401 Responses to Start the Week Thread 23 March 2020

  1. theisland says:

    Did anyone watch??

       42 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Few do already.

      Emily and VD need to give each other more industry awards.

         15 likes

  2. Guest Who says:

    The bronzed strumpet is stamping her entitled heels.

    How these useless ideologues got deemed ‘essential’ is beyond me.

       27 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      That’s the same mindset the racist far-left bbc had during the Falklands war.

         20 likes

  3. Thoughtful says:

    Yesterday I managed to get to the real reason why we are all locked down this morning, and it’s not a pleasant one.

    The elites don’t trust the people full stop, and they believe all of us have to be managed carefully or we will all go into a mass panic.
    The doctor, full of arrogance won’t admit they don’t know everything, and as Donald Trump has observed are so single minded and self obssessed that they cannot see anything other than the single issue which concerns them

    So here is the real issue, and I believe that they should have told people – especially the young about what they might be risking by not taking the pandemic seriously.

    The virus is simply too new for science to know anything much about it – this fact is something the doctors seem incapable of admitting.

    Certain viruses we know never leave the body, such as Herpes or varicella zoster virus, which causes chicken pox / shingles.

    Imagine now that as a young adult, you contract the Covid 19 virus, and it remains in your body only to re-emerge in your older years as a full blown coronavirus which hospitalises you and infects all around you.

    It’s like having a ticking bomb in your body, ready to go off and potentially kill you and all around you.

    It’s not a pleasant thought, but the elites should have concentrated on scaring the young instead of reassuring them, and doctors should have been able to admit they are not omniscient and allowed doubt to enter into their prognostications.

       16 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Thoughtful, Chris Smith (virologist) and Patrick Vallance (Chief Medical Advisor to HMG) have both talked about that on R4. The known unknowns.

      Unfortunately, in both cases, the presenters quickly moved on with their agenda of bashing the government, when some of us would have liked more questions to be asked about viruses.

      Covid-19 mutates, possibly violently and quickly. The other possibility to what you outline is that it might mutate itself out of existence, something that the common cold and influenza viruses have not done.

         16 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      My personal experience is that all the young members of my family are taking this China virus situation more seriously than I am.

      I’m obeying the rules but I still suspect it’s overblown and suddenly, when those in charge have achieved whatever it is they are doing, it’ll be all over. Phew, they’ll say, thank goodness, that was a close call. But on you go, back to work, pay your taxes, business as usual. Do as you’re told.

         17 likes

  4. Guest Who says:

    Amol goes profound.

    This clearly makes him essential.

       7 likes

    • john in cheshire says:

      I wonder if the rebalancing will include deporting all the illegals? And all the ethnics with criminal convictions?

         23 likes

      • Charlie Farley says:

        John in cheshire
        That would be a good outcome from all this ….I presume they are still floating over here to keep infecting us all !
        Like others on here I am getting fed with our untrusted broadcaster with the constant ” It should have been done sooner ” Thankfully it’s not Bloody Corbyn in the hot seat ……and why is he still there as he is of no revelance at all

           4 likes

  5. G says:

    The devil is in the detail. I detect a slight shift of terminology. On Toady earlier, we now hear, (to) “curb” the virus. Previously it was (to) “halt” the virus. So, there we have it. Lock yourselves indoors to prevent transmission and to, “curb” its inexorable progress.
    Hang on though, if you follow that advice now, why should Professor John Ashton, Public Health Director, (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Ashton_(public_health_director) insist that ‘many many people will die in their homes’. This on World Service during the small hours. But how can that happen if you lock yourself away? Strange. Moreover, small dedicated groups of local people are, as we speak clandestinely being set up to deal with the aftermath. Of those ‘many deaths at home’? When I find that these small groups are being issued with handcarts and a bell, ala Italy, we will all know the truth. If isolating oneself doesn’t work it means that the virus is airborne much more than we are told.
    I’m very satisfied with my contributions here over this issue. In fact, as they are so prescient, I may well offer my services to Ladbrookes.

       6 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      G, “If isolating oneself doesn’t work it means that the virus is airborne much more than we are told.”

      That was one of the questions I have for the expert virologist when I can talk to one.

      In addition, I would like to ask about water transmission, especially in cold water, but also in hot.

         7 likes

      • G says:

        Up2,
        ‘Here’s the thing’, (as they say). There has been a rapid upturn in cases in Kent.
        For a while now, the predominant wind direction has been from the East / SE………………..

           5 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Eeek! Those Frenchies …. !

          Seriously, the BBC should be carefully interviewing any virologist (that can be spared from seeking understanding of the virus and vaccine hunting) on air on a regular basis. If there is one thing, to my mind, to encourage the public with – at a time like this – it is good science.

          Compare and contrast with bad science that has not changed behaviour one iota – ref. Emma Thompson, the Olympics, womens sport, etc., etc..

             5 likes

    • Beltane says:

      The best aspect of advice from Professor Ashton is that it appears to be confined to the World Service in the small hours. To date his rantings could hardly be described as constructive, although initially given enthusiastic platforms by daytime BBC.

         6 likes

  6. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #2 – Brave BBC, banging the dustbin lids together

    A Beeboid journalist was out in the High Street, cannot now remember if it was yesterday or this morning, reporting on what he saw. He found a young boxer, a teenage medal winner in some Games or tournament out jogging in the High Street.

    She was with her father.

