Weekend Open Thread

 

Tristram Hunt has fled Corbyn’s car crash communism for the V&A Museum.  What will be one of its newest acquisitions to put on public display?  Perhaps the Labour Party now that its time has past and the rats are leaving the sinking ship abandoning all hope along with it.  I’m guessing all that champagne in the fridges at BBC HQ must be nearing its sell by date.   Better drink up now boys and girls of the BBC…it could be a long wait otherwise. Still, you’ve got important work to do fighting Trump, Brexit, Far-Right, or even just Right wing, ideology and political success and of course defending the ramparts of the liberal, or not so liberal, bunker against the ravages of ignorant peasantry in revolt, grievously misled as they are by lies and misinformation in a post-fact, post-truth world where elective ignorance is the new enlightenment.  Once more unto the breach dear lefties until you fill up this breach with your hideously English dead…as a very subversive, err elitist and pro-Establishment, Sherlock might say as he once again is used as a vehicle to peddle hidden messages for our Progressive masters.

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406 Responses to Weekend Open Thread

  1. Rick Bradford says:

    Do the Leftist media really think they can unhorse Donald Trump? Or have they simply lost their collective minds, which were never very robust in the first place?

    There is a Sicilian proverb which sums it up nicely.

    È gran pazzia lu cuntrastari cu du’ nun pô vinciri né appattari. (It’s insane to oppose when you can neither win nor compromise.)

    Trump will have his revenge on the likes of CNN and NYT and with luck, the BBC as well; his personality demands it.

       109 likes

    • NCBBC says:

      Rick

      You are right. CNN, ABC, MSNBC etc might just get way with it, but a state funded foreign media like the BBC, will not.

      Trump’s first press conference, the Pres-elect graciously allowed a journo to ask him a question. Donald Trump’s response to the Beeb , was a quiet smile plus, “BBC news, here’s another beauty”. There were a few sniggers, and you could feel the BBC journo shrinking.

      Now, every morning, along with my tea, I flip over to BBC Ceefax news just to see the latest “hate Trump” outpourings. Yesterday, and this morning – Nothing. Just a few factuals, such as, “Trump is prepared to work with Russia”. That’s not news. Trump has always said that.

      The BBC was under the impression that they could “hunt the Trump” as part of the leftylib pack in America, and no one would notice. But Trump has, and most certainly, his very powerful team, too. This is not a team of political has beens like Kerry, Hillary but serious powerful top people in their own right.

      Now everyone but everyone at the Foreign Office, and no10, must have been watching Donald Trump’s first news conference. After the above episode, the powers must have noticed, that not just Trump, but his very powerful team, have noted the BBC. My feeling is that the BBC has been told quite firmly “STFU”.

      ————————————————–
      The BBC gets it.
      Fools Gold – previous thread.

      Fool’s Gold

         64 likes

      • Stella2 says:

        Trouble is, I fear the teenage lefty types at BBC Fakenews will be even more proud of themselves to be called out by Trump. After all, he stands for everything that is wrong in the world, so that makes them morally right, doesn’t it?

        And Paul Royall, editor of Fakenews at One and Six (“most-watched” = where we ladle the agit-prop on with a shovel for the thick masses, repeating key words ad nauseam until everyone knows that May is in a muddle, Brexit is disaster and Trump is compromised) still has the effrontery to say that he thinks “we get it about right”? Yeah, right.

        Sadly, every time they do this, a few more thousand people wake up and think, “Wha-a-a-t?” The Great Snow Crisis has let the BBC down badly, too. Shame. They know better than we do and thought they could count on the weather.

           44 likes

        • NCBBC says:

          Stella2
          The BBC just about get it right on all major issues – Brexit, Climate Change – Not, Trump.

             9 likes

      • Sinniberg says:

        Brilliant post NCBBC and I think you’re bang on with the Trump team having the BBC sized up!.

           13 likes

    • StrumPattern says:

      Trump has already expressly and publicly branded CNN as fake news, so that’s a direct hit. If the brush can continually tar the CCN and BBC as ‘fake news’ throughout 2017, that’s a fightback of sorts.

      I can imagine Trump revoking the press passes for all CNN journalists upon his entry into the White House. It would be great to think he can tell the BBC to get stuffed as well. Then their trust rating goes through the floor. But it risks making a martyr of the Beeb, because that’s how they’ll treat it – as a badge of honour.

         17 likes

      • NCBBC says:

        Its likely that one of Donald Trump’s team, will have a word with his/her opposite number in Whitehall or the FO. A word over a glass of port. From there to no 10, and then a call to DG of the BBC.
        All done quietly. No fuss. The BBC told to STFU or..

        I’m recalling a similar episode from “Yes Minister” or “Yes Prime minister”

        Britain has too much at stake, now that we are soon to be out of the EU. Its not just trade, but financial, insurance, and defence of the UK itself. The “war” is going to get really hot, much hotter. And Britain will be alongside America. And Canada, and Australia and NZ. Where else do we go?

           23 likes

    • kane says:

      Good riddance to Hunt, the man who was going to remorselessly persecute our primary school children for alleged homophobia, Islamophobia and of course, RAACISM. Another Lefty put in charge of a cultural icon that he secretly despises. Described in David Vincent’s book “2030: Your Children’s Future in Islamic Britain” (amazon and Kindle) is the Left’s remorseless attempt to nationalise family life on the basis of Marxist gender theory in order to destroy the family which they see as the root of the hated capitalist system. As with Venezuela their success in this endeavour in Europe’s liberal /Marxist EU has achieved the same result as the period when Marxists had industry by the nuts in the 1970s, namely, collapse and zero productivity i.e. a collapsed birth rate that has allowed Europe to become victim to the most violent and intolerant “religion” on Earth, (you guessed it).

         2 likes

  2. boohanna says:

    Hopefully not OT and apologies if so but it’s good to see Ms Streep having the right priorities with respect to how inappropriate and offensive The Donald is.

    However, she seems to have a moral blind spot for other forms of abuse. Ms Whoopi too seems to be somewhat confused about things. I wonder if SJW’s agree with them?

    The moral stature is to behold. Along with the double standards.

    I wonder if Hillary would come out of retirement and represent Mr Polanski for his (alleged?) drunken abuse and rape of a 13 year old girl? (In Jack Nicholson’s home I am given to understand). That’s one thing Hillary does seem to be good at. She and Mr Polanski can have a good laugh about it in the bar afterwards.

    I’m sure the BBC will be giving Meryl an excoriating response.

    Oh, maybe not then…..

    http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-38588746

       53 likes

  3. Lucy Pevensey says:

    I can’t believe it! (M Streep & her Trump/Press comments)
    I wish the media, especially the BBC would stop giving voice to celebs.
    Who needs their opinions?

    Is there some sort of drug these people are on that makes them see everything backwards?
    Everyday it feels more & more like I’m watching a huge mind-control experiment.

       100 likes

    • boohanna says:

      Lucy,

      “Is there some sort of drug these people are on that makes them see everything backwards?”

      Yes, cocaine.

      With respect to the views of these luvvies, with a focus on the comments of Ms Whoopie in the vid above, can you imagine the job the BBC (+CNN/MSNBC etc) would do on someone who wasn’t one of the approved?

      Just visualise that in the theatre of your mind!

      Ms Whoopies attitude actually outrages me more than the Streep but I suspect she is just more open about it.

      These people are, I suspect, lacking in insight and when faced with the fury of the populace at their rank hypocrisy simply cannot make the connection. Maybe I’m being too tolerant and understanding though….

         69 likes

    • Rick Bradford says:

      As one commentator noted: “Why would we take notice of people who spend their entire working lives pretending to be someone else?”

         90 likes

      • Edward says:

        We shouldn’t!

        Because they all live in the same false world. They all have good lives, comfortable lives, no worries apart from those “things” that might disrupt their lives (Brexit, Trump, etc.). They have the advantage of being in the right place at the right time, BUT, when they realise that some people in the world are suffering they get a slight twinge of guilt and ask their disciples to give money to charities and crowdfunding (or something like that) so that those nasty images of suffering will go away. They redeem themselves with words – not action!

        But their disciples are becoming increasingly wary. The age of celebrity is surely coming to a close. The level of disillusionment amongst those nobodies who aspire to make money from fame, and fame alone, is only going to rocket to Bowie heights.

        It’ll end in tears. Hollywood cannot hide for much longer its conflict with the film format of ‘money isn’t everything’ and ‘happily ever after’ and the reality that money IS everything and the people who star in Hollywood films don’t always live happily ever after.

        Isn’t it time to hold these A-list hypocrites to account? I’ll give to charity as long as you wealthy actor give everything apart from a million dollars too. You will still have a million dollars, which is a million dollars more than me!

        Now go and think about it, and don’t come back unless you show me your bank balance.

           80 likes

        • peterthegreat says:

          Edward – talking of ‘slebs’, i read there is a migrant camp going up in Como, a (precious) stone’s throw from the (precious) Clooneys’ palatial residence (one of them).

          I avidly scan the bibistan daily to read that the oh-so right-on pc caring Clooneys have thrown open their doors to the people they care so much about, but strangely have yet to find the article. Perhaps someone can direct me to it?

             52 likes

        • Donbob says:

          Could I propose the establishment of a charity ” Luvvies Sans Frontieres ” which will send weeping, scarf wearing artistic types ( Cumberbatch, Allen, Freeman, Hiddleston etc.) into the most benighted areas of conflict for at least a year. I would gladly contribute to a charity that inflicted the insufferable on the suffering. Oh, I forgot – add Clooney and Streep to that list !!

             51 likes

      • NCBBC says:

        Edward
        Terrific post.

        Rick
        “Why would we take notice of people who spend their entire working lives pretending to be someone else?

        ”Or reading from a script written by others.

           39 likes

        • JosF says:

          NCBBC ”Or reading from a script written by others”

          Sounds rather like the so-called journos that the BBC and Al-Guardian employ and that like the leftards who actually believe what the propaganda that the so-called journos employed at the BBC and Al-Guardian push

             25 likes

          • NCBBC says:

            JosF
            One of the reasons that Hollywood liked Obama, could be that he too read from a script, written by others.

            Mind you, his delivery was good, though one had the impression that he was watching a tennis match.

               13 likes

    • jazznick1 says:

      (Lucy) Everyday it feels more & more like I’m watching a huge mind-control experiment.

      That’s right – you are !

      Next ‘therapy’ session – 1 o’clock “news”.

         35 likes

    • Banania says:

      A good line in the Cranmer blog:
      “Have you seen Meryl Streep?” “Certainly not! What she does in the privacy of her own home is her own affair!”

