157 Responses to Weekend 29 April 2023

  1. Foscari says:

    Have any of you seen the new version of ” A Question of Sport”
    on the BBC ? It should been named ” A Question of Woke”
    Whoever in the hierarchy of the BBC decided to get rid of
    Sue Barker as the presenter. Did the equivalent of the
    prat who devised the Budweiser advert which has cost the
    Beer producer billions. With a Question of Sport its over
    4 million viewers lost . Over 80% of the viewers,.
    The new presenter Paddy McGuinness has absolutely no
    personality. At least George Formby had a ukulele and his “when I’m cleaning windows , makes one smile.
    Yes it’s another example of ” Go woke, go broke.” The BBC
    attempting to ” educate ” the unwashed ,with their agenda.
    It wont wash BBC !!!

       59 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      With the proviso that the BBC doesn’t need to concern itself with viewing figures or finances, given the racket that enables it to extort £4 billion plus a year from the public, backed up by the potential sanction of imprisonment for non-compliance.

         30 likes

    • markh says:

      Sam Quek is rather easy on the eye though. Oh sorry, mustn’t say that!

         7 likes

      • Lefty Wright says:

        markh
        As a normal red blooded male you SHOULD say that. What’s more you should shout it from the highest hill because you speak the truth.

           8 likes

  2. Nibor says:

    BBC goes to North Derbyshire . It’s part of their look at the political parties taking part in the local elections. They’ve looked at Labour, the LibDims and the Green Party , today it’s the wet Conservatives . Will they do other parties , like the Reform Party ?
    Usual waste of time from the BBC . Get one person in a street to say one thing , then counter it with someone saying the opposite, and then it’s “ impartial “ . Thus an unpopular policy , like open borders , is seen as a 50/50 split .

    As for the new season of the News Quiz , Radio 4 6.30pm I started to listen but couldn’t after three minutes. I might try again tomorrow. Even driving down a boring motorway with not much better to do , and feeling I must monitor the little bit of the BBC that i can , well the puerile nonsense makes me rather count the cats eyes I run over even if I don’t change lanes . The BBC is boring . It’s bigoted and boring and it’s like arguing with a vending machine about its bias .

    Please someone kill it off .

       47 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      It’s all very well Al Beeb pretending that broadcasting snippets of their vox pop interviews from various interested parties is evidence of ‘impartiality’, but they didn’t do it for the Brexit referendum. Kuentsberg said some years after the result that at the time she was getting lots of positive reaction to Brexit up and down the country. We got to see 2/5ths of 5/8ths of sfa of that at the time.

         23 likes

  3. tomo says:

    If only it was a vending machine full of insects and proper vegan fruit.

    – left to corrode unused …

       17 likes

  4. JohnC says:

    Mike Pence testifies in criminal probe of Trump and Capitol riot
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65423301

    The BBC doing their best here to make a major article with absolutely no news whatsoever in it. They just repeat things from earlier articles.

    The notable part though is how they link to one of the extremely heavily editted propaganda videos about Pelosi which again has nothing to do with the actual story. The BBC have the caption:

    ‘Watch: New footage shows Speaker Pelosi during Jan 6 attack’ underneath it. Yet the video in question is from at least 6 months ago.

    More fake news from the BBC.

       28 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      Is Our Marianna of the Rack on the case yet?

      Or is it the usual ‘nothing to see here’?

         16 likes

  5. JohnC says:

    Alan Henning: Murdered hostage given freedom of city honour
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-65430851

    This is BBC agenda reporting at it’s finest.

    For anything agenda-based, the BBC use these articles to re-run the original story and refresh it in people’s memory.

    The truth is that Alan was beheaded in the most barbaric manner on video by Muslim extremist terrorists (ISIS).

    Here’s all we get from the BBC about how he died:

    ‘An aid worker who was killed by militants after travelling to Syria in 2014’. That’s it.

    Good old BBC. Quite ready to sweep terrorism under the carpet for the greater good of the agenda.

       48 likes

  6. Fedup2 says:

    Today watch

    Yesterday I described how meesh interviewed the Saudi ambassador and ignored the Sudan thing and went on and on about some journo murdered in an embassy years ago .

    Yet today leeees dooo sett has turned up in the Sudan coastal city and describes how the Saudi navy is rescuing all sorts of wallas left in the war .

    I’m guessing the Saudis will have made a mental note about the bbc … rightly …

       19 likes

  7. Fedup2 says:

    Today 2

    A piece about the use of AI ( wtf?) to create ‘pop groups ‘ in Korea which really work …. So inevitably BBC staff can be replaced by computer generated presenters and autocue readers – no need to pay them – no need for tv licences – with the political expression controlled by the State ….

       19 likes

    • harry142857 says:

      Fedup.

      From the beeb itself (anyone remember Max Headroom in the early nineties?)

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-65238950

      Kuwait news outlet unveils AI-generated presenter Fedha.

      A Kuwaiti media outlet says it has created a virtual news presenter using artificial intelligence (AI).

      “Fedha” made her debut on the Twitter account of Kuwait News, an affiliate of the Kuwait Times.

      She appears as an image of a woman with light-coloured hair, wearing a black jacket and white T-shirt.

      Abdullah Boftain, deputy editor-in-chief for Kuwait News, told AFP news agency the move tested AI’s potential to offer “new and innovative content”.

