503 Responses to Midweek 16 March 2022

  1. Flotsam says:

    I think Raab should have sat down and refused to carry on with PMQ’s. He has the absolute right to reply as he sees fit, the Speaker was out of order and does not have the right to “moderate” Raab’s or Boris’s replies.

    Coming to BBC’s coverage, I noticed Laura Keunsberg wasn’t on the panel to promote the BBC’s opinion.

       19 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Flotsam – I think comrade Hoyle got fed up with what nut nut did last week by referring to the last Labour government – so long ago
      However Raab had a right to refer to the recent past where Ange supported a traitor – Corbyn – who wanted to end defence and the security services…

         21 likes

  2. MarkyMark says:

    With two of Ukraine’s biggest neon producers halting production, chipmakers could expect disruptions in the long run.

    The global semiconductor industry is at risk of being adversely impacted by a neon shortage.

    It comes after Reuters reported that two Ukrainian companies, Ingas and Cryoin, have halted production following the invasion of the country by Russia. Ukraine is a significant supplier of neon and Ingas and Cryoin account for anywhere between 45pc and 54pc of the world’s total neon output, according to Reuters calculations.

    https://www.siliconrepublic.com/machines/ukraine-neon-shortage-chip-semiconductor

    Ukraine produces roughly 25% of the world’s neon, which is a byproduct of steel manufacturing, according to Bernstein Research. Large semiconductor manufacturers such as Intel or TSMC typically store two to three months of the gas, and there may be as much as three months worth of neon moving through the supply chain.6 days ago

       5 likes

  3. Guest Who says:

    Tirelessly never off the bbc, ironically.

    https://twitter.com/keir_starmer/status/1504372720598929410?s=21

       4 likes

  4. Guest Who says:

    Need to check if this is Tulip campaigning for a hearing aid for SurLins.

       4 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Now that’s a great job …

         4 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        HoC has an in-house service using a bike pump.

        Both ears in one shot.

           2 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Had had it done quite recently – I save to say it is a unique feeling and experience – my hearing improves a lot so now I can hear double the number of lingos in East Londonistan – soon to be added to by Ukrainian ….

          Then I suppose the poles will be back again when putin decides Poland has always been Russian …

          If putin goes for a bit of Poland and threatened nuclear war I wonder if Obama / Biden / Kennedy will bottle …?
          After all … it’s only Poland – right …?

             5 likes

          • Northern Voter says:

            What ever happened to a teaspoonful of warm olive oil. My mother used to swear by it, had to go to the chemists to buy it!

               0 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Why does the NHS need diversity managers?
      Our health service is already one of the most ethnically diverse institutions in Britain.
      https://www.spiked-online.com/2021/09/01/why-does-the-nhs-need-diversity-managers/

      This was illustrated perfectly when screenshots of job adverts for equality, diversity and inclusion managers in the NHS went viral this week. Some of these diversity roles pay over £75,000 per year – a far healthier salary than junior doctors or most nurses are taking home.

         17 likes

    • digg says:

      Same docs are doing it private at £60 an ear, nice little ear-ner I guess!

         10 likes

  5. Foscari says:

    Just a bit of common sense. Don’t go on a visit to Iran. I
    am afraid that the country is broke and wont have any
    more £400 million’s to bail you out, when you are
    held for ransom by the mullahs.

       17 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Google …

      #How many political prisoners are in Saudi Arabia?
      The government maintains there are no political prisoners in the Kingdom, including no detainees, who reportedly remain in prolonged detention without charge.25 Aug 2021

         2 likes

  6. Fedup2 says:

    Does anyone think any msm will ask the Iranian woman what exactly her job was in Iran,,,?

       19 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Raising charity money for Iran! BBC Red Nose Day Special! 6 Year project! £400million!

         11 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Not keen on on state hostage to literal fortune taking.

        BBC local hires taking one for the team both in country and back at w1a to score from the UK taxpayer via idiot pols. Could prove an industry.

        St. Jac nicked Bryant yet?

           1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Check BBC EdGuds ‘special stuff’ section on ‘not newsworthy’.

         0 likes

  7. AsISeeIt says:

    Star man Putin edition

    Getting rather desperate for a foreign policy “win” our Boris decides it might just be a good time to buy one: ‘Britain pays Iran £400m to release charity worker Nazanin from jail hell‘ (Daily Express)

    Bravo! Welcome back! We’ve missed you!