         12 likes

  4. Edward says:

    After watching the Victoria Derbyshire programme yesterday (hosted by Joanna Rosling) and being predictably lenient on leftist assertiveness, I thought I would share this piece of promotional material for “Vicky’s” programme.

    victoria-derbyshire001thumb.jpg

       156 likes

    • Spacemonkey says:

      That’s a face you would never get tired of slapping.

         32 likes

    • Techno says:

      “emotionally charged debate”

      Some people say this is a consequence of having more women in politics and the media. They do have a point there.

         24 likes

  5. barry69 says:

    Tristram Hunt was the breaking news yesterday but the BBBC failed to mention it in it’s One o’clock news headlines.Funny that.

       72 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Leaving one lot of dusty, expensive old artefacts to join another similar lot just isn’t ‘news’, Barry.

      Also it would have meant trying to find Jeremy Corbyn for his comments, and he was nowhere to be found. The forty-seven autocue-readers (and their ‘staff’) who would normally do this were up in East Anglia, hoping for disasters and stuff.

      However, I’m glad the floods didn’t happen.

         51 likes

      • Peter Grimes says:

        From Guido –

        City AM editor Christian May:

        “Asked why he was leaving Corbyn’s Labour party to become a museum director, Tristram Hunt says he wants something more forward looking.”

        The Corbynutta wants to curate lots of other homes for aged fossils with his latest wheeze to take over failing care homes. If cats could vote the appropriation of catteries would be his next promise.

           36 likes

        • JosF says:

          Renationalising the Railways, Throwing more money at the money pit that is the bloated ineptly run NH, Failing care homes taken under state control etc etc has the gardan gnome corbyn ever produced a set of costings for funding commissar corbyn’s delusions oops plans yet Not that they will ever display any finacial competency

             5 likes

  6. thirdoption says:

    The resignation of Tristram Hunt tells you all you need to know about this over privileged toff.

    Born with a silver spoon in his mouth, son of a member of the House of Lords, he went to private school and then Cambridge University before doing absolutely nothing for a living other than stay at university and “lecture”. Now and again he wrote articles for his favourite newspapers, the Guardian and the Observer. Oh yes, he also wrote a book about history.

    So dedicated was he to his beloved Labour party that as soon as he realised he wasn’t going to be a senior member he did what all fake, champagne socialists do, threw his toys out of the pram and stomped off in a huff.

    There used to be a time when people became an MP so that they could serve their constituents – an alien concept to the likes of Tristram. Never mind, he’ll not shed any tears now that he’s walked into another ludicrously over paid and under worked job as the head of a museum.

    Stand by for Tristram being the BBC’s go-to man for comments on absolutely everything followed by him getting a job on £250,000 per year as their new arts correspondent.

       90 likes

    • Marion says:

      Your argument would be more persuasive if it didn’t read like a class-obsessed, chippy rant.

      The V&A is one of the best examples of its kind. I don’t know how much work the job involves, but I doubt if you do either.

         14 likes

      • Dave S says:

        AS a follower of Save our Lefty I feel that he literally would describe Hunt as a far right neo fascist Tory May junta plant and that literally seems correct.
        The V & A is likewise suspect in that it literally does not show the literal truth of how the neofascist past ground the faces of us scum into the dust. Where are the hovels reeking of misery and poverty ? Where are the depictions of
        the poor chained to their benches and whipped by the bosses. ? This is literally our past and Hunt is going to join what can only be called a neoliberal elite brexit loving anti working class club.
        Our Jeremy is well rid of him.

           26 likes

      • Stella2 says:

        Thirdoption is right on the money though, with his prediction that Our Tristram will be their go-to man for quotes on everything from (rewritten) history, culture and yes, education.

        Just like the loony-left Paul Mason, he won’t have a day’s peace from the BBC needing his views.

           29 likes

      • TruthSeeker says:

        Sorry Marion, no.
        thirdoption does a service to all of us if a, new to BBBC, reader discovers this comment with its exposure of the perpetual hypocrisy of the silver spooned lefties.

        Just another job-hopping, quango embracing, nepotiscally inclined, crony associated, money accumulating, pseudo-lefty waste of oxygen.

        What thirdoption might have also pointed out is the perpetual hypocrisy of the rest of the left. Genuine grass roots lefties in their eagerness to emulate their silver spooned “comrades” whenever they aquire political power.

        Lenin in his dacha, with his butler and gourmet diet during the 1922 famine, his round the clock medical experts. Stalin with his dacha. Beria with his dacha fitted out for the rape centre for young women it became. Mao tse Tung who received reprimands from Chou en Lai about his extravagant lifetstyle. Ceaușescu with his monumental buildings, and the megalomania which they all had. Sons of the soil all of them.

        Well, actually, no, the only time the soil received any attention from this scum was when they were, belatedly, laid in it.

           36 likes

      • TruthSeeker says:

        Sorry Marion, no.
        thirdoption does a service to all of us if a, new to BBBC, reader discovers their comment with its exposure of the perpetual hypocrisy of the silver spooned lefties.

        Just another job-hopping, quango embracing, nepotiscally inclined, crony associated, money accumulating, pseudo-lefty waste of oxygen.

        What thirdoption might have also pointed out is the perpetual hypocrisy of the rest of the left. Genuine grass roots lefties in their eagerness to emulate their silver spooned “comrades” whenever they aquire political power.

        Lenin in his dacha, with his butler and gourmet diet during the 1922 famine, his round the clock medical experts. Stalin with his dacha. Beria with his dacha fitted out for the rape centre for young women it became. Mao tse Tung who received reprimands from Chou en Lai about his extravagant lifetstyle. Ceaușescu with his monumental buildings, and the megalomania which they all had. Sons of the soil all of them.

        Well, actually, no, the only time the soil received any attention from this scum was when they were, belatedly, laid in it.

           10 likes

        • TruthSeeker says:

          Note for David Vance.
          This is not (on this occasion) a duplicate post by me.
          Having “improved” another infelicitous choice of terms, I clicked on “save” at a time when the BBBC edit clock was approaching zero seconds.

          Clock restarted, 15 minutes later, time elapses, voila.

             4 likes

      • oldcrone says:

        Marion writes in reply to third option … “Your argument would be more persuasive if it didn’t read like a class-obsessed, chippy rant.”

        Bit like yours then Marion .. in relation to football ?? 😉

           3 likes

    • engineerdownunder says:

      Yes, I had to laugh when BBC reported that Hunt had said he was resigning as Labour MP for Stoke because … it was becoming out of touch with its traditional core voters ! How has the Blairite Hunt ever represented or understood them? A man who will be much more at home networking in London as a V&A Director.

      It may be my bias, but it seems to me that BBC is very much underplaying Hunt’s departure. Another Labour MP (Reed) resigned just a few weeks ago. If these were Tories the BBC would be pushin the story 24/7 … reality is that the Labour party is disintegrating … but the BBC would prefer to analyse dubious reports from ex spies, or witter on about the ever present “pressure” on the NHS.

         50 likes

      • JosF says:

        Slightly of target I know but I read an article in todays The Telegraph this morning stating that a UKIP-Conservative {especially if the conservatives replace teeresa maybe with someone fit for purpose} could finally kill labour off once and for all

           17 likes

        • Al Shubtill says:

          The Conservatives will never ally themselves with UKIP and the last thing they want is the destruction of Labour (IMHO), remember how they both colluded to ensure Farage didn’t win Thanet in the GE?

          If the Conservatives wished to annihilate Labour, all May needed to do would have been to call a GE as soon as she replaced Cameron.
          The Labour Party with Corbyn as leader would be finished as a major political force in Britain, unless and until it reconnected with what it once was: the party which looked out for the interests of the working class; they used to be anti-immigration, as were the trades unions, remember?

             37 likes

          • Spacemonkey says:

            The Conservatives need Labour and Labour need the Conservatives. It is the perfect symbiosis, they take it in turns to run the country ( into the ground ), a monopoly on political power which has seen them increasingly remote from the people.

               26 likes

            • TruthSeeker says:

              Sm
              “The Conservatives need Labour and Labour need the Conservatives.”

              Sounds a bit like Patrick FitzGerald and Gerald Fitzpatrick to me, perhaps its the way you tell ’em.

                 6 likes

          • JosF says:

            Sounds like UKIP could be on to a winner if they got serious and made a real effort to target the Working/Middle class/Small Business man the core labour party vote ie the core vote that labour toke for granted and has now woken up and is abandoning labour and its dhimmified leftard champagne socialists who have taken over what was the party formerly known as labour and its attempts to merge the UK into the european union aka the United States of Europe that or the Islamic Caliphate of United Kingdom

               7 likes

        • engineerdownunder says:

          UKIP – Conservative alliance isn’t needed because Labour is killing itself.

          That’s why the BBC is getting desperate and their bias becoming daily more blatant.

             22 likes

        • NCBBC says:

          Would killing of Labour in its weakened state, be good for the conservatives?

          Perhaps the conservatives prefer it this way, You know- the devil you know etc.

             8 likes

    • Banania says:

      And the funny thing is, when he talks about anything, he doesn’t sound awfully bright.

         4 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Oddly enough I think this is one of the reasons why Trump is hated by the leftist political class. In the old days (up until the 80s or so) most politicians started out in the ‘real world’ with careers in industry, the forces, or whatever, then in late middle age stood for parliament. Then it all changed around – politicians are now involved in politics from school age onwards and rarely have ‘real’ jobs until at least after they have left politics in late middle age, and sometimes not even then. So I suspect Trump is hated because he is not ‘of the club’ and therefore threatens to expose and belittle the concept of an established political class.

         0 likes

  7. Oaknash says:

    Tristram Hunt gets job at V&A that will be nice for him, and how very typical.

    Assuming these misguided, spoilt, arrogant twats with a sense of entitlement do start to put up the white flag (which I do not believe they would unless it is to the “religion of peace”). I am afraid any sort of society wide, “reality” balance will still be bloody difficult to achieve when you have a whole society which for the last few decades has been geared to giving plum influential positions to those who have the “right views” either on certain religions, politics, or political correctness.

    These sort of jobs are not just “boltholes” for the pampered they are still influential positions. They still provide power and influence and after all ” He who controls the past controls the future”! There are also quangos galore and civil service positions for those in the know. Social services, education the list is endless. And of course lets not forget jobs in our “world class media”

    Until Government actually finds the moral and political courage to admit this is the case (and I do now believe that the publishing of things such as the Casey report, though weak may be a small glimmer of light) Very little will change. We dont need a broom we need a flamethrower!

