181 Responses to Weekend 6th April 2024

  1. Thoughtful says:

    O, TO be in England
    Now that April ‘s there,
    And whoever wakes in England
    Sees, some morning, unaware,
    That the lowest boughs and the brushwood sheaf
    Round the elm-tree bole are in tiny leaf,
    While the chaffinch sings on the orchard bough
    In England—now!

    And after April, when May follows,
    And the whitethroat builds, and all the swallows!
    Hark, where my blossom’d pear-tree in the hedge
    Leans to the field and scatters on the clover
    Blossoms and dewdrops—at the bent spray’s edge—
    That ‘s the wise thrush; he sings each song twice over,
    Lest you should think he never could recapture
    The first fine careless rapture!
    And though the fields look rough with hoary dew,
    All will be gay when noontide wakes anew
    The buttercups, the little children’s dower
    —Far brighter than this gaudy melon-flower!

       26 likes

    • Jeff says:

      Thankyou Thoughtful, a nice way to begin my Saturday morning; my favourite poem.

      I always quote this lovely little rhyme each April, the princess of months. Winter has been vanquished, the dark days are behind us and the best is yet to come…

      I was looking at my own beautiful pear tree only yesterday. I planted this beauty about thirty years ago, bought as a twig from Woolworths, and she never lets me down. There’s lots of creamy blossom and I’m hoping for another bumper harvest come the autumn.

      Despite all the endless propagandist guff about the “climate catastrophe” those of us with our hands in the soil can see that everything is on time and just as it should be.

      O, To be in England.

      Yes indeed…

         20 likes

      • Zephir says:

        Carp fishermen might say otherwise, the carp are breeding earlier and for longer last 20 years or so

           3 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Ah Jeff, from twig to tree in 30 years. Just under 20 years ago I was given a flower arrangement, and they always include a a 6″ fir in the middle. I planted it in a wine barrel along with flowers. Over time the flowers disappeared as the fir took on a life of its own, heading skywards towards my roofline guttering ! 2 months ago I’d had enough, and had it cut down, by 3 strapping young men and me £400 lighter. So beware of the decorative bit of fir in an unsuspecting flower arrangement !

           8 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          Well, I can’t put my sweet peas out yet as they’ll get blown over! They’re a foot tall and will be devils to untangle!

          I also want to get the broad beans in, but it’s been so cold that they’re taking their time to get to about 4″!

          Mind you, I have well over 100 tomato plants screaming ahead in the GH, and hundreds of bedding plants, biding their time, so it’s not all bad…

          Luckily, I avoid the Beeboid gardening programmes these days, preferring to read up the real experts online. There’s so much to pick up without the climate scam getting into every piece of info and shoved down everyone’s throats!

             11 likes

          • Thoughtful says:

            over 100 tomato plants? Are you a market gardener? I have a 16′ by 8′ greenhouse and it’s considered pretty large, but even 10 tomato plants would fill it !

               1 likes

  2. Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

    I’ve just read Allison Pearson’s article in the Telegraph. I am in a state of shock. I didn’t realise that Tory HQ was run by the Lib Dems and their ilk, selecting candidates which conform to the woke agenda and excluding those with conservative values.
    I’ve often wondered why the Tories have never made any serious moves to close down their biggest and most effective detractor the BBC.
    They haven’t made a dent on its influence and power despite mumbling about it sometimes. This latest information reveals that the Tory party movers and controllers see their biggest enemy as being the true conservatives within. They probably think the Beeb is an ally.

       36 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      I posted about this a few days ago. Pearson appears to have lifted her article from conservative post.

      https://conservativepost.co.uk/calling-conservative-party-members-deselect-your-mp-if-theyre-not-being-conservative-enough/

      It’s run by Lord Cruddas but he’s a Boris man so highly suspect himself.

         13 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        If only the blue Labour Party would self destruct sooner rather than later ….. but sunak will hold on as long as he can – their demise begins on 2 May ….

           15 likes

        • Thoughtful says:

          The UK election is going to be inextricably linked with the US election because of the proximity of two.

          If Biden can keep the US economy ticking over the Tories will stand a better chance but if not then both suffer. The divide in UK politics is only going to highlight just how far from conservatism the Tories are as the media will have to report at least some of the policies and last time round the Tories supported Biden

          They could theoretically hold an early election, but I don’t think anyone expects that to happen.

             9 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          Dan Wootton was on fire with his post about Sunak, Fed!

          While I’m on the cheapo-freebie version, his stuff still goes for the throat, which is gratifying!

             4 likes

  3. Deborah says:

    I have said previously that I am a covid numbers junky. Looking at the UKHSA dashboard yesterday I find that for the 7 days leading up to 27 March 2024 there were 1, 127 cases of covid and for the 7 days leading up to 29 March 2024 (only 2 days different) there were 1164 cases of covid admitted to hospital – that is 37 more admitted to hospital than were even diagnosed with covid. Does that mean that virtually everybody who has covid gets admitted to hospital. With all that we went through just 3 or 4 years ago, don’t you think that this might be a story for the BBC? Perhaps not.

    Perhaps someone might investigate why Gov.UK is producing such stupid figures and why someone isn’t saying it is a waste of money.

       20 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      You might investigate how much money and to how many, the vaccine compensation payments have been made, because I get the feeling it’s a similar situation to the subpostmasters where next to no one has received anything.

      BTW have you ever listened to Sophie Solomons Poison Sweet Madeira ? You can find it on you tube if you take a look.

         5 likes

    • kingkp says:

      You might want to look into how ‘covid’ numbers are arrived at. In January 2020, just a few weeks after the Chinese had announced cases of pneumonia of ‘unknown etiology’, a group of ‘scientists’ published a paper called
      “Detection of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) by real-time RT-PCR”
      This became known as the Corman-Drosten paper and was submitted for peer-review to the Eurosurveillance journal on around the 22nd of January 2020. By the next day, it had been reviewed and accepted. Drosten is and was an Associate Editor of the journal so make of that what you will. Either way accepting a paper within one day is highly suspect.
      The paper itself is still available online here.
      https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.3.2000045
      Some excerpts –
      From the introduction –
      “In the present case of 2019-nCoV, virus isolates or samples from infected patients have so far not become available to the international public health community. We report here on the establishment and validation of a diagnostic workflow for 2019-nCoV screening and specific confirmation, designed in the absence of available virus isolates or original patient specimens. Design and validation were enabled by the close genetic relatedness to the 2003 SARS-CoV, and aided by the use of synthetic nucleic acid technology.” Read that several times and let it sink in.
      From the Results section –
      “Before the public release of virus sequences from cases of 2019-nCoV, we relied on social media reports announcing the detection of a SARS-like virus. We thus assumed that a SARS-related CoV is involved in the outbreak. We downloaded all complete and partial (if > 400 nt) SARS-related virus sequences available in GenBank by 1 January 2020.”
      In other words, they use a computer-generated sequence as a template for defining the protocol. This protocol was then distributed across the world including the CDC, the RKI, and Public Health England (renamed to UKHSA). In Germany, by law, the RKI is mandated to conduct primary research into any new disease that is considered a threat to public health. The RKI did no research into ‘SARS-CoV2’. They simply took the Chinese CDC’s word for it that a new virus had been discovered and it was causing pneumonia-like symptoms. Not one public health agency on the planet has ever attempted to isolate ‘SARS-CoV2’ and prove it causes the symptoms it is supposed to. Go and ask the UKHSA for proof of isolation and proof ‘SARS-CoV2’ is contagious.
      Several months after the publication of the Corman-Drosten paper a group of scientists, including experts in the PCR methodology analyzed the Corman-Drosten paper and came to the conclusion it was fundamentally flawed. You can download it here.

