335 Responses to Start the Week Thread 4 November 2019

  1. Terminal Moraine says:

    I’m thinking of starting a section called “Emma Barnett’s Filth Hour.”

    This morning on R5 she interviewed one of the Peru Two (couple of girls who got jail time for trying to smuggle £1.5m worth of cocaine out of the country). Anyway lots of “lesbian romps” were witnessed in prison. To most listeners this would be ample information to build up a mental picture, but not for Emma, who pushes her interviewee to explain what exactly she got to see. I won’t reveal the details but I’ve heard you can find such things on the internet.

    Sexual relations amongst inmates was commonplace even though she didn’t partake herself. Emma sounded disappointed. Still there’s always another day and another opportunity for Emma to be fully pleasured.

       13 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Emma’s dad’s brothel business was filth, and paid for her private school.
      Evidence in court proved she knew about his filth business before he was arrested and later jailed.

         13 likes

      • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

        #MeToo?

           3 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        Cannot wait for Ems to out-Norm Norm later.

           7 likes

  2. StewGreen says:

    Re BBC Climate article …”11,000 scientists say”

    “scientists say” = Fallacy of Argument from Authority
    .. Argument stands on its own feet, not that of the messenger

    “11,000 say” = Fallacy of Ad Popularum = Many courtiers say
    It doesn’t matter how many messengers/courtiers say an emperor’s suit is fine
    If just one small boy can bring better evidence
    that argument wins.

       20 likes

    • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

      What about the theoretical “Fallacy of the Argumentum ad 17.4 milliones”? – i.e. just because lots of people vote for something, that doesn’t mean it’s right, … … unless they vote at a second referendum to stay in the EU, of course. I’ll get me coat.

         10 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Too true Stew
      11,000 scientists whose funds depend on saying man made climate change is a worldwide crisis.
      In research you have to declare any financial interest..how many of the 11,000 did?

         13 likes

  3. davylars says:

    BBC….Climate change: ‘Clear and unequivocal’ emergency, say scientists

    There you are. The science is settled

    https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-50302392

    Quote.. ‘Released on the day that satellite data shows that last month was the warmest October on record, the new study says that that simply measuring global surface temperatures is an inadequate way of capturing the real dangers of an overheating world’

    So surface temperature is irrelevant now..

       13 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      11,000 of them.

      How do I know this?

      Because over a cuppa on social media in the space of 10′ I have seen the precise same press release cut and pasted across the entire MSM infirmament.

      Which, at best, suggests the ‘journalism’ profession read and process information very quickly, or are simply lazy propagandists without an enquiring brain cell in their skulls.

      I am erring on them being slow readers and thick.

         9 likes

    • Loobyloo says:

      Popcorn time – one of the recommendation points is ‘Population’ – altho global population is actually slightly declining (?? – probably due to the declining birth rate in the west?) global population needs to be controlled. I’ll enjoy watching that.
      Oh, and we all need to be mostly vegetarian. I have been for a long time but it wasn’t imposed on me. Do I think everyone could do this healthily? NO!
      Good comments under the article.

         8 likes

    • Philip_2 says:

      The last time Science was settled was in an era when the Earth was flat, to state otherwise was heresy. The BBC are Myth makers and dramatists. The difference between a Myth and a theory is that in a Myth its what you want to make belief (as in ‘The Hobbit’ by Tolkein). A theory can be Scientific only until another theory disproves that theory. There is enough scientific evidence to disprove that any ‘Science is settled’ on climate. If it was, then – that would effectively be the END of climate Science as we know it. The Scientific method is about proving one argument claims against another. In that the BBC has failed us and should be shut down as a false prophet of doom. The license fee clearly states that the BBC is not qualified (for example) to ban any Scientific debate as they don’t like what they hear. That is not part of the BBC charter. The Flat Earth society is alive and well at the BBC.

         11 likes

  4. Demon says:

    Just enhancing a comment I saw elsewhere: Bercow should be granted a porridge.

    6 months of porridge would do.

       16 likes

  5. JamesArthur says:

    Is it me or has the BBC taken out shares in Jo Swinson? Every time I switch on they are promoting her?
    She would be a disaster as a Prime minister
    Now talking to Chuka my party Ummuna ..what a waste of space…
    Liberals – the new BBC favourite

       26 likes

    • Terminal Moraine says:

      … also really milking Rees-Mogg’s comments on Grenfell. More reason to vote against this extreme right wing government.