    The fact that a pathetic Corbyn doppelganger “proffessor” felt confidant enough to make a “hate” accusation about a government Minister who had after all made a fairly innocuous speech, just shows how low we have sunk as a society where the virtues of common sense are now seen by some as a “hate” crime.

    In a sensible world after his contemptible complaint, this twat would now be trudging down the dole office for bringing his University into disrepute. But that is not how things work these days. I think our Universities appear to have become centres of excess rather than excellence.

    No I am afraid things will have to get very much worse before they get better. And we need major institutional changes but I suspect unless we suffer more outrages on a scale that Europe has been getting, little is likely to change.

    And even then – Do the snowflakes have the courage to deal with what may be coming? – I hope so “safe spaces” permitting.

       71 likes

    • boohanna says:

      Oak,

      “These sort of jobs are not just “boltholes” for the pampered they are still influential positions.”

      It’s all part of the welfare state for the rich.

      Theirs is a very good one of course. The only signing on required is for the expenses claim.

      And yes, matters still have to get gruesomely, biblically worse before real structural change occurs. All interesting stuff.

         43 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Your delightfully described Corbyn doppelganger gains his confidence from a professorship at what was once one of the world’s finest seats of learning, that’s the aspect that should require much closer examination, not his absurd and transparent inadequacy.
      PS. Sorry Oaknash, the above is a classic example of rushing to print, inspired by your para 5, without going on to read para 6.
      PPS. On a different note, it’s good to know that Grant does actually get some sleep.

         17 likes

      • oldcrone says:

        Beltane … “PPS. On a different note, it’s good to know that Grant does actually get some sleep.” .. that gave me the best belly laugh of the week … written with affection of course Grant 😉

           3 likes

    • NCBBC says:

      Oaknash

      Great post. Terrific.

      The worst offender was the Blair regime. NHS CEO’s were staffed by NewLab buddies. All on high end 6 figure salaries.

         36 likes

      • Peter Grimes says:

        BlairBrown paid top whack to attract the best.

        Pity they got the dross but Leftoids could never distinguish quality from quantity.

           25 likes

        • JosF says:

          #1 The worst offender was the Blair regime. NHS CEO’s were staffed by NewLab buddies. All on high end 6 figure salaries.

          #2 Along with the £300 billion worth of PFI debt that the incompetent gordon brown saddled health and education with

          #3 The NHS has a vastly top heavy and inefficient management that seriously needs a chainsaw through it

          These are a couple of thoughts for the BBC and its leftard employees and the labour party to think about when they they are slaging of the conservatives for the current NHS crisis namely the labour party’s role in the NHS crisis. Though i doubt the BBC or the labour party would recognise or accept this

             31 likes

          • 60022Mallard says:

            Do not forget who runs the NHS in Wales and Scotland.

            While reminding of that do not forget Govt. spending per head. England £8816 (much lower if you exclude Londonistan), Wales £9996 and wee Jimmie Krankie country £10536. England East – my home turf – £8163.

            Has anyone seen the BBC report on the national news how those controlled by spendaholics are doing relative to England?

               25 likes

          • Peter Grimes says:

            Thank you for reminding me about PFI. The grossly inflated PFI instalments are one of the major reasons why NHS trusts are in deficit.

            And the Corbynutta’s Labour have the sheer brass balls to bitch on about lack of funding,

               23 likes

      • Oaknash says:

        BOO/BEL and NCBBC.

        I never went to University and dont have a degree and therefore I may not be correct. Therefore feel free to comment!

        However my understanding of the function of Universities was always that they were places that fairly bright people attended to expose themselves to a wide range of ideas and theories so that they themselves would then be able to profit society even more by changing the way we think/do things for the good of us all.

        However – what it seems they have morphed into is places where students appear to be only exposed to the current fashionable ideas about how to do and think about things and this has become increasingly narrow with censure passed on those who dare to ponder outside the current accepted academic straitjacket.

        This definitely seems to have been intensified in the Blair years. With education, education, education as his mantra and seemingly with many Universities turning into sausage machines, producing degrees which were not really fit for any useful purpose.

        I think people were encouraged to think that any sort of degree course was all you need for a good job. We were also encouraged to believe that a degree was necessary to get on in life and any sort of physical labour was seen as below ones dignity. Hence we have a ridiculous situation today where nurses and soon coppers are expected to have a degree rather than than obviously having some sort of vocation. As a result of this we have also have had to import tradesmen from eastern Europe because many of our own youngsters were not interested in work of this type.

        Unfortunately many lefties seemed to have appeared to see this as an opportunity to be well payed for peddling their own particular brand of social justice and hence we have a situation today at Universities, where all these overqualified “Wolfie Smiffs” appear to hold sway. And as their proteges are then packed into many institutions. A period at “Uni” becomes a necessary prerequisite for any decent job! And so the whole cycle seems to have become self perpetuating.

        When I was a kid a good degree was something that was seen as being an achievement. These days who knows?

           54 likes

        • 60022Mallard says:

          I think your summary is quite reasonable.

          I believe the DT yesterday informed us that around 1 in 4 of degrees (104,000!) are awarded at First level compared with 1 in 12 in 1999. Possibly not surprising when student surveys of what they thought of their uni are used extensively in listings of unis and uni advertising.

          A third used to be an attendance certificate. That accolade now seems to have moved to a 2.2.

          Employers are said now have to look past the degree and are as much interested in work experience and other abilities interests.

          Can we expect a searching BBC Panorama expose of such grade inflation by the BBC.

          Not a chance!

             27 likes

        • Banania says:

          “I never went to University…”
          Don’t tell us – I bet you voted for Brexit!

             14 likes

        • NCBBC says:

          Oaknash

          You write well. Clearly not a product of any university, in the last 15 years.

          You should read David Warren’s essays. He a Canadian Anglican, but left to the Catholic faith, after the “women bishops” fiasco. I have read his essays going night 15 years.

          I does not matter wether you have faith or not. Just the style of his writing, is a pleasure to sip.

          http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/

          or you can choose your essay

          http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/archives/

             6 likes

    • PeterT says:

      I did wonder watching that scruffy, arrogant and very foolish Professor Silver twonk on Daily Politics, whether universities record the nationality of their students. They must, mustn’t they or they wouldn’t know what fees to charge a particular individual? Whereas Amber Rudd was suggesting that employers simply record the number of foreigner workers employed by them, the universities must surely keep detailed information on foreign students and use that information for a variety of purposes. Shouldn’t Prof Silver be reporting his own university and others for a “hate crimes”?

         27 likes

  8. Deborah says:

    I hope you all survived the Great Flood of 2017. Last night our local BBC news had a reporter standing out in the cold with the reflection from moon showing the sea somewhere in the far distance. The best she could manage was to say hopefully ‘it is still 20 minutes to high tide’. OK, I am glad they over egged the pudding (at least here) and people did not have to cope with damaged property, and maybe it was what was needed to get people to safely just in case. But I do hope the BBC and the Environmental Agency do not cry wolf once too often

       52 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Every time it rains in the hills we get an EA Floodline alert to head to them with kids and chattels.

      Sometimes the footy pitch down by the river gets damp.

      They have already cried wolf too many times.

         33 likes

    • oldcrone says:

      Deborah “I hope you all survived the Great Flood of 2017.” … and don’t forget the 7 day Arctic blizzard!

         3 likes

  9. G says:

    The BBC were all over the pork/mosque incident a while back. As we know now, the “perpetrator” received a stiff sentence and did, in fact, die in prison. In Germany meanwhile, three Muslims attacking a synagogue were simply exercising “….a justified expression of criticism of Israel’s policies.” –
    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/01/german-court-gives-muslims-who-attacked-synagogue-suspended-sentences-says-attack-justified
    I didn’t hear this news from the BBC. I would have thought that they would be well pleased to announce that the Muslims given suspended sentences, were dealt with by the German courts, ‘fairly’.

       68 likes

    • boohanna says:

      Yes G, it’s things like this (by the million at this point) that are going to catalyse an elemental explosion.

      We have been and are being betrayed by those currently in power. Their only reflex however will be to tighten the repressive screws. Is it so wrong to want that ALL are treated equally under the law? They know we are angry.

      It will be remembered.

         48 likes

      • Synchro gnome says:

        Meanwhile in Kent the bloke who played Damien in ‘The Omen’ was driving round the country lanes and had to slow down for a couple of cyclists. Annoyed about this he quite reasonably got out of his car and beat them to a pulp causing one to become unconscious. You will be relieved to know he got off with a suspended sentence. So there you are – beating people up severely doesn’t get you sent to prison but sticking a bit of bacon on a mosque door gets you banged down straight away. So glad our justice system gets its priorities spot on.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-38617815

           16 likes

  10. Gillian?? says:

    I can’t bear the Labour so called leftie socialists. They’re nothing more than toffs ‘trying’ to understand the real grass roots working class people of our great country. Nothing more than champagne socialists who don’t have a bloody clue about the real world.
    Plus the celebrity mindset. They shouldn’t be given any credence and certainly not any air time when expressing any opinions. All air heads.

       45 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      Seems to make it as a Lefty politician these days you must be TV ‘personality’ – I use that word very loosely.
      Sound thinking though because when you bomb in politics – you move to TV.
      I look forward to Corbyn on Strictly’ and the, “Good Morning With Jeremy and Diane Show”

         16 likes

  11. Lock13 says:

    What has happened on Breakfast? They seem to be trying to just report the news , bar omitting the root cause for the pressures on the NHS ( I think it is immigration BBC – you go an do some investigative journalism and get back to us) , they seem to be just reporting the facts on other stories. The Trump news is item No.3 or something and the facts are just reported , same with Barry’s healthcare’s march across the horizon. No spitting venom, no chewing wasp smiles from Charlie Stayt (or is that Paul O’Grady can never tell them two apart) and that tall bloke Steph McGovern seems to have lost his attitude too.
    Looks like Donald’s ‘ that’s a beauty’ has rattled them’

       55 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      In line with Lenin’s dictum of giving the people, “Bread and circuses”.
      ie: Keep them fed, entertained and stupid.

         13 likes

      • Spacemonkey says:

        I think it was the Roman satirical poet Juvenal (circa A.D. 100) who coined the term. Lenin never struck me as a circus type of guy.

        BTW, has anyone noticed the Lenin style titfer Jezer has taken to wearing. Very dashing.

           18 likes

        • TruthSeeker says:

          Sm
          “Lenin style titfer”

          Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, became bald very young, and was very self-conscious about it, well before he became Nikolai Lenin. The execution of his brother after a plot to assassinate the Tsar also contributed to the general hatred that motivated him thereafter.

