364 Responses to Christmas Thread 2020

  1. Fedup2 says:

    Something else I’ve tried to cut and paste from the telegraph by someone who has ‘lost faith in TV news” – just for those inclined to read a bit longer ….

    Starts …
    I ..am one of the luckiest ones. The pandemic has changed my life remarkably little. My parents are long gone, my kids are grown up, I am used to working from home and I live right next to Hampstead Heath.

    So I have mainly observed the drama from the outside but have still been surprised by what the crisis has revealed about our country. Great events like the pandemic provide snapshots of illumination, highlighting how the national temperament has been evolving beneath the surface. They, therefore, also provide a kind of audit on the national self-image.

    And I’m sorry to say that we need to chuck out all those T-shirts and tea cups bearing the slogan “Keep Calm and Carry On”. I believe it was on Monday 20 April that it struck me most forcefully: that day, a grim milestone was reached, with 100 health and social care workers reported to have died from Covid-19 – and I was witnessing a national panic. I realised then that we can no longer do television news for grown-ups.

    For the preceding three weeks, I had been watching the same thing every night on the BBC Ten O’Clock News: here is a shocking statistic about Covid, here’s someone who died, here’s a sobbing relative or frontline hero telling you to stay at home, save lives and protect the NHS.

    The coverage was relentlessly emotional and infantilising, lacking explanation and context. Was the 100-plus NHS staff deaths from Covid a lot, or a little? There are 600,000 patient-facing staff in the NHS, so a few probably die from infections they catch from patients every month in normal times. Was 100 deaths since the start of the crisis, about a month earlier, twice the normal rate or 50 times? How did it compare to other countries?

    Not a word. In Britain, we are supposed to be good at media. And no doubt in some niches we still are. But at the start of the crisis, our main channels of electronic communication became showcases for our contemporary vices: emotionalism, virtue-signalling and a querulously adolescent attitude to authority.

    At the same time, I was keeping an eye on the main TV bulletins in Germany and France and while, reassuringly, they were having exactly the same debates as us about inadequate PPE supplies and the disease ravaging old peoples’ homes, the news seemed to be delivered with more rigour and authority and without the British reflex of blaming the Government for everything that was going wrong.

    I am no doubt guilty of golden-ageism, the news of my youth having suffered from the opposite vices of being stuffy and over-deferential. A more expressive, emotional tone in news coverage reflects real, and often welcome, changes in popular temperament in recent decades and more aggressive treatment of politicians represents a robust democratic instinct.

    Moreover, I was especially shocked by what I saw because, like many people, I stopped watching TV news regularly ages ago and so was suddenly exposed to trends in media culture that have been evolving over many years: the human-interest dumbing down, the presumption of shorter attention spans, the hyper-adversarial journalism more interested in exposing than explaining (embodied by Beth Rigby and Piers Morgan in the current crisis).

    The Government contributed to the emotionalism and infantilisation. Inexperienced ministers facing a largely hostile establishment in the aftermath of the polarising Brexit experience were in an unprecedented situation. But no serious attempt was made to explain the pandemic trade-offs or to create a national unity political truce of some kind. Instead, at a time when the public were prepared to cut them a lot of slack, they defensively failed to acknowledge obvious failures and talked robotically to us as if we were children deserving praise for staying at home.

    No doubt like many people, I have felt torn in recent months between thinking that we have overreacted to a relatively minor new infection that has overwhelmingly afflicted the very old – producing only a small blip in excess deaths – and feeling that there is no real alternative to the restrictions we have had to endure given the lack of spare capacity in our health system.

    And while I enjoy the luxury of irresponsible commentary, those in power have to take life and death decisions every day and it is in the nature of a transparent, modern welfare, democracy that we will try to tackle the pain and loss in front of our noses – even if it ends up creating even more pain and loss in the future.

    The two greatest forces in contemporary democracy are short-termism and “safetyism”. Democratic short-termism always prioritises the immediate danger over the potentially greater longer-term danger. And the reason why we are required to put our lives and living standards on hold to save the NHS, instead of it saving us, is that we have not been prepared to forgo sufficient current consumption to build in the spare capacity that our health system requires to ride out a crisis like this.

    The other main reason we have succumbed to emotionalism and not been able to conduct a rational cost-benefit debate about the crisis is because of the smothering effect of what the American writer Matthew Crawford calls safetyism. To invoke safety is to claim the high ground of public-spiritedness, and it becomes almost impossible to argue for any course of action that might in the short term reduce human welfare. This lies behind the sanctification of the NHS.

    We do, of course, place a value on life; indeed, the NHS places a very specific value of £25,000 to £30,000 on one extra year of decent quality of life when deciding how to ration expensive therapies. Yet in the crisis, we have talked piously about every life being priceless. And safetyism feeds on itself, the safer a society becomes the lower the tolerance of premature death.

    My epiphany watching the BBC news in April bleeds into a wider point about power and authority in mature democratic societies. Compared with 50 years ago, power is far more constrained and tied down both politically, legally and psychologically. In normal times, that is a damn good thing, but in a crisis, not so much. Leaders have lost the habit of leading from the front and taking painful decisions that might mean a higher death-count in the short term. This is surely at least one of the reasons why more authoritarian Asian countries have managed the crisis better.

    Notwithstanding this argument, I am an optimist about the crisis. I think it has also revealed attractive features of modern Britain, the high level of volunteering and the inventiveness of our medical-scientific infrastructure for example.

    I have just written a book called Head, Hand, Heart about how we have allocated too much reward and prestige to the cluster of human aptitudes concerned with cognitive ability. So it was refreshing to see not only the “heart” work done in the public care economy, but also the key workers, mainly non-graduate “hand” workers, getting some of the recognition they deserve.

