Last night the BBC was reporting on the Conservative manifesto. This is a document whose most striking pledge is to fill in some of the potholes in roads that have proliferated due to massive cuts in local authority funding, and to give free hospital car parking to those visiting a terminally ill relative. Just think of the last one. How do you prove your relative is terminally ill? What if there is a chance they might get better? The administration of this system is going to require people to have some form of certificate or token that all hope is now lost. For the car park. The Tories are all heart.
As the News continued, Laura Kuenssberg told us that the battle lines between the parties are now clearly drawn, and the major division is over how much the government “should interfere in the economy”.
Interfere. Not intervene. Not regulate. Interfere. It is a very deliberate choice of word. Let me turn to the Oxford English Dictionary:
Interfere
1) Prevent from continuing or being carried out properly
2) Handle or adjust without permission
3) Become involved in something without being asked
4) Sexually molest
Words matter. Kuenssberg chose a word with powerful negative connotations and no possible positive meaning, to describe the alternative to the Tories. Kuenssberg talking of government interfering in, rather than intervening in, the economy is in itself a very strong and explicit declaration of Kuenssberg’s belief in an Ayn Rand, “Britannia unchained”, free market, ultra neo-liberal world view. To explicitly frame the choice in the election as between the Tories and “interfering” is just another example of the way the BBC slants their election coverage, permanently.
Now I started to draft an article three days ago, before that particular Kuenssberg propaganda masterclass.
Here is what I wrote as a draft three days ago:
“Maybe I am just unlucky. I have had television news bulletins transport me to hear vox-pops featuring former Labour voters in Dudley who now want to vote Conservative to GET BREXIT DONE. I have seen vox pops in fishing wharves in Peterhead and Grimsby, in dismal cafes in Hartlepool, in bingo halls in Yarmouth, in pubs back in Dudley, on high streets in Wakefield, in a shopping mall in Thurrock, in hardware stores back in bloody Dudley again. The country is full of people who want to GET BREXIT DONE, and who will NEVER VOTE LABOUR AGAIN.
The strange thing is that I have not seen a single vox pop from Richmond, featuring an educated woman who is switching from a lifetime of Tory voting because they have become a far right party and are going to crash the economy with hard Brexit. But there are many people like that in Richmond, and indeed all over London, and throughout much of southern England. They exist but are not worth vox-popping, apparently. Because they are not the broadcasters’ chosen “narrative”.
The BBC, ITN and Sky will doubtless defend the very obviously targeted demographic and destination of their “vox-pops” on the grounds that this is the “narrative” of the election. But that is a self-reinforcing prophecy. The public are relentlessly being told that what ordinary people want is to “GET BREXIT DONE” and to vote Tory. But that is actually only what about 40% of the people want. We just aren’t being shown the other 60% as the broadcasters focus relentlessly on areas with the highest leave vote, and on vox pop subjects with the least possible education.”
While that passage was atill on the stocks, last night, alongside the Kuenssberg analysis, the BBC gave us a vox pop from the Rother Valley that fitted perfectly the above description. It came from a Yorkshire Labour seat that voted Leave. It featured Labour voters who will now vote Conservative. The ladies interviewed were perfectly primed with precisely the main Tory slogans. A lady told us she wanted Boris so we could “get Brexit done and get on with domestic reforms”. Another ex-Labour voter told us she would vote for Boris because “he may not be trustworthy, but I like him”. Trust and likeability are two factors the pollsters regularly measure. It is important for the Tories that voters prioritise likeability over trust, because Johnson’s Trust numbers are appalling. How fortunate that the BBC happened to find a little old lady in the Rother Valley who could express this so succinctly!
Or maybe it is not so surprising. With the mainstream media as such a reliable echo chamber of public slogans, perhaps it is not surprising to find the public just echo them too, as they do in North Korea. The state media in the UK is of course not the only propaganda outlet. Billionaires control 87% of print news media by circulation, and are aggressively Tory for obvious reasons of self-interest.
This leads to the incredible circularity of the “Newspaper Reviews” that take up such a high proportion of broadcast news output. The broadcasters “review” the overwhelmingly right wing print media. And who do they invite to do the reviewing? Why the billionaire employed journalists of the overwhelmingly right wing print media, of course! So we have the surreal experience of watching journalists from the Times and the Spectator telling us how great an article in the Daily Mail is, about how Corbyn is a Russian spy and Scotland not really a country at all.
If that was not bad enough, we then get deluged by “commentators” from “think tanks” which are again billionaire funded, like the Institute of Economic Affairs and scores of others, sometimes with money thrown in from the security services, like the Quilliam Foundation and scores of others. It is a never-ending closed circular loop of propaganda.
