341 Responses to Midweek 28 December 2022

  1. Northern Voter says:

    Yippee, bestest present ever!

       15 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Gifted by me for being distracted on another web-site, Brissles please note! Well done, NV, for paying attention.

         12 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Well, I’ve been dipping in and out during mid evening for the past couple of nights, but could only assume that Fed was still laid up – (or low, whatever). Hope you’re now on the ‘up’. Well done NV, and duly noted Up2 !

           10 likes

  2. tomo says:

       19 likes

  3. Eddy Booth says:

    Be carefull everyone, it’s that time of the year for having little accidents.

    64523-845af89c-9560-4cdd-b875-fb06bc973098.jpg

       26 likes

  4. Flotsam says:

    I no longer watch or listen to BBC output. The problem is though, how do I know it’s still biased? It might just have decided it’s the broadcast version of the Daily Mail and have a Nigel Farage special.

    I’m not sure where the breaking point for me with the BBC came. It definitely started with the Brexit debate. It’s choice of news items, programs, presenters ensured that I was certain that the BBC had declared war on Brexit.

    The BBC’s obvious promotion of multiculturalism was another.
    The MMGW propaganda campaign was another.
    Question time, the all too obvious left wing loading of the panel and audience complete with its whooping and hollering. I think the BBC actually broke it for me with its campaign to remove Boris Johnson.

       64 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I watch so little BBC that it limits my posting here. But I tend to have 5 minutes of Today a couple of days a week as I drive to the sports centre. It is enough. I know the BBC is still biased….and of course I trust other posters here, bar one.

         40 likes

    • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

      Flotsam.

      No need to watch bbbc to see if they are still left wing.

      If the bbbc changed to become a non biased broadcaster then it would be huge news and would be on every front page.

      If the bbbc (or the bbc as it would then be known as) were to support the general public and show both sides of brexit, mass immigration and other things instead of opposing them and supporting only the left side they would be a more balanced.

      Of course, this will not happen but I suppose nothing’s impossible. For example, the Conservative party is now the Labour Party.

         50 likes

      • taffman says:

        Emmanuel Goldstein
        My view on the present state of British politics ……………….
        The Reform Party = Old Tory Party & Old Brexit Party
        The Tory Party = Old Lib Dems
        Lib Dems = The Old Labour Party
        The Labour Party = Communist Party.

        In the next general election vote for The Reform Party .

           46 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      My ‘beef’ with the BBC goes back further than Brexit. I think Mrs Brown’s Boys was the catalyst , when I suddenly became devoid of the humour gene. It was further compounded by the numerous ‘lads’ quiz shows and all the faux bon homie that only the unfunny new wave ‘comedians’ can do. Perhaps it coincided with the new intake of yuni grads with their own peculiar sense of humour that no-one else “gets”.

         49 likes

      • taffman says:

        BRISSLES
        The BBC don’t do comedy . Simples

           33 likes

      • Deborah says:

        I think I noticed BBC bias when Blair got power. Every Today 7am News started, ‘Today, the Labour government will……’ (fill in your own dots’. I wondered what would happen with the change of government. The news started with expressions like, ‘The Toree government accused of……..’ etc.

        Eventually Mr D got so sick of it, he switched off the radio alarm. Until then I had listened every day from being a small child. Radio 4 (The Home Service) started every morning, I think at 6am, with Handel’s Water Music and I would get up early and listen with my Dad.

           37 likes

        • Flotsam says:

          Deborah, I think you are right. In retrospect, when Bliar became PM, the bias was there, I wasn’t aware of it. There was one conscious exception, I remember Bliar posing with his Bliar babes after the election , like a Sultan with his harem, a grinning idiot. There didn’t seem to be any questioning of the fact that New Labour had been operating women only shortlists. Was it a good idea? It was good PR and that seemed reason enough. So Bliar and “no more boom and bust” Brown led us into further destruction in Britain until it became all too obvious they had cocked up.
          The BBC had become the New Labour PR department and sustained Bliar for three elections, and I didn’t really realise it.

             35 likes

          • Demon says:

            I was aware of subtle left wing bias since the 80s. An Israeli born chap I knew, whom I hadn’t previously noticed any particular right of centre bias, was complaining about the Left wing Dimblebys since the 1970s.

            However the anti Conservative agenda grew so loud during the Thatcher years that it was obvious to all who could see.

            It is now worse to the point that they don’t even try to hide it anymore. They do claim that it is pro Tory because they also attacked Corbyn. But the reason they attacked him was that they knew they could never get their Labour Party elected with him at the helm. They may be evil but they care not all stupid.

               31 likes

            • Up2snuff says:

              Deborah, the first ten minutes of TOADY is a good indication of whether the bias for the day will be strong or weak or, hopefully, non-existent. As an oldie I tend to wake up earlier than I used to and I quite enjoy Farming Today for its anti-Brexit, pro-Global Warming/Climate Change orientation as it is a good laugh. Then Tweet of the Day (despite the fact they are on repeats now) is often interesting.

                 10 likes

        • Doublethinker says:

          Until the 80’s it never occurred to me that the BBC was biased in anyway or would ever knowingly distort the news. But by the end of that decade my trust in the BBC approached zero . The reasons were , the constant negativity about the Thatcher gov , the open bias in favour of the NUM during the year long miners strike, the less than patriotic reporting of the Falklands war , the pro IRA stance.
          At the start of the decade I used to listen to Radio 4 plays which were often thrillers and very good . Slowly the plots changed until they were dominated by pro IRA, anti apartheid themes to the exclusion of almost everything else. I simply couldn’t go on listening to them.
          The same happened to tv programmes . Once you had noticed the leftist anti British bias you found it everywhere on the BBC. By 2000 I was strongly anti BBC but still paid the LF . Then the bias and anti Britishness increased and it was ever more obvious that the BBC was heavily engaged in Blair’s massive social engineering experiment to change the ethnic make up of the country and hence our history and culture. It became impossible not to notice what the BBC was up to , every aspect of its output was infected , and for me by 2010 the corporation unwatchable and unlistenable to.
          Then came Brexit and , as I expected , the BBC acted as the house magazine of Remain .
          I stopped paying the LF in 2019 and now regard the BBC as one of the main weapons that liberals have used to undermine our country over the past forty years . I don’t belong in the country that has been created and I loath it . I am sure it is heading for disaster and in many ways I’m glad I’m seventy plus .

             41 likes

          • TrickCyclist says:

            Doublethinker,
            2001 was when the BBC considered Rebel Heart, a propaganda serial on behalf of the IRA about the Easter Uprising, to be perfect for Sunday evening viewing. It was criticised by David Trimble.
            The series was written by Ronan Bennett, whose Wikipedia page I link below. You can probably guess most of it for yourself – IRA, Anarchism, Corbyn, Labour, Guardian writer wife, BBC. . .

            https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronan_Bennett

               15 likes

        • richard D says:

          You’re absolutely right, Deborah…. for months after the Blair election victory, it was just as if the Labour Party had passed a pre-dated list of ‘…intentions to bring in policies…..’ with a nominee for each morning, briefed to discuss these ‘intentions’.

          This meant that the Labour Party was seen to be in charge of its agenda, and everyone else was left ‘on the back foot’, since none of these intentions was outlined to anyone else before the BBC announced it, thereby precluding them from any real assessment.

          Of course, the BBC never, ever, did any follow-up or backcheck to see which, if any, of these promises of policies actually made it to fruition. Too easy to move to the another backslap for the Labour Party on the next agenda item.

