Thursday Open Thread

 

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314 Responses to Thursday Open Thread

  1. BBCReject says:

    A part of the BBC Online bias machine is broken this morning, or is Mateless on holiday, unable to get to work due to the strikes, or finally locked up where she belongs in a padded cell?

    There are actually two, yes TWO, articles looking at ‘men’s issues’, and not a single ‘women’s issue’ in sight! What’s more, surprisingly, neither article mentions BREXIT, TRUMP, RISE OF THE POPULIST FAR (FASCIST BASTARD) RIGHT or CLIMATE CHANGE (all AKA ‘We’re all doomed! doomed! DOOMED I TELL YOU!’). What has gone wrong?! Surely that can’t be right? I feel faint.

    In case anyone is interested the two articles are:

    Income Inequality Among Men Soars http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38603722
    &
    Car Insurance Gender Divide Widens http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38598993

    Both something which probably needs reporting, but not things I suspect are going to change any time soon, or perhaps even need changing? I don’t think a BBC that gets all hot under the collar about ‘men’s issues’ instead of ‘women’s issues’ is any more my cup of tea, if these issues are significant then they affect both genders (assuming we have partners of the opposite sex – not a popular combination in Beeb land it seems, family members of the opposite sex, friends and colleagues of the opposite sex etc…).

    Are we perhaps seeing the start of a new trend, the BBC having flogged the old horses of feminism, transgenderism and LGBT rights to death and now looking for a new oppressed group to ‘defend’? Yeah, right, dream on.

    Still rather surprising reporting from Aunty Boob I have to say!

       12 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      OK call me Mr Paranoid but why would the BBC notice these unremarkable findings? Wouldn’t you consider that, taking into account the Narrative, inequality of earnings is another weapon in the social justice war to divide your enemies? In respect of men’s earnings, why not fuel resentment by lower-paid men of higher-paid men? It can’t do any harm to the BBC’s Alinsky-type agenda and might, as a bonus, add a few malcontents to the Labour voting-fodder.

      As to insurance premiums: even in the article itself the explanation given is effectively that because men do more driving you’d expect the risks (and thus the insurance) to be higher. In other words the “findings” state the obvious but, again, the BBC would see little harm in adding another source of resentment based on sex into its war on society.

         8 likes

    • JosF says:

      BBC “and now looking for a new oppressed group to ‘defend’?” The BBC is looking for something new to defend er howabout the rights of slaves, women and non-muslim minorities in the arab-islamic world looks a good one to me. Over to you BBC

         20 likes

  2. thirdoption says:

    Bye bye Tristram – another rat deserting a sinking ship

       18 likes

  3. shelly says:

    Sorry to go off message and moan about Sky news (yet again) but this morning they were running a piece about Brits seeking EU passports due to to Brexit.
    They focused on a Jewish Lady, a Sebag Montifiore. Apparantly the Spanish as an act of atonement for the inquisition are allowing decendents of the victims to become Spaniards again.
    Why anyone would wish to return to a country where an ancestor was ‘burned at the stake’ is beyond me.
    But the implication was, Britain is such a nasty hate filled place post Brexit, that its best to keep ones options open.
    Or it could be the promise of warm weather and cheap sangria.
    Nobody expects the Spanish inquisition, especially not me, on the morning news. But the drip drip drip of anti Brexit tripe just won’t let up.

       44 likes

    • Marion says:

      “Or it could be the promise of warm weather and cheap sangria.”

      Well it’s not the employment prospects, that’s for sure.

      Perhaps being Jewish, she is impressed by the fact that Spain also kicked out its Moorish invaders? Doubt if that came up though.

         21 likes

    • Spacemonkey says:

      …he which hath no stomach to this fight,
      Let him depart; his passport shall be made
      And crowns for convoy put into his purse

      If you don’t like it then sod off, in other words.

      Having said that the obsequious smirking skink, Adam Boulton had a “chat” ( they don’t do interviews on Sky, only chats )with the Portuguese ambassador who dismissed the lizard’s probing questions with short shrift. No, he had no knowledge of a sudden increase in applications for Portuguese passports. No, he did not think Brexit would harm UK/Portuguese relations and No, he did not think the British would be losing out after Brexit and that rather than wild speculation we should keep a cool head and wait and see. I quite liked him…

         24 likes

    • Wild Bill says:

      Spain,like many other poor countries in the EU won’t like us leaving because we are a rarity, we pay more in than we take out, we subsidise Spain,and British tourists and expats also put a lot of money into their economy, they would be wise to keep their gob shut.

         24 likes

    • Deborah says:

      The Jewish Chronicle has adverts for Germany offering German citizenship to people whose parents or grandparents were born there. My father was born in Germany and left 1939. I could no more envisage applying than flying to the moon. This initiative is post Brexit and somehow in the warped minds of Europe it is thought that many people born in Britain want to keep their European links.

      A friend if Irish descent is applying in order that she can travel on an Irish passport in case Europe makes things nasty for us Brits, and should her sons want to work anywhere in the EU they can. What about a Europe short of money wanting to tax her British earned income? I don’t think she has thought of that.

         11 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        I concur with Enoch Powell’s view of “dual citizenship”: there should be no such thing.

        If a British subject has the right to obtain a passport from another country, under that country’s laws, if they choose to do so their citizenship of the UK should be cancelled out by that act.

        Those people, few in number I suspect, who wish to hedge their Brexit bets in such a fashion aren’t really going to be sorely missed (IMHO) if they did move abroad; they also wouldn’t appear to have complete loyalty to our country, for them to seek out for themselves the additional citizenship of another state.

           4 likes

  4. gaxvil says:

    Even with the MSM and celeb’s on side, Brexit won and Trump won.
    The BBC have now gone so far as to nullify their teacher,Goebbels. He maintained, “Tell a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”. Maybe the BBC hasn’t told the lie often enough and that’s why they keep trying and trying.
    They used to talk of the nobility of the free press – dedicated people who would risk death to get to the truth. Shame on you BBC and your cronies. You are an embarrassment to this country.

       35 likes

  5. Spacemonkey says:

    Sky news has gone into full on John le Carré mode this morning. Despite a growing line of people willing to dis the pee gate report, including the CIA themselves, Sky news continues to offer the opinion that it could still all be true. After all those dastardly Russians have used “honey traps” before and Trump, being a high profile character would certainly be of interest to the FSB. They go on to opine that this would account for Trumps apparent warmth towards Putin, as if avoiding nuclear conflict and fighting a common enemy in ISIS wasn’t all the explanation required.

    It seems Sky news can’t ever win a Pulitzer prize so they are going for the Booker prize instead.

       32 likes

  6. Spacemonkey says:

    If the police will record a speech by a government minister as a “hate incident” then we surely could report the BBCs consistently anti British coverage as a “hate incident” too. The Police ( and I do have sympathy for them in this regard ) are compelled to record as a hate incident anything anyone says is such. No justification need be given and if any such is offered it is not allowed to be questioned nor disputed. The person making the report need not even be the victim, it could be anyone.

    It seems that Hate lies solely in the eye of the beholder.

       34 likes

  7. Grant says:

    Tristram Hunt (check spelling ) has said he has the chance of “one of the greatest museum jobs in the world “. But surely he already has that as an MP ?

       28 likes

    • Grant says:

      I notice that his majority was 5179 and UKIP came second. Could be interesting !

         23 likes

      • Spacemonkey says:

        Lord Nigel has said he isn’t interested, too busy cleaning up the pools of piddle which follow the Donald.

        Seriously though, the Nigel is making a career for himself in the States now as a TV pundit, talk show host and no doubt Trumps right hand man when dealing with EU and UK politicos. And good luck to him!

           33 likes

        • Grant says:

          Space,

          Yes, but if UKIP can put up a credible candidate they may have a chance. Stoke, pretty working class Labour, not many champagne socialists there. Fertile ground for UKIP, I think .