    I think we will emerge from the pandemic a more decent society, more aware of our inter-dependence. But we also need to learn some lessons about emotionalism in the public conversation and accepting that with democratic authority, as with everything else, it is horses for courses. What works in normal times may not be right for a crisis.”ends

    By David Goodhart -ENDS – although the piece is intended to flog a book it is a good example of the disenchantment so many more are experiencing with the Best Broadcaster in the World …..

       38 likes

    • Eddy Booth says:

      David sure isn’t wrong about the countries media, but otherwise spouts nonsense.

      “I think we will emerge from the pandemic a more decent society, ”
      He’s got to be kidding; all I see is puffed up jobworths, smug people on furlough, grasses, stressed out people ( that may lead to longer term problems) etc

      ” I think it has also revealed attractive features of modern Britain, the high level of volunteering…”

      Or unattractive..
      Mostly bored posh people going out litter picking, gardening in the parks etc
      Generally robbing the jobless of the chance of paid work, to get that warm feeling in their tummies.

      ” ,,,,the reasons why more authoritarian Asian countries have managed the crisis better.”

      He he… like we’re not also living under an authoritarian regime..

         25 likes

  2. Eddy Booth says:

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-55452303

    “Aerial footage shows flooding in Bedfordshire
    Thousands of people have left their homes near the River Great Ouse amid “severe” flood warnings on Christmas day.
    There was also flooding in Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.”

    So where are they staying?
    With the kindly apparatchiks having forced all the hotels to close and preventing high tier inmates from access to neighbouring lower tier, but still open accommodation.

    p092hq0m.jpg

       10 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      A sports stadium apparently

      Probably have to take the knee to get in though

      and set up a direct debit 12 month membership that will become next to impossible to cancel until you retire like our local gym

         17 likes

  3. Fedup2 says:

    A story which is in the London evening standard but won’t be found on the BBC …

    The EU was meant to start vaccine injections on Sunday – all in it together . The Krauts and Hungarians jumped the gun and began today …. unity … is ….er….

       25 likes

  4. Darcy3 says:

    Carry on Screaming on now, not taking a lot of notice but do perk up when they talk about a 4th dynasty mummy Called Rubber Titi

    How many millenial snowlakes fainted upon hearing that

    thank goodness we were warned by ITV before the film

       30 likes

  5. vlad says:

    You won’t hear this on the lying BBC, but there is much anger in the muslim world against footballer Mo Salah for committing the unpardonable crime of… celebrating Christmas with his young family. Shock horror!

    David Wood gives the muslim reaction the respect it deserves.

       18 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    Once the bbc gets it, ‘steaming’ will be obvious to all.

       23 likes

    • vlad says:

      I think steaming is perfectly apt, as in a steaming pile of.

         27 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Can’t wait .is it a ‘chick flick’? Does she get a boyfriend at the end who turns out to be a billionaire company raider who ‘sees the light ‘? Does she go on a shopping spree and buy loads of designer labels?
      Is there a Roy Orbison song ?
      Have I got the right film ?

         19 likes

      • Oaknash says:

        I think this is a film about how a vulnerable, autistic teenager is manipulated by pushy, fame hungry parents and manipulative cynical globalists into running a campaign to wreck the economies of the world. This is all done with the help of a hopelessly woke, politically biased and naive media which has ditched any journalistic standards it ever had in order to push this self destructive and economically suicidal policies.

        In other words just as Vlad said a steaming pile of …………!

           35 likes

    • Sluff says:

      I didn’t realise cabbage patch dolls were back in…

         7 likes

  7. Emmanuel Goldstein says:

    Just watched All creatures great and small which I’d recorded.
    What a load of sentimental slop.

    I know there’s been a couple of posts about it being woke and ticking black boxes but really, such a good original with Robert Hardy, Peter Davidson and the rest turned into a piano plinky plonk.

    That’s one series where a repeat would be better than this tripe.

    I suppose I was warned and should have expected it when the wokerati box tickers got their hands on it.

       35 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      I think it’s a series which is better kept in bed, but the boring, ill-equipped under-managers at the BBc still try to lug it all out again and wring what’s left of a good story into a failed prog. They’re good at that, as their imagination is about as interesting as saint Greta’s is about welding.

      Mattererfac, we bought the whole first series on DVD, and after one prog sold them on again as they were so dated, but that’s what we do these days – other than click-off everything the sad, woke BBC spurts out.

         10 likes

      • BRISSLES says:

        Why they just didn’t show repeats of the original is beyond me, because they’ve repeated everything else. Rarely do remakes work, although Singin’ in the Rain had many versions before the best in 1952.

           3 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          I didn’t know there were earlier ones, Brissles!

          We missed all the remakes this year, and I was asleep even before the ‘Sound of Music’, which I STILL haven’t ever seen all the way through…

             3 likes

  8. StewGreen says:

    BBC Trickery on the dead whales story : windfarms edited out

    The BBC story first pictures showed the windfarm in the background
    Apparently they have replaced the images and re-edited the video
    to remove images of the windfarm
    Facebook discussion about this

       26 likes

  9. Guest Who says:

    BBC Radio 4

    “I’ve got a lot to say when I’m angry… and sad. I’m not very good at expressing joy!”

    The BBC are back with Lily Allen.

    Oh, joy.

