Start the Week Open Thread 11 February 2019

As we count down the days until UK leave the EU we now have another countdown – that of the showing of Tommy Robinsons’ Film about the BBC . How will the BBC prepare for it? How damaging will it be to them ? Will it have long term consequences ? Can but hope …

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415 Responses to Start the Week Open Thread 11 February 2019

  1. Navets says:

    An intersting piece by Peter Hitchens in which he rips into the BBC and how he pursues complaints against the BBC:

    https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/

       22 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Here’s the actual link, but it’s worth realing the full blog to see how he’s been deplatformed at Portsmouth Uni etc.
      https://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2019/02/yesterdays-column-item-on-abortion-re-run.html

         16 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Your complaint goes from Capita to OFCOM. It only moves through the BBC when it reaches the BBC’s Executive Complaints Unit, formerly called the Editorial Complaints Unit.

      The Head of the Executive Complaints Unit, Fraser Steel, is also a Non-executive Director and Chair of the board of UK Immigration Services Ltd a small firm of licensed immigration practitioners. So this implies that the BBC needed an expert to combat a barrage of complaints about its pro-mass immigration bias. While Colin Tregear, the Units Complaints Director was once the Project Director at the BBC Weather Centre. So this implies that the BBC needed an expert to combat a barrage of complaints about its censorship policy for climate science, scientists and scientific debate. Other staff in the Unit are Richard Hutt, Executive Complaints Unit, Complaints Director. Alison Wilson, Executive Complaints Unit, Complaints Manager, as well as 26 other staff. All are being investigated for a book. The email I have also says that OFCOM are investigating the Unit as part of Investigations launched under the Procedures for investigating breaches of content standards on BBC broadcasting services and BBC on demand programme services. Investigations launched under the Procedures for the consideration and adjudication of Fairness and Privacy complaints on BBC broadcasting services and BBC on demand programme services and Investigations launched under the Procedures for enforcement of requirements in the BBC Agreement and compliance with Ofcom enforcement action.

      The future don’t look good for the BBC.

         36 likes

  2. Navets says:

    Stew
    Your correction is accepted gratefully.

       6 likes

  3. G.W.F. says:

    Joy Villa is a Trump supporter. With her build the wall dress at the Grammy’s

       50 likes

  4. pugnazious says:

    Actually had to turn off Today this morning in disgust as it force-fed us an uncompromising and never-ending torrent of nihilistic, negative narratives about Brexit, but not just Brexit, Britain as a nation as well. Britain is allegedly a failed state, a basket case that will never make its own way in the world according to our proud national broadcaster. The final straw that made me reach for the off-button was a statement that Brexit was the cause of the looming world recession. Choke! They’re a bunch of clowns at the BBC.

    I have to presume the same gloomy, negative narrative was kept up all morning as when I turned on the lunch-time news I heard the BBC informing me that whilst the rest of the world’s economies were slowing down the British one, #duetobrexit, had hit the brakes hardest. No it hasn’t, it is doing remarkably well and is holding its own….the reporter was spinning hard, telling us that even the service sector had slowed….er…the ONS says….‘A large positive contribution from the services sector ‘ Not sure how you can paint that as a negative but the BBC manage to do so.

    German growth? Worst since 2013 and has fallen well below the usual performance….from 2.2% in 2017 to 1.5% in 2018…..UK down to 1.5% from 1.8%…do the maths….

    ‘Germany’s economy grew by 1.5% last year, its slowest rate since 2013, the latest official figures show.

    Figures from the Federal Statistics Office showed Europe’s largest economy slowed sharply as the year wore on.

    A weaker global economy and problems in the car industry, caused by new pollution standards, have been cited as contributing to the slowdown.
    At the start of 2018, the German economy had been expected to grow by 1.8%. Growth was 2.2% in 2017.’

    France had almost the same downturn…

    ‘Considering 2018 full year, the economy grew 1.5 percent, easing from a 2.3 percent expansion in 2017. ‘

    Why is the BBC so desperate to portray the British economy in such negative tones when things are not nearly as bad as the BBC makes out and far, far away from the project fear predictions of the referendum and is performing at a similar level to major EU economies?

    Why does the BBC choose this headline to get top billing….

    ‘UK economic growth slowest since 2012’

    When it could have chosen this one which it uses as a sub-heading?…

    ‘UK economy saw robust performance’

    Why is this story tucked away in the business section? Surely it is a significant Brext story that shows Britain can do deals for the post-Brexit era?….

    ‘UK signs post-Brexit trade deal with Switzerland’

    ‘The UK and Switzerland have signed a deal to continue trading after Brexit as they did before it.

    The “continuity agreement” – based on the EU’s existing free trade deal with Switzerland – was agreed in December but ratified on Monday.’

    And where is this story which came from one of their own reports on the BBC’s Wake up to Money’ programme? The BBC has decided not to keep on reporting the admission but Breitbart thinks it is important….

    ‘Brexit: Supermarket Boss Admits EU Migration Used to Keep Wages Down’

    ‘Ronny Gottschlich, who ran the discount supermarket giant Lidl in the United Kingdom for six years, has admitted that bosses have used European Union migrants to hold down wages.
    Now, in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live, the long-time head of German discount supermarket chain Lidl in the United Kingdom, Ronnie Gottschlich, had admitted that if “your cheap labour falls away, you [will] get quite a bit of pressure in the market… and this will ultimately lead to higher wages.”

    The BBC has always tried to deny that effect…here, even just last month, they are trying to downplay it as insignificant [maybe if you earn £700,000 a year for spouting rubbish on the radio it’s insiginficant amounts]

    Reality Check: Has immigration held down wages?

    The claim: Immigration has held down wages in the UK.

    Reality Check verdict: Current research suggests there was a small, negative impact on the wages of low-skilled workers, which was outweighed by other factors such as the impact of the financial crisis and rises in the minimum wage. ‘

    Curious how the BBC, which has spent the last 8 years since ‘austerity’ was introduced, telling us how badly under-paid we are suddenly isn’t interested in the cause or that wages are going up.

