Mid-Week Open Thread

Unemployment down, wages rising at 2.7%…but the BBC told us that that was ‘nothing to celebrate’…the jobs are all rubbish, low-skilled and low paid, part-time jobs[em…no they’re not] and wage inequality is a huge problem…that’ll be despite the ONS telling us the other day that wage inequality was continually reducing and was back to the levels of the 1980’s. [BBC ignores fact that the Rich are paying huge sums in tax now and that the tax allowance rise has taken millions out of tax altogether and that there has been a rise in the minimum wage, or the living wage, whatever.]

The BBC is also trying to encourage a movement for a general election telling us May has set out her ‘manifesto’ for Brexit and therefore it should be voted on.  Trouble is she has a mandate for that Brexit ‘manifesto’ already…it’s that thing the BBC and the Remainders like to ignore…the Referendum to which Parliament ceded sovereignty and gave the government its mandate to act on the result…which is to leave the EU.  A general election would in essence be a second referendum but with the added complication that not all the votes would be because of Brexit but for a myriad of other reasons.  The BBC knows this and hopes Labour will win, or take enough seats to remove the Tory majority and thus be enabled to block Brexit by claiming no mandate in the country.  Once again the BBC is interfering in the politics of Britain trying to rig an election and block Brexit.

Funny how before the referendum the BBC was telling us that the uncertainty was killing business [no, no it wasn’t] but now they are agitating for not only another ‘referendum’ but a general election which would, they hope, throw into question Brexit…thus causing even more uncertainty and instability in the economy…odd how that is apparently OK now as they peddle the same line as Labour and the LibDems.

Anyway, another open thread to name and shame…….all yours….

 

 

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431 Responses to Mid-Week Open Thread

  1. Nibor says:

    Whether we won the referendum or not , the country has problems which need fixing . When things aren’t going right it’s nothing to do with Brexit , but the underlying problems which should be faced .
    Such as ,

    Not having enough of a skilled workforce
    Too many leaving schools half illiterate
    Too many people on benefits
    Importing too many people
    Not integrating the new arrivals
    Benefit tourism and free care on the NHS
    Not spending enough on our armed forces then using them too much
    Throwing our (tax ) money around the world
    Our workforce , thus our country , being highly taxed and thus we are too expensive
    A bloated Foreign Office that loves to meddle
    Politicians who love to stomp around on the world stage
    An idiotic idea the Brits must do the exiting jobs and Jonnie Foreigner can be a proletariat skivvies
    Only caring about London style jobs ; finance , computers and law
    A lazy , anti democratic , secretive traitorous senior civil servants .

    Sort those problems out and we can turn the country round .

       142 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Spot on, Nibor!

         26 likes

    • Jerry Owen says:

      Nibor
      I’m afraid I have to say I got as far as point five on your post…. before I up ticked you 🙂
      I new the rest would be spot on!

         19 likes

    • NCBBC says:

      Jobs that do not require any formal training of high quality, but pay high salaries for just sitting on a sofa, or traveling business class all over the world, for pleasure.

      That would be BBC jobs. Perhaps the government can create another job creating BBC.

      Note : The BBC has stopped anti-Trump hate propaganda for the day, as they think its too late to stop the inauguration.

         19 likes

    • Grimer says:

      Not having enough of a skilled workforce
      – I think one of the reasons for skills gaps is that people don’t want to enter industries where they will be ‘competing’ with immigrants that are willing to work for peanuts. Construction is a prime example. You don’t read too many stories about PHD graduates retraining as plumbers these days.

      Too many leaving schools half illiterate
      – The education system is designed by accademic adults for academic childred. We need far more types of school to ensure that the ‘failures’ leave school with a future. We also need Grammar schools for the bright kids.

      Too many people on benefits
      – Agreed, but if you can only find a minimum wage job and will lose your benefits in a 1:1 ratio for every pound you earn, would you work 40 hours a week with incurred costs, such as tranport, if every pound you earned was taken away from your benefits? I wouldn’t.

      Importing too many people
      – How can 800,000+ people a year move to the UK and we still have a ‘skills shortage’? We’re clearly importing millions and millions of people that are a drain on the public purse. Not only that, they lower the standard of living for the people at the bottom of society. The Left claims to want a Scandinavian model, but they don’t want the low skilled to earn £30k+ like in Norway. Something has to give and so far it has been the lives of the working poor.

      Not integrating the new arrivals
      – We all know which new arrivals are the problem. Our politicians are cowards, though, so they won’t do anything. It occurred to me today that one of the reasons that politicians are falling into line regarding Brexit is the fear of ending up like Jo Cox. They’ll claim that they’ll never let violence win, but we all know that they buckle at the first sign of trouble – e.g. cartoon ‘controversy’, ‘behead those that insult Islam’, Theo Van Gough, etc.

      Benefit tourism and free care on the NHS
      – Proper travel visas for all tourists and guest workers are the only way to tackle it – no insurance, no entrance.

      Not spending enough on our armed forces then using them too much
      – This has been a problem since 1997 and probably before – e.g. polyester navy uniforms that melted to the skin during the Falklands War

      Throwing our (tax ) money around the world
      – Using our money to detoxify the Tory brand and get rid of the ‘nasty party’ image. Ludicrous, but in total alignment with the liberal media, so free pass from the BBC.

      Our workforce , thus our country , being highly taxed and thus we are too expensive
      – Maybe, but then again we are ‘reliable’ in terms of rule of law, etc. I think taxes should be moved to a flat rate, so as not to punish ambition, but I think balancing the budget must come first.

      A bloated Foreign Office that loves to meddle
      – It’s a lovely game, though, isn’t it? /sarc

      Politicians who love to stomp around on the world stage
      – I don’t think you’ll ever end this. They’re all star struck and can’t believe they’re actually running the country. That is why they’re desperate to meet the leaders they perceive as ‘real’.

      An idiotic idea the Brits must do the exiting jobs and Jonnie Foreigner can be a proletariat skivvies
      – They’re not going to do anything stupid and open up the good jobs to anybody outside the privately educated global elites. They’re happy to let a ‘foreign’ chap they knew at Eton to get a cushy number, but not a Roma from the ghettos of Bucharest.

      Only caring about London style jobs ; finance , computers and law
      – And they wonder why the rest of the country voted Leave.

      A lazy , anti democratic , secretive traitorous senior civil servants .
      – The Yes Prime Minister episode about Israel summed it up. The diplomat that defied orders and voted against Israel in the UN is sent to work in Israel as a punishment – ‘Oh no! You can’t! They’ll know I’m not on their side’. To which the Hacker replies ‘Aren’t you meant to be on our side?’

         7 likes

    • JosF says:

      Nibor you missed one Privatise or encrypt the state owned broadcaster that sells the UK out to a foreign power the EU upon who’s behalf the UK’s state owned broadcaster lies and pushes EU propaganda when it isnt appeasing anything to do with islam or things like the man-made global warming scam, so-called refugees, recycling anything it read in the failing tax dodging Al_Guardian or anyother ill thought out leftard SJW cupcake ideas. Namely the BBC

         6 likes

  2. ThomasR says:

    Can I add to that the delusion that National Insurance is not tax.

    As an employer I am paying 14% on every penny I pay my staff and they are paying 11% on most of their earnings yet we allow the self-employed to pay a couple of quid a month. Then we hear that EU migrants can come here and work on a self-employed basis i.e.. Scrap metal/waste collecting and sorting ( with accommodation provided in some cases, this is not self-employment).

    Then, to cap it all, having paid tens, if not hundreds of thousand in NI we are warned that our state pension may be withdrawn/refused in the future and we are not entitled to social care in old age.

    Can you imagine the uproar if Direct Line refused to pay out for repairs to your car having established you can afford to pay yourself, notwithstanding the fact they have take premiums from you.

    On average, we all cost the government around £ 2,300 pa. so I cannot see how immigration is the massive win win proclaimed by Liberals.

       103 likes

    • quisquose says:

      You will note that when you pay over the PAYE/NI to HMRC each month the amount for NI is now more than that for PAYE. This is not a new thing, since it’s been that way since the mid 90’s, and I recall noticing it at the time, but it certainly was the first time it happened and I doubt it was ever intended to happen that way.

      It just proves your point that NI is definitely a tax, and the move towards it was simply because it is more devious.

         58 likes

      • Wild Bill says:

        And now they are talking about a new tax to pay for the NHS and social care! Stop sending money abroad first and stop NHS tourists you idiots!

           47 likes

        • JosF says:

          Will Bill
          if they wanted to sort the NHS out they should look at the £300 billion in PFI scams that the incompetent gordon brown saddled the NHS with along with the bloated top heavy management much of which seems to be stuffed with blair and labour cronies rather than throwing yet more taxpayers money into the black hole that is the NHS

             4 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      But these self-employed gimmegrants, Romanian Big Issue sellers for example, CONTRIBUTE to our economy by paying taxes, Leftoids and their broadcasting and print mouthpieces Al Beeb and the Guardian tell us.

      The Romanian single mother who won her case for Housing Benefit, Tax Credits being a given, was said to have a gross income of £100 per week from her sales. Whatever happened to the EU rule that immigrants were only to be allowed in if they were able to support themselves initially? She was getting over £25k pa in benefits before HB.

      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2090012/One-Big-Issue-sellers-Romanian-homes-AND-claim-benefits.html

      https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jun/05/the-big-issue-iain-duncan-smith

         72 likes

      • Wild Bill says:

        I live near Kendal in Cumbria a fairly affluent middle class farming community type town with very, very low immigrant population, a Lib Dem area, yet for over a year I have noticed an Asian woman selling the Big Issue in the town,makes me think,”where did she come from, why did she come to Kendal, is she homeless, etc?” She is hundreds of miles from a ferry or airport, if she has family why is she selling the Big Issue?

           46 likes

        • JimS says:

          Tetbury, Prince Charles’ local market town, and Knowle, up-market dormitory to Birmingham, are also so equipped.

          I thought the purpose of Big Issue was to get our own homeless off the streets. The ‘British’, too posh to beg, we need to import others to do it for us!

             19 likes

          • Al Shubtill says:

            The Romanians, Roma etc intimidate British Big Issue sellers into giving up their pitches in some areas, as they are so lucrative.