       30 likes

  10. taffman says:

    Surely by now the D.G. of Al Beeb must know that the decades of propaganda that they have promulgated in trying to influence or brainwash the majority of the people of Great Britain has not worked. I was a point I made to maxincony and his persistent trolling.
    Take the great Brexit vote, two recent elections and all the other left-wing, PC., biased indoctrination put out, including undermining the bargaining discussions in obtaining the best deal for this country.
    It has been counter productive, evinced by the dropping number of viewers and income from the renewal licences. The outfit is all but defunct and only sustained by the consent of our liberal/ Conservative government’s persistence in keeping the Telly Tax going.

       37 likes

    • vlad says:

      I agree that the brainwashing ‘hasn’t worked’ for everyone, but it has for many. Some of my acquaintances who get their news and views from the beeb and similar woke broadcasters have totally swallowed their whole world view.

      I’m frequently amazed at how ill-informed otherwise intelligent people are.

         36 likes

      • taffman says:

        vlad
        Many of your friends must have been born in or before the 1960s when Al Beeb seen as a pro-British Broadcaster. Most teenagers don’t watch their rubbish or pay the telly tax.

        IMHO, before the Brexit vote, they had great aspirations to become the ‘European Broadcasting Corporation’.

           27 likes

  11. taffman says:

    Will the new ‘teenage mutant Covid viruses’ be given human names as with the storms that were simply just numbered at one time ?
    How about it being named “Flu”

       27 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    Imagine Lurch might swerve RTing this one.

       21 likes

    • Dobyns says:

      And it’s her ilk that give MSDNC as much credibility as Carole Cadwalladr or CNN

         17 likes

    • Oaknash says:

      This proven liar (remember the Russian collusion plot) was certainly right about journalism dying under President Trump – but it had nothing to do with Trump himself. If they want to find the truth about where journalism died they only need to look in a mirror.

         25 likes

  13. digg says:

    The Guardian really are arseholes, after months and years trying to reverse Brexit they are no doubling down on the poor UK fishermen who have been let down.

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/dec/26/fishing-chiefs-cry-betrayal-as-mps-fear-rush-to-ratify-brexit-deal

    It’s your Brussels lovely EU comrades Guardian that done this you creeps!

    They couldn’t give a fu** about UK fishermen until now.

    They really make my skin creep.

       44 likes

    • Oaknash says:

      Digg – I actually think there is some truth in the article. It appears to me that it is a bit like a Pierrpoint hanging where as soon as MPs return they will be pinioned by the whips and rushed into agreeing to something that they could not possibly have digested or understood.
      The fact that Starmer and the newspapers (who all flipped to Remain) are so in favour of this makes me very suspicious.
      However yes you are right about the mischief making Gaurdian. These treacherous bastards have been working against our country and in particular the fishermen for years – it is too late for the Guardian and these lefty bastards to suddenly care about rural communities now after years of stabbing them in the back.

         35 likes

      • theisland says:

        Oak, we are right to be suspicious.
        The ‘deal’ is to be rushed through our parliament next week with one or two days’ debate whereas the EU will only apply the new trade deal provisionally on 1 January and their MEPs have until 28 February 2021 to ratify it – a period of more than two months. See https://facts4eu.org/news/2020_dec_brexit_leftovers
        As I said in the last thread, the fact that Labour will be directed by Starmer (as the mouthpiece of his masters) to support it tells you all you need to know. So much for all that ‘scrutiny’ the remainers/rejoiners were previously so keen on. And isn’t it convenient that hardly anyone will physically be in the House due to the latest tier 4 lockdowns?

        Jeff Taylor … while the Tories are calling this a new sovereign and independent beginning, I’m wondering if we’ve also put ourselves in the position of potentially forming a very long transition period for the UK to rejoin the EU down the line.
        Yes Jeff – that is the idea (imo).

           16 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          island – Boris’s Christmas gift to British fisherman – A poisoned chalice
          But as long as “The city” will be OK I am sure the blonde one will sleep well at night.

             10 likes

  14. vlad says:

    There’s a strange line in the BBC’s account of the van explosion in Nashville: “Police believe the powerful blast was caused deliberately.”

    Believe??

    There is security footage of the van literally broadcasting a warning for people to evacuate the area, moments before exploding. How much more certainty do you need that it was deliberate?

    Along with being under-reported Stateside, the whole thing sounds fishy to me, like when there’s a terrorist attack in UK or Europe and you just know we’re not being told the facts for political reasons (usually not to embarrass a certain religion).

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55451768

       32 likes

    • taffman says:

      Police have found a “person of interest”.
      Also
      \\ Nashville explosion ‘probably suicide bombing’//
      That narrows it down a bit .

         16 likes

  15. Darcy3 says:

    Anyone fancy taking a knee before this lot ?

    Oxford Circus tube station is left covered in graffiti by ‘Diabolical Dubstars’ vandals who ran amok while London’s biggest shopping street was closed due to Tier 4 restrictions

    The artwork was found on Boxing Day and features a tribute to Grenfell Tower
    It is alleged the graffiti artist group Diabolical Dubstars tagged the tube station

    “Anarchy symbols were spray painted over the walls as well as the words: ‘I be munching yuppies like chicken nuggitz’

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9089259/Oxford-Circus-tube-station-covered-graffiti-vandals-ran-amok-London-shops-closed.html

       22 likes

  16. Eighthdimension says:

    BiasedBBC has just been mentioned on LBC.

    Some caller said it’s a brilliant website.

       42 likes

    • taffman says:

      Eighthdimension
      May I bid you a warm welcome to this site with the compliments of the season .

         16 likes

  17. Darcy3 says:

    Anyone read Animal Farm ?

    BEEB’S TRAIN SHAME BBC staff spend thousands on first class rail travel as millions lose free TV licenses

    Come the revolution mate we will still be first class

    Tory MP Andrew Bridgen: “It appears BBC workers have little in common with those the licence fee and they certainly don’t want to travel with them.”

    bbc said: “We changed these rules in October 2019 and first class rail travel is no longer permitted.”

