Of course there couldn't be a clearer signal of his disdain for the BBC Radio 4 Today programme as he hasn't put in an appearance there since last October and the boycott by government ministers continues. No mention of anything remotely tricky during this publicity stunt of course, such as Dominic Cummings' eye test, or indeed the disgraceful Jenrick property scandal with Richard Desmond. Oh look, Boris is clearly mates with Mr Desmond too:-
It's not just the Today programme though, BBC 2's Newsnight is still being boycotted, along with Channel 4 News with Matt Hancock refusing to appear for over three weeks. I think I'm right in saying Channel 4 News were refused all requests for questions at any of the long-running No 10 Covid 19 press briefings.
Of course it is a vitally important element of any democracy that the Government is held to account not just by the Loyal Opposition, but by an independent and free media. It is nothing short of a disgrace that we the public are being treated in this way by Boris Johnson and his mediocre team of sycophantic ministers. But therein lies the reason for this childish and disturbing behaviour - they're simply not up to the job of coping with forensic questioning.
Take for example Good Morning Britain and the 55 day boycott by government ministers. I have no idea what Dominic Cummings thinks this will achieve, but viewing figures are continuing to grow and the BBC have recently started to play a game with GMB by suggesting they play video clips. As Piers Morgan put it, 'the Minister refuses our request for interview; they get a soft interview on BBC and tells porkies; we play the clip and call it out and then they go back on BBC and apologise. Not ideal, but so be it.'
There was quite an interesting spat yesterday between Piers and Dan Walker over on BBC Breakfast to do with the Matt Hancock interview - basically Dan let the minister get away with the usual 'blather' and saying it wasn't really important to know how many people are being tested daily. It is of course, but the government have not published the figures since their trick of counting two swabs per person being counted as two tests was exposed. Piers is absolutely right - we are being lied-to on a regular basis and the government response is to boycott those who persistently ask difficult questions.
Now those who are familiar with Good Morning Britain will know that it's an ITV production now made at Television Centre, the former purpose-built home of BBC television. Because this is my blog, sometimes I feel able to go 'off piste' with the occasional indulgence and it gives me an excuse to briefly mention this amazing building and that it celebrated 60 years on Monday. It was a disgrace that the BBC ever parted company with this iconic structure, conceived as it was on the proverbial envelope way back in 1949.
It most certainly is YOUR blog, and I love the wandering posts.
ReplyDeleteThere are a heap of apartments on offer in Television centre as-was, all at eye-watering prices. For example, "The penthouse is divided into public and private spaces – spaces for hosting visitors, and the informal space for those who live there. The private is intimate and cosy, while the public is inviting and grand. Located in the heart of White City. The former BBC Television Centre sits on Wood lane, next to Westfiled West London. Square Footage: 3,203 sq ft
Leasehold with approximately 973 years remaining.
£5,995,000"
I'm fairly sure C4's Victoria Macdonald had at least one opportunity - maybe even two - to put questions to the covid briefing but I think that nailed the door shut for C4 because she asked questions that exposed the ministers and scientists to the truth.
such as whether the uk's ppe stash was fit for purpose - which it now seems it certainly wasn't tested sufficiently to know if that was ever true, and much of it has (post-risk of NHS overload) been subsequently condemned & binned.
DeleteThese Tory scumbags are truly, truly scumbags.
uk gov data 1 july 2020
ReplyDeletereported cases 829 (2,419 this week so far)
reported deaths 176 (367 this week so far)
__________________________________________
UK Gov total death figure to date: 43,906
ONS data (5 yearly comparisons): 65,000+ 'excess' deaths
FAO Cummings & Hancock & Bozo & NPS/HMPPS senior managers & Jenrick & Gove & however many others...
ReplyDelete*THIS* is what being responsible looks like:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-53259236
New Zealand's health minister has resigned after criticism of the government's response to coronavirus and his own breaches of lockdown rules.
David Clark had already been demoted after breaking rules to take his family to the beach.
He said continuing in his role was distracting from the government's overall response to the pandemic.
Mr Clark said: "I take full responsibility for decisions made and taken during my time as Minister of Health."
This is the petulant child at the helm of the United States:
ReplyDeleteDonald Trump has insisted he would be willing to wear a face mask in public - saying they make him look like the Lone Ranger.
The president has so far refused to be seen wearing a face covering during the coronavirus outbreak, but during an interview with Fox Business he said he would have no problem with the idea.
In fact, he confirmed he has already worn one and liked the way it looked.
He said: "It was okay. It was a dark, black mask. I think I looked okay, I looked like the Lone Ranger."
I'm pretty fond of old and iconic buildings, and I get pretty angry when our old, beautiful state owned treasures are sold off to private developers. It's infuriating that they're often bought by private developers with cheap loans from the piblic purse.
