370 Responses to Start the Week Thread 13 July 2020

  1. Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

    The last item on R4’s short 10 a.m. news was the postponement of the launch of the joint Arab mission to Mars due to bad weather at the launch site in Japan.

    The first item on Woman’s Hour, immediately after this, was an apology (yes!) by presenter Jane Garvey for this delayed launch, the justification seeming to be that they had featured the mission in a previous edition.

    There is quite a lot to unpack here: why is this a Woman’s Hour story in the first place? Why did Garvey feel the need to apologize? Why even mention it, when it had just been adequately covered on the news? Why the glum tone at what is a fairly regular occurrence (launch delayed by weather) rather than, say, something more serious such as an explosion shortly after take-off of an unmanned rocket?

    Yet more casual BBC bias, not damning by itself but very much part of the Agenda.

       28 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      ‘ joint Arab mission to Mars’ ?

      I guess they heard it’s a desert up there.

         16 likes

    • JimS says:

      “why is this a Woman’s Hour story in the first place?”

      Didn’t you realise it’s an all-female mission, (in the BBC’s mind)?

      As women are from Venus and men from Mars I can only assume that the UAE women are looking for replacement men?

         13 likes

      • JamesArthur says:

        Oh yes I heard the original report- 44% of team are female….that was the big part of the story – and in the UAE…

        No real interest in the real story – the mission – just how come 44% are female…that’s BBC for you….

        and Garvey-train like Vine and Montague has that on air sickly whine voice when she attempts to feign emotion….it must be part of BBC training

           12 likes

  2. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    I’ve seen many articles and comments saying the vast majority of face masks are completely useless. You might as well wear a hair net over your mouth as the virus is so small it freely moves through the masks as you breath in and out.

    There are proper masks which filter out some of the virus but these are over £30 each and are only effective for a few hours.

    If the government is serious about masks making you safe then it should issue, free of charge, these high quality masks in packs of 100 to every one of us so that we can effectively stop transmitting this virus in shops. Anything less than that is just an ineffective waste of time and effort and will only result in closing thousands of smaller shops.

    As with immigration and a whole host of other issues, we are let down by those voted in who said they would do as we asked.

    This government is proving to be completely useless with Boris and Priti both being huge disappointments.
    It’s a libdem government.

    When will we ever get a Conservative government or even better, a Farage led government. It’s what we need but why will it never happen. There’s enough of us to make it happen but we always fail.

       47 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      EG, you are right. Medical masks are designed to protect the near-corpse with the open skin/exposed organs on the operating table and allow surgeons and doctors to give instructions and warnings to each other and also to the nurses assisting. The medical team are also gloved and now, in the post-HIV/AIDS era, also wear faceshields to guard against blood splatter.

      Think some surgeons also have optional magnifiers that they can flip into place to give them a better sight of what they are about to slice. Increasingly though, operations – especially those involving micro-surgery – will be done by robots and computer controlled because the extra precision will allow finer movements than that of human.

      On the TCW w-s I think someone mentioned the standard particulate size for breath/cough/sneeze moisture as 0.25 of a micron but that Covid-19 (and I assume other viruses) can have a particulate size of half that.

      https://conservativewoman.co.uk/why-masks-are-a-waste-of-time/

      It may be in the comments.

         11 likes

  3. StewGreen says:

    9:45am LBC is pushing “non-mask wearers are selfish”
    Ferrari is on holiday

       14 likes

  4. harry142857 says:

    Another from Alex

    BBC J*r*my Vi*e and the convict.

       18 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      JVine is a disgusting hypocrit, like almost all who work at the foul corporation.

         25 likes

  5. Beltane says:

    How horrid life must be for poor old Polly-T with the constant drip of poison fuelling her pen, very possibly through a direct feed from her colostomy bag.
    Her latest Guardianabsurdity enjoys the headline: ‘Ending free licences for the over-75s is Johnson’s first step to dismantling the BBC.’
    Well Pol, clever old vulture that you are, the sad truth is that the BBC itself plans to renege on their agreement to fund the licence fee in return for a price hike and the on-line requirement.
    But then, you knew that, didn’t you? We all did.
    Better by far to give the simple facts a complicated twist despite the sad reality that your efforts will only be read by a dwindling number of minds similar to your own decrepit Chianti-clogged cells.

       53 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      I suppose ol’ Pol has to write at least something to get the dander up for all the sad old lefties she writes for!

      Of course, it’s the BBC struggling at the last post, and piddling about with the TV tax – like you say, we all know it’s the end of the state-funded broadcaster, and the old bitch is becoming more irrelevant every day, as the dying embers of a once-great corporation are de-flickered by the lefties, who could never understand, want some sort on rise-up, realise they’re too old, and go and dry out in Tuscany.

         16 likes

  6. In The Real World says:

    Coming up soon , a Beeb program about Global warming .
    They have contacted an eminant scientist to , [probably ] , do a hatchet job on him & anybody who tells the truth .
    https://wattsupwiththat.com/2020/07/13/bbc-asks-dr-willie-soon-to-respond-to-climate-conspiracy-claims/

    His reply is spot on about the AGM lies etc , so will be interesting to see if they ignore it or will just tell more lies about how he did not reply or something like that .

       19 likes

  7. AsISeeIt says:

    Latest from the topsy-turvy world of London’s Sheer Khant

    Transport for London urges us to walk

    ‘As London reopens, we want to help you make walking part of your day… Yours sincerely, Chris Macleod, Director of Customer and Revenue’

    Just the one customer, apparently.

    Next up, Sainsbury’s marketing director to persuade us to go hungry?