    But still shows a surprising contempt for travelling with the general public from bbc staff spouting marxist / far left dogma

    https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/13580707/bbc-staff-travel-first-class-trains/

       23 likes

  18. taffman says:

    “”Brexit”
    “What took so long? The UK voted to leave the EU in 2016 and actually left on 31 January 2020, but leaders had until the end of 2020 to work out a trade deal.”

    Al Beeb asks the question but does not answer ? .

       15 likes

  19. taffman says:

    “Kent lorry chaos: Manston airport cleared of lorries”
    All thanks to the British Army .
    Well done! I say.

       30 likes

  20. Guest Who says:

    Lewis’ PR people have sent the bbc people a PR photo to use, with a ‘quote’.

       15 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Another…. ‘quote’.

         10 likes

      • Rob in Cheshire says:

        The Donald is clearly a good judge of character.

        People like Ruby Wax think they can take the piss out of someone and never get any pushback from them. Why? Because they are on the telly? I give Trump full marks for not being impressed by that!

           6 likes

    • Non Snowflake says:

      I think he’ll find that the main factor in him winning the world title was the woeful lack of competition in the sport, plus his car is just so good that any idiot can drive it.

      Depending on which source you believe, Hamilton is worth an estimated £250m – £500m. My next job is to look up the word “oppressed”.

         19 likes

  21. Darcy3 says:

    BBC embroiled in race row after Carols from King’s broadcast ‘failed to feature any ethnic minorities’

    Not one of the 13 singers on the programme were from ethnic minorities

    FFS

    “One viewer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘All the young choristers were white. I’ve got mixed-race grandchildren and I was appalled. I can’t believe that the King’s College School doesn’t have any black pupils who can sing.’

    Well I can

    Appalled she was FFS appalled

    I would reply “mixed race grandchildren? thats your problem dear , now f off”

    You note “ethnic minorities”, not the many many Chinese at Cambridge or many other ethnic minorites

    Just BLACK who complain

    Not content to be in practically every advert on TV, not content to pretend that mot white women are married to black men, not content to have white TV presenters sacked to make way for them however untalented, and not content to have actors playing white historical characters and not content to have them pontificating on countryside programmes about a countryside they hardly visit and hardly inhabit

    we want we want we want

       56 likes

    • Deborah says:

      As I reported on I think Xmas Eve, the pleasure in watching was the camera focussing in on different members of the choir equally and not always seeking out the BAME.

         12 likes

  22. G says:

    Another extremely good appraisal of the so-called, “Brexit Deal” by Alexander Mercuris on The Duran. Conclusion? This aint no Brexit and leaves the option to rejoin every 4.5 years WITHOUT Parliamentary support or a Referendum. Simply at the whim of the PM. Which PM? I hear you ask: a recipe for repeats of the ‘Conservatives’ under Boris?

    “BREXIT DEAL: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

       9 likes

  23. Guest Who says:

    If these two do not replace Femi on Vile I will be disappointed.

       6 likes

  24. Guest Who says:

    Love that last sentence.

    ????

       10 likes

  25. Darcy3 says:

    That black Ann Boleyn, I wonder if she proves more streetwise at avoiding knife crime towards the end ?

    And worth checking to see if they put a domestic abuse helpline across the screen during the Tower of London scene

    I genuinely would not be surprised

       26 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I started watching the Xmas special of All Creatures Great and Small last night:
      I wonder how often you could drive to the top of a remote moor in the Dales in the 1930’s, have to get out and walk the last bit because it has no road then enter the old farmhouse then meet a 50-60 year old farmer who lives there with his black wife.
      Just where on Earth do they think this man ever went to meet and know sufficiently well to marry that woman ?.

      Turned it straight off and watched an Xmas Two Ronnies instead. Had me laughing out loud.

      Imagine the uproar if we started giving white people jobs in preference to black people in something like Zulu just because we want more white people in it.

      It’s the double-standards and shameless hypocrisy of the Left I detest.

         37 likes

  26. AsISeeIt says:

    You pays your money and you takes your choice.

    The £1.80 Daily Mail on Sunday is as upbeat as Rishi Sunak hailing his ‘new era’ and predicting a clear route to an end of lockdowns: ’15m jabs to freedom. And we’ve done nearly one million already!’

    The £1.80 Sunday Mirror (just 50p tomorrow) has no time for such optimism: ‘Corona crisis shock. Doctors warn: we face vaccine chaos. Medics tell of PPE-style fiasco fears over jabs rollout’

    For £1.70 the Sunday Express implies there’s a degree of self-help required here: ‘The future’s in OUR hands. Brexiteer Tories are close to backing historic trade deal’

    Whilst for a whopping £3.20 (£1.75 to subscribers) the Observer delivers a veritable funeral eulogy for our relationship with Brussels. Do be patient and bear with them, they’re still working their way through the 195 stages of Remainer grief: ‘Britain in Europe 1973-2020. This deal will one day surely be regarded as one of the greatest-ever deceits inflicted on the British electrate. We will live with the consequences for decades’ – surely…? be regarded as…? Come on chaps over there at the Observer, you’re already there.

    As Remainers outdo one another attempting to squeeze a tear from a dry stone, Will Hutton takes the biscuit (or should that be the croissant? – if I’m going to mix my metaphores): ‘On New Year’s Day, the curtain comes down on Britain’s long engagement with Europe’s noblest and greatest effort at collaboration and liberty’ – please, stop that sniggering there at the back.

