Renowned Historians

I must admit I found the tone of the BBC interview with David Irving a little bit surprising:

The renowned historian David Irving has watched the revolutions of 2011 with excitement - and notes that it's now the middle class, not the working class, that is making waves.

He has lived his life in the shadow, or the glow, of upheavel.

Born just months before the Anschluss of 1938, he was a Nazi for most of his adult life - as well as an innovative and influential writer and thinker.

He has been a historian of revolution, and at times an advocate of revolutionary change.

Now in his mid-nineties, his continuing passion for politics is reflected in the title of his most recent book How to Change the World - and in his keen interest in the Arab Spring.

As you can probably guess I've changed a couple of details in the report.

ps. Is this a euphemism?

"I certainly felt a sense of excitement and relief," he says, talking to me in his north London home, which is strolling distance from Hampstead Heath.

Headline News!

Do defecting local councillors usually make headline national news? I don't recall hearing anything like this in the las 13 years, I wonder what has changed.

Avid Porn Consumer Applies For Job At BBC

I don't particularly object to Jacqui Smith applying for a "top job" at the BBC especially if she takes advice on programming from her husband.

Unfunny Comedy Axed

The BBC have announced that Last of the Summer Wine is being axed after approximately 40 years on air. What's extraordinary is that this supposed comedy has survived since 1973 despite being completely devoid of laughs. The only purpose it seems to have ever served was to make Songs of Praise seem like a laugh riot.

How does a programme about three old men survive for nearly 4 decades anyway?

Smothering The Competition

I was listening to a discussion about the future of the BBC digital radio stations 6 Music & the Asian Network and one of the points that kept being made by the presenter and the callers was that the sort of thing 6 Music is doing is not available in the commercial sector.

That is kind of the point though, when the BBC fills up every available niche it is inevitable that commercial providers will be wary of competing directly against such a vast organisation in much the same way that saplings don't grow under a rainforest's canopy.

Digital radio presented a dilemma for the BBC, people had to be encouraged to take it up to free the FM and MW frequencies and commercial groups couldn't really afford to establish digital stations until enough people had digital radios. Which put the BBC in a bind, they had to drive the changeover to digital by establishing digital only stations that people would want to listen to however this inevitably meant occupying potential market niches that might be attractive to commercial stations at a later point.

Giving Them Rope To Hang Themselves.

Man Widdecombe has a clip of a BNP interview on Radio 2 which demonstrates exactly why "no platforming" the BNP is a bad idea if you want to curtail their influence. They aren't evil geniuses who will convert people en masse to racism unless they are prevented from speaking, they aren't going to impress sceptical people with their honesty and plain speaking either. They are in fact evasive and blustering in a way in which spokesmen from normal minor parties aren't.

Which is why it is not the end of the world that Nick Griffin is going to appear on Question Time next week. If the programme goes ahead and isn't disrupted by protesters there aren't suddenly going to be hordes of brownshirts marching through Bradford. The other panellists which probe him on the BNPs views on race and Griffin will either have to answer it or avoid it, neither of which will show him in a good light.

The calls for boycotting or silencing the BNP carry the underlying assumption that the BNP are correct in their opinion that they represent a silent majority of the British people and it isn't a huge surprise that the most prominent supporters of the No Platform movement tend to be slippery figures like Denis Macshane and Peter Hain.

Prime Ministerial Pill Popping Probed

Andrew Marr has surprised a lot of people by asking Gordon Brown about the rumours that he is addicted to pain killers.

Whilst I enjoyed watching Brown's reaction I'm not convinced it was right to ask the question because when someone as prominent as Andrew Marr asks the question it gives credence to what had previously been unsourced rumours.

It might be argued that we have a right to know whether the PM takes painkillers but we also have a right to know whether he has sex with farmyard animals but asking him about that directly would give credence to the rumour that he committed bestiality even though he has (probably) never done so.

Who Knew?

China not always open to reporters

The Suspense Is Killing Me.

Watching Newsnight just now I saw Jeremy Paxman introduce an interview with film director Spike Lee and he said he was going to ask the director whether the opposition to Obama is about race.

Unfortunately I missed the actual interview. So it's a complete mystery as to whether Lee will detect racism or not.

Mock The Weak.