    I refer of course to the FT’s much beloved – and sorely missed of late – frontpage feature Datawatch. Providing us with all those fascinating crucial statistical indicators. Enabling us to make sense of our world…

    Joining Nato and the EU… % of repondents in Ukraine in favour of membership. Source: Ukraine Rating Sociological Group‘ – don’t laugh, they’re not encouraging people to complete their surveys as the tanks roll and bombs fall – apparently this rather obscure NGO did their polling prior to the war. ‘… president Volodymyr Zelensky has appealed for his country’s urgent accession to the EU in February. 68% of Ukrainians backed membership. Some 62% backed joining Nato, up from 51% in a year‘ – nice to know. Just so we’re clear what the globalist FT believe to be the war aims here on our side.

    And don’t worry about how the war is going. Our new friends at the Ukraine Rating Sociological Group did another survey: ‘Majority of Ukrainians believe they will win against Russia – poll… 70% of Ukrainians believe in a Ukrainian Armed Forces victory over Russian military forces, and 91% of respondents support the actions of President Volodymyr Zelensky‘ (Jerusalem Post, Feruary 28th) – impressive approval rating there for the president – do we assume the tiny 9% of his down votes were all in those two rebel republics of Donetsk and Luhansk? Did they do polling in Russian-speaking districts? Was the survey conducted in both languages? Questions, questions…

    You never know quite what funny business these shady obscurely funded NGO/charity organisations get up to abroad… eh, Nazanin?

    Where were we…? Approval ratings…

    Biden yet to see boost from voters despite favorable reviews on Ukraine… which was stuck at 42 percent in the Journal poll, largely a result of 63 percent of voters who said they disapproved of how Biden has handled inflation‘ (The Hill); ‘Boris Johnson approval rating: PM sees popularity grow for the first time in eight months… According to YouGov, Mr Johnson’s approval rating now stands at 25 percent – correct as of February 10‘ (Daily Express) – I expect Boris will be hoping for a Putin/Nazanin bounce

    Fed raises rates for first time since 2018 and signals six more increases this year‘ (FT)

    They do say economic hardship hits women worse… seems we’ll all have to make sacrifices for the war effort…

    Style. I’m wearing the same dress for a 100 days in row‘ (‘i’)

    My £6,000 eyebrow transplant hurt like hell – but it was worth it! Liz Jones‘ (Daily Mail Femail Magazine)

    How the NHS rescued Ukraine’s sick children‘ (Times) – nice to know our failing overwhelmed nationalised health service is good for something.

    Dying patients living longer than expected lose NHS funds…Sandra Hanson, who has been with her husband Malcolm for 50 years, had her funding withdrawn last year. More than 1,300 patients a year are having NHS funding for their palliative care withdrawn after living longer than expected‘ (BBC)

    Opinion – Save our OAPs from assisted dying law – by Kate Maltby‘ (‘i’) – at last, a newspaper campaign I could wholeheartedly support.

    Out of favour clever bloke and global warming sceptic Johnny Ball used to present a kids TV show titled “Think of a Number” – that phrase often pops into my mind when I read the headlines: ‘Russia bombs theatre where 1,000 had sheltered‘ (Telegraph); ‘Up to 1,200 people may have been inside during attack‘ (‘i’) – a bit of hedging going on there; ‘Theatre holding 1,200 civilans bombed‘ (Mirror) – no such caution in that one; ‘“Hundreds trapped” after strike on theatre‘ – the Times there latterly, at least having the good grace to apply some scare quotes to their report.

    The Left-leaning ‘i’ has serious pretentions but their headlines often err on the side of tabloid: ‘Is Vlad mad?

    Although if you really want tabloid, the red tops still do it best: ‘Blast Putin to Jupiter. £1.6m raised to put Vlad on rocket to space‘ (Star)

    Denise: My sex tape ordeal at 15‘ (Sun) – this is the shock revelation from a new book in which : ‘TV favourite Denise Van Outen… victim of horrifying covert sex tape…‘ relives the ordeal – without buying the book I’m still unclear whether it was the filming or the sex at 15 which she most regrets – I suppose her career in TV was a form of therapy for her?

       18 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      “My sex tape ordeal at 15” – HerToo?

         5 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        As far as Denise is concerned, AISI, should there not now be some sort of media clamour over the under-age sex, similar to Prince Andrew? Shouldn’t Denise be persecuting somone with the help of the meejah?

           3 likes

    • Thatcherrevolutionary says:

      Bizarre.
      1000 or 1200 people congregate in a theatre during the Blitz?
      I thought there was a 36 hour curfew?

         4 likes

  8. MarkyMark says:

    “Bad news from Boris in Saudi Arabia, as talks with Mohammed Bin Salman and the UAE’s Mohammed bin Zayed last night failed to commit to increasing energy exports from the Middle East to cut back on western reliance on Russian oil. In the same week that Saudi Arabia executed 81 people…”
    order-order.com

    Let us not be under the control of Putin … oh wait …..