    How miraculous was that?

    Agenda, what agenda?

    When this Covid thing is over, I’m afraid womens’ sport will not be seen as ‘essential’, BBC.

       18 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Brave indeed…

      The struggle is real…

      The sooner the ‘B Ark’ departs, the better.

         21 likes

      • JamesArthur says:

        Amol is a real knob – sorry but nothing about him says talented….

        and as for the techies being heroes..a complete degradation in the meaning of the word

        Personally I would be grateful if they shut up shop and never had him on any media again..

           20 likes

        • G says:

          JA,
          “Talented”. Being a member of the BAME community makes a ‘person of colour’ automatically talented.

             14 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        “rightly expect the PM’s statement on @BBCOne to be broadcast glitch-free at 20.30.”

        … em it was recorded
        of course it was glitch free
        The BBC just had to press play.

           17 likes

        • Up2snuff says:

          Great one, Stew. Think I’m going to be chuckling over that all day.

          Laughter is the best medicine.

             6 likes

  7. Guest Who says:

    So what value has this effort added?

       6 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Guest, why do I always get the impression when looking at photos of the Mayor on the BBC web-site that he is a little hard of thinking?

         21 likes

  8. Guest Who says:

    Looks like Katty and Anthony will be RTing their little essential hearts out on this one…

    Unless… it really is a newer, dumber depth of TDS they can resist.

       16 likes

  9. JamesArthur says:

    BBC are true to form…Jon Sopel slagging off Trump and thought for the day – double whammy – Muslim reader whose son just qualified as a doctor to help thewonderful NHS.. Bing Bing..

    Is it me but has the BBC deliberately only shown white people in mass queues and out and about but BAME medics saving the NHS?

    Normally they can’t find a white person in any circumstance…even in the middle of the countyside

    MSM at its best

       47 likes

    • fakenewswatcher says:

      James – Sopel was overjoyed and triumphant: the US, he said, was “in the toilet”. He thinks the bug is going to undermine Trump by causing the American economy to crumble. Sounds like he cracked open the champagne.
      Here we see Sopel in his true colours: a spiteful Trump-hater, elated that the President appears finally to has lost his winning cards, as Sopel sees it. I can’t see the beeb keeping on anyone as partisan as that in the election year – oh no wait, when has the beeb ever done ‘impartial’?
      Then, as you say, came a wholly inappropriate ‘thought for the day’ – I have never heard it being used by anyone to crow about their personal circumstances! I always thought it was meant to be philosophical, inspire the listeners, and be general in nature.
      Then again, using the beeb and ‘inspire’ in the same sentence is probably an oxymoron of sorts.

         32 likes

      • JamesArthur says:

        Yes Fake he was…another beauty…let’s just hope POTUS confounds them again..

           19 likes

      • john in cheshire says:

        I don’t suppose Soapy or Ratty have reported that the Demonrats, led by gangster Pelosi, have voted down a bill to provide funding to help people cope with the effects of the China virus?

           27 likes

  10. Sluff says:

    It’s incredible.
    We may be in the midst of the most serious pandemic for decades but even now, the biased BBC has to stick its agenda down our throats.
    Does Coronavirus and its impacts disproportionately affect Lesbians?
    Try Charlotte and Lauren
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-51896636

    Or how about patient 74 in…..Israel.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-52010304

    Maybe gay men and heterosexuals are immune !!!!!! Has anyone told the scientists?

    The BBC. Where Coronavirus is just another excuse for their favourite narratives.

       33 likes

    • Dystopian says:

      “Does Coronavirus and its impacts disproportionately affect Lesbians?”

      100 licks…..sorry likes!

         1 likes

  11. G says:

    German borders closed to the rest of the World. Open for migrants !?!

       15 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    Cue them ramming BBC green rooms to read it out. Essential my shiny…

       14 likes

  13. AsISeeIt says:

    Another sideways look at where we are now.
    Well, a virus that wasn’t serious enough for us to try to keep out with some timely border restrictions and quarantine of perhaps a few thousand arrivals is suddenly so god-awful dangerous we have to lock down the entire population and voluntarily tank our economy.
    There seem to be some shibboleths that must be maintained come what may.
    Speaking of shibboleths, what of the greatest of our domestic idols, our much-vaunted NHS. Or should I give it full respect and refer to it as our politicians have taught us: RNHS (our NHS).
    And what of RNHS? What of the 2012 Olympics-celebrated, election winning issue, cash-lavished, nationalised health monster? Well, my local GP surgery texts me and warns ‘stay away’. Another local practice puts up a sign on the door ‘keep out’. Mind you, a garish lime green ambulance is parked outside manned and womaned by a pair of packed-lunch noshers who – one assumes – if and only if – one should emit the right kind of cough on the clinic doorstep will rapidly don hazmat suits and whisk one off to an incubator?
    One’s mind lingers for a moment on that Fawlty Towers episode with the fire drill. As luck would have it a real fire breaks out. Basil grabs a fire extinguisher and as he struggles to read the instructions it explodes in his face. As he searches for the key to the fire alarm he rants “Where’s the key..? Would you believe it, the first time we’ve ever had a fire and somebody’s lost the key, isn’t that typical!? Oh thank you God! Thank you so bloody much!”
    It is the open-endedness of the lockdown which bothers. Plus the notion that the rationale for what were are subjecting ourselves to is basically and simply that this is in part to save the NHS face and in part it is what the rest of our world are doing and our leaders don’t want to be accused of being odd man out.

