383 Responses to Start the Week Thread 20 July 2020

  1. Deborah says:

    There is one episode of Keeping Up Appearances we don’t like, the one where Hyacinth entertains in a very small flat in the country. It is too silly. So I turned off Drama Channel and went to the Proms on the BBC.

    I have been to many excellent proms with first class orchestras with first class conductors. I hadn’t realised there was a woman leadinging the Birmingham Philharmonic. The orchestra appeared to be going their own speed and ignoring the young woman on the podium. But of all the Proms the BBC chose to repeat during lockdown it is this one. I wonder why?

    After the Beethoven to join the female conductor we had Stravinsky with a female violinist as soloist who stands with knees bent and pelvis thrust out. We could stand it for only a few minutes, and switched off.

       52 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      Catchup links to previous thread
      page-3 started 10:45am Sunday
      page-2 started 11am Saturday

         10 likes

    • Deborah says:

      Mr D corrected me, it was the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra not Philharmonic.

         13 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Don’t worry, Debs, I’ve been as pissed as a fart all day, as it’s my 73rd birthday, so I missed nothing!

           36 likes

      • JimS says:

        City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra!

        The conductor is 29 year-old Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, who seems to be quite popular with the fans. She notably doesn’t use a baton.

        Given the way some conductors scarcely move a muscle and some go wild, do orchestras mostly ignore the conductor during performances anyway?

           17 likes

        • Despairada says:

          When my daughter was at school, she once asked me what was the point of orchestra conductors. I showed her a youtube of Leonard Bernstein conducting the Verdi Requiem. There are loads of these but not sure which is the best exemplar.

          Great man.

             5 likes

  2. StewGreen says:

    News-Watch article in the Express

       56 likes

  3. vlad says:

    Those readers with long memories may remember a fortnight ago when a bus driver in Bayonne, France, was killed by a gang of four ‘men’.

    Now, it’s customary in some European countries – including France – to publish the first name and surname initial of suspects in such cases, e.g. John S.

    So when the media were uncharacteristically coy about providing any details at all on these ‘men’, some people smelled a rat – a big fat Halal rat.

    Well, you nasty islamophobic racists… you were dead right.

    Now that interest in the story has died down, some French press are revealing the names of the 4 suspects, namely Mohamed C., Mohammed A., Moussa B. and Sélim Z.

    No doubt the BBC will update their report soon, though as of yet no sign of it, in fact the story is nowhere to be found on their webshite.

    Incidentally La Dépêche is a left-leaning paper and can’t be accused of islamophobia.

    https://www.ladepeche.fr/2020/07/17/mort-de-philippe-monguillot-a-bayonne-lemotion-et-la-colere-sont-toujours-aussi-fortes-8983171.php

    image.jpg?v=1

       49 likes

  4. TrickCyclist says:

    “We haven’t done enough
    We must listen
    We must learn
    We believe Black lives matter”

    I saw one of the short films from ITV’s on screen Black Voices initiative last night. These are a bunch of mostly one-minute voice/text films, they’ve put a few on YouTube.
    I manage to get through each day without offending anyone, either deliberately or inadvertently. It p***es me off that ITV and BBC cannot get through 24 hours without annoying me or insulting me as a white person, or trying to impose on how I ought to be living my life.
    The one I saw last night was ‘Jules’ at the bottom left of the nine videos on this page:
    https://www.itv.com/blackvoices/index.html
    But here’s Lammy’s effort on YouTube anyway, I know he’s always a popular character. Comments are turned off.

       25 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      FFS Lammy, in India I was stopped and searched about 5 times within one night, actually less than 2 hours
      Sometimes I repack the back say goodbye, walk around the corner and another group of soldiers would stop and search me.
      In the Tunisian revolution I was stopped and searched about 10 times.
      Each time I just took it calmly and left amicably.

         56 likes

      • Up2snuff says:

        I’ve been stopped and checked or searched and my defective memory has trouble counting the times. That Lammy has a count going suggests that it is driven by his grievance and his own racism rather than being a fact of life.

        It goes with being a Londoner and a driver. Almost all of the time the police were very friendly and polite to me. On one occasion, after a terrorist bombing, I was stopped by a helpful officer at a checkpoint chicane in the City of London who pointed out that a rear light bulb on my vehicle had failed. I wasn’t aware of it and so was glad that he had done so.

