606 Responses to MID WEEK OPEN THREAD…

  1. Mr.Golightly says:

    In a post June 23rd landscape, how will the BBC respond? Currently there is meant to be a balance of reporting in all things EU. It’s been noticeable how hard at times they are trying, at least earlier on. More recently their struggle for balance is becoming strained. Nonetheless, in a post-Whiitingdale, post referendum world on June 24th the BBC will be facing one of two prospects.

    A vote to Remain means the BBC can go Banzai! The charter review over, the BBC still in the EU. Time to go full-steam ahead with the metro-centric diversity agenda. We will surely have much to comment on here, though how do you type when you have your head in your hands?

    A vote to Leave would create a crisis in the very heart of the BBC. Confusion, fear, disorientation. What does this mean for the world’s most trusted broadcaster? I expect much wailing and gnashing of teeth for a while, and then it’s full-steam ahead pretending that everything is going to be ok. Meanwhile, we’ll be having a ball!

       46 likes

    • TrueToo says:

      In a post June 23rd landscape, how will the BBC respond?

      A remainian win will see a delighted BBC entrenched in its lefty bias and of course still wallowing in the bribe money from the EU. It will try to stop short at outright gloating, but will praise the remainian camp at length while putting its collective nose up at the Brexiters.

      If Brexit wins, it will go into a period of shock and denial but will quickly recover to provide a sympathetic platform to a host of remainian spokespeople (choosing those most likely to issue dire warnings of the fate awaiting an independent, free Britain) while limiting Brexiters to a bare minimum of exposure.

      For some time it will spitefully withhold information on the process of disentangling Britain from the tentacles of the EU and then exaggerate the difficulties ahead.

         49 likes

  2. AceFlyingPig says:

    Depressing but not surprising. The toxic, deluded, leftwing, bullying, condescending, Londonistan Biggest Conversation (LBC) James NO’Brain is hosting Newsnight on Thursday. The galactic expert on Islam because he apparently knows a few Muslims in London. Constantly tells everyone how intelligent he is but talks down to those that disagree with him and when losing the argument, which he does frequently, cuts off the caller. Slamming BoJo for mentioning Hitler and totally unable to grasp that he was drawing parallels with the ‘aim’ of creating a United Europe not the method. Claimed to have given his mate Livingstone a hard time about using the name when he spent his while program defending him. Stated this morning that all religious schools should be abolished but sends his kids to a Catholic school. This thick cretin is the person that the Bollocks Broadcasting Corporation deems competent to host its once flagship news program. God help this Country.

       83 likes

    • Aerfen says:

      Sharing your dislike of the self righteous bigoted none too bright James O’Brian, AceFlyingPig. Shouty, dodges answering questions himself yet this bully takes advantage of his own self confidence on the radio to throw nasty left hooks at nervous and unprepared but honest callers. When confronted witha confident challenger who knows his stuff, as you say, quick to cut them off making sure he has the last word.

      Katie Hopkins is supposedly mouthy, but she is sweetness and kindness itself on her late show compared to this thick neck bog donkey.
      Why on earth has he got the prime morning slot? Nick Ferrari would be so much better.

         61 likes

  3. Pounce says:

    So the bBC is keeping the red flag flying by reporting on the Chinese cultural revolution but for some reason they have left out one very important fact. 7.73 million deaths:
    Here is one web site which lists a few of those deaths:
    http://www.massviolence.org/chronology-of-mass-killings-during-the-chinese-cultural

    I wonder why the bBC haven’t mentioned that, they have no problem publishing the much lesser deaths in:
    Iraq
    Afghanistan
    Bahrain
    US (black thugs when taken down by police)
    Gaza when they start yet another war with Israel.
    But 7 million deaths due to a left-wing social experiment Sweet F A.

       60 likes

    • Demon says:

      I disagree with you Pounce on noly one thing. You underestimated those murdered during Mao’s cultural revoltingness by at least 40 million. The lowest estimate of the numbers Mao murdered is about 45 million, although I have also heard up to 100 million especially if you add in those murdered by the USSR.

         37 likes

      • Pounce says:

        Demon,
        Thank you, I stand corrected.

           19 likes

        • Demon says:

          I wasn’t having a go, but I think the more often the scale of their atrocities is mentioned then maybe the odd one of those ridiculous lefties might come to see reason. By the way, I’m pleased to see you back again as I always regarded you as one of the better and more interesting posters on here. We just need David Preiser to return and we’ll be getting back to where we were a couple of years ago.

             19 likes

          • Al Shubtill says:

            It was wonderful to hear Prof. Frank Dikkoter discussing the PRC on Start the Week, well worth a listen from 11m30sec if you have an interest in modern Chinese history.

            http://bbc.in/1ULSTsC

               3 likes

      • Dave S says:

        Also never mentioned are the very many deaths after Tainamen Square. Nobody really knows except the CHinese government and they have never said.

           9 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          The BBC were coy. But it was a different time. And they’d already bought the tickets to the Olympics.

             8 likes

    • gb123 says:

      I remember reading a book , Wild Swans by Jung Chang, which highlighted for me the real horrors of living through the Cultural Revolution.
      It also scares me that some of the attitudes bear a remarkable similarity to the PC world of today. I wonder if we will get to the stage of denunciation meetings “Where there is a will to condemn, there is evidence”. Sounds like the BBC Mantra.

         29 likes

    • Maria Brewin says:

      It was just a noble idea that went a bit pear shaped – as in Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Ethiopia etc. All undermined by Jewish types in the West.

      It’ll be OK next time, honestly.

      The far-right, on the other hand, are very nasty types, invariably white, who kill people deliberately. Most of the white working class secretly admire this sort of thing and will have a go given the chance.

      You should be aware of the distinction – you’ve been told often enough.

         30 likes

      • Aerfen says:

        “It was just a noble idea that went a bit pear shaped – as in Russia, Cambodia, Vietnam, Korea, Ethiopia etc. All undermined by Jewish types in the West.”
        It was invented by a “Jewish type” in the west, Marx himself! Its also been much promoted by “Jewish types” who are clearly “over represented” among left wing Globalists.

           8 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Supporting Pounce, above.
      Here’s a few ideas for the biased BBC
      Compare the deaths due to right wing extremists (Hitler et al) with the deaths due to left wind extremists (Lenin, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao). Which ideology produces the higher numbers?
      Compare the increase in prosperity of the poor in capitalist countries (US, Western Europe, Japan, South Korea, OECD, Russia post 1991) compared with socialist countries (Soviet Union pre 1991, North Korea, China until about 1995, Venezuela today). Which ideology has released more people from poverty?

      It won’t happen of course. The Marxists at the bBBC don’t want a little thing like evidence to get in the way of their socialist Nirvana idealism.

      BTW I see Venezuela, that recent socialist miracle country, is…errr….totally going down the pan.

         18 likes

  4. oldartist says:

    What scares me the most is the similarity between the social justice warriors on university campus and in the corridors of the BBC to Mao’s Red Guards.

       56 likes

  5. Guest Who says:

       49 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    “First they came for the luvvies’ orange drizzle recipes, and the howled like banshees..”

    https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/bbc-newsbeat-website-and-app-to-close-as-part-of-cost-cutting-measures/s2/a638570/

    Get ’em young, Aunty.

       21 likes

  7. Guest Who says:

    And lest anyone is any doubt how seriously the BBC takes its FOI responsibilities…

    https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/bbc_hospitality#comment-69122

       15 likes

  8. Al Shubtill says:

    Good to hear the editor of The Sun not standing for any nonsense from the affirmative action Muslima hireling on Toady this morning, vis a vis their story about the Queen supporting Brexit; he didn’t give an inch – which is precisely how an interviewee should conduct themselves when faced with a hostile al beebus drone.

       57 likes

    • Number 88 says:

      His interviewer on the Today programme was particularly, no, spectacularly unpleasant ‘from the outset’. And I see that he was at pains to put Steve Hewlett back in his box. Hewlett remember is the ‘commentator’ that the BBC bring on to give his views on anything media…even though he works for the BBC themselves.

      No bias there then.

         33 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Ah, Steve Hewlett, one of a long and noble line of professional BBC pensioners whose DNA is impartial to the core…

        Amazing what a budget of £450kpa can come up with. Imagine £4B.

           14 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          More remarkably, it was John W, as Chair of the FOB-off Committee, who shut down Angie Bray when she was trying to get Steve to explain 28Gate, which he claimed he didn’t know anything about, but if he did the BBC got it about right.

          Which was really plausible. Nice save, john.

          Worked out well for ya, didn’t it?

