James Naughtie of Radio Four’s Today programme, interviewing Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown’s special adviser Ed Balls yesterday. James Naughtie – “If we win the election, does Gordon Brown want to remain Chancellor ?” Ed Balls – “Erm … I …” James Naughtie – “You win the election” Spotted by the Observer blog, who also have an mp3 clip of the quote. Full interview here (RealAudio). Not his first ‘slip of … Continue reading →

of huge national, nay, international significance – yes, “The BBC keeps the licence fee for another ten years, but the Board of Governors will be scrapped. The Government’s plans for the BBC also include a sharper focus on public service programming and less emphasis on audience ratings”. Strangely enough, Sky News led, rightly, with the story of Shabina Begum, a story of much greater significance than the government’s disappointingly modest … Continue reading →

Despite the fact that hundreds of TV channels now exist, and the fact that subscriptions to channels can be easily managed these days, the government decides that the BBC will continue to have the power for another decade to extort money out of people who don’t even watch it, in order to make whatever programs they feel like making. Tessa Jowell’s statement is here. While she’s aware that digital TV … Continue reading →

Both BBC News 24 and BBC News Online have given substantial coverage this morning to the case of Shabina Begum, an orphaned 16-year old Muslim girl who, apparently under the sway of her older brother, in yet another ‘human rights’ judicial travesty, has won the right to drive a coach and horses through the rights of schools to set and maintain a school uniform policy. With all the BBC’s coverage … Continue reading →

The BBC have made a remarkable scientific breakthrough which has eluded the world’s medical researchers. They have discovered that unborn infants fall into two distinct classes. If the mother wishes not to bring the the unborn infant to term, it becomes, by a process not yet fully understood, a ‘foetus‘. “The procedure involves the extraction of the body of the foetus into the vagina before the contents of the skull … Continue reading →

Stephen Pollard reports hearing Sir David Frost on ‘Breakfast With Frost’ introduce Vanessa Redgrave with: And now, the social conscience of us all, Vanessa Redgrave. Pollard has his own preferred introduction. This seems to me to be another case where you suspect the BBC presenter must have their tongue in their cheek at first, but it appears not. Click through to read and contribute comments on this post.

Is the government going to be driving around with “Computer detector vans” soon? Will you need to pay the government to use a computer? The BBC faces losing hundreds of thousands of pounds in licence fees because of a legal loophole that allows viewers to watch television on the internet for free. Soaring take-up of broadband and technological developments are making internet-streamed television a reality. Last summer, for the first … Continue reading →

is the director of television at the BBC, and she explains her philosophy thus: “People who express highly controversial views are welcome on the BBC but they cannot be presenters of a news or current affairs programme”. So what’s Paxman doing working there, then? “Television must be allowed to engage with the real world, to challenge and inform audiences”. So that’s why we pay our licence fee. To be patronised, … Continue reading →

Several people pointed out this piece by Justin Webb about deducing the innermost soul of America from half a dozen guys you met in a ski-lift gondola*, too. It seems the same piece was spotted (in its first incarnation as a Radio Four broadcast) by Myrna Blyth of NRO. (Hat tip: Hazel Stein.) Actually, I’ve got a soft spot for Justin Webb. No one who can write Faced with another … Continue reading →

Several people have pointed out this Normblog post linking to, and quoting from, an article by Bartle Bull in Prospect Magazine. Iraq is not about America any more. This has been increasingly true every day since last June, and the failure – or refusal – to recognise this has underpinned much of the misleading coverage of Iraq. In the evenings leading up to the election, I sat on carpets on … Continue reading →