OPEN THREAD…

I can see that yesterday’s Open Thread is filling up very quickly so I am opening a NEW one to see us through until Monday.

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148 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Will says:

    Many years ago a springtime event was telling the BBC (or writing to The Times) to claim to have heard the first cuckoo (do they still exist? Not heard one since I was a boy – perhaps with global warming they now summer in Norway).

    We could have a competition to record the last utterance of “double dip”.

    R5 had an interview this am with a professor of Government from London Metropolitan University (is that the Regent Street Poly?) who wanted money printing & more money printing, cos even McLoon had fallen under the spell of the Thatcher legacy.

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  2. Martin says:

    Camp male beeboid on BBC 1 news ‘smiled’ when he said that the previous Government was claiming credit for growth.

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  3. Martin says:

    Ugly female beeboid interviewing people in Bristol, didn’t go to plan as men interviewed said what Government was doing was necessary evil. Female beeboid commented “many people would disagree with you”

    Really ugly beeboid? most opinion polls support Government cuts.

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  4. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ is very quiet on American left’s, and Islamic supremacists’ victimisation of Juan Williams.

    A corrective:
    Spencer: Juan Williams and the Left’s Intellectual Bankruptcy

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    • dave s says:

      A particularly good analysis by Spencer. By denying reality all the libbies have left is abuse. It won’t be long before they implode.

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  5. Deborah says:

    I knew the quarterly growth figures would be much better that ‘predicted’.  I have noticed that when the figures are going to be better than the BBC ‘hoped’ they big up the story the day before with how terrible the released figures are going to be.  Then when they show this government in a positive light the BBC don’t have to spend too much time on them.  I bet if they are spoken about at all by 6pm tonight they will only be a footnote in history.

    Contrawise while the white queen… sorry GB (I really cannot type his name) ruled the BBC spent a long time the day before terrible figures telling us they were predicted to be much improved and then hey ho – they didn’t have to spend too long analysing the actual figures when they were published.  Then always with an explanation that there was a good reason why the figures didn’t mean the economy was as bad as it was.

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  6. james1070 says:

    This is on the BBC website, but I wonder if it will be on the main news

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9128458.stm

    Russia 2018 chief executive Alexei Sorokin was quoted as criticising high crime rates and the drinking habits of young people in England’s capital.

    Blimey, things must be bad if a Russian criticises our crime and drinking problems.

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  7. Martin says:

    Digby Jones on News 24 just said that the oppositions view is the glass half empty on the economy “just like Hugh Pym’s report” he said.

    Camp male beeboid in studio quickly moved on, so even Digby Jones noticed that Hugh Pym’s report is slanted towards the Liebour party view on the economy.

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  8. Guest Who says:

    Oh dear, things are getting dodgy.

    Even Andrew Neil’s blog, which is the default bail-to after Nick R’s toys are lobbed out of the pram, has been ‘closed for comments’ after only a hundred or so.

    And it’s carnage across the News Editors thread, too.

    This is about the only one still active:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/2010/10/new-bbc-editorial-guidelines-l.shtml

    And on that, despite some wild claims about giving answers, a quick dip & bail post seemed to be claiming that the wrong kind of questions were being asked.

    All a bit surreal.

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  9. Jim says:

    FIVE LIVE EDITORIAL BIAS

    Five Live last night. Issue was govt anouncing flat rate pensions at a higher rate than today. Pretty tough to argue this is a bad policy for anyone. First interviewee was full of praise for the policy. Second interviewee was labour pensions minister Interviewed by Peter Allen. First thing she said was that she broadly supported the policy and then went on to list a load of unrelated stuff she objected to. In fairness to Peter Allen he pressed her quite hard to state she agreed its a good policy, eventually all she could say was that she agreed with the principle but wanted to see the detail. All in all a poor interview in terms of soundbites as she clearly didn’t really know what her position was on the subject.

    So which bit of the story do the editors choose to highlight in the hourly round up, given that the general feeling from the interviews was that it was a good policy, even the labour interviewee struggled to disagree and certainly didn’t come up with any reasons why. Yep – they chose to replay the single even remotely negative and coherent bit the labour minister said, about wanting to see the detail.

    By choosing this soundbite the editorial team managed to completely misrepresent in the summary the impression that someone like me would have got had they listened to the whole section including both interviews. They must have really struggled on that one to come up with an anti-Tory soundbite.