       20 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      AISI “It is the open-endedness of the lockdown which bothers.”

      I thought Boris was quite specific; ‘three weeks’ ?

         8 likes

  14. StewGreen says:

    11am BBC R4 shoving agenda at you again
    Days after the 2019 fire at Notre Dame Cathedral, Greta Thunberg made an impassioned speech to the European Parliament where she implored leaders to tackle climate change by adopting the same long-term planning which had underpinned the original construction of Notre Dame.
    But in our quick-fix, sugar-rush world of market-driven economics, short-term election cycles and quarterly performance reviews, the idea of taking the long view and planning centuries – even millennia head – can seem deeply counter-cultural.

       12 likes

  15. StewGreen says:

    Today local radio presenters are all offensively preachy now
    Their language creepage is routine
    eg instead of saying we have to stay AT HOME
    they keep saying we have to stay INDOORS and it is forbidden to be OUTDOORS
    … actually I’m sure it is OK to be working in the orchard/garden here.

    BTW one has been bravely self isolating cos his kindergarten son had a cough. He just said the boy is over it and he himself as well
    … so it doesn’t sound like they had Covid , it was all very minor.

       21 likes

  16. Guest Who says:

    ExBeeboids are the best… Sweeney!, Mason, Esler, JO’bsworth and…

       26 likes

  17. Fedup2 says:

    GINTV is in the air high above London . I’m looking at an APP showing civil air movements because I’m fascinated by the fact that long haul flights are still operating . Arab airlines seem not to have any rules .

    Anyway GINTV is the call sign for the BBC helicopter – why is it flying ? Pilots and camera man and BBC droid telling us people are / are not on the streets . They’ll be gleefully reporting disobedience to the PM and that he’s not a real PM and that there needs to be another one and why did we land up with him in the first place ?

    I wonder how much GINTV costs by the hour – I reckon £2000 and more

       30 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The bbc helicopter is one of the greatest measures of their rampant hypocrisy. Surprised it is not dispatched to and from Heathrow to bear Emily and Jon to and fro.

         22 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Guest – 20 minutes after my post the BBC helicopter is in a high hover over W1. Perhaps they’ll put a landing pad on the roof of their London HQ.

        I wonder how many staff the BBC employs for ‘helicopter management ?’ .

        Maybe as I write Maitliss Is abseiling down to start her busy day of undermining . Or maybe it’s Jenny Murray coming to work ready to deliver the Daily hatee man hour …..

           20 likes

  18. vlad says:

    “Wembley gang shooting: Trio guilty of mistaken identity murder.”

    It’s an honest mistake. Come on, who hasn’t shot the wrong guy by mistake?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-52008948

    _111396685_london.png

       27 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      IIRC Jez’ BestBalaclavaCorps were prone to that, but often said sorry so no one on their side felt awks.

         7 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      More understanding – less condemnation – it’s cultural ( to engage in head shots ) …..

         7 likes

  19. Guest Who says:

    Screw Nish… the BBC need to lock him in the studio with troll farm assigned here to run their comedy output.

    It can be called Aunty’s Girls (and some wimmin)

       9 likes

  20. StewGreen says:

    Not a surprise that the Wuhan lockdown didn’t eradicate the virus there

    New cases are reported daily in China with T+1.
    For example, Chinese news today reports 1 new case on 3/23 in Wuhan.
    If you can read Chinese news, you will see lots of info missing from English news
    .

       7 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      China had 78 new cases on Monday, the National Health Commission said, a two-fold increase from Sunday.
      Of the new cases, 74 were imported infections, up from 39 imported cases a day earlier.

      official stats are usually smaller than real world cases.
      https://mobile.reuters.com/article/amp/idUSKBN21B01X

         8 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Stew, do we know whether they were expat/tourist Chinese returning to be with family or to homes – and – more importantly, to which countries they had been?

           4 likes

  21. StewGreen says:

    JHB was going on about going shopping after coming out of quarantine
    saying both her and daughter had had the virus
    AFAIK she was never tested
    She said that she’d been to a party.
    And the days after a bunch of them had symptoms.

       8 likes

  22. Guest Who says:

    How much time the good Doc spends in surgery vs. BBC studios might be worth knowing.

       16 likes

  23. Up2snuff says:

    Music To Isolate By:

       10 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Don’t stand so close to me .

         11 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Good ‘un, Fed.

        Actually, if you want to see some manic drumming & a great close, their 2008 Japan tour finale in Tokyo ‘(Every breath you take) I’ll be watching you’ is worth hunting out from down the U-bend.

        The first time I watched it, I was distracted away from the screen and came back in the middle of some manic percussion. I thought “Oh ho ho! There’s going to be an on-stage punch up again!” (As a band they were famous for a couple of bouts of on-stage fisticuffs as well as off-stage.) I watched – riveted – from that point on.

        It was a relief to see the end. Wonderful audience.

        Sorry. Can’t post link right now. My internet is pathetically slow.

        Ah, got it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wdS-jpFgRo4

           6 likes

  24. Peter Grimes says:

    Not the rabid Leftoid Al Beeb, but Sky this morning. Fatty Boulton Skyping Ian Dale and one of Labour’s now typical, and increasingly few, voters, a writer for Tribune.

    Dale in front of a wall of books as befits a writer, journalist and publisher. The young, clearly middle class Tribunite broadcasting from an immaculately decorated rib vaulted room.