       26 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      AISI, maybe it’s some reverse marketing: TfL was said to be in financial trouble before the Lockdown because increasing numbers of previous ‘customers’ (they were passengers in the good ol’days) were walking and cycling because of the Mayor’s fare hikes, the possibility of being involved in a terrorist attack and the sheer overcrowding on buses and underground trains in London.

      Even on my rare-ish visits to my hometown, when I used public transport I have lost count the number of times I have been unable to use a station because it is closed due to passenger numbers. These were multi-line/multi-platform stations and it was not just one platform closed for safety reasons, it was the whole station, like Bond Street, Oxford Circus or Bank.

      Maybe Chris Macleod was hoping that by asking people to walk or cycle they would do the opposite and come back to fill his empty trains and buses?

         7 likes

  8. NISA says:

    Spot the difference

    The Rise of the Murdoch Dynasty BBC2 9pm

    Rise of the Nazis BBC4 8pm

       15 likes

  9. gb123 says:

    Judging from the idiotic U turns and dumb advice which is, in part being egged on by the media I expect the following.
    Once it is discovered masks are causing breathing difficulties and those with specs being unable see whilst shopping a bright spark will officially suggest cutting some holes in the mask. That is my chocolate teapot theory on official advice.

       22 likes

  10. infoquest says:

    Hey you guys.
    This morning’s announcement that we will soon have to wear gags when going to Asda made me really, really cross.
    I spent many minutes thinking seriously about having the shopping delivered.
    Then a brainwave struck – and I am now actually looking forward to wearing a mask.
    I searched on the interweb for ‘personalised face masks’, chose a supplier, downloaded the Defund the BBC logo from their facebook page and uploaded it onto the gag suppliers page and Bingo!
    It wasn’t cheap. And I can wear it if I’m ever approached for a vox pop. Happy bunny, lower blood pressure.

       51 likes

    • smoogie7 says:

      Wear can you get a defund the BBC facemask from?

      I would have no problem with that and it would be a good way of mocking the BBC if everyone wears one and while they are out and about selecting people to audience and are then reminded of how unpopular they are

         21 likes

    • JimS says:

      Can you get Papa Lazarou masks? Wi iz aahl blek naah, innit?

      How about one with a print of a closed zip across the mouth?

      Or a Planet of the Apes one?

      Or, for those old enough, a cowboy-style bandanda. Then you and your mates can gather in the corner of Asda’s car park, mask up and ride on in, outlaw style! (Vision of electric disability scooters in a rush!)

         11 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        I can’t wait to get – fully masked – to a checkout and point a banana at the checkout assistant and say “This banana is loaded and I’m not afraid to eat it.”.

        Was that an old Goodies skit? Some masked toughs try to hold up the supermarket cashier pointing bananas at him or her. The cashier says “They police are here” and points. As the villains – distracted – all turn to look behind them, the cashier pulls the top off a small pineapple with their teeth and throws it at the stick-up gang where it promptly explodes like a grenade.

           7 likes

  11. LastChanceSaloon says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-53397403
    Coronavirus: Manicures return as nail bars in England reopen
    All the manicuists are white!
    All the customers are black!

    More anti white RACISM from the WHITE-HATING BBC.

    Shut it down, jail the BBC racists.

       31 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Clicked and scrolled down to the rainbows & NHS logo nails

      I was almost sick in my mouth.

         11 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @LCS no the page is 50% black

      The biz featured seems to have one Nigerian partner & one Russian
      at a guess

         6 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @LCS the BBC’s story now has first photo
      where the manicurist is the Russian girl
      – Photo #2 them both
      Photo #3 and #4 the black girl working

         0 likes

  12. AsISeeIt says:

    In view of the mask order which I deeply regret as being pointless and counter-productive I have decided to go for on-line food orders & doorstep delivery.

    This is probably exactly what the mega grocers wanted and I do sympathise with the smaller independent shops but what can I do?

    I will not clap the NHS, bend the knee to BLM, or nappy shop.

    I have cancelled my TV Licence & I will now not vote Tory so long as the masked buffoon face is fronting.

       43 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      And, AsIs, I’m convinced that the ‘happy hour’ for oldies between 8 and 9, is to get shot of old stock, stack the shelves with costly items, leave a load of blanks, and wait until 9.00am to get the real punters in for the rush.

      They’re only market traders after all, no skill, just cheats who must get the money a.s.a.p.

      (Anyone ‘working’ for the BBC will, of course, ignore this as Harrods are likely to deliver).

         12 likes

      • infoquest says:

        Scrob – I thought at first you were referring to the oldies as old stock.

           5 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          Sozza, Info – colonic outbreak or whatever…

          Actually, you may well be right!

          :0~

             2 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Scrobie, please – Waitrose.

        Waitrose for the Beeboids, not HA Rods

        As I’m limiting my exposure to the Knaves of Wegativity a.k.a. BBC R4, please can I (we all) have an update as to the progress of the fruit & veg on your patch as you and Mrs S are probably – along with Stew – some of our Faves of Vegactivity?

        How does your garden grow?

           10 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          Well, funny you should ask, Up2, but today was the first day for a pile of runners and French beans! Senora O’Blene cooked a splendid pork chop, and the whole lot was pretty damn good, although we say it ourselves!

          The ‘Sungold ‘ tomatos are just getting going in quantity, but there is a bit of ‘Blossom End Rot’ on the ‘San Marzano’, because the sodding weather keeps changing, and if they get too dry, they give the finger and sulk, then go black around their bums

          Carrots are on their way in buckets, up high, to keep carrot fly away, springs are just to die for, as they’re in trays, again high up, and getting the sun where it’s needed!