           47 likes

    • BRISSLES says:

      Is that all Lammy ?

         14 likes

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

      You will find some of our elected MPs are activist extremists (David Lammy is just one example).

      Rather than working for everyone in their parliamentary constituency they see their position only as a platform to lobby for their own personal activist causes.

      The BBC should be bringing their activism and divisive baiting to light but instead they encourage & promote it.

         36 likes

  5. tvlicensingblog says:

    New from the BBC TV Licensing Blog for the start of the week:
    Tory MPs Pile Pressure on BBC to Retain Universal Over-75 TV Licence Concession
    News-watch: BBC Systemically Biased in Favour of EU

    If you haven’t already done so, please download our totally free ebook TV Licensing Laid Bare.

    The 70 page book is packed full of information about the harassment and intimidation meted out by the BBC in the name of TV licence enforcement.

       37 likes

  6. Deborah says:

    Just seen a trailer for Vikram Seth’s Suitable Boy which the BBC is showing as a dramatisation next week. I read the book many years ago. A recurring theme was the desire of the young Indian women to have paler skin to make them more desirable. I am wondering how the BBC will deal with that idea.

       49 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Deb, same in Japan, too. Darker skin suggests labouring class or outdoor worker.

         28 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        ‘Rednecks’ in the US too, Up…

           18 likes

        • BRISSLES says:

          If the black and brown population are ‘black and proud’, why has/is there such a lucrative market for skin whitening products ? Nothing to do with white priviledge, but clearly wishing they weren’t born of colour.

             35 likes

  7. Up2snuff says:

    The BBC are reporting the PM as saying he doesn’t want a second Lockdown. Is that the PM just trying to distract from his incoherent facemask policy? The BBC don’t suggest a reason but wish to point out differences between the PM’s statement and that of his Chief Scientific advisor.

    Helpful BBC.

    Please pardon my sarcasm. Yes, lowest form of wit, I know.

       26 likes

  8. G.W.F. says:

       49 likes

  9. john in cheshire says:

    If Prime Minister Johnson is truthfully angry that the courts have ruled that the begum muslim woman must be allowed to enter our country, why isn’t he and Mrs Patel doing something to make sure it doesn’t happen?

       74 likes

  10. StewGreen says:

    There was just a TV advert for Lynx Africa
    ..never heard of it ..apparently 25 years old

       13 likes

  11. digg says:

    Family wins £37m in one of largest maternity negligence claims in NHS history

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/maternity-safety-nhs-negligence-guys-thomas-a9357501.html

    Yes that’s all your and my cash folks so lets all clap for the NHS again…

       44 likes

    • davylars says:

      Looks like “Sir” Captain Tom will have to get his boots back on
      To raise the extra 5 million…….

         29 likes

      • tarien says:

        Yes saw that mistake in Yaoo, ‘Sir’ Captain Tom -instead of Captain Sir Tom….goodness, who are these awfully badly educated journalists who are seemingly allowed to splash out all uneditted badly written work.

           13 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    The bbc does not do questions whose answers it does not like.

       61 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Guest – or anyone – if you’d been reading this site over the last few weeks you’d have seen relatively ‘heated ‘ discussions over the validity of data pushed out at the daily government briefings and on their websites concerning definitions and the stats.

      Even death certificates have been questioned – care home deaths – pre existing conditions – and more . I am no expert on medical issues or stats – but my best friend – Professor Common Sense – kept whispering “ fedup2 – there is something dodgy about all of this “

      Now – my other friend – professor hindsight – has said to me ‘there – told you so ‘.

      But there s a deeper issue . If I can see it – why can’t smug gits like Pym? He – after all – spent all day practicing his ‘gotcha’ questions and had first dibs when the media had its questions .

      They put industrial effort into trying to kill Dominic Cummings yet on the basic numbers ? Nah…..

         49 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        The FT used to be relatively respected.

        Then, like The Economist, its new wave of journos realised the bbc has them on more if they conform.

        One decided to attack a hat.

        #CCBGB

           22 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        Funny how the oh-so-serious statistics were being dissected over and over again back in May, but now he says he didn’t know…

        https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52807376

        Like you say, if he’s supposed to be a journalist, then why didn’t he try and actually do some work at it himself?

