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A thread to catalogue the eloquence, dignity, diplomacy and wisdom of Boris Johnson

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SteveS1 said:
This blithering idiot is being ripped a new one on R4 right now. It will be a while before he accepts another invitation. Robinson is doing OK.
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Yes Robinson did try very hard to pin Johnson down, and good for him, but my God wasn't it hard work? I can't help feeling Johnson and many of those listening will have thought he got away with it. The truth is he just sticks his fingers in his ears and says what he likes, non-stop, over and over again. He is almost impossible to interview and question in any meaningful way. The awful thing is large numbers of the general public don't seem to mind and he gets away with it.
 
The man with the famous work ethic tells everyone to get back to work,

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Goes on holiday as Covid engulfs the U.K., fails to show up to five consecutive emergency COBRA meetings , takes another paid holiday at Chequers to finish his Shakespeare book during the pandemic and is even on holiday as the British embassy in Kabul falls to the Taliban.
 
MikeMA said:
The truth is he just sticks his fingers in his ears and says what he likes, non-stop, over and over again. He is almost impossible to interview and question in any meaningful way. The awful thing is large numbers of the general public are not tuned in so he gets away with it.
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But your line 'He is almost impossible to interview and question in any meaningful way' nails it and can be applied to most Tories.
Until the public wake up to this and recoil from it like the Scots I can't see any progress. Starmer whatever his faults is not in that league but I can see from the postings on that thread that he walks himself into stuff also. This is the conundrum of your two party system. PR is the only hope for some attempt at fairness.
 
And Labour! Blair, Corbyn, Starmer etc are/were just as evasive, just as determined to deflect awkward questions. It is a symptom of an entirely unaccountable political system that is little more than a bureaucratic career path.
 
SteveS1 said:
This blithering idiot is being ripped a new one on R4 right now. It will be a while before he accepts another invitation. Robinson is doing OK.
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Watch out for some damaging words from Government ministers about how the BBC is 'out of touch', 'elitist' etc etc, and yet more Government-inspired headlines in the Tory press shouting about how the BBC should be de-funded.
 
Joe Hutch said:
Watch out for some damaging words from Government ministers about how the BBC is 'out of touch', 'elitist' etc etc, and yet more Government-inspired headlines in the Tory press shouting about how the BBC should be de-funded.
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You mean like this headline from today's Torygraph front page? (paywall) https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politic...st-decade-says-nadine-dorries-hits-left-wing/
BBC may not exist in a decade, says Nadine Dorries as she hits out at ‘Left-wing bias’

Culture Secretary tells Chopper's Politics podcast corporation has to change, accusing it of failing on impartiality and ‘access’

By Dominic Penna and Christopher Hope, Chief Political Correspondent 4 October 2021 • 6:03pm
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Joe Hutch said:
Watch out for some damaging words from Government ministers about how the BBC is 'out of touch', 'elitist' etc etc, and yet more Government-inspired headlines in the Tory press shouting about how the BBC should be de-funded.
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Our finest minister for culture Nadine has already come out fighting saying that the BBC is full of people who's mothers and fathers worked there before them. Has she met Rees-Mogg?
 
TheDecameron said:
Yes, Nick Robinson- the voice of left wing bias.

Nadeeeen is the British equivalent of this-

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The deep irony of this is that Nic Robinson is a past President of both the Oxford University Conservative Association and the Conservative Party Youth Group. To his credit I think he is a decent likeable bloke, and a good even handed journalist and interviewer. It will stretch credulity a bit if the Tories to try to paint him as a "typical BBC lefty" (whatever that is)
 
There was a major study done around the time of the 2019 election (I can't remember who did it, though it must be still online) where the 'left-wing bias' thing was annihilated. It's a massive organisation and has always had pockets of more radical views in both directions. However, since the era of Birt the accusations of 'left-wing bias' have become increasingly ridiculous, yet increasingly more common. Radio 4, at one time known for some programming that would be deemed 'left-wing' is down to about two programmes: Thinking Allowed with Laurie Taylor and File on 4. The rest is vague cultural stuff.
Documents released after their secrecy period expired have already shown that the BBC had an arm of MI5 operating an 'anti-communist screening system' in the corporation from the 50s onward. Michael Rosen was one of the people denied a BBC contract because of 'communist leanings' which he never hid.

All that aside though, the people the Cameron government parachuted-in when they put the BBC under pressure and altered its independence, were all visibly right-wing people or sympathisers or just people accustomed to top executive jobs in capitalist corporations. The BBC now resembles much more a typical corporate entity. They publish a list of all its internal staff who earn over £150k including their expenses claims. The director-general Tim Davie gets over half a million a year 'basic', yet has a list of expenses claims ranging from £200 a night hotels, dinners and taxi rides with reasons given including: 'carrying a bag' and 'lack of time'.
 
Le Baron said:
There was a major study done around the time of the 2019 election (I can't remember who did it, though it must be still online) where the 'left-wing bias' thing was annihilated. It's a massive organisation and has always had pockets of more radical views in both directions. However, since the era of Birt the accusations of 'left-wing bias' have become increasingly ridiculous, yet increasingly more common. Radio 4, at one time known for some programming that would be deemed 'left-wing' is down to about two programmes: Thinking Allowed with Laurie Taylor and File on 4. The rest is vague cultural stuff.

Documents released after their secrecy period expired have already shown that the BBC had an arm of MI5 operating an 'anti-communist screening system' in the corporation from the 50s onward. Michael Rosen was one of the people denied a BBC contract because of 'communist leanings' which he never hid.

All that aside though, the people the Cameron government parachuted-in when they put the BBC under pressure and altered its independence, were all visibly right-wing people or sympathisers or just people accustomed to top executive jobs in capitalist corporations. The BBC now resembles much more a typical corporate entity. They publish a list of all its internal staff who earn over £150k including their expenses claims. The director-general Tim Davie gets over half a million a year 'basic', yet has a list of expenses claims ranging from £200 a night hotels, dinners and taxi rides with reasons given including: 'carrying a bag' and 'lack of time'.
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Lots more on this and related matters in Tom Mills' book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1784784834/?tag=pinkfishmedia-21

BBC News has always been the voice of the establishment, and remains so today.

I suspect the BBC's "left-wing" reputation rests on its drama and comedy output, especially in the 1970s (Play for Today, and the like) but those days are long gone.
 
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