       13 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Arab thought process – “Well let me get this right – I’m making an even bigger profit from oil and you want me to cut the price even though you slag me off for killing a few unapproved types – see ya nut nut “

         13 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        The Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case concerns the 2007 arrest, trial, conviction, imprisonment, and subsequent release of British schoolteacher Gillian Gibbons, who taught middle-class Muslim and Christian children at Unity High School in Khartoum, Sudan.[1] She was convicted of insulting Islam by allowing her class of six-year-olds to name a teddy bear “Muhammad”.[2]

           3 likes

  9. Guest Who says:

    “First they brought you Americast, bubble shyte only fellow journos, and few of them, could laud.

    Then….

       5 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Will he force you to pay him £159 per year?

         6 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      John Simpson
      @JohnSimpsonNews
      Broadcaster & author. Still trying to make sense of a mad world for the BBC. New novel Our Friends In Beijing. Instagram
      @johnsimpsonnews
      .

         1 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Jon Swift is in trouble again. His journalism career is in freefall. He is too old to be part of the new world order and he has never learned to suck up to those in charge. But experience has taught him to trust his instincts.

      When, for the first time in years, Jon runs into Lin Lifeng in a café in Oxford he wonders if the meeting is a coincidence. When Lin asks him to pass on a coded message, he knows it’s not. Once a radical student who helped Jon broadcast the atrocities of Tiananmen Square, Lin is now a well-dressed party official with his own agenda.

      Travelling to Beijing, Jon starts to follow a tangled web in which it is hard to know who are friends and who are enemies. As he ricochets across the country, Jon seeks to make sense of the ways in which China’s past and present are colliding – and what that means for the future of the country and the world. Under the watchful eyes of an international network of spies, double-agents and politicians, all with a ruthless desire for power, Jon is in a high-stakes race to expose the truth, before it’s too late.

         2 likes

  10. MarkyMark says:

    BBC Breakfast
    BBC One, 25 February 2022

    Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine we reported on the journey a Scottish man was making from Kyiv to Poland. The report started with a shot of military planes in formation overhead. This was old footage filmed in 2020 of preparations for a military parade in Moscow and should not have been used. We apologise for the mistake.

    15/03/2022

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/helpandfeedback/corrections_clarifications

       7 likes

  11. MarkyMark says:

    Send Tony Blair to Middle East….

    A ‘useless, useless’ £10million peace envoy: Blair slammed by Middle East leaders over role as negotiator
    Following end of his premiership Blair became the new Middle East envoy

    He was given a home, 12 members of staff and a fleet of armoured cars

    Living in Jerusalem he had access to private jet and expenses
    Brimming with confidence, he ignored the limitations imposed on his role

       10 likes

  12. digg says:

    Chakraborrty bloke in the Guardian tells us we are all racist against brown and black people by supporting the Ukrainians because they are mostly white folk.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/mar/17/western-values-enthroned-monster-ukrainians-putin

    Also he bleats about all the white oligarchs we have allowed to flourish.

    Maybe he needs to take a closer look at India and Pakistan to see if there are any brown oligarchs kicking about?

    Not to mention the hordes of brown oligarchs ruling the roost, bossing everyone around and owning everything in The Middle East.

       14 likes

  13. MarkyMark says:

    In recent days Russian officials have barely concealed their wider objectives. The Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said that what’s happening in Ukraine “…is a life-and-death battle for Russia’s right to be on the political map of the world with full respect for their legitimate interests”.

    In other words, this is about geopolitics, and Moscow’s determination to force Ukraine back into Russia’s sphere of influence.

    That’s something the government in Ukraine is determined to prevent.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60769509

       3 likes

  14. MarkyMark says:

    Boris “We must not be under Putin control.”
    Boris – gets islamic Prayer mat out and heads to Saudi for oil.

       9 likes

  15. MarkyMark says:

    “Not only was he given a home, 12 members of staff, a fleet of armoured cars, access to a private jet and unsupervised expenses, but for his offices he chose to occupy the entire top floor of the five-star American Colony Hotel. The presence of 20 Israeli security men confirmed his importance.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3470445/A-useless-peace-envoy-Blair-slammed-Middle-East-leaders.html

    Hillary Clinton quickly committed America to pay all of Blair’s costs. But she was soon replaced by John Kerry.