Nick Cohen takes on the BBC's comedy panel show "Mock the Week" in his Standpoint article this month. There is much to dislike about Mock the Week, but Cohen picks the wrong target in Frankie Boyle, who for all his crudity and abusiveness often comes up with very funny lines and delivers them excellently. Contrary to Cohen I don't think he particularly targets obvious victims in his jokes. The humour is vicious and doesn't appeal to the better part of human nature so I can see an argument for saying it shouldn't be on at 9:00 in the evening but it is still amusing.

Besides which Cohen misses the more deserving targets. How can any attack on Mock the Week ignore the comedic black holes that are Andy Parsons and Russell Howard though?

Parsons is a kind of trollish looking man who seems as if he ought to be funny until he opens his mouth. Then he tells unfunny jokes in such a way that you can see the punchline coming a mile off. Also every single joke is told with the same rhythm so even if the punchline isn't immediately obvious you can tell it is coming anyway by the change in tone after the painfully contrived set up, (which usually consists of "They're saying that {insert some crap} eh?!").

The nicest thing that can be said about him is that he isn't Russell Howard. His jokes aren't always terrible (many of them would be funny if said by someone else), but he creates such an irritating persona as an attention seeking child who is always acting up to try and win the approval of his elders that he simply makes me want to slam his face in a car door. I wouldn't actually do that to an attention seeking child I must add.


{Via Jonathan Pearce at Samizdata and possibly via Blognor Regis although I'm not sure}

The Ivory Tower

The Guardian has published a defence of the BBC, by a number of BBC scriptwriters. One of them in particular stands out- Billy Ivory. DJ has already said much of what needs to be said about him but that is no reason not to pile on to Mr Ivory.

It's not just his ridiculous attempts to show what a working class hero he is- "the middle classes always want to claim the good art, the thoughtful art, the liberal art, for themselves...... especially in the criticism of BBC drama is an example of that same insidious snobbery."

It's not his addiction to buzzwords- "consistently evolving", "ambitious", "enabling", "aspiration", "passionately committed", "empower", "passionately" (again), "innovate"

It's not even his addiction to the most absurd cliches to evade criticism- "misty-eyed remembrance of times past is inadequate".


No what I find objectionable is his complacent insularity- "British TV drama is still the best in the world, (NOT American, where we see but the tiniest fraction of a huge trench of stuff, most of which makes CBeebies look like Tolstoy)". So how many BBC TV programmes would be good enough to be on this list? Life on Mars, The Office and maybe a couple of others over the last few years but not many, certainly none of Ivory's output which appears to consist primarily of lovable ex-cons who decide to go back into a life of crime at which point assorted japes occur, would make the list.

It is one thing to say that the lessons of US TV can't simply be imported directly over here, but quite another to airily dismiss the output of a country that judged by either viewing figures or critical acclaim is streets ahead of its rivals is just smug.

Update: One BBC series I have seen and liked recently, which I'd recommend watching when it next show, is Being Human.

Quote Of The Day.

We need to foster peculiarity, idiosyncrasy, stubborn-mindedness, left-of-centre thinking.

BBC drama commissioning editor, Ben Stephenson.

The BBC- A Question.

What is the justification for raising the licence fee in a recession when inflation is close to zero?

This isn't about whether the fee is justified or whether the BBC should exist* but why it needs to receive yet more funds when their costs shouldn't be rising.

* I'd say there might be a justification for a few services that commercial competitors would never match (BBC Radio 3, 4 & the World Service) but most of it is superfluous.

Quote Of The Day.

On Question Time, Conservative chairman Eric Pickles was explaining why he needed to have a second home, despite living just 37 miles from Westminster, explaining that it really was necessary because being an MP meant that he had to be on time and stuff. David Dimbleby replied:

“Like a job, in other words?”

Whilst I'm criticising the Conservatives, Peter Risdon's post about the relationship between Darius Guppy and the mayor of London- Boris Johnson- is worth reading.

Those Peaceful Nordics

Over at Biased BBC there is a post describing a discussion about crime and punishment on the Today programme:

It's all part of the narrative and so it is no big surprise to hear an item on Today earlier this morning suggesting that we should follow the example of Finland and cease "incarcerating" young people (anyone under 21) in our prisons.

Regardless of the BBC's bias, this discussion makes two assumptions that really should be debunked:

• That the Nordics are a particularly good model to follow when it comes to cutting crime. Finland has one of the highest murder rates in Western Europe. Why emulate them?
  
• That youth crime is some minor aspect of crime. In fact offending rates peak from the mid teens to the early 20s depending on the offence, so by abolishing punishment for "youth" crime you end up abolishing punishment for any crime.
  