    I’m guessing he’s just been reading the multi-page deal document and still can’t find any EU flag buy-back arrangement for UK Remainers – enfer enflammé!

    Here’s a conundrum, the Observer would merrily back a return to the status quo ante in terms of our relationship with Brussels and yet it purports to support our UK fisherpeople: ‘Fishing industry chiefs cry “betrayal” as MPs fear rush to ratify deal’ – I guess confusion is one of the many many stages of Remainer grief.

    By the way, how appropriate that the Observer’s frontpage pic of Bill Bailey, who really ought to look like the cat that got the cream, instead exhibits a mix of glum and sardonic: ‘I’ve been having all sorts of strange dreams…’ Cheer up Bill, it may never happen: ‘Bill Bailey interviewed on Metallica, Keir Starmer and life after Strictly’ – like I say, cheer up Bill, it may never happen.

    The Mirror informs us of: ‘Kylie. I cry over my own love songs’ – from my hazy recollection of vintage Kylie Minogue videos, it sure wasn’t a lump to the throat she was after enducing in her mainly male audience.

    Anyway, get Kylie out of your head (if you can?) she’s yesterday’s news. Apparently the elfin Taylor Swift is the new pop princess for teenie girls and their Times-reading dads – read all about her in the Sunday Times (‘£3 only £2.50 to subscribers’): ‘Soaring Swft. How Taylor stayed on top’

    The liberal-minded Times splits the difference in terms of the pessimism versus optimism debate on our China Fright Flu: ‘Vaccine boost for millions as hospitals near breaking point’

    One wonders whether the Times believes its middle class readership enjoys a strong dose of self-loathing with their news: ‘Rich offer thousands to jump the queue for jab’ – let’s attempt to parse this headline. A typical Times reader will be reasonably educated and comfortably off, perhaps not quite classing themselves as “rich” but consequently perhaps all the more envious of those somewhat higher in the hierarchy. And what of these so-called “rich”, surely they are sensible enough to realise the virus is unlikely to be deadly and their scramble for the jab has more to do with their desire for an airflight, as they notice the likelihood of a coming jab / no-jab class distinction. Of course if it so happens that there’s a problem with the vaccine and it has deadly side effects – but let’s not go there…

    You pays your money and you takes your choice.

    And to close on the subject of filthy lucre: ‘Show me the Mammy! Sitcom star: I’m suing O’Carroll and BBC’ (Daily Star Sunday. £1.20 ‘This paper costs 10p less than the Sun’) – seems one of Mrs Brown’s Boys is in a pay dispute with both the show’s boss and our national broadcaster.

    I wonder whether Mrs Brown counts as being in the male or female column in the BBC’s salary statistics?

    You pays your money and you takes your choice.

       30 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      Thank you for this AsI!

      You’ve saved me several splonders now, and I can safely say that ‘What the papers say’, isn’t a patch on your resume!

      And we hate the Mrs Brown rubbish as well – twice in fact!

         18 likes

  27. pugnazious says:

    I see ‘Is the BBC biased?’ are doing great work exposing Chris Morris’ bias on the well named BBC’s ‘Reality Check’.

    It is indeed a check on reality as in ‘to stop or slow the progress of (something, typically something undesirable).’ Undesirable to the BBC of course….the programme isn’t designed to enlighten and inform but to do the very opposite…to limit your ‘reality’ by defining the ‘truth’ using the BBC’s own values and beliefs as ground-zero, the baseline from which all other information must be judged on its veracity…the same way that the BBC’s less than truthful ‘More or Less’ and its [lol] disinformation service via Marianna Spring are meant to shape your perceptions along the lines the BBC wants you to see the world.

    Morris was always very selective in what he chose to ‘reality check’….nearly always one of the BBC’s favourite Bête Noires [surely a phrase that the BBC will ban] and when he did venture down the other path, ‘in the interest of balance’, it was smoke and mirrors…sure he glanced at the Remain side say…but it was a quick ‘whatever…nothing to see here’….classically we’d be told that yeah, maybe not perfect but Remain are actually correct…when of course they weren’t and were pumping out just as much dubious data and info as the BBC told us Leave were.

    Who can forget the years of being told Brexit had been stolen by Cambridge Analytica….the BBC backed the Guardian to the hilt and kept this narrative going for years…but it was all a lie…..one Morris and Co were quite happy to go along with.

    Dan Hodges in The Mail lays out another Big Lie…

    ‘At the moment of maximum danger, with the engine faltering and the storm clouds gathering, he found the landing zone. And he did something more fundamental. The most frequent criticism levelled at Boris is that he is a fake. He will say anything, do anything, promise anything, simply to get what he wants.

    It’s criticism that has stuck. Somewhere along the way, the warning we were 45 minutes from annihilation by Saddam has been replaced by a pledge to spend £350 million a week on the NHS as the prototypical Big British Political Lie. And to his enemies, Boris has become the quintessential Big British Political Liar.

    ‘Remember that “oven-ready” deal?’ they have been taunting him over the past couple of weeks. ‘He lied to you about it!’

    Well, now we know. He didn’t. Boris promised the people of Britain that if they voted for him, he would get Brexit done. And he has.’