      Click to access corman-drosten-review-report.pdf

      What we had was a testdemic. The Corman-Drosten PCR assay was distributed in the billions across the planet. By enabling for a search for one, two or three ‘genes’ and being able to vary the cycle rate at will any authority overseeing the rollout of such assays could determine how many ‘positives’ would show up. In other words if I want to announce a new ‘variant’ I simply use a PCR assay that selects for only one gene and use a cycle rate of 45. Hey presto, the number of positives shoots up. You are not ill. You are simply showing up positive for a test that tests for nothing that would indicate that you are ill.
      PCR was never designed for detecting ‘viruses’. It is simply a method for replicating small stretches of RNA or DNA.

         15 likes

      • atlas_shrugged says:

        kingkp

        Thanks for that nice explanation. I have an outstanding request via PALS to the local Cranebridge Lighthouse test lab to find out what the Ct (Cycle Threshold) value was that they used for positive PCR diagnosis of covid.

        I have heard values of 34 used when apparently 25 is the absolute max that should have been used. Poor old Kary Mullis will be rolling in his grave.

           2 likes

  4. Tabs says:

    Where in the UK can you see the Monday 8 April solar eclipse?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-68731785

    A better question would be “Where in the UK can you see white people?” because there are not very many in the photo.

       34 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Well done Ruth, another BBC racist clone using pictures from the racists at Getty.

      1578432601394?e=2147483647&v=beta&t=EB-YZeVl28rjC0Mnm3kaHMd8bAYFlw0mI7yys7fsXcc

      The original picture is in this article here from 2017:
      https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/gabrielsanchez/this-is-how-people-celebrate-a-solar-eclipse-around-the

      The BBC have cropped out the statue in the background : I checked why and it’s of ‘General Wolfe’, a highly regarded British soldier from 1750 and one of the disgusting white colonialists the BBC far-Left fascists are trying to erase from history.

      Everything the BBC do these days is steeped in their agenda. We must remove this cancer which is trying to destroy everything we are.

         40 likes

  5. JohnC says:

    Israel-Gaza: IDF sacks officers over World Central Kitchen convoy attack
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68739978

    I read this article looking to see if the BBC finally inform everybody of the real reason for this attack : that Hamas have thoroughly infiltrated and are controlling all the aid which goes into Gaza.

    It’s a huge story. It exposes the complete failure of the UN and goes a long way to explaining the imminent ‘famine’ we are constantly being told about.

    But to my complete amazement, all we get are distant references to ‘gunmen’ who are causally mentioned (and only because they are in Israels report) and quickly forgotten.

    I am also amazed at how the BBC work hard to avoid placing any blame for this situation on the terrorists Hamas . Not that the BBC ever remind us they are terrorists these days.

    I would like a bit more information on this ‘World Kitchen’ group. They’ve got far-Left activists written all over them. They are demanding an independent investigation now. Why would they do that given everything else going on in that hell hole ?. Why would they think Israel did it on purpose ?. What else have they been doing ?. These organisations are NEVER simple aid groups. They are ALWAYS full of ideologically driven activists. Just like the UN.

    If the BBC and all the other Leftist MSM put their efforts into exposing everything Hamas are doing and applying as much pressure from the rest of the world to release the hostages and stop making extreme demands to ensure there will be no ceasefire, this might all be over now.

    But they don’t. They don’t even tell us the truth why there is no ceasefire. Once again the hands of the BBC are soaked in the blood of those they are using for their own agenda.

       43 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      Agree. Kind of crazy too that the Israelis are expected, in a war, to help the feed the enemy, and also conduct the war like it’s a careful police operation to arrest a few baddies in a neighbourhood.
      Maybe offer food in exchange for info about hostages..

         32 likes

    • Zelazek says:

      Good points, JohnC and Eddy.

      The killing of the aid workers was clearly a mistake. It is pernicious and malevolent of the BBC to suggest otherwise. Why would the Israelis deliberately do that anyway? There was no military advantage to be gained and it could only result in this propaganda disaster for them. If it was deliberate Israeli policy, why have they sacked the colonel and the major who were responsible? Two seconds thinking about it would convince any sane person that it was not deliberate.

      The outrage about this, not just from the media but from world leaders, seems greater than the reaction that greeted the Hamas murder of 1200 Israelis. It tells you a lot about the inability of the woke West to recognise good from evil.

      Aid workers like this World Central Kitchen are in my view giving succour to Hamas and prolonging the war. If they really want to help “ordinary” Gazans, they should be calling on Hamas to surrender. But they are not. Why not? Because in their warped progressive morality and lop-sided worldview, Israel is the bad guy and the Gazan population, who voted in the Hamas terrorist government and overwhelmingly supported the October 7 massacre, are the good guys.

         24 likes

  6. Scroblene says:

    Just woken up, dog needs to go out, teeth to do etc…

    Happy Saturday one and all…

       15 likes

  7. Eddy Booth says:

    “Ibiza locals living in cars as party island sees rents soar”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-68730891

    _133076232_grab1.jpg.webp

    “César’s Kia has been his home for the past three years. He works as a chef, but with rental costs on the Spanish island of Ibiza having spiralled, he cannot afford to live in a flat.”

    Seems an increasing problem in western globalist run countries -in areas where there’s work, accommodation is unaffordable, and landlords are increasingly renting the homes out as short term holiday lets instead.

    One of the few things Orwell ‘predicted’ wrong: with Winston Smith having his own apartment, but unable to obtain razor blades.
    While in the current dystopia you can easily obtain endless cheap consumables, but can’t find a roof.

       27 likes

  8. Guest Who says:

    Pretty much bbc SOP.

    https://x.com/konstantinkisin/status/1776294901820366942?s=61
    Great summary from @benshapiro of how the “Just Asking Questions” approach is often dishonest and misleading.
    I don’t say this from a public perception POV – when you meet these people they aren’t curious, they are EXTREMELY certain of what they believe – they’re just fearful of saying it publicly.

    Also, getting in guests based on a pre determination of what they will say.

       7 likes

  9. Guest Who says:

    https://x.com/lizrhod24749112/status/1776307598523867341?s=61
    Romeo & Juliet director condemns ‘deplorable racial abuse’ against star – BBC News

    Out of ideas and rehashing a classic to make money? Twat about with casting and call the bbc.

    Middle East Side Story with Gal Gadot as Romeo and Jeremy Corbyn as Goldilocks will be a blast.

       16 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Was it racist abuse against the star or complaints about the racist cultural approriation of the people who made it ?.

      Quite conveniently the BBC don’t give us enough information in the article to know. But I’ll bet my hat the abuse was aimed at the racist BBC for casting a black actor in a white role.

      More of their disgusting racist double standards.

         22 likes

      • MarkyMark says:

        Cricket team told it can’t call itself ‘the Crusaders’…in case it offends Muslims and Jews
        By DAILY MAIL REPORTER
        UPDATED: 11:00, 2 February 2009

           9 likes

        • popeye says:

          This “Crusader” thing always annoys me. The purpose of the Crusades was to RECOVER the Holy Land from the Arabic INVASION, yet it’s presented as though it was the other way round! Yes, BBC, I mean you!