               14 likes

            • Cranmer says:

              Al Shubtill, I’ve wondered this. Have you also noticed that there are not so many native British beggars sitting around on street corners nowadays? 10-15 years ago you could barely move for those middle class studenty ‘crusty’ beggars. The economy has got WORSE since then, so logically speaking there should be more of them. I wonder whether they have disappeared because eastern European (mostly Romany) gangs have pushed them out, or demanded protection of some sort. Of course, it would be very difficult for such a story to be countenanced in the mainstream media.

                 11 likes

        • Grimer says:

          I lived in Wokingham for about 4 years. There was a ‘Roma’ looking lady that sold the Big Issue near Wokingham. She even brought her own deckchair. She clearly made no effort to find other employment and contributed nothing to UK PLC in terms of tax. Why was she in the country? Where was she housed? At whose expense? Basically – Why? I’ll never forgive Labour for the mess they’ve created for future generations.

             11 likes

          • G.W.F. says:

            We have a Romanian Beeg Eeeshoo seller near our shops. She stands under a police notice promising zero tolerance for racism. This means I cannot visit the shops near her in case my refusal to buy a copy lands me in jail for aggravated racism. Even if I quietly turn my head away it might be racist gesture.
            Thank God for internet shopping

               8 likes

            • ToobiWan says:

              This is what pisses me off with all this “racist” crap, are these bluddy scroungers a different race or just a different nationality?
              I was taught that to be of a different race, one would need to have genetic markers/features that are missing from others “races”. Are Europeans (amongst others) not merely Caucasian?
              I heard a bloke getting a telling off from a snowflake, recently, for telling an Irish joke, snowflake reckond he was being racist, He only said it once 🙂

                 8 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Have been arguing on Steffie’s, Pesto’s & Kamal’s Blog for ages that we need massive tax reform in the UK. There may be a substantial saving from rolling NI into IT and as an alternative to making a large number of DSS workers redundant, employing the DSS people in tightening the tax system to reduce aggressive avoidance, which is legal but morally dubious, and tax evasion which is illegal.

         33 likes

      • Iain Muir says:

        “reduce aggressive avoidance, which is legal but morally dubious”

        So far as aggressive avoidance is concerned, which I interpret as something which involves artificial structures and transactions, I agree with you.

        The question is where you draw the line. ISAs are specifically designed to avoid tax.

        IMO, it would be easier to condemn avoidance if the way that our tax is spent were not morally dubious in so many instances. Foreign aid, for instance, could be left to private individuals. This should not be a problem if it is as popular as governments claim. So far as buying goodwill is concerned, I’m not so sure it works at all. When we were giving millions to India, didn’t a large contract (I forget precisely what it was) go somewhere else?

           27 likes

        • AceFlyingPig says:

          Sorry Ian but ISA’s were not ‘designed to avoid tax’ … they were designed to encourage saving … the tax allowance was used as an inducement. One of it’s previous incarnations was a TESSA – a Tax Exempt Special Savings Account. I believe there is a significant difference.

             9 likes

          • Iain Muir says:

            A bit pedantic, I think. The fact remains that the defining feature of ISAs, compared with other methods of saving, is that tax is not payable on interest, or disposal in the case of shares. The inducement only applies to people who wouldn’t otherwise save. If a saver moves cash from, say, a deposit account to an ISA, as I suspect many do, he is probably doing it solely to avoid tax.

               7 likes

            • AceFlyingPig says:

              Trying to dismiss a fact by calling it pedantic doesn’t change it being a fact. I worked in the finance sector at the time. The primary reason they were introduced, stated by all Governments at the time, was to help address the concern that the British, compared to other nations, were thought not to be saving enough, which was considered to adversely affect investment in British industry. No-one thought of it as a tax avoidance system.

              To be pedantic once again then … it isn’t even a defining feature. No basic rate tax payer pays tax on interest of up to £1,000, half that for a higher rate tax payer. So is investing in an ordinary savings account a tax avoidance system ? Sorry but those are the facts pedantic or not.

                 7 likes

              • Iain Muir says:

                “stated by all Governments at the time”

                Well that doesn’t count for much, does it?

                I can quite accept that no-one thought of it as a tax avoidance system at that time because tax avoidance, as opposed to tax evasion, had not been demonised to the extent that it has now.

                Googling “ISA”, the first two entries that come up (other than adverts) are moneysavingexpert.com and Nationwide. They say at the very beginning:

                “Now everyone who’s aged 16 and over can put a new £15,240 into a cash ISA – a savings account where you never pay tax on the interest.”

                “An ISA (Individual Savings Account) is a tax-free way to save or invest.”

                So to say that it isn’t even a defining feature is just plain absurd.

                “So is investing in an ordinary savings account a tax avoidance system ?” Of course not because, by definition (“ordinary”) it is probably the default account for depositing savings, and probably the easiest to set up. No way is opening an ISA the default place for savings – an ISA is set up for a specific reason. Guess what that is!

                And lastly, the Personal Savings Allowance isn’t even a year old.

                   4 likes

              • StewGreen says:

                There was a law change since ISA was introduced.
                After a few years normal savings accounts stopped being taxed at source. So to non taxpayers they like ISAs became tax free saving.

                   3 likes

          • Grimer says:

            Tax avoidance is perfectly fine. It is up to the Government to tighten the rules, not the individual to make moral decisions – e.g. should I take car tax into account when buying a car? ISA are another method of tax avoidance that I use and I hope to build up enough in my stocks and shares ISA to provide a modest tax free income in retirement. I also utilise my 40% tax break on pension contributions, but only pay money into my pension, if it receives the 40% rebate. Otherwise it goes into my ISA. Is that wrong? I just think it is sensible retirement planning.

               2 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        “reduce aggressive avoidance, which is legal but morally dubious”

        Sounds like BBC editorial integrity.

           17 likes

      • Owen Morgan says:

        I really object to this way of thinking. ‘Tax evasion”, as you acknowledge, is illegal, but “tax avoidance” isn’t. That is the whole point of the distinction. Now, you would like to make tax avoidance illegal, too, or maybe only about twenty-eight per cent of it, for the time being. I think I read the other day that Obama has about twenty-two thousand things illegal, in his eight years in office. I think Tony Blair managed no more than a pitiful one per day.

        There is something deeply wrong in a society where behaviour is accepted and legal on Wednesday, but criminalised from 00.00.01 on Thursday morning.

           26 likes

        • Cranmer says:

          Ah, this is a problem of secularisation in society. For centuries it was understood that the law, and morality, were two different things. The whole bedrock of Christianity is that we should render unto Caesar those things which are Caesar’s (ie, obey the civil law) but render unto God those things which are God’s, ie, our moral obligations are separate and cannot be codified. Socialist utopianists often try to conflate legalism with morality (ie, legislating to make people good) and it usually ends in failure. The law states that a certain amount of money must be paid in tax. But it does not state that it is wrong for me to avoid it by legal means. Any moral issue is a matter for my own conscience, not for the state.

             33 likes

        • Philip_2 says:

          I have always been of the opinion that we pay too much tax compared to the rest of Europe (that often has a higher salary). This is I think is the UK competitive ‘advantage’ in that we pay ourselves less and have far higher BENEFITS than the rest of Europe (hence flood of immigration claimants). We get taxed more to pay for left wing agendas that we no longer control (out of control benefits). The EU is another huge burden upon us all and the BBC represents half our annual cost of being in the EU. (i.e BBC costs £4bn, EU costs another £8bn) and that is on top of a 40% increase in our food bills (French Agricultural policy) and an estimated 100 % increase in our UK electricity bills ridiculous ‘Carbon reduction targets’ that the EU impose on us (not Germany which still relies on cheap Coal from Poland note). Our UK Electricity is already the most expensive in Europe which is one of the reason TATA steel (and British Steel before that) was uneconomic to produce.

          And then we have the most expensive Railways in Europe (if not the World) per mile travelled (cheaper to fly than take a Train) and just getting to work is a massive challenge for most of us.
          And whilst I am at it. VAT is a hidden ‘tax’ we don’t much think about, you can only claim it back if your a business and so the ‘consumer’ pays for that on top. It used to be 7% and now its 20% and in rest of Europe its 25%. If we add all the taxes together (and lets not forget Business rates which have killed off much of the high street to ‘charity shops’ (that pay little if any rate at all) creates distortions such as OXFAM becoming the biggest bookshop in the UK.

          On top of that we have the BBC making the staff ‘self employed’ so they do not have to pay UK tax on earnings (HMRC have clamped down on that) but other BBC ‘celebs’ claim to be running companies whilst at the BBC. Alan Yentob managed to run his luxury food hamper company whilst working at the BBC 3 days a week. His private pension is over a £6.3 million and what tax he pays is minimal to the rest of us. Many BBC ‘top presenters’ earn over a £1miilion (usually not declared by the BBC in its accounts). Us plebs and small business owners pay much of the tax that the big companies can reclaim or build into their costs. Those on basic PAYE may be surprised at how much Tax they actually pay in income tax…
          http://www.dsmann.co.uk/how-much-tax-do-we-really-pay/

          Whoops! EU cost much more than I quoted: £118bn/year (2009)
          http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/6198708/EU-costs-Britain-118bn-a-year.html

             30 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Thomas. You have this wrong.
      Migrants are not sorting out scrap metal, they are all highly skilled doctors and engineers.
      The BBC have confirmed this countless times.

         72 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        …..and all the Phillipino nurses I worked with in the NHS lived in subsidised accommodation in the grounds, worked double shifts and sent their salaries home to the Philippines. Work skills clearly helped our labour force, but did bugger all for our economy !! This was in one hospital, so multiply this scenario by all the hospitals in the country, all the tatty pickers on the farms, and the service workers in the hotels, and it would be interesting to see by what amount the economy is being helped by the migrants.

           66 likes

        • Grimer says:

          I’ve been to the Philippines a few times and I wouldn’t blame anybody with skills moving to the West. At least they have skills that we need.

          I expect they do send money home, but in the Philippines I saw entire families living below road bridges – not because they’re feckless, that’s just how poor the country is. Perhaps something akin to the so-called ‘bedroom tax’ could be instituted – e.g. every pound sent out of the country as a remittance could see a 25p reduction in foreign aid to that country?

          Ultimately, we need to pay the market rate for nurses, so that more UK people choose to become nurses.

             7 likes

    • Iain Muir says:

      Of course it’s a tax. Governments are just taking advantage of the fact that some people view it as ring-fenced payments to the NHS, and are less likely to object to it. Governments know perfectly that if it were merged with IT, as logic dictates it should be, people would be horrified at the amount they are paying.