      “I’m Fedha, the first presenter in Kuwait who works with artificial intelligence at Kuwait News. What kind of news do you prefer? Let’s hear your opinions,” the AI-generated presenter said in Arabic.

      Mr Boftain said Fedha may develop to have a Kuwaiti accent and read online news bulletins.

      “Fedha is a popular, old Kuwaiti name that refers to silver, the metal. We always imagine robots to be silver and metallic in colour, so we combined the two,” he said.

      The presenter’s blonde hair and light-coloured eyes reflect the country’s diverse population of Kuwaitis and expatriates, Mr Boftain said.

      Kuwait is not the first country to unveil an AI-generated news presenter: in 2018, China’s state news agency unveiled its own virtual newsreader sporting a sharp suit and a somewhat robotic voice.

      A report last month by investment bank Goldman Sachs said AI could replace the equivalent of 300 million full-time jobs.

      _____________________________________

         8 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Fedha? Must be a relation ….

           11 likes

      • atlas_shrugged says:

        I think the AI SheBot is a bit dull and that there should be some user customisable options to spice her up a bit.

        If that would get more people to switch away from the BBC then that could only be a good thing.

           10 likes

  8. Fedup2 says:

    Hey – there’s no need to have British citizenship to be rescued in a war zone any more – all you have to be is an NHS employee . Your nationality doesn’t matter now …. Says it all really …. At least the free flight out scheme is ending today – the rest can come by dinghy …

       32 likes

    • Charlie Farley says:

      Fedup2 ,
      Hundreds of Doctors and Scientists coming by Dinghy everyday ……we’re overrun with them now……time to export a few overseas…..NHS the envy of the world ?

         35 likes

      • Peter Grimes says:

        All that at a time when coffee shops are being closed up in thousands (good job that- crap coffee), and the EE nuclear physicists and brain surgeons who staffed them have gone back home, still collecting their UK top-up bennies.

        Meanwhile our money transited via the Glorious EUReich to EE and Poland in particular has led to such infrastructure development and subsidies to poach UK production that Poland’s GNP is set to overtake that of the UK in fairly short order.

        Whoodathunkit?

           24 likes

  9. Fedup2 says:

    Wo – an interview with HRH David Dimbleby and meesh about the chairman of the BBC – a breathtaking attack after attack on boris Johnson – who apparently bares the blame for the chairman thing – no attempt at hiding the bias ….. Dimbleby is on manoeuvres for something from the incoming red Labour Party ..
    Dimbleby was so bitter as to sound deranged – or hung over – truly self entitled – nothing worse than a rich ‘socialist ‘ journo ….

       33 likes

  10. tomo says:

    I knew Justin’s crew were toxic

       8 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Just don’t Google ‘Freehand and Ukraine’ or ‘Clinton and Crime’…

      Actually, you’d be safe to do so as the juicy stuff is thoughtfully censored or hidden by Google.

         15 likes

  11. taffman says:

    Question: We voted for Brexit, why haven’t we left yet?
    Have the Tories betrayed us ?

       37 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I wonder if Boris regrets betraying his attack dog Cummins for a free supply of ‘BJ’s for BJ’ at home.

      If he had not, I am sure he would still be PM, we would be out of the EU proper and the BBC would have had their wings clipped.

         25 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      Have the Tories betrayed us ?
      A rhetorical question, I believe.

         14 likes

  12. Fedup2 says:

    What tories ?

       28 likes

  13. JohnC says:

    I noticed how little we are getting on the BBC about racist Diane Abbot story so I checked with google and sure enough there are lots of articles on it. But the BBC just has one from when the story broke.

    This is absolutely typical of them. If a story doesn’t fit their agenda they simply do not report it. Whereas something far less significant will get daily ‘Live’ updates and will run for a week until the victim is pressured enough to resign.

    This is the bias we all despise : the dirty tricks and the abuse of their power to nudge the political agenda in the direction they want. They are far too canny to just say ‘Labour are great, the Tories are scum’. They play the long game.

       55 likes

  14. Thoughtful says:

    Two humerous photos of the news media doing exactly what the BBC do, outrage amd victim politics over indivduals who are clearly lying, but then themselves not recognising how ridiculous they make themselves look.

    u61x1ms5uhva1.jpg?attachment_cache_bust=4382856&quality=85&strip=info&w=600

    vw3pk84a3dva1.jpg?attachment_cache_bust=4382857&quality=85&strip=info&w=600

       23 likes

  15. Scroblene says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-union/65411995

    Oh dear, it’s on at lunchtime, so I’ll have to miss this one!

    No licence means not seeing any wokery! What’s not to like!

       17 likes

  16. Dickie says:

    For those who like dressing up as women:

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-travesty-of-the-trans-ads/

       13 likes

  17. Fedup2 says:

    Below is a piece in the telegraph by Simon McCoy . It’s a view I don’t agree with because anything which degrades the BBC is a good thing –

    STARTS
    Former BBC presenter Simon McCoy has suggested the corporation is failing licence fee payers over a lack of “British accents” in its news courage.

    The newsreader has raised concerns about the merger of the BBC News and BBC World News channels, which he claimed has created a channel skewed towards international rather than domestic stories, despite the British public paying for it.

    McCoy claimed that this “domestic news channel… with no British accents on it” presents a problem for licence fee payers.

    He said: “At a time when the BBC is under such pressure, when you’re talking about an institution which people in their hearts do care about, but see daily a lowering of standards, and then you’re watching a domestic news channel, and it is a domestic news channel overnight coming from Singapore from Washington – and I’ll be pilloried for this – but with no British accents on it.”