    This was a Big Lie that the BBC had the biggest part in disseminating…that Boris could not be trusted on anything, that he was uniquely untrustworthy whilst all other politicians were paragons of virtue by comparison…never mind May told massive whoppers and betrayed us all and Corbyn was quick to dump all his long held principles in order to get his foot in the door at No10 [the BBC telling us in another Big Lie that his great virtue was that he didkeep his deeply held convictions….so in 2017 during the election when he suddenly became a supporter of the police, and security services and an enemy of islamist terrorism these were always his beliefs? LOL …A man who wanted to disband the police, the security services, the Army and NATO and who stood shoulder to shoulder with terrorists…literally]….Boris is though a politician and what politician can be trusted? They can’t please everybody and must make compromises. He obviously took fright at the prospect of a no-deal, and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t breathe a small sigh of relief when the deal was done all things considered….but Boris, I believe, did stage-manage the negotiations in order to prep us for his compromised deal in which NI is basically annexed by the EU and the fishermen failed…the fear of a no-deal was ramped up by warnings about bare supermarket shelves and the borders being closed….when the deal came, good or bad, we were primed to accept it with that ‘sigh of relief’.

    May was going to sell us completely down the river…Boris and has delivered Brexit with of course some inevitable compromises…inevitable unless you anted no-deal and were prepared to accept all that came with that.

    You can be sure the BBC will be tearing the new deal to pieces and will suddenly become the champions of NI and fishermen after having spent years demanding NI be handed over to the EU ‘in the interest of peace’ and dismissing fishermen’s concerns as the vocal yapping of an insignificant minority. Of course the fishing industry is relatively small…but how much bigger would it have been if we’d had our own industry instead of allowing the EU to steal it?

    The BBC will always find something to attack a Tory government on and paint it in the most negative of ways whilst portraying itself as the gold standard of truth, accuracy and honest reporting which is somewhat, ironically, Orwellian in its concept…..the BBC as Ministry of Truth.

       31 likes

    • JimS says:

      An impartial broadcaster will tell you that politician A said this and politician B said that and leave you to make up your own mind.

      A partial broadcaster will ‘fact check’ what politician A said, most of which was probably speculative and full of ‘coulds’ and ‘mays’, and ignore completely what politician B said, leaving the unspoken assumption that it was all ‘fact’.

      A real ‘fact checker’ would be going over the BBC’s own output and putting right the many errors that they make daily.

      Add to the mix their ‘disinformation reporter’ whose purpuse seems to be to spread conspiracy theories wider than ever and trust in the BBC must be at an all-time low.

      Long ago I noticed that when people were told a binary ‘fact’ about something that they didn’t experience directly half of them believed they had been told one thing and the other half believed they had been told the other, but they all believed they had heard it from the same source.

      For every person Ms. Spring convinces there is a conspiracy she will have convinced another that there isn’t. If she had said nothing then neither of them would have been any the wiser either way.

         12 likes

  28. tarien says:

    Another major lockdown suggested by Scientists-the UK is already sinking, another full lockdown would I feel break the camels back.
    Of course at the root is project fear, producing further compliance by the public to have the vaccine currently being offered-spent billions on buying the Pfizer vaccine, but take up not high enough, however supply of said vaccine is slow-Media hype will destroy us.

       11 likes

    • JohnC says:

      They are getting desperate now and are obviously just going to flood the country with the Oxford vaccine and hope it is just enough to prevent this new variant overwhelming the country.

      Up to know, everything we’ve been told about it is suspiciously worded – like ‘The most advanced vaccine in the world’ – meaningly simply it was furthest along in the trials. Which – in retrospect – was clearly not true. And the complete fiasco around the trials has been well and truly brushed under the carpet.

      It’s a huge risk giving something so amateurishly prepared to the whole population. But that’s what they are going to do.

         15 likes

      • G says:

        John,
        Yes, if anything, the Astra Zeneca (“Oxford”) vaccine will be the one. It differs from the other two ‘available’ right now. Apparently, better suited to the old contingent.
        Much to the dismay of my GP and probably the Government (the latter must hope the trickle of old people dying continues) I’ve located a source out the UK of Ivermectin and by God, I’d much prefer that in my cupboard for a rainy day.

           9 likes

  29. JohnC says:

    Article in the Telegraph:
    ‘The Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Countdown suffered a slump along with other BBC offerings, attracting 4.9 million, down from 5.5 in 2019.’
    Kate Phillips, acting controller of BBC One:
    ‘I’m really proud of the range and quality of programmes we’ve shown across this special day.’
    Like what Lord Hall used to say as well : these statements have a ring of state propaganda more suited to North Korea than anything interested in actual truth.

       30 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      They can be as proud as they like, their ‘opinions’ are pretty well worthless anyway!

      if 600,000 people decided that the BBC rubbish they plonk out in the form of endless repeats, glittery nothingness like ‘Strangely like rap-dancing’, ghastly tosh like ‘The Dicker of Fibley kneeler’ special, and the rest, they should really learn that even though they are overpaid tax-funded ‘civil’ serpents, the BBC should actually try and do something much better!

      Now Doris has ‘done’ the Brexit, his next job should be to save millions of pensioners having to pay the TV tax for such poor performance.

      And the job after that can be to defund the whole expensive shower of nobodies trying to sound intelligent.

         28 likes

  30. brexiteerkent says:

    How to paint bad news as good news, the BBC are experts !!!

    Instead of `EU countries finally begin vaccinnating 19 days later than the UK due to bureaucratic delays` it is :

    `Touching moment of unity as EU countries begin vaccinating together on same day`

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-55456795

       27 likes

    • Scroblene says:

      B.Kent, are your police all tied up with Operation Stitch-up’?

      We only ever see the very occasional blue light around here (near T.Wells), as they’re all stretched out down the M20! Burglaries around here are well on the up too!

      I might pop down to the closest boot fair to see if I can get anything back for some good chums…

         18 likes

      • brexiteerkent says:

        Absolutely. Am further east than you so in the thick of the lorries as it were ! Lots of kent folks out in thier cars driving though, tier 4 or not. Curious as to where they are all going and why !?

