concerning Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Shiver.

       14 likes

  45. AsISeeIt says:

    Viral spiral
    The most beautiful image
    Good news for horsey people and the PM reins it in

    It would be somewhat trite to remark how media reaction this morning to the PM’s easing of holiday restrictions had more to do with political leaning than any real belief, or otherwise, in the danger of covid. But let’s give it a quick test anyway – to find out what the lateral flow of headlines tells us – or is it all just an anal swab?

    PM steps in to save holidays on Continent‘ (Telegraph)

    PM flip-flops on changes to amber travel‘ (‘i’)

    Boris ditches rules to get Britain moving‘ (Daily Express)

    Johnson ditches travel watchlist plan amid chaos at advisory body‘ (Guardian)

    I don’t know about you, but I no longer trust a word of what journalists purport to tell me about potential dangers to my health. One way or another it is all coloured by their politics.

    The BBC, bless ’em, steer a fairly neutral course on the government decision not to further tighten overseas travel restrictions this morning – at least with their online news headline: ‘Covid-19: Amber watch-list travel idea scrapped

    The Telegraph takes the long view but can’t resist ramping up the fear just the same: ‘Viral spiral. Could hidden viruses in your body be the real cause of long Covid?

    Don’t ask me? Stop with the sinister rhetorical questions and do a bit of investigative journalism. Does no one care anymore whether this thing that’s engulfed the whole of Gotham came man-made out of a Chinese lab, the creation of a supervillain, or whether it sprang naturally from the batcave? Bam! Kapow!

    NHS app reined in to reduce disruption caused by the “pingdemic”‘ (Telegraph) – someone please… pingdemic or Xi Jinping-demic?

    Anyway, in case you were planning a summer break abroad the ‘i’ has further apocalyptic bad news: ‘The Med on fire‘ – if covid don’t get you, global warming will.

    Did the Telegraph take umbrage perchance at my remark hereabouts that the Olympics consisted of “posh and peculiar” sports?

    Tom McEwen, Laura Collet and Oliver Townend celebrate gold for Britain in the team eventing. It is the first time… since the Munich Olympics, when the Queen’s son-in-law was one of the team. By contrast, Townend’s father was a milkman and Collet was raised by a single mother who juggled multiple jobs‘ – methinks the Telegraph doth protest too much. I’m sure Townend’s old dad loved his horse… I’ve visions of a horsedrawn milkfloat and aproned flatcapped milky from about 1902.

    Speaking of a single mother who juggled multiple jobs: Sarah Ferguson Duchess of York has a new book what she wrote: ‘Delighful and surprisingly funny‘ – says the appreciative yet appropriately snooty ‘i’ newspaper’s four-out-of-five star review.

    Plus, in the ‘i’, the remarkably aptonymic Sophia Money-Coutts, the journo who spent five years studying the British aristocracy while working as features director at Tatler, writes: ‘In defence of romantic fiction

    In something of a role reversal within the habitually deferential Telegraph, Hannah Betts scoffs: ‘Three snogs and an interminal slog: it’s Fergie’s first Mills & Boon novel

    Her Heart for a Compass” is the title. I’m oddly reminded of Debbie Ann Harry of Blondie and her disco hit record “Heart of Glass” – particularly the line: “Once I had a love and it was a gas, Soon turned out to be a pain in the ass

    The Guardian likes sport – when it can be co-opted to tell a woke message. Their frontpage carries what Guardianistas gushingly term: ‘“The most beautiful image” Fans salute for shared gold‘ – I’ll give you three guesses…

    An incredible Olympic high jump final ended with both Qatar’s Mutaz Essa Barshim and Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi taking gold medals‘ – explains the BBC. Now I’m humming “Ebony and Ivory” by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.

    If only all sport ended in a draw and we all won ourselves gold medals in some utopian diversity festival.

       23 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Medical comment, AISI: yes, if you have had a virus in the past, especially some like Epstein-Barre virus (glandular fever) or Varicella Zoster virus (chicken pox) it can come back and ‘bite’ you again, usually through pVFS (postViral Fatigue Syndrome) or in the case, of VZv, through herpes or shingles.

         4 likes

  46. Sluff says:

    BBC Olympic breakfast. BBC1
    It’s the twin springboard diving. And China are nailed on for gold.

