281 Responses to Weekend 10 June 2023

  1. Thoughtful says:

    Please watch this docu drama if you are a Christian it’s scarey but a great watch far better than a BBC one:

    It’s one hour 30 minutes long but well worth sitting through with very professional production values.

       12 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Thoughtful – as always – thank you ….probably better to view this than listen to a weekend of the Westminster Bubble ….

         14 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Just wondering if anyone has watched this and what they think about it ?

         2 likes

  2. StewGreen says:

    Boris : The problem with liars, which he is
    is that no one believes you when you are telling the truth
    .. It is entirely possible Boris never attended any proper Covid-time parties
    He was in hospital with Covid and then recuperating for quite some time.

    So he feels agrieved if the Harman led committee is trying to fit him up.

       20 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Stew, pretty much the same for Donald Trump in the USA – the world currently hates Conservatives. Israel, India, Brazil, Italy, Hungary, Poland ….

         23 likes

      • Ian Rushlow says:

        Not so much that the World currently hates conservatives. More the case that the World Economic Forum (and its lackeys) hate conservatives…

           16 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          IR, mebbe, mebbe. “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.” (Matt 5v6 KJV).

          I’m getting mighty hungry.

             4 likes

    • atlas_shrugged says:

      I find it troubling that someone who was affiliated to PIE sits in judgement over someone who had a party.

      Starmer should resign too IMHO.

         28 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Atlas – sadly people forget . I remember the NCCL – her and Patricia Hewitt as apologists for those men who wanted to rape children – yet now she is a ‘grandee’….

           22 likes

  3. G.W.F. says:

    Boris resigns as MP. Together with Nadine? A couple of bad by elections will see the end of Rashid

       23 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      G.W.F., you cannot resign as an MP! It is impossible, especially when the House is not sitting. As I explained on the previous Thread, Boris will have to wait until Monday. Then he will have to beg leave of the Speaker or Deputy Speaker to be appointed to the Chiltern Hundreds.

      I wonder if the BBC will get it wrong as well?

         17 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Up2snuff
        Yes, you are correct. That is what I was taught at school But it amounts to the same thing. Boris, like Nadine, are quitting, just going through the motions that are required by our constitution

           20 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          G.W.F., Boris is so chaotic under his dishevelled hair that he cannot even get his resignation right! I hope he has spoken to his Constituency Party Chairman first. There is a protocol to be followed.

             6 likes

  4. Fedup2 says:

    GWF
    Rashid and co are toast anyway ….. but it seems the red labour lot cannot help themselves by opening their mouths – thornbury is leading the charge ….

       20 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      I do rather like the nick name Rishi Washee seems to sum him up perfectly.

         18 likes

    • G says:

      As the next General Election looms, my decision to ‘spoil my ballot’ seems to me to increasingly be the right move: if there is no one on the ballot paper who you have any confidence in, why vote? At least the ‘spoilt ballots’ have to be counted and announced as such.

      Just imagine if, (a massive ‘if’), 50% or so of the population spoilt their ballot, no candidate or party then elected would have any credibility whatsoever. Right now, that is the situation. Things are unlikely to change within the next 18 months or so.

         16 likes

  5. Thoughtful says:

    This story dropped from the Washington Post this afternoon, regarded as a mouthpiece for the CIA and probably because they either think it has no impact or its impact is useful in some way.

    I don’t think anyone is under any illusion just how bad the Biden (mal)administration is, to me it’s like watching a mafia boss and his mob get hold of the levers of power and use them to enrich themselves by criminal means regardless of the consequences but this one is quite staggering:

    “Last fall, President Biden vowed to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for its decision to slash oil production amid high energy prices and fast-approaching elections in the United States.

    In public, the Saudi government defended its actions politely via diplomatic statements. But in private, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threatened to fundamentally alter the decades-old U.S.-Saudi relationship and impose significant economic costs on the United States if it retaliated against the oil cuts, according to a classified document obtained by The Washington Post.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2023/06/08/saudi-arabia-cut-oil-production/

    The US has been allied with Saudi since the 1920s and it’s taken Biden less than 2 years to completely screw up that relationship to the point of hostility and threats of retaliation to damage the US economy.

    The problem is that this would affect us in Europe (as if Biden attacking Nordstream isn’t bad enough) and completely destroy our economies too.
    Worse is to see Rishi Washee and his band of muppets fawning over Biden clearly despising Trump.

    If Biden is allowed another 2 years he can only do more damage and unfortunately much of that damage is going to be impossible to undo.

    The US has been destroyed, in some measure by its media and poor education system I don’t believe it will ever recover, worse it might well take us down with it. $100 trillion debt by the end of the decade is now being touted.

       23 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Thoughtful
      If my assumption that the next US election has been fixed by Obama to return Biden then rashid has no choice but to suck up to the democrats … will Rachel Reeves ‘ visit to the land of fixed elections be followed by Starmer in the Summer ? Seems likely …. As he looks even more likely to be PM …. The dems will want a re unified Ireland and the process of the UK to rejoin the Reich EU ….

         18 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

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      British Labour Party and Saudi Arabia to slash oil production to save the Planet. Loony left-wing Tories ban coal and fracking to save the planet after Michael Gove consults a brainwashed young girl, posing as the world’s top climate science advisor.

      71+1LP5gxnL._AC_UF894,500_QL80_.jpg

         24 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    Comments, such as they are, could be better.

    How long before Toenails is on the Classic FM midnight shift?

       24 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      “The legacy news has been partisan for years.
      He just doesn’t like the idea that there’s NOW a choice.”