    Speaking on the Beeb Watch podcast, he added: “You’ve got BBC licence fee payers paying for that – I think there is going to be a problem with that.”

    The channel merger has already caused problems within the BBC, with job losses looming for presenters, and it has been suggested that audiences will also be affected.

    McCoy, who became a familiar face on BBC Breakfast and BBC News before leaving for a brief spell at GB News, has claimed that there are problems with trying to serve both an international and a domestic audience.

    He has suggested that rival broadcasters like Sky could use the diluted BBC domestic coverage as an impunity to poach the corporation’s UK audience.

    McCoy, who left the BBC in 2021, said: “Talk about merging the channels was live while I was there – for many, many years – and we all said at the time it can’t work because you cannot serve those two audiences.

    “I look at what we have now, it to me is BBC World, there is very little element of the old BBC News channel in it.

    “I watched Dominic Raab’s resignation the other day, and I don’t know how to put it politely – it wasn’t brilliant, it was uncomfortable, it looked a bit shambolic.

    “It was not the slick ‘let’s go straight to Westminster’, they were scrabbling around for people, they were interviewing people at home, correspondents.

    “I’m afraid I often switch over to see what oppositions are doing but these days I tend to stay with the opposition.

    “This is a moment where Sky, and to some extent GB News, can really grab this, this domestic news agenda.”

    As well as potentially reducing domestic output by catering to an internal audience on the same channel, regional courage may also be lost, McCoy has said.

    He claimed that cuts to the BBC’s TV and radio operations across the country presents a “massive issue” for audiences.

    McCoy announced in 2021 that he was leaving GB News for “personal reasons” and is not currently working with a UK broadcaster.ENDS

       14 likes

  18. Fedup2 says:

    Piece by Charles Moore on monachy and the bbc approach

    STARTS
    On Thursday, I attended a splendid and moving memorial service for Field Marshal Lord Bramall. Winchester Cathedral was full. Members of the Royal family and numerous military veterans were present. The Buglers of the Rifles played the Reveille.

    In the tributes, a Gurkha general reminded us of the great span of the career commemorated. “Dwin” Bramall, aged 20, had landed on Juno Beach on D Day in 1944 and fought through to the end of the war. He won the Military Cross. He ended up as head of the Armed Forces.

    In the family’s eulogy, his son Nicolas confronted one awful thing. In extreme old age, his father had been accused of child sexual abuse. The accusations, as with those made against others by the same man, were eventually proved to have been totally untrue.

    Luckily, his father lived long enough to be vindicated. His accuser is in prison. But, as Nicolas Bramall pointed out, it was horrible to be thus accused, and perhaps even more horrible that the accusations were instantly declared to be “credible and true” by the Metropolitan Police. When people in authority – several politicians behaved likewise – so readily believe evil of people with good reputation, they taint the public realm.

    Reflecting on this after the service, I think the fate of Lord Bramall (though he did, as I say, emerge without stain) was an extreme example of a strange tendency in our time to empower those who wish to destroy good things and people because they choose to see them as “privileged”.

    There is something about modern society and parts of the media which over-indulges such destroyers, accepting their self-valuation as being the only ones brave enough to tell the truth.

    You see it, for instance, in the deference shown by the police, judges and some media to Extinction Rebellion and its offshoots as these protesters are left free to block streets or public transport, deface works of art etc. Their “sincerity” about the important issue of climate change clouds the capacity of the authorities to see how these activists conspire against the convenience and values of the general public.

    You see it a bit in the run-up to the Coronation. There is an organisation which I won’t name, because it loves being publicly named as much as possible, which threatens to disrupt the Coronation procession next Saturday.

    Its website encourages people to sign up to come and do so. I heard this week that, because of intelligence that a mob may use rape alarms to frighten the horses, the Household Cavalry now have to train their mounts against this eventuality.

    Literally the only way such small, extreme groups gain any power is through using the media and social media. It is a challenge that we should think about quite carefully.

    Last week, I was telephoned by the BBC and asked if I would take part in the Today programme live debate “Do we need a monarchy?”. When I was told who the other four proposed panellists were, I actually laughed out loud.

    They were all respectable individuals, but I knew that none of them would defend the monarchy full-throatedly and some would entirely oppose it. I – a mere 20 per cent of the panel – would be the only spokesman for the position, held by the clear majority of the British people throughout my lifetime, that the monarchy is broadly a good thing and should stay.

    Because of this imbalance, I said, I would not join in. The panel did then change, however, fortified by the excellent Juliet Samuel, so I came on, although we remained outnumbered. The debate was well conducted by Mishal Hussain, with a courteous audience. Even so, I felt there was something wrong with the idea behind it.

    Is the Coronation the right moment for what is really a political debate? It is the most rare, solemn and religious ceremony of our constitution. Is it appropriate to fill the airwaves with talking heads (including, I hasten to agree, my own) arguing away?

    There are, of course, important controversies about the best way for a nation to appoint its head of state, but not right now. Atheists believe that Jesus Christ did not rise from the dead, but they do not usually get much of a platform at Easter. Pacifism has its advocates, but what would the public have thought if, as young Dwin Bramall and hundreds of thousands of others prepared to invade France in 1944, they had popped up daily on BBC radio? For everything there is a season.