          I picked two pounds of blackcurrants today, and will do a similar amount tomorrow, and the ‘Xenia’ goosegogs are on their way to the freezer, after a short foray in the pantry as raw delectables.

          The ‘American Salad’ is getting a bit large at the tips, so some successional sowing is on the cards if it rains tomoz, and the same for ‘Wild Rocket’, and ‘Wildfire Rocket’, which are similar, but the latter is fleshier, and less inclined to bite!

          I had a small ‘Bruschetta’ this evening, with a small spring onion, on an array of five slices from a day-old baguette, with Basil (no, not the Brush, the plant), Senora O’Blene made do with a ‘Korkers’ snag, (sausage), and a fresh baguette, and the whole shebang is being finalised with several glasses of the Home-made Tincture of choice (pensions you see), which is a version of Mr Berry’s ‘Christleton’, a severely addictional concoction of elderberries, dry cider, sugar etc, taking three weeks to mature, and less to consume! (We’ve been making it since 1974. Email me at Scroblene@gmail.com if you’d like the recipe)!

          I’m sure you’d like to know less than all this, but as we don’t watch television, we spend much more time chatting with real people, not sit on our arses, watching the dross on the BBC!

          Enjoy what’s left of your evening! I’m off to watch a ‘Minder’ from the days when there were good TV progs!

          Sorry, I meant to say that the car park for Waitrose is closer to the chemist, where I had to pick up a prescription! I also fancy one of the birds there, but Senora O’Blene just laughs in a particular way…)!

          :0~

             10 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            Scrobie, Wow! You and Mrs S have done really well. Great stuff!

            I might nominate you for the GQT Panel if there’s ever a vacancy.

            My neighbours have got the fruit & veg growing bug but I noticed the Large Whites (a.k.a. Cabbage Whites) fluttering under the anti-bird netting in the last few days. Am glad the little perishers have kept well away from you. I might try some serious kitchen window attempts some time but the thought of home grown runner beans (not possible indoors) does appeal.

            Raised beds it will have to be for them then. The slug & snail population is substantial around here and they have altitude as well as attitude.

            E-m address is noted. Ta!

               7 likes

            • Scroblene says:

              Can you get an allotment, Up2?

              It depends on where you live of course, but that would be the place to go for runners, if you can, and a home garden isn’t possible!

              Don’t worry about the weak BBC trend to make everything ‘organic’. It’s a meaningless term for more expensive food, and not an attractive proposition for most gardeners!

                 0 likes

              • Up2snuff says:

                Scrobie, am not keen to spend time travelling to an allotment, even if there are any in the vicinity.

                My ‘organic’ garden is because whenever I go to the garden centre/d-i-y shop and look at the rows of chemicals and read the labels, I end up so confused I resent spending money for something that might not work or do what I want it to do and walk out. I actually have a load of ancient chemicals, inherited from relatives, that may now be banned and they would probably lay waste to the whole southern half of the UK.

                Am inclined to try a raised bed in my wild garden (it becomes ‘a feature’ – what’s not to like?) and then I can put in slug/snail barriers around it. Besides, I’m trying to encourage the rest of the wildlife to enjoy the garden with the exception of the large whites & their little offspring. They are banned!

                   0 likes

    • Dave S says:

      Sound advice to us all.

         2 likes

    • Banania says:

      Had you thought of printing your own exemption badge? Several are available on line, or you can design your own. No one is entitled to have details of whatever disability you have. In my case it is intense rage mingled with humiliation, but I won’t specify that on my badge.

         10 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Ban, LOL x 5.

        My disability? Puzzlement. And bemusement. Despair. And wonder at the total illogicality of it all. Plus an intense interest in what it all might lead to. Bingo! Full house! Can I get compo?

        If I was on the Baring of Britain, I’d get a bonus point from Mr Davies.

           4 likes

    • oldcrone says:

      AsIseeit…. after doing all my own shopping throughout this lock down period … I too am disgusted with the way this Gov’t has capitulated to the media regarding the wearing of masks in supermarkets.

      I also am withdrawing from any personalised “shop” shopping and may have an alternative for you rather than the home delivery route .. which I can never find any slots for anyway.

      Click and collect (usually Sainsbury and Tesco) .. doesn’t cost anything … you do it online and it’s all bagged up and transferred to your car in the car park. So no mask !!

      I am cutting down my shopping lists and becoming more frugal with frozen, jars and tinned so that I won’t have to buy things as often.

      Perhaps if enough people boycott shopping, apart from the absolute necessities, this damned spineless LibDem Gov’t might get the message,

      Banania … thanks for the info on the exemption badge !

         7 likes

  13. upandatem says:

    What is it with these royals that makes them think they can preach to the rest of us about how we can improve our miserable lives? Charles and climate Armageddon, William and male depression, Harry and white privilege and now Kate, supporting some nonsense that the BBC has dreamt up – Tiny Happy People. More evidence, if it was needed, that the BBC thinks we are all stupid, need looking after and told how to think. I’ve never really thought much about the Royals but now, they’re seriously beginning to hack me off.

       30 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      The BBC needs the kids for a particular reason (mainly future money).

      Soon, they’re being de-funded, and with fading foobull ‘names’, and worse ‘comediennes’, and the girls trying to be ‘funny’, they’ll struggle of course.

      As for the Kate story, forget it, the rest can go hang as well, and we’ll watch ‘Minder’, from when the BBC did real progs, not piss about with vanities.