          Compare and contrast this approach with the relentless pursuit of anyone in the current government invited to the BBC to discuss their particular ‘brief’, who only get to talk about their policies for about three dismissive seconds at the end of an interview which has focussed on anything but their particular responsibilities, particularly any BBC bandwagon of choice that day.

          BBC….. Biased.?…..surely not.

             10 likes

          • Chevalnoir says:

            … another insidious aspect has been, and still is, the use of ‘hitmen’ – usually a senior labour MP whose role is to ‘rough up’ and denegrate anything regarding what used to be and sometimes is the conservative policy (don’t laugh!) or stance on an issue. This is multiplied several times over, particularly on a radio phone-in, when on any given topic the dial-in lefty/woke mob (public) call to carry out the same task and effectively swamp any reasonable dialogue with their commie diatribe. bbc couldn’t orchestrate it better as ‘approved’ callers carry out their rota duty to saturate air time …

               4 likes

      • digg says:

        Agree Brissles, new wave comedians don’t try to be funny, they just go for being onside the accepted causes to get support.

        The thing is the BBC etc. mis-read this as talent and therefore push them to the top of the pile constantly.

           20 likes

    • vlad says:

      @Flotsam
      As Morpheus says to Neo: Welcome to the real world. All we’re offering is the truth.

         7 likes

    • dhunter says:

      it was the – BBC – Brexitcast that done it for me.

      a bunch of BBC tw*ts showing how clever they are.
      https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0008cx6

         0 likes

  5. Sluff says:

    May I cheat for once..

    Not BBC.
    But since the railways are on strike and………this has barely any effect on the vast majority who pay for them but do not use them………
    Here’s a couple of quiz questions.
    1. Why was there a 60 mph speed limit on the M1 around Northampton on the 24 th (a.m) and the 26th ( p.m)?
    2. Why was there a ‘pollution reduction’ speed limit of 60 mph on the M1 around Sheffield…….on Christmas Day when there was hardly anything on the road?

    The point being, these are essentially arbitrary decisions taken by some minor official in a control room.

    Yet he/she/ it has the power to arbitrarily criminalise thousands and thousands of people, for breaking a speed limit set without any consistency nor objective hazard visible to the driver, whilst the government hides behind a totally false ‘safety is our paramount concern’ cloak of convenience to patronise and victimise ordinary travellers.

    Arbitrary law in many other countries defines dictatorship.
    In this country it is institutionalised.

       44 likes

    • Zephir says:

      There seems to be a permanent, similar speed restriction on the M4 also near the M25, regardless of traffic conditions…

         16 likes

      • Sluff says:

        It took them over 6 months to ‘check the technology’. People were criminalised on the most tenuous safety case imaginable.

           8 likes

  6. Eddy Booth says:

    Telegram intelslava:

    “Vladimir Putin signed a decree on retaliatory measures to introduce a ceiling on prices for Russian oil
    According to the document, the supply of Russian oil and oil products to foreign legal entities and individuals is prohibited if the contracts for these supplies provide for the introduction of a price ceiling.
    The decree will be valid from February 1 to July 1, 2023”

    Russia teaching the world how free markets work!
    Didn’t the globalists put that cap on a few weeks ago, then the media went silent?
    China is opening up from covid, so I guess oil prices may rise.

       14 likes

  7. JohnC says:

    Well, the pressure to get in early is high so I had a quick look at the BBC news to see if anything was ridiculous enough to warrant a comment.

    Straight away I saw this – front page UK news:
    Nottinghamshire Police stop man driving car with missing wheel
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-64102136

    Is this actually news at all ?.

    And I have no idea what this bit means:
    Police said they have reported the driver for the “absolutely outrageous” offence.

    Reported to who ?. The ‘Super Police’ ?. His mum ?.

    Unfortunately they don’t say who wrote it so I can’t put another ‘clueless idiot’ clone picture up.

       32 likes

    • G says:

      John,

      Normally only witnessed in films, I had the privilege of watching one rear wheel coming off a Zill whilst working in Riga Latvia in either 90 or 91 (Russian troops still very obvious). The wheel ended its journey in a shop front and the car bounced on with sparks every time it hit a prominent cobble on the roadway. Boy did I laugh!

         12 likes

    • Chevalnoir says:

      … actually, having seen the footage, the driver was/is clearly mental and worth seeing for comedy purposes if nothing else …

         2 likes

  8. Sluff says:

    It had to happen.
    BBC 1 news, at 11 pm.

    Justin Rowlatt is rolled out to inform us that the extreme cold weather in the USA is put down to …..you guessed it…..global warming.

    Is that not woke enough for you?
    Don’t worry. The news ‘highlights’ of Chelsea v Bournemouth started with the teams taking the knee.

    Tick.
    Tick.

       42 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Yes the 11pm GBnews show presenter said “of course we can see Climate Change”
      .. I switched off

         33 likes

    • G says:

      Sluff,

      Yes, I heard that. “The extreme temperatures in the Summer”. I guess, similarly the BBC will maintain (as the Met Office) that the week or so of exceptional cold a few weeks ago, was simply, “cold”.

         12 likes

  9. taffman says:

    There’s an unusual amount of ‘flying gas mains’ of late?
    Dropping gas pressure or something more sinister ?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-64105505

       14 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    As people have pointed out you really don’t need to consume much BBC
    .. rather when you randomly come across it there will always be something strange within a few minutes.

    This morning’s local news had
    “Local farmer says we need more immigrants to work
    cos British workers are no good for farm work”
    That was Farmer Mr Ward, which is the same farmer they have on in about 50% of their farming reports
    He’s in farming PR works on the Farmers’ Weekly magazine
    He spends a lot of time on Twitter

    Blow me when I checked Monday night’s local news
    there was an item “Local farm plagued by Fly Tipping”
    It was Mr Ward again.

    The Radio station tweeted
    “Worker shortage ‘rots veg in fields'”
    doh When you work on farms you do notice, that not everything gets harvested and that is normal
    Sometimes the frost has got it, or you already filled all your orders, or the last minute price is just too low etc.

    Other “LOCAL” news “Hull men in court after boat seized in cannabis inquiry”
    Guess the names ?

    …. Ervis Mrisgaj, 25, of *no fixed abode*, and Florjan Kasaj, 41

    Leicester LOCAL news
    “Ugandan Asians reflect on first Christmas in Leicester”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-63985865

       34 likes

    • Chevalnoir says:

      … Leicester City Council to extend the exhibition about the influx at the local museum … T’was that time when Leicester became ‘lost’ to England …

         5 likes

  11. StewGreen says:

    There is a real world, but Medialand so often spins myths instead
    They are storytellers, so they want the story to be
    #1 Simple
    #2 Exciting
    #3 Suiting their own libmob agendas

    I already mentioned they run with the myth that Victorian insurance fire brigades rushed to your burning building and just stood there doing nothing, cos you were insured with the wrong company.

    #2 They also like the story that Father Christmas is all RED cos that was all Coca Cola PR amd the real Father Christmas used to be green.

    Of course the real story is complex , there were many Father Christmas images including the familiar red one ..well before Coca Cola
    However being a global corp did push their chosen Santa into countries that had never had Santa .. so their current Santa is derived from Coca Cola
    https://fakehistoryhunter.net/2021/12/03/coca-cola-did-not-create-santa/

       17 likes

  12. StewGreen says:

    I was watching Calendar Girls the Movie
    a good topic cos the story has lots of natural jeopardy
    But somethings seemed a bit off
    And them when I checked I found the actual story was not exciting enough for the media folk
    So the media version is fiction … but based on the true story
    eg The scene where they have to fight the WI management to get permission for a tasteful nude calendar , never happened
    Instead they prepared pre Calendars without the WI logo, but when they went to the meeting the WI just said yes straight away

    Similarly with the scene where they rush back and find an empty room where the press conference was supposed to be, and then found out it was in the big room cos so many press had come
    In fact they did some prepublicity and hen they woke up Terry Wogan was already hyping it up on the radio
    and the calls came in, before the press conference. So the weight of media was not a sudden last minute surprise.
    etc.