The truth is that it largely works. Social media is overwhelmingly sceptical of the government narrative, but we still live in a society where the power of mass broadcasting and even print retains a remarkable amount of influence, particularly on the old and the poorly educated. It is no coincidence that it is precisely the old and the poorly educated that are the targets of Cummings’ “Brexit election” strategy. If it comes off, Kuenssberg and her fellow hacks will have proven that the power of the mainstream media is as yet unbroken.
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@Craig – This is an excellent piece on how the Tory campaign employs many fake “neutrals”, on both sides of the camera. I don’t know how you could stomach watching so many vox pops!
But to change perspective the question should be “How can the Tories be defeated?” Here’s my analysis.
1) The Labour campaign needs some “events”. In the Trump campaign, at one point these were running at one per day. His side completely outplayed the Democrats.
2) Be visual – use “visual aids”. Ed Miliband tried with the “carved stone” but he executed it very poorly indeed. Labour should learn from how Benyamin Netanyahu does it. “Keep It Simple, Stupid”. None of this “21 points” crap. Make ONE point, use ONE graph, use a thick pen, and use red and black.
Jeremy Corbyn brought his sheaf of stapled together A4 sheets to the debate studio to make a point about US private companies and the NHS. He was a textbook example of how not to do it. He was crap. Who even remembers what his point was? But who doesn’t remember Netanyahu with the picture of the bomb? Corbyn’s point should be a killer: the Tories really are planning to allow US companies in to buy up whatever they want from the NHS. Make a simple graph or other visual display, and choose a time and place of delivery that makes the maximum impact.
3) Policy:
a) Hospital car parks is a good issue – make this the new dementia tax;
b) Student tuition fees – this was a big votewinner in 2017 and it should be now too;
c) Broadband – the Tory media are saying this has died the death, but really?
d) Renationalising rail, water, mail – what kind of nutcase opposes this? And they oppose it because 40 years ago a few dead bodies didn’t get cremated on time? Really? The Tories are taking the piss. Their bullsh*t is paper thin on the issues of renationalisation. Tories from the middle classes and above greatly enjoy a good “wind-up”.
e) The same goes for the NHS as a whole: “trust the Tories” – really? The same scumbags who can’t even talk about Margaret Thatcher’s pal the child molester Jimmy Savile without expressing their hatred of the idea of universal healthcare provision?
4) Boris Johnson is personally vulnerable and has many skeletons in his cupboard.
I should add that bar graphs are totally boring, and if that’s the best a campaign adviser can come up with, sack him.
“He was a textbook example of how not to do it. He was crap. Who even remembers what his point was? But who doesn’t remember Netanyahu with the picture of the bomb? Corbyn’s point should be a killer:”
Oh yes, people remember Netanyahu’s bomb, but he still didn’t convince anybody. And Netanyahu has still failed to attack Iran (because the military say no), or to convince the US to do so (for much the same reason). So the stunt didn’t work.
The nonexistent “Iranian threat” still serves as strong support for pro-Zionazi foreign policy in the US, Britain, and other western countries – multibillion dollar contracts for hard weapons, cyber, etc. Not every propaganda move by the Israeli government promoting an “Iranian threat” is aimed at inciting immediate war. When you say Netanyahu “didn’t convince anybody”, you are mistaking an appeal to emotion which feeds the brand as if it were an appeal to intellect. The Clinton and Remain campaigns were outclassed by opponents who didn’t make that mistake. I don’t want to see that happen to Labour. Labour propagandists need to learn from Netanyahu, Trump, and Eugenics Cummings.
I don’t think Netanyahu was faking it. Nearly war happened at least twice.
What isi the actual manifesto wording about free hospital parking for relatives of terminally ill patients? I can’t find anything with that specific wording.
My comment on the previous thread has the wording.
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2019/11/do-not-despair-of-this-election/comment-page-5/#comment-908365
Thanks Mary: that is the wording I saw but I could not see any mention of relatives of the terminally ill.
I wonder if the Conservatives have thought of suspending recently introduced charges in parking bays on streets around major hospitals where many drivers and patients end up in desperation because the hospital car parks are almost always completely full (whether free or not).
I’d like to see Labour expose some of the financial dirt that’s involved in car park contracts, and for that matter in TV and internet contracts with hospitals too. I ended my Private Eye subscription a while back. Surely they’ve covered this kind of thing?
Don’t know the exact words but heard in an interview the interviewer calling it extremely vague and the MP interviewed didn’t give a reassuring answer, as usual.
I imagine that those that are middle-class enough will know how to ask for the free car parking, and the rest will just have to pay.
“The Old & poorly educated”
Bingo
For this elegant piece of dripping condescension, you win todays prize, an autographed & remaindered copy of Polly Toybees’ autobiography.
Do you think the old and poorly educated (either or both) are well informed news-hounds? Do you think they get their information from multiple sources, or just trust the MSM, in particular the BBC and the gutter-press?
Sadly, not everyone in this country is a devout truth-seeker, I hate to break it to you. That’s why the worst tabloids are the best selling papers, and trashy entertainment is vastly more popular than – say – Al Jazeera documentaries.