         10 likes

  14. Fedup2 says:

    Seems like a few in the government are going to have to give the bribes back to the chinks if it is as reported that the Chinese security service ‘techy’ firm isn’t going to be taking over GCHQ and the UK military command and control system after all .
    I think we can expect a few ‘ no service ‘ signs turning up on the internet….. although I reckon they’ll go for the power supply …

       18 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Fed, what makes me chuckle is the fact that Huawei kit is embedded in our 2G, 3G and 4G networks already and those do not work properly anyway. It was quite stupid of the PM to go with Huawei when Surrey Satellite Technology built some 5G kit for the International Space Station in just a few months.

      I was waiting for Rory Cellan-Jones to remember that he did an investigation into 3G & 4G on TWatO today, but he forgot.

      OK, so that is very concentrated and rather different than a UK wide network but if SST can do it, surely our best techie brains can do a start-up here, with funding from HMG, and build the stuff using all the unemployed Brits post-Pandemic. The Co. can then be privatised later to provide Rishi Sunak with ‘a nice little earner’.

         5 likes

  15. Eddy Booth says:

    Only bright side to the face masks hoop jumping order, is that some of the mouthy jobworth supermarket staff (sorry colleagues or is it now comrades …) will have to wear them all day long.

    If Carlsberg did Covid advice:
    Picture of a Golden brown woman lying on the beach:
    “I sunbathe to protect you.
    Please sunbathe to protect me”
    Covid hates Vitamin D…

       12 likes

    • infoquest says:

      BBC reporting that supermarket staff do NOT have to wear them (although Vine contradicted that message at lunch time).

         9 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        If they work, then not having supermarket staff wear them surely undermines the whole exercise.

           8 likes

  16. LastChanceSaloon says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-5340102
    2020-07-14 13:45
    “US executes first federal prisoner in 17 years”

    “US murderer Daniel Lewis Lee has been put to death…”

    [
    Photograph of white male
    Make up your mind BBC, executed or put to death?
    Donald Trump is to blame, I am amazed he was not convicted for murder.

    AlBeeb provides the names of three other convicts scheduled for execution soon.
    All three are white!

    Affirmative action, no blacks being executed despite their higher conviction rate.
    ]

       23 likes

  17. StewGreen says:

    2:15 R4 drama repeat .. About Cantonese culture
    but BBC can’t resist making the boyfriend black.

       15 likes

  18. AsISeeIt says:

    Political divide. Cultural divide. Truth divide.

    It comes to my attention that Gallup has polled Americans about whether or not they are wearing masks.

    90% of Democrats say they are wearing masks.

    50% of Republicans say they are wearing masks.

    Obviously many Democrats are lying. Clearly they are not 90% wearing masks.

    But, Democrats have received the message that to be a virtuous good citizen they ought to be wearing a mask.

    Republicans may perhaps resent the orders to wear masks but what is clear from the polling is that they are rather more truthful.

       20 likes

    • Banania says:

      Which goes to support my belief that mask-wearers voted Remain and read the Guardian.

         12 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        Banania, that would mean that Leave really won the Brexit vote by 80% to 20% Remain. Perhaps the count was fiddled ….. ?

           3 likes

  19. Sluff says:

    I wonder how our world class NHS heroes are doing today.
    Mmmmmm.
    Not very well.
    Again.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-53397333

    ‘A hospital trust at the centre an inquiry over baby deaths has been told to improve its emergency department’.

    The BBC report these stories as if they are all one-off blips and refuse point blank to join the dots, instead idolising uncritically an organisation the public are constantly brainwashed into thinking is ‘the finest in the world’.

       20 likes

    • Emmanuel Goldstein says:

      Sluff.
      Is that the world beating track and trace system, the envy of the world nhs or maybe the worlds best media (bbbc)
      I’m losing count of all the ‘best in the world’ services we have here.

      I hear the latest nhs advice for pregnant mothers (can I say that or is there an ‘ist or ‘ism lurking in there somewhere) is to hold off giving birth, or only give birth in an emergency, until the nhs is back up to speed.

         10 likes

  20. AsISeeIt says:

    Help, narrative malfunction !

    ‘Missouri Man Surrenders After ‘Unprovoked Attack’ on 12-Year-Old Performer, Police Say’

    ‘The boy’s mother said she wondered what had provoked the attacker “to lash out at a child.”’

    This is a New York Times (left-leaning of course) update to a story that they previously ran with prior to the perpetrator giving himself up.

    Why should the NYT pounce on a report of some young kid rapping on a street corner and getting hit by a man in far off Missouri?

    Well, they assumed the kid was black and the attacker was white.

    But when the man gives himself up to the police they find he was black. The NYT publish his mug shot but carefully neglect to report the child was white.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/07/us/missouri-12-year-old-punched.html

    Oh dear, the hoped for narrative has gone all screwy

    Still, less said soonest mended.

    See here:

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12048878/boy-dancing-punched-random-attack/

    It just goes to show the huge premium our media place on the right kind of stories and how they shy away from the wrong kind.

       29 likes

  21. JamesArthur says:

    R4 – TWATO. How many times can one news programme insult Boris, blame Trump and throw in U-turn..lots apparently

    But the most important stuff happening in the world is – by BBC standards – a writer loses her work and has to redo it..followed by other writers telling their stories – one actually says she has done it loads of times? Why? Is she stupid? That would be my question.

    WTF – huge things happening in the world and UK and that’s what BBC think is important..

    And as for their report on Greater Manchester covid peaks – no it is not Greater Manchester it is Oldham and Rochdale..say it like it is and join the bloody dots – what is the common factor with Leicester? No don’t mention culture…

    Defund BBC – get that done Boris

       42 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      I listened to the first half of TWatO, JA, and the scurrilous thought crossed my mind that the current PM obsession with face masks was a Nooo Labour-stylee distraction from the Huawei about turn. Can I expect HS2 to be cancelled tomorrow?