    The bit about one woman being left by her husband is true
    He’d already been having an affair.

       20 likes

    • TrickCyclist says:

      When they say “Based on a true story” in a film’s publicity, that’s usually the giveaway that big chunks of it are fictional.
      My favourite example would probably be Fly Away Home, the 1996 film about geese being taught to migrate by following microlight aircraft. The film’s main character has a girlfriend and an estranged New Zealand-raised daughter that he has to take on after her mother is killed (This was no doubt due to Anna Paquin being the big-name child actor at the time). Cue heart-rending family drama.
      The real-life fellow the story is based on was a Canadian called Bill Lishman, who had a wife, two sons and a daughter.
      (Even in the comedy Evan Almighty, which is a bit crap, they still gave their modern-day Noah three sons.)
      Another thing I like about Fly Away Home is that it demonstrates some continuity in the intentions of one of the co-writers, Robert Rodat. In one scene a Canadian wildlife Ranger, a “bad” character, tries to clip the wings of one of the family’s geese in the name of the Queen. Anti-British feelings? Well, Robert Rodat also wrote the screenplays for Saving Private Ryan and The Patriot. . . say no more.

         19 likes

  13. taffman says:

    Question : Why does the present government allow the coastal invasion continue unabated and the BBC to continue to broadcast ?

       47 likes

  14. Zephir says:

    I watched the Michael Palin documentary about North Korea.

    Regarding his observations about various aspects, it occurred to me that it is only a matter of degree for what the WEF and far left are doing NOW around Europe and the US:

    Propoganda (see Twitter etc, the bbc and it’s agendas and slanted reporting, including lies and photoshopping, dissent silenced, right speak allowed only)

    Police used to prosecute unapproved opinions on social media and demands for people to lose their jobs.

    Lack of free elections (any negative stories about the dictator actively cancelled, statistically unlikely, if not impossible last minute swings always favouring the dictator in key states)

    Only one plane at the airport, few cars on the roads (fossil fuels bad, unless you are Markle or various other Slebs jetting around the world to lecture us, and new electric cars unaffordable to so many)

       34 likes

  15. Zephir says:

    Usual suspects, again, sing the mantra “diversity is strength”

    “Shocking moment two women brawl inside Oxford Street clothes store Pull&Bear while shoppers hunt for bargains during Boxing Day sales. Two women are seen hurling items at each other at Pull&Bear on Oxford Street
    A shop worker who stepped in to break up the fight received a head injury.”

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11576921/Shocking-moment-two-women-brawl-inside-Oxford-Street-clothes-store-Pull-Bear-Boxing-Day-sales.html

       20 likes

    • micknotmike says:

      Afternoon Z,
      Comments pretty predictable too :-
      “What have we become?”
      We haven’t become anything. They are what they always were. We made the mistake of inviting them here.

         17 likes

  16. Zephir says:

    “Search engine giant Google said it has fixed the search results for the word “Jew” after an offensive definition of the word was appearing as the top result. For at least several hours on Tuesday morning and into the early afternoon, internet users who typed the word “Jew” into a Google search bar encountered a series of pejorative phrases as the engine’s leading result, which appeared above the dictionary definition describing a person affiliated with cultural and religious Judaism.

    Prior to the fix, the leading result for the word “Jew” read: “Bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way.” The definition, which cited Oxford Languages as a source and characterized the term as a verb, included a small bolded banner marked “offensive” in capital letters. The search engine also presented the word in various “tenses,” including “jewed” and “jewing.” 

    Google updated the result after 1 p.m. ET, after many online pointed out the offensive error. 

    The offensive definition’s origin was listed as having been rooted in a 19th-century slur and “in reference to old stereotypes associating Jewish people with trading and moneylending.”

    Google posted a statement confirming that the derogatory definition had been removed from its search engine results just before 1:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, after it was flagged on Twitter by Amy Spitalnick, the executive director of the nonprofit organization Integrity First for America, who is also a vocal advocate against antisemitism.

    “Our apologies. Google licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts,” the company said in response to Spitalnick. “We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review.”

    Our apologies. Google licenses definitions from third-party dictionary experts. We only display offensive definitions by default if they are the main meaning of a term. As this is not the case here, we have blocked this & passed along feedback to the partner for further review.
    — Google SearchLiaison (@searchliaison) December 27, 2022

    The definition that now populates following a Google search for “Jew” — again, citing information from the dictionary publisher Oxford Languages, which describes itself as Google’s English dictionary provider — reads: “A member of the people and cultural community whose traditional religion is Judaism and who trace their origins through the ancient Hebrew people of Israel to Abraham.”

    The incident involving the offensive definition appearing comes amid rising antisemitism across the country. A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks hateful and antisemitic incidents nationwide, told CBS News that “there is no excuse” for “an obviously antisemitic result” to be displayed first on Google.”

    https://www.cbsnews.com/news/google-search-jew-offensive-slur-dictionary-result/

       12 likes

  17. Helena Hand-Basket says:

    I thought I’d share something amusing I heard on Australia’s version of the BBC – the ABC. It’s even more woke, dumbed down and politically biased than the Beeb. What’s more, we have to pay for it through our taxes.

    For many years, Mr Hand-Basket and I have woken to the ABC’s classical music radio programme. This has moved increasingly towards the multicultural and modernist. Trendy, tuneless orchestral works that sound like a cat chasing a mouse across a keyboard compete with Aboriginal compositions full of digeridoos and rainforest sounds.

    True, they do offer some fine traditional works. The trouble is, they spend about five minutes informing you the piece was performed on Gundungurra Aboriginal territory by asylum-seekers, with all profits to climate change victims. But all you really wanted to know was, ‘Is it by Mozart?’

    An early sign of change came when a long-time presenter named Emma arrived with a strangely deepened voice, and announced she would now be known as ‘Ed’. Yesterday, Ed announced,

    ‘And now we have a fine piece of shite for you!’

    I couldn’t believe it. Had Ed/Emma been overdoing the cooking sherry during the festivities, and faced reality? Had this classical musician decided to be honest about the show’s standards?

    No. He/she was referring to a German composer called Samuel Scheidt.

    Oh, dear. there’s another bright hope gone.

       39 likes

    • Zephir says:

      Sometimes it is better left to the protagonists themselves:

      Sir Thomas Beecham to a cello player during rehearsal:

      “Madam, you have between your legs an instrument capable of giving pleasure to thousands – and all you can do is scratch it.”

      On other, various occasions:

      “Why do we have to have all these third-rate foreign conductors around, when we have so many second-rate ones of our own?”

      “Try everything once, except folk dancing and incest.”

      “Her singing reminds me of a cart coming downhill with the brake on. ”

      “Have you heard any Stockhausen?” Beecham was asked. “No, but I believe I have stepped in some.”

      “The trouble with women in an orchestra is that if they’re attractive it will upset my players and if they’re not it will upset me.”

         30 likes

  18. tomo says:

    Helena

    👍

    elsewhere

    why am I thinking that this drivel will be wheeled out to justify the same salaries for the freshly graduated offspring of beeboid apparatchiks?

       7 likes

  19. Fedup2 says:

    I’m avoiding the BBC as much as possible as a prelude to my new year resolution … but I caught something in one of the papers about an interview Lindsey Hoyle gave to the PM show .
    He is reported as saying the `uK was an ‘international laughing stock ‘ after the leadership crap of 2022.