         28 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Anyone would think Nick Robinson had a personal grudge against the award nominated broadcaster Nigel Farage of GBnews
      (shortlisted for Best News Presenter at the TRIC Awards
      (The 5 name short list includes Sussana Reid and Piers Morgan vs 3 GBnews presenters
      GBnews won in 2022)

         30 likes

      • JohnC says:

        Quite a few of us here tried to vote for Nigel in that poll and it gave an error when you tried to submit it.

        Then when you changed the selection of Nigel to something else, it accepted it first time.

        No chance that was coincidence : they are rigging the vote.

           26 likes

        • Deborah says:

          I did manage to vote for Nigel and had I noticed the other GBNews options I would have voted for them too. And if Mark Steyn had been on the list…… GBNews is far from perfect but streets ahead of the BBC and they don’t get my license fee.

             13 likes

          • JohnC says:

            I’m sure they won’t block all votes : that would be far too obvious.

            They will have it organised so it’s squeaky clean according to the votes cast.

               5 likes

    • BigBrotherCorporation says:

      Prick Knobinson is technically correct (“the best kind of correct” according to smug pedants like Prick), but he doesn’t seem to be aware that he and the BBC are the most ‘partisan’ news ‘curators’ in the UK.

      It might be a blessing we usually aren’t aware of our own faults, but a tiny smidgen of self awareness wouldn’t go amiss for this arrogant Prick.

         27 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      article-1322547-0BB55871000005DC-436_634x343.jpg

         2 likes

  7. StewGreen says:

    BBCnews has a chronic problem in that its stories are so often Lalaland rather than BASED in the real world
    Here “Emma Simpson @BBCEmmaSimpson
    I’m one of the BBC’s Business Correspondents ”

    Thinks it’s entirely normal to tweet a huge price comparison article based on Circana data which gives prices that are 40% to 300% more that those you can actually get in the supermarket
    eg large Ketchup is available for 60p basic in Asda
    The BBC chart says UK ketchup price is £1.92
    Most stuff the BBC price at £1.90 etc, can be bought at the Poundshop ..eg toothpaste

    but strange not mention alcohol can be very cheap in many European supermarkets ?

       20 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Emma seems a new breed.

         9 likes

    • Ian Rushlow says:

      A BBC spokesperson replies:
      The article on supermarket pricing was carefully researched. Our reporter spoke with no less than four colleagues in the staff room; as all shop in Waitrose, we used their prices, on the basis that everyone else in the country must also be shopping there.

         23 likes

    • Banania says:

      “Data suggests”: “suggests” is a classic BBC word, saying something without appearing to say it. Cf. ‘English prices “could” be higher’.

         1 likes

  8. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

    So, two pending by-elections due to two MPs who both indicated they would be taking the BBC down a notch or six but both did little or nothing.
    However, good riddance to in both cases, but it’s a chance for the Conservative Party to stun the country by standing two pro-Brexit pro-British candidates espousing solid conservative principles!
    Er…Okay, its a ‘fat’ chance, but,..you know…

    This certainly is a chance for the Reform Party to make some significant gains. All it needs is for an energetic campaign push by the party in both seats, Uxbridge and South Ruislip and Mid Bedfordshire, to secure a result that proves they will be a serious contender in the coming general election!
    Will they do this? I hope so.
    I would like to think that, even as I type, the Uxbridge branch of the Reform Party, and the Mid Beds branch are planning and organising late into the night.
    Sadly, I don’t think there is a branch in either of those places outside of my imagination. I am more than willing to be proved wrong and that this post brings forth much criticism pointing out how wrong I am.
    While I sincerely do urge people to vote Reform, I do not have a lot of faith in them. They seem to me to be set up as an elitist outfit which is repelled at the thought of mass membership. They want your votes but not your input. While I like listening to Tice, Farage, Oakeshott etc it has to be realised that it’s going to take more than that for a sustained campaign against the malign forces that are destroying Britain and its culture.
    Reform keeping going on and on about how they will be standing a full ticket at the next GE.
    Well, whoopy doo, the Monster looney party managed that for several years.
    Reform are going to have to ‘up their game’.

       34 likes

  9. RightSide says:

    It is so funny. LOL. Personally, I don’t care about the trannies or the self-mutilation they do to themselves, in fact I think it’s hilarious. I have seen the operation videos and my god. the women have a 7 inch chunk of flesh taken from their arm or leg to construct the fake penis. It is beyond belief. The men who have the reverse basically have an open wound and have to treat it daily to prevent maggots.

    Sorry if that is too graphic, but it is the truth.

       31 likes

  10. Guest Who says:

    The political media world is not like any other.

    And then, the bbc…

       26 likes

  11. Guest Who says:

    There will come a time when abusing the power of holding power to account will result in something more substantial than discomfort.

       24 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Pisses in his gold toilet still! HA HA HA HA!

      …………….

      Twitter prevented users posting links to a story containing allegations against the US presidential hopeful’s son Hunter Biden, because it contained “hacked materials”.

         2 likes

  12. brexiteerkent says:

    Oh very funny BBC news ..

    ” pictures from Donald Trump’s golf course appeared to show him playing around”

    Deliberately said that way instead of ” playing a round”

    Gee BBC you are so funny.

       30 likes

  13. Fedup2 says:

    Today watch

    They just couldn’t wait to plunge the Far Left knife in – C word Robinson got slid in the ‘present ‘ the show with meesh – both eager to get kicking the political corpse of Boris Johnson ….