             14 likes

          • Fedup2 says:

            Lucky they don’t know about Mecca bookies …. You can bet on who is gonna win the haj thing …

               7 likes

  10. AsISeeIt says:

    Ice age monster workers and strivers edition

    Our journo friends over there at the BBC: Jonathan Amos, Erwan Rivault and Kate Gaynor – have their GCSE science-style environmental reporting topped off with a literary flourish of a headline this morning: Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg as it drifts towards oblivion

    Mr AsI’s old geography and general science teachers would simply have described the process as melting.

    Oblivion, eh? That’s philosphically poetic stuff worthy of Shakespeare’s young Prince of Denmark:

    Now, whether it be, Bestial oblivion, or some craven scruple
    Of thinking too precisely on the event,
    A thought which, quarter’d, hath but one part wisdom
    And ever three parts coward…

    [Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 4: How all occasions do inform against me]

    Our BBC, despite its main news focus (ie telling us what we ought to think about things) having moved on from Ukraine (decidedly on the back burner, so to speak) to a daily full-court press (as American basketball commentators would put it) onto Gaza, it still keeps a weather eye on the weather.

    The gynaeceum that is the BBC staff press pickers (unusually for them) pick out the jokey blokey Daily Star (the guy-naeceum that is – reliably pinning up some celeb tasty totty on the frontpage – just me or does even the more mature incarnation of Gillian Anderson’s casting in Scoop rather flatter Ms Emily Maitlis?) for first punch in the BBC online newspaper headlines review double whammy headline: Newspaper headlines: Storm Kathleen ‘fury’ and ONS ‘strike over WFH’

    Like Aston Villa or Brighton & Hove Albion FC (if you’re that way inclined) in the football Premier League, that unfashionable outsider Daily Star is this morning high up in the top half of the BBC table alongside some of the big boys – that’s the formerly serious, now largely female interest Times: Zara not Prada The style set’s high street bargains; Sacha Baron Cohen and Isla Fisher have revealed they are to divorce“Is it because I is Black?” “Yagshemash! In U.S. and A., if you want to marry a girl, you cannot just go to her father’s house and swap her for 15 gallons of insecticide.”

    The mildly conservative – complacently watching daily as the world goes by – Daily Telegraph: Romesh Ranganathan ‘My kids know I get racist abuse’; Honeytrap targets another Tory MP; Tories accused of blocking ‘true blues’… high-quality applicants for the list of approved parliamentary candidates are being rejected because of their traditional Conservative values

    Charles Moore meanwhile echoes Mr AsI’s comments made yesterday hereabouts: Politicians, not lawyers, must decide our policy on Israel (Telegraph)

    The Rishi lackey loyalist Daily Express: PM: Buckle up! Britain is ready for economic takeoff… An upbeat Rishi Sunak brushed off polling blues… as “workers and strivers” are rewarded with tax cuts today – calm down, dear?

    Now civil servants to strike over WFH… Statistics staff plan walkout after being told to come to office TWO days a week (Daily Mail) – Oh the humanity! I thought slavery had been abolished? And there we were thinking those Statos over at the ONS might be Rishi’s natural constituency: We must change our anti-maths mindset in order to boost growth, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said (Gov.UK)

    The globalist technocrat supra-national FT: The AI promise Henry Mance meets the sceptics – don’t go telling me there are people out there who are luddite and flat earth-minded enough to actually question the future utopia that is AI? Get with the program!

    Mr AsI does always admire a close juxtapostion of narrative-busting headlines on our frontpages: German court orders store robots to take Sundays off… robo-shops were “basically walk-in vending machines”… service union… feared knock-on effects for human workers (FT)

    So the human manual worker’s friend that is the Daily Star – keen as it is on the lastest mad thing our scientists (aka boffins) have dreamed up, the on-going conflict between humans and seagulls: They’re at it again… Psycho Seagull mugs TV legend… then dumps on his car when he fights back (Daily Star classic from August 2019) will reliably always come back to the weather as the stuff for cor blimey tabloid frontpage subject matter

    And so it is today when our BBC admires the Star for their top story: Kath in a fury… Brace yourself for wet, wild, quite warm storm battering Britain today… Storm Kath will cause chaos… 70mph winds.. with 20C temps! – and if – for whatever reason – you don’t witness any weather chaos… there’ll always be another day’s headline about the seagulls: Seagull Terror: Lock up your babies… Expert warns giant birds WILL kill tots (another Star classic from the archives – hope you’ve got all these on file and ready to hand Mr MarkyMark?)

    From expert fears about child killer seagulls back to the latest BBC climate reporting – sometimes these segueways write themselves

    Where were we? Ah yes… Tracking the world’s biggest iceberg as it drifts towards oblivion

    Monster bergs

    monster – verb informal British, criticize or reprimand severely.
    “my mum used to monster me for coming home so late”
    “the tabloid press monstered Prince Andrew about an alleged affair with a 17-year-old, 20 years ago”

    Whenever people hear about these monster bergs, they immediately think it must be a signature of climate change – the consequence of a warming world. The truth is always more complicated. (BBC)

    Just like fears about our level of immigration, fears about climate change is somewhat a matter of scale

    Although its size is reducing with every passing day, the huge iceberg is still about 3,800 sq km (1,500 sq miles) – larger than 29 countries, including Luxembourg, Bahrain and Singapore… Iceberg A23a could barely fit in the English Channel

    Cartographers at our BBC may not have bothered to update their: Ukraine in maps: Tracking the war with Russia – since 21st Febraury – but they do have a graphic to show their monster berg in scale comparison with our English Channel – and just imagine how many illegal migrants would simply walk over from Calais to Dover on that monster – that would save a lot of tax payer cash currently being splashed out on Border Force boats

       23 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      “The AI promise Henry Mance meets the sceptics – don’t go telling me there are people out there who are luddite and flat earth-minded enough to actually question the future utopia that is AI? Get with the program!” – Maybe they should be labelled conspiracy theorists and told to accept the science.

         7 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        I wonder wouid happen if this AI thing worked out that the green crap really is green crap ? Bet the WEF would bury it .. if not done already …

           15 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Asiseeit
      I’m a bit vexed about public ‘employees ‘ going on strike about having to go to work . What are they going to do ? Picket themselves at home ? Down phones ?

      Some of these ‘public services ‘ are so poor (HMRC – Land Registry ) that it won’t make any different if they withdraw labour because they are not using labour anyway ….

      Declaration – I’ve got land registration to get done – my ‘legal team ‘( love that ) tell me I might need to wait 18 to 24 months to get it done ‘because of covid ‘ …… I thought 24 days was a bit long ….
      ….. but sometimes I forget that I am still domiciled in a failing third world ‘country ‘….

      ( I bet the interns / junior staff at 77 brigade monitoring sites like this for signs of ‘insurrection ‘ won’t go on strike – eh girls ?)

         23 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Thanks AsISeeIt – “Seagull Terror: Lock up your babies… Expert warns giant birds WILL kill tots” …. maxresdefault.jpg

         1 likes

  11. Scroblene says:

    As ‘scientists’ are always trying to disprove the theories of other ‘scientists’, it seems odd that when Normal Citizens decide that they’re all talking tosh, the so-called boffins get all hissy and call us conspiracy theorists!

    I’m pretty sure that there aren’t any Beeboid cubiclists who claim to be scientists, unless they have some sort of honorary degree in an obscure trade like garden-metalwork, but you can bet your bottom dollar that they’ll all scream and shout about scientific issues because they think that if you yell loud enough, the dullard public will think they’re right!