    Many commenting on this ( in the DT ) remind Hoyle that he is meant to be ‘speaker ‘ and hence ‘keep his mouth shut’ ( yes I know ) .
    So where he thinks he gets the authority to voice such an acidic personsl opinion is beyond me … and it points toward another Bercow in transition from making the whole thing about him .
    Don’t get me wrong – I think there is no parliamentary democracy – we have no real say – it’s as offering of coke or Pepsi – and I want neither . There can be no new entrants – ‘reform ‘ will be strangled – Farage just makes noise now .
    We are in a State of increasing taxes and falling standards – and there’s nothing ordinary punters can do as they witness their country disappearing into the third world …but don’t worry – we will still have our ‘proud traditions ‘..

       41 likes

    • moggie63 says:

      ‘…we will still have our ‘proud traditions ‘..’ we just won’t be allowed to celebrate them.

         22 likes

    • Flotsam says:

      I’ve been on Hoyle’s case for a while now. He’s allowing long rambling speeches as questions from Starmer and the opposition while cutting short the PM’s reply. I’ve also noticed a disproportionate number of “questions” from the long winded and ranting SNP lot.
      It’s a pity PMQ’s has become a political knockabout of political point scoring (not just recently). It could and should be an opportunity to ask serious questions and obtain answers, a waste of time.

         25 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Farage just “makes noises”
      His point was that if he stands anywhere.. they’ll cheat to stop him
      so it’s better he takes a low profile.

      The BBC’s hatey mates JOE reported it another way.

      BTW they said he works at TalkTV ..they couldn’t even get that right. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Fk65xyMX0AAPMWk?format=jpg&name=900×900

         15 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Stew – I think mr farage could win in a targeted constituency … and should try – even if Biden methods are used against him …

           21 likes

  20. Fedup2 says:

    Moggie

    The ‘proud tradition’ I was alluding to was to leave the door open to any chancer calling themselves ‘refugees ‘ …. I wonder if Joe Public is ever going to wake up to the effect of huge sustained population invasion ? Rather just moaning about a collapsing country ….?

    I give thanks occasionally at war memorials but I think ‘boys – what was that all for ?’

       27 likes

    • moggie63 says:

      With ‘refugees’ being dispersed all over the country (ready for the takeover?) it’s only a matter of time before even the most remote settlements discover the joys of enrichment. Not that it will matter, it will be far too late by then to do anything about it. My only hope is that it is the 5th columnists in this country that are the first to endure the invaders’ appreciation by being thrown off tall buildings or set on fire in cages strategically placed where the infidels can get maximum benefit. As you say, our war dead would be appalled at what our ‘elite’ are allowing this country to become.

         39 likes

  21. StewGreen says:

    “The New Normal” is the BBC taking any scant claim that fits with its liberal agenda, and amplifying it.

    eg “National Trust say last years heatwaves etc are the new normal”

    No you can’t just run down the bookmakers based on a ONE year trend.

    Britain has always had variable weather
    and the Met Office are not very good at predicting it 5 days in advance, never mind a year.

       34 likes

    • moggie63 says:

      5 days? I’ve lost count of the number of times I have heard the weather presenter telling me what a nice day it is while I watch the rain pouring down the windows and pigeons flying backwards.

         34 likes

      • Zephir says:

        That what a cat is for, throw it out the door if it starts scratching and tapping the door within 10 seconds, it’s either cold, or raining.

           22 likes

        • moggie63 says:

          I used to let ours out the front door only to see her rocket through the cat flap in the kitchen moments later, it told me all I needed to know about the weather.

             19 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            Perhaps that could be a BBC cost cutting example – replace tamas shaftyernacker with a daily cat flap forecast –
            Bit like that tedious ‘viewers pictures ‘ thing they sometimes have – look – a sky with added clouds … or just dark grey with more dark grey …

               15 likes

            • Zephir says:

              Black cats are regarded by some as unlucky

                 7 likes

              • Scroblene says:

                I know it’s raining when our dog wants to walk for half an hour across an open field…

                   12 likes

                • Up2snuff says:

                  Fed, I think the MetOffice/BBC should do weather forecasts like they do the Shipping Forecast/In-shore coastal regions; always in the same order and always covering each region. There have been times when in the weather forecasts, the Met Office/BBC have been so anxious to pander to diversity and N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales they have completely overlooked the forecast for the weather for London and the south-east where the greatest number of the UK population lives and/or works.

                     9 likes

  22. Zephir says:

    Regarding an earlier comment about apparently random 60 mph speed limits I came across the following which I was not aware of at the time and assume many others are not:

    “New 60mph limit imposed on nine UK motorways to improve air quality

    July 20, 2021

    Speed limits lowered on several UK motorways
    New limits aim to reduce emissions
    60mph limit imposed in several areas
    Some motorway limits as low as 40mph
    Nine motorways affected
    No end-date for the trial announced

    Highways England has announced plans to introduce temporary 60mph speed limits on several UK motorways in an attempt to reduce levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) in the surrounding areas.

    Highways England (HE) assessed 101 of the UK’s most important roads and found that the areas surrounding 30 of them have air quality that is well below acceptable levels.

    Nine of the 30 problem areas have already seen or will see a reduction in motorway speed limits from 70mph to 60mph and will be monitored to see how this affects nitrogen dioxide (NO2) levels. This applies to sections of the A38, M32, M6, M5, A1, M4, M1, M621 and M602.

    In some instances, the limits are even lower, with a portion of the M621 already being limited to 50mph while a section of the M32 has a 40mph limit.”

    https://www.carwow.co.uk/news/5467/60mph-motorway-speed-limit-introduced-to-improve-air-quality-tackle-no2-emissions#gref

       14 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Thanks Zeph.
      My personal belief is that all the transport chiefs went to the same anti-car University to do the same course in transport management.

      They came away with the same mantra. Cars are evil and anything to reduce the use of them by we plebs is a good thing. In Marxism the collectivist state is more important than the individual. So it is now with public transport (good) versus private transport (evil).

      So you get a variety of policies with this single aim. Build outs. Traffic lights out of sync. Converting well-used road lanes into unused cycle and bus lanes. Endless roads where the speed limit bears no relation to the objective hazard, and often changes every few yards so you have no idea what the limit actually is. 2 million speeding tickets a year but only about 250 deaths a year where breaking the limit was a contributory factor. That’s 1.99 million people criminalised for having no effect on anything. Proportionate?
      In London, one asthmatic child died and a coroner decided it was due to air pollution. Now Sad Dick Khan is to introduce a ULEZ zone covering 8 million people. Proportionate?
      Near us, Highways England have a smart motorway. They slow the traffic to 50 mph 2 miles ahead and then down to 40 mph and then close one or even two lanes to ‘recover’ a vehicle which is safely in an emergency lay-by. Why? Is that road more dangerous than a country A road with a normal 60 mph limit? And for how many hours do the Police keep the motorway closed after a smash, while they get out their clip boards and tape measures?

      The pollution argument is a nonsense. PM2.5 and PM 10 ( and all the other pollutants) have been coming down for years. They are FIVE times lower than in 1970 (How did we survive?)
      Meanwhile roadside NO2 is down by a half since 1997.
      And who says so ? The government itself !!!!!!!

      https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/emissions-of-air-pollutants/emissions-of-air-pollutants-in-the-uk-particulate-matter-pm10-and-pm25

      https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/air-quality-statistics/ntrogen-dioxide

      But hey, we don’t want a little thing like the facts to get in the way of the agenda.