             13 likes

  9. AsISeeIt says:

    Call the Midwife – but for once don’t think of the children
    Extraordinarily unpleasant apparatchik from the Royal College of Midwives is handed the BBC podium for the mass dissemination of her crackpot views this morning.
    You say extraordinarily unpleasant – but Mr AsISeeIt, you’re playing the man (or woman), surely…? Consider…the looks of a Natalie Bennett combined with the strident intonation of a Lis Ducet and the message of sci-fi utopian robot – your natural inclination would be to strangle it at birth. Well hold that thought – under the RCM’s leadership that notion of infanticide at will could very nearly be excusable – indeed legal.
    This nursing trade union is pushing for abortion to be made legal at any term – and the legal responsibility to be taken away from a duo of doctors and given to the woman.
    And the BBC pushback on this, care of our Louise Minchin? Very lame. Well this supposed journalist probably has her mind on Celebrity Master Chef. Her tentatively put question about the opinions of the membership of the ‘college’ is brushed aside with Stalinist confidence as the BBC guest spouts the union rule book.
    Frightening and unpleasant start to the morning.

       40 likes

    • Dave S says:

      That person’s views are so repellent that they call into question the very basis of civilisation and any lingering notion of ethics. Truly our culture will deserve extinction if people like her hold sway over us.

         29 likes

      • RJ says:

        “The chief executive of the Royal College of Midwives, Cathy Warwick, has backed a campaign by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service to fully decriminalise abortion, provoking a flare up in the controversy over abortion law. Ann Furedi is chief executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Dr John Wyatt is emeritus professor of neonatal paediatrics at University College London.” (BBC website for the Today Programme).

        This is another story where the BBC leaves out the information necessary to make sense of what we hear in the interviews.

        The broadcast introduction to the item followed the text above by stating that the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Midwives, Cathy Warwick, has backed a campaign by the British Pregnancy Advisory Service to fully decriminalise abortion. This gave credibility to the campaign, with the senior official of a Royal College supporting it, but we were not told that Cathy Warwick is also the Chairman of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service. To say the least, this is a conflict of interest that the listener should have been made aware of.

        The first interviewee was Ann Furedi. She was correctly identified as the Chief Executive of the British Pregnancy Advisory Service, but we were not told that it is not an “advisory service” – it is Britain’s biggest provider of abortions, and it is campaigning for its market to be expanded without legal limit. This reality is completely ignored, and unless the listener has background knowledge from another source the Today presentation is completely misleading.

        The interview with Professor Wyatt was unexceptional until near the end when there was an attempt to sucker him into a statement opposing abortion on principle, but I take that to be the usual BBC practice of trying to get a sound-bite that can be taken out of context and twisted to fit the agenda. If he’d fallen for the ploy all his evidence that babies are viable from 24 weeks could have been discounted and the idea that 24 weeks has a medical rational could have been ignored.

        On the surface the BBC item was about an advisory service launching a campaign to get the law changed to remove a criminal penalty, and this campaign being supported by the Royal College that has the greatest expertise on the subject (surely only a swine could object to such a worthy endeavour). The reality is that the organisation that will profit most from any change in the law has launched a campaign to increase its market and its Chairman has issued a supportive statement using the title from her other job. The two phrases that spring to mind are “economical with the truth” and “conflict of interest”.

        This deserves an in-depth BBC investigation into possible corruption in public office, but I won’t hold my breath.

           29 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Given the BBC’s track record on avoiding the subject, I’d surmise there was no mention of ‘gender-based’ abortions and how they would be made legal by such a move.

          What a stinking, uncivilised shithole of a country this has become that decriminalisation of abortions, regardless of circumstances and the term of the pregnancy, is being advocated by people such as Warwick, and can be discussed on the BBC in such benign terms that the interviewer sees it as an opportunity to play the extreme feminism card and entrap Wyatt into admitting he’s anti- any abortion.

          The Left’s ‘long march through the institutions’ continues…

             28 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          In other news, BP and Shell lobby the government to ban all cars which do more than 12 mpg. The BBC don’t have a problem with this, as it is the same principle by which the abortionists at BPAS lobby for more abortion.

             3 likes

    • Philip_2 says:

      Just link to add a link to that [AsISeeIT]. The midwives are in open revolt (see NOT IN OUR NAME) on being forced to do ‘abortions’ on a healthy baby (when in the next room your trying to console a mother who is in labour and wants that baby more than anything else in the world). The left truely are heartless bastards. And its because of EU policy to force us all in UK to comply with this order. That is the truth behind it.

      Over 30,000 signatures are supporting the midwives decision. We can add our support: here. or support the nurses at NOT IN OUR NAME.

         6 likes

  10. Peter Grimes says:

    Disgraceful hectoring of Chris Grayling by Humpty on the Toady programme at 8.15 today. Subject was prisons initially but switched to the arch-traitor’s Heseltine’s attack on Boris.

       42 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “While I have got you here…. er… That’s all we have time for”.

      Integrity, see.

         32 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      Apologies for poor grammar. Festina lente!

         3 likes

    • Number 88 says:

      On the prisons story, I heard Humphrys referring to ‘Thatcher’.

      I call her, Mrs Thatcher.

         50 likes

  11. wronged says:

    Corbyn faces a huge dilemma. He has Cameron on the ropes. He has an open goal in which to shoot. See below
    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2016/05/17/cameron-facing-calls-quit-claims-planned-project-fear-eu-renegotiation/

    Will he shoot and reveal the fact that our Prime Minister has intentionally misled Parliament for which he should resign, or does he worry that if he mentions Cameron’s lies and deceit, he might wobble the ‘good ship’ Remain.
    What is more important to Corbyn, continued membership of the EU or the integrity of Parliament?

    I believe this issue is massive yet the bBBC are not highlighting it.

       54 likes

  12. Thoughtful says:

    A pleasure to hear Fascist Left Beeboid interviewer from Today talking to a Republican woman supporting Trump (sorry didn’t catch either name).

    What a difference to the constantly whiney apologetic British politicians, and someone intelligent enough to defend their policies.
    Eventually he got to the subject of Muslims, and her reply was what we all want to hear the British politicos say:

    What do you think about Mr Trump banning entry to Muslims?

    Well why not? All they do when they come here is try to kill us! When they’re not flying planes into our skyscrapers they’re slaughtering military and civilians at Boston or Fort Hood. What are they good for? Most of them are on welfare, and those who aren’t are engaged in crime. We don’t need people like that.

    The Fascist interviewer deployed the usual flawed Russian Roulette argument ‘but they’re not all like that’! The shoot down was quick.
    Most are and that’s enough !

    She was asked about Trumps chances, which she honestly said that the Democrats have changed Americas demographics so much through mass immigration that it now might be impossible for the Republicans ever to be elected again.

    It seems America has a one time last chance, if they don’t elect Trump then their country is as lost as Europe has become.

       87 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      That was the incomparable Ann Coulter; much that she said with reference to immigrants into the U.S. from the Third World equally applies here in the U.K. – the serious crime; the drain on social security; the terrorist risks etc etc

         38 likes

    • ID says:

      The BBC are constantly twittering on about “tone” these days. You have to imagine “tone” pronounced in that mannered, constipated, condescending way of the BBC. I’m sure the BBC intended the Coulter interview to show that “populists” like Coulter are not properly “house-trained”. When the BBC’s rareified communcation channel is opened to a representative of the hoi polloi she will “shit on the floor” and show herself up.
      Listening to someone speaking plain English is highly refreshing. Even Frei on Channel 4 News a couple of weeks ago was pondering how Trump would cope if he had “to enter polite society”. Who do these people think they are? It is this kind of mindset that thinks the outpourings of the IMF, Bank of England will have us tugging our forelocks and voting remain in droves. It’s these almost off the cuff remarks that the great and the good make when they are trying to be spontaneous that are most revealing. For example the Rudd woman on Newsshite last night gets tetchy and says “Why can’t those Brexiters listen to the experts”.
      If you’ve got the Pope and Ken Clarke on your side what doubt can there be?

         38 likes

  13. Sluff says:

    The impartial bBBC on Toady this morning ran a referendum special report from the University of East Anglia. Isn’t that the Uni which was banged to rights for fiddling some ‘global warming’ figures?
    Robinson gleefully kept telling us how about 4 in 5 students supported remain. Mainly I think on ‘John Lennon’ lines (peace, love, togetherness) and travel. Travel??? FFS. How hard is it to fill in a Visa to go to anywhere?
    The glibness and superficialty of the arguments were a damning indictment on our ‘intelligent’ students.
    He found one Brexiteer – a quietly spoken yet erudite chap who focussed on self-determination.
    The bias is incredible, especially so when the UEA love-fest was juxtaposed with the sneering attitude to Chris Grayling, taken on nominally to talk about the Queen’s speech but clearly set up and ambushed on Brexit issues.

       50 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Uni of East Anglia – that bastion of learning (?) is responsible for churning out the thickos who deemed it racial and demeaning to Mexicans , if they caught anyone wearing the Sombrero, a few months ago. I’ve often wondered what our schools teach kids since I left school, but you clearly don’t need more than 1 brain cell to get into a University ! ( I was in conversation recently with a Graduate who thought Edinburgh was spelt ‘Edinbrough’, and I’ll never forget the time when another assumed that Co. Durham was in Ireland !!!) .