             21 likes

          • Grant says:

            I notice that , in the last election, the Tory and UKIP vote combined was greater than Labour’s.

               13 likes

            • Spacemonkey says:

              I hope you are right, Grant. But my feeling is that without The Nigel as leader then UKIP is pretty much a spent force. Maybe if Steven Woolfe could have managed to not get his head kicked in and Raheem Kassam had stuck to his guns things would be different. But now they have a no mark slap head scouse git as leader I think they are done for.

                 4 likes

              • Yasser Dasmibehbi says:

                I don’t think you may realize, Spacemonkey but Nigel Farage had taken Ukip as far as he could. But he was the spent force. Now I have huge admiration for Nigel and think he is still doing brilliantly outside of party politics but let’s face it, running a political party was not his strong point. He was great leading the charge, but his grasp of party dynamics was rather lacking. In the end he wanted a compliant group of cheerleaders who wouldn’t question him and would let him to make policy on the hoof forever. When this didn’t happen he was very disappointed and called a lot of his loyal party supporters deplorables. Well, OK, he didn’t actually use that word, thank god, but he might as well have.
                The party needed to gather strength and unify before it could move forward.
                Paul Nuttall was the best choice for a new leader as he has a very good grasp
                of politics in many areas and I believe the ability to build on the great work that Nigel Farage did for Ukip. And I strongly agree with his Northern strategy despite being a Southerner myself.
                I see no evidence that the party is in any decline. But I will ponder on your words, my friend. Especially your description of Paul being a “no mark slap head scouse git” I have yet to appreciate the full value of that contribution to political science. But I’ll work on it and try to uncover the wisdom within.

                   9 likes

                • Nibor says:

                  A relative of mine (UKIP) was second today for a town council seat in a very safe Conservative constituency . She lost by 20 votes . The others were nowhere .

                     5 likes

                  • taffman says:

                    Despite the odds, UKIP beat Al Beeb, and Al Beeb don’t like it. A lot of Welsh people are moving to UKIP form Labour.
                    Trump like UKIP, cocked a snook at the media.
                    Other parties were afraid of the media and kowtowed to them – the media can’t handle hit.

                       6 likes

  8. An English Gentleman says:

    Off topic so apologies to all

    Sky ‘news’ this morning – Article on ‘Can vegans still be superheros?’ followed by the inevitable moronic contributions from the talking heads.

    That is it for me with sky – over to netflix, I think.

    At least I do have a choice re payment with sky

       10 likes

  9. Stella2 says:

    Such fun these days, turning on BBC1 for the lunchtime news. Not for real news and analysis, obviously, but to see how it all seems in the parallel universe of BBC newsworld.

    First story up: NHS emergency. What, this story leading again – no doubt without a big-picture account of what is really happening? I turn over immediately to Sky, to see what their lead story is.

    Sky is doing Tristram Hunt, which is what I would have expected from the BBC. After all, the BBC ran for days with an MEP who cracked a joke about women and fridges in a semi-private context, so we know they like to do MP stories even when they don’t amount to much. Actually, Sky do a good job with the Hunt story, especially the Labour-in-Corbyn-crisis angle, so I keep watching. Back to BBC to see if they are now covering it. No, it’s the Snow Crisis. Back to Sky.

    At 1.10pm, the BBC are still giving good value on the Great Snow Crisis, though the reporter is somewhat crestfallen that – like the story – it is distinctly melting away and he is standing on a patchy green hill. “But it was covered this morning!” On to the flood risks and high tides. Another freezing reporter at the seaside. “We’re halfway through the period of concern, and though not much has actually happened, there are still predictions of considerable risk, or maybe not.” (I paraphrase, but it’s not far off.) More time wasted by giving the details of where to find out more BBC predictive weather guff online, etc.

    And only then, at 1.15pm is T Hunt mentioned. Ever so slightly grudgingly, one feels. Yes, they mention unhappiness with Corbyn, big up the towering Labour talent that is T Hunt (matter of opinion, I would have thought). He hasn’t died, he’s just going to the V&A.

    Then it’s “thank you very much for that report”, no pure comment interview with our own biased expert, no interview with any politician, “and now on to…” – I switch off.

    Anyone know if Britain’s leading broadcast journalists went on to salvage any of the reputation they have lost this week on the Trump spy thriller tale by giving a tiny hint that they might have been had? Leading by rebuttal and repeating untrue allegations is still libel…even if it has already been published…

       32 likes

    • Grant says:

      Stella,

      The BBC these days is all just childish playground chatter. Totally trivial.

         20 likes

      • Stella2 says:

        Grant, that would explain why the reporter on the disappointingly melting hill told us urgently at least three times that people had been enjoying sledging and playing in the snow. #DespiteTheSnowCrisis Hope he was embarrassed at being used to spin it out for as long as possible before they had to mention Tristram.

           19 likes

        • Grant says:

          Stella,

          Nice work for him and easy money. I wonder what is basic salary is ?

             12 likes

          • Stella2 says:

            His salary may be OK now. But he’s worried it will be less – will CRASH, even – after Brexit.

               11 likes

  10. KafirHarbi says:

    ‘BBC establishes dedicated team to debunk fake Facebook & Twitter stories’

    “The BBC can’t edit the internet, but we won’t stand aside either. We will fact check the most popular outliers on Facebook, Instagram and other social media.”

    http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/01/13/bbc-establishes-dedicated-team-debunk-fake-facebook-twitter-stories?utm_campaign=Newsletter_Daily_EuropePM&utm_source=pardot&utm_medium=email

    Comments are encouraging. . .

       16 likes

    • Grant says:

      Kafir,

      Hot news just in. ” Facebook establishes dedicated team to debunk fake BBC stories “.

      Strange that the BBC should be attacking fb which is a Leftie comrade in arms.

      Beeboids are such morons that they never thought that, if they raise the “fake news” issue , the spotlight may be on them . Idiots !

         27 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Starting with fake news about climate change from fake scientists.

           12 likes

        • JosF says:

          One has to admire the mindless adherence of the BBC and its inept employees to the fake man-made global warming scam commitment and talents worthy of a ratcatcher’s dog

             7 likes

  11. Grant says:

    FT100 now at 7329. All time high . The BBC will be rejoicing . LOL !

       18 likes

  12. Umbongo says:

    I didn’t hear the BBC on Hunt’s appointment and resignation but, according to this, apart from attending a lefty think-tank (the IPPR), being a Labour MP and shadow cabinet minister and writing a few indifferently received books on historical subjects, Hunt has actually run nothing. In fact, I would hope (but not expect) the world’s greatest news manufacturer to ask the questions: why Hunt? What are his qualifications?

    Well, those of us outside the metro-bubble know the answers. Simply, he’s another member in good standing of the political class and, since he can’t be expected to “fight and fight again for the party he loves” (Gaitskell?), he is being given a tax-funded sinecure so that he can continue to bleat his brand of lefty orthodoxy via the BBC, Guardian and all cultural points left. Although his appointment was welcomed by the drones already there (“He has a highly compelling mixture of experience across public life . “) and the CINO’s CINO, ex-Chancellor George Osborne, it’s difficult to see why he was chosen apart from a wish by the political class to save one of its own from the Titanic that the Labour Party has become.

       25 likes

    • Grant says:

      Umbongo,

      True, but it still leaves one Hunt in the Commons.

         9 likes

      • taffman says:

        Its beginning to look like the only opposition the government now has is the BBC and UKIP.
        Labour are finished .

           12 likes

  13. G.W.F. says:

    BBC recaptures British life in the 1960s.
    Obviously filmed before the multiculture was imposed. Hideous white people

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03b8s51/britain-on-film-series-2-7-the-home-front

       15 likes

  14. Grant says:

    BBC Website on the Cyprus negotiations. Key obstacles include “the return of property to tens of thousands of Cypriots ( by which they mean Greek Cypriots ). No mention of the Turkish Cypriots who were dispossessed by the Greeks.