           15 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9089861/BBC-embroiled-race-row-Carols-Kings-broadcast.html

          No black faces from the choristers in Carols from Kings Aunty
          I too am appalled – next year maybe we could have a couple of black faces in the choir (even if they cant sing). They could just open and shut their mouths in time to the music, the cameras could concentrate on just them and everyone would be happy.

             20 likes

        • Oaknash says:

          https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9089861/BBC-embroiled-race-row-Carols-Kings-broadcast.html

          SHOCK HORROR!!!!!
          No black faces from the choristers in Carols from Kings Aunty
          I too am appalled – next year maybe we could have a couple of black faces in the choir (even if they cant sing). They could just open and shut their mouths in time to the music, the cameras could concentrate on just them and everyone would be happy.

             8 likes

          • G.W.F. says:

            The choir could black up, as in the Black and White Minstrels from Kings.

               15 likes

          • Darcy3 says:

            The silly bitch’s complaint was actually quite priceless with her clumsy punctuation.

            “One viewer told The Mail on Sunday: ‘All the young choristers were white. I’ve got mixed-race grandchildren and I was appalled.”

            Well so would I be, but I thought we were talking about Kings College Choir ?

            She then carries on…

            I can’t believe that the King’s College School doesn’t have any black pupils who can sing.’

            Why would that be then ? for what bloody reason ? the TV music channels and radio are full of them.

            Shouting along to a CD you have ripped off from a rock band about smacking your bitch and murdering people with guns does not count in the Kings College Choir Master’s estimation I suspect.

               27 likes

        • Scroblene says:

          I bet the good people of Folkestone regret the loss of the Boulogne ferry route!

          Mind you, the Vomit Comets used to take a lot of courage in which to to venture forth, but the restaurants were great – remember The Cheese Place up from the ferry?…

          (I know this has nothing to do with the BBC, but I’m waiting until it’s beer time)!

             11 likes

        • Eddy Booth says:

          I’d. Like to think they are out and out simply to give the finger to nonce Boris Johnson.

             5 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Latest BBC Breaking…

         8 likes

      • Non Snowflake says:

        Will the French get their revenge by sending over another boat-load of teachers, doctors and scientists?

           25 likes

  31. Guest Who says:

    BS will be jelly.

       7 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      What kind of boundaries would those be ? those scored playing cricket during lockdown or the hundreds attending parties, weddings and mosques ? (including the diverse Mayor of Luton)

      just asking

         19 likes

  32. Guest Who says:

    Speaking of blatant, sycophantic, bubble PR as news….

       14 likes

    • Darcy3 says:

      the only comment missing regarding this particular bbc world klass gernaliss’ output is:

      “just a little prick”

         15 likes

    • Beltane says:

      God alone knows what the Guardian thinks it’s playing at, but their ‘Vaccination rolls out across Europe but anger remains over slow start….’ headline might risk a raft of cancelled BBC subscriptions.

      And that could spell more trouble for the troubled title…. even worse if they were paid for, of course.

         8 likes

    • richard D says:

      Guest – one or two EU countries agreed with you, and jumped the gun to get as early a start on their vaccinastion programme as possible – especially since the UK had managed to do it weeks ahead of the them – with an EU-supplied vaccine. Even the EU’s publicity-seeking nonsense didn’t stand the test of time.

      But hey, from the Beeb, the EU adulation committee knows no bounds. The real story – i.e. there’s no unity in the EU at all, just can’t be a headline for the BBC

         12 likes

    • Fedup2 says:

      Straight lie – as I reported yesterday – Hungary and the krauts started a day earlier than agreed . BBC EU propaganda department alive and lying . Worth a complaint – but I can’t waste that time .

         12 likes

      • Scroblene says:

        I’ve never actually complained to the BBC, I just tell all my chums what a miserable shower they all are in W1AA, and they all agree!

        That’s more of a result than anyone can ever get from the autocue-readers’ paradise!

           3 likes

  33. G.W.F. says:

    The choir could black up, as in the Black and White Minstrels from Kings.

       8 likes

    • richard D says:

      I watched the new TV version of ‘Al Creatures Greeat and Small’ last night, and lo and behold – in a story set in the 1930’s, a married couple in the depths of Yorkshire hill farming country, who had been apparently wed 40 years earlier, comprised a white man and a black woman…..
      …. and we were treated to a bit of a lecture on racism for good measure. Rreally ? just really ? They can’t keep wokeness out of anything these days.

      And I know it’s an ITV presentation this time around, but, like Coronavirus, this wokeness is just mutating in the media far and wide.

         29 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Seems they had been booked for Mrs. Brown’s Boys as carol singers for next year’s special.

      Triple cancellation fee.

         3 likes

  34. theisland says:

    Another stitch up by the looks of it. I’m sure those ‘advisors’ from the FCO (now the FCDO) are well on board, after all they managed to run rings around BoJo when he was Foreign Secretary. As I understand it we are paying into something called ‘Horizon Europe’ for the EU’s multiannual financial framework 2021-2027 and surprise, surprise this now incorporates the European Defence Fund.
    https://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/press/press-releases/2020/12/14/provisional-agreement-reached-on-setting-up-the-european-defence-fund/#

       12 likes

  35. Guest Who says:

    QT panel pitches made.

       2 likes

  36. G says:

    Well, I am surprised!

    “Brexit Fury As EU Judges’ Orders To Be Enforceable In UK in Relation To Bloc’s Programmes”

    “We’re Out”, “free of the EU Courts”. No we’re not. We are still in tow of the EU big time.

       5 likes

  37. Guest Who says:

    As you Mr. Grace would say… “you’re all doing very well”.