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  10. Martin says:

    The BBC have been flailing around all day not really knowing how to poison the well regarding the news about the economy. Normally as I’ve pointed out before the BBC editorial teams take their lead from Newsnight, the Toady show and Radio 5, all of whom of course predicted the economy imploding last night.

    So today the BBC are in a panic not knowing what line to take until they have their meetings. Now they’ve decided that as the cuts have’nt really started yet that this will cause the economy to collapse NEXT YEAR, even though the bulk of economists say the opposite.

    But anyway, I predict Newsnight will be spinning the line that this is a temporay blip and the economy is going down hill thanks to the evil Tories.

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  11. Martin says:

    Dozy female on Radio 5 asked if the Police could afford new guns what with all those evil Tory spending cuts. Bloke she was talking to seemed a bvit bemused by her comment (perhaps goaded by person shouting in her headphones)

    Plods will probably get M-4 or M-16 rifles which are already in large use in our own special forces (who are getting MORE money) so as usual the BBC spout lies, the BBC lie.

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  12. david fitzgerald says:

    just got this reply from eric pickles correspondence team about the bias and high wages and pensions at the BBC

    The Secretary of State, the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP, said recently that he welcomes the steps the BBC has taken to increase transparency in relation to the costs of senior staff and talent. However he also made clear that the BBC should be prepared to defend all expenditure decisions it makes and deliver value for money to licence fee payers.
    In order to improve transparency and accountability, the National Audit Office (NAO) is to have full access to the BBC accounts for the first time. The Secretary of State has agreed with the BBC Trust that the NAO can decide which value for money studies to undertake and will have rights of access to BBC information. However, nothing that this Government does will compromise either the independence of the BBC or the quality of its output.
    The Government believes it is important that the Corporation is aware of the concerns of television licence payers. If you have not already done so, you may therefore wish to raise your concerns with the BBC directly at Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, W1A 1AA.

    In other words we are not going to do anything its up to the BBC and dont waste my time…..
    This is why the tories deserve everything that is coming their way.They dont want a fight…….

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    • Martin says:

      Totally right, the Tories are bricking themselves about sorting out the BBC. Really they should do it right now, with all the other stuff going on very few people with have any sympathy for the BBC and if they can save money all the better.

      The Tories should state that the licence fee will be replaced by a subscription based model starting once the switch to digital is complete. The subscription will be set at the same monthly rate at the current TV tax, so if as the BBC believe everyone loves the BBC and would happily pay for it (don’t stop laughing at the back) the BBC will have nothing to fear will it?

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    • john says:

      The Tories are performing like a local soccer team.
      Well supported and yet still useless.
      They go up against the opposition (BBC) and seemingly don’t question the communist referee’s judgement.
      So they continue to take a pasting whilst their supporters are telling them (should they choose to listen) your in government now, tell the BBC you can give them a good game.
      My starting X1 for the Con/Lib is :
      Eric Pickles (captain)
      .
      .
      Oh god, I’ve lost the will to live !

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  13. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ goes to the Isle of Man to get support for its Foreign Aid political campaign.

    “Foreign aid based on need not ideology”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-isle-of-man-11625762

    BBC-NUJ (being of the political ‘left’) ignores critiques of foreign aid such as this:

    “Foreign aid budget to cost every family £500: How 17 foreign aid fat cats are earning more than £90,000”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1322745/Foreign-aid-budget-cost-family-500-Fat-cats-earning-90k.html#ixzz13Ub2g5qh

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  14. james1070 says:

    Just caught the Crime Watch episode about the murder PC Keith Blakelock on the Broadwater Farm estate. According to the reconstruction, all the rioters were white, and he has murdered by white people. The shot of the white man with mad eyes wearing an IRA balaclava, was particulary scary.

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  15. Oliver says:

    I apologise in advance for this lengthy post. However, I haven’t seen anything about this on the site and I know QT is something of a B-BBC ‘favourite’. So here goes…
     
    As a young person and first time voter at the last election, I was soooo excited to see that BBC3 was broadcasting a special ‘First Time Voters’ Question Time’ (iplayer link available until 9PM Wednesday).
     
    Panel: Matt Hancock, Andy Burnham, Rufus Hound (I don’t know why either), Katy Hopkins, and Will Straw.
    RH campaigned for the Lib Dems at the last election, giving us three to the left and two to the right. Fair and balanced…..for QT.
     
    Audience: As the audience consisted only of people under the age of 25 I was willing to put up with more left wing opinion than I usually would on QT. However, this was ridiculous.
     