       5 likes

  16. MarkyMark says:

    NO BBC NEWS ON BORIS SAUDI TRIP HA HA HA HA HA!
    ISLAM IS GOOD – BUT ISLAM WILL NOT HELP YOU IF YOU DO NOT INSTALL A MOSQUE AND NOT WEAR A HIJAB.

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

       8 likes

  17. MarkyMark says:

    £400million?

    Selling sex to survive in Iran
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-60661875

    By day she works as a hairdresser, but by night she works a second job as a prostitute, feeling forced into selling her body for sex just to make ends meet.

       0 likes

  18. MarkyMark says:

    You will be happy…..

    Germany’s ‘remarkable’ prostitution tax meter
    Forget the meter maid. One German city unveils the meter madam, requiring a prostitute to put money in a machine before plying her trade
    https://theweek.com/articles/482129/germanys-remarkable-prostitution-tax-meter

    The converted parking meters, which went into effect Monday, are expected to raise about $285,000 a year.

       3 likes

  19. Guest Who says:

    Cc: bbc

       8 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      #1 “Mockney” if you really are near east London
      it’s real not Mockney

      Telegraph well Ratio’d there 58 Likes, 395 Replies, 86 quote tweets

      @SturdyWendy tweeted
      I read this article. It states 270 doctors slammed Rogan for misinformation.
      Except they weren’t all doctors were they? Nowhere near. So an article bemoaning misinformation, publishes… misinformation //

         8 likes

  20. MarkyMark says:

    Selling your future brick by brick ….

    A plant which will convert household waste into aviation fuel on Teesside is to receive a £1bn investment from its Saudi Arabian owners.

    Alfanar said 700 jobs would be created in the construction of the Lighthouse Green Fuels Project at Billingham and 240 jobs when it is operational.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-tees-60761832

    He said “Saudi investment is welcome” as part of a diverse mix of investors from other parts of the world.

    “You can ask the right questions about Saudi Arabia and the human rights record, but you don’t become overly reliant on investment [from one country],” he said.

    The investment was confirmed during Boris Johnson’s visit to Saudi Arabia and the UAE for talks on energy, regional security and humanitarian relief.

    Alfanar was previously awarded £2.4m by the UK government as part of its Green Fuels, Green Skies competition to take the project forward.

       4 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      #1 There is already a similar plant at Immingham on the Humber
      #2 A £1 billion plant that only employs 240 people ?

      If it were 1000 workers, that would be £1m of equipment for each worker
      So 240 workers means £4m of equipment for each worker.

      \\ Sep 1, 2021 Velocys secures £2.3m for waste to aviation fuel plant in Immingham
      : Sustainable fuels tech company, Velocys, has secured a £2.3 million grant to progress the waste to aviation fuel Altalto project in Immingham//

         2 likes

  21. vlad says:

    As we know, the BBC are obsessed with all things black and BLM. Strange, then, that they seem to have missed this story about a BLM ‘activist’ being arrested for misuse of BLM funds.

    “BLM activist named ‘Bostonian of the year’ whose nonprofit raised $1M is charged with squandering much of it on rent arrears, $1,200 hotel stay and meals at Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Shake Shack after being arrested at her $450,000 home”

    The whole corrupt organisation is rotten from top to bottom.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10617379/BLM-leader-founder-anti-violence-nonprofit-indicted-using-donations-meals-trips.html

    9k=

       28 likes

  22. MarkyMark says:

    Ironically given the consultation was sparked by the Geoffrey Cox second earnings row, the day this feedback emerges the latest register of MPs’ interests has been published – and Cox has registering another £54,354.50 for 35 hours of legal services. Cracking timing.

    Other big earners include Theresa May whose trip to Australia to ‘to promote gender diversity in politics and business’ totalled £38,700; and Rachel Reeves who pocketed £25,121.63 for ‘research and writing services’. MPs also totalled over £2,000 in articles, Chris Bryant took £200 for Any Questions, Esther McVey £3,150 for her GB News presenting, and Dawn Butler £1,500 for Have I Got News For You. She needs to have a word with her agent – Jess Phillips got £15,000…

    order-order.com

    …………………………

    You will pay £159 to the BBC and watch the glow of Gary Lineker’s face keep you warm inside with the heating off.

       10 likes

  23. G says:

    Mass executions in Saudi? Similarly in most other strict muslim countries. That’s why the so-called refugees from same arriving in the UK cannot believe their luck. They see a refuge of, ‘Anything-goes’ including rape and child molestation. Those welcoming these refugee are blind but in any event, responsible. I wish there could be a proper day of reckoning.