    Now, I know that most on this website will support the Greeks on this issue, but I make the point to show the ignorance and bias of the BBC. Keep it simple. Turks bad, Greeks good. Having said that I am amazed that the BBC is not supporting its muslim ” brothers “.

       12 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      Grant:

      Surely the term “Cypriots” covers both Greek and Turkish Cypriots? They are all citizens of the Republic of Cyprus.

      I for one would welcome the day when the dispossessed of both sides have their property returned to them.

         5 likes

      • Grant says:

        Rob,

        Yes, exactly, it should ! That is what the Constitution of Cyprus says ! I hope that there will be a settlement, but it has to be fair to Turks and Greeks. I have no brief for Erdogan, I hate the man. But , for once, he is right . If the Turks have to remove all military , then the Greeks should have to do the same.

        The Turkish Cypriot fear is, if the Turkish Military leave, the Greeks will resume the Genocide which they started in 1974 and before.

           4 likes

        • Grant says:

          Nikos Sampson gave many speeches before and after he became President , but he always used the same phrase ” We must cleanse the island of the stench of Turks ” .

             3 likes

          • embolden says:

            Are Muslim invaders acceptable everywhere in Europe or just Cyprus?

            Btw I don’t think Turks have much room to cry “Genocide” after Smyrna and Armenia.

               5 likes

            • Grant says:

              embolden,

              No point in continuing, but Smyrna was a result of the atrocities which the Greeks committed when they invaded Anatolia in 1919. It is no surprise that the Turks wanted revenge after what the Greeks did.

              I do not defend the Armenian issue , but we have to look also at what the Armenians did when they started Genocide against the Turks.

                 4 likes

              • Grant says:

                History is not black and white, although the BBC would like us to think so. In the case of Turks, Greeks, Armenians, Kurds and others, there is a lot of blood on many hands .

                   4 likes

                • embolden says:

                  Greeks had lived in Anatolia and Pontus since the classical period, and later, at the time of Saints Peter and Paul….that’s how Christianity spread to Western Europe and Russia.

                  They were driven out by Ataturk, who finished the job started by the Ottoman Caliphate.

                  The “Great Idea” was an attempt to protect the Greeks in Anatolia from suffering the same fate as the Armenians, also victimised as a result of their Christianity, or failure to be Turkish Muslims.

                     3 likes

                  • Grant says:

                    embolden,

                    Can we discuss this on another forum ? My point was that the BBC bias was against Turks.

                    In terms of Ataturk, who was not a Turk and not a muslim , please read ” Ataturk” by Prof. Andrew Mango . It is the most objective study .He was not a Turk !

                       1 likes

                    • Grant says:

                      embolden,

                      Please study the primary sources. It was the Greeks who invaded Turkey in 1919. Even Greek sources admit that . And they even admit that they “relocated ” 1 million Turks . The only thing that matters to me is the facts,so far as we can be aware .

                         3 likes

                    • embolden says:

                      Mustafa Kemal “was not a Turk and not a Muslim”……hmmmm OK, he was though a loyal Ottoman who served the Caliphate who later rebelled and was then the leader, some say the father of the Turkish successor state to the Ottoman Caliphate.

                      Yes, of course the Greek army invaded Turkey in 1919 but there were substantial Greek populations descended from generations of Greeks in Anatolia threatened with the same fate the Armenians faced in 1915.

                      The Greeks were also operating with the tacit support of the allies that defeated Germany and their Ottoman allies, and were claiming territories that were historically Greek lands that were the subject of some rather murky allied promises regarding the partitioning of the former Ottoman Empire, the Ottoman Empire that had terrorised its Christian subjects in the Balkans and Greek islands by way of Jizya, Devcirme and dhimmitude for several centuries.

                      My point re the BBC is that their bias means a state of permanent outrage regarding affairs in one former Ottoman territory whilst ignoring the on going military occupation and resettlement of Cyprus with Anatolian Turks, since 1974.

                      I think it is because the BBC has an institutional double standard and bias that manifests in being anti Israel and pro Islam.

                      A strong re-Islamising and de-secularising Turkey is an Islamic interest.

                         3 likes

          • Rob in Cheshire says:

            Sampson was a murderer and a terrorist, he was never the President of Cyprus. He tried to seize power by assassinating Makarios, in a coup arranged by the Greek fascist colonels, but thankfully failed.

            Personally, it would not bother me much if both Greek and Turkish armed forces remained on Cyprus after a settlement, so long as they stayed within strictly defined areas, if it served to reassure the Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

               3 likes

  15. gaxvil says:

    EVEN IF PEEGATE was true – it was a while ago and wold have been between consenting adults. So what.

       11 likes

    • Grant says:

      gax,

      so far as I know no-one has given a date on which this was meant to have occurred. That would be a good starting point for a fearless BBC investigative journalist. But the BBC seem strangely incurious !

         20 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Isn’t Trump pretty much innoclated against blackmail ?

      “Do what we say or we’ll release photos causing the media to mock you !”

         14 likes

      • Spacemonkey says:

        Good point. The more the media mocks him, the more convinced his supporters become they voted for the right guy. The leftards just don’t understand what has occurred with Brexit and Trump and fail to see their own role in it.

           19 likes

        • RJ says:

          Some people can be blackmailed (or is that now a racist word?) and others can’t. Trump is immune. He puts me in mind of the French diplomat who was the subject of a Russian honey trap – when they threatened to release the compromising photographs he asked for some additional copies.

             6 likes

  16. Marion says:

    Someone just sent me this (must have heard it on the BBC):

    Two Middle East mothers are sitting in a cafe chatting over a plate of tabouli and a pint of goat’s milk. The older of the two pulls a small folder out of her handbag and starts flipping through photos. They start reminiscing.

    ”This is my oldest son, Mujibar. He would have been 24 years old now.”
    ”Yes, I remember him as a baby.” says the other mother cheerfully.
    “He’s a martyr now though.” the mother confides.
    “Oh, so sad dear…” says the other.
    ”And this is my second son, Khalid. He would have been 21.”
    ”Oh, I remember him,” says the other happily, ”he had such curly hair when he was born.”
    ”He’s a martyr too…” says the mother quietly.
    ”Oh, gracious me…” says the other.
    ”And this is my third son. My baby. My beautiful Ahmed. He would have been 18”, she whispers.
    “Yes,” says the friend enthusiastically, ”I remember when he first started school….”
    ”He’s a martyr also,” says the mother, with tears in her eyes.

    After a pause and a deep sigh, the second Muslim mother looks wistfully at the photographs and, searching for the right words, says . .

    “They blow up so fast, don’t they?”

       41 likes

    • Spacemonkey says:

      Just a quicky

      ISIS has developed a new prayer rug woven from a composite if semtex and C4. They are selling like hot cakes, prophets are going through the roof.

         23 likes

  17. taffman says:

    “No single factor behind sterling flash crash, BIS says”
    Brexitphobia !
    “The BIS does not point to an actual event or piece of news for causing the crash, but reports at the time suggested a headline in the Financial Times quoting French president Francois Hollande pressing for a “hard Brexit”, an outcome commonly thought to preclude a smooth transition, prompted some selling”…………….
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38607480

       11 likes

    • taffman says:

      Brexitopia
      “FTSE chalks up another record close” !
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/business-38529999

         11 likes

    • Grant says:

      Taffy,

      Yes, I read that one. Amazed the BBC even reported it !

         10 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Ah, so the hysteria over Brexit causing the sterling ‘crash’ was all Hollande’s fault?

      Tut, why didn’t the BBC say that at the time?

      Still, as long as it was nothing to do with the BBC that’s the main thing…

         13 likes

      • Grant says:

        johnny,

        I suspect that the BBC’s influence over stock markets and currencies is zero !

           6 likes

        • taffman says:

          They have been attempting a self-fulfilling prophecy.