ReplyDeleteHolloway Prison for example was bought for £85m by Peabody but £42m of that money comes from a loan from the Sadiq Khan the Mayor of London.
The original planning permission granted will bear no resemblance of course to what's eventually built on the site.
I think too that many of those historic buildings that were used as Court houses but now vacated are destined for the same private development future. Selling state assets to privateers and using state money to do so.
With that in mind, and the Jenrick and Desmond saga still having wind in its sails, enough wind to cast a shadow in Johnsons direction, I stumbled on the following article yesterday. It's truly shocking, and points a finger at other shadey property deals Johnson may have been involved with during his time as Mayor of London. But it's much more then that too! Much, much more!
https://bylinetimes.com/2020/02/25/underground-russian-influence-johnson-and-the-ghost-station/
'Getafix
More excellent work 'Getafix! The last few paragraphs sum things up nicely:-
DeleteThe loss of up to £80 million to the British taxpayer over this deal raises many questions about Pro-Putin influencers in the UK and the infusion of dark money in London.
Why did the UK Government agree to sell the ghost station to an oligarch already suspected of money laundering for the Russian underworld? Why did the sale go ahead despite intelligence that Firtash was a direct agent of the Kremlin and involved in a regime that had just killed 100 people in Ukraine? Why did senior Conservative Party figures accept large donations from such a man? And why hasn’t there been a full official inquiry into the scandal?
Meanwhile, the Intelligence and Security Committee report into Russian influence in the UK, cleared for publication six months ago, remains under wraps. Perhaps this is why Boris Johnson wants to keep it that way.
My subscription to Byline Times brings to my home fine articles every month. Alongside my online subscription to the digital edition of Morning Staar and Private Eye it gives access to proper journalism about the issues of the moment - there are just too many for the journalists to cover or me to read.
DeleteMeanwhile I notice that for the last few months there are major public subsidies going to the “so called” traditional Local Print media with multiple half & full page government adverts in every issue I receive of Archant, Newsquest (the UK arm of Gannett Co., Inc.) and Reach (the Daily Express and Mirror headed UK group) publications - including the three delivered today (we get out weeklies mostly on a Thursday)
Dmitry Firtash, a wealthy industrialist with assets across Europe, who has spent the last five years in Vienna fighting extradition to the U.S. on bribery and racketeering charges. The U.S. Department of Justice said in 2017 he was among the “upper echelon associates of Russian organized crime”—something Firtash vigorously denies, along with all charges against him.
DeleteAs part of his legal defense, Firtash’s lawyers have gathered documents that make controversial allegations against former special counsel Robert Mueller and former Vice President Joe Biden. Firtash’s lawyers have passed these documents and other information to associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
https://time.com/5699201/exclusive-how-a-ukrainian-oligarch-wanted-by-u-s-authorities-helped-giuliani-attack-biden/
I have any amount of stuff on oligarchs...
Deletehttps://www.eurozine.com/the-firtash-octopus/
The Firtash octopus
Agents of influence in the West
Sergii Leshchenko
25 September 2015
Dirty money from the East has become a resource for dozens of European structures and politicians. Sergii Leshchenko reports on some of those that are only too happy to open their doors to a Ukrainian oligarch willing to invest millions in cleaning up his image.
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Michael Spindelegger, Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs (2008-2013 ), Austrian Vice-Chancellor 2011-2014, Austrian Finance Minister (2013-14)
Dieter Böhmdorfer, Austrian Minister of Justice (2000-2004)
Lord Risby, joined House of Lords in 2010
John Whittingdale, UK Member of Parliament since 1992, secretary of state for culture, media and sport since 2015
Lord Bell, Bell Pottinger PR Agency founder, former political adviser to Margaret Thatcher
Bernard-Henri Lévy, French political columnist and playwright
Günter Verheugen, EU Commissioner for Enlargement (1999-2004), EU Commissioner for Enterprise and Industry (2004-2010)
Karl-Georg Wellmann, German Bundestag member since 2005
Charles Saatchi, one of the world’s most influential collectors of contemporary art and owner of the Saatchi Gallery in London
Michael Chertoff, former US Assistant Attorney General, US Secretary of Homeland Security (2005-2009)
Lanny Davis, lobbyist, lawyer, special counsel to US President Bill Clinton (1996-98)
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/tycoon-scot-young-at-centre-of-britain-s-most-high-profile-divorce-accused-of-engineering-sham-8930154.html
ReplyDeletehttps://www.buzzfeed.com/heidiblake/from-russia-with-blood-14-suspected-hits-on-british-soil
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/05/the-quiet-coup/307364/
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/22/tories-russian-tennis-match-auction
The end of the front-paage article in this mornings Morning Star - reads: -
ReplyDelete"Dr John Lister, of NHS campaign group Health Emergency,
noted that pillar-two data for
Leicester accounted for 90 per
cent of cases there.
