A most unfortunate juxtaposition
Norman and his counterparts from France and Germany then went to the USA to ask if the folks Stateside could perhaps alleviate the situation by a little loosening of monetary policy, which they duly did. From that point, rather a lot of the easier money went on purchasing common stocks, with the result that an overheated stock market crashed in late 1929.
Now, I know very little about the internal machinations of the BBC, but I do know that removing Robbie Gibb - permanently - from the Corporation would be a good thing. Anyone who is comfortable sharing a platform with the luminaries of the so-called Taxpayers’ Alliance, and the rest of the Tufton Street alphabet soup brigade, has no place at our national broadcaster.
Looking at the Beeb’s website this morning, one could be forgiven for concluding that it was the Tories who won last week’s General Election, such is the glaring bias in coverage. The faux “equivalence” is there in the first UK News headline: “Starmer heading to Scotland as Jenrick says Tories failed to deliver”. Who gives a flying foxtrot what Robert bloody Jenrick thinks?
Scroll down a little and it gets worse: “Who could replace Rishi Sunak as party leader?” Only in the sub-heading does the word CONSERVATIVES appear. Default party = Tory party. Scroll down a bit more, to Latest Updates. “A quick guide to the PM who only lasted 45 days” is followed by “A very quick guide to Penny Mordaunt” and “A quick guide to Rishi Sunak”.
Ed Davey, whose party put on another 61 MPs to reach a record high for them of 72, was greeted by the grudging “Congratulations, I suppose”. Former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal summed it up: “Laura Kuenssberg seems to be finding it hard to be in opposition”. So Jenrick is kicking off the Tory leadership race? Who cares? They’re out of it. Stop promoting them.
Likewise, the effective awarding of a season ticket for Question Time and other shows to Reform UK Oberscheissenführer Nigel “Thirsty” Farage has to stop: his is a fringe party with just five seats. If he and his pals get access, so should the Greens. So they got a lot of votes. So did the Liberals in 1974, and the Liberal-SDP Alliance in 1983. Did the Beeb give them season tickets, too?
Giving the Tories such prominence despite their drubbing last week, and worse, giving a platform to the kinds of Tories who belong firmly in the wacko fringe, is out of order. Questionable displays of “impartiality” - pitting those with comprehensive knowledge of a subject against lobby group activists with bad faith talking points - should also be brought to an end.
That means serving up news and current affairs in a genuinely even-handed manner. No Astroturf lobby groups, especially those who decline to say who funds them. Fact check those known to peddle assertions of dubious veracity. No more Question Time audience plants. And let the Tories run their own leadership contest. They’ve got enough pals in the press as it is.
Robbie Gibb at the BBC was for a time, but not for all time. Order the taxi.
https://www.patreon.com/Timfenton
Unlucky, Tim. This is the wrong era.
ReplyDeleteThose far right shithouses will still be in place long after you decide to leave the scene. So will the dupes who vote for them.
The last half century shows why. Too many have learned to love Big Brother. Others wave a white flag while wearing a white feather.
Look to the BBC announcing at the beginning of each QT the audience has been selected to represent the way the nation voted at the last election.
ReplyDeleteSo the Quiff Quisling is off to Washington and NATO soonest.
ReplyDeleteA cringing servant checking in with his employers.
Not just Washington and NATO.
DeleteApparently, also a forehead-knuckle to that well known "Socialist" Bill Gates.
More Starmer Grovel Reports as they come in.
Starmer’s Labour won the support of just 20.1% of registered voters on July 4th. No administration since the introduction of universal (male) suffrage in 1918 has ever governed with the support of a lower share of the total electorate.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but it's not for the BBC to decide to have PR. The country's voting system is FPTP, and the MPs actually in parliament have the power, not the foreign backed 'think tanks'.
DeleteExactly. Nor is it the BBC's place to sulk about the Torys losing by endlessly banging on about how this is no 'Thatcher or Blair' moment. I can't stand Starmer, but the BBC's Tory licking needs to be brought to an end.