        I reckon his under-manager just told him to spout bollocks, (the usual method of BBC sound-bites), and make it look bad for the government as usual.

           33 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          The top comment is interesting:

          “I hope all those reporters following social distancing around cummings this weekend were clear of the virus.“

          Some viruses are impossible to clear.

             14 likes

          • john in cheshire says:

            Is there a vaccine against the MSM parasite? Other than not feeding it with money?

            In addition, the past six months have shown me that there isn’t really that much news; what there is, they treat it like they have OCD; so ( there’s that word again) why do we need reporters/ journalists or whatever they call themselves? Proper news seems to be disseminated by the alternative news organs on the internet quite efficiently and effectively.

               16 likes

            • Up2snuff says:

              j-i-c, “the past six months have shown me that there isn’t really that much news”

              Nail hit firmly and squarely on the head, there. You could probably say that for the past six years, not months, as far as the BBC is concerned.

              See my post below about the TOADY report from Lebanon this morning. I was so surprised to hear something like that that I actually remembered it three hours later.

                 6 likes

      • JamesArthur says:

        Fedup
        Yep, As a medical researcher I have been arguing this point from the beginning but soon learned that you can’t explain some things to people who don’t want to hear – if their mindset is ‘The UK response is bad, the Govt is crap’ they don’t want to hear logic or alternative views. And I put the BBC in that camp

        I am not holding my breathe for BBC to admit they were idiots and pushing a narrative..Let’s face it when did you last hear anyone on the BBC say that the UK was a world leader in anything positive?

           20 likes

        • Fedup2 says:

          JA
          As a medical researcher do you know of any country while has published reliable understandable stats on this ?

          The BBC narrative is that UK has the worst every thing and by now has made that stick whatever real stats come out .

          If if ‘true’ labour/BBC must paint the government as ‘failed ‘ whilst countless NHS / PHE managers on £100k get a free ride ….

             11 likes

  13. G.W.F. says:

    OK so China has a shitty government. Nigel speaks up for the Moslems in China who are having a tough time.

       16 likes

  14. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    Headline today on the BBC homepage:
    2020-07-19-2158-homepage-latest.jpg

    Headline today on the BBC Sports webpage:
    2020-07-19-2156-Formula-One-latest.jpg

    Click on the headlines and we find:
    Lewis Hamilton has criticised his fellow drivers and Formula 1 for not doing enough to combat racism.

    And for him this means not performing properly the Black Lives Matter pre-race protest. He says the protests for the first race in Austria was okay, but it must be done like that for every race going forward.

    He was alarmed that for today’s Hungarian grand prix some of the drivers forgot to bring their BLM T-Shirts and some are showing signs of not being willing to take the knee. He also wants them to take the knee for the awards ceremony. He says they must do better in future otherwise they could be seen as supporting racism.
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/formula1/53466125

       44 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      House Journal has Ivor Does Diversity

      The % coverage seems on message.

         18 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Instead of wasting time watching a load of overpaid maniacs tear-arse around a track for three hours, I wonder if the BBC could spare a ‘reporter’ to watch the morons belting past our house, (in a 30mph zone), at around sixty…

      Maybe they could send an under-manager as well, to tell the ‘reporter’ what to say?

         30 likes

    • tarien says:

      What a load of tosh this individual Hamilton talks-white lives matter just as much as Black, and I rather hope that he has not forgotten that he is half white. He and others like him are getting on my nerves as no doubt they are for many others. One only has to look at the TV let alone any other Media source, to see a black or coloured person/s in every advertisement, in every play or film being shown or abou to be, in almost every news room, in every business, in our armed forces, dam it, everywhere, and they have the nerve to say they are unrepresented in this country! They might be reminded that the United Kingdom is of and has been for over 2000 years predominantly made up of white coloured people-so far but only just, the white people are still ,the predominant colour. Irrespective Black and coloured people should be on their knees, grateful that they are able to live in such a free developed democratic society as ours.

         26 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        ……and I rather hope that he has not forgotten that he is half white……

        That’s always been my concern, that mixed race persons with axes to grind always come down on the side of their blackness. Whatever their white parent thinks is hard to imagine. I shouldn’t wonder that Hamilton’s white mother must think “thanks son”.

