Over to You
Start the Week 18th March 2024
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- MarkyMark Nov 22, 19:49
Midweek 20th November 2024
“This man got 81 million votes???? Stop!!!” Comment Joe Biden appears to wander off into Amazon rainforest after historic climate… - Demon Nov 22, 19:48
Midweek 20th November 2024
That’s why they always shout “On your Marx. Get set. Go.” - taffman Nov 22, 19:47
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Starmer is insulting our intelligence! Even mayors in France have made a statement about the asylum seekers. Anything on Al… - Zephir Nov 22, 19:45
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I don’t think much of this Milibande green eco thing. I cycled to the local shop for a bottle of… - MarkyMark Nov 22, 19:41
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Can anyone attend COP29? Conferences are not open to the general public. The United States, as a Party to the… - MarkyMark Nov 22, 19:37
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Even Gang members agree with him …. “2012 … David Lammy MP says absent fathers ‘key cause of knife crime’… - vlad Nov 22, 19:31
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Ironic that Lammy complained about not enough police on the streets, when usually his community aren’t too keen on police… - MarkyMark Nov 22, 19:30
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agw anti-American anti-conservative anti-Israel anti Israel. pro Palestinian Antisemitism BBC - sickeningly biased at all times. BBC agenda BBC bias bbc bias and balance. bbc bias by omission BBC censorship BBC Question Time BBC selectivity bias Biased BBC climate change dhimmis general thread immigration Islam israel Mark Mardell obama obama bias Obamalove open thread pro-labour pro-palestinian pro EU pro Hamas pro Islam pro Labour bias pro Obama PRO OBAMA AT ALL COSTS. pro Obama BBC agenda question time question time live Richard Black save gordon. USA politics US economy US News US politics US presidential elections
Was Trump’s alleged slur actually racist?
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42671152
The BBC headline in 2018. First para header, big letters:
‘Yes, it was racist’
Followed with a little empathy tugger:
‘A little black girl and child of Haitian immigrants I know overheard. Unprompted, and defiant she responded to her mother: “Donald Trump is a shithole!” ‘
So where was this BBC reporter to be conveniently watching Trumps speech in the same place and close enough to hear her ?.
Another big fat made-up BBC agenda lie methinks.
BBC headline today:
‘Only God can change this place’: Haitians see no end to spiralling violence
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-68602114
‘More than a dozen bullet-ridden bodies lay in the street – the victims of the latest gang rampage.’
And – as usual – because the BBC don’t want us to know many details about the important thing here : the culture and people doing it, they focus 100% on empathy. Their trick these days is to head for the maternity ward, get some heart-rending pictures then make up some quotes from the people there which are perfect English and exactly capture the BBC’s careful choice of weasel words:
“As you can see we have enough beds and staff,” he said, motioning to the team of nurses and interns behind him. “But quite often the patients just can’t reach us, either because of their socio-economic problems or because of the violence.”
Seems like once again Trump was 100% correct. But of course the BBC leave what he said out of reports like this. They would rather eat their own excrement than admit Trump was right about anything.
Trump unable to get $464m bond in New York fraud case, his lawyers say
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68600093
When you read this story, what stands out a mile is that the size of the fine is simply ridiculous and is a very, very clear politicial attempt to ruin Trump.
But of course the BBC totally ignore that particular elephant and isn’t amazing how they can name the Judge who did it without pointing out he is a Democrat. Nor do they remind us (or ever even reported it to my knowledge) that Biden publically stated they would use every power they could to prevent Trump running again.
It stinks. The BBC stink and OFCOM stink the worst for not questioning their bias.
Prince William to visit Sheffield homelessness project
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68601344
The 1st picture “CAMERON SMITH/PA MEDIA” – is the UK in case anyone thought it was Africa or the middle east
“Comic Relief to stop sending celebrities to Africa after ‘white saviour’ criticism”
https://news.sky.com/story/comic-relief-to-stop-sending-celebrities-to-africa-after-white-saviour-criticism-12116723
I’m still amazed at this article about the money chucked at all these places, where all it does is let them do nothing to help themselves…
https://africaunauthorised.com/kevin-myers/
There was also this comment made here a few days back, and I’m sorry to say that when I copied and pasted it, because it was dynamite, I left off the name of the poster – my apologies!
“I asked Bob Keating, a superb young investigative reporter who had just started working with us, to look into this for a story. The assignment was simple — all this money had been raised, where was it going, was it actually doing good?
He discovered it was not doing good, but, horrifically, unimaginably, the exact opposite. The Ethiopian dictator, Mengistu, until then deadlocked in the war, was using the money the west gave him to buy sophisticated weapons from the Russians, and was now able to efficiently and viciously crush the opposition. Ethiopia, then the third poorest country in the world, suddenly had the largest, best equipped army on the African continent.
By this time we had all seen the pictures and TV footage of Bob Geldof, the figurehead of Live Aid, bear hugging and playfully punching Mengistu in the arm as he literally handed over the funding for this slaughter. It was on TV now alright, but as an endless, relentless reel of heroic Bob Geldof highlights. He drenched himself in the adulation and no one begrudged him it, until our investigation exposed the holocaust that Live Aid’s collected donations had help perpetrate on the Eritrean independence fighters.
Most damningly, Keating reported that Geldof was warned, repeatedly, from the outset by several relief agencies in the field about Mengistu, who was dismantling tribes, mercilessly conducting resettlement marches on which 100,000 people died, and butchering helpless people. According to Medicins Sans Frontiers, who begged Geldof to not release the money until there was a reliable infrastructure to get it to victims, he simply ignored them, instead famously saying: “I’ll shake hands with the Devil on my left and on my right to get to the people we are meant to help.”
In the course of preparing our story, we tried to interview Geldof, who in the beginning, perhaps expecting more of the same media worship, was apparently willing to talk, but as soon as he and Live Aid realized what we knew and were going to ask him about, he declined.”
https://www.spin.com/2015/07/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/
So the upshot is that CR might just as well chuck the money at Sheffield, and cut out the middle man!
(I don’t mean literally cut out the Next King bloke)…
Prince William can get free money from Qatar!
