Antonia Quirk in The New Statesman expresses doubts about Jeremy Vine’s qualities as a hard hitting investigator of news as he interviews, very nearly, Max Mosley….. Pain is so close to pleasure: Max Mosley on BBC Radio 2 Mosley was coming over as the most clubbable man in the universe. Not a peep from Jeremy Vine. Apparently Jeremy wasn’t too keen on getting to the truth about Mosley … Continue reading →

CommunistView ‏@CommunistView 5 hrs5 hours ago @theJeremyVine Why should JC want to be interviewed by R4, since you are propagandists for the right-wing neoliberal agenda.   We were constantly being told by Labour MPs that Jeremy Corbyn was a lovely person in person, affable, kind and with a sense of humour.  Maybe he is but he certainly doesn’t come across that way…his acceptance speech left me entirely cold and thinking … Continue reading →

Canon CHRIS CHIVERS ‘I’d previously worked in South Africa, in Cape Town, which is of course emerging from an apartheid history which was deeply divided and deeply divisive, and I think I can honestly say that I’ve never worked in such a segregated community, or lived in one as this’…..in Blackburn, UK.   When Paul Sabapathy, CBE, Her Majesty’s lord lieutenant of the West Midlands, said that British Pakistanis must … Continue reading →

So, we have a Labour Leader who won’t condemn the IRA and a Labour Shadow Chancellor who has fantasised about assassinating Margaret Thatcher. What a crew. Anyway, time to start the week with a new Open Thread. The floor is yours, comrades.

    If you believed the BBC you’d think the UK was the cause of most of the world’s problems, Yemen a case in point…however the truth might in fact be a lot different than the impression given by the BBC…from 2014 but it seems all too relevant today:   From the Economist… A new index ranks national decency It ranks countries based on how much they do for others … Continue reading →

  Something a bit more light-hearted…A Channel 7 newsreader with an unfortunate look-a-like:     And I’m sure this was useful to know on 9/11:

    Liked this [via Bishop Hill]….the Media Bubble popped: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=3&v=Oxxx03_JHlM     Haven’t had time to watch this video with the same fellow, Hans Rosling, starring, but it looks interesting:     Just seen the first bit…lol…if you rely on the news to inform you will actually become more ignorant than chimps who get the right answer more often by ‘guessing’! Paul Mason or chimp?  Paul Mason or chimp?  … Continue reading →

  Labour Party member David Goodhart has taken a look at the impact and meaning underlying Corbyn’s leadership win. Just the other day I heard a Labour MP state that Corbyn won because he essentially had the backing of London intellectuals and Goodhart seems to take a similar perspective and that Corbyn’s win does not reflect a leftward trend in the country…a trend that the BBC keeps insisting is happening … Continue reading →

      Gabriel Gatehouse ‏@ggatehouse Sep 11   Would you care to be more specific? What did you feel was misleading? And what was amateurish?   When Tory MP Daniel Kawczynski criticised the BBC’s reporting of the war in Yemen Newsnight invited him onto the programme, not it seems to actually tackle his concerns but to insult and publicly try to humiliate him.  To do this they employed the less than … Continue reading →

“The very straightforward thing to do in the face of unacceptable governmental pressure and interference would be to say ‘fuck off, do your worst, we’ll fight that’.” It may not have crossed Lord Bragg’s mind that Tony Hall might fall on his sword after his failure to fend off the government’s plans for the BBC but others do have issues with him…… Michelle Stanistreet: ‘BBC staff and the public have … Continue reading →