Thank you again for all your comments.
I tried to take a photo of Morecambe's kite festival recently to upload onto the blog but ended up snapping the back of my hand. So here's an image someone else took of a previous year's kite festival (with the art-deco Midland Hotel in the bottom right). As the tethers look like threads, it's obviously appropriate.
On last night's BBC News, John Pienaar was giving us his round-up of the G20 Summit. He couldn't bring himself to say that from a UK perspective, the summit seems had gone reasonably well. He jibed 'if Theresa May is still Prime Minister in a few month's time'. It was quite clear from his body language that he is secretly hoping that both the Conservative Government and Brexit fail.
ReplyDeletePerhaps not so secretly! The other story was that Angela Merkel didn't play a blinder - but, as she is the bastion of the EU project, little was reported.
Delete"Her ambitions will be tested hard, along with her own hopes of carrying on much longer as Prime Minister" was how Jon Pienaar ended his report last night.
DeleteHis cheery question to Theresa May at the G20 press conference was: "Prime Minister, do you accept that if EU leaders insist on tougher trade terms after Brexit than those we have now, there is risk the UK could end up worse off, whatever deals you may strike with America, or Japan, or anyone else?"
I heard Pienaar and other BBC reports from G20 framing the discussions as being ones in which the Government and May's position is weakened by the recent election result.
DeleteOnly in the BBC's mind is democracy a bad thing of course. Many G20 members will not be "weakened by election results", ever.
Yes, there seemed to be some discomfort from the BBC that Merkel and the EU (despite their own delegate being produced like a rabbit out of the magician's hat, and being the host country) were far from being at the hub of the wheel so far as the rest of the G20 world were concerned. Trump was placed at the edge of the 'family photo', and spontaneously, the independently minded delegates turned towards him - and away from Merkel.
ReplyDeleteThat was not meant to happen.
James Robbins was sticking with the script though on the BBC One news last night:
Delete"Well, the fact is, he stimulated in all the other leaders a profound sense of political and cultural shock. They are not used to dealing with an American president who thinks and acts like he does. I think most strongly perhaps Chancellor Angela Merkel in the chair is almost the polar political opposite in her attitude towards these international occasions and she made that pretty clear. She blamed the US for being the blocker on much of the discussion of trade, and protectionism. As we heard, she actively deplored their position on climate change. Others are less openly hostile, but they are simply not used to this style, this rhetorical style, and the forcefulness of the American president who does not necessarily want to lead the West in the way that they expect. It doesn't so much feel like the G20, but the G19 plus one."
More Fake News from the BBC -
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-40554844
When have they ever been worried about government sponsored poster campaigns whipping up fear and hatred in other countries. But Hungary has a pop at Soros and it's time to press the panic bell.
In no way is this a balanced article. There is a whiff of anti-semitism of course in nationalist politics in Eastern Europe. But the reaction of the Israeli foreign ministry shows their concern that Soros - rather than the Hungarian government - is the one fuelling it.
My main gripe with Soros is that he really has no business interfering in Europe's affairs. It works both ways - the Democrats scream blue murder about a European power allegedly trying to influence politics in the USA.
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DeleteSeems to have been some slip up at the world class broadcaster's newsroom. The BBC seem to have missed this speech by their darling Macron:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.infowars.com/racist-macron-says-african-women-having-too-many-babies/
Apparently he suggested African mothers should have fewer children. Imagine how they would play that if Trump had said it at the G20!
Nest week in my preferred TV listing magazine is a blurb about the forthcoming series 'Nadiya's British Food Adventure'. I quote "One of Nadiya's favourite stories of the series was of a Huddersfield-based cheese-maker. 'This lady fled Syria a few years ago' she tells us (this is the lady who fled Syria not Nadiya) 'She used to eat halloumi every day and missed it living here, so decided to make her own'.
ReplyDeleteA quick internet search shows that there is a large scale cheese-maker in Haywards Heath that produces high quality halloumi in an organic environment, and receives five-star ratings. Why is there no publicity for them or similar firms?
Make of it what you chose.
I forgot to mention the first line of the blurb... 'Britain's best-loved Bake-off winner presents....'
DeleteTo be honest, I thought some of the previous winners were better than Nadiya.
Frances Quinn, who won the Bake-off in 2013 switched on the Christmas Tree lights in her home town of Market Harborough that year, but she didn't get to travel the globe on BBC's commissioning at the licence-payers expense nor did she get her own series.
DeleteIf Jonaya English had come to prominence for any other reason...
ReplyDeletehttps://twitter.com/SergeantFrisky
...she would by now have been invited on the One Show,interviewed on Today, put on the Question Time panel and given her own bake-off programme.
But since her focus of criticism is Islam and Sharia, you are unlikely to ever hear about her on the BBC.
Here it is again:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-40575473
Laura K's piece is as usual full of the anti Conservative anti Theresa May rhetoric that we come to expect from her. And, as usual, the headline photo of Theresa May shows her with a very dark background in a not so subtle attempt to show her as alone and isolated - unlike the portrayal of the smiling Jeremy Corbyn, who always seems to have a crowd of supporters accompanying him.