         25 likes

      • Kaiser says:

        honestly most people dont even know it f..ing exists it creeps up relentlessly, and the ers is just money your employer cant pay you so thats your pocket as well, whats the point in saying basic tax rate is some nonsense rate and you dont pay tax cos of the rising threshold when ni runs on a different basis. Labour played this lie , guaranteeing no tax rises then raising ni

           3 likes

    • Rob says:

      I’m afraid you’re wrong about the self employed. We pay £146 per annum class 2 NI contributions which is what you are talking about. Alas we also pay class 4 NI too which is linked to earnings. I have just paid 6k worth this week for my self assessment so I know only too well.

         7 likes

  3. ThomasR says:

    Can I add to that the delusion that National Insurance is not tax.

    As an employer I am paying 14% on every penny I pay my staff and they are paying 11% on most of their earnings yet we allow the self-employed to pay a couple of quid a month. Then we hear that EU migrants can come here and work on a self-employed basis i.e.. Scrap metal/waste collecting and sorting ( with accommodation provided in some cases, this is not self-employment).

    Then, to cap it all, having paid tens, if not hundreds of thousand in NI we are warned that our state pension may be withdrawn/refused in the future and we are not entitled to social care in old age.

    Can you imagine the uproar if Direct Line refused to pay out for repairs to your car having established you can afford to pay yourself, notwithstanding the fact they have take premiums from you.

    On average, we all cost the government around £ 2,300 pa. so I cannot see how immigration is the massive win win proclaimed by Liberals.

       23 likes

    • Grimer says:

      Total government spending last year was £761.9 billion. Roughly 41 million people of working age. So, government spending is roughly £18,500 per person of working age or £11,900 per man woman and child.

      This means that an adult of working age needs to earn £62k to be a net contributor for themselvs and their share of the economically innactive – e.g. children, pensioners, unemployed, etc. Although this figure assumes that no pensioners pay tax, which clearly isn’t true. If we split the responsibility across the entire population then everybody would need to earn £45,000 – which again is unrealistic. But the £45k figure is probably the absolute minimum that an immigrant it allowed to earn if they want a long term work visa.

         4 likes

  4. quisquose says:

    For a brief moment there, the briefest of moments following May’s speech, I thought that just maybe the BBC had taken their foot off the throttle of negativity.

    Well, this morning’s Today Programme has just proved to me that I was either imagining it, or it was just the briefest of less negative moments. Oh my, they were back on message again this morning … Brexit is awful … Trump is even worse. Yawn.

       81 likes

    • engineerdownunder says:

      Yes, was about to post the same. The Today program this morning was the final straw for me. Unrelenting negativity on Brexit. It’s a joke program. So I decided this morning to stop listening to a progam I have listened to since I was a boy. What a shame, but it’s really poor now; I will find something else and “move on”.

         66 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        I took that sad step a LONG, long time ago…
        …I don’t regret, at all, having done so.

           32 likes

        • Cranmer says:

          There’s a certain wistfulness in waving goodbye to a much loved institution, but the truth is the BBC lost that a long time ago. The BBC of the national anthem at closedown, ‘Lilibolero’ on the World Service and dignified, impartial presenters like Sir Robin Day is long gone.

          It’s rather like when I discovered, when starting to attend church again after a long period of absence, that the old CofE of my youth is gone, replaced with PC propaganda, guitar music and mindless ‘worship songs’.

          As A.E. Housman pointed out, you can’t go back to the ‘land of lost content’, and there’s a certain relief in resigning oneself to that.

             49 likes

          • Al Shubtill says:

            “The past is another country: they do things differently there.”
            L.P. Hartley ‘The Go-Between’.

               8 likes

      • Wild Bill says:

        Email radio 4 and tell them. If enough people did it, it may change things?
        Who am I kidding?

           19 likes

    • Grimer says:

      I was once driving to work and the Today programme randomly announced/stated something link ‘The European Union is a wonderful institution’ without any comment or debate. It was completely random and just slotted into the show after the news. Very bizarre. I wish I’d remembered to get a copy when I arrived at work.

         6 likes

  5. AsISeeIt says:

    “Some people are having to go without…”

    Don’t panic, no need to rush down to the local food bank, we’re talking courgettes. That’s right, BBC tv this morning brings us the worrying news that the Southern European veg harvest is bad. Just a minute, I hear you ask, wasn’t the rising cost of food down to Brexit? Now it’s because Spain is snowed in. But we’ve just had a record world hot year. Confused? Don’t listen to the BBC. Just buy English carrots, peas and spuds.

       90 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      If people understood the term ‘seasonality’, they might get more satisfaction than their diet of courgettes throughout the year, by just having them when they’re available here.

      Yes, items like bananas can’t be grown here, so they are easy to buy all year, but not courgettes (or marrow sized tasteless sausage shaped veg, which are sold under that name about now).

      No doubt, it’ll be ‘courgette poverty’ as a headline on the 6 o’clock farce tonight. The bBeeb need a counter-story to the great goings-on across the pond!

         29 likes

    • Wild Bill says:

      My neighbour grows so many courgettes he literally can’t give them away, I wish he would grow carrots or something more useful.

         16 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Praised our local Aldi the other day for again being ahead of all the other supermarkets.

        They were not stocking them months ago.

        I have to disagree on their 5 a day value and taste. Stir fried in lard and garlic…. yum.

           16 likes

  6. Tothepoint says:

    Whatever your political leaning, whether apathetic or not, or even if on the psychopathic spectrum like the vast majority in cult leftlam, the game has changed for the control of information, and its current custodians are epically pissed about it!

    The old world of utter control of information because of source to media, then filtered and modified to conform to political leverage/guidelines, then ‘reported’ in line with existing narrative to further agenda has been exposed for everyone to see, and the relentlessly modified, politised information we have been passed on as ‘news’ by the media cartels such as our very own Al Shabeeb is easily identified as such in the click of a mouse…….they need this control back, or their purpose of existing is finished, as their credibility is annihilated with every article they produce, like we do on this website.

    The war with words and name calling has failed. The threats have failed. The attack on Trump and Brexit has failed. Now it has to be a war on the information that creates the challenge to the establishment and media in the first place. It’s last chance saloon for the new age Gestapo, because if this fails, they know they are finished!

    The next stage in the war on it innocent people of the west by the self serving, protectionist elite is now in progress

       86 likes

    • Peter Grimes says:

      The mainstream media might not be in control of news/information any more but liars like Al Beeb have the loudest voice and the furthest reach. When they spout their lies to 70%+ of the people a little bit of the lie sticks in the tiny brains of the sheeple, and because of Al Beeb’s previous, oft unwarranted reputation for factual reporting, it is believed. The very fact that their bias is out there first is often enough to convince people. Remember the Terry Pratchett line.

         49 likes

      • JosF says:

        Peter Grimes

        When it comes to TV and going out of my way to find TV that I actually wanted to watch in 2016 then I found about 50 hours of BBC TV a year little of which was BBC news and current affairs 99.9 percent of which I get online, alt media or social media where I can asscess multiple sources analyise them and make up my own mind as to which is fact and which is false. You cant do that with the likes of the BBC, Al-Guardian or the rest of the lying dying MSM

           12 likes

  7. AsISeeIt says:

    Our Carol Kirkwood tells us the weather today is “Stagnant”

    I’m scratching my head over that one for a moment until the penny drops.

    Today there’s no exciting weather alerts, no weather warnings, no weather dangers. No record temperatures, no ‘warmer than it should be’ for this time of year. No named storms. It’s like an episode of Z Cars with no crime. Like Doctor Who with no aliens. You see the weather forcast is now treated as entertainment. Admittedly it often comes over as a horror film intended to scare the bejesus out of pensioners – but that’s still entertainment for the BBC.

       91 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      AISI, great observation!

      Same is true of your earlier post @ 8.04am.

         20 likes

    • GoingInNowDan says:

      AsISeeIt, you hit the nail on the head. When there is no news, there is then the need to create it.

      Real events – Brexit, General Elections, natural disasters – happen very little. Therefore the need to have a backstory to every other humdrum thing that goes on. Because bad news sells, you understand?

      As you mentioned entertainment, here’s a story. The Banker, The Brewer, The Lawyer and the Salesman.

      The Banker lent money to The Brewer to open a pub and The Lawyer to start in business. The Banker charged a nice fee and interest on the loans. The Banker got rich. The Brewer and The Lawyer made a rule that alcohol was to be freely available to all. The Brewer and The Lawyer employed The Salesman to “sell” their products. The serfs drank the alcohol, the more the better because The Salesman got his commission and The Brewer got rich. The increased consumption of alcohol led to marriages, births, fights and deaths, which in turn led to more work for The Lawyer, who got rich.

      The Banker, The Brewer, The Lawyer and The Salesman all lived happily ever after. The serfs, well who cares.

         42 likes

      • quisquose says:

        GoingInNowDan, good point about real events happening very little. Yet the media has news slots to fill, and those news slots are the same irrespective of events. Notice how when we get a real event it can take up 25 mins or more of a news slot, and then we might get 5 mins of “other news”.

        Why don’t we just have 5 mins of news, which is only extended to 30 mins when something actually happens? They could fill the 25 mins with somebody throwing a pot, or a girl drawing on a blackboard, or something, on most days.

        Of course what they have created is a whole industry, which has to be filled even when there is nothing to fill it with. The result is that most of it is now filled with commentary, and opinion. Journalists think they are politicians.

        When the BBC claim that news created away from the MSM is fake news, and can be dangerous, what they are really moaning about is loss of market share and influence. They fail to recognise that the alternative news sources are a reaction to their own fake news, and the dangers they themselves have created by turning news into opinion.

           47 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          QQ ………….Of course what they have created is a whole industry, which has to be filled even when there is nothing to fill it with. The result is that most of it is now filled with commentary, and opinion. Journalists think they are politicians.

          Never a truer word !!

             23 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        News can either be created, or… Without irony, head off elsewhere to diss the competition…

        Lucky their funding is, literally (h/t SoL) ‘unique’.

           32 likes

    • quisquose says:

      What ever happened to “thundersnow”?

         37 likes

      • Old Goat says:

        Nothing. It is an invention, an artefact of the mainstream media headline grabbing quest. It used to be “Heavy snow showers, possibly accompanied by thunder”, and has been going on, in the winter, since time immemorial.