          Dashing, not a term I associate with Jezza No-Seats, unless he is on an express train about to hit the buffers using only his own retardation for deceleration.

             6 likes

    • peterthegreat says:

      Lock13 – Donald’s ‘that’s another beauty’ to the bibistan was a good start but sadly he still let them have the mic and ask their stupid biased questions. Oh for the day he has them thrown out, and hopefully tried for hate crimes and fake news. One can dream.
      Re. the bibistan toning down their bias, the danger is they just hide it to appear impartial, but it will still fester below ground and inform their every report, and their every non-report, just more slyly, and delay the day of reckoning when they are stripped of their charter and grotesque ‘license’ fee – more of a license to extortion.

         27 likes

    • Beltane says:

      I think our Charlie rather lost his way this morning. Interviewing an intelligent and lucid girl from the Security Service, based in Brussels, he failed to get the sort of answers he hoped for re. the Terrible Trump Revelations. In fact she went so far as to suggest there was little truth in the cobbled-together claims and left poor Chas in limbo as a result. He really should have swotted up on the current BBC Checklist of questions to ask/faces to pull on the subject, otherwise the People’s Favourite News Organisation is in danger of alienating MI6.

         27 likes

  12. Gillian?? says:

    Plus who cares a jot about Depp’s divorce. When did celebrities become so bl***dy important that they are seen as newsworthy. Stupidness.

       50 likes

  13. Peter Grimes says:

    Are Barmier (sick) and our EU friends getting the message at last?

    https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/jan/13/eu-negotiator-wants-special-deal-over-access-to-city-post-brexit

       22 likes

    • Lock13 says:

      Yes, read that Peter – now the penny is dropping. We are in the driving seat

         17 likes

    • richard D says:

      I commented on this and a couple of other stories towards the ‘fag end’ of the previous Open Thread, to the effect that this pernicious demand for free access to the UK financial markets should not be traded away to the EU without a price – and a bloody huge one at that, since they are the ones who are at risk of losing out, big-time, here.

      Therefore, in my view, the most sinister comment by Barnier in the report concerning the minutes of this meeting were “There will be a special/specific relationship. There will need to be work outside of the negotiation box … in order to avoid financial instability.”

      So, basically, M. Barnier would really like this to be done outside of the overall Brexit negotiations, so the UK cannot use it as a lever over the EU.

      Remember, this is the same man who was adamant (and voluble about it) just a few weeks ago that there could be no negotiation whatsoever outside the framework of the Article 50 process, and there could be no ‘special deal’ for the UK on anything at all. He now wants special negotiations and a special deal on something which has no real ‘upside’ for the UK (it would be ‘status quo’ for us), but which could have a huge ‘downside’ for the EU… and he wants to take this bargaining chip away from the UK, so it can’t be used in the overall negotiations.

      In my view, our mainstream press are far too worried about how EU representatives will feel about what we say to, or about, them (unlike their attitude to the UK and its representatives. He should have his own words thrown back in his face i.e. “M. Barnier, we’re taking you at your word – no deals outside the Article 50 negotiations framework, and no ‘special deals’ for the EU. So it’s up to you to stop trying to be ‘the hard man’, and start negotiating for a fair settlement for all – and that means the UK as well.”

      It’s damned time we stopped pussy-footing around, started fronting up to M. Barnier and his ilk, and getting prepared to negotiate as damned-well hard as we can.

         43 likes

      • Beltane says:

        I rather suspect, Richard, that this is yet another example of the real power of the UK’s negotiating position – but of course, that’s the last thing to deserve ‘common knowledge’ status.

           17 likes

        • richard D says:

          Beltane – you’re right, and I’m kicking myself because, just as with my comment on the previous thread, I omitted to say the following in the comment above…

          “And it’s about damned time the BBC started looking at these news items (after all, in this case it’s printed in its perpetual go-to hard-copy publication, the Guardian) interpreting them from a British, rather than an EU, standpoint, and highlighting this to the public – and taking the UK side in these negotiations. But I think it will be a cold day in hell when the BBC starts to even think for one second about the UK viewpoint when it comes to our relationship with the EU.”

             36 likes

      • Spacemonkey says:

        Very good post, Richard. This has been almost completely overlooked by the media, after all they have far more important things to be doing like calling for the impeachment of Trump.

           15 likes

      • Peter Grimes says:

        Agree with all of this but Bernard Jenkins on yesterday’s? Toady programme about 8.25 saying that only in the last few days has the City decided to opt for regulatory equivalence rather than know-towing to our EU friends and begging for passporting, a recipe for them to hold us to ransom. Barmier’s comments will only enhance our ability to press the pre-eminence of the City and its importance to our EU ‘friends’ and their bankrupt banking system.

        They need us more than we need them, but it’s important that Maggie May tells them soonest that the red line is control of our laws and borders and with regard to the rest, do your damndest.

           14 likes

        • Peter Grimes says:

          Here is an extract from a recent FT article by Stani Yassukovich which puts fears of the EU ganging up on our banks to the sword –

          After – ~Commentators and even Treasury officials keep repeating the mantra that “the City must have access to the single market”. But there is effectively no single market in services in the EU, and certainly not in financial services. ” He says

          ” So now a new threat is perceived by Brexit sceptics: that the EU may deny its institutions access to the City. Although, the EU cuts itself off from the world in many ways, it has yet to ban its citizens from contracting services outside its borders. Its institutions have been buying financial services freely from New York, Chicago, Dubai, Hong Kong, Tokyo and elsewhere. The EU and the eurozone are not likely to introduce discriminatory exchange controls, cutting themselves off from the financial world.

          The controversy over the settlement and clearing of euro-denominated instruments has been around for some time. But in order to enforce a move of this facility to the eurozone, restrictions would have to be placed on eurozone banks in dealings with non-eurozone counterparties, eroding the currency’s convertibility. In any case the trading would stay in London, because that is where the liquidity and supporting services are located. ”

          https://www.ft.com/content/aa76b168-a5b9-11e6-8898-79a99e2a4de6

             7 likes

  14. engineerdownunder says:

    BBC created celebrity Nadiya Hussian currently on R4 Saturday Live with her “inheritance tracks” .
    Has Matthew Parris featured her story on “Great Lives ” yet?

       40 likes

    • Lock13 says:

      Legends of the 21st Century

         12 likes

    • Oaknash says:

      Engineer
      Nadiya Hussein as a “Great Life” that would be fake news indeed!

      Imagine it “Nadia fondly remembered for wearing a hijab in Bangladesh when no one else was wearing one and presenting the queen with a her lemon pizzle cake which was modelled on Eastern Aleppo”

      Oh yeah – definately a great life !

         28 likes

  15. Sluff says:

    Surely the Tristram Hunt story is a perfect example of the 21st century Labour Party.

    Represent the working class by patronising them and telling them what’s good for them ( the EU, open borders, immigration, multiculturalism etc).
    Meanwhile, enjoy for yourself a lifestyle in which you are totally insulated from the policies you espouse and especially the impacts of them.

    Anyone know the salary for the V and A director, by the way?
    Is it more than the Prime Minister’s by any chance?
    Paid for, no doubt, by us?

       58 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      If he wanted a ‘museum’ job, there must be loads available around the country, but somehow the North Lincolnshire Museum in Scunthorpe doesn’t quite have the same kudos as the V & A. (assuming Mr Hunt knows where Scunthorpe is !)

         18 likes

  16. AsISeeIt says:

    The BBC provides a platform for a spokesman for NHS GPs this morning to hit back at Downing Street which has pointed out that part of the reason A&Es may be busy is that people can’t get appointments at their local surgery.

    GP contracts, anyone? Weekends? Evenings? Home visits… as if.

    “We need is more funding, what we don’t need is more pressure”

    More pressure… so does that mean the BMA will start to campaign for a reduction in the current record-breaking level of immigration?

    No, of course not. It’s just the more funding side of things they want.

       44 likes

    • Stella2 says:

      From my sad experiences with elderly parents in the past few years, what nobody seems to be mentioning is that A&E is the way GPs get their patients admitted to hospital!

      Long gone are the days when the GP will pick up the phone and tell the hospital to expect their patient and prepare for their arrival. Patients are told to get themselves down to A&E, with a letter if they are lucky. Some unbiased non-agenda questions from journalists would uncover that contribution to the pressures on A&E, but I’ve never heard it aired.

         38 likes

      • PeterT says:

        That’s quite right, Stella. Recently I went to see my Doc (after waiting for a few days to get an appointment) about a suspected ear infection causing me to occasionally feel light-headed. He gave me a few tests and thought it was more serious and that I may have had a minor stroke. He phoned the relevant department at the hospital and found it was at least a four week wait to see a consultant which he wasn’t happy about. He gave me a letter and told me not to drive myself but get someone to take me to A&E or if that wasn’t possible he would phone for an ambulance there and then. I was a bit bemused because I felt fine. My Brother took me and I was seen immediately and after a number of tests the results were taken to a consultant who gave his opinion. I had in fact had a minor stroke. God Bless my doctor for short circuiting the system.

        At my health centre we now have to wait quite a while to see a doctor or a nurse practitioner and I do know of people who rather than wait go directly to A&E in the local hospital. About eight years ago we had a large, state of the art health centre built in my village. Before that we had an old building which housed three full-time and one part-time doctor, about three nurses and some reception staff. You could ring in the morning and invariably saw a doctor the same day, usually within a couple of hours. The new centre has eight doctors, three nurse practitioners and goodness knows how many nurses and anciliary staff. Can you get to see someone within a reasonable time? Several days waiting is the norm. The local population hasn’t increased. What’s happened in the meantime that makes the service, which has many more staff, much worse than it was eight years ago? I have to say that, for the most part, the docs and nurses are very professional – once you get to see one.

        Now, it wouldn’t take much nouse for say, the BBC, to thoroughly investigate what’s really happening in the NHS as long as they start with a blank sheet and do a thorough investigation rather than look only for particular evidence which supports their pre-conceived, anti-Tory, lurid headline.

           23 likes

        • Cranmer says:

          Peter T, I’m glad to hear you got prompt attention. My theory is that the reason people bang on about ‘our wonderful NHS’ and won’t accept any criticism of it is that by and large, the ordinary rank and file with whom most users come into contact do give good service. But this does not mean there are not major problems with how the service is run. As you point out, this kind of thing is rarely considered on the BBC and the simple answer is just ‘more funding.’