    Meanwhile in other coverage on the ‘lesser interest’ red button channel………
    Errrr. GB win two golds and a silver in the sailing and the women’s cycling team set a new world record and get through to the final, with. Guaranteed silver.

    The BBC. Totally useless.

       24 likes

  47. JohnC says:

    I see the BBC report the first female transgender weightlifter has been booted out because of:
    ‘… two failed efforts at 125kg in the snatch.’
    It was only to be expected.

       21 likes

  48. Guest Who says:

    Bet Justin bought her a heat pump back in the day though.

       18 likes

  49. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC Online News:

    “Gangs on e-scooters targeting GPS farm equipment”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-58066465

    Once again, our BBC deliberately declines to state the facts. What does ‘Gang’ mean? It’s a way of circumnavigating the facts and helps nobody.

    If you are a protected species due to the Woke-Yoke, you are free to go about your business.

    I blame those squirrels…

       22 likes

    • taffman says:

      Ask not what Al Beeb broadcasts, but what it does not broadcast.
      It quickly censors or dissolves those ‘awkward stories’.

         15 likes

  50. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #2 – cutting CO2 emissions by manufacturing, transporting, selling and buying more things

    Chris Packham wants us in the UK to save the world from Global Warming and Climate Change. He demonstrates today two different things: a wonderful lack of real knowledge – and – where this Global Warming and Climate Change thing is coming from on the political spectrum: the so-called ‘Left’ ie. Marxism

    Chris Packham’s Great Idea for Today is to have us all wake up 15 minutes earlier and go out and buy a bird feeder. (Has Pakham got shares in Bird Feeder manufacturers?) He is obviously none too aware of the CO2 emissions involved in manufacturing something like a bird feeder, the life span of same, the transporting from manufacturer to wholesaler to retailer, perhaps across continents or from the other side of the globe.

    It gets worse. Packham wants us to be ‘influencers’ and boast about our bird feeders to our neighbours on either side (I guess he doesn’t live in a Council flat in an inner city tower block) and encourage them to go out and buy bird feeders, too. Packham obviously does have shares in bird feeder manufacturers!

    Then the bird feeder owner will have to drive to a supermarket (more CO2!) and buy regular refills of feed – in plastic packaging – if his sparrows are as gluttonous as the little feathered friends in my garden. I wonder what the CO2 and methane output of a sparrow is, over its lifetime and proportionate to its body size and weight compared to a human being?

    (The mathematician and TV/Radio presenter, Johnny Ball, was ‘blackballed’ by the BBC after he did a programme pointing out that mosquitoes emit huge amounts of CO2 and their habitats emit methane! Mosquitoes outdo humans in proportion 9x, if I correctly remember what Johnny Ball said.)

    Billy Bragg is name-checked. So that’s Packham’s political influence, eh? A fellow traveller of ‘the far Left’. Packham is another ‘champagne Socialist’, worried about Global Warming but not really interested in doing anything about it on strictly personal level and, in fact, suggesting something to make it – by his standard – worse.

       18 likes

    • BigBrotherCorporation says:

      Packham has to be one of the most annoying people on the BBC… which all things considered is quite an achievement!

      We have a colony of House Sparrows which nest in our eaves, when I replaced the soffits some years back I was careful not to block the entrances to their nest holes, and they’ve certainly proliferated since – some 40+, including newly fledged, were counted recently.

      My nextdoor neighbour, is a retired lady with a passion for both feeding birds and cats. It seems contradictory to me, unless the intention IS to give her cats a bit more variety in their diet?

      Anyway, she’s been complaining to me about ‘my’ sparrows, apparently, they’re ‘not pretty’ and there are ‘too many of them’, eating all her bird food and pushing out the ‘nice’ birds – so she has to buy ‘twice as much’.

      I guess you could consider them ‘pests’, but I’m not the one encouraging them to freeload, and start families they can’t support with all that unearned birdseed.

      For some reason, an image of Marcus Rashford comes to mind.

         15 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        BBC, house and tree sparrows are thriving in my locality, too. I expect an ‘environmental group, BBC Radio Flaw and the Bee Lady to tell me they are an endangered species any day now. The sparrows are gangs of bullies when in a group and go for other small birds like robins and wrens and blue tits. Round here, they will even take on blackbirds, starlings and pigeons.

           2 likes

      • Banania says:

        Sparrows “brawling in the eaves” when you wake up is one of the most evocative sounds. They are like children in the playground.

           0 likes