       2 likes

  38. Guest Who says:

    Looking back, with M & M.

       2 likes

    • G says:

      GW,
      “some of the biggest events of 2020 were fuelled by falsehoods, propaganda and conspiracy theories.”

      Of which, BBC, you were the prime mover. Congratulations in reducing your following again.

         5 likes

  39. Guest Who says:

    Interestingly (ok, not at all), I watched neither.

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.com/2020/12/after-four-years-of-fraught.html

       1 likes

  40. Fedup2 says:

    Not the BBC – but I’ve been musing on the content of the Reich /UK agreement . I’ve yet to read it but I think we are in the calm after the storm with another coming storm – as it were .
    Although I’m self deprived of MSM – I get the feeling that many players on both sides are yet to pronounce on it . I suppose that tedious old ‘curates egg ‘ thing will be used again and again .
    But after so much noise and venom from dead politicians and unelected Soros mouthpieces – is there now to be silence ?

    Or will feathers fly in Parliament -? -although the way it is a rubber stamp now the speaker might give each MP 2 minutes to say their piece .

    The likes of Redwood will be the real test …..

       8 likes

    • Kaiser says:

      Im guessing its 4 -5 year transition in disguise and the can has just been kicked down the road

      Time will tell I guess , when and if we ever get past the kung flu

         7 likes

  41. Jack in the Green says:

    I assume anyone of a non-white variety will be turning down their new years honours/gongs etc. Surely any other course of action in this era of hysteria would be considered nothing short of the grossest hypocrisy. I won’t be holding my breath.
    As for John Edrich, I very much take the point other contributors have made. My better half (who has no interest in cricket) told me of his passing. I thought there was a neat irony in receiving the news this way. This continuing emphasis on skewing the news comes as no surprise and it will only get worse.

       10 likes

  42. Darcy3 says:

    As I assume that any black person using their privileged position to get their voice heard nationally banging on about white privilege will resign forthwith and become a bus conductor to prove their point

    otherwise they are plainly lying

    Of course the Abbot woman is excused, she would struggle with counting out the change and has a habit of drinking on public transport

       9 likes

  43. StewGreen says:

    8:45pm – 11pm repeat again of the doco about the Black Panthers the black nationalist party
    On PBS

       3 likes

  44. Guest Who says:

    Wheeling out the reserves.

    BBC’s Nick Bryant looks back on the year “when time seemed to collapse in on itself.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55353178


    There was a strong body of evidence to suggest that countries run by female leaders handled the crisis more expertly. Angela Merkel’s Germany, Jacinda Ardern’s New Zealand, Tsai Ing-wen’s Taiwan, and Mette Frederiksen’s Denmark.
    By contrast, countries governed by presidents and prime ministers who had surfed the populist wave with a macho swagger often did poorly. Donald Trump’s America, Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil, and Boris Johnson’s Britain. The virus could not be sloganeered away.

    Yup.

       9 likes

    • Up2snuff says:

      Guest, the BBC wouldn’t be suggesting that the Chinese deliberately released the virus to disadvantage those three male leaders (you could also add Modi and Netanyahu to the mix), would they?

      Shock! Horror!!

         5 likes

  45. Up2snuff says:

    TWoTWee Watch #1 – Is Ed un’appy – he sounds that way?

    Prog presented by Ed Stourton. Major chunk of it occupied by the EU Trade Deal. Ed sounded just a little unhappy. Is his EU holiday home going to be less attractive to rent out to friends and colleagues if they need to buy Visas and Health Insurance and International Driving Licences? Will he, the family and the family dog have greater difficulties in getting to stay there themselves?

    He seemed quite keen to try and get a string of people to be negative about the deal. I missed the early part of the programme with a Scots contributor, no doubt saying how Boris had blown it and dumped on the UK’s fisherfolk to hurry a deal through. Is that right? Anyone hear that bit?

    I did hear a ‘young’ lady from an accountancy firm Ernst & Young who obviously did not know her own firm’s business very well. I hope that she is not involved in running the firm as she appeared to not have a clue about the worldwide practice. Another Dido Harding in the making? She was happy to say what a disaster Brexit and the Trade Deal are.

    Didn’t cheer Ed up one jot.

       9 likes

  46. G says:

    June Sarapong. Someone posted earlier:

    Alex Belfield has her measure…………….

       8 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I can’t help but agree with all of it. Except – if I may be a little pedantic – you can’t write a blank cheque for 100 million.

      During Brexit I complained on a BBC HYS that I found the term Gammon someone had used to be racist and offensive. They rejected my complaint and told me: ‘Calling people gammon is the same as saying ‘green with envy’ or ‘blue with cold’.’

      I was actually quite happy they said that because then I could use it in forums like this as an example of what outrageous double-standards they have.

         10 likes

  47. G says:

    And as for the BBC’s viewing figures so far over Xmas?

    Alex Belfield has it sussed. Music to our ears?

       3 likes

    • JohnC says:

      I went looking for the ratings for the 3 Vicar of Dibley episodes and mysteriously (or perhaps not) I can’t seem to find them anywhere.
      Anyone know what they were ?.

         8 likes

  48. Guest Who says:

    Shyan.

    Also Shyan.

    http://isthebbcbiased.blogspot.com/2020/12/whoops.html

       1 likes

  49. Guest Who says:

    And then there was that old dear’s feet.

    If Marianna does not get a Pulitzer there is no justice.

       3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Plus… tips!

         1 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        One for Maz and the guys at BBC SDU.

           7 likes

  50. Guest Who says:

    Sadly inevitable and tragic.

    But enough about the BBC sub-reporting.

       2 likes