       13 likes

  25. Mackers says:

    The democrats are relying on a man with dementia (joe biden) to save them from jail.They may even be laughing behind closed doors at the madness of the situation they are in.(The sick puppies that they are)

       11 likes

  26. honestus says:

    In keeping with the ethos and the raison d’être of this site, I have studiously avoided being contaminated by the COVID 19 of the airwaves – BBC. The public information service (tax funded) that is…..not.
    I have expanded my horizon therefore to GMB, normally fairly sane….until the virus struck.
    Piers Morgan channeling his inner Private Fraser over the last couple of days is not only hard on the hearing but is one of those occasions where ‘i’m not helping much, am I’ truly and literally applies.
    He spent yesterday hysterically berating ‘morons’ for mixing. socialising and shopping in close proximity. Fair point-ish. Then attacked and talked over Matt Hancock in the most self-aggrandising instance of self promotion I have seen since last I watched BBC.
    Thus, whilst criticising ‘morons’ for not following reasonable government advice, he then undermines and traduces the competence of the Health Minister responsible for issuing said advice encouraging even more ‘morons’ to ignore it!
    Torn now. BBC and its known bias or the GMB Morgan ego inflation project. TV off switched activated.
    Fed, been a while though I read posts frequently. Keep up the sterling work as the beast is wounded and one can only hope, mortally.

       20 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Apart from listening to Boris at 8.30 last night, I think I have virtually given up on the BBC. So even when everything else I normally do is impossible, I am not turning to the BBC is desperation. Still watching Last of the Summer Wine on Drama and New Tricks seems to be on a lot at the moment but otherwise the tv is switched off. New Tricks is interesting. Started 2003 and ran until 2015. Watching several a week, I can see how the story lines became increasingly woke. Last night’s was about rendition flights to Guantanamo – it is a two parter so assume they will run the final part tonight. But Sandra is getting very cross about men being put on a plane who hadn’t been proven to be terrorists, who were then killed in a plane crash. If it was life rather than fiction, I would have been upset about the pilots etc who lost their lives in the crash, rather than the men they were transporting. Sandra is rather more angry that the passengers hadn’t gone through due process.

         15 likes

      • LynetteO says:

        Deborah, Have you come across an episode of New Tricks about the Holocaust that implied heavily that Jews were only concerned about their money. It was rather nasty!

           11 likes

        • R P McMurphy says:

          That will be the episode Ken Livingstone wrote, sounds right up his street.

             10 likes

    • AndyDozefeet says:

      I used to quite like Piers Morgan but having seen him in action this past couple of days I have to say that he’s behaving like a right tw@t. Not letting Matt Hancock answer any of his questions yesterday was bad enough – I really wanted Hancock to ask him “so Piers where did you study for your phd in Epidemiology/Virology?” Many people would have unhooked their mic and told him that they had far better ways to spend their time and terminated the interview. Hancock handled it well and it was quite telling that Morgan later made various references to the interview and tried to excuse/explain his approach.

      I saw him this morning giving Michael Gove a hard time. Gove had made an error explaining the policy on kids whose parents are separated and how they can or cannot move between both homes. He corrected the error 15 minutes later in an interview on bbbc and immediately apologised for the confusion on twitter. Morgan took this 15 minutes of slight confusion in a fast moving situation and turned it into a “this government is not on top of its brief” narrative for the next 2 hours.

      FFS Morgan I shouted at the telly, it’s gone now – he made a mistake and quickly rectified it – most people weren’t even up at that time let alone watching GMB. We all make mistakes especially when the pressure is so intense. Morgan is what I used to call a “touchline international” – never actually puts the boots on and plays the game, just uses hindsight to bitch about the errors made by those that do. I just wanted to punch the smug prick.

      I think that most people think that the Government is doing a decent job in very difficult and unprecedented circumstances. I am certainly in no doubt about what 99% of the advice is and the reasons behind it.

      I’ve heard it said many times now that “people just want to be told exactly what to do” and therein lies the issue. Most lefties want the state to run every aspect of their life, to ban things they don’t agree with, to outlaw opinions they don’t like, to bring up their children for them and to look after their parents. They have neither the intellectual capacity nor the motivation to work things out for themselves and fill in the little gaps.

         26 likes

      • honestus says:

        Andy,
        I was also an admirer of Morgans ability to puncture ego’s and get to the point. On this issue he has got it badly wrong and picking holes in government advice and constantly undermining their competence will have consequences and not just the ‘gotcha’ moment Morgan is patently so desperate for.
        NB, for what it’s worth, have made 3 complaints to GMB over Morgans misplaced ranting.

           2 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Honestus ,
      Thank you for your support . Piers Morgan has been at war on twitter for some time and may have ‘personal issues ‘

      As for the TV – I’m wondering what discerning viewers new to the charms of daytime BBC and BBC news think of it and its’ bias -which I suspect might get toned down a bit ?

      The consultation on the BBC compulsory licence fee is still open and readers are encouraged to submit their view .

      The structured bit on the Gov website seeks alternative funding methods and it is not really aimed at the Far Left anti British anti white male anti Judeo Christian that is the current BBC ….. yet …

      PBS america is on freeview and is showing ‘ The War’ documentary series showing how America won the war .

      One channel is repeating ‘ sharpe’ on saturdays where the director has to turn 20 blokes into a re enactment of the battle of waterloo ….