         50 likes

      • Mr.Golightly says:

        Yes Brissles. First the Sombrero. Now the Mortarboard. Though for different reasons:

        “University students have been banned from throwing their mortarboards in the air due to health and safety concerns.
        Some graduates at the University of East Anglia (UEA) in Norwich have been hurt by falling hats in recent years, student newspaper The Tab reported.”

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-norfolk-36320123

        Quick! Head for the safe spaces!

           26 likes

        • Mr.Golightly says:

          I have been to the UEA. Not to study I should add, but to attend the graduation ceremonies of two close family members. There was much chucking of mortarboards. No injuries to report.

          What struck me most was entering the on-campus WHSmith. At about three in the afternoon there was a pile of Guardians at least three foot high. God only knows how tall this small mountain was earlier in the day. I asked for a copy of the Star, Mail and Telegraph only to be pointed towards the top shelf where the offending publications were masked within semi-transparent polythene so as not to upset the students.

          Everything I wrote is true, apart from the bit about the top-shelf. Actually, I couldn’t find any of those three publications. Whether they had sold the last copies, or just didn’t stock them, who’s to say?

             38 likes

        • popeye says:

          The Great East Anglian Mortar Board Disaster was addressed some years ago by the head of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) of which I am a Chartered Member. She deplored the ban as “it only requires a simple risk assessment”. However, she missed the opportunity of doing the assessment herself, I presume because that she, under our great litigious culture, would become liable. Let me have a go: Risk of injury – medium; severity of injury – low to medium; control measure – inform participants to carefully watch for falling mortar boards and catch, brush away or close eyes; residual Risk – Low. In the event of an incident still occurring “No win, no fee” solicitors will require a copy of this risk assessment, proof of training including documented evidence of content and signatures, and reasons why safety glasses to EN166-F where not issued (against signature and receipt of training in their use) and whether intelligence and comprehension levels of the participants were taken into consideration. Help!!!!

             22 likes

          • BRISSLES says:

            Its happening all the time in the States (throwing their mortars in the air ), which must mean the College grounds are crawling with ambulance chasing lawyers waiting for an eye injury to occur.

               21 likes

        • gb123 says:

          No need to worry some of the “Graduates” are so bone headed the mortarboard would be irretrievably damaged first.

             20 likes

        • John Standley says:

          Maybe they’ll only be allowed to raise their mortar boards on the end of their selfie-sticks?

             15 likes

          • CranbrookPhil says:

            Er, won’t some of these graduates need their mortarboards for when they start teaching in schools? Why chuck them around, they’ll get damaged.

               9 likes

            • Al Shubtill says:

              Quite right CP – when they are teaching Equality & Diversity Studies at one of the Saint Stephen of Lawrence Academies.

                 18 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      The student body of today, thanks to Blair’s aim of 50% of school leavers going into higher education, no longer represents the more intelligent end of the spectrum. Many modern subjects, laughably and sadly labelled academic, would have earned you a CSE grade 3 only 30 years ago.
      Still, it has allowed the creation of many graduates who can now declare proudly,”Yesterday I couldn’t spell academic, now I are one!”

         55 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Well said S.J I know its been repeated hundreds of times, but back in the mid 60’s when I left school, you had to be a near genius to be University standard. I was amongst the first to be taught the CSE certificate, and the teachers were being challenged too in the way this new ‘system’ worked – i.e. marks given for course work over term time rather than a written sat exam. In those days anything less than a C grade and it was deemed a ‘fail’, but I wonder how many of us from those days would be graded Doctor or Professor if we were to be tested today !!! Makes you think.

           34 likes

        • RJ says:

          There are times when I feel sorry for the students.

          In today’s DT there is an article headed ” Financial technology start-ups need power of EU behind them”. That seemed an odd idea so I looked at the note on the author – “Professor Jem Bendell is ….. professor of leadership at the University of Cumbria”. I turned the page, thinking “God help the students”.

             22 likes

          • Steve Jones says:

            I think I just found where some of the recent Economics graduates have found employment:
            http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-36287799
            The BBC doing its best to make a favourable, to them, Brexit poll look like the economy might be saved. A 1% increase in the pound against the dollar. Rejoice, everyone, rejoice. Just don’t bother looking at any price graph covering more than the last few days as it might dampen the celebrations somewhat.

               17 likes

        • Jump says:

          Steve Jones: ‘The student body of today . . . no longer represents the more intelligent end of the spectrum’
          BRISSLES: ‘you had to be a near genius to be University standard’

          Two anecdotes. True stories (sadly). To pick up reseach materials that aren’t available on-line, I visit various libraries of the University of Leeds once every three weeks or so. It’s a perfectly respectable, red-brick institution. I recently sat close to two modern-language students, who had apparently been reading Antoine Galland’s French translation of ‘Les mille et une nuits’ (the first European version of the ‘Arabian Nights’, published between 1704 and 1717) and were belatedly preparing for a seminar on the same.

          ‘Where’s Persia?’, she wondered, riffling through the pages of her book.
          ‘South America’, he replied; ‘it’s a part of Peru. I think it’s Peru. Somewhere in South America.’

          Mmm.

          And to pick up research materials . . . , I visit Cambridge University Library once every six months. It’s a perfectly respectable . . . On my last trip, I queued behind an undergraduate in the room that keeps unbound parts of periodicals (all of which have volume and issue numbers, and contents’ pages) before they disappear into the great maw of the bindery. He was aghast that because the periodicals’ librarian wasn’t prepared to find someone to do it for him, he was expected to look through twenty unbound issues of a particular journal to find the article he was looking for.

          From behind him, over his shoulder, and seemingly apropos of nothing, I cheerfully remarked to the long-suffering but deadpanning member of staff (whom I knew reasonably well): ‘It’s amazing to think that seventy years ago, young men of the same age as the average Cambridge undergraduate had sufficient nous and gumption to be flying Spitfires.’

          The librarian thought it more amusing than the student.

             28 likes

          • BRISSLES says:

            Thanks Jump – it just reiterates my thinking.
            I always chuckle at Pointless when Students proudly say they are studying at ‘ wherever’, and are reading ‘whatever’. The other day two luminaries from the Students Union thought Da Vinci painted the Sistine Chapel, and were equally stumped over the other Art questions that were common knowledge to most people. The tragedy though is, ask them any pop question and they know the answer immediately. Or is it just my age ?

               23 likes

            • CranbrookPhil says:

              It is a disgrace how young adults are so ignorant of high culture now. The bright sparks on University Challenge are impressive on their general knowledge but always look like rabbits in headlights when cultural questions come up. They cannot even make intelligent guesses. Obviously western culture is an abandoned subject in education now. Art? Who needs it!

                 21 likes

              • Grant says:

                They are even more ignorant of science as indeed are our politicians.

                   9 likes

      • Philip_2 says:

        Its a sad fact that in the UK, to be a ‘progressive’ teacher (and there are many), you only need to pass at level ‘C’ GCSE to teach at primary schools. There are few ‘technical colleges’ and Universities are full of barely suitable applicants. Its not surprising that in many of the progressive intakes at University there is also 40% drop out rate. Those that qualify and ‘pass’ into teaching have also a 50% drop out rate and cannot cope. Teaching is not what it was and good teachers quickly become disillusioned and move on to something less stressful or retire early.

           10 likes

    • Mike Hunt says:

      “How hard is it to fill in a Visa to go to anywhere?”

      When I was a kid (pre-EU days) we used to visit Europe at least once a year, sometimes twice.

      Don’t ever remember needing a visa.

      Border checks? Yes.
      Different currencies per country? Yes (quite fun that!)
      Visas? No.

         42 likes

      • shelly says:

        Remember folks vote OUT and we can get our old, nice navy blue passports back.

        I keep seeing about all these riots in France, and apparently there was some unpleasantness in the Lampedusa detention camp (some Tunisian illegals burned it down).

        I can’t seem to anything about these events in the MSM, I wonder why that could be.

           40 likes

      • gb123 says:

        Also the return of Duty Free Runs to France!

           29 likes

      • CranbrookPhil says:

        Precisely. Travelling around Europe won’t be difficult after a Brexit, we have to show passports upon leaving Britain & on entering now, things will be exactly the same.

           30 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        You used to be able to get a one year British Vistor’s Passport from the post office for travel in Europe. It was cheap and simple, so inevitably had to go. As the saying goes: improvement means deterioration.

           17 likes

    • 60022Mallard says:

      “The quietly spoken yet erudite chap.”

      I will pass on your kind words to his mother, who tells me he got up extremely early this morning to go and make his point determined to show group think has not succeeded with everyone.

         15 likes

  14. TrueToo says:

    Brexit – The Movie was uploaded to YouTube on May 12th. It’s now had nearly 256 000 views, which is a rate of about 1 view per second.