“Prince Charles given €3m in cash in bags by Qatari politician, according to report
This article is more than 1 year old
Money was passed immediately to one of the prince’s charities, says Clarence House”
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/25/prince-charles-is-said-to-have-been-given-3m-in-qatari-cash
Curated construct puzzle for politicians as we Rickroll through this countdown to easter edition
You join us on a morning on which the shameless Number 10 loyalist lackey Daily Express boldly presumes: Migrants chosen for first flight to Rwanda in spring
If opinion polls are to be believed then it’s safe to say many millions of voters will have pondered their own preferred shortlist for expulsion from our shores this spring – I’m mentally pencilling in: Rishi Sunak, Sadiq Khan and Humza Yousaf – with this new Welsh first minister chap Vaughan Gething a possible maybe. I jest of course. These migrants and sons of migrants are doing an absolutely spiffing job for us here in Britain. Scant rewarded dirty jobs, few native Britons would be prepared to do, as they tend say.
Our BBC remarks: MPs have rejected the House of Lords’ changes to the Rwanda Bill… All 10 amendments were rejected, including allowing courts to question Rwanda’s safety… Labour says each deportation will cost as much as sending six people to space – now there’s an eye-catching blue sky thinking socialist policy suggestion that even this jaded old conservative might be tempted to get behind.
Shoot them up into the firmament – as some Monty Python movie character once demanded for himself as his fate using a big catapult. Esther Rantzen, anyone?
Popular leader inside No.10 – presupposes the giveaway Metro. That’ll be one Barack Obama to which they refer.
Surprise visit Barack Obama met Rishi Sunak at Downing Street for talks (Times)
Considering Britain’s poodle-like acceptance of the US State Department’s direction of our foreign policy, combined with the obvious incapacity of the geriatric puppet that is Joe Biden – then for all we know Barack Obama, denison of Martha’s Vineyard, may well still be ringmaster of the circus that is our western world.
Dr. Scholl’s clown shoes
Joe Biden has been spotted wearing a pair $150 (£115) wide-sole trainers after a series of public falls (Telegraph) – further comment would seem superfluous there.
Taking a leaf out of Gorgeous George Galloway’s winning electoral playbook of speaking two completely different languages to two completely different non-integrated constituency audiences – Inshallah/Comrades [delete as applicable] our putative new chancellor of the exchequer, Rachel Reeves, cleverly transposes two numbers with which to address her two audiences
Calendar girl
To the mildly and nostalgically conservative Daily Telegraph Labour’s dowdy local-council-Karen-like figure, with the decayed bobbed hair-do, conjures the iconic image of Maggie in the year of ’79
Reeves: Britain faces 1979 moment… Labour vows economic take-off similar to Thatcher years with growth-led policies (Telegraph)
Meanwhile, over there at the youth-oriented poundshop junior Guardian that is the ‘i’ newspaper, our Ms Reeves channels her inner Blair Babe energy referencing the year of ’97
Reeves channels Blair with pledge to boost his 1997 growth unit (‘i’)
You say ’79, I say ’97 – let’s shoot Rishi into space.
The Daily Mirror claims an: Exclusive: Keir Starmer I will not let you down
It was Stock Aitken Waterman curated construct Rick Astley who made similar promises back in 1987
I’m never gonna let you down
I’m always gonna build you up
While we’re on the subject of gobbledygook song lyrics our BBC celebrates: Ed Sheeran: Fans in Mumbai thrilled as star sings in Punjabi… setting social media ablaze
He travelled all the way to Mumbai to sing in Punjabi – He’d likely get a similar reaction from the fans back in Hackney Wick
Fans, eh? BBC: Crowds have gathered to take photographs – and take in – a new tree mural in north London after street artist Banksy claimed the piece on Monday.
Because our entire diet of popular culture delivered by the mainstream media is the honestly organic result of popular audience demand and spontaneous independent artistic creation – yeah, right.
Do you ever get the sense you are being Rickrolled?
Rickrolling or a Rickroll is an Internet meme involving the unexpected appearance of the music video to the 1987 hit song “Never Gonna Give You Up”, performed by English singer Rick Astley… The meme is a type of bait and switch (Thank you Wiki)
As we countdown to Easter and thoughts turn to budding spring flowers, chicks and bunnies; and a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love (as Alfred Lord Tennison proposed) – we have a calm down dear care of the formerly serious Times newspaper: I wish I could have frozen my eggs Sophie Beresiner – and if there’s one thing reliably designed to instantly cool a young chap’s fancy, it’s that image of frozen eggs, luv.
One in seven maternity units closed down (Telegraph)
Fasting linked to increased risk from heart attacks and strokes (Times) – despite Ramadan?
UK residents going to Dignitas at 12-year low (Telegraph) – despite Esther Rantzen?
The FT does one of their cryptic crossword-like feature headlines: US voters forage widely in splintered news landscape
The gist is that the corporate pink paper is discomforted by the fact: …this year the rightwing ecosystem is chaotic, with audiences fragmented across smaller online sites (FT) – Are they talking about us? As that old Fleet Street hot metal man used to remark in his amusing TV reviews of the foreign headlines.
Rightwing ecosystem fragmented, eh? Oh dear, how sad, never mind. This is apparently a problem because: The trend poses a puzzle for politicians (FT) – I told you the FT was channelling crosswords.
‘To reach across it you have to be all over the place’ (FT) – if the mainstream are unhappy that they can’t easily control the message… well that cheers me up no end.
“Fasting linked to increased risk from heart attacks and strokes (Times) – despite Ramadan?”
Allah knows best!
From Banksy to Picasso, offshore world awash in valuable art
The Pandora Papers reveal more than 1,600 works of art secretly traded through tax havens.
By Scilla Alecci
Image: ICIJ/Scilla Alecci
January 28, 2022
https://www.icij.org/investigations/pandora-papers/from-banksy-to-picasso-offshore-world-awash-in-valuable-art/
AISI, a lot of fuzzy photos on the front pages of the UK’s newspapers this morning: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-68602959. I cannot speak for the Guardian as it is missing from the BBC’s Blog today. That is almost a first because usually it is the Sun newspaper, dreadful rag that it is, the one usually omitted by the BBC, probably because the BBC do not like Rupert Murdoch or consider him to be on the ‘Far Right’.
The Sun has a very fuzzy photo of Prince William and Princess Kate on their visit to a farm shop. The Mail has a slightly sharper image (Photoshopped*?) but as it is scaled not so large that will make it appear sharper. The Mirror has a slightly older photo, but with Kate’s smile crease sharp but everything else soft and a rather fuzzy photo of Paul O’Grady walking his daughter down the aisle for her wedding but the daughter is sharp enough. However it is Natalie Cassidy who is fuzziest of all on the front of the i newspaper.
