OUR SICKLY NHS

Working in the NHS is clearly the world’s toughest job (!) and it’s not surprising that sickness rates are vastly above those of the private sector. Ahem. Listen to this interview. Boorman is hopeless but Humphyrs clearly holds back. Repeat after me – the NHS is the envy of the world. The third world. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

ARMS WARS

Right, been away all day and just back in at B-BBC central. Did you catch this item that the BBC ran this morning on how UK arms are used when exported? The narrative was simple – it is wrong for the UK to export arms components if these are used to fight terrorists. Roger Berry MP was visceral in his misrepresentation of how Israel and Sri Lanka used the weapons … Continue reading

IN THE HUDSON…

The Hudson and Pepperdine, to be precise. I was alerted by an intrepid B-BBC reader to this “comedy” on R4 this afternoon. It’s all about global warming and is full on propaganda mode. Laugh? I nearly paid my license fee. I couldn’t get past the first 8 minutes. I dare you to listen. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Fine words butter no parsnips

Bishop Hill blogged about how the BBC forced George Alagiah to quit his role as a Fairtrade charity patron. His Grace wrote: Does it strike anyone else that the BBC have got this the wrong way round? Allowing BBC journalists to make programmes about issues on which they are active campaigners would indeed lead to biased programming. But merely demanding that they leave their official posts in those campaigns doesn’t … Continue reading

STUDENT GRANT IN THE RED

Did you catch this interview on Today which debates the claim that the average student leaves University with £23,000 debt. The discussion was between one of the architects of the student loan system Nicholas Barr from the LSE and NUS President Wes Streeting. The interview manages to entirely miss the essential fact that a Labour government, ideologically driven by radical egalitarianism, is pushing far too many young people into debt … Continue reading

THE BEAT SURRENDER

It must be awful to be a UK military family listening to the BBC for news of the campaign in Afghanistan. Radio Taliban would be less depressing than the State Broadcaster. The meme concerning Afghanistan has now morphed into the same one that prevailed when we were in Iraq. The cause is hopeless, we cannot win, UK lives are being sacrificed for no reason, we must get out. It’s defeatism, … Continue reading

Human Wrongs

Defending Israel is not the same as preaching *Israel right or wrong.*We have a tough time making our case especially when Israel does things we find hard to defend. But facing what Israel faces, we accept that it generally behaves with considerable restraint. As yet, we in the UK are not up against what Israel is up against, and who knows what we would do if we were. What we … Continue reading

OPEN THREAD

Well, a brand new week and a brand new open thread. Off you go….. (Going forward, I will try to pick out some of the excellent observations in these threads and give them much greater publicity.) Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

SHILLING FOR THE NHS…

The BBC is obsessive on the need to tell us how wonderful the NHS is as a health-care system. It does so as a not so subtle battering ram to force the Conservatives into wasting the same huge sums of OUR taxes on it as has Labour when they come to power. This is all about positioning for future years. You can understand why the BBC admires huge taxpayer funded … Continue reading

ON TOUR WITH THE QUEEN

I caught Kwame Kwei-Armah being interviewed on the BBC this morning concerning his documentary “On Tour with the Queen. The former Casualty actor and much loved neo political commentator was able to tell us that Australia did not want Her Majesty as Head of State, and it showed a clip of him being interviewed on Jamaican radio laughing uproariously at the suggestion by a caller that Independence has been a … Continue reading