       57 likes

    • Dave S says:

      I buttoned the 1pm news. I cannot listen to this constant running down of my country. It is sickening. The nation is being undermined from within and that is treachery.
      Millions of us are loyal .Our forefathers were loyal. We do not need this .

         59 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Dave S
        I was sitting in a restaurant near the port of Ouistreham yesterday in France when the rugby game started on TV with the anthems., When they sung the French National Anthem. All of the restaurant staff stood up and sung with the players.
        Outside soldiers were armed to the teeth against migrants and possible terrorists.

        It was like that scene in Casablanca when the people in the bar sung the anthem and offended the Germans.

        We want our countries back

           44 likes

    • honestus says:

      Pug, our national tax funded state broadcaster has absolutely no interest in Great Britain as a sovereign nation and will robustly and actively propagandise negative and pessimistic histrionics until such a time as we accept our place within the federal european order and become the EU federal state of Britannica. Nothing else will do and they will be relentless in their activism until they are stopped or closed down as the treasonous fifth columnists that they have always been.

         25 likes

    • tarien says:

      Agree pugnazious- refernce your bottom para Immigration holding down wages-if by any chance you saw the prog about Roma/Gypsies coming to the UK from Romania, expecting and getting through devious means all the benefits possible you would have been sick-One Roma man said ‘easy to get benefit in Britain- another man and woman had 11 children all living off benefits for which they had paid nothing into the system ever since first coming to Britain-the prog went on-really made my wife and I angry that this nation had been so stupid when we have so many of Indig peoples struggling to stay alive-why are they coming ? The EU is the cause, so very glad we are getting out and when we do let us commit the Government to stop any such nonsence in the future-if they want to come here, they must have work to come to and speak good English.

         6 likes

  5. jip says:

    BBC John Sweeny lovvie screaming in someones face like a psychopathic lunatic that his words were taken out of context:

    Are we really forced to pay for this piece of s***????

       54 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      The answer is very much, ‘Yes’.
      Reminds me of Roger Cook’s ‘Cook Reort’ confronting various crooks.

         18 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:

      That’s an old clip, is it not? I don’t think it is connected to TR if it’s the same one I recall from a few years back.

         17 likes

      • G.W.F. says:

        Jip
        Jon Sweeney clip.
        Hear him shout. Now we know why the Tories capitulated to the BBC over licences, over everything.

           15 likes

  6. StewGreen says:

    Coming in March daytime TV
    BBC milking its Blue Planet brand
    New spin-off series Blue Planet UK presented by
    @gillians_voice @SteveBrownGBWR
    2 diversity boxes ticked there.
    Is she the black presenter that someone said isn’t up to the job ?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2019/daytime

       12 likes

  7. StewGreen says:

    New BBC drama about gay Grindr Killer
    given a life sentence in 2016 for 4 murders
    https://www.chortle.co.uk/news/2019/02/10/42281/stephen_merchant_to_play_a_real-life_serial_killer

       13 likes

  8. Mackers says:

    Bbc bias of the highest order.I recently found out about Ron Wyatt’s discoveries of noah’s ark,the arc of the covenant,the real mt sinai being in saudi arabia and more.All discovered in the 1980’s and found online.Even such momentous information wasn’t covered by your beloved aunty.

       12 likes

  9. StewGreen says:

    You shout “Help police !” and a load of celebs like Marcus Brigstocke & Penny Mrs Rod Stewart , and Made in Chelsea bod come running

       15 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Can you imagine the casting couch for that one ? Danny Dyer , someone dusky , a muzzle and a dyke – trany or whatever they are called now.

         14 likes

  10. Panda says:

    ‘Crash out’, fall off the cliff edge’ and ‘catastrophe’.
    Just another day of beeb and Sly news bollow.

       30 likes

  11. StewGreen says:

    Rotherham historic investigations trundle on in BBC background
    Feb 9th \\ 2 men aged 37 + 34, were arrested on suspicion of rape + sexual assault as part of Operation Stovewood
    Both men have been released under investigation
    (link: https://www.rotherhamadvertiser.co.uk/news/view,nca-masbrough-men-arrested-over-historic-rape-allegation_30675.htm

       19 likes

  12. StewGreen says:

    Saturday’s Yorkshire Post columnist David Brehrens said licence fee is useless
    ..dumbing down etc

       19 likes

    • pugnazious says:

      Stewgreen…oh yes….

      https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/opinion/david-behrens-the-bbc-a-landmark-of-dumbing-down-amid-twilight-of-the-licence-fee-for-over-75s-1-9584743

      David Behrens: The BBC – A landmark of dumbing-down amid twilight of the licence fee for over-75s

      TV, of course, is littered with “list” programmes, especially where popular culture is concerned. But most of them are designed as entertaining diversions on Channels Four and Five. They don’t masquerade as education, they are not portentous and they don’t come out of the licence fee.

      Icons, on the other hand, was an insidious dumbing-down of history, and one the BBC should never have countenanced. Unlike Civilisation, it is a series that will not live on in repeats – though it may come back to haunt it.

      Its screening came amid the debate on whether the licence fee should continue to be waived for viewers over 75. The Government subsidy which allows this runs out next year, and it is being left to the BBC to decide whether it should continue, and if so, how.

      This doesn’t augur well, does it? On the Corporation’s current form, it will probably turn that into a game show, too. Let’s see if dad can figure out how to use the red button on the remote control. He can? No free licence for him, then.

      It’s becoming inevitable that the system, free or otherwise, is nearing the end of its useful life. This week saw the revelation that some 860,000 of us cancelled our licences last year – eight per cent more than in 2017.
      For them, the equation will not have been whether to watch TV but which TV to watch. From this spring, the licence fee will be £154.50 a year, which works out at just under £13 a month. A subscription to Netflix can be had for less than half that, and can be suspended when you go on holiday. It’s a model that makes the pre-war notion of a tax on receiving equipment as archaic as an air-raid shelter.