    …. Robinson was in his happy place – first up for the hate love in was one Christopher Bryant – a member of the ‘privileges committee’ already so biased that he was forced to ‘recuse’ himself from the star chamber – with that role model of objectivity Harriot Harmon running the gig …..

    Robinson had to run a bit of Any Questions announcing the death of nut nut complete with a bunch of Welsh far lefties in the bussed in audiences whooping and clapping in response .

    I didn’t want to listen to ‘today ‘ because I knew it would be revolting … and it sell seems to be .

    Chris Bryant and C word Robinson were pleasuring each other in their approach – Bryant accused Johnson of narcissism- which is more than rich coming from him .

    I guess – like the horror Alistair Campbell last night – Bryant will enjoy centre stage on the rounds of broadcasters today – slinging as much hate and dirt that he can .

    Don’t get me wrong – I have no time for Johnson – but a huge number of British voters voted for him – it’s his fault he let them down so much ….

       31 likes

  14. Fedup2 says:

    Today 2

    Robinson says he has been trying to get any Johnson supporting Mp onto his show but none will . Can anyone think of a reason why no one wants to be interrupted and bullied by a Far Left Bias C word like Robinson ? I can …..

    On the upside to this neither the green crap sharmer MP or Dorries got a peerage from Johnson .

    As I write another husk of a Tory politician – Norman fowler – has been exhumed … I won’t be surprised if heseltine and other remainers turn up to use the bloody knife …

       27 likes

  15. tomo says:

    No different from Mizzy?

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Dale is very rich.

      But then, so is Gary Lineker.

         10 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        In China, it is no secret that chatroom conversations on social media platforms like WeChat or QQ are monitored and sometimes censored. But the consequences of posting “sensitive” content or opinions online are not as well known. Even for savvy internet users, it is hard to believe that such posts can sometimes land a person in prison.

        In 2017, at least three Chinese netizens were arrested and jailed for making politically sensitive jokes in a chat room.

        ‘Xi the Bun’
        Wang Jiang Feng, a netizen from Shangdong was sentenced to 22 months in jail in April 2017 after being convicted of “picking quarrels and provoking trouble” when he jokingly referred to Chinese President Xi Jinping as Xi Baozi or “Xi the Steamed Bun” and then called him a “Maoist thug”. The maximum penalty for this crime is five years in prison.

        https://advox.globalvoices.org/2017/12/27/dont-call-xi-the-bun-chinese-netizens-are-being-jailed-for-chatroom-jokes/

           2 likes

  16. AsISeeIt says:

    Kafkaesque edition

    Just yesterday one noted the left-leaning media’s post-covid penchant for seeking out some supposed hero – whatever the occasion.

    Tina Turner wouldn’t agree: “We don’t need another hero”

    One might say that yesterday’s sad story from France actually shows what we need are stringent border controls on who we let in… I digress… but our media doesn’t digress from their pro-migrant narratives.

    Yesterday the hero-complex Daily Mirror went with: Horrifying moment hero woman leaps in front of France knifeman to protect playground kids

    It’s something of a habit with the Labour-supporting tabloid: Hero teen drowns trying to save his brother, 13, from chasing after football in river (Daily Mirror)

    New day, new hero: France knife attack: ‘Backpack hero’ praised for facing attacker… French media have lauded a young “hero with a backpack” for his attempts to thwart a knife attack in Annecy which left four children seriously injured. (BBC);

    France stabbings: Hero speaks out after chasing knifeman and throwing his bag at him… The philosophy graduate, who is on a pilgrimage of cathedrals in France, has taken to social media to send his thoughts and prayers to the families of the young victims (Daily Mirror) – some might say our media are desperate to move the story on… move it quickly on anywhere – so as not to have to focus on the perpetrator.

    Moving – inevitably – on to the big Boris Johnson story…

    The Sun has it about right – picking Bojo’s key quote: “a witch-hunt under way, to take revenge for Brexit”

    Britain takes another step toward banana republic status as we follow the US descent into the habit of lawfare against political rivals: Ex-president Donald Trump faces 37 criminal charges as a result of an FBI raid on his Florida home (Times)

    One wonders which of us might survive unscathed such a sinister shakedown these days… credit card receipt from the cash-less pub incriminatingly dated the same afternoon we phoned the office claiming to be WFH due to possible covid… incorrect sorting of the wrong types of plastics in our colour-coded recycle bins… that seriously over-due unreturned library book…?

    Boris quits! ‘Kangaroo Court forces me out’ – runs the Daily Express headline.

    Boris has his way with words but Mr AsI is inclined toward something less cheerful than the term Kangaroo to refer to the regime’s new tools of control beginning with the letter K…

    Kafkaesque

    Kafka’s work is characterized by nightmarish settings in which characters are crushed by nonsensical, blind authority. Thus, the word Kafkaesque is often applied to bizarre and impersonal administrative situations where the individual feels powerless to understand or control what is happening. (Thank you, Merriam-Webster Dictionary)

    Merriam-Webster, you may recall redefined the word vaccine in 2021 – which in itself was rather… Kafkaesque, don’t you think?

    ‘Vaccine’ Is Merriam-Webster’s Word Of The Year 2021, Here’s How They Updated Their Definition (Forbes – for redefined read updated)

       27 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Today 3

      The bbc using the same knife to stab president trump and the latest political trial . To show they are not biased they get a Republican on – who used to work for President Trump .

      But guess what ? He now works for a political adversary Calle Ron di Santis – really gonna get a fair piece there huh ?

         24 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      If they are up to the ‘Vs’, how long until ‘Verify’ gets a special place?

