Westminstenders: Run Forrest Run

[RedToothBrush]

Need i say more?

I'm back.
Had a great family break away.
Those who see my FB will know that I'll be chasing down essential red tape like a mad one for the next few weeks
so I'll be ever so mellow on here
while remaining as psychotic as usual

the world has gone mad

.

It makes me so angry to watch our current government actively dismantling democracy and retreating ever further from being held to account for its appalling mismanagement/ intentional destruction of the economy in the name of mythical sovereignty.

First, refusing to be interviewed on 'hostile' media shows. Then refusing access to certain news outlets to no 10 briefings. Then a press officer to be hired at £100k pa to hold daily White House style briefings rather than have our elected representatives forced to speak to the press. Now this...no doubt likely supported by the government.

www.theguardian.com/media/2020/aug/29/rivals-plan-fox-news-style-opinionated-tv-station-in-uk

It absolutely smacks of DC and his decade old hatred of the BBC. I said it before and I'll repeat myself here. We will regret and mourn the loss of an independent BBC. I've criticised its impartiality myself on occasions but it is much better than the alternative privately owned press.

In 2004, DC's New Frontiers Foundation called for: “There are three structural things that the right needs to happen in terms of communications... 1) the undermining of the BBC’s credibility; 2) the creation of a Fox News equivalent / talk radio shows / bloggers etc to shift the centre of gravity; 3) the end of the ban on TV political advertising.”

Seems playing the long games has served him well. Two out of three of his plans for a divisive, right wing, conservative mouth piece and muzzling of the slightly more independent press ready to be ticked off the list.

Thanks as ever, RTB.

That Guardian article is truly terrifying. Propaganda on tap fed to the Sheeple. Suddenly moving to Scotland has become much more appealing.

It absolutely smacks of DC and his decade old hatred of the BBC. I said it before and I'll repeat myself here. We will regret and mourn the loss of an independent BBC.

i mourned it nearly 4 years ago.

Given i was talking about the likelihood of the abolition of the licence fee in 1997 im slightly surprised it hasn't happened yet. Its been something that has been incredibly fragile and at risk for a long time even under a different government.

The problem hasnt just been about the license fee itself it also been about the bbc management and selling itself to the wider public. And unfortunately when you are run by that many private school graduates thats ultimately going to become a chain around your neck dragging you down.

I love the BBC but the writing has been on the wall for a very long time. Its been unable to sell itself or the idea of the license fee, so its demise has always been inevitable. The question of when rather than if has been there a long long time.

I don't think the BBC has managed to stop the sheeple effect for a number of years anyway. And given its recruitment of question time audiences and the whole pandering to extreme voices on any topic you care to mention its definitely contributed not to sane debate reflective of the population but to polarisation through sensationalism.

Hi all! Thought I'd say hello after a crazy whirlwind couple of weeks. I have a friend staying and we went for some drinks (new guy babysat!). We found most places actually quiet - ignored the usual germ fests of Wetherspoons and went to pubs with gardens where poss - so had a relatively nice and long overdue night out.

Am wondering as I did a few weeks ago as to how Boris is going to force workers back to offices. I was drunkenly suggesting to my friend that the local sandwich shops/coffee houses need to do a staggered opening for offices; so say one dept of the office next door get to use it for half a day. That way you support the local businesses and can ditch the office space.

School seems to think staggered drop offs between 8:45 and 9am (300 students) are enough with pick-up direct from classrooms - which is upstairs along a narrow corridor for us, so I am not personally convinced. I know it's not their choice but it doesn't feel possible to make it safe with such minimal changes.

In other news new guy and I are getting on amazingly well. He says he's smitten and we are enjoying local day trips with the dogs and dd who thinks he is the bees knees! Very happy - he was worth the wait!

The doctrinaire right destroyed the BBC years ago as an independent outlet,
by holding them hostage to their licence fee, appointing stooges to the BBC board, stooges in so many current affairs positions

It is not an issue with left-right balance, but of the quality of news presentation and analysis

e.g Reith would never have contemplated giving equal time to climate change deniers in any debate,
would not have let the Brexit fantasists get away unchallenged during a ref campaign,
would not have let any pseudo-journalist like LauraK crawl up BJ's arse for her career

Licence fee

I have always been against the licence fee principle even back in the 1960s as being a completely unfair flat tax
Growing up poor, it meant I couldn't afford a fucking TV at all until my late 20s, after I had my PhD and first job

I would suggest hiving off the news and current affairs to be paid via income tax, fixed budget for 7 years - to help avoid election cycles - but with automatic annual income increase tied to RPI

Everything else, i.e. the entertainment - sport, soap operas, game shows, reality shows - should be funded either by ads or by subscription
These take the vast majority of the current BBC budget and are of no importance whatsoever

So why is Doms Dad chirping about Johnson giving up and retiring because hes bored?