    Much more egregious than the debate in which I took part was BBC Panorama’s effort on Monday. It asked whether the new King will change the monarchy.

    The irrefutable answer is “Yes”. All monarchs do and he is an exceptionally energetic one. But in fact the programme did not attempt to answer its own question.

    Although it followed the outer form of reporting both sides, its entire agenda was set by the monarchy’s critics – Does it cost too much? Is it racist? Won’t future generations reject it?

    No new information on these matters was offered. It was the programme’s choice of clips, music and the people selected to appear that made its points. All the King’s defenders were white, and most were old. His critics were black, female or young. The group that I am refusing to name was filmed and interviewed.

    It was also suggested that the King’s “other realms” will reject his kingship. If that is a criterion of monarchical failure, then the late Elizabeth II must be the least successful Sovereign in our history since, in her reign, she gave up the whole of British Africa, Pakistan, Ceylon (as it was then called) and many other nations.

    The evidence for racism was the well-aired claim of the Duchess of Sussex about her baby’s skin colour and another outing for Mandu Reid, the leader of the tiny Women’s Equality Party, who was present at the Buckingham Palace reception at which Lady Susan Hussey supposedly upset Ngozi Fulani. No one came on to put the (strong) case for Lady Susan. A Caribbean professor (knighted for his pains) said that the King’s expression of sorrow for slavery was “in fact offensive”.

    The programme’s one addition to the sum of knowledge was a new opinion poll which reported that support for the monarchy now stands at 58 per cent, whereas in 2013, after the late Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, it was 75 per cent. Support among the very young is also quite low.

    It seems worth pointing out that 58 per cent is well above the highest democratic vote (for Brexit in 2016) ever cast in British history. Politicians can only dream of such levels.

    As for the attitudes of the young, I remember, as a student in 1977, the widespread apathy before the Silver Jubilee of that year. Indeed, I won a college prize for an essay predicting the monarchy’s collapse. But the day of the Jubilee proved a great success and began the great run of royal popularity which lasted until the “annus horribilis” of 1992.

    Ten years ago this month, Lady Thatcher died. In some parts of the media, notably the BBC, people talked up hostile demonstrations (“The witch is dead!”). Came the funeral, and the streets of London were full of large, respectful crowds unintimidated by the stay-away publicity.

    Behind the strange, discordant noise of modern life, deeper notes are playing. I suspect they will be happy ones next week.ENDS

       30 likes

    • Robot says:

      Thank you for this. Very good; sane and measured. We need more of Moore.

      If only he had become the Director General of the BBC.

      On another note, reporters, and this is particularly noticeable in regional television, are often bone idle. Not doing the leg work to inform themselves and satisfied with coaxing emotional responses rather than probing. BBC London has atrocious bias. Just one example: night after night, they are looking for only negative angles to denigrate the Met. When interviewing Doreen Lawrence, she was allowed to say, unchallenged, that the Met. are as unreformed now as they were thirty years ago. The presenter looked very satisfied.

         22 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Robot
        I can imagine the BBC producer / editor of the so called ‘Today Debate ‘ sniggering as they chose someone to give their panel ‘balance ‘ – ie out of 5 – one supporter of the monarchy ( see also ) brexit – and then 4 plus ‘host ‘ plus bussed in audience to give him a kicking ….

        … and afterwards the BBC executive complaints department tells objectors to -as it were – ‘eff off ‘ your comments will be passed on to the rubbish bin ….. We Are The BBC we Know Best ….

           15 likes

  19. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1 – confession, I switched off even before 10minutes had elapsed

    But I switched back on for the 8.45 a.m. Newspaper Review which the TOADY team forgot to do – again!

       12 likes

  20. AsISeeIt says:

    Serves ’em right edition

    The pink posh people’s paper FT Weekend is top BBC pick for their online press review line-up this morning.

    The dogedly, some would say obesessively, anti-Brexit stance at the FT would be boon enough for BBC sensibilities – rarely does the B-word fail to appear somewhere on an FT frontpage and always in a negative light – no ifs, no buts… and decidedly no despites.

    The main thrust of the argument from the corporate markets paper is buyer’s regret. The FT campaigns to persuade us we’ve changed our minds. Opinion polling is the rule by which we will be ruled – or is it measured? : Tories fall out of favour in Britain’s capital of Brexit

    With rather snobbish reference to: Skegness… voted to ‘take back control’ of the country’s borders – and just as champagne socialist Lady Nugee (Emily Thornberry MP, Islington South and Finsbury) notoriously tweeted her photo of a working class house front with white van and St George’s football banner – as though she were on safari in some backward native territory, the preserve of cannibals and wildmen – so the FT presents a pic of a bit of gaudy garish roadside signage “Welcome to Funland Skeg Vegas Not in Nevada” – looking past its best, inevitably tawdy and dated in the cold light of day.

    US architectural photographer John Margolies specialised in the collection of transient roadside folk Americana – lovingly preserving for prosterity images of the brash neon signage, giant plastic hot dogs, nowheresville plaster dinosaur advertising totem truck stops, friendly red indian chief-emblazoned ice cream parlours, and massive coke bottle-shaped diners – all fast disappearing memories of the pre-corporate uniformity quirky individualism of enterprising native backwoods mom and pop shops. He worked obsessively and lovingly.