DeleteAs long as we have FPTP we are going to live with the system. The last time we visited Proportional Representation was in 2011. Despite all the hype only about 45% of the electorate even bothered to turn out so no great desire for it then either.
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ReplyDeleteOh dear.
You sad fuckers. Obviously a trying week for all of you.
Clearly, parties who've won even less than 20.1% of registered voters should take control of the government to better reflect the popular will. And UK governments should never defile themselves by going to the US for any reason whatsoever but conduct their sea green incorruptible diplomacy with world powers by carrier pigeon or message stick.
But leaving that aside for the moment, what should be far right Starmer's reaction to the far right French Popular Front (Melonchon excused) and far right Republicans and far right Macronistes' defeat of far right Marine the Stylo and her far right Rassemblement National?
It's a far right minefield innit.
22:50.
DeleteTsk tsk.
Now you'll have to clean all that far right rabid spit off your screen.
The internet never forgets.....
Speaking as a person with a disability, yes it has. Kendall is now our minister in charge of stick, a bit more stick, and fuck all carrot. Her speeches (as ever) do no more than parrot, Stride, Sunak, Duncan smith and the rest of the trashy right wing band. As such we disabled can expect 'more of the same' from a Labour govt. NHS staff are, um, 'less than enthused' by Streetings promise of more ill gotten gains for rapacious US medical firms, meanwhile Blair had laid down the gauntlet for his old pal Yvette to carry on with the culture wars while Starmer promises to, as the old NF, chant went, 'send them back (there ain't no black in the union jack)'. No changes are proposed to the cash strapped Education system, hampered as it is by MATs and the cretinous 'free schools' policy. Elsewhere Reeves has given Bron a stiffy with talk of 'tight fiscal policies' meaning no cash for our crumbling schools, hospitals, infrastructure and public services. Please explain why we should happy about any of this? In particular as inaction over public services, lack of investment and poor quality work had let the far right in. If Starmer blunders on with plan A we can, as many pundits are already predicting, look forward to a frog faced grifter being handed the keys to number ten in five years time...
DeleteAlso, Question Time's thing about "audience composition represents votes", or whatever it is, has been quietly dropped.
ReplyDeleteThere can't be many now who think Kuentssberg is anything other than a far right tory propagandist shithouse.
ReplyDeleteBut every now and then the mask slips. Here's the latest example:
https://x.com/edwinhayward/status/1809904742111330407
Honest doctors speak about the as-expected Starmer/Reeves/Streeting Quislings project to hand the NHS over to Yank spiv profiteers.
ReplyDeletehttps://everydoctor.org.uk/
How easily bought-and-paid-for is the Starmer Quisling:
ReplyDeletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PXOY8wOFjWk&pp=ygUtSG93IG11Y2ggc2hvdWxkIEtlaXIgU3Rhcm1lciBwYXkgZm9yIGdsYXNzZXMg
Starmer "won" his north London seat with 18,884 votes, a halved majority of 11,572, DOWN FROM 22,766 in 2019.
ReplyDeleteAdd that to Streeting squeaking in by a majority reduced to a few hundred, plus Ashworth seeing his buttocks.
No "landslide" there then.
https://x.com/faQTories/status/1809869978545406158
ReplyDeleteSuperb revelatory moment on BBC "News" earlier. The talking head propaganda clerk - the one with a warty chin - said, "....Starmer's pledge", then hastily corrected it to, "Sir Keith Starmer's pledge...".
ReplyDeleteDoubtless on instructions from the ear-wired voice.
Those BBC far right propaganda bullshitters just gotta bullshit.
It does appear that, for the BBC "the Tories lost" is a bigger story than "Labour won". But then, in terms of drama, conflict, excitement the Tory leadership battle may well be better boxoffice than Labour just getting on, competently, with governing
ReplyDelete19:20.