      Nor do you need a licence just for the privilege of owning a TV set. The fee doesn’t apply if you don’t watch or record live TV or use the BBC iPlayer.

      Armed with that get-out, and the increased choice of viewing now available – not to mention the insult to their intelligence from programmes such as Icons – many families on both sides of the age divide will reluctantly conclude that the BBC is no longer for them.

      Guido has a go as well….no reason why BBC cannot be funded by optional subscription….

      https://order-order.com/2019/02/11/bbc-make-billions-worldwide-iplayer-not-75s/

      The BBC is lobbying hard for the government to pay the licence fees, claiming it is costing them hundreds of millions. This is not really a “cost”, it a loss of revenue. The BBC collects some £3.5 billion from the telly tax and £1.5 billion from commercial revenue. It greedily wants to get a few hundred million more from the over-75s. Here’s a suggestion, cut back on Lineker and the likes’ bloated pay packets and generate some more revenue from iPlayer worldwide.

      If Netflix and Amazon can generate billions worldwide from online streaming, so can the BBC. There is no technological reason the BBC can’t do it. The reason they don’t do it is purely political. If iPlayer was a pay-as-you-go streaming service the rationale for the licence fee, such as it is, would be destroyed.

      The BBC funding model is based on coercion, it is out of date. Netflix’s global success shows just how badly the BBC missed the opportunity to be a global streaming media company with the headstart it had with iPlayer. Now they want to make OAPs or younger taxpayers pay for their commercial mistakes…

         53 likes

      • Dave S says:

        Correct in every way. If the BBC was a private company the shareholders would be bailing out . The falling viewer and listening figures would make sure of that. Ripe then for a commercial takeover which is the obvious option. Put it up for sale .
        Even if they make the over 75s pay the funding model is so obviously useless long term that nothing is solved. In the end technology and a lamentable failure by the executives to adapt to it has done for the BBC. It is on it’s way out . Had it been properly run it could have been a great success story for this country but it is now too late. Netflix and Amazon have the market .
        Regrettable.

           34 likes

        • vesnadog says:

          “. If the BBC was a private company the shareholders would be bailing out ”

          If the BBC was a country there would be an immediate Coup.

             5 likes

  13. Thoughtful says:

    Radio 4 PM with Evan Davies allegedly interviewing Sadiq Khan over knife crime in London, and it isn’t an interview at all. It’s a collabaration where Davies throws easy questions for Khan to grandstands, never interupts, and never challenges obvious BS and lies together with spurious and ridiculous attacks on the Tories.

    So when Khan says that knife crime is the result of a “lack of investment in young people” which is a risible claim with no evidence to support it, Davies makes no comment and lets it stand.

    It’s an appalling indictment of the BBC appalling and massive leftist bias.

       65 likes

    • countryblues says:

      A few days ago on BBC(?) TV it was announced that knife(?) crime in London was at its highest levels since 1946…and I was left thinking : Blimey, it must have been bad in 1946!

      Later on someone mumbled quietly ‘since records began’ 🙂 🙁

         41 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        cb, I remember as a child hearing reports during the last days of The Home Service 🙂 of Maltese gangs in London and Scots gangs in Glasgow being fairly dangerous with sharpened implements from razors to knives. Then there were the Bank Holiday confrontations between gangs of Teddy Boys and also between Mods and Rockers at seaside resorts.

           11 likes

    • pugnazious says:

      Open borders…the joys and benefits of immigration? How much worse when Albania actually joins the EU and Albanians can come here unchecked?……Foreign drug gangs fuelling knife crime, destroying thousands of young peoples’ lives and destroying towns and villages up and down the country…

      The Rise and Rise of Britain’s Albanian Coke Dealers
      The UK’s Albanian mob has a reputation for being one of the most ruthless and violent of them all. They’re best known for commandeering Soho’s lucrative brothel trade, using trafficked women and weapons from the Kosovo War, but more recently Albanian gangsters have risen to become major players in another trade: Britain’s highly profitable drug market.

      In its annual threat assessment published in June, the National Crime Agency (NCA) admitted Albanian organised crime groups – known as the “Mafia Shqiptare” – have moved to exert “considerable control” over Britain’s drug trafficking market, particularly in high quality cocaine.

      The feared Albanian mafia muscling in on drugs trade in Birmingham
      National Crime Agency say the gangs have ‘established a high-profile influence within UK organised crime’
      In 2017 West Midlands Police made 140 arrests of Albanian nationals, with 51 drug offences representing the largest specified category….national data suggests that as the Albanian migrant population expands in the UK the nation’s crime groups are moving into lucrative illicit markets.
      By contrast, the force arrested 1,467 Romanian citizens, which included 620 cases of theft and 35 drugs offences.

      Albanian drug lords who ‘run London’ flaunt pictures of guns and wads of cash on Instagram
      They are said to be behind a spike in the purity of cocaine coming into Britain and the National Crime Agency believes Albanian gangsters’ ability to import huge amounts of cocaine has led to the surplus that saw the so-called “county lines” phenomenon develop.

      ‘My safe little town isn’t safe any more’: the toll of the county lines drug trade
      Data from Thames Valley police shows that drug trafficking offences have risen by 51% in two years, from 725 incidents recorded in 2015-16 to 1,321 in 2017-2018. Violent crime is also rising, and the number of people Thames Valley police have arrested for carrying a knife or blade has doubled in five years.

      Line 18: £3m per day county lines drugs business fuelling knife crime

      Gangs, mules and stabbings: The story behind county lines
      New figures obtained by Sky News suggest that drug runners are operating on 2,000 routes across England , using thousands of children in an industry which police believe is worth around three millions pounds per day.

         26 likes

      • taffman says:

        It would be interesting for us and the rest of the country to know , just how many foreign criminals are locked up in our jails ?