           23 likes

    • nogginator says:

      Well, the weather presenters aren t stagnant one, come dancing Carol
      only 5mins after the earlier little stumpy … I m unsure whether that is because, like me early this morning you may become somewhat unintentionally transfixed,(as one would with a large mole) and so then can t recall the forecast.

         3 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Well last week on BBC Look North we had a predicted death and destruction “great flood disaster” extreme Climate alarm. Which has now been forgotten by Eco-Fascist alarmists and the BBC, with only sceptics having the brain capacity to remember.

         13 likes

  8. Up2snuff says:

    Bouquets and brickbats, the latter first.

    2016, the BBC tell us, was the hottest year ever and it was mostly due to CO2 emissions, not El Nino/El Nina. So, to minimise their Carbon Footprint the BBC places – at the Licence Fee payers’ expense – a correspondent in many countries of the world. That then saves unnecessary travel creating extra CO2 emissions through transporting BBC journalists to those locations. Very sensible.

    Except they do not do that.

    They have the BBC correspondent on site, such as in Turkey. Today, on the TOADY programme (BBC R4 6-9am) they have a presenter, Mathew Price, going out to Turkey, to present the programme from there, no doubt with additional staff going with him. Obviously all global warming emissions are evil & equal, but some global warming emissions are less evil & equal than others.

    Pure hypocrisy from the BBC.

    Bouquet time. The 6.30pm R4 Comedy slot was filled yesterday by Elis James and the State of the Nations. The final programme of four was from Glasgow. It was genuinely funny and good humoured all the way through. No Trumping. No Brexit moaning or campaigning. First class!

    Memo to BBC Continuity: turn the spell check* OFF. The funniest part of programme three was the Continuity intro which described Elis James as a Canadian.

    He is obviously a Welshman, if you listen to him for ten seconds, and is from Camarthen, not Canada!

    (* There have been more than one BBC Continuity howler recently. Have a distinct feeling, Ed Reardon-style, that the BBC admin teenagers are wholly dependent on their computer’s spell check facility.)

       43 likes

    • KatieH says:

      Ellis James is a rabid corbynista and vehemently anti tory so no surprise hes on radio 4.

         15 likes

  9. thirdoption says:

    When David Cameron resigned he cited gay marriage as one of his main achievements.
    Yesterday Barack Obama cited LGBT acceptance as his main achievement whilst in office.
    During his speech yesterday he said “Let us be clear: Chelsea Manning has served a tough prison sentence,” adding, “It made sense to commute — and not pardon her sentence . . .”

    Something is wrong here, I think he’s made a terrible mistake. The person who committed the crimes was a bloke called Bradley Manning not a woman called Chelsea.

       68 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Apparently, according to Stonewall, Lloyds Bank are the best LGBT employer.
      How do they know?
      Are there some ‘interesting’ questions now asked at interviews? Nudge nudge, wink, wink.

         35 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Centre of the Times is a 12 page supplement titled Equal at work.
        Except it isn’t equal cos what you first think are news pages are sponsored by Stonewall so it’s disproportionately about gay rights.

           10 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      “Exposing sensitive national secrets = Hero.
      Exposing lies and underhand tactics of Hillary and the DNC = Russians! Nazis! Fascists!”

      (Paraphrasing Brendan O’Neill)

         36 likes

  10. Guest Who says:

    https://twitter.com/envagency/status/822005276824006656

    Smitty’s staff know who to suck up to.

       3 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Deleted tweet
      But guess you’re talking about how today 50% of Environment Agency tweets mention Stonewall and LGBT equality in workplace.
      But equality is the law so no need to boast about it.

         4 likes

  11. G.W.F. says:

    Great news. The BBC is going to be impartial says its new chairman and I thought the BBC maintained that it already was impartial. Ah, but the impartiality is going to be measured by scientists. I just hope they are not BBC climate change scientists.

    ‘Sir David said he would ensure “impartiality, independence and accuracy” would be top of the BBC’s agenda in its coverage of Brexit, amid accusations the corporation had a pro-Remain bias during and after the referendum campaign.
    He said he would ask for “scientific” research to monitor this impartiality, although did not go into details as to exactly what he meant.’

    —————–
    So comedy returns to the BBC

    http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/18/bbc-impartiality-monitored-scientifically-says-new-chairman/

       35 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      They do science they do. Brainiacs.

      And like all good science I presume the workings will be freely available for peer review?

      Or kept in house, secret, FOI exempted?

         22 likes

    • Jerry Owen says:

      GWF
      Measuring Impartiality is a quagmire. Nigel Farage has a slot on that odious station LBC ( O’Brien makes it that way all on his own )thus LBC can claim impartiality except that the great Farage has a slot in the evening when listenership is at it’s lowest.
      Likewise David Davis gave a good account of himself the other day on the BBC and made the interviewer look a little dim ( yes, I know it’s not hard ) but unfortunately it was at 8.30 in the morning when every one is at work or rushing to get out of the house. Sunday’s would be another time for the BBC etc to use to claim impartiality in having alternative views broadcast.
      What is deemed newsworthy and not just a balance is another issue, when did the BBC etc ever have a report on white South Africans being brutally murdered in their homes or Christians being murdered in the Middle East?
      The BBC could for example perhaps have a nominally ‘fair’ programme on the issue of homosexual marriage, however homosexuality is a very minor issue in our society and so is homosexual marriage yet it sets the agenda for normality of homosexuality and marriage in our society simply by talking about it.
      I would suggest rather than trying for impartiality which is nigh on impossible, let’s just shut the bastard organization down.

         49 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘Measuring Impartiality is a quagmire’

        Not to mention open to abuse in the wrong hands, from government to judiciary to media.

        Think ‘proportionate’, ‘reasonable’, ‘fair’ as interpreted by the wrong minds under other influences (see above).

           12 likes

        • quisquose says:

          Measuring Impartiality is a quagmire

          Exactly.

          I’m reminded of that BBC 2015 election debate hosted by Dimbleby when Farage complained that the audience was left-wing. He was booed, and Dimbleby sneered, saying that the audience had been very carefully chosen to fairly represent the participants in the debate. This would be the BBC’s carefully measured impartiality.

          Of course this was the debate that Cameron avoided, and the participants in the debate were from Labour, UKIP, SNP, Plaid Cymru and Greens. So Farage was correct, the audience was 80% left-wing which was unfair to Farage.

          In any rational sense the concept of impartiality should have had the audience neutral, split 50:50, or possibly in actual opposition to the participants. But in practice the BBC will allow themselves any measure they want and claim whatever they want.

             35 likes

      • JosF says:

        Jerry Owen

        I am still waiting for a BBC documentry on such things as the Arab-Islamic role in the Afican Slave trade, The Muslim moghals genocide of us Sikhs in India, The 800,000 Jews forced out of their homes in the arab-islamic world and the theif of their property on formation of Israel, The persicution of christians and other non-muslims in the muslim world etc keeping in mind its the BBC do you think I will see the BBC doing documentries about such things

           20 likes

      • Grimer says:

        Farage will hone his craft in the evening and I expect he will be moved to a daytime slot once he knows the ropes.

           1 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      A Judicial establishment failure to assist BBC censorship with a FOI cover up, failed because a list of the BBC’s best scientific experts was found on the wayback machine. These “BBC climate change scientists” turned out to be fake scientists called “environmental activists” some with qualifications in the social sciences, but none in causational Climate science.

      So that means impartiality will be monitored by the left-wing School of Social Sciences at Cardiff University.

         19 likes

  12. Sluff says:

    Here’s a conundrum for us all.
    The BBC Trust has upheld a complaint of bias by our dear friend, Laura Kuennsberg against, wait for it, Jeremy Corbyn !!!!
    Apparently she asked him about shoot to kill policy in the aftermath of the Bataclan, but crucially they stitched him up by using his answer to a general question about shoot to kill inserted into a piece specifically about the Bataclan situation. Quite whether that is her error or an editorial one I am not too sure.
    Corbyn himself did not complain. I’m left nevertheless with the feeling that my loathing of Corbyn and his Far Left fascist friends must take second place to the primary issue of the biased BBC’s tendency to fake the news, in this case by using the old ‘take remarks out of context’ trick. As we well know, when the bBBC don’t like the actual news, they just make some up.

    One must certainly consider that our Laura, keen not to go on the naughty step again, is doing everything she can to avoid criticism by Corbyn’s Labour Party. Which may well mean choosing narratives that are likely to be strongly supported by the ahem, impartial news editorial team.

       43 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      This ‘see, we are balanced’ token has backfired because, as you point out, it again highlights just what the BBC can ‘fix’ in post at whim.

      And they are trying to trumpet their fake news fact checking brigade. Lol.

         22 likes

    • Wild Bill says:

      “The BBC broke accuracy and impartiality rules in a News at Six report about Jeremy Corbyn’s view on shoot-to-kill, the BBC’s governing body has said.”

      But the BBC have breaking ‘impartiality rules’ for a long time,I didn’t realise there even was such a rule?

         13 likes

  13. G says:

    We think we have a problem here with the BBC (and other broadcasters in all fairness) taking every opportunity to convince us that the population consists of 50% indigenous (“hideously”?) “White” British and 50% ethnic Blacks and Asians with mixed races being the normal relationship. Meanwhile, in Germany the Worlds leading multiculturalism centre, they are taking the promotion of mixed race to a new level –
    http://newobserveronline.com/german-govt-promotes-interracial-sex/

       25 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      G,
      Coudenhove Kalergi (first holder of the Charlemagne prize) plan, pure and simple. At least they are not hiding the real reasons for allowing millions of enrichers into the continent.
      http://www.westernspring.co.uk/the-coudenhove-kalergi-plan-the-genocide-of-the-peoples-of-europe/
      “The man of the future will be of mixed race. The races and classes of today will gradually disappear due to the elimination of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-negroid race of the future, similar in appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the current diversity of peoples and the diversity of individuals. Instead of destroying European Judaism, Europe, against her will, refined and educated this people, driving them to their future status as a leading nation through this artificial evolutionary process. It’s not surprising that the people that escaped from the Ghetto-Prison, became the spiritual nobility of Europe. Thus, the compassionate care given by Europe created a new breed of aristocrats. This happened when the European feudal aristocracy crashed because of the emancipation of the Jews (due to the actions taken by the French Revolution)”

         23 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        TW ..“The man of the future will be of mixed race. The races and classes of today will gradually disappear due to the elimination of space, time, and prejudice. The Eurasian-negroid race of the future, similar in appearance to the Ancient Egyptians, will replace the current diversity of peoples and the diversity of individuals…

        This is an interesting comment, almost 50 years after I heard a very similar comment by a participating member of the National Front. I hasten to add he was not one of the publicised Doc Marten flag waving skinhead thugs, but a suit wearing academic who (rightly it now appears) forecast that the population of the UK would become mixed race, if migration continues at the rate it was then (circa 1971 !!!!), and of course the birthrate of settling migrants once here.