        This is what happens when the races ‘mix’, children who have mixed emotions. Decades ago parents would be dishing out warnings to inter-racial couples, as to the pitfalls they could face in society to any future children born. And now we’re reaping those seeds sown. The generation of grandparents and great grandparents who issued these warnings must be shaking their heads now.

           16 likes

  15. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    On the BBC’s homepage they have a headline to the following story:

    2020-07-19-2158-homepage-story.jpg

    This was sent after the player missed a penalty in a football game that resulted in his side losing the match. The player notified the police of this “racist” tweet and the police responded by opening up a hate crime investigation.

    A police spokesperson said they will thoroughly investigate this. Preliminary investigations indicate the tweet was sent from someone in another country. Hence they will be contacting interpol to help them track down the criminal and bring him or her to justice.

    In the meantime they will be sending out a specialist team to the player to help him cope with the pain and trauma this has caused him.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53463566

       33 likes

    • JimS says:

      ????‍♂️????‍♂️????‍♂️

         7 likes

    • tarien says:

      And really should he complain with the money he is earning?

         12 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Pain and trauma ??? excuse me ? he looks quite able to look after himself. Honest to God these defenders just cant help themselves, the stronger the adjective used the better in their eyes. Pain and trauma are words used for war, physical disfigurement and suchlike, not a few emojis.

           12 likes

  16. BBCNarrativeB says:

    This utter tripe has actually managed to reach the BBC front page as a top story! It fits in the BBC criteria perfectly – obese, black, woman, so it gets promoted alongside actual serious news. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08k0jqg

    And just in case you understandably doubted that it reached the front page: https://twitter.com/ab_hagi/status/1284993987024224256

       27 likes

  17. Broadcasting-on-Behalf-of-the-Caliphate says:

    On the BBC 3 Homepage:
    2020-07-20-0135-bbc3-homepage.jpg
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree

    I think everyone here gets the picture. The BBC presents full on political, anti-English, Anti-British, race-baiting, feminist propaganda masquerading as news every minute of the day, every day of the year, in all of its channels, adult, youth, children, education, sports, in all its quizzes, in all its radio and television broadcasts, in all its broadcast languages, in all its stations around the world. All paid for by the British taxpayer.

       66 likes

    • Halifax says:

      You forgot, anti Christian and anti heterosexual basically anti everything that makes up its income stream.
      Sadly they are not alone the advertising on Sat channels such as Dave etc has reached an absolute peak of BME representation, every and i mean every advert includes Afro Carrabian placements i wonder what % Afro Carrabians make to purchases in the UK? Judging by the targeted advertising it must be 82% …min.

         53 likes

  18. Guest Who says:

    It is worth looking at his bio header.

    Seriously, Jon… hire him. Perfect tag teamer for Lurch.

       9 likes

  19. Guest Who says:

    Can’t wait.

    Will Stormzy be performing?

       30 likes

    • JimS says:

      How, by discarded copies of slave trade-funded Guardian in the hedgerows?

         20 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    Jon over there telling them about us.

    Jez here using them to tell us about us.

    The national broadcaster.

       24 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      The NY Times isn’t exactly the journal of record is it – just another lefty rag read by the likes of Bowen to reinforce his BBC Droid view about “the truth “.

      The Truth is really about mindset . It is the same mindset for 9/11 . It goes

      “this could happen . It will be horrible if /when it does . But we can’t worry /prepare for it all the time because it might never happen and there is real stuff going on which has to be dealt with now . So spend the money on that and worry about PPE when we have to “

      On prep . I’m fascinated that the fella who was sec state for health for the many years leading up to covid – Jeremy Hunt – hasn’t been on the receiving at all …

         12 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        A broken one, maybe.

        Still, Jez’ old boss is working the bbc magic there as he did here.

           4 likes

  21. Guest Who says:

    Moaning Emole. Sounds bad.

    Island murder stirs Danish tensions over racism

    When a young black man was murdered on the idyllic Danish island of Bornholm, it emerged one of the suspects had swastika tattoos. The killing of the 28-year-old, who had a Danish father and a Tanzanian mother, coincided with a vigorous debate about racism in Denmark. But police are adamant there was no racial motive. Rights groups have reacted by questioning whether potential hate crimes are being seriously investigated.