    Luckily, there’s so much alternative information around these days, it’s a wonder that anyone even bothers to listen to them, or God forbid, watch their rather confused stuff!

       21 likes

  12. atlas_shrugged says:

    ‘Misinformation Expert’ so beloved of the likes of the bBC, NBC, and CNN (and other media fantasy stations) issues humiliating apology:

    https://vigilantnews.com/post/misinformation-expert-who-attacked-flccc-doctors-issues-public-apology/

       9 likes

  13. Fedup2 says:

    Seems like the BbC has a new campaign – this one is for council tax debt ….. yippee – more benefits ! ….

    And I wonder how that is going to pan out when red labour comes in ? Will they finally revalue dwellings as a method to ramp up council taxes even further ? Shift the bandings up so that the most feckless get an even easier – subsidised – carefree existence whilst people who work or save are creamed ?
    I bet I know which way the BBC wouid go ….

    .. people like me – who would cut council spending / staffing / pensions are well ‘ unacceptable ‘….

       21 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Fed, I wonder what levels the Community Charge would be at now if the Combined Lefty Forces had not demonstrated against it but had allowed it continue to 2024?

         6 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Up2
        The problem is – as shown by Birmingham council – they know whatever they do they have a captive supply of cash – namely taxpayers ..( I nearly used the word ‘hostage ‘ but that just would have not been right )

        Brum – I understand – is raising taxes by 20% over two years – so their spend on non payment it gonna go up up up …

        Controlling local council spending is something on that list that blue labour could have done – instead – like so much else – they’ve done nothing …

           15 likes

        • G says:

          Said it repeatedly that until the public regain or take thorough control over the Governments (plural) ‘income’, nothing will change. If you found a cash-point that mysteriously gave out money for free without any accountability, you’d be continually in the queue.

          Strange silence from the Taxpayers Alliance when the questions are posed. Wonder why………..

             1 likes

      • Deborah says:

        I remember the drive to get people to pay ‘just a little more’ of their hard earned money on social care. The BBC was constantly showing voxpops of people more than willing. With the ‘cost of living crisis’, I wonder what those people think now.

           11 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          ‘Those with the broadest shoulders ‘…

          …’hard working families … ‘

             7 likes

        • G says:

          Next will be the suppressed police. With Government daily churning out new/amended legislation which requires enforcement by police are the Government ever told by the latter: ‘we can’t cope without more officers, so ‘no’ we will not be supporting the proposals’.

          But ponder on what if the police were allowed to expand pro-rata with the real workload, what numbers of police would result? Suggest, it would be East Germany Stasi numbers. That would expose the concerted drift experienced in the Western nations toward …………….Communism.

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stasi

          Nice to see Pol Pot in Scotland introducing the new, ‘Informants’ policy of reporting. The Stasi had it off to a fine-art. The conversion? Well under way.

             2 likes

  14. tomo says:

       14 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      “He wrote to the scientific paper saying ‘take me off your fucking mailing list’ with a diagram. They wrote back saying your paper has been accepted.”

         1 likes

  15. tomo says:

    The BBC is at the forefront of “Just Asking Questions”

    – on most days there’s usually four or five (mind crushingly) inane “questions” on their web site front page.

       7 likes

  16. Up2snuff says:

    er, I’m not sure I should post this here but it is about BBC bias in favour of the Palestinians in Gaza *

    TOADY Watch #1 – Lyse Doucet finds a willing victim who says all the things the BBC wants to hear

    I was listening post-8 a.m. after the News Bulletin when Lyse Doucet who is reporting/presenting from Jerusalem with the Bee Lady (in London) found a Palestinian (did not catch name) who in answer to Lyse’s questions said all the right things about how bad Israel is to the inhabitants of the Gaza strip.

    *If FedUp2 deems it unsuitable for this Thread, I will understand and support him in moving it to the v. Israel Thread. Warning: There will be a TOADY Watch #2 that deals with the BBC’s hypocrisy over former President Trump.

       12 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      TOADY Watch #2 – the BBC’s hypocrisy on air for all to hear

      Apparently former US President Donald Trump is on the front page of the i newspaper this morning, ‘interfering’ in the forthcoming UK General Election, whenever that will be. Curiously the i newspaper is missing from the BBC Blog this morning: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-68746608

      I wonder why?

      Martha Kearney led with this item in the ‘first look at the papers’ (why do TOADY forget or omit the 7.40 a.m. and 8.40 a.m. ‘Look at the papers on a Saturday these days?). Apparently Donald Trump has spoken very warmly about Nigel Farage (“What a great guy he is” or somesuch) That is typical of the BBC’s hypocrisy.

      Not long after the tragic events of October 7th in Israel, the BBC have been pushing for a General Election in Israel. They hate Bibi with a vengeance. Similarly, in India. The BBC dislike for Narendra Modi is apparent. The BBC have also ‘interfered’ in the last Brazilian Election making clear their dislike for the Conservative Jair Bolsonaro. The BBC happily ‘interfere’ in other countries Elections, think of the salacious rumours about former President Trump in 2020 and also after 2016.

      BBC = hypocrites of the worst kind. “It is alright when the BBC does it for other nations, but not when others we consider are interfering in UK Elections it is definitely not!”

         25 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Just been to the link provided by the BBC to the ‘i’ newspaper but unfortunately the article about former President Trump is behind a paywall.

           6 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Up2
      Between you and me – I’m past caring about where comments turn up . I’m fed up reading arguments – opinions – about Hamas v Israel ….. it achieves nothing . Does it change views ? I’m not sure . But generally the way the BBC just parrots releases of ‘news’ by Islamic Hamas impacts the more gullible public opinion ….

      Keep going IDF – we still don’t hear about their losses I notice ..very Islamic BBC

         21 likes

      • Deborah says:

        What makes me sad is when I speak to friends who get their news on Gaza/Israel from the BBC and believe every word of it. Tell them of the Israeli women who tell their stories of rape etc and the response is that it is all propaganda and you shouldn’t believe everything you hear. But tell them that they shouldn’t believe the numbers who have died in Gaza, that it isn’t probably the 33,000 claimed and be told by them that it comes from the UN and quoted by the BBC, so it must be right. I weep.

           27 likes

  17. tomo says:

    We all know one?

       23 likes

  18. Lunchtime Loather says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-68743257
    Scammed out of £250, and yet they look ecstatically happy about it, and even put balloons up!

       8 likes

  19. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    I have long concluded from my monitoring of the BBC website that the BBC no longer reports the news but rather produces BBC approved narratives. Everything coming into the BBC gets shoehorned into these narratives one way or another or they are just not reported and ignored. It occurs across the board. The most duplicitous is how they report stories and history to children on their News Round section. Some of the narratives are just preposterous propaganda that I would expect anyone who has had any level of academic training to identify easily.

       23 likes

  20. tomo says:

    The Guardian defends a “Tory”

    Paging Mr. Rick Mayall

       12 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Oh come on – we’ve all been compromised by sending ‘personal pictures ‘ to someone one has never met and doesn’t know ..
      And been pressured to pass on security sensitive information ….
      I bet the KGB must laugh at the politicians here …. I saw that this Wragg character has lead in killing nut nut during party gate … some get what they deserve …

         17 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      treason, the crime of betraying a nation or a sovereign by acts considered dangerous to security. In English law, treason includes the levying of war against the government and the giving of aid and comfort to the monarch’s enemies.7 Mar 2024″

         0 likes

  21. Cooper_Man says:

    Headline on the Beeb’s webshite: “Torso found in Salford woodland was a man, police say.”