             1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Classic FM global propaganda kicked off with senior GP who literally (h/t SoL) ‘cried herself to sleep’ last night, but luckily composed herself enough and found time this morning to be quite strident in her advocacy.

      She was then followed by their go-to font of political insight, Jeremy, in full Wolfie mode.

         27 likes

  17. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC tv news reporter on the flood-coast transgresses somewhat when he refers to sea water only reaching ‘two feet’ below coastal defences. Metric system, son. That’ll spoil your chance of a spot on the One Show. It’s not as though we’ve triggered Article 50 yet. There’s still hope.

    The damp anorak redemes himself when he acts as patsy to a high-viz-clad bureaucrat and delivers a couple of leading questions to help the chap justify all the fuss.

    Not sure who had whose hand in whose glove but the BBC sure do love this weather warning nonesense

       26 likes

    • Sluff says:

      AS
      Totally on your side on this, but the point is surely that the authorities should be taking steps to protect the public. That’s what we pay them for, within reason.
      Unfortunately what we also pay for is the useless BBC bigging the whole thing up, with endless, utterly inane outside broadcasts for days on end of reporters wearing wet anoraks standing by piles of sand, with bugger all actual news, just dire threats of how bad it wil be. In fact, another variant of the tactic of one BBC reporter interviewing another one.
      When there was claimed to be some news (damage on the N Yorks coast was quoted), there was no actual coverage.
      So the whole thing becomes a filling up space, talking heads pile of drivel, very expensively paid for by the likes of us.
      I suppose at least it gave us a brief respite from the otherwise endless ‘NHS Crisis’ ,’Trump is Evil’ agenda.

         34 likes

  18. G says:

    Just where is Treezer in the queue? – well behind Blair who has to be next in line and Cameron some way back from the front –
    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2017/01/angela-merkel-gets-honorary-doctorate-for-diversity-amid-public-outrage

       16 likes

    • RJ says:

      Given the Oxford University refused to award an honorary degree to Margaret Thatcher, I think that “back of the queue” is the place of honour.

         16 likes

      • TruthSeeker says:

        RJ
        +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
        +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ad libitum.

           2 likes

  19. gaxvil says:

    Mishel on Today – BBC desperately going over the back catalogue of Trump disparagers to stoke up the hate.
    Unfortunately, she failed to extract any bile from John Negroponte, try as she did. He understands that the anti Trump war is over however much the BBC sees it as their mission to interfere in the governance and well being of a foreign country – Next.

       39 likes

  20. EnglandExpects says:

    Husain seemed amazed that Negroponti didn’t think that this scurrilous unsubstantiated document was worth showing to the president . “Don’t you think it’s worth investigating?” She asked in an amazed tone. In the new BBC world of fake news., that is pure Orwell, any old rubbish can command headlines for days and force governments to act! I’m beginning to think that journalism as I knew it died in 2016.

       30 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Rather matching Emily’s ‘hold on!’ shriek to Glenn Greewald, which went down like a bucket of warm sick even with liberal commentators. The BBC bubble really blows and is set to burst.

         29 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Missed that, Guest!

        It’s still on Youtube here: –

        He’s an excellent journalist, she’s a losing autocue-reader.

           36 likes

        • RJ says:

          He was making a lot of sense so you can hear the desperation in her voice as she rushes to close the interview.

             26 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            But, oddly, she seems to persist in role, like Kay ‘you can’t say that’ Burley’.

            Why, who can say?

               15 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘But hang on a sec…’

          Desperation sets in. BBC [heart] CIA.

          ‘Hang on a second…’

          [pause]

          ‘No, I didn’t say anything remotely like that…’

          But still… irrational Emily not big on evidence in reporting. And calls what is not fact, fact. Or as Glenn, says, a falsehood.

          Interesting.

          BBC Factcheck better have a big ‘got it about right’ stamp made up PDQ.

          Is it authentic?

          Is it in the public interest?

          Or, more crucially for the BBC… is it on narrative?

          And the UK government compels the public to fund this?

             20 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            ps: Just typed Emily’s surname into my mac.

            It changed it to ‘Meritless’.

            Those AI’s are getting smarter.

               16 likes

        • Al Shubtill says:

          This is a much better interview with Greenwald, the like of which you’ll never see on al beebus.

             11 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      Sensational ism replaced journal ism a while ago. Cub reporters asking bereaved relatives, ‘How they felt?’ and ‘Coffee cause cancer and coffee cures cancer’ confusion
      The BBC, for the most part, puts out stories to depress, frighten and panic about all but one thing – immigration.

         30 likes

  21. ToobiWan says:

    Andrew Neil co presenter: Apparently, Corbyn has invited Trump to visit a London Mosque if and when he visits UK, AN, sotto voce “Well I think that will be a very high priority” Last few seconds of clip.
    http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/753944/Donald-Trump-predicts-end-of-EU-as-staff-quiz-officials-on-which-country-will-quit-Brussel

       22 likes

  22. TruthSeeker says:

    Guardian Opinion 2017-01-14.
    Why can’t TV tap into these plays for today’s marginalised? Deborah Orr
    What?
    Biggest bollox EVER.
    Marginalised, that would be us, when we are not being demonised.

    “Play for Today” etc.
    90% set in Africa or elsewhere.
    90% starring ethnics.
    100% non-dramatic content.
    100% let’s shoe-in as much propaganda as we can, which is plenty as IslamicAlbeeb has been perfecting this, and doing nothing else “dramatic”, for decades.

    2017 may appear premature, but this receives the TS “Bollox of the Millenium” award.
    Doubtless it will be improved upon, but this Orr gigabollox will be seen as the gold standard to which all future efforts should aspire.

    Savaged BTL by most who are still able to type after reading this ****.

       33 likes

    • Jump says:

      ‘. . . this Orr gigabollox will be seen as the gold standard to which all future efforts should aspire.’

      An honourable mention, too, for an editorial in the same (or possibly yesterday’s) edition: ‘The Guardian view on the Dictionary of National Biography: choosing who we are’, following a press release on the latest batch of lives to be added to the on-line edition of the DNB. This is the final paragraph of the leader:

      Lists are probably the quickest way to provoke an argument, and arguing over who has shaped national life is part of the business of establishing what it should like. [Ronnie] Biggs and [Boris] Berezovsky may look questionable; but neither looks anywhere near as questionable as a single man left out. There is no Nelson Mandela. No matter that he was not a Briton, nor ever lived here. For millions of white Britons, he redefined what it meant to be black; he reshaped attitudes to apartheid; and the story of the life he lived is a vivid influence on the unfinished business of how Britons think about the history of empire.

      Below-the-line comments are sadly few, but happily beyond contemptuous. Most seem to have picked up on the self-immolating sentence, ‘No matter that he was not a Briton, nor ever lived here.’ One poster even notes that the same point (about not being accorded an entry, despite his considerable influence on national life) could also be made of a certain J. Christ.

         28 likes

  23. 60022Mallard says:

    A general welcome to posters whose handles I do not recognise, which means you are probably new to the site.

    The more eyes and ears we have the harder it will be to miss the misdeeds of our impartial television tax funded elephant in the room of UK media.

       32 likes

  24. TruthSeeker says:

    “Don’t treat Donald Trump as if he’s a normal president. He’s not
    Jonathan Freedland in the Advertiser.

    Correct, Freedland, he is not the president, yet.
    Freedland, with his unique inability to look back upon what he has already written, perform some self-criticism, indulge in some mea culpa, recognise his failings, begins with his claim to be able to fortell the future.

    Second paragraph.
    “Remember how much damage it did to Hillary Clinton for the FBI to be looking (again) at her use of a private email server. Regardless of what they found – nothing, as it happens”

    Freedland is simply lying about the recent past, which is what he practises, assiduously.

    Cocooned in the world of IslamicAlbeeb, JF, you may well believe this “nothing”.
    Outside your world, plenty of non-nothings were discovered, and publicised.

    Did not read the rest.

       29 likes

    • RJ says:

      “Don’t treat Donald Trump as if he’s a normal president. He’s not”.

      For the first time ever I can agree with something written by Jonathan Freedland. On Youtube there is a speech by Newt Gingrich on Trump where he explains that Trump is like the grizzly bear in the Revenant. “If you get his attention he will get awake. When he gets awake he will walk over, bite your face off and sit on you.” No Jonathan, he is not going to be a normal president.

      The quotation is a 12 minutes in.

         15 likes

  25. Invicta 1066 says:

    Page 3 of today’s Daily Telegraph has a full half page on BBC plans to award Question of Sport as a contract to an independent production company.
    A document circulated to prospective bidders, says the BBC wants to refresh the francise, bringing in more EMB, disabled and LBTG performers in its line up! What a surprise.

    I have mentioned in other posts that the BBC seems blind to any over representation unless it is white English males.
    Watched QI last night, with two gay/lesbian on the show, the BBC should have had another 98 straight folk to abide by it’s quota rules. A white male English newsreader should be on 42% of evening main news programmes but not the case.
    The present QM and pannelists are first rate, their sports knowledge is remarkable; must admit Dawson can be a bit of show off and irritating at times, but that is just my opinion.
    Apparently the BBC want the show to attract audiences in a different age range from the over 65s who make up 40% of the current viewers.
    Well, they will get their wish if they go ahead with a change to a format that has worked for nearly 50 years.

       33 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Yes Invicta, the BBC will get a different age range by default; far less viewers overall but as so many of the over 65s will be turning off (and Mr D will be one of them); the percentage of of younger viewers will automatically increase.