           21 likes

      • G says:

        Pug,
        “Didn’t they do well”. It was only – I think July last year – that Albanians were permited to enter the UK and settle. Much more of the self-imposed gang violence to come. Thanks Treason May and Amber Rudderless.

           13 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        Sadly, these reports are correct.

        I was told by people who have law enforcement knowledge in this field, that Albanian crime gangs have largely taken over organised crime in this country. This is because they come from criminal clans in Albania, and use extreme force without compunction against anyone who stands up to them.

        There are no Albanian informants, simply because of their clan structure. If anyone grasses on them, then their family back in Albania will be wiped out. It is as simple as that. They are tight knit, impenetrable criminal clans who use ultra violence at the drop of a hat. No other criminals dare stand in their way.

        Welcome to the modern world. Don’t you feel enriched?

           9 likes

    • Banania says:

      ‘…knife crime is the result of a “lack of investment in young people”…’ Would that be a defence in court?

         17 likes

  14. gaxvil says:

    There’s vast amounts of TV and movies out there these days – if that’s what you want.
    The bbc is simply an anachronistic, monster, which has gone rogue and requires culling.

    Quite why I and millions of, others should have to pay for the hateful bbc to produce biased news and what passes for entertainment for people I neither know nor care about, while insulting my intelligence and deriding my beleifs is beyond me.

       45 likes

  15. Richard Pinder says:

    The “Last of the Few” who fought against someone trying to unite Europe, should be, Sir William Clark, Sir Paul Farnes, Sir John Hart, Sir John Hemingway, Sir Archibald McInnes and Sir Maurice Mounsdon. Obviously they must all be Brexiteers, so the BBC won’t talk to any of them and Remainers in Parliament wont countenance any honours to patriots who fought against German attempts to force Britain into a united Europe. The BBC wants them all to die and be replaced by Britain’s equivalent of the brainwashed “Hitler Youth”, for a “Peoples Vote”.

       30 likes

  16. Cassandra says:

    Brigstocke really has embraced capitalism and the establishment now hasn’t he, thinking about it, when you consider his family background and connections, I don’t suppose he ever really strayed far from them. When I first heard him he was one of the comedy ‘lecturers’ on The Now Show. He slagged off capitalism, the Tories and the police and there he is wearing a police uniform! I hear and see him on commercials for Experian financial services now. Did they teach the definition of hypocrisy in his public school I wonder?

       47 likes

    • gaxvil says:

      Like his pal Miles Jupp whose claim to fame was freeloading around the World pretending to be a cricket corespondent.
      Then after a spell in kids TV went on to playing a rich elite in stand-up and a gay chef.
      Now he does the News Quiz while waiting for Steven Fry to die.
      There really is a special place in hell for the likes of Brigstocke et al.

         30 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      I read that Brigstocke has over come his mental health demons which seems to be a job requirement amongst snowflake beeboid ‘ funny’ people now .

      Maybe they add that to their after dinner speach CV to get to the £10000 target as opposed to slumming it at £5000.
      The lefty one who died last week was on £10000. Bet he used the corporation tax trick to avoid his PAYE. .

         20 likes

  17. Thoughtful says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6691195/Boris-Johnson-backs-calls-UK-foreign-aid-redirected.html

    And now we see the truth, that the Marxist Commieserveyourselves view the BBC as a propaganda arm of the government.

    Proven liar Boris Johnson has endorsed a report by Tory MP Bob Seely suggesting that some of the foreign aid budget should be given to the BBC for the World Service. The report says ” the criteria for aid spending should be expanded to cover ‘the nation’s overall strategic goals’. ”

    “I think that what Bob Seely is saying in his pamphlet is that we can make sure that that 0.7 per cent, huge sum of money, was spent more in line with Britain’s political, commercial and diplomatic interests,’ he told the Today programme.”

    In other words Johnson is suggesting that the BBC IS a propaganda outlet which he believes can be controlled by the commie serveyourselves – how naive he is, his party couldn’t control a central heating thermostat, let alone the BBC!

    No wonder though that the idiots won’t privatise the BBC when they think they are able to use it in this way.

       20 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Thoughtful
      Seely was on Toady this morning talking percentages and not money . Why put money into the World Service ? Close the Buggar down as it makes it sound as though UK wants the 3rd world to turn up . Soft power just means your tax money peed on exotic snowflake tick box projects .,

         15 likes

  18. JimS says:

    Mary Beard was talking to Philip Pullman on Front Row last Friday, one of those right sort of people talking to the right sort of people chats that the BBC loves so much.

    They both agreed on the special role of story telling in explaining the act of living, something that Jordan Peterson believes in, yet somehow I don’t think these two are ‘Peterson People’!

    Pullman didn’t seem to know that different styles of stories appeal to children of different ages, Enid Blyton could teach him something there.

    Beard bemoaned the fact that university education was no longer free and Pullman worried about the loss of public libraries, the answer to both was tax the rich more. Also all those big companies that don’t pay enough taxes. Beard isn’t smart enough to realise that five times as many people from the UK now go to university so not so easy to still make it ‘free’. I doubt if either have borrowed a book from a public library in the last 40 years. The plebs, like them, use Google.

    Pullman obviously isn’t aware that most tax comes from the rich anyway. Taxing the large companies just makes them put up their prices, which are paid by the plebs. So that is really just a pleb tax. Rather than let the plebs be free to spend their own money the Beards and the Pullmans think the plebs should pay high prices so that the ‘right sort of people’ should decide how it is spent, i.e. free media studies degrees and empty libraries.

       38 likes

    • Banania says:

      The very term “university” needs to be examined. Does it mean what it used to mean in, say, the 50s? Many, perhaps most, “universities” are not such, in the sense that we used to mean by the word.

         17 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Jim, you are right in that the current University fee system was a cunning disguise of shifting the cost of University courses on ‘hopeless’ subjects or ‘unproductive’ subjects and ‘non-essential’ subjects onto the unsuspecting basic rate taxpayer by that shady and too clever by far ‘Two-Brains’ Willetts.