        Migration is like a festering sore that will never go away. Enoch attempted to address the issue, the National Front / BNP became the unacceptable face of racism and clearly got their protesting totally wrong. Its only now, that we see the catastrophic realities of an open door policy that migration is being spoken of without fear. It can only be hoped that something is done now because like my generation 50 years ago, in 50 years time what will our grandchildren be blaming us for if nothing is done.

           42 likes

        • Iain Muir says:

          “The man of the future will be of mixed race.”

          Has anyone broken the news to the Japanese yet?

             40 likes

          • G says:

            Iain,
            “The man of the future will be of mixed race” – but living in the then transformed s**t-holes in the West in the style from whence he originally came. That’s something future generations of those, ‘mixed race’ will have to endure. Good luck that’s all I can say.

               27 likes

          • ToobiWan says:

            The UN is having words with them about it, Iain. They’re not happy with their less than 2% enrichment.
            The Austrian, Richard Nikolas Eijiro Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894-1972) was half Japanese (graf=count or something similar)

               8 likes

          • Wild Bill says:

            “The man of the future will be of mixed race.”

            As anyone told the Muslims yet?

               16 likes

        • Grimer says:

          My children will be mixed race. I’m fine with that. What is your objection?

             2 likes

    • Lucy Pevensey says:

      G

      http://newobserveronline.com/german-govt-promotes-interracial-sex/

      I notice that the first graphic on that link depicts a ‘dark’ man on top of a white woman. Why not the other way around I wonder? Could this be another signal from the German government that the women of Europe are pieces of meat to be passed out as state benefits to third-world invaders?

         43 likes

    • Grant says:

      G,

      Thanks for the link. That tells us all we need to know about the evil of Merkel and the German Government. Pure evil.

         26 likes

  14. johnnythefish says:

    In case you were in any doubt that the left liberal broadcasting mindset was not unique to the BBC:

    http://news.sky.com/story/ten-reasons-why-people-loved-barack-obama-10726099

    Pass me the sick bucket.

       40 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘People’, eh? What are they like?

      Well, other than very odd fellow inhabitants of a very small bubble some inhabit.

      I respected Churchill, and Mrs. T, without even finding them likeable.

      I love my family.

         27 likes

      • engineerdownunder says:

        Great point. The media telling us we should “love” Obama is exactly similar to North Korean and to other totalitarian regimes where the people are brainwashed into transferring their family love to the Dictator (Kim, Stalin, Pol Pot, Hitler, etc.).

        In a democracy, we elect our political leaders, we monitor their performance. We specifically should NOT love them.

           46 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          A lot of statespersonship shortfalls these days stem from a desire to be liked/loved by the media above all in hope the electorate will follow, rather than being an actual leader and serving the nation well.

          Hard to recall any of the former succeeding, ever.

             18 likes

    • Deborahanother says:

      Yes .I awoke this morning to the sound of his lecturing hectoring voice .Pass the sick bucket indeed.

         28 likes

    • G.Shuttleworth says:

      http://news.sky.com/story/ten-reasons-why-people-loved-barack-obama-10726099

      I was going to give the stock answer that it reminds one of the Beano, but the Beano reads like Dostoevsky by comparison.

      If we can keep our schtick together and stay united, these featherheads will be easy to defeat.

         13 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Bloody hell, where’s Sally Field when needed in the studio?

        Especially that emotional moment when Barry let a kid touch his hair (head) after Obama got slotted live and in colour. Woo hoo!

           5 likes

    • Wild Bill says:

      I see two digs at Donald Trump in there.

         6 likes

    • KatieH says:

      Who picked them the messiah himself.

         5 likes

  15. StewGreen says:

    ITV 7:30 pm President Trump: America’s Greatest Gamble?
    “On Friday, Donald Trump – a celebrity businessman with no political experience who defied all expectations in order to be elected – will officially assume the office of the President of the USA, becoming arguably the most powerful man in the world. Robert Moore speaks to Americans thrilled at the prospect and others who are deeply fearful about what a divisive and inexperienced president Trump may turn out to be.”
    #ProjectSneer2 at Trump

    Later after 11pm there is a repeat of last years Mo Farah on Piers Morgan

       26 likes

    • Mice Height says:

      It’s strange how they don’t apply their “we need experts” theory to the far-left Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau. A second generation trust fund brat whose only job experience was as a part-time drama teacher.

         43 likes

    • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

      Sir Mohammed please Stew.

         5 likes

    • Rob in Cheshire says:

      Apparently leftists were absolutely fine when a first term Senator from Illinois, with no political achievements to his name, and no private business experience at all, was elected President of the United States.

      But he was half black, so that made it all right.

         19 likes

  16. Mice Height says:

    If you don’t already follow Brendan O’Neill on FaceBook, I’d highly recommend doing so. His posts perfectly sum up the Regressive Left’s snobbery and utter disdain for anyone who disagrees with them.
    I especially enjoyed this one –

    “Hillary winning 2.1% more of the popular vote than Trump is proof she is the rightful ruler of the universe and queen of all our hearts, but Brexit winning 4% more of the popular vote than Remain is proof the British public doesn’t really know what it wants and so we should call the whole thing off or else apocalypse.”

       80 likes

  17. StewGreen says:

    Emma Barnett “We’ll discuss something I just read this in the paper” surely she means the Guardian ?
    No, its the Independent this time
    \\’I’d knit so hard, bro’: All the feminine things men would do if they …
    The Independent-10 Jan 2017 //

       16 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Sounds like Jimbo’s squad will be kicking down Emma’s door, as the Indy has not been ‘a paper’ for some time now.

      It is a blog hardly anyone pays for much less reads. Bar BBC staff and those looking for a giggle.

         11 likes

  18. StewGreen says:

    Remember that nice Asian guy the police shot the other week ?
    8pm R4 Tonight : Drugs in West Yorkshire
    “West Yorkshire police shot dead a reputed drug baron, Yassar Yaqub, in January 2017. Presenter David Aaronovitch travels to Dewsbury to find out how Pakistani gangs dominate the region’s drugs trade.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b088fx3d

       39 likes

    • Wild Bill says:

      But Muslims don’t do drugs or any sort of crime?

         21 likes

    • 60022Mallard says:

      Hope someone from the BBC reads this and passes it on quickly so it can be corrected.

      Red alert! We have said Pakistani gangs, when it should have read Asian!

         20 likes

    • Al Shubtill says:

      I don’t think it was West Yorkshire Police who shot him.

      Those 3 shots in such a tight grouping, WYP Firearms Unit would have had to put about 300 rounds into that car to get 3 shots as close together as that!
      No cameras working on a slip road from one of the busiest motorways in the north of England?
      I also recall WYP saying it was a “planned operation” but I don’t remember them saying it was a WYP operation nor that the WYP Firearms Unit carried it out or were even involved in it and (minor point) I’ve never seen WYP use Mercedes as unmarked cars: Volvos; BMWs; Audis but I’ve never seen them in a Merc. Curiouser and curiouser.

      I might be typing b******s, but it’s just a hunch I’ve got that things aren’t quite what they appear around the demise of the drug-dealer-with-a-heart-of-gold. Still, good riddance – whoever pulled the trigger.

         9 likes

  19. AceFlyingPig says:

    Not sure whether to laugh or pity them. Trawling through all the reports of May’s speech I noticed this little paragraph attached to all the Guardian reports:

    ‘Since you’re here… we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading the Guardian than ever but far fewer are paying for it. And advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. The Guardian’s independent, investigative journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we believe our perspective matters – because it might well be your perspective, too. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps to pay for it, our future would be much more secure.’

    Poor little Guardian … in the big bad world no-one wants to actually pay for their paper. They have to beg people for money. Wonder why ? How do they know more people are reading the freebies they are giving away ? Probably do their survey in the BBC/Sky/Ch4 who must account for most of their ‘readership’. I suspect others put it to a much more useful and functional purpose. Perhaps they should rename it New Issue Guardian … or maybe ask the government to introduce a license fee …..

    Left wing business capitalism in action … beg for handouts or welfare … Absolutley pathetic.

       54 likes

    • GoingInNowDan says:

      Don’t know if you’re aware of the “unique” way that Commie rag is funded – anyways its set up under a Trust fund (Scott Trust). They lost a huge pile of money in the last 2 to 3 years. By handing out the begging bowl they are essentially doing what the rich always do – get the poor to pay the bill for them (oops sorry I meant crowdfunding).

      Long may they continue to lose millions.

         37 likes

      • Lobster says:

        “By handing out the begging bowl they are essentially doing what the rich always do – get the poor to pay the bill for them”
        Why do I keep thinking of Bono, Geldof, Wogan, Henry, ……

           13 likes

  20. Lucy Pevensey says:

    I listened to a good deal of Theresa’s “Globalism” speech live on Sky news this morning.
    The Beeb news channel didn’t think it was worth interrupting The Victoria Derbyshire fashion show to broadcast it live. Unless they had it covered on BBC2 or one of the other stations?
    Not in the public interest for us to hear unedited speeches perhaps?

       30 likes

  21. peterthegreat says:

    Last century the US saved the world from Fascism and Communism.
    Now under new leadership they just might save it from Islamism.
    God Bless America.

       48 likes

    • Iain Muir says:

      “Last century the US saved the world from Fascism and Communism.”

      No they didn’t, they helped save the world from Fascism along with many others. Paradoxically, Communists in the form of the USSR arguably contributed more, depending on how you look at it. Communism’s inherent faults don’t alter that.

      America’s childish “kick ass” adventures, sometimes aided by us, have inflicted a lot of damage.

         18 likes

      • AceFlyingPig says:

        Hi … pedantic again. You could argue that the Communists certainly contributed more …. especially in the second World War, by helping to start it ! Always have to be suspicious of people that call Americans childish. Mistaken perhaps but then what nation can claim never to have made a mistake.

           10 likes

        • Rob in Cheshire says:

          Quite right. If Stalin had accepted the offer of an alliance against Germany from Britain and France, there would have been no World War II. Instead, he preferred to conspire with Hitler to steal the eastern half of Poland, which to this day has never been returned.