    A comment from Ch Supt Tony Creely has me scratching my head in confusion – “forensic tests had confirmed that the victim was a man who could not have survived.”

    What?

       18 likes

  22. tomo says:

       13 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Marvellous and pizza as well

         7 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Struggling council in Birmingham …

      It was commissioned by Legacy West Midlands, a registered charity which celebrates the heritage of post-war migrant communities in Birmingham.

      Mr Perry said: “The Strength of the Hijab is a piece which represents women who wear hijabs of the Islamic faith, and it’s really there because it’s such an underrepresented part of our community, but such an important one.

      https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-66848973

      _131128556_strengthofthehijab.jpg.webp

         1 likes

  23. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    You all deserve some light relief. Here I give you some light relief. The following is a BBC Sports Article: Crystal Palace 2 Man City 4. Please go to the comments section and read the highest rated comment (from POB) and the replies – before they are deleted:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68697135

    the reply suggesting that BBC articles are AI generated with a few key words and some data may be on to something.

    There are several removed comments but one got through where mention is raised of the BBC top fact checker (Marianna Spring) having faked parts of her own CV (comment of John Reith).

       14 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      It’s all wiped …

         9 likes

      • Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

        I can still see the comments (Win10 + Brave Browser): some comments have been removed but plenty remain including the ones I indicated.

        I also use an old version of the Tor Browser (VPN) so that I can access the international version of the BBC website (.com rather than .co.uk) and I have noticed over the past month the Tor Browser returns a Tablet (phone) version of the international website where the comments section is not visible (checked previously for a news story which had an active comments section on the Win10 + Brave version).

           7 likes

  24. Fedup2 says:

    Seems that the emir of londonistan has been targeted by peacefull anti Ulez demonstrators at one of his homes – the one in streatham –
    The full force of the law was used to disperse protesters- 6 victims were arrested .

    This was clearly an attempt at insurrection and protesters must be sent to federal prisons where they can be suicided ..

    The Emir must not be threatened .. long live his personal protection regiment …

       22 likes

  25. taffman says:

    Who would not describe Hamas as “Terrorists” ?
    ……………https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-67053011

       9 likes

  26. Eddy Booth says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-68749936

    “Greta Thunberg: Activist arrested at Hague climate protest”

    _133093464_d98674f8e6e02b28ab34ef2a4267268ddaa551660_0_2694_15151000x563.jpg.webp

    “The Swedish activist described her arrest as ‘peaceful’. She sat at the back and chatted before being driven away”

    Some roided up cops took here away; it’s not clear if she was released back into the wild and then rearrested later ..

       12 likes

  27. Flotsam says:

    Our Council, Cheshire East, has decided that it needs to run a “sustainable” budget by saving £100 million. What we have to wonder is why weren’t they running the budget properly in the first place. One can only conclude it’s too easy to spend/waste other people’s money.

    Cost control in Local Authorities is non existent, they are clueless.

       22 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Mrs Thatcher said something to the effect that she managed the U.K finances in the same way as she managed her own housekeeping money.

      It is sound advice. What money is coming in and then spend on the essentials. Any money left over can either be saved for next week/year or spent on little treats. Not difficult is it? I am not holding out much hope that the incoming government will apply Mrs Thatcher’s common sense.

         13 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Resettlement Revenue Grants

      “Elected councillors agree a budget each year that shows how much money we will need for the services we will be providing, and where the money will come from. Council Tax has to make up the difference between the amount we receive from other sources and the total it costs us to provide our services. This difference is called the Council Tax requirement.”

      https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/council_tax/about-council-tax/council-tax-budgets-and-spending.aspx

      We have increased Council Tax by 4.99% for 2024-25.

      Gross-Expenditure-Budget-2024-25.png

      . . . . .

      Revenue grant that will fund the Communities team whilst they support
      refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan.
      National government announced schemes to support Ukraine nationals
      escaping the war in Ukraine. There are two main schemes – the Ukrainian
      Family Scheme and Homes for Ukraine.
      The Council are providing support to people that are coming from Ukraine.
      The expectations and associated funding from Government is to provide
      safeguarding checks and integration support for this cohort including
      supporting the Sponsors who are offering accommodation. It is proposed that
      £850,000 of the expected income from Government in 2023/24 is set against
      the legitimate costs the Council has incurred supporting people.
      During 2022/23 adult social care staff and contracted services to the value of
      £1.65m were diverted to supporting the Homes for Ukraine scheme. Based
      on the planned timescale of the scheme it is anticipated that up to £850,000
      of costs and activity will be incurred in 2023/24 to support the scheme.
      There are no new equality implications arising from this proposal.

      Click to access ah23-27-14-hlbc-resettlement-revenue-grants.pdf

         1 likes

  28. Flotsam says:

    I realise there is an issue on this forum with posts that don’t directly address BBC news and programs. I no longer watch or listen to anything the BBC broadcasts so cannot comment on their biased rubbish. However I do know what the BBC agenda and bias is I know that when I express my views on current affairs on here I am sure they will be opposite of whatever the BBC promotes.

       20 likes

    • Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

      I monitor the BBC website for various reasons. One of the reasons is that it gives me an insight into what the British public and what British Politicians are exposed to when they switch on the television and tune into the BBC to see what is going on in the world. The BBC seems to be the biggest news network in the world broadcasting in various languages, with about a 5 billion pound annual income and employing tens of thousands of people.

         12 likes

  29. tomo says:

    Met plod “at it” again

       13 likes

  30. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    BBC News Frontpage (international edition) “Solar Eclipse 2024: The world’s eclipse chasers arrive in North America, By Nadine Yousif, BBC News”
    https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-68737365

    So what grabbed my attention to this article? It is another example of the BBC celebrating the jet-setter lifestyle. In the article they interview a wealthy white woman who has jetted around the world numerous times to see various solar eclipses. Another person they interview has seen 83 solar eclipses across 42 countries.

    It ticks all the boxes: independent woman / wealthy people living life to the full. It is also another excuse to send a huge BBC team off to North America to gawp at yet another solar eclipse.

    What you don’t see in these types of articles: carbon footprint, end of the world climate change predictions because of people like you taking too many air trips, say no to oil, Greta Thunberg et cetera which you will find in other articles.

    Everyday I see the BBC hypocrisy, I print to PDF and record another datum.

       15 likes

  31. Guest Who says:

    Bunter suddenly oddly forgiving.

    https://x.com/adamboultontabb/status/1776708207332728988?s=61
    She had a private life with loose ends like a lot of people. Call the inquisitors.

       1 likes

  32. Eddy Booth says:

    “Tens of thousands of Israelis rally in Tel Aviv demanding Gaza hostage deal”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68754109

    BBC loving these protests.
    What lind of deal do the protesters want to strike for the hostages?
    A tiny details the BBC doesn’t bother with here.

       16 likes

    • JohnC says:

      Just reading that Eddy.

      I was astounded to read it and discover the BBC do not even mention why there is no deal. The whole article infers it’s Israels fault that Hamas still have the hostages.

      Hamas are demanding all of Israels forces pull out, everyone is allowed back to the North without restriction and only then will they start to negotiate hostages in exchange for prisoners.