May I suggest that educated or notionally less stupid people are just as gullible as anyone else. Self-revering atheist liberals would no more know the truth than anybody else. In many ways this is why the world is on such a shoogly peg these days.
“May I suggest that educated or notionally less stupid people are just as gullible as anyone else.”
I agree, @Daydreamer. The official “education” system hardly encourages people to think for themselves. Those (mostly males) who think they are “all head” and therefore impervious to propaganda aimed at the emotions…need their heads tested 🙂
I suggest everyone have a good read of Carlo Cipolla’s excellent work on stupidity, including his “five laws”; Gustave Le Bon’s work on crowd psychology; and Robert Cialdini’s book on “influence”. There are other works I’d recommend too, but those are among the cream of the crop on this topic.
Yep, only this morning on the Victoria Darbyshire program she was reporting from the Isle of Sheppy in Kent where lots of people spoke about voting Tory, even though the Tory MP interviewed couldn’t guarantee the Tory manifesto would bring rejuvenation to the area.
I don’t know if these vox poppers have noticed, but the no nonsense go-getter scruffy embarrassing supposed man of action BloJo was definitely without any doubt or messing going to get the job done by 31st Oc tober – no matter what. He confirmed it with all the independent radio advertising to visit govt websites before 31st Oct.
Didn’t happen did it. Had his bullish proven bullshit chance, failed. So if you are a leaver, or a remainer who still has a belief in democracy that isn’t conditional on conforming every time to your own personal preference as many politicos seem to interpret that word nowadays, then Corbyn would appear the wiser bet.
But then, he’s a politician too, so nah, maybe not…..but preferable to Swinson who seems happy to nuke both the illusion of democracy and then the world.
Correct Doghouse, he did say “die in a ditch” and other strong comments, yet here we are three departure dates later
and we have still not left, the forthcoming date is midnight before February, 2020,
I have no real faith that we will leave on that date.
I still can’t believe we did not go for no deal last March.
Make a decision somebody, anybody, is democracy still alive?
31 Jan is the Article 50 No Deal date. Johnson is promising to get his Deal through Parliament by Christmas, but I don’t think he has written a new leaving date on it. That would require (re-re-re-)negotiation with EU27. There is no automatic defaulting of a Deal date to 31 Jan.
In short, he wants to “Get Brexit Done”, as agreed in a Deal, on some date or other that … er … er … er …
I’m a life-long Labour supporter and also a leaver and find nothing in Corbyn’s posturing to inspire confidence. He’s trying to appease the neocons in his party so hard that he can’t even speak his own mind. So much for leadership. This election has come too soon for Corbyn. He would much prefer to be fighting it with Brexit a fait accompli. As it is he’s going to lose, then resign and the neocons will take over.
Let him have a night of the long knives when he’s prime minister.
In your scenario of an election loss and then a re-takeover of the Labour party by the right, I damned well hope the left can find the guts to leave and set up a new party this time. It was pathetic that they didn’t do that in 1994, and I wasn’t impressed by Stalinist Arthur Scargill’s effort, although it was saddening to watch the SLP lose to Guacamole Mandelson (who wouldn’t know a coalmine from his own elbow) in Hartlepool.
The real Ne Cons are propagating the Get Brexit Done Mantra.
Blairites are austerityists because they think it needs to be done.
The real Neo Cons are doing it as a choice.
They know it doesn’t need to be done.
They just do it as it makes them and their masters who pay them richer.
That kind of trickle down from the masters to the servants.
The media is full of servants.
Ah, but the Bojo excuse is he was frustrated by the remain Parliament and unfortunately plenty have swallowed that excuse.
The Tories are attempting, despite their opposition to a second referendum, to turn the election into a simplistic vote for or against Brexit. Only this time it’ll be under the old rules of first past the post, which tips the balance substantially in their anti-EU favour.
What will be… ‘interesting’ is if a majority of the votes cast are spread among the ‘pro-EU’ parties and the Tories ‘only’ get, lets say, 46% of the votes, losing the ‘peoples’ vote’ but ending up with whopping great majority of MPs in Westminster. Where is the democratic legitimacy there? Are the majority of voters who don’t support the Tories, or Brexit or Boris Johnson, just supposed to sit back and accept this grotesque situation, that a minority rightwing party loses the popular vote but becomes, through ‘Westminster magic’ a strong government with a ‘mandate’ from the people to rule and drag the country to the nationalist right.
If this happened in another part of the world, especially in places that aren’t fully ‘democratic’ like th UK, the BBC and the media would focus on the perculiar and undemocratic character of such a bizarre result; but they don’t do it when it’s the UK.
