430 Responses to Start the Week Thread 6 April 2020

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  1. taffman says:
    April 7, 2020 at 4:32 pm

    “The coronavirus pandemic has exposed deep divides in Europe, with EU member states arguing over how to tackle the economic fallout.”
    This must be pretty serious if Al Beeb is reporting it ?
    But what are they ‘not’ reporting , maybe we got out just in time ?
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-52200719

       16 likes

  2. digg says:
    April 7, 2020 at 4:38 pm

    The BBC playing a cat and mouse game over Boris’s confinement, Lots of questions on who is running the cabinet? is it a minority group of MP’s? etc. etc. the trend seems to be moving towards pushing for a coalition government so that can help to get a lefty stooge with his or her hands on the levers. maybe postpone Brexit, raise the question of another referendum or even an election?

       28 likes

  3. theisland says:
    April 7, 2020 at 4:50 pm

    It would be pleasing to the nation if Dom Raab did NOT give the first question to the bBC today. There is no reason whatsoever why they should be first.

       34 likes

    • theisland says:
      April 7, 2020 at 5:11 pm

      🙁

         12 likes

    • Dystopian says:
      April 7, 2020 at 8:01 pm

      I want to know who is in charge too, the government or the BBC?
      Did anyone notice Raab asking Kuensberg “Is that ok, Laura, do you want to come back [with another question]?”
      For gods sake why can’t they just be like the POTUS, one question, there’s your answer, like it or lump it…NEXT?

         19 likes

  4. JamesArthur says:
    April 7, 2020 at 5:15 pm

    Laura K….typical repeat question..who is in charge? Who makes decisions? Doesn’t she get it….it runs like any senior management team…why does the BBC keep asking the same bloody questions and now Peston asking the same questions…

    and Sky – asking how so many of the Government team got the virus – as an accusation…

    I think it would be better if the MSM were all put in isolation…I am glad I have steered off all MSM today until now

       39 likes

    • gb123 says:
      April 7, 2020 at 5:26 pm

      They didn’t seem to kick up much of a stink when the Chinese threw out all the foreign journalists. I wonder what would happen if the UK did the same. Most of the media here seem to have an allegiance to some other entity rather than the UK. Could be Heseltine’s Yerp.
      The lack of support and rationality in a crisis is making me think the inbound delivery trucks, ships, migrant rafts and aircraft could have a useful backload.

         19 likes

    • BRISSLES says:
      April 7, 2020 at 5:37 pm

      It seems the job of the journalist nowadays is to pick up on anything they can criticise and pick at it like an itchy scab.

      Nothing is ever ok in the world of a reporter, nothing positive, no humour, no ‘niceness’. They must be hell to live with at home.

         38 likes

      • Up2snuff says:
        April 7, 2020 at 6:01 pm

        Brissles, they do have a high divorce rate. If they just stuck to reporting news, in a strictly neutral way, I think a lot of them would be much happier. They probably feel some or a lot of guilt at their being ‘slanted’.

        That said, when you are an ardent ‘Wrongist’ that very fact must nag at you all the time like bad toothache.

           11 likes

    • Dystopian says:
      April 7, 2020 at 8:04 pm

      Did anyone notice how the BBC (Laura) didn’t begin by offering best wishes to the PM (or did I miss that?)I did notice the Sky reporter did.

         16 likes

  5. Fedup2 says:
    April 7, 2020 at 5:28 pm

    Briefing watch

    It took 24 minutes before a journo – from the evening standard -started asking ‘questions for grown ups ‘ about Testing , Care-homes and the like …

    And PPE wasn’t mentioned once .

       24 likes

  6. Up2snuff says:
    April 7, 2020 at 6:41 pm

    The UK Health Authorities are having trouble getting their sums done again. After a few days of much prompter reporting it looks like being closer to 9 p.m. than 9 a.m. again today.

    It provides an opportunity to remind of this from The Conservative Woman web-site on 1 April: https://conservativewoman.co.uk/death-rate-data-is-a-meaningless-muddle/

    However, this is very interesting if true from today: https://conservativewoman.co.uk/coronavirus-project-fear/

    This from the article by Will Jones caught my eye:

    ” It is dismaying to find any government pursuing a propaganda agenda designed to mislead the populace into compliance.

    Is this why the official German advice is now against autopsies of test-positive deceased persons, so that the distinction between deaths from and with Covid-19 can be lost entirely? The stated reason is to protect against infection, but one pathologist at least is suspicious:

    ‘Up to now, it has been a matter of course for pathologists to carry out autopsies with appropriate safety precautions even in the case of infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, tuberculosis, prion diseases etc. It is quite remarkable that in a disease that is killing thousands of patients all over the world and bringing the economy of entire countries to a virtual standstill, only very few autopsy findings are available (six patients from China). From the point of view of both the epidemic police and the scientific community, there should be a particularly high level of public interest in autopsy findings. However, the opposite is the case. Are you afraid of finding out the true causes of death of the positively tested deceased? Could it be that the numbers of corona deaths would then melt away like snow in the spring sun?’ “

       16 likes

  7. Sluff says:
    April 7, 2020 at 7:11 pm

    Up2
    You’re right to be suspicious of this.
    Looking at the death certificates of family members who I knew there are some surprising causes which bear little relation to what we knew about their condition.

    My father died of pneumonia. That’s official.
    The fact that he was in a care home on the EMI side, had severe dementia, was bed bound, could no longer speak or recognise, was doubly incontinent and had to be helped to eat- none of that was recorded.
    So……….what did he really die of? and how does his description of Pneumonia contribute to greater statistical understanding?

       17 likes

    • Up2snuff says:
      April 7, 2020 at 7:56 pm

      Sluff, same for some close relatives of mine.