      I rest my case. It’s discrimination by form of transport, the very discrimination disallowed under law for so many other groups.

         32 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        I remember driving at a max of 50mph during an oil crisis in the mid seventies!

        We just got out of bed earlier to get to work back then…

           9 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Sluff, if the politicians, Civil Servants and economists’ ‘think tanks’ think we have a problem in the UK with low growth and stagflation wait until they stop ‘ordinary’ people driving cars and see what happens then. Those of us oldies who have lived through a few recessions know what they do to the annual road miles driven total.

             13 likes

          • Sluff says:

            I remember being in St Petersburg in around 2005.
            There they have types of public transport we don’t even have.
            Yet the roads were full of old Ladas.

            Yes, even in Russia back then, people aspired to own a car to enjoy all the benefits, economic and social and practical, that went with it.

            Current car policies ensure the poor stay poor. No aspiration to get a new job and commute by car. No car parking spaces allowed by Leftoid councils (‘it might encourage car use’). Keep them in their high rise social housing. Only work near a train or bus station. That’s the logic of policies.

            Weird thing is, in every other sphere (airport expansion, HS2), good transport is associated with economic growth and prosperity.
            Yet strangely this does not apply to the private car.

               17 likes

            • tomo says:

              Public transport run (or controlled) by the public sector… what could possibly go wrong?

              iirc Richard Rice said before Xmas that the bill is £400 each for the railways – obviously that applies if you use them or not.

              The user experience in the UK is poor – flying to Schiphol and taking the train f’rinstance works rather well – going from Heathrow to Paddington to go west is just painful.

                 8 likes

              • Kaiser says:

                having seen how cheap public transport is in italy, czech republic portugal and others , im always amazed how expensive it seems to be in britain.

                I do four short journeys and back a week, and once caught the bus instead, just in petrol in my ahem not exactly economical coupe the cost was about half of the bus cost even at 180p a litre

                thats before the 2 hours of extra walking are added in.

                If they can get us out of cars I cant imagine what they will price public transport at, or how often I will be stuck because they have decided to go on strike again.

                   9 likes

  23. Guest Who says:

    £400,000,000 later.

       10 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      The precedent was set
      We paid the £400m ransom for her
      so now the Iranian government is taking more hostages to ransom.

         19 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Why doesn’t the spy go back in solidarity with the sista hood?
      The mullahs must be looking at the taliban and saying – we need to be more like them ….

      … I understand that Uk passport holders with Iranian ‘heritage ‘ were being advised to ‘get out of dodge ‘ – if I was a mullah I’d be getting them at the airport – make a fortune …

         14 likes

  24. Zephir says:

    Here is the evidence, there is no evidence:

    COMMITTEE ON THE MEDICAL EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTANTS
    STATEMENT ON THE EVIDENCE FOR THE EFFECTS OF NITROGEN DIOXIDE ON HEALTH

    “Members agreed that whilst, on the basis of epidemiological evidence, a direct effect of NO 2 on respiratory morbidity in children could not be clearly identified, a small independent effect could not be ruled out. Overall, Members concluded that it was not possible to quantify the direct effects of NO 2 on respiratory morbidity in children.”

    Click to access COMEAP_The_evidence_for_the_effects_of_nitrogen_dioxide.pdf

       21 likes

  25. Zephir says:

    Instead we get this fudging statement:

    Studies have shown associations of nitrogen dioxide (NO 2 ) in outdoor air with
    adverse effects on health, including reduced life expectancy. It has been unclear
    whether these effects are caused by NO 2 itself or by other pollutants emitted by the same sources (such as traffic). Evidence associating NO 2 with health effects has strengthened substantially in recent years and we now think that, on the balance of probability, NO 2 itself is responsible for some of the health impact found to be associated with it in epidemiological studies.

       11 likes

  26. StewGreen says:

    Via Simon Webb : it is astounding to look at the lists of barrister students at the Inns of court and see that almost all the names are not traditional British.

    I think Webb is wrong to assume they all end up working in the UK.
    For many it’s just an academic exercise and they do go back to their own country to work.

    https://www.lincolnsinn.org.uk/news/students-desirous-of-being-called-to-the-bar-this-michaelmas-term-24-november-2022/

       10 likes

    • tomo says:

      I wonder if Lincoln’s Inn have headhunters combing the world for candidates like the younees do?

      Bath Uni had at least two highly paid globetrotter recruiters a few years back.

         6 likes

    • Chevalnoir says:

      … you only have to look at Parliament to see the number of ‘legals’ who are practiced at the art of do nothing, sit on the fence, follow rules, do not go past ‘go’ . Our non-traditional friends clearly know where power sits … but it started long ago, taking over corner shops, petrol stations, pharmacies, medical profession, accountancy and so on … whilst we slept …

         5 likes

  27. Fedup2 says:

    Not BBC – personal

    I got the flu on 23 December . Spent 13 hours each day in bed for 4 days . 6 own brand tablets a day – 1.5 litres of juice – loads of tea – lot of on off sleep – much sweating – coughing – the lot – but no sore throat ( unusual ) – little food …

    So this is day 6 and it looks like recovery time – looks like the flu jab didn’t work – I take a daily vitamin A tablet as part of a long anti dementia project which has – in my view – kept sniffles away more than before – but that’s just me –

    .. another day and I ‘resurface ‘ …

       23 likes

    • Zephir says:

      I thought they were talking about vitamin D as possibly helping with cognitive loss ?

      I was reading about it today as my memory is sometimes suffering last couple of months, I could not recall the composer of the Spartacus and Phrygia adagio (Onedin line theme) the other day, played every five minutes on Classic FM.

      Then in the car could not remember the band as “Slow Train Running” was playing (Doobie Brothers, I had to look it up).

      Two examples of something becoming more common last few months.

         13 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Zephir – I started some research project about 3? Years ago – either vit A or a placebo – but the effect was noticeable after a couple of months on various fronts ( really ) . I also started playing video games – ar an ‘unusual ‘ age I guess – which also – I’m my view – helps concentration and reaction – but doesn’t do anyfing four spellling….

           10 likes

        • Zephir says:

          @F2 thanks, will try the Vit A

          I have never managed to master video games, a bit like anything that requires a bat and ball.

          I can just about manage a golf bat.

             11 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Zephir, there used to be a poster on TCW who was a VitD prophylaxis fanatic as protection against Covid-19. Didn’t bother arguing with him or her.

           2 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      How do you know it wasn’t Covid ?

      I had it back in March, but was sworn to secrecy
      cos we decided it was best not to worry the old age pensioner who had tested positive .. all of us caring for her came down with it. Most got a lot of coughing that prolonged the after affects
      For me the entire thing passed in about 72 hours cos I ran it off.
      I had a few coughs the morning I was told, then sore throat for a day then swelling in the head, then finally 24 hours of fine water from the eyes and nose, then it was all gone.
      Never had any snot or catarrh.
      I had been triple jabbed.

         7 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Fed, thanks for the update. You may have got the ‘flu’ from the jab itself.

         8 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Stew – that was my first thought – but I did a bit of in bed ‘comparison site ‘ research ( what covid.com ) and self diagnosed flu – but I’d had the jab back in November after the latest covid jab ….

           1 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Unlikely to be the ‘flu’ jab then, Fed. The result tends to be almost immediately, certainly within a week. Most likely the air travel or the Underground trip home.

             6 likes

  28. Messenger says:

    I heard Justin Rowlatt on the National Trust and CC this morning, Justin (Nut) case you had forgotten about it over Christmas. He managed to slot in bird flu as well.

