Also in the News - Part 2

[urban.spaceman]

I don't know how much more of these reprehensible sub human ***** I can take.

[kenny]

2 minutes ago, Milo said:

Nor does Lineker. 
 

It’s a good comparison. 

Fair enough, that explains why his unnecessarily high salary doesn't fit the BBC pay guide. 

 

No issue with a freelancer being let go then if they don't think he fits the bill anymore.

 

As the apprentice is a purchased TV show from elsewhere, they will be stuck with the contract they have signed. 

 

[Dunge]

5 minutes ago, kenny said:

Fair enough, that explains why his unnecessarily high salary doesn't fit the BBC pay guide. 

 

No issue with a freelancer being let go then if they don't think he fits the bill anymore.

 

As the apprentice is a purchased TV show from elsewhere, they will be stuck with the contract they have signed. 

 

Of course it’s an issue. Are you concerned about cancel culture? Because this is it in action. Only worse, it comes because he’s dared say something the government don’t like.

[Alf Bentley]

1 hour ago, Lionator said:

We clearly live in a low key authoritarian country now. Alternative views can’t be challenged logically so the government are forcing them to be silenced. Not full on Russia style but Hungary or India would be a good comparison. You better hope and pray the next election isn’t rigged either. 

 

I imagine some will see your comment about rigged elections as hyperbole.

 

Well, elections are already being slanted, at the very least. The Govt is using spurious excuses of voter fraud to make photo I.D. compulsory when voting in person. The excuses are spurious because there is very little proven voter fraud in the UK and most identified cases have involved postal votes, not votes in person.

 

They have even legislated for the ID accepted to be slanted. Travel passes for pensioners are accepted, but not those for young people. Other acceptable forms of ID like passports and driving licences are held by much higher proportions of those who are wealthy and who are white. Of course, anyone can apply for a special voting photo-ID or for a postal vote, but that takes time, organisation and commitment that many will not have. The Govt is deliberately making it disproportionately difficult for the young, the poor and ethnic minorities to vote.....now, I wonder which party might benefit if the electorate is skewed towards voters who are older, whiter and wealthier?

 

Alongside this, we have legislation to remove the right to strike from large numbers of public sector workers and to give the police the power to prevent demonstrations that cause even minor noise or irritation. Your "low key authoritarian country" is not even a contestable opinion, it seems to me - it is pretty much a statement of fact. This is, after all, a Govt that sought to suspend parliament not that long ago.

 

Then, as others have pointed out, we have a situation where the senior bod in the BBC has made large donations to the Tory party and has facilitated loans for the Tory PM prior to his appointment....and now action is taken against Lineker for expressing his anti-Govt views, whereas no action is taken against the likes of Alan Sugar, who express anti-union views approved by the Govt.

 

In her response, Braverman also deliberately distorted what Lineker said. He compared the govt's language to 1930s Germany. People may agree or disagree with that (it seems to me to be true, but not necessarily a wise thing to say). But Braverman inferred that Lineker compared Govt policy to the Holocaust, which is quite simply a lie.....of precisely the sort that was prevalent in 1930s Germany, ironically!

[bovril]

more culture war nonsense engineered to distract us from the fact that the government have spent the last decade deliberately making the country and its people poorer. Truly blessed will be the day when these ***** are gone

Edited 10 March 2023 by bovril

[Wymsey]

 Bet Piers Morgan will have a say on this..

[Zear0]

Just now, Wymsey said:

 Bet Piers Morgan will have a say on this..

He already has. Said its a nonsense that Gary can't tweet what he wants even if he disagrees with it. 

[urban.spaceman]

.

Edited 10 March 2023 by urban.spaceman

[Zear0]

Henry Winter, unsurprisingly, articulating something I wondered about far more concisely. 

 

Any presenter who agrees to replace Gary Lineker tomorrow night will be tainted as effectively a political appointment. Ditto any pundit

Edited 10 March 2023 by Zear0

[fazzyfox]

I remember prior to the last election there was a mass protest at Westminster which made every news and media outlet except for the BBC, it didn’t get a mention on the news at all despite being the lead story on the ITV news, later it was cited that the “Balanced reporting in the lead up to elections” was the reason behind its omission.  
It’s the TBC, not the BBC, as for Fiona Bruce, the way she interjects (likely guided to at times through her earpiece) when any Tory is being criticised with Caveats and clauses such as, “To be fair this is a very small sample so can’t be considered to mean anything when her own prompted question / survey backfires and has found zero backing for the Tory in a room containing a representation of all voters including many conservatives! The other panelists have no such barrier if the audience turn on them but she becomes a human shield the moment any Tory is on the ropes, which is very often.