Could it be something to do with the following:

Otto English @Otto_English
Boris Johnson's 38% approval rating now same as Theresa May's in December 2018 when ERG leader Jacob Rees-Mogg started demanding that May should go.

I honestly cannot see a scenario where it goes up. People are pissed off. The pandemic is not going anywhere. Another wave looms. And then there's the Brexit catch 22. Hard Brexit will be disastrous. Compromise will be seen as defeat.

Johnson faces "Zugzwang” the German chess term for when you are compelled to move, but every choice is a disadvantage. The same thing May had but far, far worse because of the pandemic and the promise he's made to "Get Brexit done".

Instead of a public kicking they are starting to frame an alternative exit to minimise damage to the party.

When Thatcher went we had comments about her looking tired. With May it was looking unwell.

Johnson hiring a personal trainer isnt just about covid or carrie. Its about the reality that better looking, younger politicians are perceived by the public to be more competent and able for the job. In US elections the younger better looking candidate polls better.

Johnson has Starmer and Sunak breathing down his neck.

Things are going to get interesting.

BigChocFrenzy
Those 540 deaths of healthcare workers are shocking and probably a lot were caused by early shortages of PPE

"A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said the data was not an “accurate comparison”, adding; “by Amnesty’s own admission, this data is distorted by the fact the UK is one of the few countries to count social care worker deaths."

Amnesty International;

"there is no global or uniformly agreed definition for who constitutes a health worker. For the purposes of this report, “health worker” refers to everyone working in the health care sector and involved in the delivery of health care in any capacity, which includes but is not limited to doctors, nurses, hospital cleaners, ambulance drivers, administrative staff at hospitals, and any health and social care workers working in the community or other settings." ...

However, the data collection for their report appears to be a mishmash;

"France only started recording deaths of health workers at the end of April, with the Director General of Health, Jerome Salomon, having previously described calls to do so as ‘a bit macabre’. As a result, available information is currently incomplete, but information from 35% of hospitals surveyed has recorded over 30,000 cases and 16 deaths in those locations. Once other establishments are surveyed, the national figure is likely to be much higher." ...

Germany does appear to collect similar data - 62 deaths in health/social care related occupations (23+39), although; "since information on occupation, accommodation or care in these facilities is missing in 25% of cases, the proportion of cases working, accommodated or cared for in these facilities reported here should be considered minimum values".

I assume you are attributing many of the hospitalisations in these occupations in Germany (1,125) to a lack of PPE, as per the UK? And the 25,000+ positive tests in health and social care occupations in Germany also due to a shortage of PPE?

www.rki.de/DE/Content/InfAZ/N/Neuartiges_Coronavirus/Situationsberichte/2020-08-22-en.pdf?__blob=publicationFile

www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/07/health-workers-rights-covid-report/

That post lacks compassion for those who died, their families friends and colleagues.

squid.

🐿

And the point of your cut n' paste is...? Other countries have made a mess, so bingo our mess is bigger, world beating?

The Briefing Room was an interesting listen. Repeated today on R4 at 11am

@JeSuisPoulet Love in the Time of Covid? Still at the “he washed my dog” in the last thread.

And the point of your cut n' paste is...?

A factual response to the post Fri 28-Aug-20 11:49 - which apparently BlackeyedSusan thinks is compassionate.

Erm, I am not quite sure how a cut n' paste can be said to be a factual response to a post which comes afterwards. Unless you are psychic.

Peregrina
It's Saturday 29th today?

Yes, Clavinova, I can read and tell the time. You were replying to BigChoc's post who made no mention of compassion. I assumed that the compassion response referred to the post immediately before. My mistake obviously.

Or were you asking the date? Wasn't it Grant Schapps who didn't seem to know the difference between 4 am on Saturday or Sunday? They have made so many cock ups it's hard to know which one has uttered some inanity.

Re BBC
My Uni age kids - and their friends and acquaintances - regard it as an irrelevance.
They loathe Laura K
They do not watch BBC tv or listen to BBC radio
they get the BBC website via social media
BBC world service means nothing to them ( the Government should pay for that )

If it has lost the goodwill of those under 25, it is lost.

Poulet that is brilliant. So happy for you.

We have still had no guidelines from the president of our uni on how to teach in 9 days, but he has just announced on national media that students will have a choice between online and on campus teaching. No one is ready for any such thing, nor do we have the resources. Nor can we plan if we don't know what students' needs are. Meanwhile, France said those travelling from the UK would be subject to reciprocal quarantine, but hasn't yet implemented that, so we have no clue what our incoming Erasmus students will have to do.

I bloody love teaching, but right now I just want to crawl into a cave and hibernate for 2 years. First, though, I need to buy 100 disposable face masks for the DC and me, 2 per day. 3 weeks' supply, that'll be, at best.