         10 likes

      • honestus says:

        Fed,
        no probs. Have made my views known re BBC and kept it civil and sane although I really want it shut down completely and replaced with a Fox News type channel catering for the views of the majority (still) who do not lean leftwards.

           3 likes

  27. theisland says:

    Jeff Taylor

    UK Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government
    Guidance: Further businesses and premises to close, p.1

    “Ensure a distance of two meters between customers and shop assistants”

    (Sorry, the lockdown has clearly made me even more pedantic than usual).

       9 likes

  28. Celtic_Mist says:

       6 likes

  29. BRISSLES says:

    I’ve often spoken on here about how money is constantly wasted within the NHS.

    Last week I received a letter cancelling a forthcoming appointment on 27 March. The following day I received two envelopes in the post with EXACTLY the same cancellation letter.

    Groundhog Day began. On Friday yet ANOTHER envelope arrived with yet another replica of the original letter.

    So far, I am free of any further communications, but wondered if they believe I have gone simple in the head and needed a constant reminder not to turn up on 27 March !!!!

       17 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @Brissles the thought police will be coming for you.
      These days the BBC & libmob… fetishise the NHS.
      That’s cultish behaviour.

      In our street of course some neighbours owe a lot to it, but one was killed by a simple mistake staff made on the day she was due to be released.. a nurse here is always on about the wastage and mis-management.
      Neighbours have on occasion driven to appointments 30 miles away, only to me told there’d been a mix up and that they did really need to come.

         12 likes

      • Fedup2 says:

        Stew
        I’ve ranted about the NHS here and elsewhere before. The health profession is a mafia and after the Chinese bug it will be even stronger . Not a word against it will be heard .
        As I write here recently – it’s an organisation where is a doctor doesn’t have PPE the PM and health sec is directly responsible – I wonder how many layers of management lay in between and their cost….

           18 likes

  30. Sluff says:

    Toady was totally desperate this morning with the whinge and cringe factor racked up to 11.
    The aim is so transparent. For every government announcement get out there and find someone….anyone……. who has slipped through the net and therefore whose case can be used to undermine and discredit government policy. Mischal is of course the master of this. Or do I mean mistress?

    I so wish some spokesperson would have the bottle to say to the BBC, ‘We’re looking to do our best for 65 million people and no system will be totally watertight so a few will inevitably miss out. But we don’t have time to p*** around while we try and devise the perfect system. So Mischal, would you kindly f*** off !’.

       38 likes

  31. StewGreen says:

    Re heavy handed policing
    Our local police have a softly softly technique
    Each officer has put out a phototweet saying
    “Here’s a photo of an empty street good to see people are observing the policy of staying at home.

    I do worry that the normally having people on the streets acts as a theft deterrent so now the bad-uns will be taking opportunities to break into more commercial premises.

       14 likes

  32. Sluff says:

    Given that there is almost nothing to spend money on, except for food, is the largesse of the government to pay 80% of salaries entirely justified?

       13 likes

  33. Beltane says:

    In times of crisis it’s always comforting to know that good old Polly will be hard at it, ladling her venom and negativity out in characteristically generous portions, via the absurdly mis-named ‘Guardian’.
    Apparently this elderly and desiccated spokesperson for the aloof and essentially unconcerned believes that the middle classes – she evidently excludes herself, can’t think why – will now feel the innate hardships of the Welfare State to an ever increasing degree and all, of course, thanks to Tory mis-government and self interest.
    It’s difficult to believe that her words are not penned with an unfortunate level of enthusiasm for the severity of the impending restrictions and privations, especially when you think the poor old dear can’t hide away in the Tuscan villa – although I would happily contribute to her airfare.

       21 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      The Guardian, you say?

      Just one of the #CCBGB

         18 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Other media are more honourable than the Guardian

           11 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘Honour’ is not a word I associate with that rag given the output of its current crop of weasels.

          No wonder its fetid pool is the one the BBC dips into most for one degree of separation ‘analysis’.

             5 likes

    • Sluff says:

      Further to Beltane’s above post.
      It may be timely to remember that the ‘world’s finest impartial broadcaster’ once employed Polly Toynbee as their Social Affairs Editor.
      I’m not sure whether the BBC still has one of these, or indeed had one before. Perhaps the thinking was ‘how can we get someone like Polly, who we know agrees with our agenda, on board’ ?

         3 likes

  34. StewGreen says:

    Cashmere crisis in India…must be the “climate catastrophe”.

    BBC News – The Cashmere crisis in the Himalayan ice desert
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-51708991

    The problem is Global Warming brings too much cold
    “The nomads and scientists alike are adamant that climate change is the biggest threat to Pashmina production in the region.
    “The Changthang plateau does not usually get much snowfall, and if it does, it begins in January or February.
    “However, for the last few years it has been increasingly heavy, starting as early as December, even November.”

       16 likes

  35. StewGreen says:

    R4 now talking about MEN using children as passports
    ..and the Home Office not questioning this

    The supposed Afghan refugee turn up in UK
    and say “I must get asylum I have a child”
    Yet HO doesn’t ask for proof that the mother has died.
    The lawyer says HO is facilitating child abduction.
    Said in EU camps there are lots of MEN with a single child.