       20 likes

  24. Fedup2 says:

    I was dumb enough to try the 1pm bbc news to see about interest rates – instead it’s 6bminutes of an Iranian woman spy …
    I understand that it’s been increased by .25% far too late with another increase in a couple of months … I reckon 2% by 2023 at least …
    I’m surprised that the BBC hasn’t gone big on this as it will add to coming hardship for many – whatever welfare does …

       19 likes

  25. s.trubble says:

    The bBc are to pay “substantial damages” to Princess Diana,s private secretary over the Bashir interview.

    No.

    The bBc are to hand over a chunk of Licence Fee tax taken from the people of the United Kingdom under the threat of imprisonment.

    the bBC are not paying , the British Taxpayer are paying.

    Is there no way Ms Dorries can ringfence money from their pension Fund to pay these damages?

    Or Lineker and Ball.s extortionate wages.

       26 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      be careful what you ask for s.trubble you might just get it.

      Seeing as the BBC pension fund is massively in defecit and there is a legal requiremenr to fill this black hole caused by massive overspending mismanagement on the wrong areas, if the government were to privatise the BBC then it would have to make good the shortfall or the BBC would be non viable. Taking money from the pension fund would be just the same as any other route with the taxpayer funding it all.

         7 likes

  26. Fedup2 says:

    BBC carrying a long online piece about some new diversity law being bought in by the Labour Government ( false badge tories ) – I obviously didn’t read it because I know it will be all about coloured folk as victims of whitee ….

    …. Positive discrimination – whether it’s coloured folk or girls – just devalues – simple as that ….

    For instance – the sacked police chief in London – first woman dyke commissioner – so what ? Still crap .

       21 likes

  27. vlad says:

    The BBC is dismayed to learn that Kanye West, one of its idols, is a violent bully.

    What? A rapper be violent?

    Listen, beeb, can we save time and just assume that all rappers are violent misogynist bullies? (Just listen to the lyrics – if you can bear to.)

    Make it headline news when you find one who isn’t – ok?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-60777185

       18 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      White racism?

      Kanye West has been suspended from Instagram for 24 hours after using a racial slur in reference to comedian Trevor Noah.

         5 likes

  28. Thoughtful says:

    I just thought that I would post this article from Forbes around mid 2014 when the Obamessiah (he who must never be criticised) The worst President the USA has ever had substansially contributed to the mess in Ukraine by his rabbit in the headlights lack of substantive action over Russian aggression.

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/paulroderickgregory/2014/07/27/times-report-casts-shame-on-obamas-handling-of-ukraine-crisis/

       7 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      eeping the dream (of Obama) alive … most other Presidents step to the side … not the Obama Foundation and the Royal Foundation …. side by side … with the BBC promoting at every chance.

      (p.s. Dear BBC’s Katty Kay – will the royalties from your book sales, as promoted on BBC twitter, reduce the BBC TV License?)

      . . .

      Barack and I are thrilled to congratulate The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge on their newest arrival! We hope to meet him soon for a Kensington Palace pajama party. I’ll wear my robe! {KattyKay Twitter}

      https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2018/04/24/midweek-open-thread-50/#comment-912472

         2 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Marky – I refer to Obama / Biden because I believe it really is the Obama crew behind the theft of the election and what has happened since – I’d chuck the Kennedy dross in there as well because their corruption is always in American politics ….
        I guess there’s another one being prepared for the top job …

           8 likes

        • MarkyMark says:

          They did nothing but grandstand …. no one was allowed to touch them.

          Obama … “You will go to the back of the queue if you LEAVE the EU.” (threat)
          UK … “OK, We Left!”
          Trump …. “You can come to the front of the queue!”
          May … “No thank you, we want to stand behind France, Germany and Iran
          in the EU queue.”

             7 likes

  29. G says:

    Ivermectin?

    I’ve been following the saga since I first introduced knowledge of it here about May 2020. The story is developing and the corruption and deception is being slowly exposed.

    Dr Tess Lawrie is a participant in this video in which she chronicles the story so far. And it really is a sorry tale of monied influencers dictating, effectively, the murder of millions worldwide.

    https://thehighwire.com/videos/former-w-h-o-consultant-exposes-takedown-of-ivermectin/

       9 likes

  30. vlad says:

    ‘Marina Ovsyannikova, the protesting journalist, says Russians are zombified by propaganda.’

    A national broadcaster brainwashing its subjects?

    Could never happen here.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60778554

    9k=

       16 likes

  31. MarkyMark says:

    There is no personal income tax in Saudi Arabia. A flat income tax rate of 20% is applied to the tax-adjusted profit of resident non-Saudi and non-GCC individuals.