          “A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behaviour.”

             5 likes

          • Scroblene says:

            FTSE rising several days in succession to a new high – despite Brexit fears…

            Business as usual at around 6:20pm.

            I reckon that big investors wanting to come here just love to listen to all that, it proves that their initiatives, business plans and intuitions, together with their opportunities for jobs are going the right way.

            Hear bBeeb – think opposite!

               5 likes

  18. johnnythefish says:

    BBC creaming its pants throughout yesterday at the news that the Swansea tidal lagoon is likely to be given the go ahead now they’ve ‘taken a different look at the figures’ (by costing it over 120 years, a methodology naturally taken at face value by the BBC).

    Any listener or viewer who still trusts the BBC to be honest and impartial in its news coverage would have got the firm impression from Rogering Horrorbag and his cronies that this will provide the answer to all our ‘renewable’ energy needs. “Tidal lagoons will provide long-term security of supply from 120-year British power stations we are told.

    Then flipping to ITV news I discovered that this wondrous piece of eco-engineering, costing £1.3 billion will power – wait for it – 150,000 homes.

    There are approximately 25 million homes in Britain. That’ll be 170 new tidal lagoons at a total cost of £220 billion, then. Wonder how long before they’re all built? Guess the BBC think we don’t need to know.

    With net immigration running at 330,000 annually, that’s two new Swanseas every year.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/07/14/england-needs-to-build-50pc-more-homes-than-governments-target-s/

    In other words, the chances of just keeping up with extra demand, let alone meeting existing energy needs, are looking very slim indeed.

    And just in case you were in any doubt you are now living the nightmare of a helpless bit-player in an endless, real-life Monty Python sketch, there’s this:

    Exclusive: Developers of gas-fired plant that could power 2.2 million homes admit project is behind schedule and yet to secure investors.

    ttp://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/energy/11925444/UK-energy-crisis-Trafford-gas-plant-in-doubt.html

    Cost of said gas-fired plant? £800 million. Yep, that’s power for more than 8 times the number of homes for not much more than two-thirds the price. Frackable gas reserves? Possibly enough for 120 years before which time our hapless scientists will have plucked their fingers out of their globally-warmed arseholes and discovered a complete and reliable renewable alternative. Hopefully.

    The BBC – leading you into a dark and cold tomorrow

       21 likes

    • Grant says:

      johhny,

      Swansea Lagoon. Environmental disaster, waste of money, totally energy inefficient, taxpayer funded. Just like the BBC !

         15 likes

      • RJ says:

        There are lots of intelligent people frequenting this site, so I wonder if one of you could end my confusion on this tidal power story. As I understand the BBC reports on the technology the difference in the water level between the sea and the lagoon provides the energy to turn the turbines as the water flows in and out of the lagoon. But twice a day, close to high and low tide the water level will be the same both sides of the sea wall and slack water means that the tide is neither rising nor falling. What will then turn the turbines, or do we have to switch everything off twice a day? None of the BBC reports have covered this point.

           10 likes

        • 60022Mallard says:

          I too would like to know.

          From my 1960/70s geography lessons i learned that the French have a famous tidal power station on the River Rance near St. Malo. So 40+ year old technology that has not spread like wildfire in these “green” times?

             14 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Grant, Johnny

        Lots of sources say that there is a billion tonnes of coal and gas under Swansea Bay. Licences were applied for to drill but environmental groups have opposed.

        This is from the BBC, but there are many other sources.

        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-16567883

        More

        http://www.southwales-eveningpost.co.uk/gower-swansea-gas-exploration-licence-proposal/story-20392783-detail/story.html

           9 likes

    • Spacemonkey says:

      I wouldn’t place too much faith in fracking, if I were you. It is a scam and can only work with huge government subsidies.

         1 likes

      • taffman says:

        Its not fracking, I think its a different thing called “Coal Gasification”? but don’t take my word for it , I am not a scientist or a mathematician, I just count sheep. 😉

           3 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        I wouldn’t place too much faith in fracking, if I were you. It is a scam and can only work with huge government subsidies.

        Have you any evidence to back that up? And even if it attracted the same subsidies as ‘renewables’ at least it would:

        a) give us continuity of supply and not be dependent on the wind blowing or the sun shining

        b) genuinely provide jobs and other huge economic benefits for the country, unlike spending on renewables where nearly all the money goes to Germany and Holland.

        c) provide us with energy security so we are not dependent on the likes of Russia and the Middle East

        Thanks to the success of engineers like Mr Gallegos in pushing the frontiers of hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking”, to access reserves of oil trapped in shale formations, notably here in Texas and North Dakota, America is poised to displace Saudi Arabia as the world’s top producer. With that could come a hobbling of Opec and unforeseen shifts in US foreign policy.

        So rapid has been the change in its energy fortunes that even some experts, as well as policy-makers in Washington, are struggling to keep up. Nor are we just talking oil. So much natural gas is being released by the shale also that for now outlandish quantities of it are simply being burned off into the atmosphere.

        http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fracking-is-turning-the-us-into-a-bigger-oil-producer-than-saudi-arabia-9185133.html

           1 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      I have to admit that I’ve always liked the idea of water wheels and the like. We used to have a water mill in our village!

      How about they build TWO barriers half a mile apart, so when the tide turns, there’s enough water in between, to keep the turbines going, and there’ll be no need to turn off the telly! So, we must take the £4.00bn from the Beeb’s tax and give it to Swansea! Job done!

      But there again, I’m a humble drainage ‘expert’, capable of unblocking any drain worth having!

      (All calls to Sen. S.C.R.O’Blene Drains and Turbines, Langham Platzastraatzenburgerstreet, WC1 (note the WC bit – ha ha ha…;0)

         5 likes

    • Nibor says:

      Costing over 120 years .
      That’s the equivalent of costing an energy source in 1897 , when coal was king and an automobile had to be preceded by a red flag . Steam was replacing sail .
      120 years before that there were no steam engines and canals were first started to be built , hauled by horses . Turnpike roads were made .
      Private enterprise had built the canals and the railways . Mostly they were successful .
      Privatisation after the war was optimistic , but Beeching plans were not , envisaging helicopters replacing a normal mode of transport . That was a 40 year government sponsored look to the future .

         3 likes

    • richard D says:

      A company just at the end of last year, Tidal Energy, went bust in the wake of its taxpayer-funded prototype failing after only 3 months, and a business model that should never have been granted any public money.

      Add to that the number of wave energy companies thrashing about, spending loads of taxpayer money, and failing over the past few years, and it ain’t a pretty picture in this particular energy field.

      But hey, with a 120-year business model, and oodles of taxpayer cash up front (no doubt), anybody can massage the figures to say anything they like. Note – 120 year payback, and 3-month current product life expectancy…….

      Just a thought – try going to the market for private equity funding for a business plan which shows a payback of 120 years and see how far you get ! yep – that might tell you something.

         4 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Paul Homewood is on the case.
      BBC/MSM fake narrative is that “Green magic tech exists but big corps are so stupid they make electricity in harder more expensive ways”
      Or
      “proper energy corps are so stupid that they fail to take advantage of green tech that has been around for years.”

      Bottomline barrages are rubbush : You need a hell of a lot of concrete
      – for a tiny amount of power
      – they silt up easily
      – they screw up nature.
      – there’s been one in France for 40+ years
      – Mail headline says 30% of UK power … That’s ridiculous given the massive massive cost compared to conventional on tap power.

      https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/hendry-review-backs-1-3bn-swansea-bay-white-elephant/

      https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/01/13/the-mails-misleading-claim-about-swansea-bay/

         2 likes

  19. JimS says:

    I wonder if the fake news peddling BBC has been blacklisted by Reuters and AP? Certainly today’s Jeremy Vine show was a news-free zone, apart from the death of Graham Taylor, who, apparently ‘we’ treated badly, the main items were the resident policeman peddling his book and a young lad with a novel way of parking his car, using two bays.