    Our Emily and our FT tend to sneer: Signs of disillusionment… four seafront hotels have been turned into lodgings for asylum seekers. A recent opinion poll found that Skegness and nearby Boston are the only UK places that still think Brexit was a good idea. – that’ll learn ’em

    At this point I’m inclined to comment: No opinion pollster asked me. However, there’s no doubt disillusionment is rife. Our working population’s morale is unarguably low: Binmen could switch to four-day week (Telegraph) – what, and still cope with all that extra elaborate planet-saving recycling?

    The same elite managerial class that’s presently so concerned about being bullied has meanwhile meted out a prolonged and comprehensive punishment beating over the last few years to us poor saps who hoped for better and dared to vote Brexit.

    That Skegness feature is merely teased on the frontpage of the FT our BBC (staffers) will enjoy the main headline: Sharp quits BBC over Johnson loan… Sunak pressed to end political appointments – one has to smile there and one can only wonder at the brass-necked hypocrisy when one considers the thousands of politically friendly appointments made under Mr Tony Blair which installed our present apparently permanent left-leaning legacy in just about every institution.

    The BBC blob might have picked their go-to Guardian for top press pick – but that’s too obvious: BBC chair quits as row over Tory sleaze grows – second place in the line-up will do just fine.

    And for sake of balance: BBC must act to silence Lineker (Daily Express) – number three spot in the BBC line-up.

       27 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      ASI
      But it’s a constant theme which will add to the death of blue labour – thousands of dinghy types being dropped on towns around the country without consultation or consent …. In a third world city like londonistan they don’t notice so much ( I do) – but other places – they are an instant threat = – Blue Labour MP loses seat … quite rightly and soon

      BTW – I read yesterday that the blue tories have realised they are to lose maybe 1000 council seats in the vote next week ….as a dry run for the general election …

         27 likes

  21. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    If the bbbc are looking for a new chairman I believe Mark Steyn is free at the moment.

       39 likes

  22. Thoughtful says:

    Here is a useful insight into what is going on in the US economy with upcoming debt ceiling and how the loons in political power are forcing the US into a no way out debt default of one kind or another, and what the implications of that are going to be.

    Either way it’s not pretty and at the end he does give some indication what you can do to protect yourself against what is coming.

       9 likes

  23. Dickie says:

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/tcw-readers-forum-123/

    Wonder if some of the readers are familiar with this site😄😄😄

       8 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Dickie,
      I have signed up to it and receive copies each day. Very good articles with an intention of defending freedom which, I assume includes freedom of speech. But here is the problem. To eliminate spammers and other forms of misconduct they employ a programme which selects certain words or combinations of words which means that certain comments are committed to pending purgatory. Frequently, as I have discovered, perfectly innocent comments are in effect censored.
      Advice. If you want to comment on the articles then post them somewhere else, like FB Twitter or here.

         10 likes

    • Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

      I have read some good articles in TCW but they are the exception rather than the rule. I find myself skipping most of them these days.
      They go on about Covid ad nauseum and there’s little variation.
      One recent article was different in that the author was outraged that somewhere it had been suggested that young people could be tested to see if they had mild forms of AHDD, Aspergers and others disorders along the same lines. Everybody who posted a reply whole heartedly agreed and thought the whole area was a complete fraud and the people diagnosed with such are just malingerers. I half expected to see someone write in and say that epilepsy was nonsense and epileptics should stop rolling about on the floor and being silly and get up and do some work.

      I acknowledge that certain people will inevitably claim they have such disorders to claim benefits. I also know that there is still much to be learned in this area and that effective treatment is a long way off. Having had experience with a number of people with these conditions I know damn well how an early diagnosis would help them, their families, and society as a whole.
      I didn’t respond to the article. or the comments because was too
      shocked. It was a shocking reminder that the caricature of idiotic right wing bigot does still actually have some basis in fact. TCW seems to me like a collection of ‘Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells and ‘Major Bloodnoks’.

      This is a far better site.

         4 likes

    • G says:

      A continuing, ‘top-up’ to all the rest of the legislation clandestinely introduced. My mind always conjures up the scene of Gulliver strapped to the ground with many cables. Also the ‘dicing and slicing’ laser passageway in Resident Evil.

      Boy, do the Governments fear the people and the power of their numbers. They are even naïve enough to think that if the SHTF the people would care about legislation as they string up the politicians to the gallows.

         12 likes

  24. Fedup2 says:

    BBC reporting on nuclear secrets left in a pub …. The MOD says if you want to see real secrets go onto the Mississippi national guard website used by the 22 year old idiot who put top secret stuff up to ‘impress his friends’….

    ..some times I really really wonder …..

       13 likes

    • Lefty Wright says:

      Fedup2
      NOTHING is quite as it seems. Question EVERYTHING. Including your own beliefs.

         5 likes

  25. Fedup2 says:

    Editorial from the DT about the BBC OK?

    STARTS
    Richard Sharp’s position as BBC chairman had arguably become untenable weeks ago. As became apparent during the row over Gary Lineker’s highly political, anti-government comments earlier in the year, controversy over Mr Sharp’s involvement in facilitating a loan to Boris Johnson had at best become a distraction. At worst, it had prevented him from doing his job, and some will say that he should have stepped down much sooner.

    In the event, his exit from the BBC was precipitated by the publication of a highly critical report by Adam Heppinstall KC. It found that he had “failed to disclose potential perceived conflicts of interest” to the panel of MPs who had scrutinised his appointment, a breach that Mr Sharp insisted was “inadvertent and not material”.