          On any reasonable interpretation, Stalin was just as bad as Hitler. By an accident of history the USSR found itself fighting Germany at the same time as us. They were a co-belligerent, never an ally.

             9 likes

          • Al Shubtill says:

            Stalin was hoping Germany, Britain and France would exhaust themselves in a European war and then the U.S.S.R. would attack and sweep Europe.
            That was why Operation Barbarossa was so effective: the Russian forces were deployed in attack formations, this was why the Germans smashed through them so quickly and almost captured Moscow.

            The Communists within the higher echelons of U.S. government (Harry Hopkins, Dexter White etc) then ensured that the U.S.S.R. received as much materiel as possible (lend-lease), even at the expense of American forces in the Pacific Theatre who were under supplied as a result.

               5 likes

  22. SupportOurLefty says:

    Friends! The criminally Hard-Right Red Tory Traitor Corbyn [formerly Our Jeremy] has viciously closed down my Blog!

    I am literally stunned and shocked, as well as – literally – lost for words:

    https://supportourjeremy.wordpress.com/2017/01/19/formal-notice-of-closure-of-blog/

       16 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      Friend lefty! I am truly sorry that your blog has been closed down. It always made me chuckle and had, I think, the potential to run and run, had not the reactionary and establishment lackey Corbyn closed you down! All I can say is, enjoy your retirement but don’t go to Mexico. If you do, watch out for men with icepicks!

         15 likes

      • SupportOurLefty says:

        Friend Cranmer! Thank you so much for your kind comments! What can I say, except that this could – literally – be my Reichenbach Falls moment!

        In other words, all may not be – literally – lost. A lady called Gina has called with the offer of money and legal assistance from 11 senior Judges who she apparently knows quite well ….she reckons I could get a 7-4 vote in my favour from them.

           3 likes

        • Cranmer says:

          Friend lefty! I sincerely hope the Reichenbach Falls comment is a joke – the last person you should wish to compare yourself with is Cumberbatch Holmes, the arch-Tory himself, whom the BBC has recently exalted to the status of fascist poster boy in their new version. He literally ‘fights crime’, as if crime were something other than a right wing social construct!

             6 likes

          • SupportOurLefty says:

            Friend Cranmer! Fear not: the Reichenbach Falls comment was merely a reference to, shall we say, the possibility of my Blog literally coming back from – the literally – dead, even though, judging from the anxious messages I have received today, many people believe that there is – literally – no hope.

            You are, of course, absolutely correct about so-called “crime”. The only real crimes in this so-called society – which Thatcher first denied the existence of, and then totally destroyed – are, of course, (1) Hate Crimes perpetuated by Hard-Right elements, e.g. the woman earlier today who gave me a funny look while I was shouting “Tory scum!” at her; and (2) this totally unelected Tory Government, which is literally trampling over the bodies of working people, e.g. students and the unemployed.

               5 likes

    • Dave S says:

      Literally dreadful news. Corbyn is a far right May junta lackey and not fit to lick your boots which he never would as he wears Hush Puppies or cycling shoes or lycra or – I am rambling I am so distraught.

         14 likes

      • SupportOurLefty says:

        Thank you, Friend Dave – and indeed for your supportive comments on the blog today. (Naturally, I am unable to reply there, although I was able to uptick them.)

        It seems that the only person who is not sorry about this literally tragic business is the criminally Hard-Right Singer Under Bridges, who is viciously gloating at – literally – my expense.

           3 likes

        • Dave S says:

          If as I hope the treacherous far right May plant Corbyn can be forced to eat his words and become literally our Jeremy again then it is literally essential that Singer under Bridges is dealt with in the appropriate manner.
          i suspect the creature is not just hard right but a monster of inhuman visage cackling as he or she contemplates his or her next attack upon you and progressives the world over.

             3 likes

          • SupportOurLefty says:

            Friend Dave! Fear not, I have a literally terrifying plan for how to deal with the hated Hard-Right Singer Under Bridges, viz:

            I shall be placing him on my Little List Of Hard-Right Elements To Be Dealt With.

            That’ll – literally – show him, won’t it!

               2 likes

  23. ObiWan says:

    Hi everyone. A little OT, but I thought it worth reminding everyone how (the totally not fake news) CNN is behaving today, on the eve of the Presidential Inauguration.

    nBUyBN5.jpg
    http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/18/opinions/trump-presidency-international-views-roundup/index.html

    Couldn’t make it up, etc. Tomorrow sure is going to be fun. Regressive tears are going to be flowing. Let’s see how ‘unbiased’, ‘balanced’ and ‘critical’ the fake news msm are when they are reporting on the expected violence and carnage from ‘protesters’…

       31 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      Did you see last night’s Newsnight OW?
      Roger Kimble, cherry picking Plato’s “Republic” on how democracy (equality for all according to him, conveniently forgetting that “demos” didn’t include women and slaves) is followed by tyranny and no guessing who the tyrant is. How the hell the bBBC get away with this is a bloody mystery.

      from 37 minutes
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08bgtwb/newsnight-18012017

         27 likes

    • Cranmer says:

      A couple of things strike me about that clip, Obiwan:

      1. The headline is ‘self cleaning’, ie it can be taken in different ways. It’s ‘code’ for how awful they think Trump is, but if put on the spot they can just say that the world is worried about world issues in general and wants to know what Trump will do about it.

      2. The little box declaring ‘the End’, with a countdown clock. Why not something like ‘the end of Obama, a new beginning with Trump’?

         4 likes

  24. boohanna says:

    “Once again the BBC is interfering in the politics of Britain trying to rig an election and block Brexit.”

    My God, is Putin controlling the BBC now as well?

    Bloody Rooooskies…..

    Mind you, Putin’s interference caused Brexit too so I’m awfully confuzzled now I must confess.

       19 likes

  25. G.W.F. says:

    An alternative to the State Broadcaster’s demonization of Trump and adoration of Obama, here is Trump firing Obama

       25 likes

  26. Warren Peace says:

    According to Obama in his final press conference, “I can tell you that…this is a job of such magnitude that you can’t do it by yourself….and so, how you put a team together to make sure that they’re getting you the best information and they are teeing up the options from which you will ultimately make decisions.”

    He’s right. You have to have a decent caddie.

       32 likes

  27. nofanofpoliticians says:

    The \BBC has told us this week that 2016 was the hottest year on record- readers here will be unsurprised to see that this is not the entire story. Nor is it correct…

    https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2017/01/18/bbc-ignore-the-satellite-record/

    The writer’s final paragraph sums the BBC as whole up quite nicely

       19 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      The Wikipedea news headline is “NASA, NOAA and the Met Office announce that 2016 was the warmest year in recorded history, due mainly to anthropogenic climate change.

      With the past record of adjustments plus an El Nino the fraudsters could claim this, but the Emperor has no clothes when it comes to Carbon Dioxide, so the use of the term “anthropogenic climate change” can be taken as scientific fraud.

      So the truth would be “ The fraudsters at NOAA have got NASA and the Met Office to sign a document saying that 2016 was the warmest year in recorded history, due mainly to none satellite amendments and an El Nino at the end of a global temperature peak.

      I have information that the satellite record has shown a decline in temperature as predicted by Astronomers, but Oceanic lags which go up to 11 years, mean that the cooling is not due to be noticeable until the Winter of 2018-2019 at the earliest. The decline or Global Cooling is predicted to be 1.2 Kelvin over the next 22 years.

      So we have three 22 year Hale Magnetic cycles, cycle 10 produced Global Warming of 0.5 Kelvin, cycle 11 produced nothing, and cycle 12 is producing Global cooling of 1.2 Kelvin starting from 2018/19.

         4 likes

      • RJ says:

        Looking at the satellite data:
        “To recap, both UAH and RSS say that atmospheric temperatures for 2016 statistically tied with 1998, at just 0.02C higher.”

        Having a spare moment I thought I’d try to make sense of a temperature difference of 0.02C. Wandering round the web I discovered this:
        “the temperature decreases by about 5.4°F for every 1,000 feet up you go in elevation. In mathematical speak that is 9.8°C per 1,000 meters.”

        Simplifying the maths very slightly; if we say a tall man is 2 meters tall, then the temperature difference between his foot and his head is 9.8/500C. Which I think is 0.0196C – or to 3 decimal places is 0.020C.

        The increased temperature to create this new shock/horror record is the difference in temperature between my foot and my head.

        I remain unimpressed.

           5 likes

  28. Cassandra says:

    Searched BBC national and local news for this story but was unable to find any reference to it…

    http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/jogger-punched-acocks-green-canal-12476069#ICID=nsm

    “A jogger has told how he was almost drowned by a canal-path thug – and only escaped by speaking to them in Arabic…

    He told the Birmingham Mail: “The police praised me and said my speaking in Arabic showed quick-thinking. They said my actions could have stopped the situation from being a lot worse.

    Lee was jogging towards a bridge when he tried to pass the youths, who he believes were all from the Pakistani community.

    “The one who punched me was waiting at the side of the canal with an incredible look of pleasure on his face. He was waiting to watch me suffer or to come back so he could hit me again.”

    It was also quite interesting to see how the BBC local and national television news covered the Birmingham story of the elderly lady who sustained skull fractures after a taxi she was a passenger in came under attack from four youths who pelted it with bricks and several of them hit her. ‘Naturally’ the youths names were not released because of their ages but what grabbed my attention was the court scene drawn by an artist depicting the youths from the back. They all appeared to be of African / Caribbean appearance. The drawing was only shown once on local Midlands BBC news and then it was gone, despite there being many references to the story over several days.

    Please BBC, don’t don’t tell me that Turkey has shut down Twitter or that North Korea bans stories about it’s leadership when your news teams choose which stories to broadcast or censor the stories told to the public by the heinous act of omission.

       54 likes

  29. Doublethinker says:

    DP today. Brillo presenter, Coburn absent, Carsewell the guest. Brillo shredded German MEP who seemed to think that Brexit, the rising polling of Wilders, Le Penn and Grillo in Italy , pose no threat to the EU and that there was no need to change anything. It was an uncanny reminder of Talleyrand’s comment on the restored Bourbon monarchy in France after the Napoleonic wars., ‘ they have learnt nothing ,they have forgotten nothing’. Brillo was bemused that the MEP was oblivious to the massive problems that beset the EU. Coburn would just have agreed with the MEP.
    When Brillo goes it will be a sad loss, I hope it doesn’t happen anytime soon. As for Coburn I am sure that she is just the standard product of the BBC training school, a fully paid up member of the liberal left who views Brexit, Trump, Wilders, Le Penn and populism with horror and simply can’t understand why the people refuse to accept the liberal left globalist world view. The only reason they can come up with is that the people are facist , racist and ignorant . I’m sure that these BBC folks see themselves as missionaries amongst savages.