      I’m all in favour of tightening up tax on the higher paid and wealthy, which is why many present members of the Conservative Party would be probably reluctant to rub shoulders with me. The mess that is the UK tax system has seen the burden of UK taxation pushed further and further down the income scale.

      Those in the top 1% and 5% and 10% immediately chirp that ‘most tax is paid by the higher paid & wealthy’ but when pushed by a knowledgeable interviewer have to concede that that is only true of Income Tax and not UK taxation as a whole.

      I look forward to the day when, for example, the TV Licence is slashed in half ‘in order to get more in’.

         3 likes

      • les whittaker says:

        “The mess that is the UK tax system has seen the burden of UK taxation pushed further and further down the income scale.”

        Do you have any figures for that?

           0 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          les, yes, you can find them in newspapers – FT would be a good source – around the time of each Budget. Am not sure how much finds its way into Hansard itself, but also search the House of Commons Library. Then there is the Office of National Statistics who may have details available.

          Taxes come and taxes sometimes go (less often, sadly) but the general switch of taxation from Income Tax to additional taxes started in Ted Heath’s time (in part driven by a crazy response to the OPEC Crisis) and accelerated through the 1980s and 1990s. You can judge the effect by looking at each tax and asking ‘Is it a Fixed Tax’, ‘Is it paid by all, equally’, ‘Is it a Direct, Hidden or Stealth Tax?’ and ‘Is it regressive or progressive?’ So a good example would be the Passport Fee which I think at one point reached close to £100 but has now been reduced. That impacts disproportionately on a low income household.

          The tax take from different things can vary, too. Increasing longevity affects Inheritance Tax and tends to depress the tax take. Oil price affects VAT on top of the effect of the two Fuel Duties now rolled into one. Vast amounts of tax were collected when the oil price was high and that came from people across the income range. At that point, proportionately the tax take was more from the 90%/95%/99% than the remainder of the population.

          Another aspect of taxation that is growing and affects the lower incomes disproportionately are the local taxes: Congestion Charges, Zoning & other Property related Fees, Parking Charges, etc.. To get an idea of those you would have to look at Local Authority accounts.

             0 likes

  19. G.W.F. says:

    David Vance

    Verified account

    @DVATW
    6h6 hours ago
    More
    BBC reveals new Panorama logo

    DzIIIekXgAA2pG_.jpg:large

       17 likes

  20. StewGreen says:

    More Trans 10pm C4 After you watch the celebrity PCSOs
    you get to watchthis doco
    ” filmed over three years that reveals the startling physical transformations as nine people undergo gender reassignment”
    episode 1 of 3

       15 likes

  21. StewGreen says:

    7:30pm Inside Out
    West
    – In a special programme, Inside Out West meets families who have lost loved ones in the armed forces. We have secured exclusive access to a special programme run for military families by the child bereavement charity Winston’s Wish.
    Southeast
    – why dozens of Vietnamese children are going missing from care in the south east.

    Yorks
    – Sheffield photographer ; photos of blacks

    South
    – two former soldiers with PTSD who have set up a website to provide peer-to-peer support for fellow veterans

       12 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      East Mids
      – the rise of VIOLENT vegan activism.

         15 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Yorks
        – Sheffield photographer ; focused on black lady bus driver
        and then his work as NUM official photographer

        NE
        archive of French 1960s protest prostesters

           14 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        I’m guessing they didn’t flesh that out much .

        Where’s my coat

           10 likes

      • Banania says:

        “VIOLENT vegan activism.”
        Surreal!

           13 likes

    • maxincony says:

      StewGreen,

      7:30pm Inside Out

      An exhibition in Sheffield of photographs by Martin Jenkinson.

      This is probably his most famous image:
      https://bit.ly/2I60nIQ

      Summed up by Stew Green as; “photos of blacks”.

      Not even “black people”. Just; “blacks”.

         9 likes

      • Thatcherrevolutionary says:

        ‘famous’

           2 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Maxi You only half quote
        If you look you’ll see My first summary was from the trailer BEFORE the prog
        As the show was broadcast I added this bit more, 4 hours before your own comment
        \\ Green February 11, 2019 at 7:57 pm
        Yorks
        – Sheffield photographer ; focused on black lady bus driver
        and *then his work as NUM official photographer * //

        So yes I have already covered the photo you mentioned

           1 likes

  22. taffman says:

    And hidden away in the quiet corner of Al Beeb are these headlines…….. “UK signs post-Brexit trade deal with Switzerland”.

       30 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      And taff
      That sums things up – UK has quietly done bilateral citizen agreements with ( half ?) the EU nations – but strangely not the Germans or French – and the BBC doesn’t even report the significance yet alone the fact .
      What will the BBC do when we get our freedom back ? …..
      Dream of rejoining when every thing will be great and UK kids can go off and get killed in the uniform of the EU Army . No No No – as a certain lady prime minister once said …

         34 likes

  23. gaxvil says:

    As I understood it the bbc makes about as much from commercial sales as it does from the license. If so why the need for the license.
    Imagine how all those £155 could work for industry – making stuff we’ve forgotten how to make?

       20 likes

    • tapwatertory says:

      They spent all the extra money making DVD and blu-ray copies of Dr Who series 11.

      Even Amazon can’t shift it, let’s not talk about plastic waste eh?

      Is it the 23rd yet? Has maxicony got on the special brew yet? Is that poor intern that the bbc blame all there f@#kups actually John Sweeney. Probably.

         22 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      It did before it flogged the real Top Gear to the cannibal amazonians as seen in the BBC newsnight green room….. eh John Sweeney ?

         17 likes

      • tapwatertory says:

        Why spend all that money sending Sir David Attenborough half way round the world when all along they could’ve nipped down to the green room. tsk.

           17 likes

  24. Fedup2 says:

    The BBC has decided a Minister must resign . They want his scalp – even if bald . Yes – Graylings inept – he accepted civil service advice to contract with a company for ferries when it had no ships . Ever .