    Read full analysis >

    Adrienne Murray
    Copenhagen

    ***
    Odds of the BBC’s finest highlighting terrible human actions globally elsewhere? South African farmland maybe?

    Or do tensions in Beebworld only get stirred selectively using inference and pervasive #tellitoftenenough inflammatory questions posing as reporting?

    Ms. Murray is on the fast track.

       21 likes

  22. Guest Who says:

    As summaries go…

       61 likes

    • JamesArthur says:

      Guest

      I was introduced recently to the concept of Cultural Hegemony and it is quite amazing how it fits what has happened to the UK and USA over the last decade or two. and the list above pretty much sums it up..nice article on it

      Cole, Nicki Lisa, Ph.D. “What Is Cultural Hegemony?” ThoughtCo, Feb. 11, 2020, thoughtco.com/cultural-hegemony-3026121

      The ‘ruling’class don’t use force to keep control they just control the narrative…

         14 likes

  23. Guest Who says:

    Flaunting his garden now.

    This won’t end well.

       7 likes

  24. AsISeeIt says:

    Our BBC’s ‘Don’t arrest me, I’m black’ campaign is somewhat desperate to keep up the interest and to find new instances of the right kind of racialism.

    Today, as already noted hereabouts, the BBC go all Nordic Noir was we voyage to the remote Danish island of Bornholm to hopefully solve the death of a half-Tanzanian chap.

    If the plot works out ok and we stick with it episode after episode after bleak stilted episode, despite the difficult Scandinavian names, the subtitles and ‘the apparently still and bland social surface and the murder, misogyny, rape, and racism lying underneath’ (thanks for the quote Wiki) then with a bit of luck and a following Baltic wind, guilt will lie with some local thugs loyal to a shady swastika worshipping gang of white supremacists. Otherwise, forget about it and rewatch the Sopranos or Breaking Bad.

    Enjoy

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53447919

       17 likes

    • fakenewswatcher says:

      The bbc seem to be desperate, for whatever reason, to keep the ‘white racialism ‘ pot on the boil. This morning they were discussing on R4 news, a 2005 incident – the murder of Anthony Walker, of which Jimmy McGovern is making a feature.
      Would it be cynical to observe that the Stephen Lawrence case has now been milked sufficiently, and that other cases now have to be dragged up to prove how bad whitey is?
      Both murder and racism need to be condemned unreservedly, but, this is NOT a one-way street, and one would like to see some balance from the ‘liberal’ media, instead of these one-sided portrayals, whipping up more unnecessary resentment.
      People of all colours, races and creeds are capable of hatred, murder, love, charity etc, and this constant narrative where one race is the victim and the other the perpetrator, stinks to high heaven.
      But then, it’s the biased bbc at work; would we have expected anything else?

         42 likes

  25. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #1 – The BBC do not like

    Priti Patel, the current Home Secretary. They hate the thought that a woman, of Indian ethnic origin born in London, could be a Conservative. (At the present time, I think the BBC do not like any Indians who are not Muslims, anyway, especially if they have voted for Narendra Modi or are inclined to.) The BBC would love for there to be another ‘Windrush* Scandal’ so that they can help agitate to get Priti Patel sacked.

    They have recently had one go at trying to start Windrush Part 2 with a story on the web-site that was obviously very forced and slightly false. Now they were trying again on TOADY with a story of another of Nigerian origin, this time a female singer born in Glasgow who is in the download charts for the first time.

    The OFF switch was pressed.

    *Windrush was the name of a repurposed WW2 vessel that, for a limited period of time from 1947-onwards, brought West Indians to work and live in the UK.

       21 likes

    • JimS says:

      HMT Empire Windrush , (why the omission of Empire?), only made the one trip with 802 West Indian immigrants. It just happened to be the first to do so.

      Given that was in 1948 I suspect that few, if any, of those were involved in the so-called ‘Windrush’ scandal. Rather they were later generations who travelled freely between the UK and the West Indies and never bothered to check their immigration status.

      (Perhaps there will be the ‘EasyJet scandal’ in future years when the EU starts getting nasty about ex-pats living in Spain?)