         16 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      Given what as written about the beeb as far back as 2006, I’m surprised that even more programs are not being put under the diversity spolight.
      From wikipedia
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_the_BBC
      “…In the seminar former BBC business editor Jeff Randall claimed he was told by a senior news executive in the organisation that “The BBC is not neutral in multiculturalism: it believes in it and it promotes it.” The Daily Mail claimed in 2006 that Andrew Marr stated, “The BBC is not impartial or neutral. It’s a publicly funded, urban organisation with an abnormally large number of young people, ethnic minorities and gay people. It has a liberal bias not so much a party-political bias. It is better expressed as a cultural liberal bias”.[8]

      These comments were reported in the UK national press a couple of weeks later. At the seminar Helen Boaden (Director of BBC News) said that the BBC must be impartial on the issue of multiculturalism. Boaden responded to press criticism of the seminar in a post on the BBC’s Editors’ Blog.[19] Mark Thompson responded to press criticism in an article in the Daily Mail,[20] as did Mark Byford in an interview in The Sunday Telegraph.[21]
      Racism

      The BBC has also been accused of racism. In a speech to the Royal Television Society in 2008, Lenny Henry said that ethnic minorities were “pitifully underserved” in television comedy and that little had changed at senior levels in terms of ethnic representation during his 32 years in television.[22] Jimmy McGovern in a 2007 interview called the BBC “one of the most racist institutions in England”.[23]

      In 2001, BBC director-general Greg Dyke said that the BBC was “hideously white”, and acknowledged difficulties with “race relations”. He acknowledged that it was having difficulties in retaining minority staff and outlined plans towards solving these problems.[24]

      Rageh Omaar, the Somali-born British journalist and former BBC war correspondent who reported the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003,[25] called BBC a “white man’s club” after he resigned to join Al-Jazeera in 2006.[26] Later, in 2007, while being interviewed by Hannah Pool of The Guardian, he accused the BBC of classism too.[27]

      The BBC, which is legally obliged to be an equal opportunities employer, is striving for 12.5% of its staff to be from a black or minority ethnic background (12% at 31 January 2009).[28][not in citation given] The BBC’s buildings are largely based in urban areas with a more diverse demography than the UK as a whole (30% ethnic minority population in London and about 15% in the Manchester/Salford area), whereas the 12.5% figure is over 4% higher than the current percentage of ethnic minorities in the United Kingdom as a whole. However, it has been argued that many of its ethnic minority members of staff are cleaners and security guards and not presenters and programme makers.[29] The Guardian reported: “The BBC has pledged to increase the number of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) people on air by more than 40% over the next three years and almost double the number of senior managers from those groups who work at the corporation by 2020.”[30]

      Indarjit Singh, chief of Britain’s Network of Sikh Organisations, criticised the BBC Asian Network, a radio station intended for an audience of South Asian origin, saying “Stations like BBC Asian Network do little to encourage integration and social cohesion because they allow communities to ghettoise themselves”.

         12 likes

  26. GCooper says:

    The BBC seems to have been giving an inordinate amount if airtime to the most loathsome man in British politics (some contest, I admit) Peter Mandelson. Having been forced to resign from government more than once when he was caught in a scandal, Mandelson played a very major part in the Bliar era’s wickedness, notably the opening of the floodgates to the third world, which has enriched the country no end.

    I would say he had sold his soul to the EU but it is perfectly plain that he never possessed one.

    Just what is the reason he is so often polluting our air waves?

       47 likes

  27. deegee says:

    Can Paris summit save fading two-state solution? Yolande Knell displays her ‘half a story’ cred.

    For many, the holy city of Jerusalem is meant to be a shared capital for Israel and the Palestinians – two peoples in two nations, living peacefully, side-by-side. At least that is the dream of the so-called “two-state solution” to end a decades-old conflict. It’s hard to see how that can be reasonable interpretation of the leaked summary of this conference or the preceding UNSC resolution 2334, which specifically deny Israel any rights in those parts of Jerusalem recaptured in 1967. For 19 years the eastern part of Jerusalem was annexed by Jordan with no international call, whatsoever for sharing.

    A summit taking place in Paris on Sunday is expected to try to signal to Israel and the next US president that establishing a Palestinian state is the only path to peace. The insistence on this, long after it is clear, that pushing Israel to this end is like standing on the bridge of the Titanic and directing the captain to steer towards that white fuzzy thing on the horizon, has meant that no other approach can possibly even be discussed.

    It is ironic that the last Paris Peace Conference 1919 (AKA Treaty of Versailles) was almost a century ago. As with this one many nations ganged up on one who had no part in the discussions and would be presented with a fait accompli that would reduce it in size. Lest we forget Versailles led to World War II. Still We’ll always have Paris

    It will make clear “a negotiated solution” is “the only way to achieve enduring peace”. by ensuring that the Palestinians loss incentive to negotiate (not that they had much, before). The Resolution 242 premise of ‘land for peace’ is dead.

    ‘Greater Israel’ ??? a sub-head waiting for 7 paragraphs to explain the quote is Obama’s not Netanyahu’s.

    The Palestinians welcome the French initiative but it is rejected by Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Of course they do. They have made a major gain towards ethnic cleansing the Jews without any need for concessions. Not even an insincere declaration of peace.

    “The facts on the ground are making it almost impossible – at least very difficult, and if this trend line continues, impossible – to create a contiguous, functioning, Palestinian state,” he [Obama]said. The only way Gaza and the Palestine Authority can be contiguous is if Israel is split into two sections.

    Mr Trump has also promised to move the US embassy to Jerusalem. Not mentioned is that the US Embassy would be in that part of Jerusalem that was held by Israel in 1948 and has always been Jewish.

    Some 40 Israelis have been killed and more than 230 Palestinians have been shot dead by Israeli security forces. The grammar is interesting here. It can be read that 40 Israelis were killed by Israeli forces, not by the unmentioned Palestinians. The Palestinians, do not make any claim that the dead Israelis were attacking them or doing anything other than being Jewish.

    Palestinian leaders blame the violence on a younger generation’s anger at the failure of talks to end Israel’s occupation and deliver on promises of an independent state. Talks haven’t failed so much as that the Palestinian leaders refuse to attend them unless the Israelis agree to preconditions in advance. One is that the entire area conquered by Jordan (then Transjordan) and Egypt be transferred to the Palestinian state.

    Knoll leaves the worst omission until last. The influence of religious incitement and indoctrination from the cradle that killing Jews is required for Muslims is never mentions. Nor is the insistence by Hamas that they will ignore, on religious grounds, and agreement or declaration that leaves a Jewish Israel in place.

       13 likes

    • LynetteO says:

      This is somewhat ironic in light of the Paris summit. M. Jean Patrick Grumberg of the French blog Dreuz documents a court case held in France in the 1990’s that the BBC and world media gave no publicity to. The Palestinian authority brought suit in France against French companies building the light rail system in Jerusalem. The PA lost in a decision that ruled that Israel is the legal occupant of Judea and Samaria.

      In a historical trial, the Court of Appeal of Versailles ruled that West bank settlements and occupation of Judea Samaria by Israel is unequivocally legal under international law.

      This was the first time since the independence of the State of Israel in 1948 that an independent, non-Israeli court had been called upon to examine the legal status of West bank territories under international law, beyond the political claims of the parties and it took part in France .
      It clarified the legal reality but the media were not interested in reporting this.

         4 likes

  28. Peter Grimes says:

    Kerrching! Yet more evidence of the penny dropping sur le continent.

    “He said: “I also know about the state of the EU. It is no longer unthinkable that it breaks apart.

    “Should that happen, our children and grandchildren would curse us.

    “Because Germany is the biggest beneficiary of the European community – economically and politically.”

    http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/751427/Angela-Merkel-European-union-collapse-far-right-Marine-le-Pen-election-economy-austerity?

       19 likes

    • Grant says:

      Peter,

      Of course we know from the Soviet Union just how quickly artificial “Unions” can fall apart. I suspect it will be the same with the EU.

         20 likes

      • TruthSeeker says:

        G
        You may restrict yourself to suspecting.
        I cannot wait to applaud and acclaim the disintegration of this dictatorship.
        May God sink the EU and drown who sail in her, ASAP please God.

           30 likes

        • Grant says:

          Truth,

          It will be a great day when it all collapses as it will !

             15 likes

          • G.W.F. says:

            Truth, Grant

            The trouble is that when Germans get their hands on much of Europe it takes a couple of World Wars before they collapse.

               14 likes

            • Grant says:

              GWF,

              LOL !! I have made this point many times on this site with mixed reaction. The German ” Psyche” has been well documented and evidenced for years. Judge them by their actions and behaviour. It is a collective mental problem. They are sick people.

                 9 likes

              • TruthSeeker says:

                G, G.W.F
                It gets a bit tiresome to ask, but why are, normally astute and alert BBBC commentators still buying the anti-German propaganda?

                All the other lying pseudo-historical propaganda with which they were indoctrinated when young, has been jettisoned.

                In recent times a statue of Ghengis Khan, celebrating their national hero, has been erected in Mongolia, in the capital, Ulan Bator.

                Ghengis Khan and his offspring killed approximately twenty-five million people, an impressive figure considering this was in c12 and c13. This mass murder was the only accomplishment of these murderous barbarians.

                The equine statue, whose only purpose is to exult in this, then unparalleled, bloodletting, is TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY FEET HIGH. But I have not heard it criticised on BBBC, ever.

                   6 likes

                • Grant says:

                  Truth,

                  Maybe because Ghengiz never invaded Europe and Mongolians today are not a big threat , yet !

                     4 likes

                  • TruthSeeker says:

                    G The offspring, as recorded, did invade Europe, 1241 depending on whether or not Rus is included.
                    The offspring converted to membership of a, still extant, mass murdering cult and exceeded the numerical achievements of their ancestors.

                    Maybe you should be concerned about this.

                       2 likes

      • gaxvil says:

        Unions always seem a good idea but mostly go the way of members paying dearly for the privilege of having leaders living very nicely thank you.

           9 likes

  29. G.W.F. says:

    Love or hate her I believe Katie Hopkins is close to the truth when she implicates the Government along with the media in an attempt to destroy Trump. Warning to Trump, keep the cameras running in the hotel rooms when Treezer and Boris visit.

    Last sentence of Katie’s article.

    ‘I sense that our government, state broadcaster and liberal press have ambitions to see him impeached before the year is out.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4118876/KATIE-HOPKINS-Unless-Trump-dodgy-dossier-author-spy-comes-forward-let-decide-Austin-Powers-crap-James-Bond-George-Smiley-Theresa-kick-cold-kiss-goodbye-Special-Relationship-Donald.html#ixzz4VkQx9LSw
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

       35 likes

    • Oaknash says:

      G.W.F – Never liked her much on the apprentice she came across as too pushy, publicity seeking and clever for her own good!

      However I have got to admit that I was terribly wrong about her (and it probably says more about my own prejudices than it does about her)

      She really is a brilliantly balsy lady who is consistent in telling it as it is and is unafraid of getting out of her comfort zone. Despite being the focus of luvvy and establishment ire for many years now.

      I also suspect she has had the “Gina Millar” treatment in spades but appears to be far too dignified and serious a commentator to harp on about it and I have a feeling that our beloved BBC would consider it just deserts anyway! Whereas precious and pretty Princess Gina must be defended at all costs!

      I finally realised how valuable and effective a communicator she is for us when I read an article by luvvy comedian Dom Jolly about his Cotswold smallholding in the “Cotswold Magazine” In it he couldnt resist a few sneering snipes at her! – If these self satisfied twats hate her that much shes got to be a good thing!