       19 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Strange how the BBC never mention refugees….. /sarc
      The next R4 prog
      drama “When her father’s remains are found in a mass grave in Iraq,
      Mancunian Roza Riley returns to the war-torn country she fled as a child. “

      It’s a repeat from 2018
      I remember it cos they do speak some Kurdish that I recognise.

         10 likes

  36. Up2snuff says:

    TWatO Watch #1 – Not asking the right person why?

    The Montacutie decides (no doubt with help of Editor & Producer) to bash the Public. The public are the ones who pay the inflated BBC salaries, unless they have seen the light. Unwise, Sarah, very unwise.

    The irresponsible public, ignoring the PM’s request, have been crowding onto London Underground trains. What? All 66.5million of us?

    No. Just people in around London going to work – or trying to.

    I waited until near the end of the programme, expecting the Mayor of London (who makes the London tube trains run on time) to be invited on to talk about these irresponsible people going to work at Guys, St Thomas’s, Barts, Chelsea & Westminster, St Mary’s and all the other London hospitals but Sadiq Khan did not appear. Perhaps the Mayor is self-isolating?

    Margaret Atwood is. It’s because she has been flying between Ireland and Canada in a mobile incubation tube.

    Devious, BBC, and deceptive. OFF-switch.

       16 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      “The irresponsible public”
      Well look at it from the BBC’s point of view. We’re just the daft ha’p’orths who didn’t do what we were told over that Brext vote thing. Can’t we see our job is do as we’re told, pay more tax, be more diverse and of course pay the Licence Fee and not forgetting… not forget to clap when the Beeboids present one another with their annual awards for brilliance.

         16 likes

  37. Fedup2 says:

    As a level 1 self trained armchair critic – I’m not sure that the government has a decent grip on media releases – the aim being to reassure the public about the ability of the NHS to deal with a big spike in bad infections .

    I say this because – looking across twitter – there is good new stuff all over the place such as factories being converted to produce ventilator s or companies such as Diageo donating a million gallons of alcohol to convert into hand cleaner .

    Images of the army delivering stuff to hospitals ( I didn’t realise there are over over 1200) is good but I think people need more . Maybe they can get Blair’s mouthpiece back on the case again …..

    It just seems to me that with the government now imposing severe restrictions on the public – it should explain a bit more about what is going on .

       13 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Nobody could criticise the logic of those thoughts Fedup. It’s only that just perhaps the gov might be wary of too much publicising and explaining – thanks to certain unbiased news sources being prone to exaggerate the negative aspects.
      Using informed sources like Alistair Campbell, Polly Toynbee, John Ashton, Norman Smith, Sadiq Khan, Jon Sopel and many others of a similar bent can have drawbacks as regards providing dispassionate, balanced and even encouraging information.

         12 likes

    • JimS says:

      “As of 9am on 24 March 2020, a total of 90,436 people have been tested, of which 82,359 were confirmed negative and 8,077 were confirmed positive. 422 patients in the UK who tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19) have died.” UK Government statement.

      So roughly only one out of ten celebrities* tested has the virus and if there are over 1200 hospitals that is roughly 8 patients for each. (Hospitals come in a range of sizes and sick people always come in clusters. *Doesn’t the BBC only tell us about the celebrities?) .

         3 likes

  38. Fedup2 says:

    Beltane
    It’s just a shame that there isn’t a broadcaster – say – one which is funded out of the public purse – which could be used to broadcast good news – a bit like Public Information Films – to tell the public what is being done .

       14 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      “a broadcaster – say – one which is funded out of the public purse – which could be used to broadcast good news”

      I’m sorry, but that sounds absolutely excruciating. Can you imagine? It would be even more pious and worthy than the BBC is already. Given the current state of our liberal cultural elite it would be bound to excrete an endless ongoing dumbed down dose of diverse moralising to us plebs.

      As the Brexit deadlock worsened late last year I was tempted to wish for a written constitution. Then I stopped for a moment and pondered the kind of bien pensant legal activism dross that would inevitably be written in. Eee, yuck, bad bad idea.

         5 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Quite right Feds. Perhaps someone should do that – a bloke called Reith did it a few years back, but his work is ridiculed these days.

         6 likes

  39. StewGreen says:

    Sit Rep : I went into town to buy cereals
    Most people seemed to be working normal cos around here it’s all power stations and agriculture etc. not commerce.
    I saw tractors with trailers full of harvested carrots, construction workers pouring concrete etc.

    In town it was like a Wednesday afternoon, as the third of shops that sell food or pharmacy were open
    .. so people were around.
    In the Tescos it wasn’t crowded they had bread but no cornflakes.
    The staff were wearing gloves. I am not sure that helps
    but maybe you don’t touch your face if you are wearing gloves.
    A couple of customers were wearing masks and some walked with scarves over their faces. I found that bizarre , cos up until now there’s not been a confirmed case of anyone around this region walking around with Covid19. It wouldn’t surprise me if it is counterproductive.

    Over the road in Lidl they had a one in one out policy, a bit daft cos it wasn’t busy, they only had one till open.
    Lidl did have bread and cereals but was light on milk and had a whole empty aisle where toilet/kitchen roll should be.
    The park workers were mowing the lawns ..non-essential, but then they weren’t putting anyone at risk.

       13 likes

    • Beltane says:

      ‘Over the road in Lidl….they only had one till open…’
      As per normal then.

         15 likes

    • thirstypak says:

      Seem to recall Maxi living opposite a Lidl ? assuming the one in Utopia  ?

