Wednesday 1 January 2020

It's the first blog of the year


So what should we post as our very first post of 2020? 

Well, here's something that's happening right now...

I've switched on BBC One and am seeing the BBC at its most self-indulgent. It's New Years Day primetime evening BBC One viewing and the BBC is paying tribute to 'Miranda', a minor hit on BBC Two a decade ago, and they've booked a massive hall and a cast of thousands  - at, doubtless, ridiculous expense - to do it. 

Seriously, BBC, why? 

And, just as seriously, why am I even watching it? 

To tell the truth, I'm locked in a tense philosophical discussion with myself this evening. I can't decide who deserves a dose of nirovirus more: everyone involved in this grim, back-slapping piece of BBC death-by-chocolate, or me for watching it.

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Ah, Twitter - where the damned float on eternally. 

I didn't want to start the first post of the year with something about Twitter, so I waited a few paragraphs. But.... 

It's not been a good start to the year for Newsnight's new policy editor Lewis Goodall. He's already had to delete a tweet. He was responding to this Times headline...


...and wrote, "Or to look at it another way, you might need some optimism to believe that the nation state of Britain will survive the 2020s."

After heavy criticism (from the likes of Kate Hoey) he 'vanished' it.

It looks like he's very quickly getting back into the BBC spirit of things.

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This morning's Today still seemed as if young Greta was guest-editing it. I heard at least four pieces that reflected her influence. I think the BBC will be carrying her torch with some enthusiasm throughout this year.

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Not a particularly great first post of the year I'll admit, but onwards and jedwards. Happy 2020!

8 comments:

  1. Lewis Goodall is going to provide this blog with lots of material for 2020.

    He makes no attempt to hide his left wing metro-liberal views and is obsessed with Labour Party internal politics.

    Did you see Dr Who that followed Miranda? Its casting policy was BBC social engineering on steroids.

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  2. Yes, keep 'em coming, Lewis!

    I did watch 'Doctor Who'. It's my guilty BBC pleasure. I've watched it since I was five. The diversity stuff, the PC stuff, the political stuff, just gets ratcheted up series by series these days. We've been chronicling that here for ages. The last series got so bad and so preachy that it so its ratings figures plummeted as it went on. The dialogue on today's episode was shake-your-head-in-disbelief bad. Really, I could write a short book on how bad it was. Another series of this and 'Doctor Who' will get cancelled (again).

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  3. Sounds like Lewis has been down the bias gym over Christmas, keeping his partisan muscles in shape!

    Last time I looked there was no "nation state of Britain". There was a united kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

    If he means Scotland will break away...he's a brave man if he's betting that the Scottish people will want to rejoin the EU, start tackling their huge deficit with a Scots-only period of austerity, join the Euro, join Schengen, jeopardise their trade with the rest of the UK, and put the monarchy in question.

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  4. You Gov are trying to tell us that Starmer is the front runner with Labour Party members...I don't credit it for one moment. There is something extremely dodgy about that poll. Starmer is an obvious Blairite whatever he may say and your average Labour Party member will know it. There's no way they will vote for him in my view. He might get 20% but 30 plus%? No way! If the poll is correct then if you add Yvette Cooper's 7% and Lisa Nandy's 5% to Starmer's figure, then 43% of the Labour Party's membership are Blairite or similar. That is beyond incredible.

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    1. I share your scepticism about Starmer but I guess we need to recognise that Labour's main aim is to select a leader who can win them an election. The fact that Starmer seems to be the most credible potential winner speaks volumes!

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    2. But surely that's the whole point about the vast majority of Labour Party members now: they are committed ideological socialists, not pragmatic progressives. For heaven's sake they think Laura Kuennesberg and Nick Robinson are right wing fascist! lol They aren't going to think Starmer is suitable material to lead a socialist party.

      I think there's something dodgy about the poll, either deliberately so or through the methodology. How did they find their Labour Party members to do the poll in the first place?

      "The poll was commissioned from YouGov by the Party Members Project, which is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and run by Queen Mary University of London and Sussex University."

      Can't get any details on how the Party Members Project is run but sounds like some sort of panel.

      The Party Members Project is run by Prof Tim Bale. I checked his twitter account. He's not a disinterested academic. He's clearly hostile to Momentum.

      By the way, it's tax payers' money that's funded this dodgy poll. I think it's a good example of a complete waste of public money.
      The money could have gone to hospitals or schools.

      https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/01/02/keir-starmer-comfortably-leads-labour-leader-race

      https://esrcpartymembersproject.org/

      https://twitter.com/ProfTimBale?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

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  5. Pyschologists call it "displacement" activity.

    There seems to be a lot of displacement going on at the moment. Adrian Chiles on Radio 5 Live was particularly exercised about climate sceptic, right-leaning, pro-borders Australian PM, Scott Morrison...it's nice the Beeboids can direct their Boris-derangement-anger in someone's else direction without exposing their complete bias to the Great British Public.

    For the BBC the Australian bush fires "prove" global warming and they are happy to focus on that story while ignoring record breaking cold in South Asia and the Eastern USA.

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    1. "Get Scott" makes for a change from "Get Boris" I suppose.

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