Abolish The BBC.

The Jonathan Ross, Russell Brand crap really is taking up an inordinate amount of column inches. Even I as someone who has called for their violent deaths find the coverage excessive.

Still I may as well use the incident as a hook a hobby horse of mine- the abolition of the BBC.

Supporters of the BBC and the licence fee like to claim that it is essential to ensure quality programming and compare it favourably to British commercial television as well as to American television.

The comparison with British commercial stations is fair enough and the BBC does indeed produce better television than any of our commercial broadcasters. Although this is hardly surprising when they have to compete against a state behemoth which can outbid them for talent and monopolise various niche markets. The sole exception to this is sport where Sky is clearly superior to the BBC. In other words the BBC crowds out the commercial sector who therefore have to resort to lowest common denominator stuff.

American television provides a picture of what commercial television can do when it is allowed to thrive in the absence of a national broadcaster. For all that BBC supporters like to mock US broadcasting, which is portrayed as a non stop drip of Jerry Springer, police chases and ads, the fact is it outperforms British television in almost every field.

The output of C-Span puts the BBC;s political coverage to shame, the original drama series produced by the likes of HBO and FX are far superior to anything the BBC has done in the last 20 years and Comedy Central doesn't consider it to be the height of comic genius to bully elderly actors. It's noticeable that a lot of the BBC's quality output is made in association with an American channel for example The Blue Planet was made in association with Discovery and Rome was made in league with HBO.

If we had no BBC our television output could develop in this direction.

I'm A Trendsetter.

On the subject of those two tossers Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross can I just point out that I hated them long before it became fashionable. As I said on another blog in January:

"After Moz left the stage, "celebrity fans" Jonathan Ross, David Walliams and Russell Brand took to the stage to pacify the crowd."

And yet no one had thought to take a hand grenade along in case of this eventuality!

See I was calling for their violent death way before they started bullying an elderly man and his grand daughter!

{via}

The Sun Says....

Over at Conservative Home they have the reactions of some of the newspapers to "Yachtgate", the Sun's editorial is worth quoting:

"The integrity of the BBC is coming under question for the way it has treated the case of the Russian billionaire and his British contacts. Hundreds of viewers are complaining of unbalanced reporting — and with good reason. According to its own internal memo, hundreds of listeners accused the Corporation of bias against the Tories — pointing out that the party received NO cash at all. And it’s strange that the BBC only went into overdrive on the story AFTER George Osborne’s name was linked to oligarch Oleg Deripaska. When just Labour’s Peter Mandelson was involved it boasts it resisted making much of any allegations. Strange, that. And reason enough for their own enquiry into left-wing bias."

The BBC cannot be reformed, it's institutional left wing bias is too deeply ingrained. The Conservatives should cut their bdget massively when they are next in office.

I Might Start Paying The Licence Fee.

I criticise the BBC a lot, praise where praise is due:

On August Bank Holiday Monday, the Ligali founder Toyin Agbetu was savagely attacked by security employees on the BBC 1xtra float at the Notting Hill carnival.

Toyin had been distributing flyers in support of a community campaign to institute a three minute silent tribute in remembrance of the original African Caribbean cultural vision of Claudia Jones for Notting Hill Carnival and the Ancestors of African people who fell as victims of racism throughout the Maafa.

For those unfamiliar with Ligali, read here.

Outrageous

John Ward has a good example of how the BBC meet their obligation to quote Conservative politicians in response to government announcements, in this case a decsion to grant an amnesty to tens of thousands of asylum seekers, by literally quoting a single word that the Tory spokesman, Dominic Grieve, used devoid of any context.

The word chosen 'outrageous' is one that is designed to make the opposition to the government's decision appear knee jerk and reactionary because it provides no reason for why they oppose it. 'Outrageous' simply indicates the strength of feeling about an issue but provides no hint as to why they feel that way. The BBC does of course explain the government's reasons, they want to grant the amnesty because

Most of their cases date back over three years, with some over seven years.

Other outlets do allow Grieve to put forwards why he disagrees with the Home Office,

This exercise should be about reviewing applications properly and granting asylum in genuine cases. The Government should not be tempted to grant an effective amnesty just to get the backlog cleared, and achieve a good headline.

This is a short and concise quote that neatly explains his viewpoint, whereas 'Outrageous' gives the impression of a pompous rent-a-quote venting over how angry he is with everything.