         22 likes

  26. Johnda says:

    Watched BBC sport fa cup semi final. Six yes 6 BBC people talking about the game. 2 commentators an 3 pundits plus Linekar.
    Then on match of the day highlights 3 more. That’s 9 people for one live game and a few highlights. So BBC how can you afford so many when you are so called broke. Those nine would pay for at least 60 pensioner free licence. Sign the Defund the BBC petition I have already done so.
    Also when I watch football I don’t want a political statement for Mr Crisp!!!!!

       53 likes

  27. AsISeeIt says:

    If Scandi Noir isn’t to your taste then how’s about a traditional English whodunnit?

    Not quite the courtroom drama of a Rumpole of the Bailey but this story almost echoes our Horace’s infamous Penge Bungalow Murders

    http://news.met.police.uk/news/victim-of-fatal-shooting-in-penge-named-407454

    ‘The victim of a murder in Penge has been named as detectives continue to appeal for witnesses and information. Police were called by London Ambulance Service at around 02:20hrs on Sunday, 12 July, to a man collapsed in Croydon Road, Penge, near the junction with Tremaine Road. Officers attended the location where a man was pronounced dead at the scene. While formal identification awaits, police are confident the deceased is XXXX XXXXXXX, [White English name] 43, who lived in South Norwood.’

    So come on Met, who killed whitey? Are you slacking because he wasn’t black. Perhaps he wasn’t exactly a boy scout – but come on he probably longed to play premier league football (when he was younger) and he loved his old mum (probably).

       22 likes

  28. Guest Who says:

    The composition of bbc press staff would be interesting.

    Probably a non-transparent BBC exemption.

       12 likes

  29. Guest Who says:

    Ex BBC gob posts about competence.

       13 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Ray on a roll.

      Gav and Paul and, James and Sweeney! next?

         5 likes

  30. Fedup2 says:

    Presumably Snoddy has retired so can show true colours – like others of his ‘type ‘ – Michael entitled White … interesting that ‘retired ‘ bubble dwellers get so much attention – I think Heseltine is at the pinnacle of ‘go to’ Mouths the BBC like .

    however I wonder if their Chinese masters will be telling them what pitch to take on the dodgy 5g deal now thankfully cancelled …

       15 likes

  31. Up2snuff says:

    BBC WEB-SITE Watch #1 – I have a recommendation

    Reading this https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-53468151 Snuffy is becoming suspicious.

    I therefore recommend that all Customs Officers, whereever they are in the world apart from in China, confiscate all aerosols (deodorants, perfumes, hairsprays, nasal sprays, etc.) from the hold luggage and cabin baggage, although iirc they shouldn’t be in there anyway, from any travellers from China. The Chinese will wail that this is discrimination and theft but they can be given a voucher and directed to the airport shop for free replacements.

    It would be very interesting to see if the numbers of Covid-19 infections suddenly started to fall in any or many nations that did this for a month or two.

    Are there any deodorant manufacturers in Wuhan?

       5 likes

  32. Guest Who says:

    BBC News

    Federal agents, deployed by President Trump, have fired tear gas into crowds of demonstrators.

    ***

    Meanwhile, en France…..

       25 likes

  33. Up2snuff says:

    TOADY Watch #2 – Don’t mention the war politics

    The BBC, obviously with some time to spare from stirring it at home, brought me some very rare international news. It was from Lebanon on TOADY this a.m.. They managed to go through quite a lengthy report, with a vox pop included, about the economic woes of the country without mentioning who was governing Lebanon and what their politics or belief system is. They did mention corruption and crime. They did not mention who was in government at all.

    I wonder why?

       18 likes

  34. Guest Who says:

    Nish emerged.

    Probably not for long.

       30 likes

  35. StewGreen says:

    Any stirring up hate against Britain today on the anti-British broadcasting corp ?
    Maybe at 9:30am R4
    “Sean Bean presents a series exploring the ways that wartime experiences have filtered down through the generations.
    Today, reflections on the legacy of the Bengal Famine”
    .. obviously this famine which happened during WWII was a terrible thing
    .. but will they go for portraying Churchill as an evil villain ?
    Wouldn’t surprise me.

       26 likes

  36. Jeff says:

    I popped “up town” yesterday to attend the anti lockdown demo at Speakers’ Corner. It was a really good natured gettogether.