         9 likes

  22. Doublethinker says:

    Has anyone watched the first episode of the ‘Rise of the Nazis’ on BBC? I’ve recorded it but if , as I expect, it carries the usual , almost inescapable , Woke messaging , I won’t bother to watch it. My expectation is that it will build on the ‘Nazis , A warning from history’ and include lots of lecturing about how present day populists , now matter how reasonable they might appear on the surface, could , at the flick of a switch , become raging far right Nazis and therefore you simple folk must not on any account vote for them. Please advise if my expectations are wrong and that it is an objective historical account untainted by the need of the BBC to ram its world view down the poor viewers throats at every opportunity.

       27 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Double – if it’s the one I’m thinking of – repeated from a few years back – it was put together by grown ups – but – spoiler alert – the nazis lost that war but the same methods are being used on us now – plenty of ‘denouncing ‘ going on .

      PBS / smithsonian channel put out some decent historic documentaries without the ‘dramatisations’ which seem required now . A recent programmes about the Americans who – I think – liberated Dachau went into great detail about how American soldiers executed some of the guards they found ]

      ( if is wasn’t dachau – apologies – I know the British got to Belsen )

         9 likes

    • Luckyharry69 says:

      @Double/Fed

      if you havent already please check out DINESH D’SOUZA.He was an advisor to Reagan.

      He was also arrested and imprisoned by Obama for doing hardly anything.

      He argues that Fascism/Totalitarianism ALWAYS comes from the LEFT.Hence the real racist party in the USA has always been the Democrats and nearly 100% of legislation has been brought in by them over decades to close down freedoms and make lives WORSE for black Americans.The Civil Rights Act being a classic example….

      If you already know of him apologies.Others on here should really check him out….clever guy.

         12 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      just flipped channels Ash Sarkar’s face was on the screen in the Nazi prog.

         7 likes

  23. BRISSLES says:

    A bit of piste I know, but……..

    I see the publicity seeking David Beckham is at it again. Yesterday in the paper photographed a few feet away from Cap’n Tom as he interviewed him for something or other, then today another gratuitous message to Kate Garraway has been published, offering his family’s help should she need anything.

    Jeezus the guy and his awful family never stop do they. Any cause for that extra photo opportunity or column inch and they’re on it. The workshy eldest has now got engaged to the daughter of a billionaire – what do we give that ? 18 months ? till the canny father in law realises the potential groom doesn’t like work ?

       18 likes

  24. AsISeeIt says:

    If we can prevent at least one rape – compulsory wearing of chastity belts from next Friday anyone?

       16 likes

  25. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    Anybody remember in the 60’s when schoolchildren were told to sit underneath their desks if the 4 minute warning of a nuclear attack sounded.
    This was to protect them from the effects of a H bomb explosion.

    That was government advice then. Now it’s wear face masks to stop getting the Chinese virus.

    Earlier on it was wash your hands and sing ‘god save the queen’

       25 likes

  26. AsISeeIt says:

    ‘The UK’s economy rebounded more slowly than expected in May, growing just 1.8% from the previous month, as the gradual easing of lockdown had a modest impact.’

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-53400721

    The accompanying BBC pic shows a woman in a high street wearing a face nappy and carrying the smallest of shopping bags.

    I tend to shy away from conspiracy theories but it could be that the BBC are taking the proverbial pee – at least since the BBC made him put the mask on he won’t catch Chinese virus from them laughing in his face… or catch it again… if that’s possible?

       11 likes

    • Tabs says:

      Did you miss the homeless person in the photo? I’m pretty sure this photo has been carefully chosen to show a white woman out shopping whilst homeless are on the streets.

         10 likes

  27. pugnazious says:

    Sopel can’t help sneering can he? His Twitter feed is just one long anti-Trump sneerathon.

    Like this one…

    Hmmm…hasn’t the BBC spent months now telling us our experts are wrong…and there is no such thing as ‘science’…so, they mockingly demand to know, how can the government be ‘following the science’?

    How different when experts were all the rage and the ‘science’ was settled.

    Sopel treats us to another example of his complete lack of awareness as he derides Fox News for having a panel that he doesn’t like…

    Hmmm…I look in vain for any of his tweets complaining about all those BBC panels packed with Remainers, climate change fanatics and race baiters.

    He is very concerned about Trump’s America and how journalists [I use that term in its widest possible sense] are under threat from the Trump stormtroopers…

    If the journalist [and he must be one, he loudly proclaims his status as well as demanding his apparent immunity from any consequences if he breaks the law due to his special status] did what the police officer asked him to do [move back] he wouldn’t have been arrested….as for the rest of the tale, largely exaggerated and sensationalised for effect, it’s just normal, always has been…not just in ‘Trump’s America’.

    Remember a journalist saying this about Obama?…

    ‘ “the greatest enemy to press freedom in a generation.”‘

    Or remember this during the Ferguson riots…..

    ‘Six journalists were taken into custody while covering the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, on Monday and early Tuesday, aggravating what one press freedom group has called a “concerted, top-down effort to restrict the fundamental First Amendment rights of the public and the press.”
    The incidents bring the total number of journalists arrested during the mid-August protests to 11. ‘

    So when the BBC, and its specialist and knowledgeable North Anerica Editor, tells you journalists have only recently been under threat of arrest #duetoTrump…it’s pure lies.