      Then, more recently, a friend of mine died of old age; she had reached 102 years old. The Doc signed her Death Cert having put down ‘Old Age’ as cause of death and then, some days later, went away on two weeks holiday. The family put Funeral and Thanksgiving Service plans into operation. The Will directed cremation. The Crematorium looked at the Death Cert and said “Sorry, no can do. That’s not a legal reason for being dead. The Doctor needs to amend the Certificate.”

      By now, the GP had started the holiday and everything had to wait for about three or four weeks until the paperwork was ‘adjusted’.

         8 likes

  8. Doobster78 says:
    April 7, 2020 at 7:21 pm

    A BBC box ticker has got Piers Morgan’s back up.

       4 likes

    • StewGreen says:
      April 7, 2020 at 8:20 pm

      Eshaan Akbar now using the stage name Michael Pakintyre
      is a fast-rising comedy talent.
      He has appeared on the BBC and SKY TV, as well as on BBC Radio 4’s “The Now Show”, BBC Asian Network, and is a regular on TalkSPORT

      .. In this skit he parodies a middle class white person praising Piers Morgan for his praising immigrants

      He mocks the white people asserting they only praise immigrants if they put their life on the line.

      AFAIK people are respected if they fit in and don’t cause trouble.
      eg hard workers are praised and drug gangs not.

      Piers is outraged at this attempt at comedy.
      .. it is an attempt , it isn’t funny
      .. and does seem to be racist smear.

         13 likes

  9. Guest Who says:
    April 7, 2020 at 7:23 pm

    Will this involve wardrobe malfunctions?

       5 likes

  10. Guest Who says:
    April 7, 2020 at 7:24 pm

    Essential.

       26 likes

  11. gb123 says:
    April 7, 2020 at 7:46 pm

    Do we have some remote island we can put these journos on?

    I dimly remember a sketch about Whicker Island. Not sure what programme was on and haven’t researched it. Too busy having some Cachaça.

       8 likes

    • Up2snuff says:
      April 7, 2020 at 7:59 pm

      gb, was it Monty P? Michael Palin doing the Alan Whicker bit?

      Quite ironic in view of some of the programmes that Palin got to do after Monty P.

         6 likes

      • gb123 says:
        April 7, 2020 at 9:04 pm

        That was it! Lots of Whickers all babbling at the same time saying the same thing.

           3 likes

  12. StewGreen says:
    April 7, 2020 at 7:53 pm

    From the BBC who spend half their sowing division by with their inverted racism.

       12 likes

  13. Dazed and Confused says:
    April 7, 2020 at 8:02 pm

    It seems that even Peirs Morgan can’t believe the calibre of people that currently work for the BBC.

       6 likes

  14. Non Snowflake says:
    April 7, 2020 at 8:04 pm

    Someone mentioned earlier that The Goon Show was on bBBC radio this evening.

    So, anyway, at approx 7.03pm I go onto the bBBC website, go to the “Sounds” page, where I can see the current schedule for all bBBC radio stations.

    Radio 1 – Annie Mac (Female)
    Radio 1 Xtra – Jamz Supernova (Female and BAME)
    Radio 2 – Sara Cox (Female)
    Radio 3 – No specific DJ mentioned
    Radio 4 – Ditto but the photo is of a Female
    Radio 4 Xtra – The Goon Show. Three white men. Phew.
    Radio 5 Live – Kelly Cates (Female)

    I think I’ve found the criteria to get on bBBC radio if you’re white and male. Be dead. And then you can’t argue.

       12 likes

    • Up2snuff says:
      April 7, 2020 at 8:52 pm

      Wallace Greenslade voice: “Ahem, four white men, please.”

      Max Geldray “Oi vey, mate, make that five, don’t forget old Conk at the back!”

      Wallace Greenslade voice: “I do beg your pardon. Of course, if our friend Non Snowflake had bothered to consult a copy of the modestly priced Radio Times, available for a mere three copper pennies or six half pennies or a three penny bit or twelve farthings or a sixpence with some change in return – ready, I might add, for the purchase of the following week’s edition – he or she would have been able to consult page forty-seven and three-quarters.

      On that page there is a full list of the ensemble, including a Mr Ray Ellington (BAME) and led by my good self as Introductioner Extrordinaire with added polish and good looks.”

         6 likes

    • StewGreen says:
      April 7, 2020 at 9:27 pm

      @Non-Snowflake I just checked
      12 BBC Radio Networks
      – R1 Female presenter Annie Mac (despite using a male photo)
      – R2 female presenter Jo Whiley
      – BlackNetwork 1X : female
      – BrownNetwork* : male … *Brown cos the Asian network never has any Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Filipinos on etc
      – R3 White orchestra
      – R4 prog about *the Labour Party *
      – R6 : white male Marc Riley
      – R Scotland : White male (musician Ricky Ross big SNP guy)

      EVBsAmdWoAE2L-Y.jpg:small

         3 likes

  15. fakenewswatcher says:
    April 7, 2020 at 9:27 pm

    Media hype. Would it be nasty to observe that they appear to be loving this particular crisis? Here we all are, entranced participants in what appears to resemble a science fiction movie. I dread to think of the future: the media are going to continue to feast on this, if the party in power let them…

    Raab the Reluctant needs to be a little firmer and ditch the pretence that Boris is out there, leading us into battle. We all wish Boris well, and a speedy recovery for all those who are ill; for the time being, however, a deputy takes over and continues business as usual. That too, is what POLITICS and GOVERNMENT are for: leadership in whatever crises would lift us out of the water and dash us against the rocks.

    A fine spectacle it would make, so we must deprive the media in general, but one mischief-maker, in particular, of the pleasure. Get on with it, Dominic, and don’t be shy. The hour has come…

       11 likes

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