    There’s another YouTube upload of the movie, which has had over 70 000 views since May 13th.

    Positive recommendations to these uploads outnumber the negative by about 10 to 1 and 20 to 1 respectively and the comments are overwhelmingly positive.

    Then there is also Facebook and a Vimeo upload of the movie.

    Of course it’s not possible to know what proportion of people from the UK have watched it, but it’s encouraging that it’s steadily spreading across the Internet.

    Then there’s the EU Referendum Poll, now at over 44 000 votes, with 82% for Brexit.

    I have a really good feeling about the possibility of a Brexit win. Wouldn’t it be something if Brexit won by a landslide!

       53 likes

  15. TrueToo says:

    Re my last comment, it’s probably more accurate to regard the YouTube viewing as 256 000 computers having accessed that upload of the movie. Perhaps a knowledgeable colleague can correct me here if I claim that access from the same computer to a YouTube page numerous times is only counted once. I think it’s called discrete.

    But then of course there is the fact that two or more people can and do watch the same movie on the same computer so I guess a lot more than 256 000 people have watched that one upload.

       24 likes

  16. Dover Sentry says:

    My brother was pro-Remain. He saw Brexit the Movie and changed his mind.

       39 likes

    • TrueToo says:

      Excellent. Same with a couple of comments to those YouTube uploads.

         32 likes

      • Deborahanother says:

        I think if people are genuinely open minded and not sure which way to vote they will watch the movie and it may convince them to vote leave.

        I personally felt moved and sad about the decline in the fishing industry told by people who watched it happen and could do nothing about it while their livlihood and communities collapsed and fishing grounds taken over by Spanish and French trawlers.

        Incredible this was allowed to happen. Norway still has a thriving fishing industry outside the EU .

           36 likes

        • 60022Mallard says:

          The fishing industry was a complete EEC stitch up.

          When you sign up you have to sign up to existing policies (now including joining the Euro of course, hence Scotland’s fate if it ever joined separately)

          Strangely the EEC fishing policy was signed off just before we signed up, so we had no say in it but provided lots of fishing grounds for our new “friends”as a result.

             26 likes

          • Grimer says:

            Hungary, a landlocked country, gets an EU fishing quota for British waters.

               4 likes

  17. ID says:

    The Today team on BBC Radio 4 seem to have developed a weird necrophile obsession with a severed foot discovered in a park in Bath. Apoarently, the foot is a bit off and may have been disenterred. Some sort of embalming fluid that scientists cannot identify may have been used. Very mysterious. But why the lack of surprise when three mouldy corpses turn up in the BBC’s own studios? The BBC does not hesitate to identify these suppurating cadavers as the politicians Hesiltine, Clarke and Ashdowm, but we all know that these men have been dead for decades and probably brain-dead for most of their lives. Even more peculiar, the BBC start interviewing these bags of pus taking the noxious gases of decomposition that they emit from every orifice as some kind of anti-BREXIT statements. Very much like those loons who claim to hear messages from the dead in radio static. Viewers and listeners seem unconcerned. We should listen to the divine guidance of the Pope and stay in the EU. We can see the signs already. The dead are rising from their graves and warning us of disaster!

       37 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      This has been all over BBC Facebook for a few days, with an intrepid local hack ‘investigating’ as the police are too busy monitoring Scots twitter accounts. Apparently.

      Seems CSI:Bogbrush-in-the-Mire not quite up to Las Vegas standards, so no one hour DNA checks to see whose pickled limb it may be.

      Or maybe everyone is in full watertight oversight mode given the whipping off of extremities is a bit of a no-go area for crime fighters?

         15 likes

    • Geoff says:

      Why the sudden interest, this happened a couple of months ago. I Didn’t hear the program, but did they mention that the park where it was found backs onto Baths Royal United Hospital? More likely some sort of junior doctor hi jinx than foul play going on here.

         13 likes

  18. Guest Who says:

    Feel the trust….

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/05/18/bbcs-false-claims-about-china-solar-power-exposed/

    Bask in the transparency.

    The BBC? False claims? The very idea.

    One FoI to ask for details to substantiate their claims and….?

       14 likes

  19. Mike Hunt says:

    The headline you will never see on the BBC:

    “David Cameron ‘jettisoning’ domestic priorities for his ‘helter skelter pursuit’ of keeping Britain in EU”.

    Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, said: “Many Conservatives have become increasingly concerned that in the Governments helter skelter pursuit of the Referendum, they have been jettisoning or watering down key elements of their legislative programme.

    “Whether it is the Trade Union Bill or the BBC Charter proposals, it seems nothing must stand in the way of winning the referendum.”

    Of course, you will never see this on Auntie’s front page, which is naturally entirely reserved for Remainian stories.

    But when it comes to old Remainian relics like Weaseltine, any old guff is good enough for the front page, especially remarks dissing Boris and the Leavers… 🙁

       34 likes

  20. Maria Brewin says:

    The BBC has a powerful new advocate. We might as well give up now.

    Hands off the BBC! Veteran MP Dennis Skinner makes traditional Queen’s Speech heckle

    In fact, all the more reason to get rid of it.

       25 likes

    • Steve Jones says:

      Poor Dennis, dementia is a terrible thing. With people like him though it is impossible to tell when it kicks in.

         14 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        Well he’s always been demented, so dementia would appear the obvious next step.

           7 likes

  21. Aerfen says:

    ZIKA VIRUS threat to Europe, says WHO.

    Nothing on the BBC website yet. Musnt scaremonger about globalisation eh?

       18 likes

  22. Geoff says:

    So Dennis Skinner heckles Black Rod with “Hands off the BBC” Could this be the same Dennis Skinner than was featured in a BBC Radio 2 ‘special’ last night?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03vf7bl

       27 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Clearly a fan, for some reason.

      Maybe Mrs. Merton could probe further?

         15 likes

      • RJ says:

        “Maybe Mrs. Merton could probe further?”

        GW, I’m going to need psychiatric help to expunge that image.

           6 likes

    • oldartist says:

      Dennis Skinner was one of those figures on the far left of the Labour party whose droning hectoring was a constant background noise in the House of Commons. Nobody took him seriously and even Labour merely indulged him as a sentimental reminder of a time when people were stupid enough to think that socialism might actually work. Worryingly we not now have a shadow cabinet composed almost entirely of latter-day Dennis Skinners.

         43 likes

      • Maria Brewin says:

        Who could improve upon this description of Skinner by Morris Jasper commenting on a blog in The Spectator:

        “He begins his spiel, hand in one pocket, like a cocksure, acerbic ’70s working man’s club comic, unfortunately, this act rapidly descends into a highly convincing performance of an addled & bitter, urine soaked pensioner, shouting at pigeons in a supermarket carpark.”

        Corbyn will end up the same way.

        http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/04/watch-dennis-skinner-tells-jeremy-hunt-to-wipe-the-smirk-off-his-face/

           39 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Dennis Skinner v Michael Heseltine.
        Which of these two coffin-dodgers will peg it first?
        Worth a bet I `d say…reckon it`ll be Skinner once they`ve siphioned off some of Lenins embalming fluid so they can put a mausoleum in Ashburton.

           18 likes

  23. Demon says:

    Why are all the extreme left-wingers the BBC’s most vociferous defenders, who don’t want any kind of reform, while they claim that it is biased to the Conservatives. Answering my own question – they clearly know that the BBC is the Looney-Left’s greatest mouthpiece and that they are knowingly lying (as always with lefties) about their claim about its supposed bias to the Conservatives.

       23 likes

  24. BRISSLES says:

    …..”highly convincing performance of an addled & bitter, urine soaked pensioner, shouting at pigeons in a supermarket carpark.”……

    Take exception to the ‘pensioner’ bit, could just as easily be a one time pro-footballer, or an Eastern European immigrant !!

    I wont even comment on having a name like Morris Jasper – sounds like a make and model of a clapped out car.

       15 likes

  25. Aerfen says:

    Ex Beeboid Foggerty discussing ‘migration’ on LBC at the moment, quotes report by Phillippe Legrain immigrant ‘academic’ and known pro mass immigrationist arguing immigrants over five years will contribute more than they take LOL so wave ’em all in’!
    She invites on Guardian ‘migration correspondent’ also of course mad pro immigrationist (so mad he resorts to the debunked ‘ageing popualtion’ argument.
    A man from Gloucestershire called Conrad rings in and explaims very reasonably why mass immigration is bad and suggests Foggerty is part of the undemocratic elite forcing this upon us. Foggy fakes mild offence and diverts the topic to HERSELF and why everyone thinks she is pro mass immigration when she’s ‘not’! ROFL. Shes just trying to have a reasonable ‘adult’discussion apparently!!!

       27 likes

  26. Deborahanother says:

    Ex BBC ,I usually switch her off .She likes to lecture and when she mentioned Agelina Jolie ,I knew I couldn’t listen.

