Is this the right time to try it? Part 2

The BBC has spoken. Marco Silva, the corporation's Climate Change Disinformation Specialist, has ruled that claims on social media and from “various right-wing US and UK outlets that green policies” - in the form of the Rajapaksa government's 2021 seven-month ban on imports of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides - caused the collapse of the Sri Lankan economy are FALSE. 

If put like that, it's obviously false. Lots of factors contributed to the collapse. The question is did this move to promote organic farming play its significant part too?

It's a peculiar article. As well as its line-up of experts, claiming it wasn't a sincere policy and that the problem with it was that it was brought in too quickly, you get those little words like 'just' doing their work of nudging:

The government dropped the policy, just seven months after introducing it, following widespread protests.

But seven months of a complete ban on the imports of chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides is hardly a short period of time for such a drastic policy, is it? And note the use of the word 'old' here:

But this week, as the presidential palace was stormed, many were quick to blame this old policy.

It's not that old. It ended just over half a year ago and had a major impact on the entire growing season in 2021. And half way through you get this:

And while banning chemical fertilisers indisputably hurt the economy, experts say several other factors contributed.

So if the ban indisputably hurt the economy and was a factor that contributed to the collapse, then how much did it contribute?

Isn't this Reality Check a spot of BBC greenwashing?

Here's what the BBC wrote about it in May under the headline Sri Lanka: Why is the country in an economic crisis?:

Boxing Day Smorgasbord

Here are a few random thoughts for Boxing Day...

I

Catching up with a discussion on the open thread...

The BBC News website article Climate change: Small army of volunteers keeping deniers off Wikipedia by Marco Silva, BBC climate change disinformation specialist, featured discussion of Femke Nijsse from The Netherlands - “one of the most influential editors in the Wikipedia climate change community”. This “Dutch volunteer” is described as:

...a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Exeter, studying the transition to green energy - so global warming is something she's been thinking about for a while.

What Marco doesn't mention about this “clinical” academic crusader for truth is that Femke used to be deputy leader of DWARS, GroenLinkse Jongeren, the youth wing of the Dutch political party GreenLeft. 

I guessed she'd has a political activist side to her, but I'd rather have been openly told that by the BBC rather than have to Google around to find it.

II

🎄I really must clear up all the potato snacks I trod into my carpet yesterday... 

It's beginning to look a lot like crisp mush.🎄

III

As Charlie noted, also on the open thread, the cancel culture comments made by Maureen Lipman induced the BBC's new culture editor Katie Razzell to do a News at Ten report that featured the mighty Maureen before balancing her concerns with comedian Russell Kane's outright dismissal of them. [In passing, let's note that Russell has done very well out of the BBC over the years]. What wasn't so balanced was Katie's use of two vox pops - the first of which said, “I'm not worried about being judged. I would just far rather not say something because I don't think it's right”, and the second of which said, “At the end of the day, making offensive remarks is bullying.” 

She rounded off her report by saying:

What's happening on the comedy stage and in real life is a sign outdated views are being weeded out. Or a worrying assault on free speech, depending on your perspective. Culture often leads the way on the big issues of our time as we all navigate what we can say, and what it's best not to. 

 IV

🎄Just got kicked out of my ornithology group...
...for using fowl language.🎄

V

A few months back I wrote, “It's surely time now for David Walker, the go-ahead Bishop of Manchester, to be officially installed as Bishop of Radio 4's Sunday.” When I heard this morning that Archbishop Desmond Tutu has died, aged 90, I wondered who Radio 4's Sunday would invite onto this morning's edition to talk about him. Inevitably it was the go-ahead Bishop of Manchester. That programme's contacts list is even more limited than mine these days.

VI

🎄I was going to have Bucks Fizz for an aperitif this afternoon...

...but I'm having trouble making my mind up.🎄

VII

Quiz time: Which departing BBC broadcaster painted this work of art entitled Cleaning Windows?

Clue: The answer is an anagram of Man, draw, err.

VIII

To develop a point Winter George made earlier today,...

When box-ticking and talent collide everyone sort of wins, possibly. I was thinking after having switched on my TV during Countryfile and watched Anita and Matt swoon over some lovely Elgar from cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Sheku, if you recall, became famous after performing at Harry and Meghan's wedding. I also watched the last moments of the Andrew Marr show and Andrew departed the BBC to music from Konya and Jeneba Kanneh-Mason performing an arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy. And it that wasn't enough Christmas Day on BBC Two saw an hour-long programme called A Musical Family Christmas with the Kanneh-Masons. It raises the inevitable question that always arises when 'positive discrimination' is a strong possibility: Is their success with the BBC partly, even mainly, cos they is black? 

IX

🎄I was struggling to think of what to get someone for a Christmas gift. So I got them a fridge and watched their face light up when they opened it.🎄

[P.S. All the jokes in this post come courtesy of The Dad Joke Man].

X

Is their a more put-on, disliked family in the world than Mrs Brown's? It's become a new Christmas tradition for the snootily 'progressive' to join hands with the tasteful to traduce the BBC for putting her and her boys on TV, every single year without fail, on Christmas Day. Did you have turkey, those pigs-in-blankets that we weren't supposed to be able to buy, and sing Christmas songs, and criticise Mrs Brown's Boy while poor Tiny Tim Davie sat in the naughty corner sarcastically muttering, 'God bless us, every one!'? If so, God bless you, every one!