[kenny]

36 minutes ago, Dunge said:

Of course it’s an issue. Are you concerned about cancel culture? Because this is it in action. Only worse, it comes because he’s dared say something the government don’t like.

He can continue with his opinions online or in print. He isn't being villified and hounded like JK Rowling has.

 

I also think he will continue to work for other employers in the same field so I don't think this is a case of cancel culture.

 

 

[Dunge]

2 minutes ago, kenny said:

He can continue with his opinions online or in print. He isn't being villified and hounded like JK Rowling has.

 

I also think he will continue to work for other employers in the same field so I don't think this is a case of cancel culture.

 

 

The guy’s literally been blocked from appearing because he posted something critical of the government. As for not hounded, have you not seen the front page headlines of the Daily Mail and Daily Express? Just because the sources of the cancelling are different doesn’t mean that it’s not effectively the same thing. Indeed it’s worse than the same thing because he’s been attacked by Conservative MPs (ie representatives of the actual political party in power) this very evening.

[Dunge]

Look, I’m typically a Conservative voter, but I can’t justify these actions. This isn’t the Conservative Party I recognise. They desperately need a walloping electoral loss and a big cull, like Corbyn’s lot got last time around.

 

*Ironically I don’t mind Sunak, but the people he has behind him are just atrocious. And let’s never forget they voted for and wanted the worst and most stupid prime minister in the history of the UK, Liz Truss.

Edited 10 March 2023 by Dunge

[Sampson]

Yet one more genuinely frightening example of what the ruling government have become since the Brexit referendum in 2016, since the culling from their party of the more moderate MPs. I feel sorry for genuinely conservatives who believe in genuine conservative values of wanting to see a better country but also are wary of radical change seeing their party taken over by these radical righties. 

Never thought I'd see a government like this one who have consistently pushed laws trying to actively silence anyone against them and take apart the checks and balances that hold up the delicate nature of democracy in a country like the UK, just depressing.

[l444ry]

Anti-HS2 Supporters taking to the streets again.

 

 

Edited 10 March 2023 by l444ry

[kenny]

26 minutes ago, Dunge said:

The guy’s literally been blocked from appearing because he posted something critical of the government. As for not hounded, have you not seen the front page headlines of the Daily Mail and Daily Express? Just because the sources of the cancelling are different doesn’t mean that it’s not effectively the same thing. Indeed it’s worse than the same thing because he’s been attacked by Conservative MPs (ie representatives of the actual political party in power) this very evening.

He will be in work for more money in the not too distant future.

 

He won't even need to go the full Keys and move to the middle east to do so.

[marbles]

Poor baby

https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/tv/will-smith-embarrassed-and-hurt-by-chris-rock-s-netflix-special-calling-out-oscars-slap/ar-AA18pIB7?OCID=ansmsnnews11

[Tommy G]

Not a big fan of our Gaz tbh, massive champagne socialist 

[Unabomber]

8 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Not a big fan of our Gaz tbh, massive champagne socialist 

At least he cares though and speaks out against these Tory idiots 

[Facecloth]

6 minutes ago, Unabomber said:

At least he cares though and speaks out against these Tory idiots 

Champagne socialist is a meaningless buzzword. Nothing to say you can't earn a decent amount of money whilst also caring about those less well off.

Edited 10 March 2023 by Facecloth

[Unabomber]

Just now, Facecloth said:

Champagne socialist is a meaningless buzzword. Nothing to say you can't earn a decent amount of money whilst also carry about those less well off.

Fully agreed. I don’t understand why people try and use it as a negative. As if all labour supporters should be poor. 

[Foxdiamond]

9 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Not a big fan of our Gaz tbh, massive champagne socialist 

Better than a champagne Tory imo. The country is going down the tubes and the BBC makes the opinions of an individual paramount. You can just imagine the blue rinse brigade who would never dream of watching motd lapping it up

[Tommy G]

12 minutes ago, Facecloth said:

Champagne socialist is a meaningless buzzword. Nothing to say you can't earn a decent amount of money whilst also caring about those less well off.

I didn’t say that - I think sometimes his views are done for effect, he always like to be controversial - not that this latest hyperbole is anything controversial and I agree with his viewpoint. 

[Daggers]

I for one welcome our new politics thread

[Bordersfox]

1 minute ago, Daggers said:

I for one welcome our new politics thread

There's two of 'em