       17 likes

    • 60022Mallard says:

      Allison Pearson on Jolie in the DT today is well worth a read.

      If anyone can link.

         9 likes

  27. JimS says:

    Bias by trivia. Jeremy Vine packs in 27 of our EU buddies into his studio to get their views on the EU.

    Lots of typical rubbish like “We want you in the EU so you can come and visit our countries”, as if Canada, the USA, Mexico, Chile, Peru etc. etc. bar entry to tourists because we don’t share the same masters.

    Some interesting comments sneak through though. Little Latvia complains that it has fishing quotas imposed on it and is forced to buy Danish sugar rather than home produced. The man from The Netherlands tells Vine that they had a referendum recently but the BBC didn’t report it. Vine replies that their news bulletins are ‘only thirty minutes long’, (so many vital minority transgendered issues in the USA to report I expect). Sadly the referendum was won by the ‘extreme right-wing’, which ‘shows’ that the Brexit people are ‘extreme right-wing’ too. Some sort of double-dutch logic there!

    Some man leaps in to tell us that we will have to pay a fee to access the ‘single market’, like Norway. Which is a lie, China and the USA and many others access the ‘single-market’ they just face a tariff barrier. Come Brexit we can suggest to our erstwhile partners that any barrier that they choose to put up against us we will do the same to them – we don’t have to buy German cars and French wines and out of the EU we can drop the tariff – ‘other suppliers are available’.

       41 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Afternoon tea break, and a related but OT.

      Just had popped through my door ‘The 2016 EU Referendum Voting Guide’, from the Electoral Commission, who inform me they are ‘an independent body that works across the UK’ on page 3.

      Sounded impressively official.

      Pages 4 & 5 appeared to be two ads by just two advocacy groups; StrongerIn and VoteLeave.

      What a total waste of paper when I have ‘all I need to know’ from the BBC.

         21 likes

      • Mike Hunt says:

        Free toilet paper.

        Wonder why they felt the need to send this out, when they don’t do it for any other election? Greater turnout favours Remainians, no doubt. Also wondering why only the Remainian side has pictures? Funny that. What a waste of our money!

        What dirty tricks will they pull nearer the day, when it’s neck and neck and 10% undecided, as it was in Scotland? Will they come out with a “Devo Max” type pledge which they can then renege on?!?

           18 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          Indeed.

          To be fair, I am presuming the page layout was left to the respective advocacy groups (but… only these two?), in which case Vote Leave have a lot to answer for as it is darn near unreadable (also 2c vs. 4c, and looks like a Labour flyer). The Remain one is still dire but in relative terms communicates a lot better.

          If not, then other questions need to be asked.

          The sudden enthusiasm for mass turnout is, as you say, possibly based on research on demographic voting trends, over a passionate desire to encourage democratic process.

             13 likes

          • Mike Hunt says:

            Just went to Vote Leave’s website to see if I could find anything out, and found a pretty nifty one-minute video explaining why we should get out of the EU asap:

            I also found their email address and emailed to ask why their content looks so shabby compared with Remain. I will post an update here if I hear anything (but seriously doubt it though!!)

               17 likes

  28. Sluff says:

    Jim S. You’ve got me thinking – and researching. I’ve tried and failed to go through the labyrinth of import guff to find the duty payable on wine as a business.
    For personal consumption, wine from outside the EU appears to carry a duty of £2.78 per litre.
    Just imagine how much more Chilean, Aus, NZ, South African and US wine we could enjoy without that.
    I’m a bit surprised France, Italy et al are not pushing even more for us to stay in…..

       21 likes

  29. Guest Who says:

    Another OT as I surf, but felt worth the share.

    Our area, like all others, suffers stretched police resources. So it is good to know they are really concentrating on areas that matter.

    I wonder if Matt and Mark were thrilled at the photo opp? And if BBC WM has seen it yet?

       28 likes

    • Oldspeaker says:

      So that’s why they were unable to attend,
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-somerset-36313944
      Thanks for clearing that up GW, much more important stuff to do.

      Only joking officers, I have an idea of what you have to put up with, you should have drawn the line well before holding that flag though, complete impartiality with no fear or favour shown to any.

         16 likes

    • Number 6 says:

      For nasty things writren on twatter,farcebook etc,ring 999

      For all other incidental stuff like murder,901 will do…..if anyone can be arsed to answer

         9 likes

  30. Richard Pinder says:

    The BBC in 2020: 50% Women, 15% Ethnics, 10% Gays, 8% Disabled, presumably 2% of these will have dementia so as to reflect the people that the BBC serves, and therefore leaving only 17% of the BBC for real Men.

    So a fall in the percentage of Gays, the Mentally Disabled and real Men.

    But at the moment the BBC is not very diverse, as it has an almost 100% Mentally Disabled left-wing middle-class mindset.

       31 likes

    • scribblingscribe says:

      Unless, of course the 15% Ethnics, 10% Gays, 8% Disabled are included within the women’s quota, then 50% could be white, heterosexual, able bodied males.

      Or …

      How about having a quota whereby 100% are chosen on their ability and passion to do the job? I know I will already be labelled an extremist, but, and I suggest this tentatively, how about the BBC advertises jobs in a newspaper other than the Guardian? Yeh, ok, that’s asking too much.

         28 likes

    • Xavier says:

      Are you implying that ethnic, disabled and homosexual men aren’t “real men?”

      Wow, and some hand wringer on this site was getting upset that I dared utter the evil, nasty word “dementia.” I notice she hasn’t reared her easily offended head here though.

         6 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        After a long, welcome absence, to return with this zinger based on perceived implication is indeed ‘special’.

           9 likes

        • Xavier says:

          It’s not even an implication. Ethnics, gays, disabled and real men are listed separately. I’ll be interested if you can explain a way out of this or if you’ll respond in typical bBBC fashion with a snide, oh-so witty comment.

             6 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            Sorry, only a witty option available. You seem to have the other avenue well covered. Maybe Marvin can help you again?

               6 likes

            • Xavier says:

              Your refusal to provide a proper response is pathetic. I don’t need Marvin’s help – I can point out user hypocrisy here on my own.

              Perhaps GCooper would like to do his uneducated ignoramus impression again? I say ‘impression’ because, apparently, he’s the one who knows about science!

                 5 likes

              • G.W.F. says:

                Xavier, Bless

                   6 likes

              • Guest Who says:

                ‘I can point out user hypocrisy here on my own’

                Good for you. So proud. Just… avoid mirrors.

                Anyway, Marvin seems around if needed.

                   6 likes

                • Xavier says:

                  Perhaps you could stop being a self-righteous twat and instead of trying to slyly imply I’m somehow hypocritical, you could just come out and say it?

                  I think you don’t because, well… you can’t.

                  Good video though. It’s a good metaphor of users’ views here of global warming!

                     5 likes

                • Grimer says:

                  I’ll never forget my dad teaching me to ride a bike. When the stabilisers came off, he used to hold the back of the saddle to keep me steady. One day I was shouting ‘stop wobbling’. I stopped and turned around to see my dad pretending to garden. I realised I could ride on my own.

                     1 likes

          • Steve Jones says:

            Here is a video you won’t like then. Watch this ‘real man’ hide behind a woman when the National Lottery show is interrupted.

            Just a small example for you to dismiss as unrepresentative.

               1 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Xavier
        You are clearly listed under another name when posting. Because, checking back, I didn’t respond to YOU using the word dementia at all !! (which, you’re right, if you or your family become afflicted with it, IS an evil nasty word)

        I’m not a handwringer, or someone who is easily offended, just an adult.

           6 likes

      • scribblingscribe says:

        No Xavier, your morally superior excitement got the better of your reading and thinking skills.

        Please read my post again without your teeth gnashing and your brain fuming. I’ll be testing you later.

           6 likes

        • Xavier says:

          I wasn’t replying to you. Here’s a tip: engage brain first, think second, reply third. Should avoid any embarrassing situations in the future.

          Oh, and get down to specsavers because your eyesight seems lacking also. My comment clearly not indented under yours.

             4 likes

          • scribblingscribe says:

            Erm, your comment is indeed indented beneath mine, where you replied to a post of mine with the idiotic words:

            ‘Are you implying that ethnic, disabled and homosexual men aren’t “real men?”

            And, to be helpful, I simply took the time to correct you. You are an excitable little bunny arent you.

               4 likes

            • Xavier says:

              No, the comment isn’t indented beneath yours. I didn’t reply to your comment. Go on, go get a ruler or something and line it up. You’ll see I wasn’t replying to you, but Richard Pinder.

              However, since you seem so intent on being a shithead, try to answer the point I made. Richard Pinder listed gays, ethnics, disabled and real men as separate entities. So, as slowly and simply as you like, explain to me how that comment isn’t implying gays, ethnics and the disabled aren’t real men.