* Other image manipulation software is available
Asiseeit – I wonder how much Tory HQ is worrying about the sort of reception Rishi is going to get when he goes for the General Election ?
It will have to be so tightly controlled – and as rare as a Biden press conference – btw – I don’t think he even does those ‘ walking to the plane ‘ type exchanges any more ….
Starmers ‘ people must also be worried about the level of dissent he is going to get from his Islamic Hamas Friends …and the rest of the vermin on the Far Left ….
The real president of US pays a ‘courtesy’ visit to Sunak. Courtesy my arse. What does he really want.
1. More support for Ukraine, boots on ground, more money for war, use of UK as transit country for arms into Ukraine and other European countries?
2. UK to take a good number of Palestinians (short term, long term, forever)?
3. Back Biden campaign from this side of the Atlantic?
Obama was responsible for the over-throw of Gaddafi leading to a massive de-stabilisation of Libya, N.Africa and the huge movement of migrants from sub-saharan Africa. In other words the end of the UK and Europe as we know it. Now conveniently not reviewed. Will be seen in one of the defining moments for Europe.
I’m sure I heard one of the hacks hanging around outside, call him ‘Mr President’ – twice!
Surely the penny must have dropped by now…
With the quality of the sort of hack nonsense we have nowadays, I’m surpised they didn’t ask him to give Megane a knighthood or whatever, then the Maily Dail would have about three colour supplements out by lunchtime, and the Beeboid cookery ‘expert’ would make up some sort of ethnic slop to celebrate!
Where did all that Libyan gold end up?
In a swizz bank account protected by NATO countries!
Not as far as I’m aware (which, granted – isn’t saying much) – but it is exceeding murky with a few dead bankers scattered about.
Ghaddafi was planning an “African Gold Dinar” or something similar and had a pile of the metal. The French felt the most threatened (CFA would’ve been the first casualty) – with the Yanquis close behind.
The tons of gold stolen from the Libyan repository is still unaccounted for.
“Where is Muammar Gaddafi’s money? Rebels pulled the Libyan dictator from a sewage pipe near his hometown of Sirte on October 20, 2011. He was bleeding from his head, and rebels and bystanders joined in beating him and clubbing his groin with a bayonet. Shortly thereafter, this bird of paradise among African autocrats was dead.
But shortly before he died, Gaddafi sold a fifth of Libya’s gold reserves, and most of the proceeds from this sale are still missing. The so-called Panama Papers could now shed light on the search for this incredible fortune.”
https://panamapapers.sueddeutsche.de/articles/573aeac75632a39742ed39a0/
A reminder from Libya …..
Gaddafi wants EU cash (£4bn) to stop African migrants {bbc.co.uk aug2010}
“Libyan leader Col Muammar Gaddafi says the EU should pay Libya at least 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.3bn) a year to stop illegal African immigration and avoid a ‘black Europe’.
…
‘We don’t know what will happen, what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans,’ Col Gaddafi said…
…
He told them that Islam should become the religion of Europe and gave them free copies of the Koran, after he had lectured them for an hour on the freedoms enjoyed by women in Libya.”
Here is a story of another sad loner who wanted to kill 50 MPs who he blamed for all the wrongs in his life.
“Prosecutors alleged that while he was not about to commit a terrorist act or encourage others to do so, he did assist other extremists he communicated with online.”
The interesting thing about this case is that the so called ‘Police’ have not been able to label him ‘far Right’ as he was in fact ‘far Left’. This means the bent media will quickly sweep this case under the carpet as it doesn’t fit the narrative.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13211573/Jacob-Graham-kill-50-MPs-wrote-terrororist-guide-guilty.html
“commit a terrorist act or encourage others to do so” – 650 MPS letting in 104 Criminals to UK border a day?
https://x.com/leng_cath/status/1769999725099356473?s=61
‘Informed by’ is deliberately intended to sound as though the BBC was placed under an obligation by the court use of female pronouns.
Don’t be deceived. This wording has been carefully chosen. If there were really a regulation or restriction they’d say so 💯
This is a choice
Made minute by minute.
“Here’s the response, in full. It amounts to just three short paragraphs.
The problem with their “once it became known” argument is that the Enfield Independent knew Blake was trans a week before the BBC news report I’m complaining about:”
COST OF LIVING – no banks, just use plastic bags for LIFE! HA HA HA!
Prince Charles denies wrongdoing over $3 million cash handed to him in bags by ex-Qatari leader. London — Prince Charles’ office has denied there was any wrongdoing in the heir to the British throne accepting bags full of cash as charity donations from a Qatari politician.27 Jun 2022
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/25/prince-charles-is-said-to-have-been-given-3m-in-qatari-cash
Is this a rerun of 1930s Germany or something?
They’ll move on to “climate misinformation” – I guarantee it.
FREE SPEECH FOR BBC NOT YOU!
Tweets by Ofcom
Fat salaries for blobsters at Ofcom….
ZERO DIVERSITY AT OFCOM – idris elba to investigate!
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/how-ofcom-is-run/smt
Name Job title Base salary
Luisa Affuso Group Director, Economics and Analytics and Chief Economist 239,732.50
Kevin Bakhurst Group Director, Broadcasting and Online Content 255,750.00
Martin Ballantyne Group Director, Legal and Enforcement and General Counsel 231,750.00
Melanie Dawes Ofcom Chief Executive 324,450.00
Lindsey Fussell Group Director, Networks and Communications 255,750.00
Sachin Jogia Chief Technology Officer 272,950.00
Melissa Tatton Group Director, Corporate and Chief Operating Officer 231,750.00
Yih-Choung Teh Group Director, Strategy and Research 231,750.00
David Willis Group Director, Spectrum 235,000.00
Click to access senior-salary-disclosure-2022.pdf
Gillian Whitehead* DRCF Chief Executive Officer 230,000 – 235,000
David Clarkson Director, Telecoms Competition 165,000 – 170,000
Nuala Cosgrove Legal Director 165,000 – 170,000
Richard Davis Chief Data Officer 165,000 – 170,000
Marina Gibbs Director of Post 165,000 – 170,000
Gerald McQuaid Director of Network Internet Security 165,000 – 170,000
Brian Potterill Director of Mobile Network Strategy 165,000 – 170,000
Simon Redfern Communications Director 165,000 – 170,000
Jessica Zucker Director of Online Safety Policy 165,000 – 170,000
Gwen Morgan* Legal Director 160,000 – 165,000
Siobhan Walsh Director, Content Policy Team 160,000 – 165,000
Simon Leathley Legal Director 155,000 – 160,000
Paul Phillips Legal Director 155,000 – 160,000
Huw Saunders Director of NI and Resilience 155,000 – 160,000
Helen Hearn Director, Spectrum 150,000 – 154,999
Alison Marsden Director, Content Standards Licensing and Enforcement 150,000 – 154,999
Larcenous swines
I am sure many of you have seen the film ” the bridge
on the river kwai” Where right at the end the doctor
screams out ” madness MADNESS ”
I was half watching breakfast TV this morning
when a” panel” were discussing how important in
a different age that nobody should be offended by
maybe a “racist ” word from literature , cinema etc
from past times.