    The row over who should replace him, however, has already started. Mr Lineker, for his part, believes that the Government should have no say over the selection of the BBC chairman, an absurd position predictably shared by senior opposition MPs. The Corporation may not be a state-controlled broadcaster, but it is sustained by the licence fee, a tax enforced on pain of criminal punishment. It is surely right that those we elect to represent us should have some say over who is on the BBC board.

    This is particularly true given the tendency of bodies like the BBC to act in their own interests, rather than those of the public. Captured by groupthink, they stop interrogating their own assumptions, and gradually become distanced from the people who pay their salaries. Institution after institution has fallen prey to such a tendency, from the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee to quangos such as NHS England. Conservative governments have been poor at appointing people capable of counteracting such trends, too often favouring establishment insiders.

    This cannot be allowed to happen now with the role of BBC chairman. The next few years will be critical for the future of the broadcaster, which is increasingly precarious, in large part thanks to the emergence of internet streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. Millions have also grown disillusioned with the corporation. Many consider, with some justification, that it is failing in its duties to be impartial, disrespecting pro-Brexit and Conservative viewpoints. Others feel that it is neglecting older listeners and viewers in its desperation to appeal to the young.

    It has been suggested that the Government favours a woman to replace Mr Sharp as the next BBC chairman. But diversity of opinion at the corporation is surely just as important. The fate of the BBC may well hinge on who the Government chooses now.ENDS

    ( does it really matter who is chairman of the BBC?)

       19 likes

    • Lefty Wright says:

      Fedup2
      Chairman of the BBC? Now THAT is surely the perfect role for an anarchist. Bring it on!

         9 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Fed, “( does it really matter who is chairman of the BBC?)” – no, it is the D-G who holds real power or did back when there was a D-G with guts and nous.

         11 likes

  26. Dickie says:

    BBC news? 🤔 – gotcha😲

       7 likes

  27. Guest Who says:

    £5,000,000,000 per annum is a very expensive joke.

       10 likes

    • Docmarooned says:

      Certain to be OK for that lot. Heterosexuals will be making
      themselves scarce at this event.

         7 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Calls for’ the LGBTFO to create a rainbow mercy me flight for the behind the lines boys of Kviv war correspondent hotels for some well earned extra R&ahhhh?

           4 likes

  28. Guest Who says:

    Jez.

       4 likes

  29. taffman says:

    Stop the Boats!

       13 likes

  30. StewGreen says:

    The Independent has a long term obsession with claiming . that a temperature rise to 21C is soring
    and a heatwave
    Media distort words

    Today
    “UK #Weather: Mini-heatwave on Bank Holiday as temperatures to *soar* to 21C this weekend – The Independent
    (Title now stealth edited away
    article say the actual highest thermometer peak was 20.2

    May 2022

    Mar 23, 2022

    🚨 Hay fever warning as temperatures soar to 21C and pollen levels spike

       9 likes

    • Nibor says:

      What`s wrong with Ibiza and Crete if they are cooler than the UK ?

         13 likes

    • taffman says:

      “UK set to be hotter than Ibiza as temperatures soar to 21C…..”
      Operative word “set to be hotter”?
      We shall see?

         10 likes

    • Non Snowflake says:

      If a temperature has to “soar” to reach a fairly average 21C, then surely the temperature must have been quite low in the first place…….I bet the BBC won’t look into that of course.

         14 likes

      • Sluff says:

        Not mentioned and highly appropriate to reply to this particular post.

        Yesterday morning it was 2C and there was fresh lying snow on the A9 at Drumochter.

        Surely another sign of global warming. Errr….

           10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      A greater soar point surely is that the only place for Amol to go after Editing the Indy was… the BBC, uniquely funded by compulsion rather than propped up by potentates and oligarchs.

      21 is a comfortable spring day.

      Currently, here, it is 10. And tipping down. Set to climb to 15.

      Scorchio.

         6 likes

  31. tomo says:

       6 likes

  32. Nibor says:

    This is a bit late but ,
    Today programme this morning

    Bus firms are asking for higher fares to take people of Sudan to places of safety .
    IE what was the normal fare of $27.50 is now $6000 for example .
    To the BBC that would be wrong and greedy . It`s taking advantage .
    Let`s take another look .
    Sudan is now a war zone .
    Imagine if there was a war zone between Aberdeen and Stirling .
    The normal Megabus peacetime rate is £12.50 for one person . Megabus will have factored in all its standing costs and running costs to offer such a bargain fare . But in a war zone everything changes .
    For a start the bus might be hit by artillery or run over a mine . And as you all know , insurance doesn`t cover war zones . Not even for accidental damage or loss that is not the result of a war .
    So if the bus hits a mine and is a write off = no insurance to buy a replacement vehicle .
    If the bus runs down the side of a mountain due to driver error = no insurance to buy a replacement even though it was not strictly due to the war .
    Then war zones are lawless zones . Bandits can rob and there will not be a police force to investigate and recover losses .
    Then there will be What If the vehicle breaks down ? Can a recovery truck , mechanic or parts be speedily despatched to succour the vehicle ?
    Then there`s the route through the war zone , what roads and bridges are passable ? And are there extra charges to military or bandits to allow passage through ?
    And can you get fuel to start the journey , and just as important can you get fuel to do the return journey ? At what cost ?

    $6000 seems a reasonable sum for a ticket .

       10 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      War Zone Economics.