         4 likes

    • Banania says:

      Who are Merriam-Webster to change the meaning of words?

         0 likes

  17. Guest Who says:

    Kind Alistair being helpful in an Andrew Marr way?

    Meanwhile, Bacon Baps delivered via the W1A side door still to avoid security.

       11 likes

  18. Guest Who says:

    WH raking in the audience, as ever.

       4 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Ahh the new ‘Send more weapons to stop the war’ narrative which has replaced ‘jaw jaw not war war’.

      Perhaps she should be campaigning for some kind of negotiations with the USA and NATO included to stop it. But of course she would be ignored by the BBC at this time.

      When the public in the USA start objecting to the huge amount of money being spent for a country they never heard of and they realise it’s going to go on for years with the only result being the total destruction of Ukraine, watch how the entire BBC narrative shifts.

         13 likes

  19. Fedup2 says:

    Today again .

    Comrade Robinson – for the 3rd time – crows that no blue labour MP will soil themselves by going on the BBC to be abused by him …….
    It’s about time the BBC was ignored by the ‘unapproved ‘….

    They had the scum deputy leader airhead of the red Labour Party on – I zoned out …

       18 likes

  20. JohnC says:

    Ukraine’s counter-offensive against Russia under way
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65860294

    Here you have it : direct from the BBC.

    Russia will be removed from Ukraine (including the Crimea) in months:

    What will success look like?

    If Ukrainian forces can punch through Russian lines, all the way to the Sea of Azov, then any Russian troops west of that breach will suddenly be much more vulnerable, dependent entirely on supply lines through the Crimean Peninsula.

    All that would then remain, Mr Kuzan says, would be to destroy the Kerch Bridge linking Russia with Crimea (briefly disabled by a huge truck bomb last October) and attack ships and planes being used to ferry supplies to the peninsula.

    “That would be the end,” he says. “But don’t expect this to happen soon. It’ll take months.”

    Which I find a little confusing because everywhere else outside the control of the Western media is telling me the Ukranians are being decimated.

    Where’s ‘BBC Verify’ when it’s needed ?. This is lies and disinformation gone crazy.

       14 likes

  21. dafydd says:

    Although I’m no fan of Boris I have to say the bloke has been well and truly stitched up….and they call this country a democracy (my arse)

    I’m sat here writing this and as of yet not one Boris supporter has been interviewed on the BBC….

    The BBC as usual have brought out the usual Tory and Boris haters..

    The BBC and the establishment have won the day…

    I think it’s time I emigrated….

       39 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I’m waiting to see what the response to this is. Boris has finally said what everybody knows and the whole thing has been nothing less than a Left-wing coup – with the prize coming in the next election.

      The BBC have been right at the front of it all and they have not been questioned or reprimanded in any way for their ridiculous daily-headline onslaughts against Brexiteers. They are now almost all gone.

      If nothing happens as a result of this, it’s a green light for the BBC to crank it up another notch. I am stunned by it all. I expect this kind of thing in corrupt third-world countries, not here.

      It’s all part of a movement towards a leftist fascist states where anyone they don’t like gets silenced. They have been getting more and more bold ever since Brexit and Trump. Looking back on everything they have done since then, I am now certain the USA election was rigged.

         37 likes

      • taffman says:

        JohnC
        “They are now almost all gone.”
        Didn’t some go to The Reform Party ? Perhaps some Tory MP’s will join them?

           12 likes

        • JohnC says:

          The trouble for Reform is that they need a big boost in credibility for people to think they could handle government.

          It would help them a lot of Boris went there – but Boris only cares about Boris and he will certainly try to worm his way back into the Conservative top brass after a few years.

             10 likes

          • taffman says:

            Reform , the biggest party in the EU Parliament , and the people who voted for them. Where have they all gone ?

            The Meeja blank them out.

               16 likes

      • moggie63 says:

        “I expect this kind of thing in corrupt third-world countries, not here.” Are you saying that you think this country isn’t?

           7 likes

        • JohnC says:

          lol – no, but I thought we had the really blatant political persecution stuff under control.

          All of this is absolutely outrageous – but the most outrageous thing of all is how it is allowed to happen without a great big stink.

          And it’s even worse in the USA. I’ve never seen anyone in the mainstream media question what they are doing to Trump to keep him from being elected. It’s beyond ridiculous.

          The Left are the new Nazis. They will never stop unless somebody else stops them.

             17 likes

      • BigBrotherCorporation says:

        The strikes (and more strikes) over the last year have certainly been ‘encouraged’ by some who see them as a tool to topple the govt. Don’t be fooled by this ‘cost of living’ stuff, those striking are mostly not from badly paid professions (junior doctors?!), but they are from left wing ones, and are virtually all politically motivated.

        I’m not so sure Labour will win the next election anymore, there have been some really stupid foot in mouth moments recently, and a lot of people are not so sure they wouldn’t be a complete disaster in power (the main reason for the 2019 landslide was Mad Dog Corbyn) – it comes to something when anyone is even less credible and incompetent looking than our current idiots, I have to admit, but that’s what I’m hearing and seeing!

        Taffman is right, we need to hear more from Reform, or, I think I’m just going to spoil my ballot too, but am not convinced enough won’t be scared into voting Red Tory all the same.

           2 likes

    • Dickie says:

      Think that Boris’s gob should have been stitched up. He’s a WEF puppet. Sure Klaus Schwab will find him another job.

         1 likes

  22. taffman says:

    Loch Ness water levels falling ?
    I thought that it was connected to the sea. But aren’t sea levels supposed to rising ? Please correct me if I am wrong , anyone?

