Nelson Mandela

[marshy]

Only on Breakfast, Marshy, and who watches that?! It's a kids' programme.

 

So they need two people to read the news to a bunch of kids. Unbelievable. Must be something to do with the concentration span of the target audience.

[Red-Robbo]

So they need two people to read the news to a bunch of kids. Unbelievable. Must be something to do with the concentration span of the target audience.

It's the male-female 'infotainment' formula as pioneered by and still universal on US news channels. ITV do the same in the morning, but it's a desperately dated idea.

[chipdawg]

It's the male-female 'infotainment' formula as pioneered by and still universal on US news channels. ITV do the same in the morning, but it's a desperately dated idea.

But it's a populist news programme using a popular format. The fact that Suzanna Reid is still in that popularity and dancing contest is a testament to how popular Breakfast News is. Not saying for a second that i think its any good, but I imagine a decent chunk of the target audience for weekday mornings think it is, so by definition it's a good use of license fee money

[Davros]

[Red-Robbo]

But it's a populist news programme using a popular format. The fact that Suzanna Reid is still in that popularity and dancing contest is a testament to how popular Breakfast News is. Not saying for a second that i think its any good, but I imagine a decent chunk of the target audience for weekday mornings think it is, so by definition it's a good use of license fee money

That would be the argument used, I'm sure. Maybe the leaden sofa banter is what people want when they are shovelling in the corn flakes and their brains are very slowly beginning to defog in preparation for another day of wage slavery.

Me, I listen to the Today programme.

[chipdawg]

[chipdawg]

That would be the argument used, I'm sure. Maybe the leaden sofa banter is what people want when they are shovelling in the corn flakes and their brains are very slowly beginning to defog in preparation for another day of wage slavery.

Me, I listen to the Today programme.

To be honest, I often have it on for 10-15 minutes before I leave the house (though currently the Ashes have replaced it in my morning routine). I catch the headlines and the weather and then head out with Radio 4 on in the car on the way to the office. My main issue with Breakfast is when you watch a whole 'episode'; the repetition and the inane human interest stories they come up with are brain meltingly dull. But it obviously performs a role on the BBC schedule and if it gets viewing figures, who are we to question?!

[marshy]

[Red-Robbo]

[Mr Mosquito]

For what it's worth, and from the little I watch, they do appear to be making some kind of effort recently to be less biased in their presentation of events now that the focus of attention is upon them and the higher echelons are perhaps beginning to worry about the possibility of privatisation. Still no coverage on the website about the anti-austerity, anti-EU demonstrations across Italy this week, however, but plenty on the pro-EU demos in the Ukraine.

 

 

Another example of EU loving bias from the BBC. The BBC should be showing the anti EU demonstrations in Italy and Greece on a regular basis - it is their obligation to do so under their charter. The Ukraine can have our membership place in the EU is the message that should be broadcast on the BBC. The Ukraine is desperate to join the EU - we should be charitable at this festive time and give them our place in the EU.

 

I noticed that BBC Question Time was broadcast from South Africa yesterday with the Middle Class Cultural Marxist whitey - Peter Hain - featuring on the show. Peter Hain and his Labour party fuhrer Tony Blair should be deported to South Africa - or better still Zimbabwe-Rhodesia - where they can be dispossessed of their land and assets.

[bucksred]

The Church st Pretoria bombing was in direct response to murders that the SA government committed.

It was in response to a South African cross-border raid into Lesotho in December 1982 which killed 42 ANC supporters and civilians, and the assassination of Ruth First, an ANC activist and wife of Joe Slovo, in Maputo, Mozambique.

I'm presuming you feel it was ok for the South African apartheid government to kill innocent people on a daily basis, but the ANC were not allowed to respond?

Apartheid caused the whole situation,a cruel and injustice way of treating human beings.

When people are backed into a corner they will respond in any way possible.

That's what happened to the coloured people of SA.

Imagine if the Germans had invaded us in the 40's. Do you think our people would have just accepted it, or fought back with any means possible.