I predict they won’t do it this time either. For example, we have the strange case of Northern Ireland as a pointer. Here there was a substantial majority for remaining in the EU, for obvious reasons; however the Democratic Unionist Party has over the last few years continually ignored the result of the referendum and supported the Tories, there’s an irony that in the end they were shafted… yet one hardly ever hears the BBC or the rest of the media examining or analysing the way the peoples’ vote in Northern Ireland has been hi-jacked by what amounts to an unrepresentative ‘cult’ at the top of the political system.
Why don’t we ever hear journalists looking at the politics of other journalists, especially at the BBC, when so many of them are clearly Tories? Perhaps more ‘liberal’ Tories, but still, basically, loyal to core Tory values.
‘
They are out in the open Tories too. I can’t think of even one well known leftwinger who has any influence in framing and filtering BBC news. They should be forced to explain why that is so despite 40% of the country having voted for Corbyn’s Labour at the last election.
Excellent critique of the bbc’s conservative spokesperson la Kuensberg, or should she be called Laura Braun? Thank you for this.
Experiencing the backlash at the doorstep, thanks to 3 years of incessant Corbyn bashing. The BBC is doing Trumps and Boris work for them
This time ‘ its the BBC who’s won it’, together with Murdcocks Sun, a collaberative effort to screw Britain until the pips squeak.
I think, basically, over the last few decades our political culture, which is part of our wider economic culture, has become very Americanised and increasingly infantile. It’s as if we’ve all been turned into eternal teenagers and increasingly we’re being ‘brainwashed’ into thinking superficially and our emotions are being played like a harp. The mass-media have an awful lot to answer for I’m afraid. We no longer have anything remotely resembling mature and sober public debates about anything. Everything has become a form of entertainment and politics is merely a ghastly stage were brazen charlatans strut and spout dreadful platitudes and clever one-liners like ‘get Brexit done.’
One can’t have truly functioning democracy without a real citizenship, and citizenship has been comprehensively undermined by modern political culture which rewards demagoguery and spectacle on a massive scale. I think the British media is about the worst in the entire developed world, only the US is worse. We then, on top of all this, the creation of the phenomenon of the working class Tory, which is what the Tory press is for… have the voting system which is designed to thwart the will of the people and their votes and deliver power to a Tory minority in the Westminster context, which means the context is fundamentally anti-democratic and ‘rigged.’ Sure, one man one vote exists, but all votes don’t carry the same ‘weight.’ It all depends on where in the country one votes and the results of these flawed elections are often a travesty of what overall public opinion reall is and wildly unrepresentative. And then, in this racid political culture one introduces a exercise in direct democracy where all the votes have equal value and undermines what’s left of the shreds of democracy and establishes the principle of the ‘dictatorship or the majority.’ Lord, give me strength!
As we recently learned in Bolivia, it is not important who votes for what, the only thing that matters is: who counts the votes..
Imagine if free parking was the way you found out your loved one was terminal.
If you had free parking at hospitals, the sick and the old would not be able to park as the spaces would be taken up by local dog walkers and shoppers and spivs.
Yes, heaven forfend that you actually employ a member of the great unwashed to monitor the parking.
if they had to pay some person to check you had an appointment, they would have to charge you to park to pay for the persons wages and pension and somebody to scam some off the top.
I appreciate that an unrealised opportunity to monetise something would really stick in a Tory’s craw, but there is no natural law that says car parks have to make a profit.
Tragedy of the commons, eh, Michael? How do you think hotels manage? You tell them your car registration number at reception. Or a code could be included on the appointment confirmation.
Speaking from personal experience of our health service, relatives of any patients over 75 can almost guarantee that they will qualify for free parking!
Thanks for the reminder, Craig. Please also include the role and purpose of self-reflecting in-house and pay-as-you-play outsourced marketing based, voter research polling services and analysts in making their readers and targets the voice of UK voter trends.
This was posted on TLN by Thomas today and is relevant to Craig’s observations.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2019/11/22/were-not-just-talking-to-ourselves-others-find-us/
I am surrounded by BBC types and I doubt there is a single Tory amongst them, they may not be Corbynistas but they certainly aren’t Tories!
If they’re all itching to make another Cathy Come Home, it’s funny they don’t do it.
