Link: 'BBC website \'unblocked in China\''.
Given how far left the BBC is, one wonders why the Chinese ever bothered. There are probably more people in the BBC who sincerely believe in Marxism than are to be found in all of China.The Chinese government could save itself a world of trouble and cost by simply turning the New China News Agency into a translation service so as to be able to use the BBC as China's state broadcaster.
Link: BBC - Radio 4 - Start the Week.
Waiting for my transfer to the airport yesterday morning, I listened to Radio 4. What a smug noise that station makes. Archsycophant to the PM, Andrew Marr, was hosting a discussion with Susan Pinker, Simon Russell Beale, Marina Warner and Clay Shirky, which touched briefly on blogging. In the course of five minutes (tops) the political blogosphere in Britain was dismissed as comprising mainly young, “libertarian” (spoken through a curled lip detectable even by radio), single men with too much time on their hands.
I plead guilty to being a man and a libertarian. I was also once young, but alas no more. Do I have time on my hands? Well, I run a business I built from a standing start in the last five years, which turns over several million pounds, employs 25 people and is still growing fast. I am responsible for overseeing and developing a network of other such businesses, which involves constant travelling. I think it's fair to say I am a busy man, but I manage my time and resources. I blog in airports, in the back of taxis or from my iPhone on the way to and from work. I blog as I read my morning “newspaper” (a collection of feeds from the Guardian, Times, Telegraph and my favoured blogs).
Nor am I the only non-spotty blogger. Guido is a mature man who made his pile and now pursues other interests. Ellee Seymour and Ian Dale would not like their ages mentioned but the first flush of youth is undeniably fading. Bel is coy about her age but remembers Margaret Thatcher directly, rather than through the Gothic glass held up by a generation of leftist teachers. Wat Tyler is of a slightly riper vintage than myself. Nor are all the above male, by any means (or libertarian).
What is with the age sneer, anyway? Did none of these pompous panellists express political opinions when young? I rather suspect they did. So what, precisely, was their point?
This was not intelligent commentary. It was a put-down, based either on wilful ignorance or dishonesty. Amusingly, not 10 minutes before, Shirky was praising Facebook for allowing “ordinary people” to campaign against big corporations.
So the internet is fine when used to campaign against big corporations, but not against big government? What else can one expect from our dear old leftist Aunty?
Link: Iain Dale's Diary: Indicating to the Right? Return to a Core Vote Strategy? Er, No....
What Iain reports here shows that the BBC, a public service broadcaster with a duty to be politically balanced, is in fact a propaganda outlet. The researcher called him to be on the show, asked what he would say and then didn't call back. Instead, she tracked down a Conservative who would say what she wanted to hear and put him on instead.
Both the researcher and her editor should, at the least, be fired. It is is time to close the BBC, an organisation which has lost sight of its objectives.
Link: BBC report finds bias within corporation | Uk News | News | Telegraph.
So? Please tell us something we didn't know. Did anyone think that a broadcaster capable of lauding Cuba's healthcare was unbiased? That a broadcaster which consistently pits the least videogenic Tories against the best from other Parties on Question Time was balanced?
The BBC knows how biased it is. So the only interesting question is why it commissioned this report.
Link: Raedwald.
The prigs at Alcohol Concern believe (like so many other Statist swine) that they know better than us how to bring up our children. Both my daughters were introduced gradually to alcohol from a young age in the French manner, with a view to their learning to appreciate quality wine in joyful moderation. Understandably, Alcohol Concern's demand to criminalise such an approach, has brought Devil's Kitchen into full, fine, fulminating, foul-mouthed form:
Personally, I shall be sending a letter to Alcohol Concern, expressing my concern at their authoritarian tendencies. Oh, and I'll probably call them a pack of ***** as well.
By comparison, Raedwald - the most articulate boat on the internet (and normally no slouch at invective) - comes over all lyrical on the subject:
When I think back on all the good things in my life - all those brief little scenarios of joy and pleasure, the warm laughter of friends, the passion of lovers, the sudden stunning realisations that you are gazing at a scene of true beauty, the closeness of companions who have shared past danger - always in the scene somewhere is alcohol. The old French vintner who declared "A day without wine is like a day without Sunshine" had it spot on.
Please go read the whole delightful thing. Then bookmark one of the best sites around; my blog of the week.
Link: BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | The winners and losers of modern Russia.
I am not breaking my permanent rule about avoiding comments on Russian politics. I am a guest in Russia, and one does not criticise one's hosts. I will merely observe that the Russians are doing their best in difficult circumstances to retreat in an orderly fashion from the path they followed for 80+ years.
Continue reading "The winners and losers of modern Russia" »
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