    But , I submit , they’ve used this idiot to avoid reporting the excellent rift between France and Italy as well as the ongoing civil disorder in France which needs to get much much worse .

    The editorial stance on issues the BBC takes these days doesn’t come anywhere near even trying to put a layer of neutrality on matters . It’s just plain Far Left bias .
    With a bit of luck we are witnessing the start of the ‘ end’ as it were . It might take a while but as the likes of Netflix and better broadcasters ascend we can see the BBC slide to the oblivion it deserves .
    I just hope its’ financing doesn’t get subsumed into general taxation before then .

       39 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Just a thought / question …

      Did the BBC win any awards at the BAFTA thing ? I’m guessing not … apart from an attenborough thing with something to do with apes or polar Bears as usual .

         26 likes

    • honestus says:

      Grayling has absolutely no chance.
      White
      Middle aged
      Tory
      Brexiteer
      Unlucky or incompetent – choose.
      = BBC fodder. Could stretch to several days worth if other news to bury.

         29 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        honestus, listening to TWatO and Sarah Montague’s list of Grayling disasters, I’d have to say that the guy is either totally incompetent or as an alternative possibility, he is extremely gullible and far too trusting of his Civil Servants, especially at Justice – a sub-Dept of Home? – and Transport, both Ministries having appalling past records.

           18 likes

    • Dover Sentry says:

      In my opinion, the reason the contract was cancelled was because ‘Ferry Project Fear’ had died. There never was a need for extra ferries.

         30 likes

      • RJ says:

        I don’t have a high opinion of Grayling but there’s an aspect of the ferry story that I haven’t heard on the BBC. Seaborne, the ferry company that had contracted to provide the Ramsgate to Ostend service is largely owned by an Irish ferry company, so it is a credible option. Last week the Irish owners pulled out of the deal. The question the BBC should be asking is whether or not the Irish government put pressure on the Irish ferry company to pull out of a deal to provide extra post-Brexit capacity between the UK and France?

           29 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          RJ, yes I also noticed that lack of spirit of enquiry from the world’s most trusted news organisation into an ‘Irish decision’.

          Well, it IS getting close to the anniversary of the Skripal Affair. No questions asked about that by the BBC. I wonder what they will do for it in retro?

             7 likes

  25. Dover Sentry says:

    For what it’s worth.

    I have spoken to the following local businesses I use as regards the impact of a No Deal Brexit:

    1. Post Master.

    2. Independent Car Repair Garage.

    3. Staff at the supermarket.

    4. Bank Staff.

    5. Wetherspoons 🙂

    There was no concern from any of them as regards a No Deal Brexit. Things wouldn’t change as far as they were concerned.

    But the BBC have ignored their opinion. Of course. 🙁

       59 likes

    • Dave S says:

      The equine flu is causing more comment amongst my friends..The possibility of Cheltenham being affected has upset most of us more than leaving the EU. The only worry about Ireland is if their horses get infected.
      You have got to keep things in proportion.

         22 likes

    • honestus says:

      Dover S, used to be that they could ignore your opinion all day long but you still had your vote. Hah, seems like your vote counts for nowt as well in libland.

         12 likes

  26. StewGreen says:

    OK so there the Rocky Horror Show
    … and then someone mixes Bingo an Rave in big production shows : Bongo’s Bingo
    ..includes singalongs, dance offs to win cardboard cut outs of Philip Schofield etc.
    unfortunately Liverpool based so heavily associated with Jeremy Corbyn

       5 likes

  27. tapwatertory says:

    Shocking footage from the bbc green room

       13 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Tap
      Why wasn’t “babs” Windsor in that one ?

      Seriously – hope she s being looked after as the dementia develops .

         8 likes

      • tapwatertory says:

        Kenneth Williams missed that one too but still a classic.

        There’s ‘sitcom’ on bbc 2 at this very moment called ‘two doors down’. I thought I’d break the law and try it, oh dear, ten minutes in and there’s a deaf lesbian and all the oldies are ignorant.

        As you lot say the bbc doesn’t do comedy anymore.

           31 likes

        • maxincony says:

          tapwatertory,

          …oh dear, ten minutes in and there’s a deaf lesbian…

          Erm no, not a lesbian. But still, you had to make that bit up because otherwise you’d just sound like a SOB complaining that there was a deaf person on TV.

             3 likes

          • taffman says:

            maxincony you old Troll,
            I post here because I am of the opinion that Al Beeb is Biased.
            Why do you post here ?
            What motivates you ?

               18 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            maxi, grateful for your cardboard Guardian-type correction-type writings but you only seem interested in drive-by snipings.

            Any posts from you here about deficiencies of the BBC? I don’t recall any.

            Any praise for a Beeb programme when deserved? Nope. Not that I remember.

            Are you an atheist? What drives your world view? Any fear of discussion?

               12 likes

        • taffman says:

          tapwatertory
          Yep, Al Beeb does not do comedy. Full Stop.
          maxincony the old Troll is very funny though. He’s our village idiot.
          He has escaped again . Nurse !

             23 likes

  28. Dover Sentry says:

    BBC Online News:

    “”Husband who killed and burned wife’s body jailed””

    “”Judge Richard Marks said Peter’s behaviour was “wicked and cruel”.””

    “”He called him “an arrogant, egotistical, chauvinistic controlling bully” who treated his wife “abysmally”.

    “”Peter strangled his 50-year-old wife, rammed a flannel into her mouth and dragged her by the hair while their three children were at home. The serial adulterer feared his wife had met someone new and went on to set fire to her body to disguise what he had done.””

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-47201007

    Not judged worthy of National news by the BBC. Buried in the London section.