       8 likes

    • Zephir says:

      As a wildlife lover, I leave Lemsip in the bird bath now

      Unfortunately the flu was too much for many sparrows and blue tits littering the lawn.

         6 likes

      • tomo says:

        Seems likely that bird flu got a couple of doves ( before the sparrowhawk ) in my garden as I found them in a hedge a few days before Xmas.

           3 likes

  29. Jeff says:

    Reading through some of the previous comments about how little any of us watch or listen to BBC content got me thinking…Ouch…

    The only programmes that I ever watch these days are Dad’s Army and Gardeners’ World. The first was made in the late sixties to the mid seventies, when the BBC led the world in comedy and is absolutely charming and timeless. The second is becoming increasingly obsessed with “the climate crisis” and lecturing me about “drought tolerant plants”. Oh yes, they’d do really well in my water-logged garden…as it has been since October…

    Nowadays, as we all know, there are no BBC “comedies” worthy of the name. They’re all pathetically juvenile and primed towards a certain smug, middle-class left-wing audience. They’re bloody painful.

    I’ve even given up on Gardeners’ Question Time. I remember listening, as I always used to, one Sunday afternoon last summer. James Wong, one of their regulars, started lamenting “the lack of diversity in floristry”. FFS, I mean, is it something anyone normal would even notice?

    You know, most of us go to a florist to order a wreath for a funeral or a pick up a bunch of roses if we’ve been caught out misbehaving. The gender, religion, sexual preferences or ethnicity of the florist doesn’t bother most people in the slightest. We’d barely notice.

    With the BBC identity politics is an unhealthy and dangerous obsession…

       37 likes

    • Zephir says:

      With their attics full of cultivating equipment, some efnicks would flourish as florists.

         18 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Jeff
      It is tricky writing about the BBC when having very limited contact with it – for so many reasons … I listen to Today now -out of duty . I don’t expect to be informed of various aspects of an issue – and use my skills to listen to what the BBC is leaving out – for instance the mostly peaceful riots in Paris –

      Obviously ‘today ‘ isn’t something to bother about over the Christmas period.

      I used to listen to 4extra which has reasonable when it started but is now fully woke and – considering the wealth of the archive – just puts on a lot of some dross now …

         7 likes

  30. Zephir says:

    This was nice to find this Christmas, as a panacea to all the crap playing in every shop.

       10 likes

  31. AsISeeIt says:

    Confusion and delay with additional Trollope edition

    Our BBC online print press reviewers do tend to cherish the old double whammy, the one-two, as their preferred daily headline template.

    And one has to conclude that brace of headlines to be those prefixing their preferred news stories.

    Newspaper headlines: ‘Strikes to escalate’ and ‘toxic’ Sandhurst culture (BBC)

    Inevitably news about strikes are a gimme. The left-leaners are most excited: Train strikes set to escalate as union plans daily walkouts… new tactic… allowing rolling strikes throughout the same week and causing maximum disruption… (‘i’) – rolling strikes halting the rolling stock

    This isn’t exactly winning the public over to public transport

    As Thomas the Tank Engine’s boss, the Fat Controller, was wont to exclaim “You have caused confusion and delay”

    The right-leaning Daily Mail is less forgiving of the case for workers supposedly anxious as to the cost of living: Loyalty cards for ‘strikers’… ‘prizes’ to Leftwing activists who attend multiple picket lines, regardless of whether they have any personal involvement

    Interestingly, the formerly old Labour Daily Mirror, forsakes frontpage support for the likes of macho working class union hero Mick Lynch and instead turns up on the metaphorical picket line for our putative professional classes:  Junior docs strike fear – a somewhat threatening choice of phrasing there – not exactly the bedside manner one would hope for.

    One’s mind is drawn inexorably to that old gag from the movie Doctor in the House (1954); the venerable Sir Lancelot Spratt, the chauffeur-driven senior consultant surgeon admirably played by James Robertson Justice, who leads his coterie of junior doctors on his ward rounds within the as yet still nascent NHS.

     “You cut a patient he bleeds, until the processes of nature form a clot and stop it. This interval is known scientifically as the ‘bleeding time’. You! What’s the bleeding time? “

    Simon Sparrow, as played by a young Dirk Bogarde, is distracted making eyes at a nurse: “Ten past ten, sir”

    Of course all the white-coated doctors were chaps and all the properly uniformed nurses were women. Needless to say they were all British. Set aside the casting of Call the Midwife – this was the actual 1950s

    Rising discontent among junior doctors is fuelling concern they will strike (Mirror)

    There’s another, very 1950s, line from Sir Lancelot Spratt preceding that bleeding time joke: “Don’t forget, to be a sucessful surgeon you need the eye of a hawk, the heart of a lion and the hands of a lady”

    Ah, our female medics. I quote at medium length from a female near equivalent to Sir Lancelot – the real life Prof J Meirion Thomas

    By 2017, for the first time, there will be more female than male doctors in the United Kingdom… For the past four decades about 60 per cent of students selected for training in UK medical schools have been female… The most significant change was that the number of female doctors under the age of 30 had increased by 18 per cent… Indeed, in this age group, 61 per cent of doctors are now women and 39 per cent men… Although I am a feminist… this shift of the gender balance in medicine is a worrying trend… The reason is that most female doctors end up working part-time — usually in general practice — and then retire early. As a result, it is necessary to train two female doctors so they can cover the same amount of work as one full-time colleague. Given that the cost of training a doctor is at least £500,000, are taxpayers getting the best return on their investment? (Daily Mail, 2014)

    The BBC’s second punch of the day in their headline review double whammy favours the Telegraph’s top story: Sandhurst urged to tackle toxic culture – bullying grizzled drill sergeants employing antediluvian epithets with which to tear a strip off some double left-footed young snowflake recruits, we wonder?

    Not this time: Top brass must take action over ‘epidemic’ of sex assault at academy, says charity boss… hundreds of servicewomen had reported abuse during their training (Telegraph)

    Mr AsI begs readers indulgence as a personal recollection springs to mind hereabouts. Going away to university circa 198 (It was Victorian novelist and inventor of the postbox or “letter-receiving pillar” Anthony Trollope who likewise would invariably leave a blank instead of the fourth digit of the year in which his tales were set) at which date and time some administrative delay meant planned freshman accommodation in a student hall was not yet possible.

    Term having begun, temporary bed and breakfast was arranged via the university at a local guesthouse. In my contingent of half a dozen students billeted together for a week or two I recall one young hopeful chap just arrived asking:

    “Have the university put any female students here in this house?” The reply came in the negative from another rather lugubrious wag: “They’ve organised temporary accomodation – not a knocking shop”

    As always, one simply asks readers to draw their own conclusions.

       18 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      All these problems with guys / gals / effups / in the military – submarines – sandhurst – surely the solution is to have separate intakes … surely 5 intakes a year – hetero male (1) hetero female ( 1) then the remaining 3 intakes various non hetero types …. Submarines and planes can then be ‘orientation ‘based – together with subsequent wars ….

         8 likes

      • Sluff says:

        This could run and run.
        ‘Don’t shoot me I’m non-binary’
        ‘A British soldier who killed a transgender opposition fighter is to be prosecuted for breaches of diversity and equality legislation. The action is being supported by Stonewall. A spokesman said ‘there is clear evidence that the British military are singling out members of the LGBTQIA+ community among the opposition forces’’.
        You read it here first.

           17 likes

  32. Althepalerp says:

    Apparently British Homeless, many ex servicemen, are being taken to the South coast beaches, given an inflatable to pretend they just landed, instructed to only say I do not speak English. They are then whisked away to be given clean clothes, warm meal, full health check and a 4 star hotel to stay in.
    After a few weeks they are suspected of being imposters and are turfed out.
    I know this to be true because a neighbour of mine is helping them.