DeleteThe only Quisling "Labour" "competence" on offer is more of the same far right tory thievery, warmongering, lies, hypocrisy and incompetence. It's what they do.
Depends how you define 'competent'. Carrying on with exactly the same education, health, welfare and migrant policies, as your incompetent predecessors calls that idea somewhat into question.
DeleteI myself might wish that the new government would be more different, but even on the evidence of just one week they are hardly "exactly the same". Exactly the same migration policy, to take one example, would be to continue with the Rwanda farce which has been cancelled. Anyway, competence is in itself a nice change irrespective of whether I agree with the policies.
DeleteSo, the Sweeting carrying on with, as he said he would, privatising the NHS, the Education secretary saying there will be no changes to the current, Tory created education mess, the head of the DWP, accepting the Tories conclusions in terms of benefits changes for the disabled, and Cooper continuing with the manufactured small boats rhetoric is 'not the same'? The Rwanda plan has been scrapped due to cost, not because Labour think its 'wrong'. Plus we have Sweeting and Kendall parroting Tory, 'sick note culture's bs. Frankly, I'd rather have Tory blundering that means this right wing dogma doesn't get effectively delivered than ruthless nu Labour pushing so it does...
DeleteSpot the difference? https://www.disabilitynewsservice.com/six-days-and-19000-words-into-a-new-government-and-just-one-mention-of-disability-then-dwp-claimant-blaming-begins-again/
DeleteAfter just a week some things may appear to be the same which may, or may not, improve over time. Some things are definitely different. Rwanda scrapped, whatever the motive, and I couldn't say with certainty that it is just the cost and not the morality of it. Bold steps to promote housebuilding and renewable energy. Cancelling the pernicious Northern Ireland Legacy Act. If Sweeting goes ahead with privatising the NHS and if the grisly corpse of PFI is disinterred, then I shall certainly be protesting, but let's wait and see. Starmer's problem with such a vast majority is there will be an awful lot of backbenchers to potentially rebel.
ReplyDeleteThis is the problem - sweeting has already said what he's going to do. And who is being appointed to the NHS? Megacorp medical front man, Milburn. The same for the DWP, Kendall said 'exactly' what she was proposing, and reiterated it in her first public statement. To the dismay of the disabled community. Considering, Labour abandoned their much wider Green proposals, that would have created a large number of jobs, inward investment, and been much better for the environment, I'm not doing somersaults over their half hearted new proposals. Elesewhere, Reeves says there's no money, so forget the desperately needed cash for LAs, social care, infrastructure, no nationalisation for Rail, no ending of wasteful tendering out and privatisation.As for possible rebellions, forget it. Why do you think the few remaining left wing mps suffered another purge before the election? The Labour party has been taken over by mps that even Private Eye holds in contempt over their pro business, trough happy, conservatism. The tiny number of Left wing mps, meanwhile shamed themselves, by allowing the NEC to cow them over the NI letter. The chances of them rocking the boat are zero, right wing MPs, as they did under Blair will vote through everything. Not that a majority of any size matters. As the Major govt showed, if the whips do their stuff a majority of one can see controversial legislation pushed through. I have never before, in my entire life dreaded a Labour govt, but I dread this one. What's so sad is that repugnant man Mandelson crowing in the press over 'Labour needing to be right wing to win', has already been shown to be utter crap. If YouGov's mega survey is right, the whole 'we need to shadow the Tories to win over the biggest voting bloc (boomers)' not only failed, it failed big time. Labours vote increased not one jot. It was reform that split the elderly and spiteful vote. But hey, let's hope against hope that the army of corporate reps that have been mingling happily with Starmer and co, don't get their way. But I won't be holding my breath.
DeleteEr, that should be Streeting. I knew that, even if some others don't!
ReplyDelete12:34.
DeleteBet, though, you didn't know, or might prefer to avoid, news that the Quislings will increase "defence" spending to 2.5% - even though there's "no money" for anything else except for the pockets of their chums and themselves. And despite no other nation anywhere having the slightest intention or will to invade or attack Britain. Since all that's necessary is to let these islands continue to rot in corruption.