I am not talking about *igger” the black Labrador from
the ” Dam Busters” But ” upsetting” words from films
such as Mary Poppins !!
What’s next ? Shakespeare,? Dickens? There was even opposition to Madame Butterfly one of Puccini’s
masterpieces being allowed to be performed. One of the
panel. I think he was a man, but I may of been wrong. In
particular was quite opposed to anything that may cause offence.Madness, MADNESS !!
Rename a dog from nigger to trigger! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!
Lest we offend.
Mark- Apparently the poor N***** who was Guy Gibson’s
dog .Was run over whilst the dams were being attacked.
He was buried at Skampton air base with full military
honours. And many of 617 squadron saluted the poor dog
as he was lowered down. Of course there was a grave stone.
With the name of *i*ger on it. BUT recently there was a PROBLEM. Some illegal immigrants were housed in
temporary accommodation near to the grave!
Not to offend them. It was decided by the woke brigade
to exhume the dog which was also the mascot of the
squadron. And find it another resting place. Thankfully
someone with a modicum of sense . Turned the woke brigade
down BUT the headstone has been replaced.
Don’t ever expect to see the “INFAMOUS,” as the BBC
call the Dambusters raid on the BRITISH broadcasting
corporation. This is as a perfect example of an oxymoron you
could find. I wonder if Mary Poppins will join
” The Dambusters” and “North West Frontier”
as a banned film on the BBC . Because of
supposedly racist overtones?
“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.”
― George Orwell, 1984
‘Racist’ Gandhi statue removed from University of Ghana
Published
13 December 2018
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-46552614
GWF
Did you have too? I still get upset when Nigger gets killed ….
Do you not wonder where this idea that people should never be offended ? Where did that come from ?
elsewhere….
I wonder if Bazza and Wishi discussed it yesterday?
WE OWE THE LATVIANS AS DIVERSITY AND LATVIANS BUILT BRITAIN!
“In total between 1946 and 1950, about 16,000 Latvians came to Great Britain from the refugee camps in Germany. They played an important contribution to the rebuilding of the post war British economy, which was on the verge of collapse after the Second World War.”
The Tories are Marxists there’s no denying it, except that the Marxists will as there is no flash bang revolution and bodies in the street, plus there has never been a socialist, Marxist country ever as they themselves are the only one capable of delivering such a thing !
An act of stunning hubris and arrogance which the media constantly allows the far Left to get away with time after time.
“no flash bang revolution and bodies in the street”
‘National tragedy’: figures show large rise in people dying while on NHS waiting list
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/aug/30/national-tragedy-figures-show-large-rise-in-people-dying-while-on-nhs-waiting-list
“no flash bang revolution and bodies in the street” … ‘National tragedy’: figures show large rise in people dying while on NHS waiting list
Diversity is Divisive.
“Lessons to be learned”
I take that coin as a disgusting insult to all the working class white men who really did build Britain and totally wore their bodies out while they did it.
People like my grandad who spent the last 20 years of his life watching TV from a rocking chair and hardly moving because of what being a farm labourer for his whole life after the war did to him. And the same for many, many more than 16,000 Latvians.
And lets not forget : none of these people (most definitely including Windrush) did it because of some noble desire to help us. They came for one reason : they got a lot more money and a far better quality of life than they ever would in their own country. It’s them who should be grateful. Not us.
Diversity didn’t build Britain. But it is most certainly destroying it.
F*ck you Sunak.
“Jamaica is one of the most violent countries in the Caribbean. In 2023, there were approximately 60.9 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in the island nation. This was highest homicide rate in Latin America and the Caribbean that year.8 Mar 2024”
Vote Reform – destroy the blue Labour Party
Vote Reform – destroy the blue Labour Party & the Red Labour Party.
We have been turned from a Great Britain into the laughing stock of the world.
Shame !
If I recall the SS were shocked at the level of violence used the Latvian civilians purging unapproved groups ….
Ukrainian town names street after ‘hero’ Boris Johnson
The road near Odesa to be named after Britain’s PM is a country lane with overgrown vegetation
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-war-fontanka-road-boris-johnson-b2064818.html
There are sinister forces at work . Pictures are being ‘enhanced ‘ – elections are being ‘enhanced ‘ – history is being re woked so that coloured people who didn’t exist in Britain suddenly turn up – and white people are starting to turn up in adverts ….
“The original image with the white hand is bylined Getty Images and was used on the BBC news website in 2018 in an article about lowering the voting age in Wales. The altered image with the black hand was used in March last year in a story about Welsh council elections.25 Aug 2023”
Hello Fedup2
I enjoyed peaky blinders, until the bbc script had a mixed race gang coming to sort out some problems in Birmingham. The mixed race gang from 1900s lol you couldn’t make it up. Off went the rest of the series, totally ruined
Andy – the lead actor bloke in that won’t do much in the future …
More enrichment:
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/florence-house-openshaw-gp-attack-28843097
“Olumuiwa Oduntan, 61, has admitted causing grievous bodily harm and will be sentenced in May. His trial heard he hit a doctor and member of staff with a metal barrier pole at his GP surgery when he couldn’t get an appointment for a repeat prescription.”
“the defendant agreed during the trial he had a type of schizophrenia and insisted he did not intend to cause any harm to anyone. He described the medication he takes every day – but the court heard he had not had any medication for a week up to the day of the incident.
“I rang [the practice] every day but it was always engaged,” said Oduntan. “I was feeling terrible, depressed. I was agitated. I just needed my medication… I was hearing voices and all sorts. I was in a bad place.”
There are three issues here:
An Africa migrant with schizophrenia is allowed into Britain, why? What possible benefit can he be to the country?
Why on earth was a schizophrenic denied a repeat prescription causing him to cease taking the medication for a week? He could have caused multiple deaths as a result as has happened in the past.