      It’s the BBC way: follow the approved authorities at all costs and ignore common sense

         24 likes

      • JamesArthur says:

        Terminal
        Yes they certainly are …and all he said was what many of us were thinking – and he didn’t say it in a disparaging way….why don’t they talk to some of the survivors who said exactly the same..
        anything to make Tories out to look like mean evil monsters
        Funny I don’t recall the BBC making a fuss about the Lefties shouting at JRM’s kids outside his house..

           28 likes

        • Terminal Moraine says:

          James, indeed. Grenfell / NHS / migrants are all ‘untouchable’ entities. Any reasonable questions about them show structural discrimination or unconscious bias.

          Aggressive attacks on everything else is simply ‘holding power to account’

             20 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      James, small correction needed here “Now talking to Chuka my party Ummuna”

      … insert word ‘present’ between ‘my’ and ‘party’.

         7 likes

  6. Cassandra says:

    Looking at Swinson bawling at being left out of the televised debates reminded me of someone who I’ve just remembered.
    Those of a certain age will have no trouble identifying this screaming harpy from long ago and what she did if she didn’t get her own way:

       18 likes

  7. Deborah says:

    Radio 4 bonfire night, Evan Davis lead story at 5pm Jacob Rees Mogg and was he just out of touch or arrogant to suggest it was common sense to try and leave a burning building. Funnily enough I was talking to Mr D about this a couple of days ago. How did LFB contact the residents to tell them to stay put? And if I had been in the lower floors, I think I may have tried to leave the building whatever any one said. I have sometimes chosen to use stairs in a 15 story building and been down in no more than 10 minutes. There is the ‘how dare anyone attack Grenfell residents ‘ angle, but I was just wondering what I would have done.

       26 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Deborah
      I had a job once which looked at these kind of incidents . One thing I learned was not to accept ‘ advice’ from ‘ authority ‘ without applying a personal common sense judgement . It’s a bit Darwinian but true . The individual in the situation may well have a more accurate view than someone along the chain parroting advice .
      The grenfell people rang 999 and got through to the brigade control where someone sitting in a nice room just told them what to do based on a computer screen .

      The same happened on 9/11 with the same consequence.

      The other ‘ survival ‘ issue was the acceptance that what was happening was ‘ real ‘ and not some elaborate hoax .

      The fire brigade should be shamed because they didn’t seem to learn from 9/11 – which in itself was a denial that such a thing could happen by accident or on purpose .

      I don’t know that economics had much to do with what happened at grenfell . A ‘nice’ tower block could have gone up the same if the cladding wasn’t able to withstand the fire and -indeed – transferred it .

         16 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Fed, what I find galling about the Grenfell fire report is that the firefighters were in an apartment where flames had penetrated, they put that fire out, opened a window and looked out, saw the cladding was on fire and trained their hoses on it. They saw that that was ineffective and that the burning cladding was exacerbating the fire so that it spread around and up the building but they apparently still did not, at that point, clear the building of residents.

        They had visual evidence the fire was getting worse.

        They had experiential evidence the fire was getting worse.

        They apparently acted upon neither bits of evidence.

           15 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      ( I’m reply to Deborah 5.54pm )

      Amazing that politicians never know when to keep their mouths shut . Same with certain fools who take to twitter .

         3 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Have you eaten too much today ? Would throwing up help ? Well watch some of the farewell speeches from parliament today with outgoing MPs telling each other how great and good they are .

        A 7 minute smugathon by someone called Stephen pound ( real name Stephen Euro )
        Is on twitter and exemplifies what I say .

           10 likes

  8. Guest Who says:

    Rob does, well, golly, a Rob…

       6 likes

  9. Up2snuff says:

    Further up this page Stew Green has an excellent post @5.07p.m. about numbers.

    I intended another TOADY Watch this a.m. so here it is: TOADY Watch #3 (It could be someone else has picked up on this, if so, apologies appended.)

    Diane Abbott has a rival in the Abbotticus stakes. It is The Sweater.