    Actually this later ‘story’ might have had more interest if had been developed into why supermarket parking bays are so narrow and why can’t we use American methods such as ‘slant’ parking and double lines to mark of each side of the bay. Instead we had a selection of nasty people telling us how they would trap this guy in, or mark his car.

    However this non-show did produce one good laugh, the caller who managed to conflate this ‘selfish parking’ with the rise of Trump and Farrage! I expect he is of the Poly Toynbee school of ‘lefties are such nice people’. He then went on to demonstrate what a mean-spirited little person he was. Niceness being in the eye of the activist obviously.

       16 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Waitrose have larger parking spaces (so Polly can get the 6 x 6 in safely.

      When they redesigned their car park near here, they took out fourteen spaces, to make way for pedestrians.

      Now there’s more room to back the 6 x 6 out, and hit a few yokels at the same time. Slant parking has lots of disadvantages, including small fat people driving 6 x 6s, and not being able to see out of the rear mirror.

         6 likes

    • Breitbart fan says:

      Talking of Graham Taylor I couldn’t help noticing that on PM last night they just had to bring race into it by mentioning ( oh so casually ) that he had signed up two black players at some point . Why distinguish between black and white footballers ? Most of us don’t even notice their colour as long as they are good players ! The BBC are the true racists .

         8 likes

    • Breitbart fan says:

      Talking of Graham Taylor I couldn’t help noticing that on PM last night they just had to bring race into it by mentioning ( oh so casually ) that he had signed up two black players at some point . Why distinguish between black and white footballers ? Most of us don’t even notice their colour as long as they are good players ! The BBC are the true racists .

         2 likes

    • Breitbart fan says:

      On the subject of Graham Taylor , did anyone notice on last night’s PM that they just had to squeeze in the fact that at one point in his career he had signed up two black players when it wasn’t the norm to do so ?

      Players are good , bad , average . Trust the BBC to bring colour into it , most of us don’t even notice , they just can’t help themselves !

      Sorry for duplicate posts , just getting used to this site .

         5 likes

  20. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    As part of the Racist White-Hate Campaign that the BBC feckers helped to promote by nationally publicising it through its own broadcasting network … http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/38592573/michael-jacksons-daughter-paris-offended-by-casting-of-white-actor-to-play-him

    … and with the resulting social media hate campaign demanding Sky pull the programme … Sky pulls the Michael Jackson programme that features a white actor playing Michael Jackson, for the period of Michael Jackson’s life when he was in fact white.

    Paris Jackson, Michael Jacksons white daughter, who is not the biological daughter of Michael Jackson, and who was brought up believing she was black, said, according to the BBC, the portrayal of her father by a white male oppressor made her “want to vomit”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-38608070 http://i1.mirror.co.uk/incoming/article7202983.ece/ALTERNATES/s615/PAY-Paris-Jackson-Main.jpg

       11 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      #1 isnt it racist to say that a character cannot be played by an actor cos of his skin colour ?

      #2 The possible paedophile activity of MJ should make her vomit.

      Musicians, it’s all about the music isn’t it ?

         4 likes

  21. Fred Bloggs says:

    BBC advert; three old ladies talking, saying May is to give a speech. But then says she does not know what it is about. Giving the impression, intended or not, that May does not know what she is going to say.

       13 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Fred, please keep up!

      It’s bBeeb’s way of saying that our Prime Minister will have the ‘main upper hand but no reulst’ in MAY, not that Mrs May’s going to go back on her word!

      (or is it, I suppose bBeeb may have six weeks from Article 50 to cobble another nasty story….naaaaaah, they needed to get going last year to do that…).

         5 likes

  22. Sluff says:

    Half watching, half listening to the bBBC news channeI at 5pm, and noted a presenter was talking kindly and gently to a bearded old man who was ramblng incoherently. I thought it was a programme about care homes, but then I realised they were interviewing Jeremy Corbyn.
    All that was missing was a plea for more funding.

       40 likes

  23. Rob in Cheshire says:

    Listening to Five Dead around midnight last night, there was yet another phone in about the NHS crisis. On came a woman from Cumbria to say that where she lives there are no immigrants, yet the NHS is in crisis, therefore the immigrants have not caused the crisis.

    I don’t want to waste time pointing out the logical fallacy of her statement, what surprised me was that is the THIRD time in the last few days I have heard the same woman pushing the same line on Five. I don’t listen all the time, so who knows how many times she has been on? Do the BBC have her on speed dial? She certainly seems to pop up whenever the naughty plebs get it into their heads that an extra 300,000 immigrants a year just might have some impact on the NHS.

    Just another of the BBC’s little mysteries I suppose…

       33 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      No immigrants in Cumbria? Obviously doesn’t frequent the hotels, cafes and bars around the lake towns then, Rob.

         17 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        Maybe she means no “BAME” immigrants? Anyway, she claims to live “between Lancaster and Kendal”. I expect she will be on again soon.

           9 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          Oh Toobi .. and there was me getting all excited and about to scan the internet for somewhere to live there !!!!

          I have to share this with you…….

          Just returned from having bloods taken at the local hospital,- I kid you not the scene in the Path Lab waiting room could have come straight out of a 70’s sitcom. All the Phlebotomists (those who extract your blood) were all black/ethnic minorities. Nothing wrong with that. BUT it was beyond comical belief when they attempted to call out the patient’s name from the blood forms. It was as though they couldn’t read ! Some garbled noise was shouted out, and us ‘victims’ looked at each other with bewilderment.

          One name was bellowed out three times before one guy took a stab that it was his name. Accents aside – Luke Jones was pronounced Oooook Ohness, and so it went on. Obviously no-one commented, but it was clear what we were all thinking by the raised eyebrows with deep sighs and shaking of heads. !!

             25 likes

          • Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

            With such a lack of basic communication skills can there be any confidence that the correct name will be attached to the correct blood sample? And consequently can there be any confidence that the correct blood type will be attached to the correct blood sample?

               18 likes

            • RJ says:

              I can remember an NHS ethnic diversity workshop where we were told that for cultural reasons muslims often use a variety of names. Never the less it was our responsibility to ensure that the correct records were available no matter what name, old or new, that the patient chose to give us. The woman from the Racial Equality Council received some very unsympathetic replies.

              The most interesting series of workshops were given by a group of American fighter pilots talking about teamwork. They were of no practical use but were great fun, especially the mission planning to bomb Belgrade. This NHS underfunding is terrible – especially as all Trusts have to have a plan on the advice to give patients when it’s cold, and in a few months a plan on the advice to give when it’s hot.

                 11 likes

          • ToobiWan says:

            Yet you never see these problems on the BBC’s adverts/pleadgrams for the NHS. Immigration good and the NHS would collapse without it. Anyone who is against immigration (unlimited) is by definition, against the NHS, the BBC says so, so it must be true.

               10 likes

            • Scroblene says:

              Saw all that, Toobi.

              Disgraceful interviews, badly constructed article too. As usual, the bBeeb blame ‘the hospitals’, never the gross mismanagement higher up. After all these fat cats in huge trust moneyballoons pay the Beeb to keep the pressure on the masses on minimum wages. It’s in their blood.

              They’ll all be private no doubt.

                 10 likes

        • Larry Dart says:

          Was it Annie from Carnforth?. If so, she is one of LBC’s regulars who invariably calls in defend all things Labour.

          (This was supposed to be a reply to Rob in Cheshire)

             7 likes

          • ToobiWan says:

            If it is, larry, Annie lives in Lancashire, not Cumbria. Sounds like a bit of a snob our Annie.

               3 likes

    • engineerdownunder says:

      Rob,

      Remember that the 330,000 immigrants per year is NET immigration. The BBC and the Government elite always try to push this figure and hide that the ACTUAL immigration is over 600,000. It’s a staggering figure. It is likely an underestimate.