When we’re at the stage where election rules apply it is too much to believe that she is ‘stupid’ or that she is unaware the effect her exact wording will have although she is permitted, as everyone else, to an occasional error. But they seem to be too often to consider ‘occasional’
I was struck again, as in previous elections, that the reporting and vox pops in Scotland were ALL from Tory seats. The argument being that they might be ‘key marginals’? But then that means we ignore the voice of the majority, ignore the fact that polling consistently shows majority support for Scottish Independence now and ignore the fact that SNP is the largest party in Scotland. They are even handed in their unfairness. When Independence is discussed they listen to voices from ALL sides of the debate ie SNP for pro Indy and Tory then Labour then LibDems for anti-independence. So despite it being 50/50 we hear 25/75. Despite SNP having 60% of the last parliament’s Scottish seats it gets 25% of the airtime, Labour with 12.5% gets 25%, Tories with 21% get 25% and last, and least, LibDems with 6% get 25%. Coverage and access to ‘leaders debates’ is supposed to relate to how the parties have performed in previous elections. But yet this is roundly ignored, as long as it’s in favour of Labour and the LibDems (predominantly)
In addition using Nick Robinson of ALL people to have anything to do with this is utterly unprincipled. He has a ingrained hatred of SNP and this went to new levels of vileness after the incident where he was proven, without any doubt, to have lied in his news item where he accused Salmond of repeatedly refusing to answer a question when, in fact, Salmond had given a nauseatingly long and full answer after having first answered questions from other journalists. The piece made a BIG splash, but the subsequent apology was tucked away where no one would notice it. He has proved himself not only to have unbridled hatred for the SNP but he can’t hide it and, as last seen on Daily Politics he enlisted the help of his Tory guests to ram the message home in the most unsubtle display of bias I have ever seen.
Maybe I just didn’t notice it before, but in the last few elections and referenda the BBC in particular and the rest of the TV news as well have shown outright bias against Labour and SNP and have aided propaganda messages to be put across to the public.
Back in the 80s I saw the type of thing that the Russians were fed with in regard to propaganda and thought it to be ridiculous that they would put up with it and that we could never see the like in the UK. And although we haven’t reached that stage, quite yet, it is the direction of travel. we are being drip fed propaganda now, not news…
Drip fed – or force fed?
Fake Tory doorstep campaigning rumbled.
https://mobile.twitter.com/PickardJE/status/1198998239128805377
Another interesting article. You are quite right to note the outrageous bias of the media as an arm of established economic interests.
It’s just rings a bit hollow from you, when we consider your life-long antipathy to Gaelic culture and language, and the part you have personally played in our continued oppression by the dominant Scots culture.
Time for a look in the mirror I think Craig
Calum Macmillan
I take it you have some kind of Proof for that assertion Re Craig’s antipathy to Gaelic culture and language, ?
Like you Brian, I have never noticed what Calum alleges here. He may be thinking of the Rev over on Wings who has made some anti Gaelic statements in the distant past?
I am genuinely confused by this. I have come across exactly the same criticism on social media before recently. Either I am being confused with Stu Campbell or something strange is happening. I am in fact extremely supportive of Gaelic culture and language. The difficulty is, not having any Gaelic myself I am not able to know if there is something published out there in Gaelic which is causing this.
Actually this is quite interesting. “Calum Macmillan” registered to comment with an email address that gives a very different name – and a name that is not Gaelic, or Scots, at all. As I said, this is not the first time I have faced this entirely unfounded accusation and I am coming to the conclusion it is a deliberate and rather obscure smear.
It’s just a silly joke Craig. I would have thought that was obvious. Take it easy.
The truth is never less than the truth, no matter who says it.
@Calum – What’s your basis for alleging Craig has had a “lifelong antipathy” to Gaelic culture and language? I doubt there’s anything in that idea whatsoever. Is it that you believe that all Scots “should” learn Gaelic?
Johnson has been annoying the Welsh people today.
Conservative manifesto news LIVE: Boris Johnson pledges ‘tide of investment’ at Welsh manifesto launch
Boris Johnson has pledged to “unleash a tide of investment” in Wales at the launch of the Conservatives’ Welsh manifesto.
The Prime Minister promised to boost the country’s transport infrastructure comparing the M4 Brynglas tunnels to the “nostrils of a Welsh dragon” which needed unblocking.
At the launch, questions were raised by members of the audience over his trustworthiness and how Tory Brexit plans will impact Welsh farming were raised.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/uk-general-election-news-live-boris-johnson-faces-intense-scrutiny-over-tory-manifesto-promises-as-a4295406.html
Does he write his own stuff or has Cummings got a team at CCHQ? ‘nostrils of a Welsh dragon’. Idiot.
The Leaders’ debates include Sturgeon, for Scotland, but not Drakeford for Wales. Wales was at least mentioned when Ian Blackford laid a Rememberance Day wreath on behalf of Scotland and Wales. Wales’s First Minister, Mark Drakeford is of course, Labour. Leanne would be excellent representing Plaid Cymru, as she did in 2017. Not sure who should be expressing a view on this
It’s Isaac Levido running the campaign. I hope Labour have spent some resources researching how he ran the campaign in Australia a few months ago. That’s part of the basis on which the Tories hired him.
“Nostrils of a Welsh dragon” indeed. What drug is Boris Johnson taking? There are references in the Tory manifesto to Britain as a “lion” too. What next? Will he travel to Edinburgh and start honking on about the Scottish “unicorn”? Gotta like it when he makes a stupid idiot of himself, arrogantly thinking he is speaking in people’s own language but coming across as a contemptuous tosser. More please!