 

 

Actually being an African myself, I'll reverse that arguement. If Terrorists shoot down civil airliners down with SAM's then machine gun the survivors, do you expect Rhodesian (or South African, as both countries suffered from brutal attacks on civilians, it wasnt all one sided) not to go and capture kill the terrs? We had to do so, and the terrs/freedom fighters (depending on your point of view) purposely hid among the refugees, the women the kids, the schools, the hospitals...one raid the Rhodesians carried out killed over 2000 terrorists, and about 400 civilians. some 100 tons of weapons and munitions were captured. I beleive the liberal press accused us of planting the evidence. 100 tons of munions planted? Using Alouette III's? Hmmmmmmmm..

 

Mandela admitted being a terrorist, planting bombs. He was honest. His "comrades" werent/arent/will never be.

 

As for the IRA arguement, thats a mixture of terrorism/patriotism/gangsterism..and they just bombed maimed murdered people to keep their little patch safe from security forces intervention...

[Eco]

Actually being an African myself, I'll reverse that arguement. If Terrorists shoot down civil airliners down with SAM's then machine gun the survivors, do you expect Rhodesian (or South African, as both countries suffered from brutal attacks on civilians, it wasnt all one sided) not to go and capture kill the terrs? We had to do so, and the terrs/freedom fighters (depending on your point of view) purposely hid among the refugees, the women the kids, the schools, the hospitals...one raid the Rhodesians carried out killed over 2000 terrorists, and about 400 civilians. some 100 tons of weapons and munitions were captured. I beleive the liberal press accused us of planting the evidence. 100 tons of munions planted? Using Alouette III's? Hmmmmmmmm..

 

Mandela admitted being a terrorist, planting bombs. He was honest. His "comrades" werent/arent/will never be.

 

As for the IRA arguement, thats a mixture of terrorism/patriotism/gangsterism..and they just bombed maimed murdered people to keep their little patch safe from security forces intervention...

Haven't heard of that one Bucks, when was it ?

[marshy]

One of the shyte things that pissed me off when I worked there was the way you'd write all the scripts, do all the hard work, yet some Ron Burgundy type would mouth your words and get paid 5 times what you did. And be called "talent"! If you were off-camera you are obviously "talentless" in the corporation's eyes.

 

That's not just the BBC though, same at Sky and elsewhere. And when you get onto the budget for entertainment shows - wow! - it makes news look like paupers.

 

Edit: I have to say the Italian protests look tiny compared to the mass Ukrainian ones, however still worth carrying something I'd say. Reuters have filed on them. Probably too many staff tied-up writing gushing Mandela copy still!!

 

I get most of my news on this via Agence France Presse (AFP). This latest report courtesy of Yahoo News. Further riots in Rome, Venice, and Turin by the 'Pitchforks'. The anti-EU, anti-austerity protests are now gathering support from right and left alike across Southern Europe. We face the bizarre prospect next year of a European Parliament full of members who don't believe in its very existence.

 

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/clashes-break-italy-anti-austerity-151305929.html

[Red-Robbo]

I get most of my news on this via Agence France Presse (AFP). This latest report courtesy of Yahoo News. Further riots in Rome, Venice, and Turin by the 'Pitchforks'. The anti-EU, anti-austerity protests are now gathering support from right and left alike across Southern Europe. We face the bizarre prospect next year of a European Parliament full of members who don't believe in its very existence.

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/clashes-break-italy-anti-austerity-151305929.html

True indeed. I think the Greek protests were covered but, as you say, the Italian demos get very little UK media coverage. (I read the Reuters copy in the Inde of all places!)

How can Ed Balls maintain any credibility after his eurozone enthusiasm?

[Esmond Million's Bung]

True indeed. I think the Greek protests were covered but, as you say, the Italian demos get very little UK media coverage. (I read the Reuters copy in the Inde of all places!)

How can Ed Balls maintain any credibility after his eurozone enthusiasm?

 

i'm sure labour voters will find a way after they are cool with the paedo protectors in their ranks, dear old Harriet and her husband uncle Jack.

 

 

[Eco]

True indeed. I think the Greek protests were covered but, as you say, the Italian demos get very little UK media coverage. (I read the Reuters copy in the Inde of all places!)

How can Ed Balls maintain any credibility after his eurozone enthusiasm?

According to Bill keegan in The Observer today '...if there is one person other than Gordon Brown for keeping the UK out of the structurally faulty eurozone it is Ed Balls' !

[chipdawg]

i'm sure labour voters will find a way after they are cool with the paedo protectors in their ranks, dear old Harriet and her husband uncle Jack.