    The Sweater is certain that if we vote to make her PM on 12 December and she immediately cancels Brexit, the UK will be £50bn a year better off, except it will not be £50bn a year better off, because it will be spread over five years so that is only £10bn a year better off but we will not really be £10bn p.a. better off because the UK will have to pay £20bn (or more – the new EUBudget is yet to be set) to Remain each year in the EU but then the UK will not be minus (-)£10bn better off – are you still with me?, hang on in there – because the EU’s share of world trade is shrinking, so that’s probably minus £10bn minus a couple of billion more, and the UK’s share of trade with the EU has been shrinking for nearly three decades, so you can probably add another negative billion to £12 negative billions.

    If The Sweater becomes PM on 12 December, the UK will definitely be better off by minus £12 to £13 billion a year or to put it another way, we lose. Big time.

    Bargain!

    Not.

       29 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Up2 – the billion claim just seems dumb . Even sweater must know that as the UK economy grows -even more in her pro EU world then our contributions to the EU piggy bank increases so they can’ give ‘ us some of our own money back as long it’s got one of this wretched ‘ funded by the EU ‘ posters on it .

         12 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Fed, yes but no but the chance of growing UK GDP purely on the strength of our EU membership should not, on the record of 1992-2019*, get even you down to the Bookies.

        (*Nick Clegg (Remain) on UK’s trade with EU early 1990s: “It is about two-thirds to three quarters of our trade. We would be crazy to give that up.”
        (*Nick Clegg (Remain) on UK’s trade with EU at time of Referendum in 2016: “It is about half of our trade. We would be crazy to give that up.” actually it was more like 45%, but say half, that’s a decline even Diane Abbott could notice.)

           7 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          Up2
          I wasn’t thinking for a moment that reichEU would directly stimulate the british economy other than the hoards from the East coming in to undercut native labour costs .

          I suppose house prices would continue to rise as they abandon their own depressed economies and head here – the other downside of course being even further pressure from health tourism and expanding school class sizes .

             8 likes

  10. theisland says:

    EU defence budgets rocketing – 50-fold increase in EU defence budget from Jan 2021
    Defence budget will rise from €0.5bn (2014-2020) to €31.3bn (2021-2027)
    Includes an ‘off-budget’ fund of €10.5bn, controlled by the EU’s de facto Defence Secretary
    Under the Government’s new Withdrawal Treaty the UK will keep paying billions

       12 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Surprised the emblem hasn’t got a “das Reich” line on it like back in the day .

      I wonder what remainers will say when the first kid squaddie in a box comes down the ramp at brize norton with that flag over the coffin . ?

      It. Must . Never . Happen .

         18 likes

    • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

      This was the army that EU-rophile Nicholas Clegg told us in 2016 was never going to be formed (TV debate with Mr Farage, IIRC) and then, immediately after the Brexit result was declared (quelle coincidence!) it was duly announced by the EU.

         18 likes

      • TrickCyclist says:

        A vision of the future? From 50 years ago, courtesy of Gerry and Sylvia Anderson.

        f221309729878acf0264a5071d12dc96.jpg

           7 likes

  11. StewGreen says:

    Bias by Omission
    “BBC ignores Twitter’s terror groups suspensions : Hamas and Hizbollah
    BBC hasn’t reported on this because,embarrassingly, it has whitewashed both these terror groups as somehow not really terrorists..”
    https://bbcwatch.org/2019/11/04/bbc-ignores-twitters-terror-groups-suspensions/

       9 likes

  12. G says:

    “Anti Brexit MPs are not being asked the serious questions!”
    Jeff Taylor hits the nail on the head again:

    Johnson cannot form an alliance with TBP because Farage would very quickly realise the Johnson Remain package is a set up, a minor bump in the road for the EU/Soros Grand Plan.

       14 likes

  13. Celtic_Mist says:

    Far be it for me to recommend anything from the BBC

    ‘The Americas’ Episode 4 about Drugs and people trafficking is across the US border – how out of control it is.

    ‘NARCO-TERROR: 9 U.S. Women, Children Murdered by Cartel Gunmen near New Mexico Border’

    https://www.breitbart.com/border/2019/11/05/narco-terror-10-u-s-women-children-murdered-by-cartel-gunmen-near-new-mexico-border

    Then on Reddit

    ‘Mexico Declines President Trump’s Offer for ‘War’ Against Cartels’

    “Lopez Obrador claimed in the past that his government will not fight drug cartels with violence, but through economic opportunities and social programs.”