      You are a third world Trou de Poo entrepreneur seeing profits shipping the customer base to the U.K. dip getting them up the continent, across the Med, across Europe and then La Manche. Especially as the population at the destination is getting restive, pols and civ serves looking even more stupid and even the media pr teams are bored.

      What you need is a terrific new wheeze.

      So… start an internecine conflict between some of the scummier elements of local society, seed a woe is us story in the Western MSM about holidaying family members and… bingo… flights laid on!

      You know it makes sense. And money.

      The Lords of Media Whores.

         3 likes

  33. JohnC says:

    Guardian apologises over cartoon of BBC chairman Richard Sharp
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65438581

    2 hours old and already on the bottom row of the UK page. Other outlets had the story up 8 hours ago.

    Looks like it went up at 11pm and I bet it’s gone by breakfast time. I’ll keep an eye on it just to check if that’s their game again.

       20 likes

    • JohnC says:

      As predicted, the story has disappeared completely from the UK news front page some time before 8am.

         16 likes

  34. JohnC says:

    Coronation: Public asked to swear allegiance to King Charles
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65435426

    No BBC, it is:

    ‘Our hope is at that point, when the Archbishop invites people to join in, that people wherever they are, if they’re watching at home on their own, watching the telly, will say it out loud’

    ‘Ask’: request (someone) to do or give something.
    ‘Invite’: make a polite, formal, or friendly request to (someone) to go somewhere or to do something.

    Quite different in this context BBC.

    This is absolutely typical dirty BBC agenda trickery. They deliberately change the wording in a subtle way in order to make people leave with the impression they want.

    We can’t become a socialist state with a Royal Family.

       21 likes

  35. JohnC says:

    Gunman kills five, including child, at Texas home
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65437185

    Saw this almost by accident and wondered why it wasn’t a bigger headline at the BBC. Especially considering their agenda and recent news.

    Then I saw why : it was trumped by a bigger agenda. He’s not white.

    ‘The suspect, believed to be Mexican, has been named as Francisco Oropez, 38.’

       22 likes

  36. JohnC says:

    Eurovision 2023: Contest inspires Ukraine’s LGBT troops
    https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-65378373

    The author ‘Jack Lamport’ proudly announces his article on his twitter account:

    ‘My report on the gay Ukrainian soldiers who are looking forward to Eurovision.’

    In the overall scheme of the world as it is today – and especially the barbarity of the fighting these LGBT soldiers never went near while digging trenches and cooking, only the BBC can churn out utter woke dross like this and make it a front-page headline.

    All those other soldiers in Ukraine don’t matter one bit to the BBC. It’s like they don’t exist. They are only interested in anything which has BAME, gays, women or poor civilian victims who have nowhere to charge their phones. It’s beyond ridiculous.

       25 likes

  37. digg says:

    The Guardian “cartoonist” Rowson apparently made an error producing the highly offensive cartoon of Sharp and Boris with blatant anti Jewish overtones….and mumbles a weak apology….

    Wiki…..

    “In December 2019, along with 42 other leading cultural figures, Rowson signed a letter endorsing the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership in the 2019 general election. The letter stated that “Labour’s election manifesto under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership offers a transformative plan that prioritises the needs of people and the planet over private profit and the vested interests of a few.”

    I’d call that form as they say!

       24 likes

  38. JohnC says:

    Quit your Ofsted roles, Perry’s sister tells heads
    https://www.bbc.com/news/education-65435509

    ‘Ms Perry took her own life in January, weeks after an Ofsted inspection. The Ofsted report, published after her death, downgraded her school’s rating from Outstanding to Inadequate – going from the top to the bottom of the grading scale.

    “The injustice of that one-word judgement destroyed Ruth’s career, her world and her sense of self,” Prof Waters said.’

    Why is it that the Left – and especially the BBC – always have to protray individuals as victims so they can load the story with empathy ?.

    In my world, if a head teacher kills herself because her school got downgraded, it’s not the inspectors who need reform, it’s the system that put someone like her in that job in the first place.

    And why are all these type of stories at the BBC written by women ?. Do they still have any men working there or have all the women bosses got rid of them ?.
    Here’s the author:
    L_vjVvTm_400x400.jpg

       20 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      BAN ALBANIANS FROM PARKS ….

      On 22 March 2020, 7-year-old Emily Grace Jones[1] was stabbed at Queen’s Park in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England, while riding her scooter and died shortly afterwards.[2][3] Eltiona Skana, a 30-year-old Albanian woman unknown to the Jones family, was arrested on the scene and later charged with murder.[4][5]

         1 likes

  39. Charlie Farley says:

    As I longer watch or listen to any of the Biased BBC , any news about the Italian PM Meloni meeting with Rishi this week ? , watched Katie Hopkins on YouTube and it seems that this ” far far right ” PM has gained popularity and is a very capable Politician ……if only we had the same here !

       28 likes

  40. StewGreen says:

    BBC local NewsPR headlines
    “It’s Hedgehog Awareness Week
    they are dire peril”

    Rubbish there are loads of them
    but industrialising the countryside with solar and wind mines doesn’t help

       13 likes

    • Dickie says:

      We have up to 5 sometimes turning up at night. Costing me a small fortune to feed the little beggars.

         6 likes

  41. StewGreen says:

    Lines from hyperbolic Telegraph story about a 2015 BBC Springwatch dead badger, that only recently came to light.