Lastly and perhaps most disturbing is the fact that violence has been rewarded, and he has received the care package which he probably should have received in the first place, plus he has engaged the greedy weasels, the courts, his MP, the prison service, more medical services, and much more.
And we the taxpayer have been left once again paying the bill for something which should never have happened if he hadn’t been allowed into Britain.
PSNI: Minister fears force is ‘slipping backwards’ on LGBT issues
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-68596573
bbc, is this really “news”!
andyjsnape
The bbc don’t do comedy, before long they won’t do news, just propaganda and “nudge”.
order-order.com
Training documents obtained by The Herald reveal which “hate crimes” will be pursued:
“The different ways in which a person may communicate material to another person are by: displaying, publishing or distributing the material, for example on a sign, on the internet through websites, blogs, podcasts, social media etc, either directly, or by forwarding or repeating material that originates from a third party, through printed media such as magazine publications or leaflets… giving, sending, showing or playing the material to another person… through online streaming, by email, playing a video, through public performance of a play.”
HA HA HA HA HA HA HAHA!
… playing a video, through public performance of a play
Extremist actors! HA HA HAH AH AHA!
Of note I feel – that the SNP moved against Gregor Fisher at the time of the last Independence referendum – as portraying the “wrong sort of Scottish person”
Mary Poppins film age rating raised over ‘discriminatory language’
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68402362
Watership Down given new PG rating with language and violence warnings
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-66267414
Rocky and Flash Gordon given tighter age rating
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-57733015
I wonder if sneezing will be 50 lashes in the future, pathetic times.
Andy I make an exception for Watership Down, it traumatizes me even as an adult. Nothing less than an 18 rating in my book.
Not BBC, but a short NYT video — “It Turns Out the ‘Deep State’ Is Actually Kind of Awesome”
After years of ridiculing the notion of a deep state, here’s another in the genre of “it’s not happening, and it’s a good thing that it is”. NYT journos travel the country to cherry pick employees who make your life awesome. Just your average bunch of civil servants…. one who saved the earth from an asteroid strike and another that made municipal water lead-free. Because only good things come from ever-burgeoning state intervention.
Final message: “these guys work for you… but Trump wants them working for him…”
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/19/opinion/trump-deep-state.html
Unbelievable.
Only in the nationalised, statist sector.
HMRC are to solve the huge waiting times on its helpline………….by closing it down!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68606722
Might this be rolled out to the NHS? Think of the waiting time reduction if no-one can be admitted to hospital for 6 months in the year.
It’s a win-win.
Hello Sluff, someone the other day at work was “trying” to use the chatbox – it was useless.
I guess its a way the government can fine more people by not knowing what they have to do 🙁
Doctors’ leaders have attacked the government for allowing pressure on the NHS in England to grow to the extent that the volunteer charity the British Red Cross has stepped in to help the NHS, highlighting the urgency of need.
The British Red Cross said that several NHS trusts had called on it in recent weeks to help them cope with demand and described the situation as a “humanitarian crisis” in some areas.
https://www.bmj.com/content/356/bmj.j127
ALL BEEN SAID BEFORE …
‘Reform has promised to ditch the BBC licence fee, which currently stands at £159 per year but will increase by £10.50, a rise of 6.6 per cent, in April.
. . . . . . . .
Boris Johnson accused of targeting BBC to save his premiership
This article is more than 2 years old
Government insider says announcement about abolishing licence fee was not expected this weekend
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/jan/16/boris-johnson-accused-of-targeting-bbc-to-save-his-premiership
Government insider says announcement about abolishing licence fee was not expected this weekend
HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!! BBC IS UNTOUCHABLE!
This is a major problem when there is already few incentives to vote.
Nothing promised gets delivered, but the liars or cheats get handed a nice, cosy several years to dick about in the HoP or tv studios anyway with zero consequences.
Or, worse, the new, even more venal breed use their lies to get in to change the rules so they can never be got out.
I’m afraid that Reform just don’t seem to have the funds to wage huge campaigns for the general public, especially over a long drawn-out period before a GE.
It’s just over six weeks until the local elections here in Tunbridge Wells, and we still don’t have a clue who in their party we’ll be voting for – it certainly won’t be for the ‘main’ parties, and the independents and the Lib Dems will crow about how much they’ve done, which is very little really, and anything they claim to have done was by doing a deal with everyone except Labour and Bluelabour!
They really have to get their act together if they think they’re going to start making waves at the GE!
Allah fails to turn up? Saudi? Iran? China?
Gaza’s entire population facing acute food insecurity, Blinken warns
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68605401
……
“During Ramadan 2022, Palestinian terrorists dramatically increased their attacks, including approximately 49 shooting, stabbing, bombing and other violent attacks. Palestinian terrorists in Gaza and Lebanon also fired a series of rockets toward Israel during this period.7 Mar 2024″
“Grime artist and chef Big Zuu joins Mehreen to talk about Ramadan and what it means to him. They also debunk some of the popular myths around the holy month for Muslims from whether you can taste food to how to train for London Marathon. And what happens when the clocks go forward?!”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hhflts
. . . . .
https://genius.com/Big-zuu-the-stuggle-lyrics
We get your skills and we raise it
Empower yourself with your praising
So what your not good at equations
So what your not smart and your asian
So what your not sporty and African
Don’t let em put you in a box like an applicant
Don’t think this shit is an accident
Because there’s private schools for the affluent
And then there’s public schools for the other class
And your language there be made fluent
But if your English ain’t good then your not on par
Who put these mans brain in a jar
Like how’s their understanding so far
Same people who made us leave Europe
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-68605562
“Around 9,000 children will be evacuated from the Russian city of Belgorod and the wider region after shelling that authorities have blamed on Ukraine.
Russia’s defence ministry said its forces shot down what is said were nine Ukrainian shells over Belgorod on Tuesday.”
Back to the casting doubt .. when it’s clear Ukraine used NATO (cluster?) shells to attack a civilian city.
Quickly gets back to the elections for a hundredth time:
“The contest was described as neither free nor fair by critics. Mr Putin’s victory was in no doubt, since he had no credible opponent.”
https://ichef.bbci.co.uk/images/ic/1920×1080/p07xssql.jpg
£400 million pretend railway station in Wales…
https://www.mirror.co.uk/travel/uk-ireland/work-begins-400m-station-rail-32380025.amp
Why can’t they just use one of the many existing main lines on strike days?
One for Marianna Spring to investigate!