    Question 1 set the tone nicely: “George Osborne is worth millions; today’s cuts will hardly affect him compared to most, what right does he have to say we’re all in this together” (1min 15) (Mark Thompson or Ed Miliband could hardly have phrased it better themselves)
     
    The boos and jeers dished out to KH (on numerous occasions) made the treatment of Baroness Warsi a few weeks back look extremely tame.
     
    Comparing the audience reaction to the following points helps to illustrate just how skewed the audience was:
     
    A young lady who wanted to bring back grammar schools is jeered when she suggests that people who go to private schools get a better education because they work harder. (27min 20).
     
    An unemployed man in the audience unemployed is warmly applauded when he says he would turn down a job in a bank due to his (extremely warped) “principles”. Another member of the audience even chipped in with “He’s got self-respect.” (53min 40 – this has to be seen to be believed).

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  16. Oliver says:

    Continued fro above…

    Chairman: Political heavyweight Richard Bacon chaired the debate. Although he made some effort to suppress his left-wing views (luckily for him Obama and Palin were off the agenda), he couldn’t manage it for the full hour. His most obvious slip came at about 39min 50:
    A couple of audience members said that as a result of the cuts to the public sector they were now considering working in the private sector…a big problem for RB; he turned quickly to MH, “That must worry you?”.
     
    Shortly after he put the same point to KH, before returning to MH for another go:
     
    “Matt, just listen to the audience. Matt Hancock when you hear them talking about their feelings towards jobs and how worried they are, and how some of them have been put off going into the public sector, just how do you…that must trouble you at the very least.”
     
    I can see some pretty obvious reasons why this might be seen as a positive, but RB’s bias means he can’t; to him this can only be seen as a worrying/troubling result of the spending review.
     
    MH gets about 3 words into his response before RB interrupts “Does it trouble you?” A few more words from MH, then RB tries for the final time:   
    “People being put off going into the public sector because of your spending review, does that trouble you?” (46min 15) – So viewers: that’s public sector good, private sector bad.
     
    Why the BBC deems it necessary to broadcast a young persons’ QT is beyond me, but in the meantime I eagerly await ‘Private sector workers’ QT’ and ‘People-not-really-affected-by-public-sector-cuts QT’.

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    • Martin says:

      Bacon is a total knob.

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    • Grant says:

      Oliver,
      Great to have a “youngster” here and a brilliant post. Keep on posting.
      Does anyone know if the BBC have any plans for an “old persons” QT ?
      Only a matter of time before they have a “muslim persons” QT.
      The BBC really are the pits, every day more like a self-parody.

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  17. Martin says:

    Hmm. I posted earlier today that an ugly female beeboid had done a vox pop in a shopping centre (live) on the afternoon news. All the people she spoke to were supportive of the cuts, knowing it would be hard but basically had to be done.

    Just watching the report of Liebour lover Flanders the vox pop they used ONLY had negative comments and features only women (it was men who were interviewed mostly on the afternoon news)

    Clearly the BBC went out and got some opinions they wanted.

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    • Roland Deschain says:

      I simply can’t take Stephanie Flanders seriously since hearing she dated both Ed Miliband and Ed Balls.  Every time I see her I have this mental image of her in bed with Ed Balls.  Not a pleasant experience.

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  18. dave s says:

    I caught a “debate” on Today about airport security.
    The circular arguments do not concern me. What does was the unreality of the whole thing.
    Nobody dared to mention passenger profiling – the only logical way of handling the matter. We all know why and why it is taboo. That it is common sense is irrelevant.
    Just another episode in the unreal soap opera that is the world of the politically correct and ” liberal” fantasists.

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  19. ltwf1964 says:

    anyone see Clive Myrie “reporting” on the US mid terms on last night’s  bBC “news” channel

    they had some  liberal American fat knacker ranting on about how anyone opposing O’Barmy was a “right wing extemist” and “one of the crazies

    Myris eemed to find thus very amusing and never even raised so much as an eyebrow

    left wing bolshy twatiness

    it’s in their genes!

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  20. John Anderson says:

    The World Service last night said they would be having a piece on howe the Tea Party is damaging the Republicans as well as the Democrats.

    Hello ?   How off the wall can the BBC get ?  

    I look forward to next week,  when Tea Party activisim will damage the Republicans so much that they take 60 or more seats off the Democrats in the House.   And then carry on the damage by insisting on fiscal responsibility.  That is bound to be a loser against Obama’s policy of bankrupting America.

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