       29 likes

  33. StewGreen says:

    From 5 months ago : They certainly spooked the Indian SCAM call centre operations
    But they say there has to be more awareness.

       9 likes

  34. StewGreen says:

    So far the RI Christmas lectures have been OK.
    Not super virtue signalling, no trans etc.
    The balance is to the female
    The lecturer is a Scottish woman
    the lab assistant is a Chinese Australian who’s been in the country 6 months
    then they’d bring on a male ballistics expert or police dog handler etc.
    Susan Black’s theme is a work of gathering info from dead bodies in homicide investigations.

       6 likes

  35. Foscari says:

    Please excuse my conspiratorial thoughts. I just hope
    with the relaxation of Covid restrictions in China. That
    they are not planning on “exporting” another even
    worse biological virus they may of concocted.

       19 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      That’s absolute nonsense – all the airports will be instantly closed and checks on everyone carried out with instant mass lockdowns ….. or maybe not …. It will spread uncontrolled like last time ..
      Er .. lessons will be learnt next time .. or the time after that ..

         14 likes

      • G says:

        Fed, from what I hear of it, all countries local to China will be examining and checking arrivals from that country at the very least. US? thinking seriously about it, the UK? Well as usual, behind the curve:

        “The UK and Germany each said they are monitoring the situation closely, but are not currently considering new restrictions for Chinese travellers.”

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-64107553

        As the outbreaks reach the UK, my message to Government is:
        “Keep thinking about it”. That’ll work.

           13 likes

  36. digg says:

    The BBC once again caught out promoting a less than savoury character.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/12/28/glasgow-sex-trafficker-jagpal-singh-was-bbc-reality-star/

    They seem to have a knack of this sort of thing don’t they?

       16 likes

  37. Philip_2 says:

    No rise in temperature or rainfall in Bangladesh for 100 years!

    Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, 28 December 2022

    ….. But Sky News and BBC say we are all doomed, and floods will surely follow….!

    ….”Earlier this year, Bangladesh was hit by the regular monsoon rains and flooding. Sky News reported that “experts say that climate change is increasing the frequency, ferocity and unpredictability of floods in Bangladesh”. Needless to say, the BBC made the same point, adding that “experts say that climate change is increasing the likelihood of events like this happening around the world”.
     
    Presumably, when they talk about climate change, Sky and the BBC are worried about flooding being caused by rising temperatures and increased rainfall. It might therefore be considered curious that these climate changes do not seem to have affected Bangladesh.

    According to figures compiled for the World Bank, the average temperature in Bangladesh is the same today as it was 100 years ago.”

    https://netzerowatch.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=c920274f2a364603849bbb505&id=c60a8df3e8&e=f0f2d33ad1

    Curious that. Our most globally trusted broadcaster (only the BBC say that), – which is entirely based on third world countries tuning in on Short-wave with a ‘wind-up’ dynamo radio – was explained by an ex BBC official. (stating that the BBC tends to ‘exaggerate’ its influence). It tries hard to stand still – does the BBC ‘Auntie’ – as a man dressed as (say) Eddie Izzard.

    They do both have a lot in common ‘BBC’ and Madame ‘Izzard’. (Both dress on the left…, from the left, both ‘victims’ in the biblical sense). Walking apocalypse of ancient ‘doom-sayers’ and olden-time Eunach ‘cross-dressers’ that we thought once extinct. Are re-installed as ‘our salvation’ for the plebs and ‘yoofs’ of modern times.

       13 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      If I recall – rowlatt started off with the BBC doing London local stuff but then went national and then went fully Green .

      I caught a bit of a recent ‘piece ‘ – I couldn’t call it a ‘report ‘ because it was far beyond any form of uncertainty or objectiveness.
      He is a green extremist and I’m sure would support any action to forward his cause …. Quite frightening really …

         16 likes

  38. tomo says:

    Fair question from The Freds under the circumstances.

    I wonder:
    What (if anything) has happened about Dame vom horizontalen Gewerbe Frau Doktor von der Leyen’s purchase of warehouses full of obsolete virus medication?

       15 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      You can never have enough money – right rishi ?

      I did a 2023 prediction thing the other day – but I thought it better to predict what will not happen in 2023 –

      1there will be no reduction in illegal invasions

      2 the UK will not change treaties

      3 there will be few ‘returns’

      4 the blue Labour Party will not touch OFCOMBBC

      5 The military will not increase in size

      6 interest rates will not reduce – nor will inflation

      7 the blue tories will not win any bi elections

      8 energy prices will not drop

      9 putin will not be ousted from power

      10 sterling will not strengthen

         17 likes

  39. tomo says:

    Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says his government is preparing to participate in Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum in Davos next month

    A BBC team working up some gushing coverage as I type this?

       15 likes

  40. Philip_2 says:

    “The tax changes made in 2022 left everyone worse-off – but arguably none felt more hard done by than Britain’s 4.2 million self-employed workers.

    Stuart Griffin, a business consultant, is preparing himself for a huge rise in his tax bill next year – “and it’s all because of the Autumn Statement”.

    Like many self-employed workers, Griffin pays himself through a limited company and so will be liable for more tax after Jeremy Hunt, the Chancellor, announced the dividend tax-free allowance is to be halved from £2,000 to £1,000 next year and then to £500 in 2024, while corporation tax is also rising from 19pc to 25pc”.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tax/self-employed/how-government-waged-war-self-employed/

    Ouch!

    Note: this is a Conservative government (not Starmer’s Labour government) – We have that to come — unless we vote for the REFORM (party). Only the REFORM party will ensure the BBC pays it fair share of taxes. All of them.

    Anyway, why am I posting this….?

    You see, most limited companies have to pay a Corporate tax on their UK business.
    So Thames TV, or ITV, Sky or Netflix, Apple TV, LBC, Classic Fm, GB News etc, etc… all have to pay a nominal tax for having a Corporate body.

    I write this for you, — as I asked the BBC – very early on (years ago) under a FOI request letter IF the BBC had (ever) paid Corporation tax?
    I made the request under Tony Blair’s (new) F.O.I Scheme to bring big public corporations (and multiple QUANGO’s) to account of where the money goes. (to prevent fraud).

    People still ask in vain at the BBC where all the money goes.

    Silence at the BBC

    Eventually the BBC are forced to admit that they are exempt of such UK taxes by parliament. (BBC) is Corporate in UK name only). It has UK ‘special’ status. It declares itslef a ‘public body’ – like the NHS or OXFAM, which is not quite true, as it can print (TV license) and declare its own accounts and make its own money and costs (expenses).

    So No (UK) tax on corporate profits, as technically they make no UK profit and spend everything they earn on UK BBC staff ‘salaries’ and ‘expenses’.

    They have ‘offshore’ BBC accounts for outside the UK earnings potential (sales). You cannot ask how much that earns but its about £4 Billion or so. Global sales, you see from Australia or the US mainly.

    Technically BBC WorldWide (Limited) earns the money from ‘global’ BBC TV sales that does pay tax but its ‘private’ (BBC WorldWide Limited) so FOI request (such as mine) – won’t work.

    But under Pubic ACCOUNT (filed by BBC WorldWide), much of the ‘profit’ is FreeView (Ad) revenue and sponsorship from its many FreeView BBC Channels: (Alibi, UKTV, Gold, Now TV, W, Dave, Drama, Yesterday). It also sells drama to ‘Sky TV’ and also shares its old White city TV HQ (as Landlord) to ITV studios as well. On top of that BBC portfolio includes extensive ‘old’ property it ‘sells’ even though it was former civil-service property during the pre-war and post war years it ‘acquired’.