    An affable young policeman explained to us that megaphones weren’t allowed, for the obvious reason that every group would soon be using them. Strangely no one abused him or called him a Nazi and he wasn’t thrown off his bike…we just said, “Oh, okay, that’s fine. We quite understand” It was all very civil…

    There were no rabble rousers. No police were assaulted, in fact there were only two and they chatted to us amiably. There was no graffiti, no flags were burnt and no statues were vandalised.

    For a couple of hours, standing there among friendly civilised people, listening to well honed and reasonable argument, without rancour and aggression, it seemed as though I was visiting a country that I only vaguely recognised and remembered.

    And then it dawned on me.
    Oh yes…
    England.

       46 likes

  37. StewGreen says:

    R4 10am WH
    – “Asylum seeking women in lockdown;
    – Emma Gannon; Black women and photography;
    – Leaving friends on a night out” *

    * That has a black angle as well
    Their intro opens by framing the item as part of the BBC1 black drama
    “Michaela Coel’s BBC drama ‘I May Destroy You’ has brought to light a number of interesting dilemmas, particularly within the realm of female friendships.”
    ..the item features black commentator Toni Tone

       15 likes

  38. Guest Who says:

    BBC News

    UK consumers may unwittingly be buying meat linked to the destruction of the Amazon rainforest, experts said.

    ****
    The words ‘may’ and ‘experts’ always sit together well as bbc headlines I find.

    A top comment:

    “OK, so how do you send people on a guilt trip for buying it if they’re doing it unwittingly? I’m sure you’ll find a way.“

       21 likes

  39. Up2snuff says:

    Snuffy is feeling a bit smug this a.m. : https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-53467022

    If I recall correctly I outlined the benefit of nebulisers on here some time ago. 🙂 Well, if it helps, I’m delighted. 🙂

       11 likes

  40. fakenewswatcher says:

    Listen now to R4 if you want to know about British responsibility for the Bengali famine of 1943, and the deaths of 3 million people. Seems we stopped rice from reaching them.
    Why was Churchill a bad guy? Why is even his statue ‘bad’?
    Beeb will tell you, just in case you’d forgotten. ‘Legacy of war’.

       21 likes

  41. StewGreen says:

    Countryfile, magical thinking about organic farming
    .. (in practice it usually doesn’t pan out, cos you get things like a major infection wiping out crops)

    Then claimed we won’t mind extra costs of climate change measures.

    There was brainwash music in the background.

       17 likes

  42. infoquest says:

    O/T, but what the hell

    This is from https://lockdownsceptics.org/2020/07/19/latest-news-79/#comments but I can’t take you to the exact post, so I’ve borrowed it.

    Update

    As you know this is day two of me venturing out. Went to the newsagents yesterday

    Things appear to be getting better

    Only 40 covid deaths in our block of flats overnight. This brings the total for our street to just shy of 1.7million

    The Council are now asking us to sort our covid corpses before we put them out, and have provided us with coloured bins for that purpose

    Green Over 65 years
    Blue Under 65 years
    Red No underlying health conditions
    Yellow Not died of covid, but covid on death certificate

    Get it wrong and the Council will issue a fixed penalty notice. If when the Council collect they discover a covid corpse is in the wrong bin they take it out and dump it in the middle of the road. This creates a terrible mess as they get run over by cars etc

    Anyway, I’ve volunteered to take on the sorting task (little do they know that I’m selling their now redundant facemasks and Oyster cards on e bay…..keep that to yourself if you can)

    Despite Council warnings some households are dumping their covid corpses next to the litter bin on the green. They do it at night. This is the same bin that the dog walkers drop their doggy poo bags in. Couple of hundred there this morning when I looked. I try not to get too close

    Earlier, Brian (he lives at no 10) and I were cleaning up the mess when a strange thing happened. We were approached by a German bird. She said that she had heard I was a good man and could I help

    She explained that a friend of hers named ‘kneel’ was in a spot of bother, and that ‘gangsters’ wanted to silence him. She explained ‘kneel ‘ had been hiding in lofts for the past few months but now needed to move on

    I asked what he had done and she garbled something to the effect that he made models for a living, but his last model had upset some big cheese (I know the creative industries are cutthroat but I didn’t realise things had got that bad)

    I said I would certainly like to help but we don’t have lofts in the flats. I told her our food stocks are running low, and depending on how big ‘kneel’ was he could hide in our chest freezer. She seemed pleased with this and left

    I asked Brian what he made of all this, and he replied that she “had a cracking pair of tits’

    I told him that was a completely unacceptable thing to say, and an outrage to all humankind

    I told him if he ever said such a thing again we would up the service charges on his flat to pay for him to go on a course

    ‘kneel’ has not appeared yet.