    Did we see any concern from Sopel and Co about this frightenng video of a woman arrested for not giving her name…despite being pretty cooperative and non-violent the police escalate and turn it into a nightmare for her…

       13 likes

  28. KafirHarbi says:

    Re: The Great 2020 Corona Panic and mask wearing:

    “The question no one seems to be asking is: Why do we need to worry about interrupting transmission of the virus when almost no one has it any more? The number of new cases in the UK yesterday was 530. People remain infectious for a maximum of 10 days, so that’s 5,300 infectious people in the UK at the moment. If we assume that 60% of them are symptomatic and will stay at home, that’s 2,120 people who could be out shopping, or one person in every 31,604. That’s an infinitesimally small risk.”

    – Toby Young as a rare voice of reason again. In other words the risk is comparable (actually not as you get a lot closer to people for longer in a stadium) to catching Coronavirus in a full Wembley stadium with two infected people in it. And this risk is the risk of encountering someone with the virus in the shops with your mask on. https://lockdownsceptics.org/

    You are going to have to do an awful lot of sustained in-your-face type of shopping to expose yourself to that number of people. . .

       22 likes

    • gb123 says:

      As an adjunct to the infections and masks, the ONS data puts the risks into perspective. Since the start of the virus outbreak 546 (approx. 1 %) people have died from 0-44 years of age. 89% of deaths have been people from 65 and over. Between 45-64 years of age 4836 deaths (approx. 10%) have occurred. Of those I suspect it is skewed towards the upper ages. This would suggest the risk to people of working age is relatively small given the deaths are now low. It may be even lower since we seem to include anyone who so much as slips on a banana skin in the numbers.

      https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/coronaviruscovid19roundup/2020-03-26

         10 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        @gb123 I think that you missed something
        546 who had no known pre-existing health conditions died
        A few more thousand in the below 45 category also died, but had pre-existing.

           2 likes

        • StewGreen says:

          No I wrong, I’m thinking of when someone said there’d be only 500 deaths below 65
          the below 45 were as you said I guess.

             1 likes

          • Up2snuff says:

            PHE did not look at co-morbidity issues when investigating BAME liabilities to mortality from Covid-19 in their 2 June 20 report.

               3 likes

      • Banania says:

        And how many unexpected deaths were there, above the normal rate for the season? The number of cases will vary according the number of people tested.

           1 likes

    • Dave S says:

      This government seems determind to so anger the voters that it will never be elected again. it is incompetent. Masks now when it is clear the virus is retreating for now. . Care homes left to their own devices when i knew as did most people just how vulnerable they were. The economy will suffer from masking everyone. No two ways about that and the only question is does the PM care?
      I notice suddenly all the new talk of a second wave. This virus is novel .Don’t they understand what that means? It is not like any previous pandemic. It flourishes in the heat despite telling us earlier that it does not. It attacks everypart of the human body if it can find a weakness. That means the old and the sick are really vulnerable. A second wave is pure speculation. As is a vaccine.
      What we need to do sensibly is get fit and eat a sensible diet and supplement our bodies with anything they lack. In most cases vitamin D and zinc. If you have any defect at all this virus will come for you and the best you can do is to make sure that you are in the best state possible if you can. If not then really you must take precautions. I suspect they know this but are refusing to level with us.

         12 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Kafir, ‘outliers’ could remain asymptomatic & infectious for up to 27 days. IIRC, that is the record cited by Chris Smith. He is a virologist who was interviewed by the BBC on R4 in March sometime but, tbomk, has not been asked to return to the BBC airwaves (on R4) since.

      I cannot help but wonder why?

         2 likes

  29. pugnazious says:

    One for the archives…..black cop shoots wildly at a man holding a mobile phone who was filming what was going on….luckily a bad shot and manages not to hit the man nor anyone in the caravan with his unaimed shots…but if he had? BBC would no doubt have totally ignored it….

    https://eu.knoxnews.com/story/news/crime/2018/11/15/sevier-jury-acquits-man-accused-causing-deputys-panic-attack/1973832002/

       10 likes

  30. infoquest says:

    ECONOMIC NEWS
    We’re going to invest in a new side door (yes, I know, really pushing the boat out).
    The chap at the local timber merchants says he’s never known it so busy.
    The joiner is booked up until February.
    Shame we’ve got all these local journos being ‘let go’ who won’t be able to help the economy.

       15 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Our area is full of skips
      half of it is laid off building workers doing up their own or relatives houses.

         7 likes

  31. Fedup2 says:

    Not BBC but not far off

    The telegraph reports that Clive Tildsley the ITV footy commentator ( 65) is to be replaced by a younger version from the BBC 5 Live .

    Now this may only be of interest to footy types . I think footy types like rituals and continuity and familiarity . So when something changes its – uncomfortable .

    ITV can do what it wants – it pays . But the BBC ? If you look at the “authority ” of their pundits ? Failed managers – types that played a few games for England but didn’t win too much – talking of which …maybe Linaker is getting a bit old now – import some of that cheaper ‘talent’- blokes type girls … or even a few pretty ones … who can explain “offside ” or slag off “VAR” without short nasty words ….

    I just wish Roy Keen was on the BBC – he’d last … 10 minutes …

       14 likes

  32. StewGreen says:

    ITV local news soap opera
    .. They’ve just spent 5 mins plugging their own podcast
    Now they are onto the DEC charity appeal
    … see the refugee camps need help with Covid.
    They give an example the Muslim Rohinga camps in Bangladesh
    oh local connection as they bring on 3 Rohinga refugees who now live in Bradford
    .. Surely it’s Saudi and Kuwait’s job ..its much better they take care of these people from a similar culture ?