Ha ha ha ha!
That bus on the right comes out from the side road five times to exactly the same hooting on each occasion!
Trousers down Beeboids for a jolly good good spanking, for trying to big up a rather weak and unimformative reporting clip!
I can’t help wondering in the light of things I’ve heard if O’bummers visit to Rishi Washee wasn’t to persuade him to expel military age Ukrainian men back to fight in Ukraine after it would appear efforts to persuade the EU to do so, where there are more Ukrainians living fell on deaf ears.
I really do think it would be the final straw if Rishi Washee caved in on this request.
Thoughtful – well whatever it was – it was too risky to talk on the phone or the internet or to give to an ambassador ….. maybe Obama Biden needs to know when the election is …but there again – that’s trivial …
The president (Obama) allegedly allowed US intelligence to listen to calls from the German Chancellor’s mobile phone after he was briefed on the operation by Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency (NSA), in 2010.27 Oct 2013
Watch This Speech if You’ve Lost Faith in the West – Konstantin Kisin
“It’s a sad day when a man delivers a perfect speech about matters that should be as obvious to us as the nose on our face. It’s telling about the insane times we live in.”
The Prince of Wales sought to use his visit to Sheffield to promote one of his most important projects – Homewards, a five-year scheme across six locations in the UK, launched last year to try and tackle homelessness.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-68607439
. . . . . . .
Time to Go Inside Kate Middleton and Prince William’s Many, Many, Many Homes
Their list of properties just gets longer and longer.
BY MEHERA BONNERPUBLISHED: OCT 04, 2022 6:59 AM EST
https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a41196424/kate-middleton-prince-william-houses-homes-castles/
Meanwhile in Scotland….
“Scotland has entered a very dangerous place, Police Scotland told to target comedians and other performers for hate crimes in their acts
Also included are bloggers and publisher’s & anyone who redistributes anything deemed to fall foul of law, retweeting or posting on this platform are prime examples
Police Scotland have vowed to investigate every reported allegation, how long till they’re swamped in allegations?”
Good job they don’t have any real crimes to investigate.
Implying that hate crimes are not real crimes is a hate crime. Please hand yourself over to Police Scotland.
If they pay the rail fare.
On a point of order Gentleman, is it still a hate crime if you say that someone is repulsive to look at, or just ugly etc?
I know of quite a few people in public life who fit that description, but I wouldn’t say I hated them, because I’ve never met them, and hopefully never will!
Surely hate has to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, where as ugliness, stupidity, ignorance, unpleasantness etc., is apparent only to the beholder and therefore cannot be construed as such…
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, whereas hatred is now in the eye of the victim”
(Scrobs – letters in “During a Pils Lager”, 2024)
Hello Scroblene
I think a ‘hate crime ‘ is any human activity which the wokes decide is a ‘hate crime ‘ – even if there is no ‘ hate ‘ or ‘crime ‘.involved …
It is the poor relation of ‘ offensive conduct / language ‘ and is just another weapon to undermine / destroy freedoms ……
How the judiciary has allowed such lunacy should be beyond me – but then I remember they are motivated by money …
But surely ‘hate’ has to be proven, Fed!
I could easily hate someone, (I’m not actually very good at doing that, being a normal person), but they have to prove that I hated them, because I can quite easily stand up and say, ‘I didn’t hate them, I don’t like them, but hate doesn’t come into it’!
I guess my dad who was a long-serving JP, would refer them to Crown Court, and let them sort it out, rather than waste his time…
“According to leaked training from Police Scotland, cops will be allowed to arrest and charge performers if they are reported to police for communicating ‘threatening or abusive material.’5 hours ago”
. . . . . . . .
Where the Streets Have No Jokes (cont)
by Mark Steyn
April 15, 2016
https://www.steynonline.com/7515/where-the-streets-have-no-jokes-cont
The Edinburgh fringe should be interesting in the future.
Nice to see that Police Scotland will now be able to waste time and effort (if they ever did) on this nonsense instead of policing real crime. Why do they not arrest the wee muslim racist Yousaf for hate speech against the indigenous Scottish population.
Beff especially is an embarrassing parody of a client journalist.
https://x.com/markjenkinsonmp/status/1770147330819235890?
Hugo Gye
Interesting that Sky has done piece on Rachel Reeves Mais lecture (news.sky.com/story/echoes-o…) which reads as if the lecture has already been finished – ‘And on the technocratic front, this lecture certainly delivered’ – when other outlets have *not* been sent the text in advance 🤷
What is also interesting is when Labour falls foul of usually compliant media by playing favourites, and they get the hump.
The Archers, Desert Island Discs and In Our Time are among the shows that could be selected for adverts in the future as the BBC looks for ways to plug a £500m black hole in its finances. (in todays DT news)
If only they would pay themselves ‘less’ but thats not going to happen!!! They want both Ad revenue and the TV license. Oh and the TV license fee going up again! (£169) As if we actually want to buy it (we don’t) or watch or listen to it (we don’t). But the BBC has always done its own crappy ADS (its just its always the same state aided stuff: Covid, Climate Change, Veganism, Rap Music, Equality of rice puddings, Dangers of the far right Right (of Corbyn), and how WONDEFULL that the NHS rules the world and is the envy of China (or Russia). Only a fool would believe that. The last’remainers’ of Brexit, how that multi million ‘sponsored’ Ads (from nowhere) failed across the extensive BBC TV and radio network (including even paid for Ads for Google!).. Yes the BBC does ‘ADs; as full on state propaganda and a lot of misinformation. Just ask BBC VERIFY: we are all queuing up to pay the TV license! Imagined. And then How we are all doomed (the planet) – if we don’t vote Labour (and install am expenive Heat-Pump before they all sell out. Perhaps enjoy that EV bus tour experience (15 minute cities). Expand the economy with Wind (Labour and Conservative) . Oh yes the BBC does political Ads. Not good Ads, just repetitive annoying ones that cost nothing to make, all recycled to suit who would pay them the most. Gates, Soros or EU this week? Who cares, the BBC has always done repetitive boring Ads telling us to get jabbed, cough, die (euthanasia), go queer or think left. Dogma, drivel state run socialists par excellence. They think they are the best in the world at it.
And they will still TRY and claim the TV license. After all, they need the money.
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https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/03/19/bbc-plan-run-radio-adverts-catastrophic-uk-media/
Quite right, but as The Archers is now a failed flush since it went woke, queer and the rest, Desert Island Discs only have a couple of interesting people on per year, otherwise it’s some unheard-of drag queen or a leftie writer of trashy rubbish, and I don’t even know what the third prog is, they might as well ditch the whole shebang!