       20 likes

  29. Fedup2 says:

    BBC news

    UK economy only grew by 1.4 per cent

    40th anniversary of the very excellent Islamic Republic of eye ran ( death to America death to Israel and death to Blighty )

    Al beeb sounded quite chirpy about the evil Iranians running out the standard ‘ death to something or other “

    And the other big news – insects are going to die out soon . Best not tell the local chicken shops in my bit of the planet as they are crawling with various insect life .

    Serious question . Why does eye ran still exist ?

       26 likes

  30. Rich says:

    Are the bBBC starting to panic a bit? As if this will make any difference.

    https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/entertainment/film-tv/news/bbc-to-shorten-northern-ireland-news-and-weather-37804584.html

    Yet more dumbing down in an effort to attract da yoof using z-list ITV2 rejects and grubby faux-feminist misandry. Pathetic. Don’t the bBBC realise that their problems stem from what is on, not when?

       19 likes

  31. pugnazious says:

       15 likes

    • Nibor says:

      The real Tommy Robinson , criminal convictions .

      The real Donald Tusk , football hooligan .

         10 likes

    • Banania says:

      Every one should watch these. BBC and politicians should be tied down and forced to watch.

         1 likes

  32. Guest Who says:

    Given neither FB or Google are anyone’s fave propaganda channels, the BBC fares poorly in the comments from the get-go.

       19 likes

    • The Duck says:

      Interesting, 5minutes of interwebbing leads to Dame Frances Cairncross who is chair of the Cairncross Review which is where this report originates. Looking at her Wikipedia page she spent 11years on the staff of The Guardian and 20years on the staff of The Economist, amongst other things. She also had a stint at BBC Radio4. But the interesting part is under the heading Controversy where there’s this little gem………

      “In January 1988, Frances Cairncross and Mary Ellen Synon wrote a fake news article for the Economist that depicted Ireland as bureaucratic and impoverished.[8][9] This article caused anger within the Fianna Fáil government of the time. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs also criticised the piece, stating that the Economist article “did serious damage to the image of Ireland overseas”.[8]

      Why am I not in the least bit surprised?.

         21 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Duck…

        Cairncross Review as per bbc morning propaganda sheet.
        Read between the lines:

        ****

        A major government-backed review into the future of news in the UK has said public money should be used to support local journalism to prevent it disappearing altogether. Readership of local newspapers has plummeted in recent years, with many closing down. Dame Frances Cairncross says a new Institute for Public Interest News could work in a similar way to the Arts Council, channelling money to worthy sources. She is also recommending the creation of a regulator to oversee tech giants like Google and Facebook to ensure their news content is trustworthy.
        But BBC media editor Amol Rajan said the review was most striking for what it left out – no call, for example, to make social media companies pay for the privilege of using news content created by others.

        ***

        More striking still, Amol, is ignoring that the bbc gutted local news, and is also losing audience hand over fist. So nice attempt to lay the foundations of state support for failing news media. Especially any dealing in the word ‘trust’ when no one sane would think they were.

        As an aside, our local rag was ok for logging events the week ahead, but its ‘news’ is a joke, rendered impotent by social media that can see incidents noted within minutes. We were spared a traffic jam the other day by an alert on a crash just before setting off. However being blatently Lib Dem promoting, to the extent of running party activist ‘angry of the Crescent’ letters every week to push favoured councillors and daft eco events, its circulation is in nosedive.

        Not uniquely funded. Advertising revenue based on circulation. Failing to do its job. So ideal for the bbc to use to hide behind.

           8 likes

  33. gaxvil says:

    Just read the OFCOM report on the bbc. To sum it up:- Excellent output from the bbc but could do with just a teeny weeny bit tweaking maybe or maybe not.
    More off planet than ofcom.

       31 likes

    • taffman says:

      Message to OFCOM and Al Beeb
      ” You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

      This website, biasedbbc can be described as the ‘Boy’ in the tale about the ‘Emperor’s New Clothes’
      We few, have called Al Beeb out, we have recognised its blatant bias.
      If our government don’t recognise this they are complicit.

         37 likes

    • G says:

      Gax,
      Despite what is said, ‘the proof of the pudding’ and all that – > 2000 licence payers depart – daily.

         11 likes

  34. Rich says:

    I don’t enjoy the Belfast Telegraph, it has gone much the same way as the Mail, changing dramatically in It’s case from being a respected pro-Union national institution to becoming an Irish owned, blatantly pro-EU rag, but this is well worth a quick read for anyone interested in what I believe the majority of people in Northern Ireland are really thinking.

    https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/opinion/news-analysis/eilis-ohanlon-britsplaining-noun-belief-that-londonbased-commentators-can-know-more-about-northern-ireland-than-someone-who-lives-here-ever-could-37801169.html

    Succinctly and cleverly expressing the viewpoint of many here by someone from the opposite of the traditional cultural divide to myself, and look who is front and centre, the good old bBBC.

       20 likes

  35. taffman says:

    Maxi is waiting for his supervisor’s advise about what to reply to us ‘Cannibals’?……………….zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

       18 likes

  36. AsISeeIt says:

    Tangential Reporting (Have I perhaps coined a new buzz phrase? Something to put up there with Fake News?)

    The BBC Breakfast show tells us local councils in the North East have tightened taxi licencing regulations in response to the convictions of certain ‘grooming gangs’.

    The authorities (and the BBC) seem to think it’s men with known and checkable prior convictions for ‘serious offences’ who are likely to be a threat to ‘vulnerable people’.

    Anyhoo…

    BBC Breakfast will be talking to the mother of the woman murdered by a lone 47-year-old white British taxi driver in Swindon. A vaguely related crime, I suppose.

    Tangential Reporting = The treatment of a news or current affairs story which leads public thought in an effort to distract attention away from the reality and facts of the original story into an alternative agenda more comfortable for the journalist.

       34 likes

  37. Roland Deschain says:

    Well, he doesn’t seem worried. Or is… brave.

       9 likes

  38. JamesG says:

    Greg Dyke was just on the Today programme, calling for most people over 75 to have their free TV licences withdrawn.