    These poor refugees in Bradford must be suffering
    since according to Labour, Britain is both the most poverty stricken & racist place in the whole world.

    Next item interview withe the manager of a poor footballer who received racist teeets
    … The fact the tweets came from a 12 yo boy was not mentioned.

       12 likes

    • Banania says:

      Persecuted Christians: is is moslems working for the immigration authorities who are keeping them out?

         5 likes

  33. taffman says:

    Is the Mayor of London defunding the police ? This does not bode well . It will all end in tears.
    Anything on Al Beeb?

       7 likes

  34. StewGreen says:

    The idea that masks are a magic solution

       7 likes

  35. AsISeeIt says:

    Banksy: New coronavirus-inspired artwork appears on Tube

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-53407715

    I’m not sure I can muster the energy to express quite how annoying I find this BBC report.

       16 likes

  36. Guest Who says:

    OT, but this comes across as the teensiest smidge desperate.

       2 likes

  37. pugnazious says:

    The BBC tackles racism in the ‘Asian’ community…naturally it’s non-Muslim Indians, Hindi presumably,, [always the BBC’s bête noire after whites] who are at fault…and of course it’s all down to skin colour….or tone….too black ain’t good.

    Is racism towards black people a problem in the Asian community?

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/newsbeat-53395935/south-asian-anti-black-racism-we-don-t-marry-black-people

    Curious how ‘Asian’ racism hasn’t been a concern of the BBC over previous years….maybe thousands of young white girls being raped and abused by Muslims, endless savage terrorist attacks and attempts to Islamise our schools and society in this country are trivial things compared to a black man dying during an arrest 3,000 miles away in the US.

    All this being fed to the young via the BBC’s Newsbeat which seems to get worse every time I read something from them….let’s hope all the young have tuned out and gone to watch something decent on Newsflix.

       17 likes

  38. pugnazious says:

    This illustrates the problem…Black fragility, grown and nurtured by the race industry and BBC….Blacks are fed a diet of grievances and victim culture and told everything that happens to them is due to racism. The BBC does absolutely nothing to dispel those myths…in fact it does everything it can to feed the flames even more…for example…the BBC bringing us this shocking news…..

    ‘Hollyoaks star Talia Grant says black people treated as ‘disposable’ on TV’

    Really? And who isn’t? The BBC seemingly totally unaware that they are also running this story of a middle-aged white male being given the boot for no given reason….

    ‘Clive Tyldesley ‘upset’ at losing top ITV football commentator role….Clive Tyldesley has said he is “upset, annoyed” and “baffled” to lose his post as ITV’s lead football commentator, saying: “I do not know why this decision has been taken.”‘

    Disposable or what?

    The same goes for many BBC white males, not to mention the 450, probably the bulk being white males, being cast adrift very soon by the BBC.

    Not sure why Blacks think they have a divine right to a job or some other advantage, bit of that old Black Privilege eh?….oh yeah…I do know…that’s what they’re told from birth….shame the BBC doesn’t do anything to inform and educate them rather than stoking the fires and causing relentless and very dangerous conflicts.

    It’s been going on a long time….another example is from years ago on ‘Tomorrow’s World’ when a black man was showing us his fire escape equipment that he had developed…basically a wire-rope ladder. He told us he couldn’t get any backers for a long time…due to racism.

    On the same programme we had Ken Frogbrook who developed a straw mat to soak up oil spills in the sea….couldn’t for the life of him get anyone to back it….until Joanna Lumley heard the story and invested her own money in the project….Ken is of course white…but that didn’t mean he got any companies interested in the invention.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1288766/BPs-secret-weapon-great-oil-mop-Joanna-Lumley-giant-straw-mattress.html

    Similarly the man who invented the ‘Black and Decker Workmate’ as it’s now called…no-one was interested [and he was an established, professional designer]…he made it himself and only when it was a success did anyone come knocking.

    ‘Initially rebuffed by all the leading manufacturers and even told by the Stanley Tool Company – producers of drills and planes – that “sales would be measured in dozens rather than hundreds”, Hickman was unrelenting in his self-belief. Eventually, Black & Decker realised its potential and put it into mass production in 1973. At one point the Workmate was selling 15,000 units a day; it went on to sell more than 70 million worldwide, with Hickman reputedly earning a royalty of £1 on each one sold.’

    Racism eh? That dangerous myth.

       25 likes

    • Beltane says:

      Current units should be re-labelled as Black & Blacker Workmates in line with the latest Hamilton Protocol.
      Mercedes-Benz are very keen to show their support – almost falling over themselves, one might say, perhaps to avoid embarrassing investigation into WW2 company history.

         8 likes

  39. Kaiser says:

    “Did white people do anything to me? Maybe they did and I didn’t look at it that way. Maybe I overlooked it or didn’t understand it.

    “But no-one stopped me, no-one belittled me, no-one told me that just because I was black I wasn’t equal to white people.”

    The fear is that they may not have had to.

    some sporting news im sure everyone in britain has been awaiting the results of

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/53277534

       11 likes

  40. Doobster78 says:

    Well that was nice. Just sat down to watch Sir Trevor McDonald on itv.

    Just before it starts, we have a short public information film from Black voices matter telling all the viewers how racist they are !!!!!!

    Absolutely DISGUSTING. Are these companies now actively seeking to lose business ??? How to alienate the audience !!!!!

    How the hell is this crap allowed ????

       28 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      If you search Twitter for : “black voices” ITV
      a few tweets come up

         2 likes

      • StewGreen says:

        More

           1 likes

      • Rich says:

        “stopped and searched over a dozen times”. I wish.