The “Corbyn neutral” phrase is stupid too. The first time I heard it I wondered whether he was using it in the financial investment sense, i.e. make sure people in some particular part of the electorate are in the same position regardless of whether or not Labour win the election. But of course that’s not how he’s using it. For obvious reasons, he wouldn’t. He’s using it to mean “Let’s throw Jeremy over the school wall and make sure he doesn’t try to come back in again”, or “Let’s get rid of Corbyn”.
Johnson has a crap character. Which employer who didn’t know him or his father or what school he went to would want to employ a guy who has been sacked multiple times for dishonesty?
The use of such phrases as “nostrils of a Welsh dragon” is good news. There is more than a fortnight left in which the Tories can absolutely f*** their election chances. The big one will be if he insults the Northern English.
The polls are already swinging towards Labour.
“Corbyn neutral” sounds to me like a bad pun on “carbon neutral”.
That mysterious deity “The Economy” again. Well, Perhaps Laura will get her dream one day and no member of that troublesome public will ever “interfere” by voting ever again.
BBC News will be the first up against the Wall the day after Polling Day.
‘There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People’.
Umberto Eco, Ur-Fascism, 1995.
As i have said many times in the last couple of weeks… if every lifelong labour voter who suddenly cannot stomach voting for labour really had done so ed milliband would be defending a majority of almost 200 at this election…
What keeps me cheerful however is that most people under 35 dont watch bbc news AT ALL so none of the antics described impact on them at all
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-election-poll-icm/johnsons-conservatives-see-lead-over-labour-narrow-to-7-points-icm-poll-idUKKBN1XZ22D
False dawn? But Tory lead down to 7% – from Reuters
Step in the world’s biggest growth industry/con – private security. Very happy to manage this car parking gift. Another back door opened.
Visiting your dying father / mother / daughter. Papers please.
And that’s exactly what happens at my nearest council rubbish tip. Two full time – at all times – private security, papers please. They closed the previous nearest and now its a 50 mile round trip and when the 60 year old lady in her little saloon and a couple bags of rubbish gets there – papers please. No proof of residence and ID, just turn around, don’t care how far you came back you go and return with your papers. Kid you not one jot.
Like the good old iron curtain days from the wrong side.
Another scam for the networking boys council tips, hospital car parks, universities, schools then libraries, sports centres, trains stations, bus shelters and bakeries. Massive public tax rip off and getting bigger by the day. For the cost of private security at a rubbish dump and the thick cream the bosses lick off the top you could likely employ half a dozen care in the community workers.
The tip is probably run by the French-based multinational Veolia. There’s a lot of money in public contracts for waste disposal and “recycling”. It’s all mafia.
At a tip I used to go to, they would try to put stickers in your car without asking, and they’d have goons standing with their arms crossed by the skips ensuring people didn’t chuck something in the wrong one. It felt like Colditz. On one occasion, the guy at the checkpoint was so f***king stupid he didn’t even know how to run a checkpoint, and he let me through without checking my “papers”. Then he called ahead to the guys near the skips who told me I was unauthorised and had to go back and go through the checkpoint again.
I made the point that since I had actually queued up and gone through the checkpoint and hadn’t climbed over the wire surely I must be authorised, but oh no, they weren’t having any of it.
..sounds like a privatized North Korea..
‘…Interfering with Laura Kuenssberg”
Perish the thought!
Well I’ll tell you what after watching the FM debate Neil, the £60 billion defecit that Neil kept on harping on about won’t exist in an independent Scotland, because in reality it only exist on paper in unionist documents.
I thought the FM acquitted herself well, Neil hasnt half piled on the weight on though.
I think Corbyns next up for Neil, I expect him to be arrogantly grilled by Neil as well. I doubt Johnson will get the same terse questioning and constant interruptions as Sturgeon did.
Re my 8.15pm comment and the pretendy defict here the BBC apologise for exaggerating the pretendy Scottish defict.
https://mobile.twitter.com/pjwoodside/status/1198488470387380226
Andrew Neil’s preparation was Brian Walden-esque. A lesson for all that follow on from Sturgeon. I thought it was pretty uncomfortable viewing. Some say that Neil is a journalist first and a Tory second. Don’t prejudge, Johnson’s interview may be train wreck television (assuming he doesn’t phone in sick).
It was bad television, because it’ll have gone straight over most people’s heads – the discussion was too arcane and heavy and quite frankly self-indulgent by Neil for a BBC 1 prime time leaders’ interview programme. Neil really hates the idea of independence and it showed.
Arguing about hypothetical deficits :internal (spend) and external(trade)and Scottish – English border friction post-independence, is heavy going stuff even on a politics show, On the latter, I don’t see why Sturgeon didn’t mention Northern Ireland, which the Tories are fond of telling us about in terms of frictionless borders and trade. Scotland’s land border with England is a far better candidate for that too.