         43 likes

      • Lobster says:

        Oaknash – Thanks for telling me that Dom Joly is a comedian – I would never have known to be honest.
        He’s about as funny as dysentery.

           24 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          Agreed Lobster – Probably thinks the “jolly” part of his name marks him out as a real funny guy! Probably about as good as it gets.

             14 likes

      • TruthSeeker says:

        OnA
        Pretty Princess Gina?
        There must be two of them, the one I saw looked as though she had been in a head-on collision with a vehicle containing Reg Varney, and come third.

        Still, a tough day in court painting your nails while the overpaid traitor in a wig (pick any or all of the alternative bewigged if you prefer) representing you lies for the EU et al, no wonder one looks seventy.

           14 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          Truth – The Devil wears Prada!

          I suspect when the slap comes off she could well resemble something very close to a baboons rear end – but we will never (or want to) know!

             9 likes

  30. Old Goat says:

    Poor BBC – nobody believes them, any more:

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/14/bbc-reality-check-focus-fake-news/

       18 likes

    • Grant says:

      Goat,

      The BBC do not do irony !

         13 likes

    • GCooper says:

      From the Breitbart article: “Under the plans, the Reality Check series of blog posts the BBC used to ‘fact-check’ claims during Britain’s referendum campaign will become permanent…

      That would be the BBC ‘fact checkers’ whose lying and distorted reporting got the entire campaign wrong, would it?

      Do you have to be a fool to be employed by the BBC these days, or do they give special training to new staff?

         29 likes

      • Doublethinker says:

        GC,
        In the Telegraph today they report that the head of BBC news wants this ‘fact checking service’, collaboration with Facebook to become the go to place for millions of people who want to be able to distinguish facts from fake news. We all know that this service is just a way to try and gain control of social media by the liberal left . Facts will only be facts if they suit the leftist narrative . If they don’t then they will be lies or distortions. So not content with spending LF money on spinning for the liberal left the BBCis now seeking to use their state funded monopoly to undermine other sources of news.
        How much more evidence do people need before reaching the conclusion that the BBC has become the embodiment of Orwell’s Ministry of Truth and that all public funding should be withdrawn immediately. Trump should set up a US Gov funded MSM fact checking service in opposition to the lies we know are going to be presented as facts by the BBC.

           28 likes

        • Grant says:

          DT,

          Juvenal said it all ” Quis custodiet ipsos custodes ” !!

             11 likes

          • Oaknash says:

            Sorry Grant english please for us plebs.

               3 likes

            • Grant says:

              Oak,

              Sorry, I forgot. ” Who will guard the guards ? “. Juvenal was attacking corruption in dictatorships, judiciary , and all authority.

                 8 likes

              • Oaknash says:

                Thanks Grant one to learn and get some smarty points down the pub!

                Joking aside – Do the BBC really think that the majority of the British public think that they are a fit and proper organisation to pronounce on “fake news” Or do you think that they are just so arrogant that they think that there are millions of us desperate plebs out who are waiting for Aunty to lead us and tell us how to think?

                Sometimes I do wonder whether the brexit vote ever registered with them at all.

                   22 likes

                • Grant says:

                  Oak,

                  It is your round !

                     3 likes

                  • Oaknash says:

                    Grant – Had too many “rounds” last night and came home with an empty wallet!

                    Back to scotch now but wont tell you what it is because you will have me pouring it down the sink and I cant afford to do that!

                       7 likes

              • Grant says:

                PS, the phrase in the Bible in Isaiah ” Who watches the watchers ?” probably derived from this and was the basis of the Bob Dylan song ” All along the watchtower “. Maybe !

                   4 likes

                • Grant says:

                  And I guess that Dylan’s reference to ” all the women came and went ” refers to Juvenal’s point about women having to be guarded. That is a great point in Juvenal’s satire. A doubled-edged sword. But, I shall desist before I get bumped off this site .

                     5 likes

              • Spacemonkey says:

                Strange Juvenal coming up twice in the same day. Must be a bunch of ex public school boys on BBBC, just like the actual BBC.

                   5 likes

                • Grant says:

                  Space,

                  Ha ! I am a Grammar school boy. I just try and learn Latin in my spare time. I learned from the Romans ” Nihil sub sole novum “, there is nothing new under the sun. Which I believe applies to events today.

                     11 likes

              • ToobiWan says:

                G,
                My old sensei, known to the nuns as Father Upit, for reasons unknown to juvenile minds (not juvanal) told us the meaning of the phrase was actually, “who watches the watchmen.” I suppose that in Juvenal’s time, a watchman could be termed as a guard. He argued that watchmen were charged with keeping an eye on the town, ensuring warehouse and shop doors were kept locked, moving on ladies of the night, the peace maintained, etc. They tended to be more mobile than guards, who tended to stay in one position or had a restricted beat of a few paces. They therefore had more opportunity to get up to mischief, (hence the need to to watch them) same as the old coppers, doing a kit check before going out on the beat and finishing off with “pawn shop key”.

                   10 likes

        • GCooper says:

          I completely agree. It’s fascinating to watch the huddling together of the far Left media at the moment. If anyone ever wanted evidence of the conspiracy involving the media class, there it is, in plan sight!

             25 likes

        • RJ says:

          “the head of BBC news wants this ‘fact checking service’, collaboration with Facebook to become the go to place for millions of people who want to be able to distinguish facts from fake news.”

          Perhaps Victoria Coren Mitchell could present a series on the “fact checking service” – Call My Bluff.

             13 likes

          • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

            “Fat cheque-ing service” more likely.

               15 likes

          • StewGreen says:

            BBC Fukd checking service.
            In the interests of Quality Control “the head of BBC news wants to establish the BBC Fukd checking service so staff can check they are complying with BBC ethos
            Brexit : [ ] Yep the BBC aims to make sure it’s fukd
            UKIP : [ ] Yep the BBC aims to make sure it’s fukd
            Trump : [ ] Yep the BBC is working to make sure he’s fukd
            Proper Challenging of DramaGreen Dogma : [ ] Yep the BBC aims to make sure it’s fukd

               8 likes

  31. StewGreen says:

    Do like the PLAIN Truth
    …………………………………… Or bbc SALTED news ?

       8 likes

  32. Cassandra says:

    I wrote this in the Thursday Thread just as it changed to the Weekend Thread. I think it’s a good example of the BBC bias in action so here it is again…

    The BBC are pushing about the deportation of an Iraqi deaf boy and his family from Derby…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-derbyshire-38622451

    Can we really allow this to happen? For God’s sake ISIS will kill him if he returns home!

    But wait, the BBC have not told you the whole story, they have omitted some important key facts…

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boy-isis-hit-list-because-9619920

    “Mum Golbahar Hussein, 33, dad Rebwar Golbahayh, 35, and the two boys lived in a French refugee camp before they came to Britain and settled in Derby.

    …the family hid in the back of a lorry to sneak into the UK…

    The law states refugees should apply for asylum in the first country of safety they reach and Lawand’s family had their fingerprints taken in Greece and Germany.”

    I would suggest that the new department set up by the BBC to investigate ‘Fake News’ should start by investigating it’s own journalists’ stories first.

       60 likes

  33. StewGreen says:

    Seriously put in two tickboxes at the end of your complaint.
    [. ] Do you intend to deal with my complaint properly,
    …..or [. ] Do you intend to signal we should defund the BBC ?

       10 likes

  34. Sluff says:

    As the newly appointed Convener of the National Union of Beach Hut Users, may I draw readers attention to the absolutely devastating storm surge yesterday, so well reported by the BBC, which has damaged the properties of almost a dozen of our members in Cromer, causing damage amounting to literally tens of pounds.
    Be under no illusions. We have a National Beach Hut Crisis. This crisis stands testimony to the years of austerity of this disgusting Tory government which has resulted in massive underfunding of Beach Hut sites in the last few years. These vulnerable residents, through no fault of their own, have the misfortune to stay in immediate proximity to the sea, and the government has done little or nothing to protect them and give them the support they deserve.
    It is high time the government austerity was brought to an end, and proper investment made into this affordable beach housing. No price is too great, and an immediate increase in income tax is surely justified, which our brother Jeremy Corbyn will wholeheartedly support.

       41 likes

  35. Sluff says:

    Latest Weather Crisis Report on the bBBC,1740 weather report.
    It might rain tomorrow. And be a bit cold.
    Danger lurks everywhere.
    Batten down the hatches!

       20 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      BBC Interview with someone who knows of a dossier of evidence proving that Russia is dropping rain on the West. Hmmm does the rain look kinda yellowish and taste salty?

         12 likes

  36. G.W.F. says:

    Fake news. One of my favourite pieces of fake news when the mainstream media photographed the world’s leaders together leading a march against terror in support of Charlie Hebdo. Only they did not; they hid in a protected sidestreet and the media faked their brave demonstration

    10917344_826861100693563_4433079678601262868_n.jpg?oh=1190f747ff642f7c610518acc4afac42&oe=591CADAB

       46 likes

  37. Stella2 says:

    More bloody-minded Brexit reportage on BBC1 early evening news just now (switched on TV with my cup of tea hoping to find some entertaining Big Bang Theory or somesuch – hilariously un-PC, if you haven’t discovered it).

    Report states that Hilary Benn and his committee have been calling on Teresa May to give clarity, blah, blah. No mention of any of the rows about the committee being choc-full of Remoaners. Business wants certainty, clarity, etc, and whether that means we should “remain in the single market” (argh!!!). Then they mention the EU negotiator Barnier, and simply state that he has said there will be “no special deal for the UK”. End of report. Too busy reading the Guardian, obviously, to take in the Telegraph.

    I know it’s been posted above, but for ease of ref:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/01/14/eus-chief-brexit-negotiator-michel-barnier-wants-special-relationship/

    Such a joke that the BBC wants to be the Orwellian arbiter of #FakeNews…

       19 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      Poor things feeling out of the loop and marginalised. Now they know how the rest of us feel.

         15 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Stella
      Anyone who has done any negotiating knows you do not give your position away in advance.
      So Benn’s committee are deliberately trying to undermine.
      But then again, look at the appalling procurement contracts over the years. Defence, NHS IT, PFI.
      They are all totally useless, but then again, it is not their money.

         16 likes

  38. Deborah says:

    Last night’s storm, this morning the national news on Radio 4 managed to report that 30 houses in Hornsea, East Yorkshire had been flooded. I do really feel sorry for those affected but it was an awful lot of fuss made on the BBC yesterday and the Environmental Agency. Today on the evening local news the number of houses and businesses affected was downgraded to 10. Careful use of film, i.e. Only inside a slot machine arcade and a house, and a bit of sweeping up.