       17 likes

  23. Fedup2 says:

    Today
    Guess who Robinson would talk to about ‘Englishness’? Yes – comrade billy bragg …..

       21 likes

  24. taffman says:

    Anyone heard about Sunak’s immigration amnesty for 50K illegals while we are being invaded and have no houses ? Something tells me the Tories are finished.

       24 likes

  25. Guest Who says:

    BBC still keen on an HQ in Brussels?

       15 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Guy is sounding a lot like Hitler.

      The Nazis are on the rise again.

         14 likes

      • G says:

        I haven’t heard, “Seig Heil mien Fuhrher” uttered ………yet………..

        In Germany, to use such language, is a criminal offence i.e. ‘lock-up’ time. Is it the same in Verhofstadtland?

        I sincerely hope so.

           9 likes

      • tomo says:

        Guy is a nasty piece of work and no mistake … he has a PR team too that police his presence on the interwebs (where they can)

        I got banned from YouTube for uploading that viral video of him speechifying – cutting between him and Adolf

           11 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Democracy … 69028_image_0-8d615a91a6f334a34e62accb4815949d.jpg

         2 likes

  26. JohnC says:

    Former Malaysian PM: “Muslims have a right to be angry and kill millions of French people”
    https://greekcitytimes.com/2020/10/30/malaysian-french-millions/

    This is how a very large percentage of the tens of thousands of illegal immigrants coming here every year really feel about us.

       21 likes

  27. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    If the bbbc really was impartial they would have no trouble getting a blue Tory on with Robinson but as it is, no real Tory would appear because they know how far left the bbbc is and any interview would be anything but impartial.

    Latest in America is that Trump is being taken to Court because he was seen walking on the cracks of a pavement.

    Is Suella the last Brexiteer in the cabinet?

       24 likes

  28. atlas_shrugged says:

    The Telegraph reports today:

    It turns out that the Chief Rat at the Countering Disinformation Unit (CDU)was one Mzzzzzzzz Sarah Connolly.

    Its job was to snitch on posts questioning the Plandemic lies and get the social media companies to take down the posts or otherwise stop others seeing these views.

    As a minimum this witchfinder should be sacked, have her bank account frozen, be banned from supermarkets, doctors, hospitals, and from travel.

    In a bit of comedy the BBC rejected its characterisation of the covid coverage and said it featured a range of voices.

       14 likes

  29. G says:

    Even at my advanced age, I am happy to confess that I’ve always been blessed with the ability to sense even subtle changes in peoples demeanour and various ‘changes’ broadly. I am intrinsically a ‘people watcher’.

    No different this current avalanch of changes to my PC / Mobile made through so-called, “Updates”. There was a time when the item asked you whether you wanted the update or not. Now, they arrive and to stop them is a technical nightmare. I also see Google pushing, pushing pushing to take over and apply their processing of emails. Every visit to a website needs the visitor’s consent to, at the least, the “Essential Cookies”. Admittedly you can delete such rubbish at close down but how many do, indeed, even bother to close down.

    The net is tightening by the hour.

       18 likes

  30. tomo says:

    I feel Mr. Bongino is onto something

       17 likes

  31. digg says:

    A newly appointed professor of LGBT history at a uni has had a go at the Conservative government for appointing a minister of free speech neatly underlining exactly why this is necessary…

    Nothing to hide, nothing to worry about I say!

    https://www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jun/10/government-fanning-culture-war-over-free-speech-says-uks-first-lgbtq-history-professor

       6 likes

  32. tomo says:

       10 likes

  33. tomo says:

       9 likes

  34. tomo says:

    EPISODE 2

       8 likes

  35. tomo says:

    Trump Indictment

       2 likes

    • G says:

      Mmmmm. Putin does this to his rivals, difference being the West is slipping down the slippery slope to meet Putin.

         5 likes

  36. JohnC says:

    Annecy stabbings suspect held over attempted murders
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65866514

    ‘A man suspected of stabbing four young children in a playground in the French resort of Annecy is being held on attempted murder charges, French prosecutors say.

    It comes after a knifeman attacked the children – aged between one and three – in a park in the Alpine region on Thursday.’

    What kind of nonsense is this from the BBC ?. We all saw the man with the knife – there is no doubt he did it.

    But the BBC write this like it’s not certain. It’s not news at all.

    So why have they done it ?. Anything which seems odd from the BBC always has a devious motive behind it. Things like this are usually used as a distraction.

    I was also trying to research what is going on in Ukraine and I am absolutely amazed at how tightly the internet is being controlled now by Google/youtube etc.

    It seems that at least one Leopard 2 tank has been destroyed and there are videos which show it. However try as I might I can find no link to them. I could only get one for the counter-offensive of a Ukraine column which was being destroyed on a road. All the rest are the ridiculous pro-Ukraine propaganda videos which are heavily editted and have loud victorious music playing.

    In the real world, the destruction of these tanks would be headline news at the BBC. But we aren’t allowed to live in the real world now. The worst part is that the vast majority of the population don’t even realise.

       23 likes

  37. tomo says:

    The Guardian’s top UK news today …

    girding themselves for the silly season

    Noname.jpg

    and to think they sneer at the The Daily Star

       11 likes

  38. Dickie says:

    Now you know why all those military age “refugees” are coming across the channel🤔🤔🤔

       2 likes

    • G says:

      No, its to restrain Whitey when he’s had enough of these w*n*ers who run this country.