         6 likes

  40. BRISSLES says:

    Stew, maybe those wearing masks were told they were at ‘high risk’. I only say this because I’ve been told that I am, but not holding my breath waiting for the authorities to send me a food parcel, I have to fend for myself, so for the first time I DID wear a mask when going round the Co-op. Actually, receiving that sort of notification does put the bloody fear of God up you, so you practically want to cover yourself with bubble wrap when you do go out !!

       10 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @Brissles, I thought the high-risk were supposed to send someone else out to do their shopping ?

         4 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Actually you’re right, they are. But in my case I live on my own, so I’m a bit stymied for help, and just have to get on with it.

           2 likes

  41. digg says:

    The Holy Trinity, The BBC, The Guardian and the Independent are all singing a common tune with only three verses.

    Donald is very bad cos he keeps saying stuff that we can twist to bad news.

    Boris is very bad cos he is either not doing enough stuff or he is doing the wrong stuff.

    The NHS is divine but they are suffering because of the first two verses above.

    For Gods sake we all know your lefty intent just give it a rest and throw some encouragement out will ya!

    There will be plenty more opportunities for you three to push your stinking political agenda when not so many folk are actually suffering.

       23 likes

  42. Fedup2 says:

    I can’t remember seeing it reported on this site – or much elsewhere – because of events – but the son of the shadow Home Secretary pleaded guilty to assaulting police ( I think through biting ) in Whitehall in 2019 . Not much of a story now

    – nor the one about the Corbyn labour councillor dragged out of a pool in the canary island and arrested for breaching Spanish lockdown rules . Nice picture of her with comrade Corbyn in the Mail though ….

       17 likes

  43. LastChanceSaloon says:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_coronavirus_pandemic_in_the_United_Kingdom

    From the encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
    As of 2020-03-24 15:00 this article has 358 citations.
    Excluding 185 local, regional, Government and overseas citations; there are references to 173 documents from what may be described as national media.

    BBC
    5, 15, 20, 23, 26, 28, 37, 39, 42, 46, 49, 50, 53, 56, 57, 60, 62, 68,
    70, 72, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 82, 83, 85, 86, 90, 92, 95, 102, 108, 118, 130, 131, 144, 149, 158, 170, 171, 172, 173, 181, 183, 189, 190, 191, 193, 198, 202, 205, 209, 213, 214, 215, 216, 219, 220, 221, 222, 223, 225, 226, 228, 231, 236, 238, 240, 241, 243, 244, 245, 247, 249, 250, 251, 253, 270, 281, 282, 283, 286, 291, 292, 295, 296, 297, 298, 304, 312, 314, 317, 318, 319, 320, 323, 330, 348,
    Total 100
    Guardian
    8, 21, 43, 67, 91, 104, 107, 133, 148, 176, 179, 180, 182, 185, 186, 194, 196, 197, 199, 217, 218, 224, 227, 230, 279, 302, 316, Total 27
    Times
    4, 252, Total 2
    Observer
    44, 210 Total 2
    ITV News
    59, 71, 84, 96, 106, 192, 195, 248, Total 8
    Sky News/Sky Sports
    63, 88, 94, 98, 140, 159, 162, 229, 235, 257, 258, 266, 275, 293, 313, 329, Total 16
    Independent
    64, 87, 93, 120, 127, 129, 200, 203, 207, 255, 268, Total 11
    Telegraph
    65, 74, 145, 165, 233, 315, Total 6
    Mirror
    265, Total 1

    Conclusion – anyone can edit Wikipedia but only the hard left do.

       19 likes

    • Tabs says:

      I used to be quite an active editor of Wikipedia in the early days. Then as the years went on some of my pages that I created were totally removed without discussion and there was no chance given to edit it to the new lefty rules.

      For example, a wiki page about a webpage I created providing a free useful public service was “removed because it reads like an advert” but wiki pages for other websites like, say, Grindr can stay which ironically read just like an advert.

      Then I noticed that any citation from right wing press wasn’t allowed “as it is not a trustworthy source of information” and the edits got removed. An example of which was those editors, including me, trying to add edits of Brendan Cox’s sex pest allegations which only the right wing press would initailly report. For months the edits would be removed and now there is no mention of Brendan Cox other than he was Jo Coxs husband. I cannot even find the previous edits in the history pages now.

      Wikipedia is just like Twitter. The left have forced out any truth or other viewpoints than their own and anyone right of far left doesn’t bother using those sites anymore.

         16 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        Tabs “Wikipedia is just like Twitter”
        Yes Twitter turned partisan by removing blue ticks of conservatives
        ie it de-endorsed them

        You said a wiki page about a webpage I created providing a free useful public service was “removed because it reads like an advert”

        Doh, “One of the most frowned upon things in Wikipedia etiquette, however, is to edit one’s own page. ”
        I guess cos it would violate Neutral Point Of view

        “Wikipedia discourages, but does not prohibit, editing articles about yourself, your company, or similar subjects in which you are involved. Provided that you edit according to the rules, disclose your conflict of interest, and don’t participate in disputes, the community may or may not tolerate your participation.”

        Wikipedia is not supposed to be a primary source , but rather collate already published material
        On the premise that published material has somehow been through some sort of validation.

        So you could create a Freeware website
        The Guardian could write about it, as they often do with their pals projects.
        Then another pal can create a Wiki page citing the Guardian as the source.