    It has a ‘private’ BBC company for everything and employs over 21,000 people as BBC ‘journalists’ that are free from legal prosecution (under the BBC Charter) as long as they don’t commit a ‘crime’. But it does not affect the BBC pension scheme, the most generous package in the UK, still.

    So does the BBC pay any corporation tax on profits at all?

    Well yes and No! – as all proceeds go towards the BBC , and that is specifically exempt from paying any UK Corporation tax. (unlike ALL other UK and international broadcasters).

    And as we all know (told). The BBC never makes a profit. That is why it has its own (money printing machine) called the TV license. It was never expected to make a ‘profit’ by parliament.

    The BBC Charter protects the BBC from such HMRC inconveniences of having to UK pay corporate tax like the self employed. It is exempt of all taxes bar NHI and PAYE income taxes, whatever it makes on the open market, it keeps. it can pay itself in pensions and ‘bonus’ payments. And that is how the BBC operates in this country. Its also own hundreds of ‘private’ UK limited companies under the umbrella of the BBC ‘corporate’. What tax it pays is minimal as it pays only what specifically it earns in the UK (zilch).

    Its not fair, but that is how the BBC us able to fund itself and ignores ALL complaints. It does not care what we think. Only Russia or China could have devised such a scheme.
    A Corporate parasite, living off the earnings of others who are forced to pay Corporate taxes, Even Amazon, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Apple pay some UK corporate tax (via Ireland).

    BBC nothing, no tax. They are exempt. And that, I hope is what the REFORM party will have to correct – or sell it off as spare parts.

       22 likes

    • tomo says:

      Astonishingly

      this is still there, buried in the Guardian’s servers…

      I was in HK at the time – he was extradited iirc and found guilty.

      https://www.theguardian.com/media/2001/oct/27/broadcasting.bbc

         5 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        3 Feb 2004
        “Former BBC director receives prison sentence for taking bribes
        — Jeffery Everard Taylor, a 42-year-old New Zealander, pleaded guilty last Thursday to accepting bribes”

        The BBC had fired him in 2001 after the allegations

           6 likes

        • tomo says:

          the whole HK BBC derivative trinkets + “merch” business was murky as …

          I got the impression at the time that his only crime was to backstab a HK supplier for a bribe (and get caught).

          One might reasonably hope that the BBC might try to monetise their reach into the minds of UK children by using UK based businesses.

             1 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Phillip – imagine if the whole BBC were to be privatised . The prospectus would have to explain all of the Profit and Loss bits of it …
      Can but dream …..

         7 likes

  41. tomo says:

    There is no truth whatsoever that the NHS are buying stocks and negotiating licensed UK production.

       7 likes

  42. tomo says:

       10 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    David Lammy liked this.

    So, QT glory awaits.

       19 likes

    • Jeff says:

      There are some really cracking replies to this hideous old hag’s tweet.

      “I see you as a vile low life…” “You’re another race baiter…” “Vote for the Reform Party…” “Your sole purpose as a party is to divide and stir hatred…”and perhaps my favourite, “I’m going to make sure everyone on my hideously white council estate sees this…”

      Christ almighty, we can’t allow these vile creatures anywhere near government…

         29 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Yeah – make whitee pay …

      I wonder how ‘black families ‘ feel about whitee lady being so generous …?

      Annalees always was an over promoted loose cannon – …

         20 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        The spendthrift Tory party gave everyone on benefits in our region an extra £25 grant ..reported on Dec 12th
        ..Cold Weather Payment
        happens
        if the average temperature in your area is recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees celsius or below over 7 consecutive days.
        “All the postcodes in North Lincolnshire eligible for Cold Weather Payment during arctic blast”

           8 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      The Fallacy of Disparities :
      Evidence of different outcomes is NOT evidence of discrimination

      Labour are race-baity
      Labour are Hatey

      Her tweet got 319K views ..then 322 Likes
      ie a like rate of 1 in 1,000
      Several of the replies get many more Likes

         8 likes

  44. Jeff says:

    Just catching a glimpse…and no more…of the six o’clock headlines on the BBC news. It’s laughable…

    Huw Edwards, announcing in grim tones to a scene of arid and scorched shrubland, “and as 2022 becomes the warmest year for the UK, we report on the impact on British wildlife.” You what?

    I walk to my kitchen window, now completely splattered with raindrops and stare into my quagmire of a garden. It’s been pis…ahem…persistently raining for days on end. When it’s not raining it’s snowing. My immaculate lawn resembles the Grimpen Mire from The Hound of the Baskervilles. If I stepped outside I’d disappear up to my neck in mud.

    And the BBC are telling me the planet’s on fire.

    They’re a bloody comedy act…

       43 likes

  45. Fedup2 says:

    Yeah – here’s a story that might get ‘missed’ by the BBC – the false president has gone on a sunny holiday until new year in the US Virgin Islands … just before The Biggest Winter Storm Ever …. Priceless … enjoy Joe …

       27 likes

  46. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    On GB News (Dewbs) they have been discussing this Government Prevent terrorism report and the leftie seems to think the ‘far right’ are the danger. The ‘far right’ keep being mentioned yet I reckon less than 5% of any terrorist acts are by the ‘far right’
    They are tip toe-ing around the real terrorists apart from the ‘rightie’ mentioning that the report cannot be taken seriously as it seems to be about ‘far right’ and not the real terrorists.
    They mentioned an example of the far right where a schoolboy was reported to prevent because he googled UKIP on the net.

    Then they mention the crime stats where only about 5% of crimes are taken to court. They didn’t mention that most crimes are now no longer reported precisely because nothing will happen. The real percentage if all crimes were reported would probably be less than 1%

       26 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      I think it’s one of those naive false ‘communication strategies ‘to try to make the remaining few white minorities to accept that Muslim terrorism is less of a danger than 14 year old boys in their bedrooms with fuhrer fixations ….

         22 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      There was a discussion this lunchtime on GBnews or a TalkTV but the speaker ..(probably politician Ben Habib) did make the point that right wing terror is pretty miniscule.

         12 likes

  47. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    Ramsgate annual boxing day swim 195 went in, 847 came out.

       47 likes

  48. tomo says:

       18 likes

  49. StewGreen says:

    Looking at local newspaper most court cases they report seem to be trashy white people.
    I don’t know their life stories, but something made them the way they are.

    Here’s a story
    “Sarah 74 a disgraced clinical psychologist in North Lincolnshire admitted misconduct after visiting a patient’s home, posting a Christmas present through her letterbox, and inviting her to stay at her holiday home in Sicily .. sending photos
    .. taking patient off in her car instead of holding the session in the office etc”
    https://www.grimsbytelegraph.co.uk/news/health/therapist-admits-misconduct-after-sending-7934730

    Hang on that’s a bit strange a female therapist pursuing a female patient.. maybe she has some weird hormone balance
    .. It would make sense if the therapist is a testosterone filled MAN
    .. Hang on ..is the therapist trans.. and the newspaper choosing to omit that ?

    A person of that name does appear on a trans dating site.

       16 likes

  50. Foscari says:

    Further to my earlier Mail. It looks like China has picked Italy
    AGAIN as their first try out for their new virus export.
    On a flight to Milan from China on Boxing day . 52% of
    the Chinese passengers were found to have COVID. I
    don’t know if the Chinese are exporting a new strain.
    If I were them the UK would seem to be an easier touch.
    At least in Italy the Chinese were tested . BUT I expect
    that in the UK it would be deemed to be RACIST to test
    these good exporting folk!

       24 likes