       48 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Jo could do a great scene with Kirsty and Emily.

      If not as an interviewer of any value.

         10 likes

    • Beltane says:

      To be fair I thought Carswell did well, not least because he was allowed free rein without constant interruptions, and made a lot of sense. His performance in countering the absurd Marxist blatherings of Pollyfilla Toynbee was another delight. Despite this, he’s still rather stupid to take such umbrage at Farage’s comments on HIV tourism – just because his father was involved in early vaccine research, which had no bearing on Nigel’s point – to the detriment of UKIP as a united party.

         30 likes

  30. AsISeeIt says:

    Norman Smith, the BBC political guy passed over by Laura Kuenssberg so the BBC could have a woman in the top job, bangs on this lunch time in the usual BBC house-style of over-blown anti-Brexit doom and gloom.

    The politics guy may not be particularly economically savvy but he well knows the tired BBC mantras: “Business fears tariffs!” he shouts. “Uncertainty, just what business hates!”

    Excuse me, Norman, but there’s tariffs a plenty for anyone trading outside the EU. World Trade rules are not the end of the world as we know it. All this tosh about uncertainty – I’m getting sick and tired of it. Yes the sclerotic big corporate beasts may fear uncertainty but the nimble innovative newcomers thrive on new opportunities. So let’s hear a little less of it.

    In any case, elsewhere the BBC simpers over Leftist policy notions which propose new taxes on business and new restrictions on markets. But when it comes to the EU suddenly they’re all free traders and open market advocates.

    Give it a rest Norman. Calm down, take an economics for dummies course.

       34 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Odd too, wasn’t it ASI, that a ‘knowledgeable’ political commentator should be so keen to big up the potential impact of major banks threatening to de-camp for Paris and Frankfurt, without comparing the situation 20 years ago with our refusal to join the Euro – which resulted in precisely the same empty and bullying threats. Come on Norm, keep up.

         26 likes

      • AsISeeIt says:

        ‘potential impact of major banks threatening to de-camp’

        Levies on Bankers’ Bonuses, anyone?

        Our old pal Miliband must have spent his proposed Bankers’ Bonus tax twelve times over in his campaign manifesto with hardly a squeak of concern from our Norman and his Labour-leaning BBC buddies.

           17 likes

      • engineerdownunder says:

        Also be wary of falling for the Remainers line that says anything bad that happens is “due to Brexit”. There may be many reasons why some companies may move staff or jobs to Europe … and the companies may be happy to blame it on Brexit rather than giving away other business reasons.

        Of course, companies moving jobs to UK will either be not reported or “despite Brexit”.

           19 likes

      • JimS says:

        Any banker moving to Paris will need to think about having two cars, for use on alternate days!

        Paris, half-open for business, (plus they speak French).

           15 likes

  31. AsISeeIt says:

    Samira Hussain BBC Business reporter in the States tells us that ex-Goldman Sachs guy Steve Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s US Treasury pick, won’t get a good reception from Democrat Senators.

    That’s odd. Hillary Clinton apparently got a very lucratic warm welcome from Goldman Sachs when she was paid as a guest speaker. We know what she said too – maybe thanks to Putin’s hacking, maybe not. Something the Democrat party would rather we hadn’t known about. And the BBC would rather we forget?

       20 likes

    • engineerdownunder says:

      They also love to forget that Goldman Sachs funded the Remain campaign.

         14 likes

      • ToobiWan says:

        Doesn’t Mark Carney still work for them? He’s certainly not working for the UK.

           18 likes

        • engineerdownunder says:

          I doubt that you ever sever all personal and financial connections to fully leave the squid.

             6 likes

          • Rob in Cheshire says:

            It’s like the Mob, you never really leave.

               4 likes

            • Al Shubtill says:

              AiSi – that is strange since Goldman Sachs make equally huge donations to the Democrats as the GOP – whoever wins, they never lose.

                 6 likes

  32. AsISeeIt says:

    And in wildlife news… 60% of primate species are threatened with extinction. Goofy Ben Brown BBC News Channel anchor remarks: “60% – that’s a big number” One could reply: “Extinction – that’s a big word” but we all love animals, right?

    Anyway somewhere in the voiceover that comes with the lovely film of wildlife I believe I caught the warning: “We must all be careful how we source our… something… something and our meat”

    I’ll make a note not to buy any monkey burgers. I want to do my bit.

       19 likes

  33. G says:

    Anybody got any views on this service relative to paying (or not) the TV Licence fee? –
    http://www.watchallchannels.com/

       3 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      According to current legislation, G, if you want to watch a programme at the time it is transmitted, a licence is required.

         7 likes

      • Sluff says:

        So does this mean I don’t need a licence tomwatch streaming eg The Grand Tour on Amazon Prime or Netflix?
        Master Sluff would be very interested to know…….

           1 likes

  34. peterthegreat says:

    A man has been found guilty and sentenced for Islamophobia after posting stickers in a London Park.
    He received a 12 month community order and must do a 35 day ‘rehabilitation course’.
    One wonders what was written on those stickers – the truth perhaps? – and what he will be taught in the rehabilitation kampf – lies no doubt.

       45 likes

    • Tothepoint says:

      Incredibley, child raping, serial killer mo’s mandatory life instruction manual, is the only ‘book’ that could go under the ‘fantasy’, ‘science fiction’, ‘horror’, and ‘serial killers memoirs’ section at Waterstones….all be it for all of about 15 seconds when the shop would be blown up by our peace loving, tolerant, misunderstood death junkies!

      Whatever was written on the sticker would pale into insignificance next to the hate filled slaughterhouse bile that’s written for eternity in mad mo’s book

         25 likes

    • Lucy Pevensey says:

      Convicted? Are we under Sharia law then? Islamaphobia a crime?
      This is the sort of thing the so-called “liberals” should be outraged over.
      It’s a mild form of blasphemy-law enforcement. The thin end of the wedge. How many steps before non-moslems can be imprisoned, physically abused or executed?
      We really need a new counter-Islamic government. I want Geert Wilders!

         27 likes

  35. taffman says:

    B^@@er HSBC! My money and business is staying with Barclay’s.
    We should all take our finances out of any bank relocating to Europe because of Brexit.

    http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/davos-2017-london-will-remain-financial-centre-europe-after-brexit-says-barclays-chief-1601948

    http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-barclays-idUKKBN15310V

       14 likes

  36. peterthegreat says:

    So, an anti-Trump ‘million woman march’ on Washington is planned.

    Expect the bibistan to be salivating all over it and give it disproportionate coverage…

    And it’s not just wimmin: every beeboid leftie pc box will be ticked. LGBT, POC (people of colour) BLM, Feminazis, muslims, the disabled…. every grievance group, identity politics, the permanently outraged, the righteously indignant, the perpetual moaners, the snowflakes, the fake-oppressed, the faux-victims, the bogus ‘minorities’, the eternally aggrieved, the imaginary vexed, the professional offence-takers, the luvvies, the over-rated Meryls, the virtue signallers, those who just don’t get it that their time is up, the world has moved on, wake up and smell the coffee. No doubt the Remoaners will send a delegation.
    And of course Hollywood luvvies and ‘stars’ by the bucket-load, by the shovel-full: virtue signalling AND free publicity, look at meeeee…

    It is predicted that the bleating of a million sheeple will be audible from outer space.

       46 likes

    • seismicboy says:

      PTG,
      “It is predicted that the bleating of a million sheeple will be audible from outer space.”
      And if you can’t hear them in outer space then you will probably be able to see them. I have taken to keeping a pair of Ray Bans in my living room these days just in case a ‘celebrity’ comes on the TV screen and dazzles me with their incandescent teeth. These liberals talk about equality and care for all – e.g. there are warnings about flash photography on news items for people with epilepsy which is a good thing, albeit somewhat annoying – but what about the rest of us poor folks getting our retinas burnt with the glare of those ridiculous gnashers?

         19 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        I hope they don’t bare their breasts

        Thought – why are third wave feminists ugly?

           10 likes

    • Bob Nelson says:

      In the event of confrontation, my money’s on the bikers.

         16 likes

    • Tothepoint says:

      Yes Peter, its guaranteed that whatever bullshit and delusion these easily brainwashed, mentally ill man haters spout, will go completely unchallenged by the fanatically agreeing Been scum, and utterly accepted as fact, even though not one word those bigoted fascists rant about is anywhere near fact!

      “Trump hates women” – lie
      “Trumps racist” – lie
      “Trump wants to ban all Muslims” – lie
      “Trump is a climate hater” – lie, he’s just not a easily manipulated moron who wants to see fact on not Faith based assumptions

      We will have the full house, all completely agreed with by their fellow oddball regards on the Al Shabeeb media crew

         30 likes

  37. taffman says:

    “Lagarde warns UK of pain ahead as Brexit approaches”
    There are a number of interesting ‘populist’ posts on the HYS running now – get yours in before it closes .
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-38671467

       14 likes

    • Grant says:

      taffy,

      Who gives a damn what that corrupt useless woman says about anything ? Hell hath no fury like a Europhiliac scorned. They are pathetic little children who are crying because a dummy tit has been removed from their mouths.

         16 likes

  38. Pounce says:

    The bBC and its ability to report the news faster than a speeding bullet.

    The bBC has this ability to report the news faster than a speeding bullet when the US/UK or Israel manages to hit a Hospital /wedding party /school usually by information provided by an Islamic thugfreedom fighter who has the bBC on speed dial. But when a clinical strike on a full blown terrorist camp is carried out why there is nothing but silence from the Islamic CS at the bBC
    Libya: B2 Stealth Bombers used in strike on ISIS

    Its as if the bBC are in full mourning for their fellow brothers and cannot allow the British to hear about this human rights crime against Islam. Not to worry the bBC will get this fellow in which to set the story right:
    The man correcting stories about Muslims

       14 likes

  39. taffman says:

    “Why is there a vegetable shortage?”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-38666752
    Global warming or Brexit anyone?