    The mystery surrounding the badger’s death only came to light after a keen naturalist recently posted a message on social media asking whether the BBC would ever reveal what happened to Bernie.

    The BBC was at pains to point out that the collision took place on a public road, so any suggestion a vehicle used in connection with filming was involved was pure speculation

    In a statement, a spokesman said: “Sadly one of the badgers featured on Springwatch in 2015 was found dead on a public road at RSPB Minsmere, which we discussed on the programme at the time and reported as per licence requirements. No further details are known about the accident.”

       8 likes

  42. Sluff says:

    Not being able to post for several days so a bit off the pace and apologies if covered elsewhere.

    On BBC1 main news last night there was a long feature on……..wait for it……..gay Ukrainian soldiers looking forward to the Eurovision Song Contest!!!!!!

    We all know the BBC has its favoured minorities but even they must have had to work hard to dream up that one.

       25 likes

  43. Sluff says:

    Very late this one but I caught last week hints of news which suggested a. That the UK had managed to get its diplomats ( I.E. civil servants) out of Sudan in double quick time and that b. The UK was very slow in getting out its own citizens.

    Presumably this was all organised by the civil servants in the Foreign Office, though a single government minister will no doubt be blamed for failings.

    Is that by any chance the same Foreign Office whose civil servants successfully conspired to oust Dominic Raab?

       20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Maybe their chums in the NHS managed to sneak a few ‘holidaying doctors’ on too! Plus embedded BBC crews?

         10 likes

  44. AsISeeIt says:

    The sick and the tired edition

    According to one of those pithy quotes attributed to Mark Twain: “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes” – how about our daily headlines?

    Black Doc Down

    On the dash to the Sudan airbase, every turn was potential death (Sunday Times); Exclusive: Prince’s Dash Harry in a hurry. He plans 24hr Coronation visit (Sun on Sunday); Royal College of Nursing members in England will walk out for 28 hours from Sunday (BBC)

    I’m A Celeb Exclusive Don’t touch my wife Janice hubby’s Dean ruck (Sun); Exclusive Jungle Gill’s girls: Leave mum alone! (Sunday Mirror)

    Nope, I don’t know those celebs either and I only suggested the headlines might rhyme… I never claimed they scanned.

    When our BBC presents photos of a picket line it’s always a guilty pleasure of mine reading those hand-written placard slogans.

    This morning care of the beanie hat wearing pickets we have:

    “Who takes their “Heroes” to court? Shame on you!”

    “Patients are sick We are tired”

    The theme seems to be that having elevated themselves – via that not specifically mentioned but heavily implied Lockdown thing – to the status of national paragons, champions of our healthcare, hallowed irreproachable figures of whom we are now barely worthy – it is self-evidently apparent that government – via tax payers or further deficit spending and borrowing – should pay up because it’s all getting rather tiresome that we don’t.

    We take it that the nurses’ suggested weariness is related to waiting for their payrise – it’s a bummer being stuck in a queue for service, or on a long wait list, eh? This is of course impatience rather than physical lack of sleep – otherwise the nurses would be after more holidays – perhaps for parity with all those doctors recently in the news returning from their long-haul Eid breaks to Sudan? Do we suppose they’ll get full refunds on their unused return airline tickets?

    Several press titles have Coronation-related stories. The Mail on Sunday offers a: Free Giant Glossy Kings and Queens poster – that’s the sort of thing we used to have as kids in school back when we celebrated British history in schools.

    As excitement rises for the big day and the sun shines we can of course rely on the Mirror to pour cold water on the event: £150m on security hikes up Coronation bill – we won’t ask what lefty-approved events such as the sexual allsorts and Ukraine-themed Eurovision is costing us?

    For the Observer it is: Red Roses’ Day… Women’s Six Nations trophy… in front of a 58,498 crowd, a world record for women’s rugby – always the insistance on the size of the crowd – we won’t delve too deeply into how many tickets were full price equivalent to the men’s game or were given free and gratis to parties of school kids.

    I don’t know what’s more scary-looking for us blokes – a beefy women’s rubgy line out or those picket lines of militant tired yet heroic nurses?

    And it is a paradigm of miss-placed conservative efforts to appease the left that no matter how much diversity, no matter how much multi-faithiness, no matter how much naff celebrity inclusion… you just won’t ever win them over, Chas.

    The coronation Rituals that people no longer believe in can easily come to seem problematic as well as ridiculous Tom Holland (Observer) – Mr AsI may just find the Coronation tiresome – but like everything about Britain – it makes the lefties sick.

       13 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Were all the placards held by Corbyn clones?

      I ask as it does not seem possible the bearded weirdo is standing in solidarity with every red flagged bunch countrywide simultaneously.

      Seems a very expensive wooden pole holder.

         7 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      The Sunday Telegraph is anxious to inform me that the romance between Charles and Camilla is the greatest love story of our time. I am puzzled by that. If Camilla loved Prince Charles so much why did she not wait for Prince Charles to complete his assignment in Australia and why did she marry Tom Parker-Bowles?

         3 likes

  45. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    Wouldn’t it be funny if some of these just stop oil or a similar bunch were to get in front of the car/carriage containing Charlie and his Missus on his coronation do and walked very very slowly in front of them as it is apparently legal to do so.

    If Charlie got out and asked them to “move along” would Plod do the same as they do to us mere mortals and threaten Charlie if he dares to move these protestors.

       15 likes