Mentioning Northern Ireland doesn’t do her case much good given she supports an iScotland belonging to the EU.
I meant more in terms of the ‘technological solutions’ the Tories have been banging on about for years. Scotland/England don’t have the objections to cameras and basic infrastructure that the sensitive N.Ireland/Republic border does.
By mistake I downloaded Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price being interviewed by Jo Coburn, rather than Nicola Sturgeon with Andrew Neil. Really top “manspreading” by Price, feet about a yard apart, toes pointing in opposite directions, and kind of bouncing forward on his chair. No other party leader is going to match that!
He really is rather obnoxious. Leanne was a far better Leader of Plaid Cymru
I think Craig’s comments regarding Vox Pop is spot on, it is a very poor tool to gage popular sentiment. If we have learnt anything from The Day Today’s Vox Pop clips it is that people, when put on the spot, can be relied upon to say the most idiotic things. It does not mean that these people are idiots but that, without the opportunity to reflect on their transient thoughts when spoken aloud, they can easily be led into misspeaking. The BBC needs to seriously reconsider its policy insofar as using the Vox Pop tool in a news programme, particularly if, as Craig says, it is to further a particular narrative
His comments about the so called news reviews sections that the BBC allows (in my opinion) is correct too. It gives a disproportionate voice to a medium dominated by a few millionaire/billionaire players who control the narrative. The absurd lengths the super rich will go to to retain control of the Overton Window was highlighted recently in Boing Boing: https://boingboing.net/2019/11/24/plutes-in-retreat.html. I ask again if there is something fundamentally wrong with a person who lets the impulse to horde vast quantities of money rule their lives. I would like to know why their opinions should be given special priority.
>”May I suggest that educated or notionally less stupid people are just as gullible as anyone else.”
May I confirm this with just a couple of examples out of the far too many that I could use from the years I spent working in Academia.
I once had to intervene to stop a very senior theoretical physicist (regularly on TV at one point as a ‘talking head’ on science matters) sending a substantial amount of money to a 419 scammer, unfortunately, I was too late with another academic, ex managing director of the European arm of a large multinational, who, when presented with a ‘to prove you are over 18, please enter your credit card details’ page on a ‘dodgy’ website, entered said information. This cost him something like £14,000 before he noticed/bank sounded a warning.
Both very Intelligent men, both Oxbridge educated, but both very, very gullible..
I wrote this for the comments section on OffGuardian but can’t post on there for some reason.
It was a comment on the media and its obsession with Corbyn.
It’s a little simplistic but in my opinion the whole show irrespective of Brexit is anti Corbynist.
Looking at polling there is a large raft of voters who are against the Labour Party and it is purely because of the personal demonisation of Corbyn personally.
We must remember that we have had forty years of Neo -liberalism since Thatcher and the people have been hammered into submission via cowardly politicians and no more so than in the Labour Party itself which has joined in the retreat and culminated in Blair and all leaders since.
Along comes a backbencher who’s political record is impeccable who didn’t expect to win – so that was a surprise not only to us but, Corbyn himself.
Because of his politics he could very quickly coalesce many supporters behind him and quickly the Labour Party membership has grown rapidly.
Every step of the way as soon as he became a real threat the kitchen sink has been thrown at him and the party.
But – two PMs later he is still standing despite the vilification and no matter what Swinson whitters about the Lib Dems stopping Brexit it is Labour who have headed to Brexiters off at the pass so far – not Swinson and certainly not not the Tory ‘rebels ‘ who never rebelled at all .
What the media critics need to understand is what a threat a Labour government is to their cosy contracts with the BBC.
They in particular have a lot of skin in the game not only the reporters but the producers of BBC programmes who set up production companies to make ‘ content ‘ which the BBC buy in.
That particular game may be over if Labour wins and they actually put members of the public on the Public Service provider Executive Boards. For reporters it is Labour’s tax rises aimed at the well off.
Some are very well paid and when they stop being reporters they go to programme making for the BBC or other independent companies- that is good money -do you see where this going?
So they and newspaper journalists all have skin in the Keep Corbyn Out game as do all the people who benefited from Thatcher to Blair – cameron and now they have invested all their defence into Johnson.
They may not like him all but this is their future and future income at stake here. They like things as they are and screw the people. The people who are not them to be exact.
Of course they have to pretend that they are being ‘ balanced ‘ but if you think the MSM is bad now watch out if Labour get closer to the Tories.
It will make Goebbels look like George Washington.
The stakes are very high for these people.
Since writing the Labour Party are now 7 pts behind the Tories.
I was going to do a long comment but your premise that soft socialist Boris and co. are far right is just so absurd I can’t be bothered. Apparently, according to polls, most people just don’t like the old style Corbyn communism or the Labour desire to remain so we’re getting a Tory government whatever ridiculous accusations are made.