    But no questions appeared to be asked about why they thought it was going to be so bad or whether it was the success of the sea defences and the hard work of the army. My guess is that it was not as windy as predicted but that raises questions about the Met Office’s ability to predict. I know someone will tell me this is weather rather than climate but yesterday’s poor forecasting will have cost a large amount of money.

       24 likes

    • king crimson says:

      Can’t remember whether it was bbc or itv – great clip of an elderly woman being interviewed on her doorstep. ‘Why aren’t you leaving and what happens if the water comes into your house?’

      ‘Well, I’ll just have to go upstairs then, won’t I?’

         28 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        In North Herts we are still waiting for the weather to ‘hit’ ! nothing extraordinary, bit of rain, bit of wind, 30 seconds of snow showers, and its not what I would call ‘freezing’ outside (unless you skip about the garden in your undies) but just a bit ‘damp’ !

           11 likes

  39. G.W.F. says:

    Looking forward to Trump’s inauguration. I see Dave Cameron’s street thugs among the Anti-Fascists are giving space and support for the planned mass demonstration and disruption of the event. I predict unenthusiastic coverage from the BBC of the concert, with lengthy reports on luvvies who declined, such as Sir Olive Oil and BLM supporter, Rebbecca Ferguson, and then stepping out to hold sympathetic interviews with the demonstrators, especially persons of vibrance.
    I see Obama has just sacked the officer responsible for organizing security at the event.

    Meanwhile some good old boys and bikers plan to protect Trump.

       30 likes

    • Lobster says:

      Bikers v Snowflakes …. mmmmm, difficult choice who’d win.
      Or possibly not.

         21 likes

      • Dave S says:

        Odds of 20 snowflakes to one seem fair or possibly not to the snowflakes. They will need their safe spaces.

           11 likes

    • richard D says:

      “Looking forward to Trump’s inauguration.”.

      As well you might be, G.W.F.

      Unfortunately, I think you are not going to see anything remotely similar to the fawning adulation doled out to Mr Obama at his inauguration. A large swathe of certain liberal, left-wing bodies have decided to basically destroy this ceremony as best they can, disrupting people trying to get to the ceremony, disrupting the ceremony itself, and showing absolutely no respect for the office of the POTUS when their own choice, Ms Clinton, is not the hero of the day. Such is the visceral hatred by these people of anyone who does not fit into their liberal mould of politics. And as to the extent that the authorities in Washington D.C. will prevent such activities, or condone them – who knows ?

      Now, I am afraid we have to ask ourselves what the entire focus of the MSM in the USA will be next Friday. Well, I was in the US for over a month just prior to, and mainly after, the election, and I can tell you the likes of CNN, ABC, MSNBC et al were in complete, wall-to-wall, meltdown and denial for the whole of my visit – and it was still ongoing when I left – so you can imagine the catatonia they are working themselves up to at the moment.

      Their ‘news’ streams will all virtually exclusively focus on the disruption and mayhem these liberal protestors will create, and their own particular brand of commentariat. Mr Obama has virtually given these agitators, and the MSM (which almost exclusively supports him and the Democrats), ‘carte blanche’ to do so, with his constant sniping at Mr Trump and his intended appointees since the day of the election, and the US MSM is lapping it up.

      So, sadly, now I invite you to guess precisely where the BBC’s focus will lie, and which particular video feeds and commentators they will be tapping into, on that day….

         24 likes

  40. Guest Who says:

    World’s most trusted broadcaster’s editorial integrity on display:

    Newsbeat

    We’re looking at *you* Donald Trump ?

    Things to think about before calling something ‘fake news’
    BBC.CO.UK

    A few folk may be looking more closely at *you* now, BBC.

    ps: It links here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38595069/things-to-think-about-before-calling-something-fake-news

    I got as far as this before realising the author is a (market rate) idiot:

    “They don’t know whether it’s real, but, if it is, they think it was written by a former British spy”

       19 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/prize-fight.html?

      Maybe such nerves are justified?

      BBC allusion news is not quite as trusted as it used to be.

      http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/more.html

      Maybe the BBC should look at who it associates with too?

         11 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Trump wins the US election in the face of a tsunami of opposition, nastiness and sheer evil forces. As ranged against him by all media, all right thinking people, , all nice liberals-the LOT!
      Only REAL people voted for him. only the extremes like us willing and able to back him or seek out his allies.
      Trump himself did nothing but be himself. That was all he did to win.
      It is a miracle, not too far off parting the Red Sea in cyberterms.

      So having done something we will never see again in our lifetimes again-who else but the likes of CNN,BBC, Morgan-Stanley, Hoffmann-LaRoche, the EU, UN, Greenpeace , IPCC, Yale and Harvard, WTO, NAFTA, NATO, MI5, CIA etc-to tell HIM how not to offend them, let them be, give them money and respect.
      How to be a “moderate statesman”, “electable””heal the hurts”.
      Get to fuck, you liberal lying lollards!
      Trump won-as did Nigel-because we bought the offer-a real man with a mind of his own who`d have a far easier life had he NOT answered the nations call!
      And-as we see Mardell, Maitlis, Aranpour, Heseltine etc -all the Davos Dills-giving hims advice on how best to please them, keep them paid and in work-keep them STILL thinking that we give a damn about what they say(after knowing what they`ve been thinking and doing now since 1979/80)-I KNOW that Trump has got good people around him. I predict The EPA and NATO will show if Trumps “Chairman Of The Board” show will change the world for us all. The more the liberal scum throw at him-the greater his resolve to stay right over all their silos and raze them for ALL the little people.
      God Bless You Donald-having corndogs, Bud and hash browns this Friday with the Friendship Forces! If the BBC are NOT hanging on their tapeworms, if CNN are NOT twisting in the warm Texas wind with Clint cutting them down with a smile?…then I`ll have got him wrong.
      But so far-Trump has played a blinder-snooker balls in the pillowcase from us ahould deal with the BBC scum who`ve had their crack at Trump and Nigel now for way too long.
      Sniff the Glove-Smell the Fear Bastard Bullies for Cuclinton!

         10 likes

  41. StewGreen says:

    Climate via @QV : Any Questions on BBC R4 Owen Paterson expressed the point of view that a rise of 0.5 degrees in 50 years did not frighten him.

    – Scientist Lucie Green, unfortunately, demonstrated closed mind and couldn’t resist challenging putting forward the “scientific consensus” argument.
    – Incredibly, Margaret Beckett argued that the temperature had risen 2C since the last ice age !
    …… It’s a pity that Paterson didn’t ask her if she would have preferred that hadn’t happened and we still under miles of ice in Britain. (That’s why A Neil isn’t allowed to present)
    Obviously some “global warming” is acceptable.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087ts7p#playt=29m

    About 29 minutes in.

       25 likes

  42. StewGreen says:

    Post Truth : Alex Evans is doing the rounds plugging his book “the Myth Gap: What Happens When Evidence and Arguments Aren’t Enough”
    He must be a great actor cos almost everything he asserts seems 180° different from reality.
    eg “up until 2009 Climate Activists never used narrative, they only used statistical evidence .. With footnotes”
    (Turns out he’s a Gordon Brown flunky)
    Radio 3 listen from 20 mins in
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04p814y#playt=20m25s

       13 likes

  43. All Lives Matter says:

    A Democrat called John Lewis says that Trump is not legitimate and blames his win on Russia. Trump quite understandably bites back. How does the BBC report on this?

    ‘Trump slammed for attack on rights icon’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-38623881

    Lewis happens to be black. He also happens to be despised by many in the country, including many blacks, for being a race-baiter and professional victim. It’s amazing that the BBC can always find some sort of non-existent social justice angle, except of course where it would be justified and the BBC isn’t interested, such as gays, women and Christians being persecuted in Islamic countries or men being repeatedly screwed over by the family courts and domestic violence laws. Never mind that the BBC never had any interest in Lewis until they spotted an opportunity for yet another assault on Trump, this time for daring to defend himself against almost libellous claims.

    They’re clearly still delusional as to why they lost so many times over the last two years, as they’re still exhibiting the exact same habits that turned people against them in the first place.

       48 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Though I knew my US race hustlers-never heard of John Lewis (unless its the BBCs favourite retailer)
      But it turns out he`s a “hero and an icon”-such is the Twatspeke these days.
      Don`t ask a Lefty what they mean by this-or indeed, why its crap in classical terms, Language matters-the Left don`t think so.
      Know nothing about the spat-but if you`re calling Trump “illegitimate”-then that`s “a bastard” in old money.
      Surely worth howls of outrage from the liberal left-you CAN`T call people bastards anymore can you?
      Reckon we`ve a pitchfork to stick up the black lefts arse here. Obama is NOT black-he`s half white with a good dose of Muslim arab there I`d guess.
      Doesn`t matter to me-but the Left need to be made to pay for their identity politics shenanigans and slip-slides into shit like this.

         8 likes

  44. Spiderman says:

    Coming soon. Channel 4: President Trump’s Dirty Secrets – Who’s pulling Trump’s strings. Plus climate change bonus. Wankers.

       15 likes

    • GCooper says:

      C4 -isn’t that the Comedy Channel? There’s so much rubbish on Freeview that I get confused.

         14 likes

    • JosF says:

      Channel 4 isnt Channel 4 another state owned broadcaster that has developed a great taste for the muslim backside just like that bastion of truth and facts {sarcasm mode off} the BBC ?? Remember “under cover mosques” Now what do we get from Channel 4 but a level of dhimmitude that the BBC would be proud of

         5 likes

  45. chrisH says:

    Is there any record of Tristram Hunt getting short-listed, given an interview or anybody else given the chance to apply for this non-job at God knows how much public money?
    Saw in the paper today that Hull`s been given millions for its arts sponges-doubtless mostly on a freebie from Hoxton or Shoerditch for the summer when the troughs get filled for the public sector pimps in the arts.
    How come Purnell, Smith and now Hunt get these non-jobs and sinecures without any tender, competition or transparency re who was interviewed, and was it all above board?
    The Left make me heave-and any good Tory would shine a fierce spotlight on the BBC/Arts and perpetual gravy train that we are forced to pay for.

       40 likes

  46. GCooper says:

    It is currently 8.45pm. How can it be that the BBC appears not to have heard what is going on in Molenbeek?

    Who runs its newsroom – Billy Smarts Circus?

       25 likes

  47. Richard Pinder says:

    BBC Parliament: Freeview Channel 131: 9.25pm to 10.25pm: Donald Trump Conference

       8 likes