Any day now corporate media clerks will label this Starmernomics or Reevesnomics. It's what they're paid for. That and the usual daily diet of lying cowardice.
It should indeed. Apologies. My post Euros mental state mixed up Wes with Streeting!
DeleteYou're hard to keep up with, Anonymous! I admit I had forgotten the Milburn appointment which is deeply worrying. But I think you underestimate the socialist heart that still beats within the Labour Party, despite Starmer's purge of the left. The first revolt, over the two-child benefit cap, seems due next week, much sooner than I had anticipated. And while I don't see the 2.5% defence spending rise as a priority, it is not being prioritised over other expenditure, as you unfairly imply, but just another thing on the to-do list when funds allow. We may not be in immediate danger of invasion but that is a very parochial attitude to world affairs. It is not in the UK's interest to let Putin gobble up Ukraine, which a victorious Trump will surely be happy to see.
Delete15:25.serious
DeleteThe absence of any threat whatsoever makes the proposed 2.5% very important indeed, especially as a statement of intent in the face of a nation in serious moral and socioeconomic decline. At this stage health, housing, education and infrastructure are more important than keeping insane Colonel Blimps happy at home and abroad.
As for Ukraine, a reasoning look at the history of East Europe will show the region has had shifting borders and empires for centuries. The most recent murderous neonazi Banderas are no different. Bandera was a convicted murder, as anti Polish as anti Russian - ultimately he was too extreme even for the Nazis.
Well, we have come a long way from the Tory leadership race! Does Eastern Europe having had "shifting borders and empires for centuries" justify Ukraine being expunged and it's people turned, against their wills, into Russians? That is like saying, because vast numbers died in the bubonic plague and Spanish flu, we do not need to try to stop the spread of pandemics or mitigate their effects.
DeleteEven more shocking is your espousal of Putin's justification that Ukraine is run by Nazis. There are neo-Nazis in Ukraine, as in most, if not all, European countries. Should we therefore let Putin take over the lot? Zelenskyy is no Nazi. As for Bandera, extremist though he was, it was because he was a nationalist that the Nazis fell out with him, not because he was too extreme "even for them". He was not too extreme to stop him being taken up by Western intelligence after the war, though.
That did make me chuckle Stephen, 'socialist heart's of the Labour party! As a former member, who left as a result of Blairs (fatal for the education system) Academy schools rollout, rejoined, then left again after Starmer began gagging the left, that idea is so distant from the harsh reality its untrue. I've seen our local mp that I campaigned for, lie through her teeth about 'lefties' in our CLP, that resulted in it being banned from meeting. I've seen moderate Labour council members hounded out by the right (accompanied by the usual 'the trots are out to get us bs), I've seen mps that the Tories wouldn't touch become the dominant force in the party, resulting in one that's left with a small number of genuine centrist, and a tiny handful of the left. I've seen the right of party actively campaign against it on the doorsteps, smear the leadership from Brown to Corbyn, and brief the press against party activists and anyone the media doesn't like. Mps on the left hung out to dry, those on the right say and do whatever they want and recieve 'royal' pardons from the NEC. I've seen the party interfere with Union leadership elections to try and bring in more 'suitable', to the establishment, candidates. There is no point quibbling over spending. Just as Brown did between 97- 2001, Labour have committed to Tory targets. Which means there is no wriggle room. If they want to increase NHS and Education spending even slightly, the disabled will recieve yet another swift kick to the balls. Hence the silence over the Tory changes to PIP and no halting of the UC transition. Even then, squeezing the poorest off on benefits will not free up enough cash. Yet Reeves has said, 'read my lips' with the same likely outcome. I'd like to believe Labour still have some vestige of humanity and social conscience left, I'd love to see you proved right. But Blair proved me right once, starmer is likely too again.
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