      Sure people leave, but I would guess that those leaving are less likely to be big users of the NHS than the arrivals.

         12 likes

  24. Umbongo says:

    On 5.00 pm Radio 4, the BBC continues its coverage of the NHS “crisis” (™ Jeremy Corbyn). Dragged on is another bien pensant talking head to explain that the root causes of the “crisis” are the Tories starving the NHS of funds in combination with too many of the “old” (ie code for old whiteys) wanting to be treated like human beings in return for paying into the system their whole lives. Not a word about gimmegrants or EU incomers, mind: wouldn’t want to be reported for a “hate crime” would we? No, the message from the BBC’s carefully selected “experts” is essentially “blame the Tories and whitey, why don’t you just die – you know it makes sense!” I keep thinking the BBC can’t possibly sink any further – and then it falls short of my lowest expectations yet again.

       50 likes

    • seismicboy says:

      A very astute post Umbongo.
      I notice the bbc, after having distanced themselves from brexit doom-mongering by throwing Carney under the bus, are now distancing themselves from the ‘showergate’ tapes. It all seems consistent with the drive by journalism they now favour – publish some fake news with a shelf-life of a day or so or however long it takes to be proven a pile of sh!t and then run for the hills.
      The bbc lawyers must be working overtime these days.

         28 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Next few days will be all about the weather!

        If they hadn’t been sold a pup about the failure to nail President Elect Trump, they’d have been on this one for ages, as we all know it – er – rains, and that – er – er – it floods in some unfortunate area of the UK.

        I’m surprised that they don’t wheel out Roger Wheeliebin for his ‘expert’ assessment every day. But my heart goes out to those good people in danger. Been there, done it.

           11 likes

  25. Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

    Incredible bias on ‘PM’ up to 17:45 with a discussion about impeaching Donald Trump! Yes, that’s right, the man isn’t even U.S. President yet and already the rotten BBC have some ‘expert’ on, talking to presenter Carolyn Quinn about the possibility of impeachment. Apparently if he has let out out floors within his buildings to foreign companies, then it could create conflicts of interest. His business contacts with foreigners are, in general, a problem the expert says.

    Remind me: when did the U.S. last have a businessman as President? And surely it’s about what Trump does from when he takes office, not what he did before, especially if others take over the running of his company from him, no?

    They mentioned Bill Clinton’s travails, though his sexual activities were said not to be to do with the Constitution and oaths as such, and the threat successfully brought to bear on Nixon. No mention of course of anything that Obama or Hillary might have done that created potential conflicts; it was as if nobody had heard of the Clinton Foundation. Even Quinn had to run past the expert the thought that it was just people clutching at straws to stop Trump taking office. How they could talk about Trump without comparing him with Hillary Clinton simply astonishes me.

       26 likes

    • Grant says:

      Mustapha,

      The only hope that they have now is impeachment and they will do all they can to get it.

         12 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Like many here I am puzzled by the failure of Tory Ministers to call the BBC out for the damage they are trying to inflict on US/UK relations. I just wonder if these Ministers are going along with the attempt to impeach Trump, or worse. Trump has signaled hostility to Globalism, Treezer in her Sky speech praised Globalism twice and criticized Trump’s attitude to women twice, despite her fondness for Islam and the Saudis. Trump gone, and business as usual for the elites. From that standpoint the BBC are doing a good frontline job.

           20 likes

      • Dave S says:

        We are seeing an attempt at a coup and our government is not altogether innocent as usual. AS for our media what do you really expect?
        Now snowflake thinking is not the brightest and there will be a lot of very angry Americans out there in flyover land who are not going to like anything happening to Mr Trump.
        Dangerous days.

           12 likes

      • Al Shubtill says:

        Or assassination: Lincoln; Garfield; McKinley; Kennedy – Trump?

           6 likes

  26. Spacemonkey says:

    If, just for the sake of argument, someone wanted to report the recitation of koranic verses which denied Jesus as the Son Of God in a Glasgow cathedral,as a hate crime the place to do it online would be;

    https://www.scotland.police.uk/secureforms/hate-crime/

    Just saying…..

       24 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      If Moslems are allowed to perform their heathen rituals in a Christian Church, would it be a hate crime if someone put bacon on the doors of the Christian Church to keep them out?

      Meanwhile no news about the man who put bacon on a mosque door and died in jail. Nothing, not a hint whether he committed suicide, had a heart attack, nothing. Usually we hear something before the publication of the official whitewash.

         32 likes

      • Grant says:

        GWF,

        I think that we can assume that he was murdered by a muslim, in the absence of any other information.

           21 likes

      • GCooper says:

        That’s an extremely good point, G.W.F. Can you imagine if the victim had been a Moslem? The BBC would have been on it like a terrier with a rat.

           17 likes

        • Spacemonkey says:

          There is also speculation that the 15 year old girl who killed 7 year old Katie Rough in York last week is a muslim.

             1 likes

  27. Sluff says:

    Anyone noticed how little bBBC coverage there is of the NHS situation in Wales or Scotland?
    We only ever hear about NHS England.
    I’d be prepared to bet the situation is just as bad in those countries, but Health is a devolved issue, and clearly the last thing the bBBC want to do is highlight the failings of the responsible Labour or SNP administrations.

       26 likes

    • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

      Yes, I had wondered. In addition to the obvious explanation of BBC bias, which is practically a given, might another factor be that England has had more enrichment by immigration and thus there is more demand for health services there?

         13 likes

      • Grant says:

        Sluff,

        I have had a lot of experience of it in Perth, Dundee and Edinburgh over the last 2 years. Suberb medical services, meaning doctors and nurses and the rest. Crap managers, badly designed hospitals ( Edinburgh Royal is shit ). Very few immigrants. Hospitals , very dirty.

           12 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          It’ll always be the same, where bBeeb ‘report’ anything, Grant.

          They’ll slate the immediate services, and the politicians, but never do an in-depth investigation into how much money is wasted on administration and bad design. They’ll never find out why a database of national importance was so badly mismanaged, then dropped.

          Any real journalist would put her or his on the line to get to the bottom of a story like this, which would rock the NHS establishment to the foundations, but who really is out there capable of even trying?

          Beeb autocue-readers are just not up to the job; they could be paid by results, but that means minimum wages and zero-hour contracts.

             7 likes

          • taffman says:

            Wales is just as bad, perhaps worse . The problem overall ? Too many pen-pushers and Trustees and not enough Doctors and Nurses. The money thrown at it is wasted .
            Put that in your pipe Al Beeb and smoke it !

               1 likes

  28. Sluff says:

    The absolutely pathetic ‘Weather Crisis’ coverage continues, with outside broadcasts of sand shovelling.
    Cue a broadcast from a reporter in Skegness, who mentions the damage the storm surge has caused earlier in the day in Scarborough and Whitby. Yet there was no actual coverage !!!!
    It seems the Weather Crisis is a great opportunity for some overtime for the overstaffed newsroom, as long as no actual work or reporting is needed.

       21 likes

    • seismicboy says:

      It’s just more of the nanny state. We are not allowed to have our own visions or memories of bad weather – we now have to be told what it is and what we have to do as if we are experiencing it for the first time. It’s brainwashing.
      I saw the same thing when I worked in Houston several years ago – a reporter on the beach with a boiling sea behind her, as if the Texans don’t know what a hurricane looks like? Really?

         19 likes

      • ToobiWan says:

        We have been and are still being conditioned to fear the weather, they have even started giving these squalls, bloody names to personalise them and for us to have something to hang our “fears” on. This is to get us to turn to the government, who will take away all our fears and make things better, if only we give them more money in taxes to save the planet and make the nasty CC/AGW go away.
        Cold? Helpline to tell you to wear warm clothes.
        Hot? Helpline to tell us to drink more water.
        How the hell did we manage for so long without all this useful advice?

           27 likes

        • Spacemonkey says:

          Guess where the rabbit hole eventually leads; All the bad weather is due to climate change!!!