At the end of the piece Laura claims to be, along with 'everyone at Westminster', exhausted. Poor Laura.
Guido Fawkes has caught another classic example of BBC's Rule # 1 about vox pops in effect.
ReplyDeletehttps://order-order.com/2017/07/12/another-hard-left-agitator-tricks-bbc-news/
On last night’s BBC Six O’Clock News, Kamal Ahmed presented a package on the Taylor Report which included an interview with one Felicity Flynn. Flynn was introduced by name only and captioned as a “former zero hours worker”. She had clearly been invited to Millbank studios to tape just a few seconds of her condemning “insecure work“. Yet Felicity Flynn is not your average “former zero hours contract worker”…
She's a Labour campaigner and PCS union rep. Classic Rule # 1.
PS: Apologies, forgot to mention I saw this via a link on your sidebar to Notasheep's blog.
Deletehttps://twitter.com/fifi_debord?lang=en
DeleteThey knew. We know the BBC keeps very close track of social media and any profiles of their guests and subjects. Some BBC News production assistant probably even DMed her via Twitter to invite her to appear. They just decided you didn't need to know, and that it was okay to mislead the public because the cause is just and righteous.
DeleteGood from Andrew Neil on Daily Politics. After asking Jack Dromey several questions all to no avail, Neil said something like; 'I ask you a question, and you attack the Tories'.
ReplyDeleteThere is a mindset from the Corbyn camp that all they need to do is smile and wave and drop out the odd cliché phrase - and their support will continue to grow.
Delete'I ask you a question, and you attack the Tories'
DeleteThe way the tide is running maybe that's enough? Scrutiny isn't for a Government in waiting. How dare Neil?
I'd thought the deal was that the interviewee gets to make their party political point in exchange for answering a question about their own record/plans?
The Corbyn camp isn't far wrong on that score. The softer-headed Tories (meaning the mainstream not named Boris Johnson and their supporters in the press) haven't the slightest idea how to proceed, and many are very worried. See idiot Hugo Rifkind's recent piece in the Spectator, for example.
DeleteThe Corbyn youth vote is from the snapchat generation where all substantive issues (and for that matter, froth) are deleted after a few seconds. Content of his rally speeches are quickly forgotten. Perhaps he need never expand upon his manifesto promises - the BBC are allowing him to ride upon a wave of populist adoration without the need to justify the radical far-left policies he has up his sleeve.
DeleteEven without the bias from the BBC and the mindless adoration of the Corbynistas, and even putting aside “that manifesto” the Tories have made a hopeless mess of defending their position. Time and time again from QT to Daily Politics they are simply letting Labour get away with stating utter nonsense with barely a murmur of rebuttal. Should Labour actually win the next election and we end with a Venezuelan style basket case of an economy the Tories will be equally to blame.
DeleteMay we have the English spelling of ageing in the headline, please.
ReplyDeleteHere we go again on the BBC News website this morning.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/40575129
10 Charts: Theresa May's first year as Prime Minister.
There is what is now a familiarly styled photo of Theresa May as she is shown unsmiling against a dark, some would say menacing background. Compare this with images of Jeremy Corbyn - shown smiling, and waving to supporters, usually the Labour BBC red banners as a backcloth.
Could the BBC be trying to match the perceived image of Theresa May to that of Margaret Thatcher? The former PM seems always to be portrayed in black and white face and hair-do photos. There must be plenty of colour photos to chose from - in the 1980s. We know that Thatcher has become the No1 hate figure of the Corbyn and BBC left, worse seemingly than any despot.
Now here's a difficult one for the BBC News Channel. Donald Trump is on a State Visit to France. Macron is riding high in BBC land with his pro EU agenda. Trump on the other hand usually gets a hostile reception from the BBC.
ReplyDeleteBut, Trump is being well received in France - Macron appear to be looking for a strong France USA EU cooperation. So, the pro EU BBC have put aside their hostility towards Trump in deference to Macron. It's OK to ridicule Trump when broadcasting from a UK base, but, when in France, do as the French and EU do.
What hypocrites you are BBC!
Just looking at the BBC coverage of Bastille day, respectful shots and comments about Macron and Trump. Not a mention of any protests or dissent (there will have been at least some).
ReplyDeleteContrast this with the eventual visit of Trump to the UK, BBC reporters with hard-hats embedded with protesters, the script has already been written. "..I'm here with literally tens of thousands of ordinary people protesting against President Trumps visit, they are angry, very angry , the demand their voices are heard and heard now..."
We are seeing double standards from the BBC. With the recent G20 and now with Trump's visit to France, there must be a BBC policy not to offend the host countries and therefore the BBC suspends hostilities to their normal targets - namely Brexit and Trump - saving their vitriol for their home audience when they are safely positioned, and protected from recrimination.
Delete