      Hamas do not want a deal. Their leaders are simply waiting for an escalation of the conflict or for international pressure to humiliate Israel and to get all their demands.

      This is a massive lie by omission. Even by the BBC’s standards. Hamas leaders will be VERY happy with this article from the faithful BBC. It’s a complete disgrace.

         27 likes

    • Deborah says:

      The Israeli demonstrators are exactly the same kind of people who will demonstrate in the United States should Trump get elected. They will all be screaming ‘Not my President’.

      The sad thing is that these people don’t need funding. They are the white upper class with the arrogance to think they are demonstrating on behalf of the poor. They have been brainwashed and don’t understand their stupidity.

         15 likes

  33. JohnC says:

    Speeding tickets sent to man after his death on the M1
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leicestershire-68542407

    The family of a man who was sent speeding tickets after being fatally struck by a lorry said the letters had caused them “more pain”.

    ‘His brother said the letters had caused “added trauma”.’

    Oh the injustice and cruelty of it. Despite the man’s death, his family feel suitably outraged about these speeding tickets that they contacted the BBC to report it.

    And not just a quick article, a very lengthy one crammed full of empathy.

    And it quickly degenerates into the usual BBC farce where the victim is blameless and it’s all the fault of the police:

    ‘He claims he called several times and “begged” someone to go to his brother and take him to a safe space.

    “I told them he was vulnerable and that it wasn’t safe for him to be there because of his mental health,” he said.’

    What ?. Why not tell him to just climb up the embankment and wait like everyone else ?.

    And the BBC are relentless in the quotes from the family:
    ‘”I’m trying to support my family – it’s just causing more pain. We should not have to suffer from the added trauma like this.’

    And as usual the importants facts are slipped in right at the end. Like how all the charges were automatically generated instantly cancelled when the police found out.

    And we discover he was on the hard shoulder after crashing into the central reservation. Presumably while speeding. No further details given of course. And no details of the lorry driver who hit him on the hard shoulder either.

    Sounds a lot like some scumbags looking to get compensation to me. But why would the BBC be so blatantly trying to help them with an article like this ?.

    Here’s why : the ‘victim’:
    _132901749_shafiqulhaidhar.jpg.webp

    And the author:
    asha-patel.jpeg.256x256_q100_crop-smart.jpg

       24 likes

  34. JohnC says:

    Bradford stabbing: Woman, 27, dies in city centre attack
    https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-bradford-west-yorkshire-68753578

    As soon as I saw this headline I knew for sure I would not get any details about the attacker.

    I was right.

    Other reports say she was ‘brutally stabbed’. The BBC just say ‘a woman was stabbed by a man’. Bare minimum information like this from the BBC always means one thing.

    As they are appealing for witnesses and dashcams, a description of him might just have been useful. Something like ‘A man of Pakistani origin wearing a red jacket’.

       25 likes

  35. tomo says:

       17 likes

  36. harry142857 says:

    Not the BBC.

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/1885677/angela-rayner-second-home

    Angela Rayner boasted of ‘domestic bliss’ at home Labour deputy says she didn’t live in

    ——————————————————–
    Pictures shared by Angela Rayner on social media reportedly show Labour’s deputy leader was not living at the Stockport home she said she was living at.

    Angela Rayner has been accused of not being “straightforward” with the public over her property dealings amid claims social media postings “prove” she lived with her husband and children.

    Labour’s deputy leader has faced questions for weeks about whether she paid the right amount of tax on the 2015 sale of her council house due to confusion over whether it was her principal residence.

    The senior Labour MP has repeatedly insisted she had “done absolutely nothing wrong” and took legal advice that no rules were broken.

    But a Mail on Sunday investigation claims to have uncovered pictures which it says prove Ms Rayner was living at her now ex-husband’s address when she had been adamant her “principal property” was a house in Stockport.

    One photo from the property Ms Rayner claims not to have lived at was posted with the caption “just got home”, according to the Mail on Sunday.

    Another from April 2014 reportedly read “just got home” and is said to have included a photo of one of her children playing against a Lowndes Lane backdrop.

    One from 2012 said “I can cook”, and was shared with a picture of her children in the kitchen at Lowndes Lane, according to the MoS.

    The MoS says it has seen documents it says show Ms Rayner was registered on the electoral roll at Vicarage Road for five years after marrying Mark Rayner in 2010. He was listed at an address in Lowndes Lane, according to the publication.

    When Ms Rayner re-registered in 2010 the births of two of her children she gave her address as Mr Rayner’s house, the Mail reports.

    Ms Rayner has been approached for comment. She told the publication the Vicarage Road property was her home, saying: “I bought my council house back in 2007. I owned my own home, lived there, paid the bills there and was registered to vote there, prior to selling the house in 2015.

    “All before I was an MP. As with the majority of ordinary people who sell their own homes, I was not liable for capital gains tax because it was my home and the only one I owned.”
    Tory MP James Daly told the Mail on Sunday the “staggering” revelations seem to show Ms Rayner has not been telling the truth “about the most basic facts”.

    He said Sir Keir Starmer has said he has full confidence in her but has refused to consider any evidence. Mr Daly added: “This is now a question about his leadership and whether he is happy to have a deputy incapable of being straightforward with the public.”

    The claims first emerged in a book by former Tory deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft, where it was alleged she failed to properly declare her main home.

    The unauthorised biography alleges the MP for Ashton-under-Lyne bought her former council house, in Vicarage Road, with a 25 percent discount in 2007 under the right-to-buy scheme.
    former carer, Ms Rayner is said to have made a £48,500 profit when selling the house eight years later.

    Government guidance says a tenant can apply to buy their council home through the right-to-buy scheme if it is their “only or main home”.

    Her husband was listed at an address in Lowndes Lane, about a mile away, which had also been bought under the right-to-buy scheme.

    In the same year as her wedding, Ms Rayner is said to have re-registered the births of her two youngest children, giving her address as where her husband resided

       15 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      It’s nice that a socialist makes a £48000 tax free profit on her ‘property ‘. I’m sure the legal advice she got ( from a ‘friend ‘) was based on full honest disclosure and she will not be the subject of a prosecution for tax fraud ….

      As an mp she will not be the first one to have carried out such an alleged fraud …

         17 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        https://x.com/campbellclaret/status/1776716036911353883?s=61
        Imagine if William Wragg was a Labour MP. You would be reading of nothing else in the right wing rags.

        #ccbgb

           7 likes

      • Flotsam says:

        Did she rent her own home out while she lived at her husband’s? If she didn’t pay tax on that income that would be a big issue.

           14 likes

      • Thoughtful says:

        It’s nice that she has her own limited company too, and special Ange receives special treatment from Burnhams Gestapo.

        Some silly old bloke was unbelievably sent to prison for an Email he sent her warning “watch your back” Others who have received far worse were the victims of Police inaction.

        It is as bad as thte corruption in US state run institutions like the FBI. And that is why there is a campaign to vote Galloway into the position and get rid of the awful Burnham. Not because we like Galloway but because given the levels of corruption in the voting system he is the only one who could be elected to the position.

           18 likes

  37. Guest Who says:

    https://x.com/cold957/status/1776847508402004090?s=61
    The left and the media in America, losing their shit because Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson will not be endorsing Joe Biden.
    The outraged lunatics putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 10 angrily accusing him of being a Trump supporter.

    Should he move so far as suggesting that for the most powerful man in the world the best choice is likely not a dribbling simpleton, he may nudge over to ‘far right’.