        Of course that means its easy for Guardianland people to get in, and difficult for non-Guardian people.
        Of course the Daily Telegraph might pick up a conservative-project and write about it
        then that article could be cited in a Wiki article
        but that happens less than with Leftwing sources

           5 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Contexts
      https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/02/01/five-of-the-best-examples-of-left-wing-bias-on-wikipedia-in-2017/

      https://www.conservapedia.com/Examples_of_Bias_in_Wikipedia

      Heartland have a whole series of articles
      https://www.heartland.org/topics/infotech-telecom/Wikipedia/index.html

      Somewhere there will be a statistical study like LCS did

      BTW always look at the talk page for a Wiki article
      that gives you hints about what editors suppressed.

         5 likes

  44. StewGreen says:

    I see Ben Pile has opened up the debate against people
    who say “It’s simple isolating 66 million saves lives”

    He points the arguments are full colour complex
    not black and white simple

    eg. If there is no tax money being generated today
    then that does cut down the future live saving ability of the NHS etc.

       7 likes

  45. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    I’m surprised at the number of ‘Brits’ stuck abroad and having trouble trying to get home.
    I would not have flown off for a holiday this month as it was obvious that the situation was so volatile the cruise ships, airplanes and other countries would all be affected by an obvious looming crisis.

    Was it on here that someone mentioned that SARS, MERS and this Covid 19 all originated in Wuhan.
    What a coincidence that the Chinese virus laboratory just happens to be in Wuhan.
    It’s the place several books over the last few decades have mentioned as being the starting place for world level virus contagion.
    And the whole of China shares the eating habits and hygiene (eating bats and mandolins) as in Wuhan.
    So then, it must be the eating habits of the Wuhanese that caused it.
    About as likely as 3 x world pandemics all starting in Glasgow because of eating deep fried mars bars.

       19 likes

  46. StewGreen says:

    3pm R4 The arty worldwide documentary magazine show
    Topic today : Short documentaries about our changing climate with Josie Long.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000gl93

    FFS constant agenda pushing

    Next prog
    15:30 prog : Costing the Earth
    Turning Japan Green
    Can the Tokyo Olympics help create a greener Japan?

    11am Mantra about Greta

    11:30am Worldwide artists
    featured #1 Karabo Rabaloi (19) – an aspiring opera soprano in Cape Town, South Africa,
    #2 A 21yo Aborigine dancer in Australia

       5 likes

  47. Jeff says:

    As others have mentioned the BBC never fail to use every chance to put our country down.
    This afternoon Jeremy Vine had a caller, originally from England, but living in Spain. She was enthusing at how well the Spanish had handled the coronavirus compared to the embarrassing, incompetent and greedy Brits.
    “There are no crowds and no queues” she told us “everyone is well behaved” she continued “and I look at the hopeless way this is being handled in Britain. The country’s become an embarrassment.”
    As you can imagine Vine loved this call, I could almost hear him purring…
    However, about three minutes later there was the news and (believe it or not) we heard that police in Spain have had to break into a number of old people’s homes and rescue the residents. Their “carers” had fled the coronavirus leaving the helpless residents to die of starvation.
    Can you imagine the justified outrage if this happened here?

    Stick that in your pipe, Jeremy…

       32 likes

    • Beltane says:

      There seem to be a spate of these ‘desperate phone calls from ex-pats living in Spain’. All have a common theme, blaming the government and Boris in particular for the ‘mis-handling of the situation…’
      Luckily we’re savvy enough by now to spot an agenda when force-fed by Twitter and Facebook.

         13 likes

    • JimS says:

      Could it be that in her experience or that in the pictures shown on Spanish TV there are no queues? Whereas if there is a queue in the UK, anywhere, the BBC will find it so as to encourage queuing everwhere.

      When it comes to pictures I never trust the BBC. They seem to work on the principle that they are only ‘responsible’ for the words and the pictures are only supposed to be typical of what might be seen. Their website is particulary bad in this respect.

      I was watching a report at the weekend in which they were talking about problems at Tesco in Telford. What fascinated me was that the video showed a telephone exchange in the south of Birmingham, then the camera panned to show the Tesco just across the road, only 40 miles from Telford!

         5 likes

  48. Tabs says:

    I wonder how long before the BBC start having Owen Jones, Ash Sakar etc into their studio to discuss re-running the Referendum and General Election again now that alot of old Tory Brexiters have died of Coronavirus leaving behind the young pro EU Labour supporters?

       20 likes

  49. Fedup2 says:

    Tabs
    I think a bigger danger is that the ReichEU – having been hit in the face by a nationalist brick – will try to reconfigure to fight what will be demands for the end of unrestricted border crossings – the end of ‘free movement ‘.

    Any politician in the future who tries to do what Merkel did by importing the third world will be signing their career death warrant . But sadly there’s a while to go before that is addressed …

    I fear also that in the longer term we are going to be even more regulated than we already are ….

       12 likes

  50. Terminal Moraine says:

    I’m sure some or all of you have received the warning text message from the Government today. CBS News reports that “Traffic control measures are being officially lifted in Hubei, outside of Wuhan, starting Wednesday […] However, anyone leaving the province will need a government-issued QR code as proof that they are healthy…”

    And when the vaccine arrives, will it be voluntary or will the unclean start to discover that they’re not able to book coaches, trains or planes because they haven’t got Government approval?

    It’s been happening in China for a while. Coming soon to the UK?

       8 likes