              You are a condescending, moronic little shit aren’t you.

                 6 likes

              • Stuart Beaker says:

                Try ‘Women, Fire and Dangerous Things’, Lakoff G, Chicago Press 1987, ISBN 0-226-46803-8 .

                It’s a stiff old read, but it might help you with the ‘gays, ethnics, disabled and real men’ issue. The whole of Part 1: Categories and Cognitive Models is useful, as is chapter 12 later on: What’s Wrong with Objectivist Metaphysics.

                If you find that illuminating, then you might want to have a go at Plans and Situated Actions, by Lucy Suchman, from much the same era; alternatively, Stuart Kauffman’s The Origins of Order, although fundamentally a treatise on the mathematical parameterisation of evolutionary landscapes, has some interesting implications for Lakoff’s notions of grounded or based metaphysics of concepts, in terms of how the ‘illusory objective’ may turn out to be the mere play-thing of our creative, physical reality.

                Once you’ve had a go at these angles on categorisation, come back and see if you can’t answer your own question.

                   4 likes

              • taffman says:

                Xavier you are using abusive words…………..
                “You are a condescending, moronic little shit aren’t you.”
                You were critical of that yesterday .
                Also, I am awaiting to view your criticism Al Beeb Bias .
                Note, no abuse from me.

                   1 likes

  31. Guest Who says:

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2016/05/sir-michael-wilshaw-where-are-these-illegal-schools-run-by-jewish-community-leaders/

    This was headline news on Classic FM Global Views the other day. Both the wife and I listened and looked at each other and said as one… ‘but who are running these mystery schools?’, as the slot offered no hint.

    Now all is clear. As mud. Especially as my monthly free run on the Speccie site has run out. But the comments suggest an interesting backstory and editorial integrity as ever playing a part.

       12 likes

  32. scribblingscribe says:

    Would the following story have been presented differently had it been about the Republicans and in particular Mr Trump. I seem to recall one punch was sufficient to warrant wall to wall coverage.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-us-2016-36291939

       7 likes

    • Number 7 says:

      About the same amount of coverage that they gave to Prescott trying to “lay out” a voter.

      “He was provoked” copyright. The BBC – Rowlocks, he wanted to punch out someone he identified as “Tory Scum”

         6 likes

  33. johnnythefish says:

    I’ve been amazed at how little of the In/Out ‘debate’ has been about democracy – or the lack of it – within the EU, especially over the airwaves of the national broadcaster which claims to represent the interests of our bastion of democracy. Surely if any part of Great Britain’s sovereignty had been handed over to a bunch of faceless bureaucrats the BBC would feel duty bound to debate it – not once but over and over again given its primary significance?

    I remember several months ago a Green Party MEP being interviewed on TWATO about some environmental issue and he began to complain that as an MEP he felt powerless within the law-making process as it was controlled by the EU Commission and its Commissioners. The interview was abruptly terminated at that point.

    This is all I could find on the BBC (my bold):

    Brussels: The Belgian capital, which hosts most of the EU institutions. It is the main venue for EU summits and is where EU laws are drafted – in the European Commission. So “Brussels” is often used in the British media as shorthand for the Commission. But national governments and MEPs also play a big role in EU law-making, so “Brussels” can sometimes be a misleading term.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-35920422

    (Note in this ‘A-Z Guide’, nothing appears under the letter ‘L’.)

    This how Wikipedia explains it:

    The Commission has a virtual monopoly on the introduction of legislation into the legislative process, a power which gives the Commission considerable influence as an agenda setter for the EU as a whole.[1] And while the Commission frequently introduces legislation at the behest of the Council or upon the suggestion of Parliament, what form any legislative proposals introduced take is up to the Commission.

    Under the ordinary legislative procedure (see below), the negative opinion from the Commission also forces the Council to vote by unanimity rather than majority.[2] There are also limited instances where the Commission can adopt legislation on its own initiative.

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

    So who is being ‘misleading’?

       24 likes

  34. 60022Mallard says:

    Having wheeled out Mary Beard to say how wonderful the EU is and Roman Empire was, apparently her series finishes tonight with explaining its demise.

    Now that will be interesting to see if there are any warning signs for the EU empire, and whether she will be wheeled out on Toady to identify any similarities, or perhaps the EU empire really is different from all those previously in history made up of disparate peoples!

       33 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      When considering the referendum and the EU I take heart from the fact that until the late 1980’s that neither the Iron Curtain nor the Soviet Union appeared as though they were going anywhere and both never looked anything other than adamantine; yet they each collapsed and right quick.

      I believe that even if we narrowly vote to stay in; the EU will eventually fail: things that can’t go on forever don’t and the EU certainly can’t.
      There are forces beginning to stir within the bedrock of the indigenous populations of its member states (West and East) and when they are unleashed the EU will implode as swiftly and as irrevocably as those countries which formed the Soviet Bloc.

         36 likes

    • CranbrookPhil says:

      Mallard,

      “Having wheeled out Mary Beard to say how wonderful the EU is and Roman Empire was, apparently her series finishes tonight with explaining its demise.”

      Ugh, Mary Beard! She cannot stop her leftish rant of how diverse the population of ancient Rome was. But she fails to add the vitally important point that renders her argument irrelevant to the situation with immigrants now, & that is that all the foreign folk in Rome became Romans, they embraced Roman culture. They did not bring their cultural baggage with them trying to alter the status quo of the Rome they moved into.

         33 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        I watched the programme. I found it rather confusing, though she did manage to meet her husband in Rome for a freebie. As far as I could make out, she seemed to pin the decline of Rome on Christianity, but to be honest the programme was a mish mash, without any theme I could determine.

           11 likes

  35. 60022Mallard says:

    The DT television reviewer Isabel Mohan comments on Sewing Bee:

    The contestants have been well chosen too, with an even split of men and women and a variety of ages, races and professions.

    Well chosen to represent the applicants or the BBC agenda of stuffing equality and diversity down our throats.

    For goodness sake the DT where do you get such people from who cannot see through what the BBC are doing!

    Unsurprisingly the more grown up Gillian Reynolds does today reviewing the Angelina Jolie day.

       33 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      The weekend Review section of the Telegraph is a Leftie, climate alarmist, multi-culti, anti-capitalist love-fest. I get sick of reading interviews with musicians and ak-tors who are not only right up their own arses but believe they have a God-given, massive political intellect and wisdom the rest of us are lacking.

         36 likes

  36. Save Our Sense says:

    I muse regularly on the true state of British/world politics as gleaned via a ‘reading between the lines’ philosophy.

    As ‘conservative’ voters both here and in Germany have probably grasped, the so-called conservatives they’ve voted in to run their countries are now absolutely nothing of the sort, with Cameron moving closer by the day to the outright leftist sphere Merkel now seems to inhabit.

    Of course Obama, after his recent visit to hug Dave and warn us of the pitfalls of daring to vote against the elites in Brussels, next jetted off to Germany to see his fellow leftie Merkel, and we all remember Cameron stood their grinning recently – as with Obama – as leftie Hollande threatened the UK over Brexit.

    So the evidence is thus: Cameron, Merkel, Hollande and Obama, two (according to their party names) on the right, two on the left, are all bedfellows, with those on the right now firmly on the left. So, basically they’re all on the left and that’s that. If we want an alternative in this country we have to go even further left with Corbyn et al, so take your pick, left or further left.

    If further proof was needed, these two headlines popped up on Google news in the last couple of days (trust me, simply reading the headlines will suffice):

    http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2016/05/17/david-cameron-i-want-to-change-the-world-on-global-lgbt-rights/

    http://www.curvemag.com/News/President-Obama-Declares-LGBT-Rights-Are-Human-Rights-1204/

    Meanwhile that leftist socialist paradise of Venezuela descends into chaos…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-36326185

    What. The. Hell. Is. Going. On?

       22 likes

  37. Al Shubtill says:

    Great description of Hezzlscum by Jacob Rees-Mogg:

    “Lord Heseltine is a frightful old humbug who divided the Conservative Party more than anybody else in our modern history, and a period of silence on his part would be welcome.”

       53 likes

    • Lobster says:

      Wonderful!

         31 likes

    • MartinW says:

      I hope, in my lifetime, I will see the sainted Jacob in high office in this country – even P.M. Now wouldn’t that be wonderful.

         20 likes

  38. 60022Mallard says:

    Have lost the Link to the Mirror referendum debate outcome. Quite astonishing.

    If anyone on here reads it can they advise whether they are now reflecting that result in their stance or have they put two fingers up to their readers.

    Has it featured in what the paspers say on any BBC review of the press?

    Thought not.

    The referendum poll linked to from here shows remarkably similar figures still. 82 out 14 in as voting numbers steadily climb.

       23 likes

    • Deborahanother says:

      I can’t link from my I Pad ,but by all accounts reading comments on Guidos site it was a bit of a humdinger with Nigel Farage in the firing line from Mandleson and John ODonnell and an audience.i tried to log on to the site but couldn’t.