       2 likes

  32. BRISSLES says:

    Excellent article in D/Mail by Roger Lewis.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10621325/ROGER-LEWIS-laments-50s-represented-box.html

    Small snippet……..
    “If you are a member of an ethnic minority, on the other hand, you may feel you are well represented. Black and Asian citizens now account for 20.9 per cent of adult appearances on television and play a quarter of all the roles in drama productions — though they make up just 13 per cent of the national workforce.

    It’s similar for gay people. According to the report by the Creative Diversity Network, they form a 6.4 per cent presence in the population, yet are twice as likely to fill our screens — 14.2 per cent of the characters on the box are gay.

    I’m old enough to remember when it was only Larry Grayson. “

       25 likes

  33. Zephir says:

    Intertesting. we have publishers who cancel people like J K Rowling and others for “wrong thinking”, bang on endlessly about wimmin authors and books about white racism….

    See below for the complete hypocrisy of this quote

    “A spokesperson for Quarto stated the company had “a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of our shareholders.”

    “The Financial Times reported that two British publishing houses are removing content the CCP finds objectionable to allow their books, intended for western distribution, to be printed in China. Octopus Books and Quarto have stripped references to Taiwan and Hong Kong and altered character nationalities, changing Taiwanese to “East Asian.” Mentions of dissident artist Ai Weiwei were also deleted. Changes came after Chinese suppliers said they could not, by law, print the original versions.

    Other publishing houses, such as US printing company RR Donnelley & Sons, have faced similar pressures. The company authored a memo highlighting restrictions from its Chinese printers on mentions of human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Covid-19 origins.

    While some alternate printing locations are employed, price pressures prevent publishing houses from relocating their entire catalog. A spokesperson for Quarto stated the company had “a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of our shareholders.” Octopus Books said changes made “are not material and we always ask the permission of the author first to check they are comfortable to proceed.”

       8 likes

  34. taffman says:

    “Home secretary vows to stop illegal Channel crossings
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52338124
    Two years ago .

       0 likes

  35. taffman says:

    “Home secretary vows to stop illegal Channel crossings
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-52338124
    That was two years ago !

       12 likes

  36. Zephir says:

    A sample of Quartos otput:

    Great LGBTQ speeches

    Great Women’s Speeches

    Loud and Proud LGBTQ Speeches that Empower and Inspire

       4 likes

  37. Sluff says:

    At 0710 on Toady this morning Tulip Siddiq was interviewed as the MP of Nazanin Zachariah Radcliffe.

    The interview continued as if Tulip was somehow a hero and should be patted on the back and congratulated. She is of course a Corbin supporting Labour MP, so no prizes for the BBC subtext.

    Funny but I thought the heroes in this were Nazanin Zachariah Radcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori. And even more so, Morad Shahbaz, not yet released. Not Tulip. Silly me.

       13 likes

  38. MarkyMark says:

    The Roman Empire lost the strengths that had allowed it to exercise effective control over its Western provinces; modern historians posit factors including the effectiveness and numbers of the army, the health and numbers of the Roman population, the strength of the economy, the competence of the emperors, the internal struggles for power, the religious changes of the period, and the efficiency of the civil administration. Increasing pressure from invading barbarians outside Roman culture also contributed greatly to the collapse. Climatic changes and both endemic and epidemic disease drove many of these immediate factors.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_the_Western_Roman_Empire

    According to a database compiled by the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington-based think tank, China has invested $913 billion in 42 Commonwealth countries since 2005. That includes $667 million in Barbados to build roads, homes, sewers and a hotel, and $3.4 billion in Jamaica.18 Feb 2022
    https://www.google.com/search?q=barbados+fall+to+china+loans&rlz=1C1GCEU_enGB929GB929&oq=barbados+fall+to+china+loans&aqs=chrome..69i57j33i22i29i30.5472j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

       6 likes

  39. StewGreen says:

    West Newton oil: Rathlin Energy’s revised plans approved
    It’s not a fracking site
    but #PutinsLittleHelpers always claim it is
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-60779362

    So for once our libmob overlords don’t get their way
    in their scheme to turn the UK into a complete banana republic

       10 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      The local anti-oil/gas protesters

         10 likes

  40. Zephir says:

    @Markymark:

    1,700 years ago, the mismanagement of a migrant crisis cost Rome its empire

    n Aug. 3, 378, a battle was fought in Adrianople, in what was then Thrace and is now the province of Edirne, in Turkey. It was a battle that Saint Ambrose referred to as “the end of all humanity, the end of the world.”