Boris could have stopped all this crap and kicked the TV tax into touch in his first few months, but chose to do bugger all, which is why Bluelabour will sink to about sixty seats by Christmas!
Still, Sunak will be able to listen to the awful World Service in California, so it’s not all bad!
Boris allowed his dick to rule his tiny brain, and let Princess nut nut take over the premiership with all her posh far Leftie liberal mates.
It wasn’t Boris who won the election, Labour under Corbyn lost it, but it was Dominic Cummins who gave some degree of conservative credibility.
The Tories would do well to get Cummins back on board as he was the one who delivered Brexit and then the 80 seat majority.
Thoughtful – thankfully all too late – those of the Right will either not vote or go to Reform – whether it enables a 200 red labour majority or not . I believe the Conservative Party as it is now it hated . I certainly despise it … whatever is to come …
50, 80 , 100, 200, 500
whats the difference , I dont get this worrying about the size of kneelers majority
BBC WEB-SITE Watch #1 – spot the non-deliberate error in the BBC text
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68558061
I got this far:
“…because she’s so formidable..”
https://x.com/agentp22/status/1770150909487550536?s=61
No wonder Janey Godley deleted her Twitter account
Scotland is swirling the drain.
Oooo, dual track. They always work well.
https://x.com/agentp22/status/1770170295036334447?s=61
So actors and comedians can get away with hate crimes for which members of the public would be jailed for?
Really?
Pug – I might be able to outdo you with telegraph postings – below is one about our Justin Webb – who was recently executed by the BBC executive complsints unit after being found guilty of something horrible —-
STARTS It is not, on the face of it, a particularly controversial statement. Justin Webb, the long-time presenter of BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, was discussing new rules banning transgender competitors from taking part in women’s international chess tournaments and said “trans women, in other words males”.
By attempting to clarify one aspect of a knotty subject last August, Webb inadvertently opened a can of worms that has sparked an “absolute meltdown” – in the words of a senior insider – in the BBC newsroom.
The incident also calls into question how the BBC, which is currently desperate to burnish its credentials for impartiality and balance, deals with complaints about its editorial output.
A zealous listener picked up on Webb’s words and lodged a complaint, accusing Webb, 63, of compromising the corporation’s strict impartiality rules. The BBC complaints procedure whirred into action and, a couple of weeks ago, delivered its verdict. Webb, it decided, was guilty as charged. His words, the Executive Complaints Unit (ECU) decreed, “gave the impression of endorsing one viewpoint in a highly controversial area.”
BBC sources say that the ruling has gone down like a cup of cold sick, especially among prominent female presenters. Senior BBC women have written to Tim Davie, the director-general, in their droves to express dismay at the way Webb has been treated. They claim that Webb only stated a fact: although gender identity is largely a social construct, biological sex is immutable and cannot be changed.
One wrote: “Clear statement of fact is not ‘one viewpoint’ and the fact that it is ‘a highly controversial area’ makes it more important to be factual, not less. If the BBC is to censure journalists for being factual we are slipping into very dangerous waters. Once we’ve decided to dispense with public trust we have nothing left.”
The BBC has long struggled with how to cover transgender stories, as staff clash in the newsroom and social media users criticise the corporation’s output. It was forced to admit that a 2021 online article claiming some lesbians feel pressured into sex by trans women did not meet its standards on accuracy after more than 10,000 complained about it.
The ECU ruling on Webb came in the same week that the BBC was criticised for the way it reported on the conviction of Scarlet Blake, a trans woman who murdered a man in Oxford and live streamed killing a cat with a blender. Broadcast items about the case referred to Blake only as a woman, with no mention of the killer being transgender.
“Why is it that we have said that a cat torturer and murderer is a woman, which is plainly involving ourselves in a controversy? You can argue that she is, but lots of people say she is not,” says a senior BBC journalist. “Now, we are saying that we can’t – or are we saying that? What are we saying? It is absolutely, utterly chaotic.” The BBC has since said that it accepts that the fact Blake is transgender “should have been included in the report on the News at One on 26 February”.
Defenders of Webb insist he was merely providing clarity on a controversial topic that often confuses listeners. About one-third of people are unsure about what “trans woman” means, according to polling by Murray Blackburn Mackenzie, a self-styled “policy analysis collective”. Some 20 per cent of those surveyed believed that they were born girls.
The presenter, who has hosted Radio 4’s flagship news programme since 2009, made the aside while speaking with Dominic Lawson, the former Sunday Telegraph editor and writer of two books on chess, about the fact that the International Chess Federation banned trans women, who were born male, from competing in women’s chess events amid fears that it could give an unfair advantage.
The BBC recognised almost as soon as the item was broadcast that Webb’s comment could have caused a problem, and swiftly issued a clarification: “The BBC’s style guide states we should generally use the term and pronoun preferred by the person in question, unless there are editorial reasons not to do so. In this case Justin accepts it would have been more accurate to use the term biological male.”
Yet that was not enough for the ECU, which investigated the complaint nonetheless. “A finding against Justin runs the risk of being far more newsworthy than the size of the infraction because he is a very well-known figure and fantastic journalist,” says Mark Damazer, a former Radio 4 controller who hired Webb to present Today.
“The ECU does what it does and runs the risk of amplification. You can see that it might look like breaking a butterfly on the wheel. It is not a huge infraction and raises the question of whether you are making too much of it,” he adds. “From their point of view they have to deal with the case as they see it, and they thought it wasn’t quite enough that the BBC issued this clarifying statement. I might have thought that was enough.”
Webb has told colleagues that he feels he has been “unfairly discriminated against by the BBC” and that he thinks “there is another agenda here”.
The ECU did not interview him about what he had said, nor allowed him any direct input into the inquiry it conducted. Webb is seeking to learn from whom the ECU took advice on the issue. The suspicion, sources suggest, is that the views of trans activists were given undue weight.
Anya Palmer, a barrister at Old Square Chambers who successfully represented tax expert Maya Forstater when she was unfairly sacked from her job at a thinktank for believing that people cannot change their sex, says that part of the BBC’s approach to Webb was unusual. “It seems really odd he wouldn’t even be given the chance to respond to the complaint before they reach any decision. As a matter of basic fairness, he should be able to respond,” she says.