As opposed to the elements in the Thatcher and Major governments that protected Jimmy Savile (allegedly)

[Red-Robbo]

According to Bill keegan in The Observer today '...if there is one person other than Gordon Brown for keeping the UK out of the structurally faulty eurozone it is Ed Balls' !

Blimey! There's something very unapealing about Balls, but that's quite astute of him.

[Esmond Million's Bung]

As opposed to the elements in the Thatcher and Major governments that protected Jimmy Savile (allegedly)

 

or the Wilson government aided and abetted by MI5 who protected Cyril Smith in case they needed him in a coalition government.

 

 

[chipdawg]

or the Wilson government aided and abetted by MI5 who protected Cyril Smith in case they needed him in a coalition government.

Quite. I would argue that today's politicians are slightly less prone to sleaze and corruption that their counterparts from prior decades- not because their moral compass is somehow more well defined, but because they have less personality and imagination these days

[Eco]

Blimey! There's something very unapealing about Balls, but that's quite astute of him.

Well, unlike our esteemed Chancellor he actually has an degree in Economics, not sure about Maths, Physics or Bionics.

[marshy]

Well, unlike our esteemed Chancellor he actually has an degree in Economics, not sure about Maths, Physics or Bionics.

 

Proof, if any were needed, that a degree in economics is not a necessary requirement for the job.  The unelected Olli Rehn, European Commisioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro is also well qualified academically in Economics I believe and the Euro is bringing devastation to a generation throughout Southern Europe.

[chipdawg]

Proof, if any were needed, that a degree in economics is not a necessary requirement for the job. The unelected Olli Rehn, European Commisioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs and the Euro is also well qualified academically in Economics I believe and the Euro is bringing devastation to a generation throughout Southern Europe.

It's not the Euro itself that has caused the problems in Southern Europe, its their lack of ability to manage the currency in a manner suitable to their particular monetary problems. If you're German, or to a lesser extent Dutch or French, the Euro has been exceptionally well managed, the problem is with the concept of distinct economies sharing a centrally managed currency

[marshy]

It's not the Euro itself that has caused the problems in Southern Europe, its their lack of ability to manage the currency in a manner suitable to their particular monetary problems. If you're German, or to a lesser extent Dutch or French, the Euro has been exceptionally well managed, the problem is with the concept of distinct economies sharing a centrally managed currency

 

So therefore it is the Euro that is the problem. They are stuck within the straitjacket of what is, in effect, a fixed exchange rate system. History teaches us that all fixed rate systems are ultimately doomed to fail.

 

How would you suggest to Portugal or Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, increasingly France I'm afraid, that they manage the currency in a better way ? They are denied the release valve of external devaluation which only leaves internal devaluation. The riots and demonstrations across Europe over the past couple of weeks in Italy, France, Greece, and Cyprus seem to suggest that the people have had a bucketfull of internal devaluation, austerity if you like, and they are now stuck in a deflationary spiral. I'm recently back from a trip to Portugal where the local rag for ex-pats informs us that 56% of the population is in receipt of state benefit and youth unemployment is approaching 40%. In other countries I believe the latter figure is even higher.. Things cannot continue like that, it is an impossible situation to sustain. The Chief of Police in fact has just resigned following a demonstration in which some of his own officers joined in a demo which stormed the building which houses the office of the Ministry of Finance.

 

The Euro can only succeed as a single currency if  Europe becomes a single country. However, having said that, it is clear that the political elite across Europe (as it stands at present ) is so determined to see this monetary experiment succeed that they will no doubt try all sorts of convoluted schemes to keep the currency on track. Unfortunately, as I said in a previous post, their experiment is causing havoc to a whole generation of young people, many of whom are having to uproot to the UK to find work. 300 000 French in London now apparently, making it France's seventh largest city. Staggering.

[chipdawg]

So therefore it is the Euro that is the problem. They are stuck within the straitjacket of what is, in effect, a fixed exchange rate system. History teaches us that all fixed rate systems are ultimately doomed to fail.

What I should have said was that it is not, as per your earlier assertion, the bloke in charge of the Euro's fault. I agree with you that it's doomed to fail; a great advantage in the good times, a noose around the neck in the bad

[Red-Robbo]

Well, unlike our esteemed Chancellor he actually has an degree in Economics, not sure about Maths, Physics or Bionics.