    The Eastern Roman emperor Flavius Julius Valens Augustus—simply known as Valens, and nicknamed Ultimus Romanorum (the last true Roman)—led his troops against the Goths, a Germanic people that Romans considered “barbarians,” commanded by Fritigern. Valens, who had not waited for the military help of his nephew, Western Roman emperor Gratian, got into the battle with 40,000 soldiers. Fritigern could count on 100,000.

    It was a massacre: 30,000 Roman soldiers died and the empire was defeated. It was the first of many to come, and it’s considered as the beginning of the end of the Western Roman Empire in 476. At the time of the battle, Rome ruled a territory of nearly 600 million hectares (2.3 million square miles, nearly two-thirds the area of the present-day US), with a population of over 55 million.

    The defeat of Adrianople didn’t happen because of Valens’s stubborn thirst for power or because he grossly underestimated his adversary’s belligerence. What was arguably the most important defeat in the history of the Roman empire had roots in something else: a refugee crisis.

    Two years earlier the Goths had descended toward Roman territory looking for shelter. The mismanagement of Goth refugees started a chain of events that led to the collapse of one of the biggest political and military powers humankind has ever known.

    It’s a story shockingly similar to what’s happening in Europe right now—and it should serve as a cautionary tale.

    https://qz.com/677380/1700-years-ago-the-mismanagement-of-a-migrant-crisis-cost-rome-its-empire/

    According to historian Ammianus Marcellinus, in 376, the Goths were forced to leave their territories, in what’s now Eastern Europe, pushed south by the Huns, in Marcellinus’s words, “a race savage beyond all parallel.” The Huns, Marcellinus writes, “descended like a whirlwind from the lofty mountains, as if they had risen from some secret recess of the earth, and were ravaging and destroying everything which came in their way.”

    It resulted in terrifying bloodshed, and many of the Goths—like many Syrians and others displaced by war—decided to flee.

    They decided that settling in Thrace, right across the Danube river, was the best solution; the land was fertile, and the river would provide defense to keep the Huns at bay.

    It all started rather peacefully. The Romans put in place a service not that different from a modern search-and-rescue program. “Not one was left behind,” Marcellinus writes, “not even of those who were stricken with mortal disease.” The Goths “crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing, embarking in troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made of the hollow trunks of trees.” Marcellinus recounts that “a great many were drowned, who, because they were too numerous for the vessels, tried to swim across, and in spite of all their exertions were swept away by the stream.”

    It was an unexpected, unprecedented flow (some estimates say up to 200,000 people). Officials in charge of managing the Goths tried to “to calculate their numbers,” but determined it was hopeless.

    Traditionally, the Roman attitude toward “barbarians,” though autocratic, had been pretty longsighted. Populations were often sent where the empire needed them the most, with little regard to where they wished to stay; however, there was a strong push toward assimilation that eventually turned foreigners into citizens. Descendants of immigrants would routinely be seen in the high ranks of the military or the administration. The recipe that kept the empire safe from attack from other populations was simple: allow them into the empire and make them Roman.

    But things eventually changed. The military officials who were in charge of provisions for the Goths—an ancient version of the support offered to migrants arriving in Greece or Italy—were corrupt and profited off of what was meant for the refugees. The starving Goths were forced to buy dog meat from the Romans.

    Marcellinus has no doubt: “their treacherous covetousness was the cause of all our [the Romans’] disasters.”

    The trust between the abused Goths and the Romans was broken several times before Adrianople, and the Goths went from wanting to become Roman to wanting to destroy Rome.

    Less than two years later, Marcellinus writes, “with rage flashing in their eyes, the barbarians pursued our men.” And they took down the empire.

       12 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      It all started rather peacefully. The Romans put in place a service not that different from a modern search-and-rescue program. “Not one was left behind,” Marcellinus writes, “not even of those who were stricken with mortal disease.” The Goths “crossed the stream day and night, without ceasing, embarking in troops on board ships and rafts, and canoes made of the hollow trunks of trees.” Marcellinus recounts that “a great many were drowned, who, because they were too numerous for the vessels, tried to swim across, and in spite of all their exertions were swept away by the stream.”

      It was an unexpected, unprecedented flow (some estimates say up to 200,000 people). Officials in charge of managing the Goths tried to “to calculate their numbers,” but determined it was hopeless.

      …………………………………………..

      https://qz.com/677380/1700-years-ago-the-mismanagement-of-a-migrant-crisis-cost-rome-its-empire/

         4 likes

  41. MarkyMark says:

    FROM THE SITE THAT BANS PEOPLE AND CENSORS WORDS .. order-order.com … HA HA HA HA

    The “legal but harmful” provisions in the Online Safety Bill gives Big Tech executives like Nick Clegg the power to delete perfectly legal posts that woke social justice warriors find offensive or rude. The government is effectively outsourcing censorship to Big Tech’s bosses.