      I do think there is an ongoing effort to sideline Nigel Farage in the media and the Leave side.I think that’s a huge mistake if they are seriously committed to winning this referendum.i don’t like everything he’s days ,but he gets people out to the polls and resonates with ordinary people.Im trying not to think of it as an establishment stitch up .

         23 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        Without Nigel Farage and his leadership of UKIP we wouldn’t even be having an EU referendum next month; the Leavers need to remember that and start presenting a unified campaign with him near the core of it.

           33 likes

      • ID says:

        I have just been watching the Maischberger talkshow on German TV. Things have changed mightily from last year. The triumphalism about the EU being a”humanitarian superpower”, “opening hearts to migrants” is gone and they are now wondering if a BREXIT could destroy the EU.
        Nigel Farage seems to be on German TV more often than on the BBC. An introductory clip imagined the collapse of the EU in 2017. All the Bogeymen (and women) of Europe had come to power. Farage is leader of “Greater England” and has deported lots of migrants. Le Penn is in charge in France, Wilders in Holland. Stracher is president in Austria and the naughty East Europeans are as unwilling as ever to commit cultural suicide on the say-so of Merkel.
        No one has heard of Gove or any other of the tiresome Leave ciphers. Some thought BREXIT would be a bit of a damp sqib as the UK with all its optouts is not really a member of the EU at all. It is true that the UK is not a core member and all the Remainers claiming that Britain can play a leading role in at the heart of Europe, influencing decision making and initiating reform is arrant nonsense. The main fear is that BREXIT will encourage others to leave the EU madhouse. A GREXIT will follow a BREXIT. The BBC never mentions the widespread discontent thoughout the EU. A third of Germans want to leave the EU. Even politicians like Stoiber (CSU) admit the attempts to create a United States of Europe have failed and that Kohl was misguided in pushing the Euro to achieve more and more centralization. All that talk about convergence seems to have disappeared for some reason.
        Juncker was in his usual democratic mood “Anyone who sits at the European table will eat what is served up”. We need British pragmatism in the EU, but BREXIT would be a disaster for the British people in ways they are not being told” Even Boris got a mention for mentioning Hitler and the EU in the same breath. But then Juncker seems to be suggesting some kind of collective punishment for the British people if we leave. Bojo was not far wrong.

           35 likes

        • taffman says:

          ID
          Will the Germans really punish the British people if we leave ? I doubt it.
          I would hazard a guess they would see it as an excuse to make a swift exit themselves .
          The financial burden of Europe would fall upon them without our support, Merkel will resign .

             18 likes

          • ID says:

            Taffman:
            I too would like to believe that people do not cut off their nose to spite their face.
            What Juncker means by “British pragmatism” is the British scepticism about the “European ideal”, “the European Project” or “European solidarity”. Germans have always been enthusiastic about Europe in a metaphysical sense. Lots of Germans thought other EU countries would simply take unlimited numbers of “refugees” off their hands as a token of “European solidarity”, They had a rude awakening. There was a year of waffle about finding a “European solution”.The answer to any European problem is supposed to be more Europe. There will be lots of Euromaniacs who will be quite upset when their life’s work, deluded as it was, goes gurgling down the drain.

               17 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        Why do you think the Electoral Commission gave the official designation to the Tory boys of Vote Leave rather than Leave: EU, which was backed by Ukip?

           20 likes

        • Beltane says:

          Got a leaflet from the commission the other day. On page 2 there’s an assurance that the EC is an independent body…with a duty to provide public information (Not, you might note, the public with info, just public info, not quite the same thing). Two pages in there are statements from the remain and leave camps. Remain is bright, multi-coloured, easily assimilated and illustrated with happy smiling people. Leave, on the right, is a dour 2-colour warning, looking like the instructions for the use of some hazardous chemical.
          Good job the EC made a point of assuring us that they are an independent body, a sceptical mind might think they are working to another brief altogether.

             11 likes

  39. johnnythefish says:

    Two corking examples of filthy, stinking BBC ‘climate change’ bias:

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/05/16/bbc-are-a-disgrace-professor-david-campbell/

    It is surely highly significant that Costing the Earth’s claim that coal is declining was made in a discussion of developments wholly internal to the Chinese energy mix. These developments were not related at all to the reduction in global emissions necessary to make climate change policy have a significant positive global effect, and this is for the good reason that there cannot possibly be any such effect. Accepting the most optimistic forecasts of a shift from coal to renewables, there will still be an immense absolute growth in Chinese emissions, and so in absolute global, emissions. For the BBC to broadcast a claim that the recent decline in Chinese coal consumption means that the China excuse no longer holds without any consideration of any of this vital context is a disgrace.

    and

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/05/17/bbc-forget-accuracy-and-impartiality-again/

    The BBC also don’t mention the fact that this is not a scientific study about sea level rise; indeed they give the impression that it is. They could have mentioned the fact that the author, Dr Alison Doig, is not a climate scientist, much less an expert on sea levels.

    According to LinkedIn, she is Principal Climate Change Advisor at Christian Aid. Her previous experience includes:

    Environment, Development and Communications Consultant
    Senior Public Affairs Officer with WWF
    Energy Campaigner with Practical Action.

    Doig’s study includes one page, which rounds up some of the more outlandish projections for sea level rise, but basically consists of adding up population numbers in coastal cities. In no way is this a study presenting anything new about sea levels. You would be forgiven for not realising that from the BBC’s account.

    No wonder Climate Change Hug-a-Husky Dave loves ’em.

       22 likes

    • CranbrookPhil says:

      Costing the Earth is the most biased propagandist programme on the BBC, it is a disgrace.

         17 likes

  40. The Old Bloke says:

    Freezing out here on Dartmoor tonight:

       12 likes

  41. Timbo says:

    This Tweet and its replies demonstrate how out of touch the BBC is with the general public, and indeed reality: https://twitter.com/BBCWorld/status/733023503721615360

       17 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Those replies are pretty consistent. Doubtless the BBC would say ‘views are split’, then rig it to edge in favour of the one they are pushing.

         9 likes

    • Tothepoint says:

      I would rather gnaw through my own arm and lick the bones dry than go on Shitter, but that’s a very telling reaction by the Shitters.

      Only weirdos, lunatics, brain dead junkie students and thick fucks think socialism actually works. Wealth creators make money for society not governments and as soon as the socialist lunatics force this change, the wealth creators leave and a country is left with lazy, confetti spraying imbeciles to ‘run’ business. Socialism has never worked, will never work and until the sun sets for the final time on our beautiful planet earth can never work!

      Venezuela has got exactly what it deserves. We will too if we don’t leave the EU or heaven forbid Social butcher Mao Corbyn gets into power

         24 likes

  42. JimS says:

    Short and sweet, Brexit – The Animated Movie, three minutes twenty seconds.

    [How does one embed video here? ‘Embed code never works for me!]

       8 likes

    • Number 7 says:

      There you go:-

      PS. Very good

         23 likes

      • Number 7 says:

        JimS – just copy the URL into your comment rather than putting in a link.

           0 likes

        • JimS says:

          Thanks!
          (I had always tried pasting YouTube’s ’embed’ code with no joy)

             0 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        Very good? Very fuckin’ good?
        When the fuck are folk going to get some facts right…
        No, no and no again…..Britain did not vote to join the EEC, we voted on whether to STAY in, or leave.
        I’m fed up of folk who voted in that referendum bring unaware of simple facts.
        Heath signed us in…..
        Tht opening line put me off the whole piece.

           7 likes

  43. CranbrookPhil says:

    The World Tonight on Radio 4, a ‘special’ from Poland (goodness I hate specials on the BBC!) sounds like another heap of biased anti-Brexit, pro-immigration BBC predictable waterboarding. This week is manic! What’s happening it’s getting worse & worse!

       33 likes

  44. taffman says:

    Where have all the trolls gone ?

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Perhaps applying their multiple persona online skills to EU Ref polls?

         11 likes

  45. taffman says:

    Our Border Force is not doing its job . Perhaps its workforce has been deliberately cut by our Car Moron ?
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-36328238

       7 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      Morale plunged when the Immigration Service was merged with Customs. They were two different departments with different jobs. They were shoehorned together because some management consultant imagined there would be efficiency savings. I doubt these ever materialised, they rarely do.

         20 likes

  46. taffman says:

    This could have been resolved long ago ……………
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36321249
    What is the UN for ?
    I dare say that British Forces could have secured the freedom of these unfortunate girls long ago if the banana republic had asked for our assistance. It would have been a good training exercise for troops .

       9 likes

  47. taffman says:

    This could have been resolved long ago ……………
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36321249
    What is the UN for ?
    I dare say that British Forces could have secured the freedom of these unfortunate girls long ago if the banana republic had asked for our assistance. It would have been a good training exercise for our troops .