        Growing up in Northern Ireland I was stopped and searched every time I entered a shopping centre or department store, even particular streets sometimes, often while in school uniform. Random vehicle checks and roadblocks were commonplace.

        Travelling between home and the mainland as a student and later while working I was often stopped and searched. As a group those travelling from Northern Ireland to Great Britain were herded into separate waiting areas for further checks, away from other terminal users.

        I am white and male. Some people who looked like me were trying to kill others, to murder innocents, carrying explosives and involved in terrorism and violent crime. If I was inconvenienced slightly in order to save lives and to make everyone within my community and within the wider society in which I lived safer then that’s the way it had to be.

        If David Lammy was really concerned about improving his communities’ lot and in helping to nurture a safer, less violent environment for all of his constituents, regardless of their race, surely he should be prepared to tolerate being similarly inconvenienced occasionally.

        Myopic morons like Lammy don’t really give a shit about the rest of society though do they?

           23 likes

  41. pugnazious says:

    Amazing what’s important at the Beeb….a complete non-story of a black man stopped by police because his car number plate registered as of interest in relation to drugs and firearms gets frontpage status….he’d just bought the car…turns out plates may have been cloned….apparently this is another one of those mythical police harassment of blacks stories that the BBC likes to promulgate in order to whip up the anger and distrust.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-birmingham-53411354/footballer-demands-answers-as-he-s-handcuffed-by-police

    But this story about a white Latvian hacked to death by a black man with a machete yesterday afternoon is hidden away on the Birmingham page….ironically the same page the above story is also on…though guess which gets top billing? [will Newsnight be running a sensationalist, and completely false, story about racist Britain killing EU migrants #duetoBrexit as they did with the Polish man in Harlow?]

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-53408359

    Hmmmm…so a report about a very dangerous man, wanted for a vicious murder and maybe a danger to the public, is hidden away on the backpages whilst a complete non-story that the BBC makes out to be about racism, is frontpage news.

    Then again thousands of white girls being raped didn’t even make it into the news for years despite the BBC knowing about it.

       38 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      @Pug That BBC page has been updated with a pic of the murder suspect
      “Police are hunting 20-year-old Sean Bulle over the attack.”

      All media fail to mention that Bulle is a surname used in Somalia

         10 likes

  42. AsISeeIt says:

    Coronavirus: Blackburn with Darwen brings in new measures

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-53400376

    ‘For the next month, people living within the Lancashire authority must observe the rules in a bid to avoid a Leicester-style local lockdown.’

    ‘…there would also be “targeted work” after a rise in infections within the South Asian community – in particular “cluster infections” among families living in small terraced houses.’

    ‘Information videos are being produced in English, Urdu and Gujurati to spread the message in the former mill town.’

    How’s that multiculturalism working out then?

       23 likes

  43. StewGreen says:

    BBC progs are tagged with topic tags
    There are 50 times more tags with the word “women” in than “men”
    Stupidly I put them in one graphic
    There is no point in posting it here cos it’s 8 screens wide
    twee

       5 likes

  44. Guest Who says:

    Information and education.

       17 likes

  45. tomo says:

    Looks like fugitive BBC boss Mark Thompson’s leadership at The New York Times is following the trend at his old employer… one might just spot some familiar themes….

    Stories are chosen and told in a way to satisfy the narrowest of audiences, rather than to allow a curious public to read about the world and then draw their own conclusions.”

    A summary of Bari Weiss’ leaving and the resignation letter

    ooh err…

    Project Veritas is on the NYT’s case

       7 likes

  46. AsISeeIt says:

    Kill the footfall, unmask the bastard Boris

    Let’s keep our purchasing of consumer goods to an absolute minimum now that this draconian mask regulation has arrived courtesy of the BBC and the lock-down-loving lock-dumb classes. Obviously don’t starve yourself or your children.

    Apart from basic foodstuffs and occasional small celebratory libations try to buy as little as possible. Don’t be suckered into getting jokey masks. It’s lame. In absolute extremity I’m using my Johnny Depp bandana and shades. Let’s take a leaf out of that disfunctional couple’s play book – let’s see the Great British public take a retalitory anti-retail dump in Waitrose bed.

    Mask wearing has little to do with public health, in fact the rule infantilises us, shames us, and proletarianises us. Only by bringing sharp intense economic hurt to the retail sector in the short term will we force our mega grocers to bring their lobbying power to bear on these limpwristed Tories.

    These are no conservatives. They are libertine enabling poseurs – more afraid of a de-bagging from the BBC than they are of the electorate. Boris self-proclaims himself some Churchillian statesman – he’s been reduced to the status of a bum.

       12 likes

  47. seso says:

    Yet another article from BBC that doesn’t give us the full story: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-53415314 .

    The report focuses on Nick Cannon, a black American presenter, being sacked for anti-semetic comments. It fails to mention that he also said, amongst other things, that white people were “evil, rapists and savages”, and that “‘They’re acting as animals so they’re the ones that are actually closer to animals. They’re the ones that are actually the true savages”. BBC’s report only gave a passing mention to his anti-white racism, mentioning that he called whites “less”. All the BBC seemed interested in were his anti-semetic comments.

    I complained to them, asking why, like most of the mainstream media, they go out of their way to highlight any racism on even the tiniest level from white people, yet they continually show complete hypocrisy the other way round. By failing to report on black on white racism in the same way, if at all, they are showing a disturbing racial bias in the way they deal with race related news stories. 

    I’ll be amazed if I get a satisfactory reply.

       3 likes

    • Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

      You need to post this on the mid-week thread!

         0 likes