The BBC has come off the fence on grounds of decency and taste: The Wizard of Oz song at the centre of an anti-Margaret Thatcher campaign will not be played in full on the Official Chart Show. Instead a five-second clip of the 51-second song will be aired as part of a Newsbeat report, Radio 1 controller Ben Cooper said. Sales of Ding Dong! The Witch is Dead have … Continue reading →

    Amused by this from the Beeb in 2005 when they were looking at the ‘Thatcher Years In Graphics’ The first graphic that they use to sum up Thatcher’s legacy?     That’s right…Champagne sales to all those nouveau riche barrow boys who flashed the cash. The BBC could I suppose have had a graph showing how many ‘plebs’ with the wrong school  tie were able to get jobs … Continue reading →

I had the misfortune to listen to a few moments of this BBC production “Mark Thomas; The Manifesto”  Pure blatant Marxism. Remarkable. With the BBC, the manifesto is always clear.

I wanted to create a specific post for Question Time tonight. ‘David Dimbleby presents Question Time from Lady Thatcher’s former constituency of Finchley.  On the panel are Conservative Cabinet Minister Ken Clarke MP, Labour’s former Home Secretary David Blunkett MP, former leader of the Liberal Democrats Ming Campbell MP, Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee and Lady Thatcher’s authorised biographer Charles Moore.” I can’t liveblog it but I can those of you … Continue reading →

These fill up quicker than I can post them but here you go, a new Open Thread.

I wasn’t going to comment any more on the BBC and Mrs Thatcher but unfortunately the first thing I heard on the radio this morning was the voice of Justin Webb….not a good start to any day. When speaking to Conservative MP, Connor Burns, Webb said there was a trap here… that by eulogising her the Tories risked alienating those who didn’t like Mrs Thatcher. (8:58) In that simple statement … Continue reading →

The Telegraph tells us that the BBC Trust has released the new Director General’s contract of employment.:  ‘Mr Hall to change the culture of the BBC by being open about its failings. Mr Hall’s contract forbids him from making “any derogatory or unfavourable public remark or statement” about the BBC, either during his time in office or the two years afterwards. He is also barred from writing or speaking about … Continue reading →

   This will be the last from me on Mrs Thatcher and the BBC….her death has allowed them to air all the old canards about her ‘legacy’….from the Belgrano, the Miners, the cause of the 2008 crash, the apparent rise of greed and individualism/selfishness and the destruction of the manufacturing base. The BBC has long kept such myths simmering away, a constant repetition no doubt bringing them to a new audience … Continue reading →

Sounds grotesque.  From Finchley.. #bbcqt‘s back on Thursday with Ken Clarke, David Blunkett, @MingCampbellMP, @pollytoynbee and Margaret Thatcher’s biographer Charles Moore.

By way of balance, I came across this item on the BBC this evening; Gerald Scarfe on how he loved to loathe Thatcher