He condemned the government for “paying a fortune”
to “incompetent” private companies — such as Deloitte for
Covid testing and Serco for
the contact-tracing system
— that collect data without
making it public or passing
it on to PHE.
Mr Lister told the Star that it
was the “most dysfunctional way
of commissioning information.”
He added: “To relax restrictions, we have got to have track
& trace, and we don’t have either
that or proper reliable testing —
and we are not following up on
the testing that we do.
“It is a house of cards in
which no-one has managed
to stand the bottom card up.
It is an endless succession of
failures and a perfect storm of
complete incompetence.”
lamiatsabin@peoples-press.com"
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/page/pdf-page
Andrew
DeleteLooking at your reading list you might like to investigate "Double Down News" on line.
I've only recently discovered it, but rather then 'bringing you news' it discusses the political issues already in the news and how those issues are being presented by the media and who it serves.
You may already be aware of it, but I find it very thought provoking. A flavour of how it's presented can be seen here.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=3072991519453157&id=1232692743483053&sfnsn=scwspwa&extid=EWmTI3FusMOgMiF6&d=w&vh=e
'Getafix
Thanks, Getafix, I am aware og it and see their videos sometimes - but I just cannot keep up with it all - I recall Hardeep Mathura did an excellent video for them, not so long ago - I hope she eventually makes it on to something like BBC2 Newsnight, or ITNs Channel 4 News - but it is all so dispiriting - sometimes - I just watch old films, from half a century or more ago!
Deleteand there's always the trusty 'Eye
ReplyDeletehttps://www.private-eye.co.uk/pictures/special_reports/tax-havens.pdf
Yes indeed Anon at 11.26 - but one needs to make sure of keeping subscription payments up to date - I thought I had just had an issue of Private Eye in may lost in the post until the second one also did not turn up, then I eventually discovered somehow after years my subscription had been lapsed with no reminder sent - I still have not started receiving issues again - it is surprising they do not try harder to maintain subscribers, like other media do - take a trial of something & they email for years even though one clicks "unsubscribe" - or others keep posting reminders.
DeleteIt was the equivalent of a V-sign cheerfully flashed at his critics. The day after his landslide election victory, Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds dropped into a caviar-fuelled Christmas party in London hosted by former KGB agent Alexander Lebedev and his son Evgeny.
ReplyDeleteDuring the campaign Johnson had stubbornly refused to publish the Russia report, written by the last parliament’s intelligence and security committee.
Its contents have still not been revealed. But it is understood to examine the extent of Moscow influence on British politics – and the way in which the Russian elite has established a powerful lobby in the UK through lavish expenditure and networking.
___________________________________
In October 2016, Boris Johnson, the recently-appointed foreign secretary, left Whitehall behind to fly to Italy for a private weekend break. He was invited to the luxurious Umbrian villa of his wealthy friend, Evgeny Lebedev – the Russian owner of London’s Evening Standard newspaper. It was not the first time Boris had been to the secluded Palazzo Terranova in the hills near Perugia.
During his stint as London’s mayor, Boris had been to the 17th-century villa four times as Lebedev’s guest, using his friend’s private jet to fly there and back to London. His now estranged wife, Marina Wheeler, sometimes accompanied him.
Boris’s host, the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch and former KGB agent, is regarded as a ringmaster of lavish, “outrageous” gatherings which attract the elite of Britain’s stage, screen, and politics. Some of those who have experienced what one guest called Lebedev’s “full Italian experience” have told openDemocracy that “nothing is off the menu from the moment you are greeted to the moment you leave. A quiet English country house retreat it is not.”
Friends also say that Evgeny enjoys throwing “social hand grenades into his gatherings” to spice up the party atmosphere.
____________
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/oligarchs-and-unexplained-wealth-london-s-rich-russians-1.3438072
Belgravia’s Eaton Square has become so popular among rich Russians that it has become known as Red Square. Many properties there were bought through anonymous companies so that the ultimate beneficial owner remains unknown.
Rachel Davies, head of advocacy at Transparency International, says the group has found £4.4 billion worth of UK property that is owned with suspicious wealth, a fifth of it owned by Russian individuals.
“We’re a global financial centre, we have close ties to secrecy jurisdictions such as the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands. We also have a blanket of services which are on offer to corrupt individuals who may be wanting to spend a lot of money.
_______________________________________
https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200701-how-the-black-death-make-the-rich-richer
ReplyDeleteVisitors to & residents returning from overseas to the UK between 1 Jan & 22 March 2020 (lockdown) was approximately 16 million or so.
Delete90,000 arrived from Milan in February, just when Northern Italy was a coronavirus hotspot. 3,000 football fans from Spain headed straight to Anfield. True, but what about the 20,000 daily arrivals from Spain during that time?
And how many of those 16+ million were quarantined?
273.
BBC R4 More or Less. Try it. Thirty fascinating minutes of facts.