      Anyway, black slavery, round two………………

         7 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Jobs giant Adzuna stung by Russian hoax ad for mercenaries to fight for Ukraine. Adzuna, a UK-based global recruitment website, claims it has fallen victim to a “Russian war misinformation hit-job” after it featured an advertisement for mercenaries to help in the expected Ukrainian offensive.7 days ago

         3 likes

      • Eddy Booth says:

        Government will stil add them to the alleged total of 700k vacancies..to berate the unemployed

           4 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Cannon fodder?

         1 likes

  39. Guest Who says:

    BBC never takes chances.

    If they are prepared to rig the name of a kid show cat….

       8 likes

  40. Guest Who says:

    TNI partner usually gets cute and poses a question, but using ‘economists’ as cover can be used.

       8 likes

  41. Dickie says:

    The FBI – motto “Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity”😂😂😂😂

    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/06/time_to_abolish_the_fbi.html

       7 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    Maybe Dale and Botney and Camilla could run the BBC if ever they do have to respond to an FOI?

       11 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    For a supposed professional communicator, Toenails sure comes across as a prissy, entitled propaganda dinosaur.

       9 likes

  44. Fedup2 says:

    Guest Who – I’m sure comrade Robinson operates in that closed circuit swamp and considers himself more important than elected politicians . Ok – I don’t have regard for 99% of politicians – but even less for the likes of Robinson ….

       16 likes

  45. Fedup2 says:

    A long piece from the DT on the role of the BBC in pumping out State Propaganda when required –

    STARTS The BBC is so proud of the fact that it once employed George Orwell that a statue of him stands outside its Broadcasting House headquarters to inspire its staff on their way into work.

    Carved on the wall behind him is his observation that: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

    Some of those staff have come to ponder what the author of Nineteen Eighty-Four would have made of the BBC’s reporting of the Covid pandemic, and its participation in the Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum, a body set up by the Government to kill off what it deemed to be fake news.

    Its very name could have fallen from the pages of Orwell’s greatest novel, and the irony is not lost on BBC journalists who were effectively accused of thoughtcrime if they dared to suggest open debates on the Government’s lockdown strategy.

    There is growing evidence that during the pandemic the BBC morphed from a national broadcaster founded on impartiality into a state broadcaster that stifled voices challenging the authoritarian response to Covid.

    The Telegraph has spoken to current and former BBC journalists who described a “climate of fear” existing in the corporation during the pandemic, with experienced reporters “openly mocked” if they questioned the wisdom of lockdowns, or called “dissenters”.

    Some complained to senior managers about the BBC’s blinkered stance, but were ignored. Others communicated via secretive WhatsApp groups to share their frustrations, like members of a resistance movement.

    While other news organisations made their own assessments of conflicting scientific evidence on coronavirus and the best ways to weigh them up, the BBC was alone among news gatherers in attending the Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum, which was chaired by ministers or civil servants.

    The BBC has claimed it only attended the meetings as an “observer”, and has played down its significance, but it inevitably leaves the corporation open to accusations that it was taking dictation from the Government, rather than allowing its journalists to scrutinise all of the evidence independently and impartially.

    “There was open censorship,” says one journalist. “There was no debate about who should and who should not be given airtime, that was very clear.

    “People were saying to me ‘it’s dangerous to ask questions’, which is extraordinary. If you suggested to editors that anything other than the one-way narrative about Covid was even possible, you would be met with a look of abject horror.

    “We are now talking about the long-term harms caused by lockdowns and they have contributed to that damage by not being critical and not having a debate.”

    The person sent by the BBC to attend meetings of the Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum was Jessica Cecil, founder of the Trusted News Initiative, which was set up under the then director-general Tony Hall in 2019 – before Covid – to smoke out fake news and warn media partners of untruths circling the globe.

    Instead of allowing the TNI to do its job by spotting rogue reports, however, the BBC sent Cecil along to the Forum’s Zoom meetings, which began in December 2020.

    They were chaired on some occasions by Dame Caroline Dinenage, the then minister of state for digital and culture, and otherwise by Sarah Connolly, director of security and online harms at the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. Attendees included other officials from the DCMS; an official from the Department of Health and Social Care; representatives of social media firms; academics from six universities and someone from the broadcast regulator Ofcom.

    It was initially set up to prevent untruths about the Covid vaccines being disseminated online, but at a meeting in January 2021 the group discussed “whether the scope of harms should be confined just to Covid-19/the vaccine”, suggesting it was possible the clampdown on so-called disinformation would go beyond Covid.

    Its very existence – along with that of the separate Counter-Disinformation Unit within the Government, exposed by The Telegraph last week – was kept under the radar at the time, and it is not difficult to guess why.

    Robin Aitken, a former BBC journalist and author of the book The Noble Liar: How and Why the BBC Distorts the News to Promote a Liberal Agenda, said it was “alarming” to discover that the BBC took part in the Forum, which he suggested was “a conspiracy against public debate”.

    He said: “Who knew about it? There is no transparency. The BBC has a worldwide reputation as a truth-teller but something like this unit gives the lie to that, because it shows that when it chooses to, it toes the line and does the job the Government wants it to do.

    “This whole idea of disinformation is a method of enforcing an orthodoxy on the public debate.”

    The BBC is desperate to play down the significance of the meetings, saying Ms Cecil attended them in an “observer only capacity”, though it failed to explain what that meant. Ms Cecil herself, who has left the BBC and set herself up as a consultant global disinformation specialist, said it was a “BBC matter” and referred The Telegraph to the BBC press office.

    According to one source who attended the meetings, they quickly became “a round-robin of public affairs people from internet companies telling the minister what a great job they were doing”. Dinenage scrapped the Forum after six months.