Having the same level of public spend as Germany or Scandinavia is hardly communism.
“….commentators should scoff less and ask why Britain can’t be Germany, Sweden or South Korea rather than making absurd comparisons to Bolivia, Cuba or Venezuela. As we enter the 2020s, the real question is why the Tories and their media cheerleaders have so little faith that the UK can follow the example of other successful economies.” – Tom Kibasi’s Guardian opinion piece..
The UK is becoming like the US, where not cheering on the billionaires sat atop their mountains of unproductive money, is lazily called far-left extremism.
Let’s put it this way.
Your former fallen hero Nigel is licking his wounds after taking on the ” soft socialist ” Boris and it is now a straight scrap between the two major parties outside of Scotland.
You hard leaver is gone and with it his party so if you are one of troops Farage delivered up to Johnson do your duty.
Unless you are to the right of Hitler in which case you have no-one to vote for.
Your bigotry has been dis-enfranchised.
All say Ahwww.
Let’s put it this way.
Your former fallen hero Nigel is licking his wounds after taking on the ” soft socialist ” Boris and it is now a straight scrap between the two major parties outside of Scotland.
You hard leaver is gone and with it his party so if you are one of the faithful troops Farage delivered up to Johnson do your duty.
Unless you are to the right of Hitler in which case you have no-one to vote for.
Your bigotry has been dis-enfranchised.
All say Ahwww.
@Keith – If you want to advance an argument that a proposition is absurd, you’d be well advised not to express the opinion that Boris Johnson is a “socialist”, Jeremy Corbyn is a “communist”, and the Labour party desires Remain.
Did you hear that as soon as he becomes Chancellor of the Exchequer John McDonnell plans to fly the EU flag over the Bank of England and offer its chairmanship to Evo Morales? (Just kidding!)
I actually think that it is the university educated “moron” that is most susceptible to mass media deception. Shop floor tradesman types are much more practical and have a bit of common sense and can think independently, to some degree. The housing estate types probably soak up the establishment line though. This is from a uni educated semi moron.
‘They’ and the Tories are getting very worried about Corbyn and are determined to wreck the Labour campaign.
At the outset of the BBC 10pm News, Martin Bashir appeared live in the studio (alongside Huw Edwards) to make an announcement that the Chief Rabbi had spoken! Enough gravitas was given to the proceedings as if it was an announcement of imminent war being declared.
The gist of Bashir’s appearance was to repeat Mirvis’s attack on Corbyn on grounds of his extreme antisemitism and that his denials were false.
The JC has this on what Mirvis has said. It’s outrageous slander. Timed at 21.49 tonight so they had advance notice.
‘Chief Rabbi launches unprecedented attack on ‘mendacious’ Jeremy Corbyn over Jew hate
No previous Chief Rabbi has ever commented on a general election. Labour’s behaviour forces his hand, Ephraim Mirvis says
:
‘Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis has launched an unprecedented attack on Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party and the “utterly inadequate” response to antisemitism.
In an article in the Times which he said was written with “the heaviest of hearts”, the Chief Rabbi attacks as “mendacious fiction” Mr Corbyn’s claim in last week’s televised general election debate that Labour has “investigated every single case” of anti-Jewish racism.
Also highlighting shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s claim that the party is now “doing everything” to tackle the crisis, the Chief Rabbi says: “The claims by leadership figures in the Labour Party that it is ‘doing everything’ it reasonably can to tackle the scourge of anti-Jewish racism and that it has ‘investigated every single case’ are a mendacious fiction.”
Without referring to Mr Corbyn by name, Rabbi Mirvis asks :”How complicit in prejudice would a leader of Her Majesty’s opposition have to be in order to be considered unfit for high office?”
He then adds: “Would associations with those who have openly incited hatred against Jews be enough?
“Would support for a racist mural, depicting powerful hook-nosed Jews supposedly getting rich at the expense of the weak and downtrodden be enough?
/..
https://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/chief-rabbi-launches-unprecedented-attack-on-mendacious-corbyn-over-jew-hate-1.493585
The BBC put this up 20 mins ago, ie @ 20.11
General election 2019: Chief rabbi attacks Labour anti-Semitism record
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50552068
@Mary – I don’t have TV. Was it literally at the beginning of the news bulletin? Sounds like it’s squeaky bum and trouser clips time for Tories and Zionists. They’re in trouble.
You’re right. Tory panic time.
Exactly at the beginning. Not one word of news had been spoken by Edwards when Bashir appeared. I have never seen anything like it.
Designed to ‘come out now’ in an attempt give Neill a stick to beat Corbyn with in his interview. He’ll be hoping Corbyn gets rattled.
Incidentally, the artist who painted ‘that mural’ said that the painting was an actual portrait of the world’s wealthiest men. Their ethnicity was irrelevant, as were the range of ethnicities of the people of all nations supporting their Monopoly Board