    Mexico Declines President Trump’s Offer for ‘War’ Against Cartels from Conservative

       6 likes

  14. StewGreen says:

    O/T It would be good if BBC aired a proportionate diversity of views but they don’t. Instead we get an oversupply of special victimhood groups.
    We’d rarely get a view from an ordinary Sheffield man like Tim Wells.
    So here is his essay, that he titled : “Why do I disagree with Mass immigration in the UK”
    https://timawells.wordpress.com/2019/11/05/why-do-i-disagree-with-mass-immigration-in-the-uk/

       8 likes

    • Philip_2 says:

      One of the posters here mentioned the BBC were up for all things Welsh. I think I have found the reason for the rush. The Welsh assembly has plans: The Welsh government is planning to integrate rebranded values normalising LGBT liftestyle choices and behaviours throughout the whole curriculum, making it impossible, they say, for parents to withdraw their children from teaching that they believe is inappropriate.. Could that be why the BBC are plugging Wales? (quote) ‘The aim, as so succinctly stated by Elly Barnes, LGBT activist and founder of Educate and Celebrate, is not the fostering of tolerance and inclusivity – but rather to smash heteronormativity…
      (https://activistmommy.com/lgbt-activist-reveals-goal-to-completely-smash-heteronormativity-through-education)’.
      Another BBC ‘normalisation’ in progress of left wing ideology. First conquer Scotland, then Wales, England is next (banning parents from taking children out of class). Parents on ‘hate’ crimes next up. Only on your child friendly BBC. A big Welsh promotion of family values from Camden to Pontypridd.

         12 likes

      • JimS says:

        My impression of Cardiff is that there are a lot of the BBC’s favourite brown-eyed people living there. They might take the same view as the brown-eyed people of Birmingham when it comes to brainwashing their kids. Incidentally Jess Phillips might be in for a shock come the election, as she has different views to those of her constituents on this issue and on Brexit.

           12 likes

        • taffman says:

          The Welsh Assembly is a white bureaucratic elephant, completely out of control and does not speak for the majority of the people of Wales.
          Wales voted to leave the EU and just like its corrupt mother parliament in Westminster, it wants to be ruled by Europe .
          Drain the swamp , drain the whole swamp.

             9 likes

  15. Dover Sentry says:

    Mogg may precipitate the slaughter of the Grenfell sacred cow.

    If we upend the Vietnamese container in Essex and scorch it, what happens? It becomes another Grenfell sacred cow.

    The other sacred cow that needs to be slaughtered is the NHS. I don’t mean the front line staff, but refer to the layers and layers of admin and management. The NHS is the biggest employer in the country. How many are nurses and doctors?

       18 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Dover
      One has to be careful criticising the NHS because there’s always the odd case where someone got good treatment .
      I despise it so much that I’d see it sold off and have a treatment if you ve paid your NI contributions otherwise you pay . Such an idea would never see the light of day on the state broadcaster .
      I d like to see the medical industry put on a professional level instead of a closed shop with restrictive practices and the sort of system which grinds junior medics into the ground – and where the system is run by agency staff and 3rd world locums of dubious qualification .

         11 likes

  16. Wink1 says:

    Just watching the local news -why do I do it ?- and apart from the general anti brexit tone the Lewes firework display was mentioned. The spokesperson was delighted to tell us that the Guys this year were Boris , Jacob R M and Nigel Farage……well what a wheeze!! How funny it is when they are are on the right of politics . Imagine the uproar if it were to be someone on the left !!!

       14 likes

    • G says:

      Wink,
      Isn’t that reminiscent of a bonfire where the effigy of Grenfell caused the police to arrest and charge some people on the basis of that being a hate crime?

         4 likes

  17. Deborah says:

    The greater part of our local news tonight was spent highlighting Chris Packham speaking to school children exhorting them to rise up in support of ‘the climate crisis ‘. Many of his claims were unsubstantiated so where was the balance? Oh I forgot in spite of tonight’s forecast of frost, the science is settled.