 

He'd think that I was a cabbage because I was ON University Challenge.

 

 

PS: We didn't win and no, I wasn't representing "Footlights College".

[bucksred]

The only fact that really counts, is that 40 million people were being ruled by a system that was evil and treated them as sub human.

Anyone who took up arms in that situation ( after exhausting peaceful means) is a hero in mine and billions of other peoples eyes.

 

 

BUT just to play devils advocate, those people who voted for the Nats, and beleive me I aint a fan  of theirs, feared for THEIR futures with all the Communist, equally racist, and zenophobic actions of the ANC, and other more extreme organizations. My grandparents lived in SA from 56 to 91 when they died. No fans of the boere, they feared the alternative. Go on laugh, BUT, remember what happened in the Belgian Congo when the Belgiques bailed out, the MAU Mau in Kenya, and the Algerian civil War..Rhodesians although holding views nowhere as extreme or racist, were worried by precisely the same thing. Leaving the issue of land reform (which EVERYBODY of every colour knew  had to be dealt with), the mere fact you could make a business up from nothing then then lose it to simple politics of envy, disguised as idealogy.....kinda makes your approach different. Uniquely among the ANC (and all other so called "liberation" parties too) Mandiba understood the simple fact that white people in Southern Africa from Kenya, Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana & South Africa never regard themselves as colonists, but Africans. Pity too many ****wits like Hain and his verminous kind never made the same connection. As soon as this points gets through, then things change. Mandiba knew this, which is why the Afrikaaner bigots of the Nats, the AWB and all fellow travellers feared him above all others, and why they really smeared him so badly.

 

Yes he was a legally convicted terrorist (he did after all admit to being one) but he was unique in that he used violence as a tool, not aan idealogy..which is why the stupid Boere should have released him 10 years before they under De Klerk courageously did.

[Mr Mosquito]

Pity too many ****wits like Hain and his verminous kind never made the same connection.

 

Are you refering to the African born middle class whitey Cultural Marxist Peter Hain? Close buddy of Tony Blair? Has Peter Hain - like the rest of the Labour Party leadership - actually done a proper day's work for a shit wage in his entire life?

[Red-Robbo]

Unfairly dragged into court for standing up to an oppressive, bullying regime.

 

It's no wonder supporters worldwide sang a jaunty protest song...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

................................   FREEEEE Lawson Nigella

 

 

 

[Joke courtesy of Private Eye]

[bucksred]

Haven't heard of that one Bucks, when was it ?

It was mid 70's, if I can figure how to get links to it I will.

 

The Air Rhodesia Vickers Viscounts "Hunyani" & "Umniati" were shot down by ZIPRA (Zimbabwe Peoples Liberation Army, the military wing of Joshua Nkomos  ZAPU (Zimbabwe African Peoples Union) using SAM missiles on take off from, Kariba Airport.

The first onewas shot down, and crash landing. Most of the survivors were machine gunned by ZIPRA Terrs who found the plane. Some escaped due to the fact they went to try and find help. The Second one was shot down, with no surivivors.

At the time we launched our cross border raid to get these evil bastards, we got bucketloads of accusations of war crimes blah blah blah, by the rest of the world. However Joshua Nkomo CLAIMED RESPONSIBILITY for both atrocities and faced zero comma zero condemnation for killing mainly school kids on a trip to Lake Kariba, on the first one, and holidaymakers on the 2nd plane. He also knowingly put his terrorist bases including armouries slap in the centre of the camps. Indeed his prisons were right next door to said armoury. On every occasion we warned our neighbours we would respond to attacks, and asked them to ensure compliance with internationally acceptable standards of refugee camps, but without fail it was broken. We also launched at least two major raids on Mugabes ZANLA camps.

And despite what you have been told by the BBC and other left wing media, Rhodersian troops did  not at any time carry out deliberate calculated racially motivated war crimes. I know many of those guys who did these ops (a maximum of 110 ground troops and up to fifteen aircraft/helicopters) and while I have no doubt some people were killed, they would have been in the heat of battle, not as a cold blooded crime. This is why I understand Mandiba's stance, and a lot of the old Rhodie troopies are the same