       17 likes

  38. Guest Who says:

    https://x.com/kulganofcrydee/status/1776865563064590842?s=61
    Tory MPs’ anger at Clive Myrie’s jokes on Have I Got News For You – as BBC newsreader who is tipped to present the election night coverage is accused of making tasteless jokes about the Government dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1… <BBC Newsreader biased…I'm shocked I tell you, shocked.

    Any jokes about Ginger Growler? No? They might see the need for a Helmut and flak jacket in the studio.

       20 likes

  39. Fedup2 says:

    Apparently after 12 years in charge a number of blue labour MPs have discovered that ‘Britain isn’t prepared for war ‘. Some might say that’s a good thing . In the recent past Britain has got involved in other peoples’ wars because the US wanted it . It wanted to spread the blame – Iraq – afgee .

    But as a taxpayer I ask ‘what’s in it for me ?’ I’m not interested in principles – I’m interested in personal benefit – eg cheaper energy / oil . If all we get is body bags and wrecked young men coming back – I don’t want to know .

    As for being ready for war – no thanks – these woke tories still see Britain as a global nation – well being that has led to cities over whelmed with the third world and ordinary British suffering the consequences .

    So red or blue labour – don’t waste my money getting ready for war – we have already been invaded while you watch it ….

    But if you do fancy a war – send your kids to fight first ….

       23 likes

    • Thoughtful says:

      Thanks to the situation in the Middle East you are going to see oil at $100 a barrel before the Summer and potentially $150 by year end.

      Biden has been draining the SPR at a rate again and he seems to see it as a Democrat election facility but there won’t be anything left by November and he has to refill it at some point adding pressure to prices.

      Natural Gas has also been fast increasing in price, so it’s going to be another expensive Winter if you like keeping warm.

      Gold on the other hand has put on around 15% in USD since the start of March, so good news for anyone who took the advice and bought in. UK Coins are exempt from CGT of course.

         4 likes

  40. Guest Who says:

    https://x.com/jack_petocz/status/1776643337379848676?s=61
    I’m Jack Petocz, a 19 y/o activist that’s been fighting for marginalized people for years.
    Yesterday, I was expelled from Vanderbilt University for peacefully protesting the genocide in Palestine.
    Vanderbilt will let sexual assaulters walk free, but expel passionate organizers.

    #ccbgb

       5 likes

  41. friend of yogi bear says:

    HANDS UP WHO IS SURPRISED

    It seems Clive Myrie was on a BBC quiz programme saying rude things about the Tories , Trump , etc, and there are complaints that this is biased.

    Well, what is the surprise element, Clive was surely on the programme to do that and the programme is produced to do that.

    “Some people “are saying that clive will be presenting the general election coverage with Laura Kronsberg. Absolutely perfect pair for the job…nobody will watch the BBC that night, excellent stuff.

    In our house we haven’t been able to cope or take poor Clive seriously since his nightly portrayal of a news hound “somewhere on a roof, in eastern europe, in the dark , looking utterly bewildered” and wearing full body armour, despite being 400km away from where anything was happening.
    I wish him well, especially in his fight against the racism that has held him back and is apparently preventing him for acheiving any success in life. Just don’t ask me to take him seriously.

       21 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    https://x.com/latimeralder/status/1776874080345452825?s=61
    How climate change is hitting vulnerable Indonesian trans sex workers

    BBC flying a dedicated investigative team out?

       9 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      Gary Glitter: Thailand vows to ensure disgraced star returns to UK
      This article is more than 15 years old
      Convicted child molester is released from Vietnamese prison and forced to fly home in economy class

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2008/aug/19/ukcrime.childprotection

      garyglitter460.jpg?width=620&dpr=2&s=none

      The former glam rock singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, was driven from Thu Duc prison to Ho Chi Minh City airport, from where he will be deported back to Britain. Vietnamese authorities have forced Glitter to travel economy class after blocking his preferred choice of first or business class.

      Victory for the raped kids! Economy class!

      The court said Glitter had molested the girls repeatedly at his villa and in nearby hotels. His sentence was reduced by three months last year for good behaviour during Vietnam’s annual lunar new year prison amnesty.

      . . . . . . .

      Vietnam grants amnesty to over 5,000 prisoners
      Vietnam will release more than 5,000 prisoners as part of an annual prison amnesty, but not a Catholic priest whom U.S. senators have campaigned to have freed, an official said Monday.
      https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna32624233

         2 likes

  43. AsISeeIt says:

    Cultivating conservative contacts edition – in which Mr AsI decides to play along – a devil emoji followed

    Who were the seven aid workers killed in Gaza? (BBC) – rest assured our BBC will not be promoting any conspiracy theses under this questioning header – this will indeed be a straight forward hagiographic panegyric by Hafsa Khalil & Rushdi Abualouf emphasising the largely… let’s say the largely… Westernness… of those concerned: The victims were British, Polish, Australian, Palestinian and also included a dual US-Canadian citizen (the collective west as Alexander Mercouris might say) – this BBC mournful citation of internationalist (the liberal west part of the world at any rate) heroism is linked to from the report by the BBC’s Sean Seddon:

    On Thursday, US President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Washington’s ongoing support was contingent on more aid being allowed into Gaza and additional measures being introduced to protect aid workers. (BBC)

    Biden ‘outraged’ over Israel strike on World Central Kitchen staff in Gaza (By Ido Vock & Tiffanie Turnbull BBC News)

    Apologies to Elivis Costello

    Accidents will happen
    With all the hit and run
    Gazans used to be the victims now they’re not the only ones
    Accidents will happen

    Newly Declassified Video Shows U.S. Killing of 10 Civilians in Drone Strike… The New York Times obtained footage of the botched strike in Kabul, whose victims included seven children, through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit… U.S. strike on a car at a family home in Kabul on Aug. 29, 2021, that killed 10 Afghan civilians. (Joe Biden was US President at the time) (New York Times, January 2022)

    Hidden Pentagon Records Reveal Patterns of Failure in Deadly Airstrikes… Shortly before 3 a.m. on July 19, 2016, American Special Operations forces bombed what they believed were three ISIS “staging areas” on the outskirts of Tokhar, a riverside hamlet in northern Syria… They reported 85 fighters killed. In fact, they hit houses far from the front line, where farmers, their families and other local people sought nighttime sanctuary from bombing and gunfire. More than 120 villagers were killed (Barack Obama was US President at the time) (New York Times, December 2021)

    Have a Google and see if you can find any similar sorry incidents under President Trump – just asking

    From whataboutery… to what’s this all about then?

    Bradford stabbing: Woman, 27, dies in city centre attack (BBC)

    As the casino croupiers tend to say “Attention mesdames et messieurs, faites vos jeux!” [Place your bets]

    From trouble oop north… to trouble at t’mill

    What will people do when no one’s watching?

    Soap in budgeting row… Corrie cast of living crisis – Mr AsI gives a certain degree of due kudos to the Sunday Mirror for that amusing rather self-aware and self-depracating punning headline from the Labour supporting cost of living crisis promoting title.

    Actors angry as hours are cut to save cash… ITV hopes it will save money… sparked panic on set by slashing the number of stars in each storyline (Mirror)

    BBC East Enders to come out sympathy?

    Stacey’s favourite recipe ideas for a busy family (Mirror) – our Stacey Solomon’s photo pinned up there frontpage in a low cut white satin frock that’s obviously been nowhere near a kitchen.