    Nevertheless, the BBC’s decision to attend the Forum was consistent with its decision to back the Establishment line on pandemic response, enforced with grim reports from Covid wards to which it was given extensive access.

    Regardless of whether it came as a direct result of the secretive Forum (which refuses to publish unredacted minutes of its meetings), there is no doubt that many who questioned the efficacy of lockdowns, masks or school closures was given short shrift.

    “It was the matter of the greatest importance in our lifetime but there was no debate about it,” said one ex-BBC journalist. “We have to put our integrity and impartiality first and foremost and that did not happen.

    “People were suggesting eminently qualified experts as alternative voices, but in my experience not one of them was put on air.”

    The journalist was one of three people who gave evidence in private to Parliament’s all-party group on pandemic response and recovery last November. Their evidence was never made public, but they have agreed to share their experiences with The Telegraph. All of them are too fearful of the repercussions of speaking out to be identified by name.

    A second witness told the APPG at the time: “Downing Street pursued its lockdown strategy with a reckless disregard for the mental health of the public, lacing its messaging with fear and guilt to ensure broad compliance.

    “This approach should have sounded alarm bells for every freedom-loving journalist in the BBC; instead, many of my colleagues were cowed. The apocalyptic atmosphere in the newsroom was fuelled by new in-house health and safety rules designed to ‘stop the spread’, many of which were absurd and the sort of box-ticking theatre the BBC is more than adept at.”

    The source raised their concerns with senior managers including programme editors, but was “openly mocked” by them.

    BBC reporters were told not to use the word “lockdown” in a memo from a senior editor on the day the first lockdown was announced, but instead to talk about curbs and restrictions, in line with Downing Street policy.

    The third journalist who spoke to the APPG talked of a “climate of fear” in the BBC of stepping out of line, and shared an email with the committee they had sent to a senior editor pointing out that eminent scientists who had been regarded as trusted sources in the past had been silenced because they challenged the Government line.

    The Telegraph has seen the email, and the response from the manager, but is not reproducing it because it would risk identifying the source.

    The journalist told The Telegraph: “The response I got was patronising and humiliating. The gist of it was ‘get back in your box, you can’t have an opinion’.”

    The same source was astonished at his editor’s reluctance to allow him to report on anti-lockdown marches happening in London, some of which attracted tens of thousands of protesters. They said: “In editorial meetings if you raised the fact that there were lockdown marches going on, you were told, ‘no, that’s not on the agenda’.”

    Anna Brees, a former BBC news presenter who left the corporation before Covid, was contacted by a like-minded BBC senior editor when Brees tweeted about her lockdown scepticism.

    An email from the editor, sent in May 2021, said: “I need to know who shares our concerns. It’s impossible to be up front in top level meetings without knowing who’s in with us, and it’s not like you can just come out and ask – try that and people look at you like you have two heads.

    “So it would be helpful if you let me know if you have the ear of anyone in News … get people to email me or just let me know who they are if I have any allies in the room. I don’t name names.”

    The editor promised that: “I’ve got a seat at the top table and can organise the pushback.”

    Brees, author of the book Shame: When Journalists Stopped Listening, says that the attempt to organise the pushback failed because BBC journalists were so worried that it might be a trap to identify dissenters that they were too frightened to contact the editor.

    The pandemic, and lockdowns, proved to be a ratings hit for the BBC. In 2020 the average audience for the News at Six between mid-March and June leapt from 4.1 million in 2019 to 6.3 million in 2020. This year the figure was down to 3.4 million.

    As a Left-leaning organisation, it follows that the BBC would be in favour of state intervention, and as a publicly-funded body it may also have been over-eager to show the Government it was doing something to counter fake news.

    Yet the BBC is not usually slow to pick fights with the Government. Its journalists believe another factor, which mimics the newspeak vocabulary of Nineteen Eighty-Four, is at play: groupthink.

    “I wasn’t party to any conspiracy but I do believe there was a combination of groupthink with noble cause censorship,” says a current BBC journalist. “The BBC is populated by people who come from a certain background and share certain views. There was a sense that lockdowns were an annoyance, but that they were necessary. About 80 per cent of BBC staff were working from home so they were also initially saving money.

    “If there had been more people from working class backgrounds, or people who were cooped up in seventh-floor flats with children, there would have been a degree of scepticism about whether lockdowns were worth the cost.”

    Among the scientists who became unwelcome at the BBC, despite having been accepted as eminent experts in their field before the pandemic hit, was Carl Heneghan, professor of evidence-based medicine at Oxford University.

    In the early days of the pandemic he was a familiar voice on BBC radio and television, discussing how he thought the pandemic would evolve and what could be done to counter it, but when he began to question government policy he was dismissed by BBC editors as “an outlier”, according to one whistleblower.

    Prof Heneghan says: “For the whole of 2021 I was virtually ghosted by the BBC. I was sometimes booked to go on programmes but then it would be cancelled or I would be told I wasn’t needed.

    “I was told by some of the people at the BBC that it was supporting lockdowns and editorially it was not deviating from that line.

    “It got to the point where the BBC was at times just the broadcast arm of the Government, for example the way they reported death figures without giving any context to them.”

    Meanwhile others with no medical qualifications were being put on the approved list simply because they were on-message.

    The APPG examined the case of Devi Sridhar, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh. In June 2021, when the Pfizer vaccine was approved for use in children aged 12 to 15, Prof Sridhar told the children’s current affairs programme Newsround that the Pfizer vaccine was 100 per cent safe for children.