       13 likes

  40. mikehunt says:

    Another day, another ridiculous fawning article about Michelle Obama.

    This time the feature is on her hairdresser and how Mrs Obama has changed America’s style.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-38666098

    We are still waiting for the first positive article about Melania Trump.

       26 likes

  41. Guest Who says:

    BBC ‘News’ testing Hardon’s fact checking forgiveness a tad?:

    In which James Landale weighs in… ‘views his own’?:

       8 likes

  42. Guest Who says:

    BBC editorial integrity on a roll since James Harding announced they were on the case:

    http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2017/1/19/a-sin-of-omission.html

       5 likes

  43. Guest Who says:

    I wonder if Laura is more a Sobama chick or a Winstipsy kinda gal?

    Top (literally, h/y SoL) comment:

    JJ Wyatt ‏@jjdubit
    @bbclaurak @BBCNews not sure why the @bbctrust verdict is in arts & entertainment news ?

    CECUTT weekend leave cancelled?

       6 likes

  44. Invicta 1066 says:

    Tuned into R2 Steve Wright at about 4pm, chatting to Jack Dee about what is obviously going to be a piddle taking, insulting panel show about the democratic Inauguration of the President of the USA. What a surprise!
    I wonder why BBC don’t just repeat the piddle taking sneering show they did for Obama or even Merkle, or any one of the EU elected leaders. Why not insult an African election,or make fun of India, Pakistan or Japan?
    I will not tune into the programme, and I turned off Steve Wright straight away.

       33 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      You mean Steve Wright is STILL on the radio and that anyone STILL listens to him ???

         11 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I occasionally (but I hasten less and less) listen to Steve Wright and I had noticed that he always highlights some issues in the news. The items he chooses are always predictable and on message .

         4 likes

      • Alicia Sinclair says:

        Got to say that I rather like Steve Wright.
        Was going to listen to his Jack Dee interview-but, in the light of what`s been said; I won`t.
        Steve IS a quiet Tory I think, less so than Ken Bruce-but more than Chris Evans.
        Steve chose “Lady Grinning Soul” by way of tribute to Mr Bowie.
        Not the choice of an idiot, so warmed to him even more.
        It would be a brave broadcaster who was openly on our side at peak time BBC, but he`s OK I think.

           4 likes

        • Invicta 1066 says:

          Yes I quite like Steve Wright, and frequently listen to a part of his show. I understand his wife’s first name is Always.

             4 likes

  45. Guest Who says:

    Have no fear. With all the BBC is transgressing, they are totally on top of the most egregious examples;

    BBC Logo18 JANUARY 2017
    EastEnders, BBC One, 12 January 2017
    We received complaints from some viewers who felt that the episode contained inappropriate language.

    BBC blocks9 JANUARY 2017
    Radio 2, The Christmas That Goes Wrong – 25th December 2016
    We received complaints from some listeners unhappy with the broadcast, saying it was poor quality.

    Yes, folks, from the broadcaster that brings you sweet-talking Frankie Boyle and, well, the £4B pile of poo they call the rest, what the public are most upset by is a bit of dodgy language on Christmas day and… [composes self]… ‘poor quality’.

       20 likes

  46. JimS says:

    Radio 4’s Six O’clock News tells us that Martin McGuiness was a ‘significant’ politician.

    I’m so glad he wasn’t ‘divisive’. I guess that gives a clue as to where he sat on the BBC’s political spectrum.

       35 likes

    • ToobiWan says:

      Heard similar in the eulogy for Castro, Jim, very obvious is the beeb’s political spectrum wavelength, more toward the ultra end and not the infra.

         17 likes

    • Lobster says:

      JimS – he wasn’t even controversial it would appear. Nigel Farage, on the other hand …….

         23 likes

      • Grant says:

        Lobbie,

        BBC eulogising the baby killer Martin McGuinness . He was “hard line ” and ” controversial ” and then ” softened “. No mention of all the innocent people he murdered. I would almost think that the BBC admired him. What is wrong with these bastards ?

           39 likes

        • AceFlyingPig says:

          Not to worry guys. Apparently McGuiness is ill and a practicing Catholic. If that is true then in the not too distant future he’ll be having a meeting with someone that he won’t be able to lie through his teeth to ! He’ll get a very very warm meeting when he arrives at his final destination … even if you don’t believe in God apparently he does … wish someone could sneak in and whisper that is his ear in his final hours.

             7 likes

    • quisquose says:

      So according to the BBC Martin McGuiness was ‘significant’, Fidel Castro was ‘iconic’, but Donald Trump is ‘divisive’ and ‘controversial’.

      Mmmmm.

         34 likes

      • Oaknash says:

        I think all this adulation for evil bastards like McGuiness says an awful lot about the mindset of the BBC.

        Because they of the way they recruit, on the whole (with one or two exceptions) you probably do not get on in this organisation unless you are “left of centre” and/or “artistic”.

        Because people in the BBC are not promoted by “talent” (though perversely this is a word they love using) I think there is a competition by many of the journalists to promote their “progressive” credentials and what could be easier/lazier than eulogising anyone who wraps themselves up as a freedom fighter/fighting for their people as long as they appear or pretend to be socialists.

        It does not matter how many people have been murdered, stabbed or tortured by these scum. If they are perceived to be socialists, declare themselves as freedom fighters or wear a keffiyeh then the trots at the BBC will adopt them as one of their own. Regarding the keffiyah wearers it also means you can look as “right on ” and cool as Joe (I had private education) Strummer in the Clash.

        Its pathetic but I think that is all there is to it. It is all rather sad and ridiculous really, but it does mean that yet again the BBC gives up any balance in order to look after “one of its own” Its bit like all these people crying with pleasure in the presence of Kim Jong Un in North Korea. You just dont want to be seen as the odd one out.

        By the way – I have some news for Aunty “The King is actually butt naked” !

           16 likes

      • quisquose says:

        From the Today Programme just now, we can add another word to describe Martin McGuiness … “charming”.

        Oh, and he’s got lovely blue eyes!

           6 likes

    • ID says:

      I thought I must be having a mini-stroke when I heard this, but then I remembered that the BBC felt compelled to circumvent Thatcher’s ban on IRA propaganda by voicing over the words of Gerry Adams. This is the genius of the BBC. It gets the victims and potential victims of terror, practically everyone when you consider the financial and economic losses as well as the loss of life, to pay to be threatened by the IRA thug-in-chief. I think the pretext for this was “the public’s right to know”. The BBC was less eager to show film of RUC officiers shovelling the remains of human beings into refuse bags after an IRA bomb attack, although this was shown in foreign media. As usual preventing putative “backlashes” then and now is the BBC’s prime objective.

         19 likes

  47. Spiderman says:

    About half and hour ago, American novelist, Richard North, was being interviewed by Hew Edwards. North said Trump’s plane taking off reminded him of 911. What an absolute arsehole. And of course, not a word of admonishment from our Hew.

       42 likes

    • Northern Dreamer says:

      Yes, I saw this outrageous ‘interview’, I think it was with Richard Ford actually, who wrote ‘Independence Day’, but that is not important. This was nothing more than a 7 minute platform for some of the vilest utterances from a Donald Trump hate machine I’ve heard. Hew was dutifully sniggering along in agreement, thanked him kindly and invited back on the show in a few months time, presumably for more of the same bile. Note the difference in reaction to Richard Fords ‘wise words’, and Boris’s MSM perceived evil Nazi style bullying of the EU.

         28 likes

  48. ToobiWan says:

    RT reporting that the US “dope” states are worried about the falling tax take ($1 billion last year) from the sale of Marijuana as more illegal growers enter the market and lower the price.
    Apparently, sales of dope exceed the sale of the likes of Starbucks and others.
    Goes a long way in explaining the behaviour of those who seem to have a problem with democracy.
    What a mix, legalised dope and the second ammendment.

       19 likes

  49. Foscari says:

    The BBC is a public service broadcaster. The liberal fascists, the trotskyist, fifth columnist
    editors, sub editors, researchers who have embedded themselves have decided to have a hate
    feste against Donald Trump on the ONE SHOW this evening ,the day before his inaugoration. After just finishing watching the Londonistan programme which might as well be presented in Urdu. I have given up on this bile being presented to us this evening before I start to vomit!

       39 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Foscari, just to add about the One Show, for the record.
      Guest Frank Skinner said, give or take ‘I disagree with everything Trump stands for’
      And as an aside to a story that President Harrison caught pneumonia at his 1841 inauguration and died a few weeks later, guest Joan Bakewell said ‘could it happen again’

      Needless to say, neither of the presenters uttered a word.
      Absolutely beneath contempt. Disgusting biased total garbage.

         52 likes

      • KatieH says:

        Bakewell and skinner two labour luvvies loved by the Beeb but promoting a show on the hated sky.

           15 likes

      • ID says:

        Yes, the German media are also doing at lot of pre-inauguration specials.
        All the usual crap “he could push the red-button in a moment of pique” etc., etc., ad infinitum. In essence, these people are hoping for an assassination, or at least some kind of public disorder, rather than an inauguration. One German presenter was even trying to suggest that the absence of the usual luvvie dross would be a mortal blow to Trump. It just makes it crystal clear how trite and facile the thought processes of these media gutter sweepings are.

           15 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          When I hear the theme tune for the One Show I want to press the Red button ! any bloody button in fact to get it off. Its puerile, infantile Sun reader tele – all pictures and no substance – Blue Peter for grown ups with one brain cell.

             13 likes

  50. Sluff says:

    A propos of nothing but something just occurred to me this afternoon.

    You know how we are supposed to celebrate diversity and embrace multiculralism.

    The biased BBC, the luvvies, the Guardianistas, Corbyn and most of the Labour Party, all the Lib Dems, lots on the Far Left. They all support diversity and multiculturalism. Don’t they just.

    Can we therefore expect to hear them enthusiastically supporting Spanish bullfighting ?

    I think I know the answer but thought I’d ask anyway.
    You must admit it’s pretty diverse and represents a highly distinctive culture.

       16 likes

    • G.W.F. says:

      Skiff

      I often wonder why they do not regard as equally worthy of protection all the activities and sports of a community recognised as the toffs. Remember, the protest at the Oxford/Cambridge boat race, snide comments about Ascot, the Royals playing Polo. And why not regard the Royals as a protected community adding to our diversity and vibrancy? Why not have coppers twerking with Ladies at Ascot like they do with the persons of vibrancy at the Notting Hill Festival?

         17 likes