    The Bill has managed to unite Toby Young’s Free Speech Union, gender critical feminists, LGBT groups, and the churches in opposition. The civil service has been so captured by woke special interest groups that the Bill released today creates a legal requirement for perfectly legal content to be taken off the internet. You’ll no longer be free to say online what you could say legally in a pub…

       11 likes

  42. MarkyMark says:

    But things eventually changed. The military officials who were in charge of provisions for the Goths—an ancient version of the support offered to migrants arriving in Greece or Italy—were corrupt and profited off of what was meant for the refugees. The starving Goths were forced to buy dog meat from the Romans.

    Marcellinus has no doubt: “their treacherous covetousness was the cause of all our [the Romans’] disasters.”

    The trust between the abused Goths and the Romans was broken several times before Adrianople, and the Goths went from wanting to become Roman to wanting to destroy Rome.

    https://qz.com/677380/1700-years-ago-the-mismanagement-of-a-migrant-crisis-cost-rome-its-empire/
    …………..

    Barry Gardiner defends donations worth £500,000 from Chinese agent
    The Labour MP said Christine Lee appeared to be ‘operating as a legitimate person in the UK’.
    Amy Gibbons
    Thursday 13 January 2022 20:23
    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/barry-gardiner-chinese-lee-sky-news-jeremy-corbyn-b1992752.html

       3 likes

  43. StewGreen says:

    “Brent crude futures rose as much as 8% to above $105 per barrel on Thursday
    after falling for three straight sessions,
    after a Kremlin spokesman denied reports of major progress in talks over Ukraine and the IEA warned that Russia’s oil output may decline by about a quarter next month.”

       4 likes

  44. Guest Who says:

    BBC News

    An Indian court has ruled the hijab is not “essential” to Islam, but experts ask who should make such a decision?

    Clearly, Marianna of the specialism.

       10 likes

  45. Zephir says:

    BBC censorship continues unabated:

    “The deluded BBC thinks censoring Little Britain will appease the woke BLM brigade – but cancelling offensive comedy puts us on a communist-style path towards erasing our cultural heritage”

    “By giving into the cancel culture mob – and editing out sequences from the show deemed inappropriate in our puritanical, identity politics-obsessed new era where Black Lives Matter ideology dominates liberal institutions – the Beeb has put itself on a slippery slope towards the sort of censorship of our culture heritage that we’re used to seeing in communist regimes.

    Because here’s the issue: Almost all of Little Britain is offensive in one way or another to one group or another.
    That’s the whole point of the show.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-10624365/DAN-WOOTTON-Cancelling-comedy-like-Little-Britain-puts-path-erasing-heritage.html

       14 likes

  46. Zephir says:

    “The Little Britain characters you won’t see on BBC… and the ones you WILL: Row over return of hit show as Walliams and Lucas choose to keep controversial scenes including one referring to a ‘Ching Chong Chinaman’

    The sketch show was cut from streaming services in 2020 amid the BLM protests
    The comedy show suffered backlash due to the use of blackface in the show
    It has now been reinstated on iPlayer, but offensive scenes have been cut out
    Episodes have been edited to ‘reflect the changes in the UK’s cultural landscape’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10622697/Little-Britain-returns-streaming-services-faces-backlash-racially-insensitive-scenes.html

       8 likes

  47. Nibor says:

    The PM programme on Radio 4 five o clock .

    I miss most of it but I hear this snippet of information ;
    There’s a disproportionate amount of BAME people in the prison population. I paraphrase except the word disproportionate. The BBC use it as though there’s an injustice levied against those inmates.
    No there isn’t BBC , the injustice is against all the non criminals in our country of whatever race who suffer from the actions of criminals. If you want to put more white people in prison because they’re criminals to even out the proportions then that’s fine . If you want to let BAME people out of prison to even things up then I hope YOU, BBC suffer the consequences.

       16 likes

  48. Thoughtful says:

    uxxox7pk2km81.png?attachment_cache_bust=4012857&w=600

       12 likes

  49. Fedup2 says:

    Mr Farage says he has written to comrade Hoyle MP – the labour speaker of the commons – asking him to get comrade Chris queer Bryant to withdraw the allegation against him regarding supporting putin .

    Bryant – who is for ever on his high moral horse – has not had the courage / grace – to repeat his allegation outside parliamentary privilege – and me thinks he won’t –

    So the next time Bryant – head of the commons committee on morals ? Spouts out about boris or party trivia or whatever – recall his moral cowardice – picture in yer pants Chris ?

       12 likes