    The APPG heard that journalists – aware that no medical expert would ever claim that a vaccine is 100 per cent safe – raised the alarm with managers, pointing out that Sridhar is not a virologist, immunologist or expert on vaccination.

    Esther McVey MP, co-chairman of the APPG and a former TV presenter, says: “I started at the BBC and the whole thing is to get all sides of the argument and get new insights into the situation and be open-minded, not have the story written for you and fit the facts into that. Given the number of hours of coverage that Covid got, the lack of curiosity was outstanding.” The BBC denies that it did not include “a range of voices and views” in its Covid coverage.

    The broadcasting regulator Ofcom might have been expected to hold the BBC to account by reminding it of its duty of impartiality, but instead BBC journalists believe Ofcom was part of the problem, if not the cause of the BBC’s blinkered approach to Covid.

    On March 23 2020, the day Boris Johnson announced the first national lockdown, Ofcom issued guidance on “broadcast standards during the coronavirus pandemic” which had a profound and immediate effect on editors, according to multiple sources.

    It warned of the “significant potential harm” that could be caused by material that was broadcast, including “accuracy or material misleadingness in programmes in relation to the virus or public policy regarding it”. It said any breach arising from “harmful coronavirus-related programming” would be considered “potentially serious” and could result in a statutory sanction.

    According to the third witness who gave evidence to the APPG, “many previously questioning journalists became scared to present any thought, idea or opinion other than the official government line”.

    Ofcom, let’s not forget, also sat on the Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum along with the BBC.

    Graham Stringer MP, co-chairman, with McVey, of the APPG on pandemic response and recovery, said: “Ofcom seems to have fallen short of its remit and we have seen how its coronavirus guidelines acted as a barrier to critical analysis of the Government’s approach to Covid-19 …

    “Lockdowns, mask mandates and other restrictions were a leap into the unknown. It is shocking that we didn’t have a robust debate about them on national broadcast channels.”

    A BBC spokeman said: “We totally reject this characterisation of our Covid coverage; we featured a range of voices during the pandemic, including those sceptical of lockdowns, in line with our duty of due impartiality. “We do not recognise this description of our working environment. Like other news organisations the stories we cover are the subject of robust editorial discussion and debate. The BBC attended the Counter Disinformation Policy Forum in an observer-only capacity. The person who attended was not a BBC News executive and played absolutely no role in editorial decision making.”

    An Ofcom spokesman added: “Our rules do not prohibit the broadcast of content that challenges public health policy and advice concerning Covid-19. Our guidance reminded broadcasters to be mindful of the potential harm that could be caused by misleading claims about the virus. We’ve also been consistently clear that, given the unprecedented restrictions on public freedoms imposed during the pandemic, the right to freedom of expression, including questioning and challenging government advice and policy, was made all the more vital.”

    As we now know, the first Spring lockdown is estimated to have saved 1,700 lives, according to a landmark study published earlier this week, set against an as-yet unknown number of people who have died of cancer, heart attacks and other illnesses because care was interrupted or unavailable. Not to mention blighted educations, a rise in childhood mental health problems and the enormous cost to the economy.

    Aitken said: “The Government was panicked into a lockdown and the BBC instantly shut down the debate about whether lockdown was the right approach. There were rational, very well-qualified people who felt lockdown was wrong, and they weren’t given airtime. That is a betrayal of the BBC’s primary purpose, as the gatekeeper of the national debate.”ENDS

    Perhaps someone from one of the agencies monitoring this site could give a view on the accuracy of the above piece …. Come on you know you want to ….

       13 likes

    • Dickie says:

      Fedup2 – Thank you for sharing this article. Whatever our commenters difference of opinion on various topics and subjects on this site, it is a reminder of why we all share a discomfort, and that’s putting it mildly, with regard to the BBC bias.

         7 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Dickie – thanks – my cut and paste skills are limited so apologies and repeated bits . I did check though ….

        … no wonder the BBC got touchy when described as a government funded state broadcaster on the `twitter ….

           1 likes

  46. MarkyMark says:

    2020 – The Telegraph has spoken to current and former BBC journalists who described a “climate of fear” existing in the corporation during the pandemic, with experienced reporters “openly mocked” if they questioned the wisdom of lockdowns, or called “dissenters”.

    ….

    What Did the BBC Know About the Jimmy Savile Scandal?
    Staff at the British broadcaster knew the iconic DJ was a serial sexual predator, but its management wasn’t made aware of the complaints, a new report says.

    By Krishnadev Calamur
    https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/02/uk-jimmy-savile-bbc/470943/

       4 likes

  47. MarkyMark says:

    ‘Deeply worrying’ research suggests 25% of nurses in England are obese
    05 DECEMBER, 2017 BY JO STEPHENSON

    ‘Deeply worrying’ research suggests 25% of nurses in England are obese
    05 DECEMBER, 2017 BY JO STEPHENSON

    https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/research-and-innovation/deeply-worrying-research-suggests-25-of-nurses-in-england-are-obese-05-12-2017/

       3 likes

    • JohnC says:

      My mum just got home from hospital after breaking her leg in ‘a fall’ and I would say that of the 20 or so nurses in the ward, about 5 were not obese.

      One would think nurses of all people would know better. I wonder what the reason is.

         12 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        Povewrty

           2 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        JohnC, please give your mother our good wishes for her recovery.

           4 likes

        • JohnC says:

          Thanks Up2 : she is making good progress.

          I told her I would go get fish and chips for her on the first Saturday after she came home – which had her looking forward to it all the time she was in hospital.

          Mine were delicious too :-).

             3 likes