       17 likes

    • The Duck says:

      The BBC running out of bubbly?

         17 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        One day a bloke in a hi vis over a puffer jacket delivering the baggies will trigger a panic and as they all try and get in the bunker they will find it is better stocked than JCJ’s overnight supply cupboard. So, no; those corridors will roll again.

           9 likes

  39. JamesArthur says:

    BBC..how they love to hate Trump. Short piece about the agreement and the BBC repoter just throws in that their camera man was attacked by a Trump supporter for just doing their job. No evidence of attack, no details and no evidence it was Trump supporter. News at its best.
    The PC narrative now is getting harder to stomach..I like to listen to Farming today – the item just prior to it was what happend on this day…first item about ‘Far right’ Gert Wilders being banned and a recording of Milliband spouting about hate crime aginst muslims,. then the next bit about change of laws for gays….is this all that happened!! Then farming today – city farms -and which one do they pick..the one run by a muslim and talking about making equine world more inclusive – and not an english name interviewed.
    If you listen to the BBC you really would think the UK was 20% white english….

       41 likes

    • JamesG says:

      I sometimes wonder whether the media are secret supporters of Trump, because the way they report him probably actually increases his support, both in the USA and elsewhere.

         26 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Just saw this on Joe on FB ( ‘good’, trustworthy reporting, by bbc standards).

      This of many top ranked comments that could be going better for Joe, the BBC and their bubble….

      “It was a violent attack that left him absolutely fine”

      Maybe…. a few fingers were injured?

         16 likes

  40. theisland says:

    Earlier Greisingel asked about impartial EU stats.
    facts4eu.org are pro-Brexit, but have been providing lots of researched facts and figures since before the referendum.

    https://facts4eu.org/news/2019_feb_eu_trade_deals

       18 likes

  41. LastChanceSaloon says:

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/feb/11/britain-deports-people-racialised-system-citizenship

    Dr Zubaida Haque is deputy director at the Runnymede Trust, a race equality thinktank [sic]

    Slaughtered in the comments. Enjoy.
    Everyone associated with the Guardian must be deported. All traitors.

       17 likes

    • Kaiser says:

      The Runnymede Trust
      The Religion of Peace
      The Worlds most trusted broadcaster

      The Ministry of Truth

         23 likes

    • G says:

      Sajid Javid has to appear tough. As a muslim in that position he can construct and promote the elaborate illusion of muslim toughness to support ‘Western values’. Fact is, he is a muslim and a polished applicator of taquiyya – for the interim period.
      He is no friend of the West and/or the UK.

         30 likes

  42. G says:

    Far from unexpected: the Globalists distorted view of President Trump – https://www.theglobalist.com/trump-approval-ratings-democracy-elections/

       9 likes

  43. G says:

    PC problems yesterday prevented me attending here. So, a bit late to report on Toady yesterday morning.
    Our Martha Carney interviews Boris. It was a ‘first’ for me, to hear the interviewer conduct an interview with herself! We hear all of our Martha’s views on Brexit, all negative obviously. She did not allow the continually apologetic Boris to develop any counter arguments or establish a coherent position throughout the interview. Funny thing is, our Martha’s style of ‘interviewing’ left the Boris sounding very much like a benevolent bee, buzzing aimlessly around the Toady studio.
    Boris is weak, indecisive and no PM material.

       19 likes

  44. Cassandra says:

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6693395/Veteran-broadcaster-claims-sensible-discussion-migration-shelved-fear-outcry.html

    The broadcaster in question is John Sergeant, here is some of the article:

    “The BBC and ITV were too scared to tackle the ‘taboo’ subject of immigration in news bulletins, John Sergeant has claimed.

    The former political correspondent, who has worked on both channels, said TV news tended to avoid the issue as it is too ‘controversial’.
    He said of introducing a new immigration system: ‘I am not suggesting that this can be done without a high level of controversy. That is inevitable.
    ‘But at least we could try to reduce personal attacks on the integrity of those who put forward the case for a proper system of immigration control. It is not racist to talk openly about this subject.”

       24 likes

  45. Old Goat says:

    Day two of the Moira Stewart Extravaganza on Classic FM – “news” bulletin every 20 minutes to accommodate her. Please make it stop.

       16 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Don’t forget every presenter using the space in between to mention this. Do they play music any more?

      The ad with the old biddy with no teeth claiming ‘we over 50’s’ and the bellowing son berating his hearing impaired father really do hold the listener.

      Soon the bbc will need drafting in to suggest public subsidy to keep Ashley Tabor in the Remain nirvana of London property ownership.

         6 likes

  46. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1

    Ladies Day on Today but no sisterly solidarnosz for Conservative Brexiteer Leader of the House, Andrea Leadsom, from Leftie (I assume) Remainer (I assume again) Mishal Husain. Now if it had been Yvette Cooper or Nancy Pelosi, then I guess the respectful silence would have been oozing from the radio speakers and across the kitchen worktop and onto the floor.

    Eeew!

       24 likes

  47. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #2

    Another day, another enviro scare from the BBC.

    Am not a TV viewer & cannot even access the BBC schedules on-line as they expect you to have a TV Licence to do so. But I have this overwhelming suspicion that tomorrow’s news will carry an ‘environment scare’ and so will, maybe, Friday’s news.

    There wouldn’t be a new BBC Attenborough series about to start on TV, would there?

       12 likes

  48. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #3

    What is wrong with Greg Dyke? Apart from having too much money and being hideously white, he was struggling to speak this morning, having real trouble formulating sentences. Not the Greg Dyke of old. Hope dementia, or worse, has not struck him before he is old enough for a free TV Licence.

       14 likes

  49. Guest Who says:

    The KattyEmily Particle has clearly inspired oor Nicky.

       2 likes

  50. Lucy Pevensey says:

    Working title: Tommy Takedown.

    Why not re-brand the whole BBC? BTC: Britain Takedown Corporation.
    It’s a more accurate summing up of their purpose.

       20 likes