             14 likes

          • Lobster says:

            Space – Or Brexit!

               7 likes

            • Spacemonkey says:

              Well, doh! Obviously Brexit, that just goes without saying these days! Brexit will undermine EU wide “green” treaties which will cause increased global warming and in turn more snow, simples innit?

                 7 likes

  29. Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:

    bBBC Radio 4 six o’clock news starts with the NHS ‘crisis’ and makes an irrelevant and incredible link to the Tories being ‘the nasty party’. Typical loony leftie bias.

       24 likes

    • Grant says:

      Sir,

      The NHS was so much better when Labour was in power !

         8 likes

      • seismicboy says:

        Would that have been the Blair years when the media were as quiet as a mouse?

           17 likes

        • Grant says:

          sesmic,

          Yes, strange , isn’t it !

             14 likes

          • embolden says:

            Sir, is there any relationship between the NHS trusts in crisis and the PFI payments negotiated for them under the Brown and Blair Labour governments?

               16 likes

            • Scroblene says:

              They just didn’t see it all coming, Emb.

              The PFIs took billions of pounds spent by big private concerns to make a single PFI work. It also took several years of graft and hard bargaining, mainly with ‘NHS etc management who didn’t understand it all either.

              In the mean time, the thick politicians pontificated on subjects about which they were totally ignorant, and also incapable of doing anything about, and the private companies saw the long end-game as they should.

              Result? Noises now from all the public sectors blaming the final product, not the same politicians and old (probably retired now) ‘management.

              Of course, you’ll never hear a whisper about any of that from bBeeb. it is all to do with money now.

                 7 likes

              • Breitbart fan says:

                And if you take a look at all the un-filled shifts on NHS professionals ( nurse bank ) you might want to ask the question – why are nursing staff leaving the wards in their droves ? What does this tell you about management ? Just another assault on the NHS , but led from the inside . Common Purpose anyone ?

                All the money in the world won’t encourage the brow-beaten into filling those shifts . Way too much IT , management , human resources , occupational health professionals . The front line are literally on their knees .

                   3 likes

                • BRISSLES says:

                  Breitbart, when I worked in the NHS I was staggered to discover that once nursing staff had reached the top of their pay grade they could not rise the ladder any further, SO they ditch the nursing career and take a management course ! this enables them to continue their career but on a different path and ensuring salary increases until their retirement age.

                  I did challenge one of the nurses on this, because I had spent a lifetime in admin and wouldn’t dream of taking on her job on the ward, but after a couple of months training she considered herself able to take on a management admin role. This is where the insanity in the NHS is, and why there are so many managers, but its like the elephant in the room, no-one in the ‘know’ will discuss it !

                     8 likes

  30. No.6 says:

    Amazing isn’t it that the islamobeebs appear unable to join even the simplest of dots up. In Donald Trumps press conference yesterday he outlined his intent to go after big Pharma to negotiate new drugs deals [a major cost causing obamacare failure]and save billions.
    Well i have not heard the beeboids report this or suggest a similar approach here.They have been headlining the fake emergency in the NHS for weeks, well there’s the answer.
    Imagine the money which could be saved to address the the current perceived shortfall.
    Imagine a joint US UK approach. Lots of tax revenue could also be recouped.
    Shame. Our 4billion pounds per year echo chamber is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

       31 likes

    • Sir_Arthur_Strebe-Grebling says:

      Yesterday evening’s bBBC Radio 4 In Business was a fascinating investigation of efficiencies in the NHS. Very un-beeb-like.
      The best English GPs and hospitals treat more patients for less money in less time. But most don’t want to learn and just expect more and more of our money.

         8 likes

  31. Spacemonkey says:

    The NHS has been in perpetual crisis for as long as I can remember, doesn’t matter which government or what time of the year. It is a money pit into which we happily throw billions of quid every year and it still is nowhere near enough and it never will be. It is hardly surprising as the aim of the NHS is to cheat Death and foil disease. You may as well sit on the beach and forbid the tide from coming in.

    We need a completely new approach to everything, politics, economics, demographics, the environment, religion and ethics.

       26 likes

  32. Mice Height says:

    PM on Radio 4 implying that Trump could/should be impeached or forced to resign.
    Surely they must realise that this obsessive anti-Trump rhetoric is being taken too far!?
    At 40:20 on the link.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087pfb0#play

       27 likes

    • Spacemonkey says:

      The dark forces of evil will pervert the law to their own ends to overcome the will of the people. They are doing it in UK over Brexit and they will do the same in US over Trump.

      Mark my words, there will be a reckoning to be had. Much harder to achieve in UK as we are not allowed to have arms, but if the army was to realize what was going on and turn on the government, then what? Of course in US it’s much simpler, Trump supporters are armed to the teeth and more importantly are of the belief the 2nd amendment was specifically drafted to defend themselves from a tyrannical government.

      So, good luck with your impeachment, guys. Hope it all goes well for you.

         26 likes

      • Mice Height says:

        Thankfully our average soldier loves Britain (which is why the Left hate them so much).
        Just look at any Forces FB page to see the anger at the establishment, after the treatment of Marine A, now followed by these other witch hunts.

           24 likes

        • Spacemonkey says:

          Just so. And I believe they swear allegiance to the Queen, not parliament. And unless I’m very much mistaken Her Madge was all for Brexit.

          I… swear by Almighty God (do solemnly, and truly declare and affirm) that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will, as in duty bound, honestly and faithfully defend Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, in Person, Crown and Dignity against all enemies, and will observe and obey all orders of Her Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and of the generals (admirals / air officers) and officers set over me.

             15 likes

          • Dave S says:

            Quite true and in extremis it means that the monarch can still take command.
            Once the monarch has given a direct order to one of the colonels nothing and nobody can countermand it except the monarch. Please correct me if I am wrong but I think this is the correct position.

               7 likes

  33. AsISeeIt says:

    ‘News where you are’ but not as BBC London seem to want to report it…

    http://www.standard.co.uk/topic/wood-green-crown-court

    Blimey us Brits are a lawless lot

    A man who broke into his ex-girlfriend’s flat and kidnapped her friend has been jailed for four years. Mustafa Kiziltan, 27, from Hackney, was found guilty of kidnap.

    A predatory paedophile who posed as a YouTube rap star to groom vulnerable schoolgirls and have sex with them has been jailed. Daniel Rodriguez, used the rap moniker Grymey D, to lure at least five teenage victims to visit the Hackney home.

    A woman has been found guilty of stabbing her partner to death in flat they shared above a Tottenham pub. Gyuldzhan Hadzhieva, 38, of Northumberland Park, killed 32-year-old Shenol Erol Ali in the couple’s home.

    A man jailed for impersonating a police officer in a bid to kidnap schoolgirls was today described as “every parent’s worst nightmare”. Abdi Waise, 28, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, after he attempted to capture five girls, all aged between 11 and 14.

    A man has been jailed after transforming his north London home into a firearms factory. Rakesh Patel, from Enfield, was found guilty following a trial at Wood Green Crown Court after police discovered a stockpile of weapons at his home and a crop of cannabis plants.

    A gang who hatched an audacious plot to spring a dangerous criminal from a prison van were today jailed for a total of 27 years and two months. Izzet Eren, 33, assembled a five-strong team to break him out of the van as he was being transported from Wormwood Scrubs prison to Wood Green Crown Court.

    A man who stabbed his former partner while she slept, and only stopped when her son jumped on his back, has been jailed for six yeard. Violent Darius Grzesiak, 33, launched the attack at a home in Elsden Road, Haringey.

    How did that old song go…? Let me walk you through the streets of London…

       37 likes

  34. AsISeeIt says:

    Wonder whether the BBC will get around to reporting this one?

    Probably there’s too much weather in the news at the moment.

    Allegedly, of course.