       9 likes

  48. taffman says:

    All you global warming watchers , according to my weather station its down to 6 deg C in the west of Wales now and we are heading to the end of April.

       3 likes

    • manchesterlad says:

      Blimey. Global warming really does have a massive effect – it’s May in England – CO2 has lost you an entire month!

         30 likes

      • The Old Bloke says:

        You only have to watch the workings of the Welsh Assembly to realise how far behind the English they are. But, their Welsh Tea Cakes are rather nice. 😎

           16 likes

        • chrisH says:

          Well said Old Bloke.
          Now that the BBC are leaving the kitchen to we experts here-I need to say that my daughter going to a Welsh Uni introduced me to this marvellous griddle scone.
          Never looked back-and did get a taste of one from M&S-who( to their shame) never notified me of this line of excellence.
          Now it WAS dry and disappointing-not a patch on Lidl-but I appreciate the effort.
          And -“in the days on miracle and wonder”-as we stuff the Welsh 19-0 before heading out to Bangkok to check for dodgy diseases after the Euro qualifier stage as per-I will reflect on your good taste Old Bloke.
          Now-in my new three part series-what of
          a) The Eccles Cake
          b) Key Lime Pie
          Stuff you BBC-we`re “doing all this for ourselves”…like Aretha and Annie once sang of!

             11 likes

        • Tothepoint says:

          If you watch an Islamic State (they are all the same, follow the same death cult instruction and want to butcher the infidels) assembly or sharia court you will realise they are around 1400 years behind and unable to change

             18 likes

        • taffman says:

          Mmmmm….. Welsh Cakes are very nice if made and stored correctly and certainly delicious with a cup of tea .
          April being a ‘senior moment’ 😉

             3 likes

    • Xavier says:

      “It’s cold in my back garden, global warming confirmed to be a scam!”

      It’s a little bit more scientific than that I’m afraid.

         8 likes

      • Marvin says:

        You’re wrong Xavier. Man with thermometer trumps thousands of scientists and mountains of peer-reviewed research every time.

           13 likes

        • Xavier says:

          I mean, I’m sceptical of global warming catastrophe. But prats posting things like “No global warming, cold in my back garden” just make everyone look stupid.

             5 likes

        • GCooper says:

          Scientifically speaking, that is one of the stupider things I have read here.

          Of course a thermometer reading beats any amount of theorising and speculation based on computer models. Reality always trumps theory.

          If you are unable to understand this then you would be well advised to keep silent as all you are doing is revealing a profound lack of understanding.

             12 likes

          • Xavier says:

            Misunderstanding number 1: seems to assume that no thermometers are used in measuring global temperatures at all. EVERY MEASUREMENT EVERY is taken from computer models. The thousands of temperature stations around the world simply don’t exist.

            Misunderstanding number 2: a man in his back garden reading his thermometer is somehow qualified to comment on the reality of global warming. I’m sure he has has been consulting his thermometer multiple times per day, every day, logging their results and plotting them alongside other thermometers around the world. Presumably in other people’s gardens since scientists apparently don’t use thermometers.

            Misunderstanding number 3: an improperly handled thermometer is apparently ALWAYS better than a modelling system. No matter how bad the thermometer is used, no matter how inapprioately placed the thermometer is, it will always beat a modelling system.

            Oh dear, GCooper. If anyone needs to remain silent to keep his complete ignorance of science a secret, it’s you.

               6 likes

            • GCooper says:

              No, Xavier, I’m afraid you are proving yourself almost as retarded as Marvin.

              The point I was making was that a temperature reading is worth infinitely more than any amount of theorising. As I say, reality trumps theory or, as Feinman put it: “It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.”

              If you knew anything at all about the AGW debate you would also be aware that one of the main areas of controversy has been the discrepancy between the UAH satellite data (fact) and the heavily massaged figures used by AGW ‘scienetivists’ (fact manipulated by theory).

              This might be a good time to get back under your stone.

                 12 likes

              • Xavier says:

                Funny, isn’t it? Whenever someone points out the many errors in your posts, your response is usually something like “you missed the point.” You always blame other people before yourself. Perhaps the problem is you?

                You completely ignored the content of my post. I’m well aware of the controversy regarding AGW. However, how does this relate to someone using his back garden’s thermometer as evidence against AGW?

                It doesn’t. You’re just blowing hot air because you’ve got nothing else to say.

                   6 likes

              • Marvin says:

                “No, Xavier, I’m afraid you are proving yourself almost as retarded as Marvin.”

                Ad hominem trumps evidence – every time.

                There is no controversy except on the pages of science deniers’ blogs.

                   4 likes

                • GCooper says:

                  Marvin: “There is no controversy except on the pages of science deniers’ blogs. ”

                  Congratulations. That is definitely the stupidest thing I’ve read here.

                  I can’t waste any more time arguing with a fool.

                     8 likes

                  • Xavier says:

                    Do you have anything constructive to say or do you like looking like a 5 year old child losing an argument with its mother?

                    “No, son, you can’t do that because it’s not right”
                    “SHUT UP THATS THE STUPIDEST THING I EVER HEARD”

                    I take back my previous dementia comment. Seems I vastly misjudged the age of users here. Instead of dementia, it’s more like a bad case of the terrible twos.

                       6 likes

                    • Guest Who says:

                      “Do you have anything constructive to say”

                      Wrings hands at prats posting in tandem. Plus a nice wiff of irony in the morning.

                         6 likes

                  • Marvin says:

                    “That is definitely the stupidest thing I’ve read here.”

                    You’re not trying very hard.

                       2 likes

          • Marvin says:

            So a single datum, which may be neither valid nor reliable, is all that is needed to draw conclusions about global temperatures?

               6 likes

            • The Old Bloke says:

              Well, the Met Office and the BBC really enjoyed a single thermometer on the side of the worlds busiest airport recording the “Hottest Day” Evah in Great Britain last July and informed all and sundry that it was all down to “Global Warming” aka “Climate Change” didn’t they? What was that you said about drawing conclusions? It was on the BBC, so it has to be true doesn’t it?

                 13 likes

              • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

                We were told passim on the BBC today that “the climate is hotting up”. Nothing new there!

                But … have a guess on which programme I heard this ‘controversial’ claim!

                A science prog’? Or maybe an environment one? Or general news perhaps?

                Clue: it was on Radio 4 after 7:15 pm.

                For those not in the know, it was “Front Row”, the daily arts prog’ with Jon Wilson, who of course didn’t question the interviewee’s claim; and they were talking about another subject.

                It’s everywhere, across all platforms, sustained and utterly shameless (and unscientific).

                   12 likes

  49. chrisH says:

    This SNP shagaothon is going to be fun is`nt it?
    The unnamed Blokes and birdies involved-as if we don`t have the Internet -very much got the “pursed-lips” treatment from Webb and AN Other this morning on the news review of the papers-and it would have to be the downstairs Daily Mail who dare to make hay with the toffs upstairs like Monty and Michelle, Howlett and Moon.
    Anyway the BBC seemed more than happy to quote the SNP Obergrump as he said that there was “no evidence of financial impropriety”.
    Good enough for me BBC!
    As for the seamy semeny stains on Lenny Henrys candlewick…and, er “SEXUAL impropriety”?….well, that would have to be “outside the bounds” of the called-for public inquiry-not!
    Great to see them all scrubbing pantyliners and using Irn Bru to prevent conception-as for the “financial improps”?….they ARE Nationalist and would screw the English of bawbies and poonds at every chance…so I`ll be surprised if not a little of the Queens wedge stuck to the sporran of impropropriety!
    I would add that Scottish trope too, but will not do so following the grant ruling here on this beloved site in 2015.
    Used the bike jealousy bit sir, in my night school-some of us WORK Zero you spongebag you!
    Bet the poltroon is about to tell us that Mishal is not Michelle-but if you see Husain and Obama-both are of the same jamboree bag of crap.

       15 likes

    • wronged says:

      I noticed that the televised bBBC news reported, as an aside, that ,

      ‘the city of Basel, had been taken over by Liverpool supporters, many of whom were without tickets’

      Interesting comment, firstly will Liverpool supporters never learn, and secondly, was the comment an intended but discrete barb?

         27 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        If it was, it shows how the offence industry can create entire no-go areas surrounded entirely by ‘discretion’. And are indulged until the next failure erupts.

           6 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        I caught that line about Liverpool “supporters” too wronged and wondered:
        “Will they not ever f*****g learn?”

        Poor Basel.

           12 likes

        • Roland Deschain says:

          Why would they need to learn, when the consequences of their actions are never their fault?

             17 likes

  50. Deborahanother says:

    I don’t follow recipes much but if you do Google a recipe the BBC is at the top of the list. I this what im paying my licence for ? It would be cheaper to buy a cookery book.

       14 likes

    • Lobster says:

      Do all BBC cake recipes start with “Take one hijab…………….” ?

         22 likes