    I will check the canal in the morning

       21 likes

  43. StewGreen says:

    Triggernometry 80 min podcast I Am a Grooming Gang Survivor: My Story
    “Dr Ella Hill is a Rotherham grooming gang survivor. ”
    .. Right at the start she refer’s to “half a million victims”
    now that is a problem cos that is too wow to be true
    If we say in each age category there are 10 million UK people
    then in age category 15-35 you have 20 million people,
    10 million will be women.
    So she is saying out of 10 million women 0.5 are victims of Groom/rape/pimp gangs (GRP gangs)
    that is one in 20 … I cannot be anywhere near that.
    However given that some victims were raped 100+ times
    then the number of rapes could be in in 10s even 100s of thousands

       11 likes

  44. Mrs Kitty says:

    I’ve looked and looked on the BBC website but nowhere can I find any mention of an event that happened 38 years ago today, obviously White lives and Equine lives don’t matter. 20th July 1982 the Hyde Park Bombing occurred and Tony BLiar later on gave get out of Jail cards to the scum that did it. I’ll never forget the pictures of the dead horses lying in the road.

       47 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Some of us remember – Kitty ….

         15 likes

    • StewGreen says:

      No media or blue ticks mention Hyde Park 1982 on Twitter
      .. Almost all tweets are from ex-army guys

      Google shows no new mentions on the web
      apart from a couple of minor “In this day on history” sites

      Yesterday ‘mask protest UK’ .
      The BBC has “Nothing on today’s event which started in Hyde Park”
      The newspapers do carry news of it.

         15 likes

  45. Fedup2 says:

    EU watch

    We left . Thankfully . Its day four of the leaders of the remaining ministates and The Reich – trying to come up with a recovery fund .

    I wonder how much they will be trying to tap the UK for?

       10 likes

  46. scribblingscribe says:

    The Guardian is setting up n inquiry into its support for the Democrats and slavery during the US civil war.

    And next week the Guardian will set up an inquiry into its support for Stalin and Lenin. Then one into its support for Mao and Pol Pot. Then it to its support for Mugabe, Castro and Chavez.

    How can a newspaper be on the wrong moral side of every event in history and still puff itself out as morally superior?

       35 likes

  47. StewGreen says:

    Kevin Hurley on Jon Gaunt Show

       9 likes

  48. AsISeeIt says:

    BBC: ‘Coronavirus vaccine: UK government signs deals for 90 million doses’

    How many people live here? I know the Scots have postponed their next Census due in 2021 and England will inevitably follow suit, (least said soonest mended) but 90m?*

    ‘However, it is still uncertain which of the experimental vaccines may work.’

    Oh well, never mind the science, feel the preparation.

    *sensible actually, because assuming we get the jab here in the UK and assuming it’s medically pukka and of course it’s an NHS freebie, we can surely expect a bit of an influx, no?

    And NHS staff won’t be tempted to put any surplus doses up on Nigerian ebay, will they?

       14 likes

    • Deborah says:

      I have had a problem with the number of annual deaths in the UK. If there was a population of 70 million and if people lived to an average age of 70 (both are probably more – don’t the major supermarkets reckon they are feeding 80 million?) but just roughly – shouldn’t this be an average of 1 million deaths a year. But the ONS gives the number of deaths a year at half a million. Is there something wrong with my maths or where are half a million bodies?

      Apologies if I have posted this before but nobody has been able to explain why I am wrong.

         2 likes

      • Mustapha Sheikup al-Beebi says:

        If there is an average of roughly 1,500 deaths each day (in normal non-Covid times) in the whole UK, then only a little over half a million would die per annum, viz. 1500 x 365 = 547,500.

           1 likes