       14 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      The BBC local enviro reporter tweeted this video


      By “rebel” Packham means “CONFORM to green groupthink”

      He went on talking about his XR badge and his support for them
      “break the law ?” “Yes they are breaking the law by just sitting down on the streets”

      replies to that tweet : CCBGB 7 viewers replied, 6 mock Packham

      ===============

      They tweeted another story twice
      Plans to put north of England at heart of UK’s drive to cut carbon emissions are focus for major conference in Hull: bbc.in/33kdxrA

         6 likes

  18. Ed Hitter says:

    There was a clear example today of how the BBC creates a narrative, fans the flames and then stands back and admires its handiwork.
    Political Ed Laura Kuenssberg has written a BBC website think-piece about what she calls the “first hideous mistake” of the election campaign – and in typical BBC fashion, it’s as if it happened by accident without any BBC manipulation at all.
    She is, of course, referring to Rees-Mogg’s remarks and subsequent apology regarding the Grenfell inquiry findings.
    Kuenssberg says this is “toxic for the Tories” and “gave Labour all of the ammunition it needed”.
    Well, it certainly did, and that’s in large part down to the fact that JRM’s comment was taken out of context, deliberately misinterpreted and then reported as the main BBC news story all day long – the biggest news “event” happening anywhere in the world, apparently.
    He’s evil, this typical Tory, and he needs to say sorry and we won’t let it drop even after he does – that was the BBC agenda today.
    And, yes, it is toxic for the Tories and grist to the Labour mill, but its also like “letterboxgate” and “humbug-gate” – a lot of hot air about very little, pumped up by the BBC because it fits an agenda; the same BBC that largely ignores Corbyn’s alleged terrorist sympathies and his party’s latent anti-semitism.
    The fact that Kuenssberg wrote her piece as a way of explaining that election campaigns are full of surprises and never quite follow the expected narrative arc is incredibly disingenuous – because this is the BBC yet again simply playing smoke and mirrors with the electorate, setting the agenda, but pretending it isn’t.

       20 likes

  19. taffman says:

    “Zulu screening on Bonfire Night for Rhondda PTSD veterans”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-50291276
    I am very surprised that they even mention this great film of the 60s.

       6 likes

  20. Fedup2 says:

    It’s nearly the time when Blighty doesn’t have a Parliament . Will the world end ? No . Will the state broadcaster [ which tediously I cannot refer to as ‘British ] get any less biased ? No .

    Between them they have prevented the instruction from the majority to leave the ReichEU from being carried out . So a curse on them .

    Time for a new thread .

       11 likes

    • taffman says:

      Fedup2
      “It’s nearly the time when Blighty doesn’t have a Parliament .”
      Blighty has not had a parliament for nearly four years yet this nation of ours has carried on regardless .
      We have a dead parliament. Its a parliament that needs new political parties. Its a swamp that needs draining .

         10 likes

  21. StewGreen says:

    MH posted I was listening to Radio 4 while driving home about 11am .
    it seemed to be about giving children more choice in their education, letting them decide what they learned when.

    I switched on just in time to listen to children at a secondary school voting on which lesson they would choose in the lesson period given up to their own choice.
    When climate change was mentioned, I thought
    “Here we go – more brainwashing.”

    Imagine my surprise when only one pupil opted to learn about climate change, and the vast majority (17) wanted to be taught adult life skills instead – things like how to fill in a tax return; how mortgages work; job interview techniques, etc.
    Maybe the brainwashing isn’t working after all

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0009zbw

    Interesting that the blurb is blank. I have never seen that on a prog that aired.

       11 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Yet at min 23 Futurologist Mark Stephenson said for 2050 the kids DONT need lifeskills lessons, they need CC lessons
      cos “The Futures vastly climate changing world …it’s serious by then we’ll have increased sea level rise, feedbacks will kick in”

      Presenter “but only ONE child in each school wanted CC on the curriculum”
      blah blah ..prog faded out

         7 likes

  22. Demon says:

    Watched a bit of Sky earlier and some woman (didn’t recognise her) was precising what Corbyn had just said, and she framed everything in as positive a manner as possible “Working to bring the country together. Going high when the Tories go low ( (c) Mich Obama)” etc.

    Later, outside no. 10 while waiting for the PM, it was a relation of all negative stories about the Conservatives including the Welsh Minister’s resignation. Just the way they talk shows which side they will be promoting.

       2 likes