    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/mother-and-daughter-ran-gang-behind-315k-bogus-bride-scam-a3439766.html

    A gang of eastern European women shipped a string of bogus brides into the UK in a £315,000 sham marriage immigration scam, a court heard. Ringleader Lina Kezelyte, 32, and her mother Valentina, 53, organised for young Lithuanian women to be flown from Vilnius to Luton on budget airline Wizz Air to be married off to “desperate” Indian and Pakistani grooms, it is alleged.

    Jurors were told Mohemmed Jemaldeen, 33, of Edgware, is also accused of involvement in the plot by lining up Indian and Pakistani men willing to pay for a sham marriage… ‘Lithuanian brides recruited by Lina Kezelyte received fees to fly to the UK and on arrival were shown how to apply for a National Insurance number, to prove their EU status to authorities’.

       26 likes

  35. AsISeeIt says:

    And today’s murder

    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/teenager-stabbed-to-death-near-portobello-road-after-trivial-dispute-with-rival-friends-a3432581.html

    A 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death in an “ambush” near Portobello Road after a “trivial” dispute with a rival group of friends, a court has heard. Fola Orebiyi thought he and his friends were going to settle the dispute with a fist fight but he was knifed in the neck and back near the street market in Notting Hill.

    Following their arrests, the 17-year-old denied carrying out the stabbing and said the other youth had the knife. The 15-year-old denied involvement. The youths, who cannot be identified, deny murder. The trial continues.

       17 likes

  36. GoingInNowDan says:

    So called BBC news at 6; Tristram Hunt resigns as an MP to , well you know, obviously take over as director of the V&A, as you do.

    Beta Male presenter to New Statesman editor Jason Cowley; “Jason, good to see you again.” What. The. Proverbial.

    New Statesman editor gives it his best Mockney before reverting to type a la public school. Without being asked the obvious question why a standing MP is deserting a sinking ship.

    BBC, still in denial.

       22 likes

  37. Steve Jones says:

    One of the benefits of EU membership is access to advice from countries like Malta:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-38608709
    UK immigration per year is greater than the population of Malta.

       17 likes

  38. ToobiWan says:

    Just watching James May’s Man Lab on Quest, who has built a radio station on a narrow boat drifting off Milton Keynes. The station is using simm cards to broadcast to an onshore repeater for broadcast. Naturally, this fell foul of the BBC’s transmission laws, so he had to aquire a licence. One of his studio guests was a coracle builder who was paddling along furiously behind the “studio”, whilst they tried to interview him via a radio mike. Turned out he was out range which led to dead radio or silence for a short time,for which, JM announced, he could be fined £25,000 per minute!
    This penalty goes a long way to explain the total shyte that is broadcast on R’s 2 & 4 to get around the dead radio or silence fine.

       12 likes

  39. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC News Watch this evening where some viewers are quoted as suggesting the BBC went over the top on the rather unsubstantiated Trump allegations.

    Oddly, these messages were ‘balanced’ by one quote seeming to suggest the BBC ought to have published the story months back when the dodgy dossier was first received.

    Anyway the editor of BBC 6 o’clock and 10 o’clock tv news comes on to reply to criticism of their coverage… and you’ll never guess what… it turns out… wait for it… the BBC got this about right.

       20 likes

    • Dave S says:

      Who cares what the BBC editors think . It is what the US thinks that matters and the Trump team in particular.The BBC is not going to be welcome in the US much longer.

         21 likes

      • All Lives Matter says:

        They’re already a complete joke over there, it won’t be long before Trump is correctly labelling them as fake news as well. They never, not once, reported on Trump leading at any point in the election, every time he took the lead (which was many) the BBC claimed he was “closing the gap” and still showed Clinton comfortably in front. This is following their embarrassment in the general election and the referendum.

        The BBC was able to get away with their despicable journalistic bias and soft propaganda in previous years because it had good drama, documentaries and sports coverage. They very rarely have any of those thing now, which means people are paying more attention to their ‘news’ and seeing how detached it is from what’s actually happening. Hopefully this will result in the BBC becoming a subscription service as I don’t believe they are capable of salvaging, but it’s clearly immoral (not to mention a direct contravention of the charter) for the public to finance them for blatant lies and misinformation.

           23 likes

  40. Guest Who says:

    I am just an ordinary web surfer and social media commentator, and not a market rate media talent or anything, but I have grasped that wishing death on folks is not just nasty but often actionable. Unless, it seems, you are from the the BBC, view X your own FOI exempted, etc…

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

       7 likes

  41. richard D says:

    I don’t know if this has been posted already, but Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief Brexit negotiator, has apparently advised a meeting of senior MEP’s that he “wants 27 member states to have easy access to London’s financial institutions” and that “special work was needed to avoid financial instability” [i.e. in the EU].

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

    Well, there’s a turn-up for the books – last week the Beeb was reporting the ‘fact’ that the EU was going to strip jobs out of the City of London – this week, elsewhere in the news, it appears that this is just not going to happen.

    Oh, me, oh my. Michel Barnier was trying to be the ‘hard guy’ just a couple of weeks ago, now he’s screaming for our help.

    But, the really interesting bit, the bit where he should get the two-word salute ending in ‘off’ is where he’s now saying “There will be a special/specific relationship. There will need to be work outside of the negotiation box … in order to avoid financial instability.”

    Just hold on a cotton-pickin’ minute there, Mr Barnier. Wasn’t it just a couple of weeks ago you were adamant that there could be no negotiation of any kind whatsoever outside the auspices of the Article 50 framework ? And why the hell would the UK NOT use this lovely bit of leverage in the heart of the the negotiations to get the UK the best possible deal – like the same sort of easy and free access (i.e. no freedom of movement clauses attached) to the single market, as the sort of easy access you want for the EU member states to our financial markets ? Simples.

    But oops…..Sinn Fein has just thrown a spanner into that works by collapsing the Northern Ireland power-sharing Assembly, and I read somewhere today that some opportunists (perhaps even within Sinn Fein itself ?) are going to try to stop the triggering of Article 50, if there is no sitting government in Northern Ireland…. and Sinn Fein is apparently in no hurry whatsoever to re-convene a Northern Ireland Assembly. That’ll screw up M. Barnier’s hopes a bit. The EU (and especially Eire) is surely going to love Sinn Fein for that one.

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/brexit-latest-news-northern-ireland-crisis-stormont-assembly-delay-theresa-may-illegal-article-50-a7526126.html

    Oh, what a tangled web we weave…….when first we practice to deceive (i.e. that means you, M. Barnier and your EU cohorts).

       7 likes

  42. taffman says:

    I managed to watch Al Beeb this evening and the message I get is that Al Beeb are in a panic, the second message I get is the so called ‘impartial’ channel hates Trump, it hates the Tories and thinks that UKIP are vile and ‘Right Wing’.
    If it is so ‘right wing’ why are so many Labour voters going there ?

       14 likes

  43. Dave S says:

    I caught the last part of Newsnight. They are deranged. An incomprehensible discussion with Emily and two other women about our Jeremy . Save Our lefty makes much more sense .
    Time to put them all back in a box and mark it. Not to be opened until 2050.

       12 likes

  44. Sluff says:

    Weather Crisis update 0030 BBC news channel.
    Errrr, it was not mentioned at all !!!!!!
    No reports of flooding, no outside broadcasts of empty sports centres, sandbags, or police and army. Nothing.
    The newsroom will have to get off the arses and find or invent some real news tomorrow.
    A bad way to start the weekend. Having to do some actual work.

       8 likes

  45. taffman says:

    “Brexit committee demands transitional deal and parliamentary vote ”
    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jan/14/brexit-committee-demands-transitional-deal-and-parliamentary-vote
    Benn said: “The government should seek appropriate transitional arrangements in the interests of business in the UK and the EU 27.”
    Does Al Beeb publish this rag ?

       3 likes

  46. Cassandra says:

    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

    _93567909_de28.jpg

    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.

       6 likes