    Starmer four years as Labour leader. You can trust us… we have changed – our stuffed shirt Sir Keir rather slumming it there in the Mirror – his habitual interview venue recently being hosted by his flourishing new bromance partner – the formerly patriotic Times.

    The Mirror’s Reach plc stablemate The Sunday People goes with: MP sex sting going on for a year… catfish targets Tories Wragg and Evans got flirty messages… Gay colleagues at Westminster (Sunday People)

    Lame lefty comic Newman in the Sunday Times sketches a cartoon that appears to suggest Labour will be less gay than the Tories – in front of a Tory Party poster some suited character in a green neck tie presumably representing Conservative HQ remarks: “At least after the election there’ll be fewer MPs to be caught in honeytraps”

    Meanwhile Times Deputy Political Editor Harry York comes out and proud – keen to tell us he’s part and parcel of the Westminster bubble: A stranger’s message hit my phone. It was the Westminster honeytrapper (Times) – but calm down folks, it’s not what you think – our Harry assumes a deep manly voice and a masculine manner as though he’s at the rugby club bar swilling pints with his mates: An attractive woman, apparently called Charlie, had popped up on the WhatsApp messaging app. (Times) – your repeat mention of the word ‘app’ being somewhat redundant there Harry. Not exactly down with the kids are you?

    And perhaps exposing your… age. But we know what you’re trying to say: She wanted to know whether I was reporting on… the by-elections… was she probably a Conservative contact I had once cultivated… I decided to play along… About 11pm, she told me we had met three or four years ago during a “flirty” and “boozey” conversation late at night in a Westminster pub… disappointed I had forgotten her, given the apparent attractiveness of her “ass”… A devil emoji followed. (Times) – and this tends to be where journalists of the old school would insist “I made my excuses and left”

    Ah, our media… what are they like?

    Talking of well chosen text emoji expressions

    The Sunday Times publishes a photo of a frowning grumpy-looking Prince Andrew on a horse: Glum old Duke of York… appars to take a dim view of his surroundings

    You know there are times when you just can’t strike the right facial expression: A grinning Prince Andrew was pictured out riding this morning as a ‘hugely embarrassing’ new film about his disastrous interview with Emily Maitlis went live on Netflix… Despite facing yet more public humiliation, Andrew appeared in good spirits this morning – smiling broadly (Daily Mail) – nice instance of the journalistic despite there.

    Andrew shoulda gone with: “Poker Face” a song by American singer Lady Gaga from her debut studio album, The Fame (2008)

    There are those hereabouts who suspect this site is more widely read that one might at first imagine. The usual suspects are Beeboids and the squadies at 77th – thank you for your service (sarc.)

    I’m adding those Daily Star jokey blokey journos to the quiet lurkers suspect list.

    Speak of the devil (emoji) and he doth appear…

    Mr AsI was just yesterday riffing hereabouts on the Star’s obsession with the Larus Argentatus

    Psycho seagulls copying humans – skrieks our Daily Star Sunday: Creepy seagulls are keeping their beady eyes on humans 24/7… say boffins

    UFOs in shop car parks (Daily Star Sunday)

    And finally… to trivialites…

    Sunak calls for end to war in Gaza (Sunday Express)

    Queen’s Bohemian Rapsidy needs no apologies

    I see a little silhouetto of a man…

    Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
    Caught in a landslide, no escape from reality

    Bibi, just killed our man
    Put a drone against his truck, pulled the trigger, now he’s dead
    Gaza, life had just begun
    But they’ve gone and thrown it all away
    Rishi, ooh-ooh-ooh, didn’t mean to make you cry
    If I’m not PM this time tomorrow
    Carry on, carry on as if nothing really matters

       13 likes

    • MarkyMark says:

      “Sunak calls for end to war in Gaza ” – UK calls for Rishi’s war on UK citizens to end

         8 likes

  44. Foscari says:

    Just a bit of light relief. Our daughter Claire was born
    50 years ago today 7th April. The night before I had been
    watching the Eurovision Song Contest on the BBC and being
    a gambler had bet ABBA at 12/1 to win. I considered it
    the best value bet I have ever had.
    Just as the Swedes were starting ” My my at Waterloo
    Napoleon surrendered” My wife went into labour and I
    immediately took her to the maternity hospital , and missed
    the news that ABBA had won . Claire , our daughter was born
    in the early hours of April 7.
    As it happens Claire has a great voice very similar to Karen Carpenter. ” You Tube” Claire Brodin. I wonder who would
    play the roles of ABBA if the BBC were to dramatise their
    amazing emergence . Any suggestions ? I think you
    must be inclusive and diverse in you suggestions. Maybe
    Idris Elba to play Benny. How about the ladies?

       18 likes

  45. Northern Voter says:

    I just switched the tele on, went to the Red Button to check currency rates and then on to look at UK news, courtesy of the non British broadcasting Corporation. Second item PM says the UK is right to stand by Israel but condemns the killing of 3 British aid workers, ffs, they were mercenaries, there to protect the aid workers, but to my mind, if they were ex special forces, they weren’t very special. Secondly, whilst reading this drivel, there was in the background some cookery programme in process. They were celebrating some Hindu festival, 3 Hindu cooks, and 3 Hindu guests. Can’t wait to see them celebrate Yorkshire day, perhaps they’ll get 3 Paki cooks from Bradford and clear lower deck of Paki’s to fill the studio.

    Rant complete.

       10 likes

  46. Eddy Booth says:

    “Israel-Gaza briefing: Obstacles to peace seem larger than ever after six months of war”

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-68735869

    Huge long rant by Jeremy Bowen.
    My English grammar isn’t that great, but isn’t a briefing something the press report on, delivered by those making the news, rather than a lecture by a BBC ‘star’ ?

       8 likes

  47. atlas_shrugged says:

    Listening to the bBC World Service informs us that a Royal Navy ship is to head to the east Mediterranean to support the operation that will be building this new Gaza pier – supposedly for food aid. They are not identifying the ship for security reasons.

    What alarms me is that on a previous occasion when we did this (off Libya) we imported into the UK the kind of people who like to nail-bomb children (Manchester).

       11 likes

  48. MarkyMark says:

    BBC latest “This time round, the girls discuss arguments with mums, a puppy that is about to arrive in Miquita’s life, Diane Abbott (Mao did more good than harm) , and why you should always back yourself and NEVER make something to please someone else – ever!”

    Lily Allen and Miquita Oliver
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0hkxhyj

    . . . .

    BBC to ban Lily Allen? 2018 …Lily Allen – “Lily Allen sparks outrage by claiming Rochdale grooming gang victims ‘would have been raped or abused by somebody else at some point'”
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5246685/Lily-Allen-sparks-fury-Rochdale-grooming-victims.html

       4 likes

    • tomo says:

      Why am I thinking Joe Rogan’s take on “The View” , as in – Rabies infested henhouse?

         4 likes

  49. tomo says:

       3 likes

  50. MarkyMark says:

    “The true day of shame is the day the most committed anti-racist who has ever led the Labour Party is suspended for telling the truth. The Morning Star stands with Jeremy Corbyn #Labour #Corbyn”

    Other stories “Communist Party of Ukraine banned and all its assets seized by the state”

       4 likes

    • Flotsam says:

      The local Coop in our generally affluent (except for me) rural village always has a normally unsold copy of the Morning Star on its news stand. I don’t think I’ve ever known a copy sold in 20 years.

      The headlines are normally worth a glance to see how stupid the lefties are.

         11 likes