The debacle only serves to highlight the murky world of the corporation’s complaints department, especially as the BBC is usually resistant to accepting that it has broken impartiality rules. Between 2017 and 2022 the BBC received about 1.7 million complaints. It upheld just 126 of these and only 25 of these successful complaints centred on impartiality.
Some back-of-the-fag-packet maths suggests that means for every 65,000 complaints received just one is upheld on the grounds of impartiality. Is that plausible? Especially given that, according to its own research, only 54pc of its audience believes the BBC to be impartial.
The ECU also appears to have acted with unusual haste. It is not unheard of for the corporation to take more than a year to make a judgement on bias complaints; one former BBC News chief says they have been waiting to hear a reply to their own issue since last summer.
The ECU’s verdict in its damning judgement of Justin Webb is telling. Its statement reads: “In relation to impartiality, however, the ECU considered it could only be understood by listeners as meaning that trans women remain male, without qualification as to gender or biological sex.”
The point to note is that this statement from the ECU is not impartial itself. The phrasing the ECU chose makes it clear that in its view sex — that is the biological reality of male and female – is quite separate from gender which in this interpretation is the socially constructed idea of men and women.
Is this an impartial stance? Is the supposed distinction between sex and gender now universally accepted? Clearly it isn’t – it is the nub of the whole controversy.
A senior BBC News insider says: “Does this ruling mean that the BBC now considers that sex and gender are independent of each other? If so, that is an important point and if the BBC is going to report these matters from that standpoint it should definitely make that clear to the audience.”
The Webb debacle raises questions about whether the ECU is fit for purpose when it has already been severely challenged by ministers over bias claims. It is run by Peter Johnston, a no-nonsense Ulsterman who is paid up to £205,000 a year. Davie took direct charge of overseeing complaints late last year after the corporation was widely criticised, including by culture secretary Lucy Frazer, after being inundated with complaints about the BBC’s coverage of the war in Gaza.
It is a flawed process both ways round. It is flawed to presenters, because they are not allowed to make their case,” says a former BBC News boss. “Equally, most complaints are dismissed. It is neither one thing nor the other.”
It has also highlighted the generational tensions in the BBC newsroom, with some senior journalists alarmed at how newer recruits seem oblivious of their obligation to be even-handed in their coverage of the transgender issue, among others. One says that there may be “a failure in the way BBC journalists are trained”.
Earlier this month, a long-serving BBC journalist wrote in The Spectator, under a nom de plume, despairing the fact that the corporation has set up a new “Verify” unit. The brainchild of BBC News chief executive Deborah Turness, she said it was a reaction to audiences bombarded by disinformation “telling us that amid this noise and sensationalism, they need to see our workings, so we can maintain the trust people have put in the BBC for the last 100 years. People want to know not just what we know (and don’t know), but how we know it”.
BBC Verify is said to employ about 60 journalists. Turness says they all possess wonderful forensic skills that enable them to arrive at truths in which we can all have confidence. So, to keep them gainfully employed, perhaps they might devote themselves to one thorny question. What is a woman?ENDS THANK GOD ….
To quote Henry Higgins “why can’t a woman be more like a man ?’ And I’m sure ‘my fair lady ‘ will be banned pretty soon …
This demonstrates the arrogance big organisations develop . They can never be wrong . They are incapable even of being uncertain …. It’s a bit like the attitude seen on that in house review show they do each week ( I no longer bother ) where a BBC manager turns up to explain why a complainer is wrong and that the blessed BBC is always right …
That word, ‘bloodbath’.
“Man charged after corrosive powder thrown at police”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clejqy8p475o
One of those “men” again ?
Time for a digitally enhanced midweek thread . Thanks all …
From the Unindependent
BBC boss Tim Davie says he is open to a ‘more progressive’ licence fee
BBC director-general Tim Davie has said he is open to a “more progressive” licence fee and revealed the corporation will launch its “biggest-ever consultation process” next year so the public can drive the debate on its future.
The licence fee has been frozen for two years at £159 but in 2023 the Government announced it would use a lower rate of inflation to increase the household charge from April to £169.50 a year.
he freeze and rising inflation has driven the broadcaster to reassess its priorities as it seeks to make £500 million of savings, with Mr Davie announcing on Tuesday that a further £200 million of savings will need to be made.
There is no doubt that the market has changed hugely since the licence fee was introduced and I think it is right to ask fundamental questions about its longevity in a world that is now (given) so much choice
Tim Davie, BBC director-general
Speaking at a Royal Television Society (RTS) event in London to discuss the future direction of the BBC and its role for the UK, Mr Davie said the broadcaster is planning to “proactively research” how it will reform the licence fee post 2028, after the current charter agreement ends in December 2027.
In a speech, he said: “There is no doubt that the market has changed hugely since the licence fee was introduced and I think it is right to ask fundamental questions about its longevity in a world that is now (given) so much choice…
“We should not create another commercial walled garden or a narrow BBC that provides a niche service for the most hardcore users. The very wonder of the BBC is that quality news sits next to genres such as drama and sport, thus ensuring widespread engagement. This is a precious ecosystem.”
He added that the corporation is “not defensive about the future” and believes it “will need reform”.
Mr Davie said that when researching how the broadcaster could reapproach the licence fee it will be “looking at its scope, how it could be more progressive and making sure its enforcement is fair and proportionate”.
Alongside engagement with the Government’s review into the licence fee, he said that starting next year the BBC will open up its “biggest ever consultation process so the public can inform and drive the debate on the future of BBC”.
“Our aim is to make contact and get feedback from hundreds of thousands of people and we do so with an open mind”, he added.
Later answering questions on the future of the licence fee, Mr Davie underlined that he feels it “needs reform” but regards it as “precious”.
The BBC boss noted that those over age 74 who receive Pension Credit are entitled to apply for a free licence and said he is open to considering who else could receive concessions.
He added: “That doesn’t necessarily imply means testing, there could be a number of ways you could make it progressive.
“I just think the idea we’re just sitting where we’re at is the wrong one.”
However, he confirmed he believes a licence fee should be still in place in some capacity as he feels it is important that everyone has a “stake” in it.
“We are curiously really accountable to the British public for that value. And I think that connection is really important and it keeps BBC on its toes in a way which I think is really helpful”, he added.
————————————————————————–
…… and FINALLY The BBC boss also discussed how the corporation’s focus for the future lies within three areas – PURSUING TRUTH WITH NO AGENDA, BACK BRITISH STORY-TELLING AND BRINGING PEOPLE TOGETHER.