The BBC

Blades Business Crew

Serious sheffield united hooligans

.....................strike me down..............

Ipswich Total Violence

(OK, I made that up and in fact when we supposedly had a "firm" they decided to call themselves The Spanners, why they did is anyone's guess)

BBC blamed for attacks on Poles

wtf @ that guy

Tories, eh?

Sub-Passantino at best

At 6 feet 8½ inches (204 cm), Kawczynski is believed to be the tallest MP ever to sit in the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

But the average height of doors in Westminster is six feet eight and now he wants ministers to take account of an increasingly tall UK population.

"Being officially a giant myself... you want to raise things which pertain to yourself and people like you," he said.

ISSUES4U

Damn those liberal elites...

Britain is the country of choice for many 'feckless' Poles

'Polish Borat' claims groping women is normal in Eastern Europe

IMMIGRANTS TO BLAME FOR SURGE IN CRIME SAYS POLICE CHIEF

Also I'm sure he said all this a couple of months ago somewhere else. Why has it come up again now?

Oh, yes, in the Independent.

He'll be blaming the BBC for attacks on giants next

I'd guess he has a point if he's talking about Tory voters mouthing off on the mid-morning phone-ins on local stations like BBC Radio Shropshire etc.

Conservative Friends of Poland

Like Neville Chamberlain, he means?

Pretty sure it's mostly Channel 4 running the anti-Polish stuff. But it is tricky spotting the difference between Panorama and the Völkischer Beobachter most weeks.

EXCLUSIVE: Max Mosley confirmed as new Panorama presenter.

A step too far, this is causing as much kerfuffle as when the moved women's hour.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/06/change_to_international_pages.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/jul/14/ben-bradshaw-bbc-management

the bbc does seem amazingly inept at covering its arse. it is kind of a symptom of a wider elite-class self-aggrandizement that the likes of byford and thompson think they deserve mad money, but it's still going to come back to bite them.

beeb has kind of an impossible job in dealing with its critics, since they simultaneously claim the licence fee isn't justified because the bbc isn't populist enough and that it isn't justified because it doesn't provide enough specialised content that the commercial sector won't touch. i can't see that sharing the licence fee does anything to help except spreading it thinner.

agree that bbc bosses don't help the cause though.

is it really going to be dismantled?
― D Aziz (esquire1983), Wednesday, 18 February 2004 00:03 (5 years ago)

Possibly, if - when - the Tories get in.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/19/wed-abolish-bbc-trust-hunt

Has to be a troll:

Pay per view BBC news would allow the lefties to view their own biased news reports while the rest of us could choose ITV news for more impartial reporting.

this business about "damaging commercial competitors" really pisses me off. we should be celebrating the fact that the BBC creates quality products and services for "free", not requiring it to dumb down its offerings so that something inferior and expensive can maintain market share.

Whenever that comment is made, it is usually voiced by someone with vested interests eg. Murdoch. In America, Murdoch goes after Obama but here he goes after impartial news media. This should be a good compass for anyone wishing to locate the centre of power in any given country. Who does Murdoch go after in, say, China?

yeah, you do wonder whether this is the quid for the quo of The Sun's support.

tories don't need any outside encouragement to go after the bbc, tbh.

So is the Mail anti-Beeb purely because of DMGT's regional newspapers? Or is there something else, aside from Jonathan Ross and the telly tax?

it's ideological - the bbc is full of lefties.

not only that, the whole concept of the BBC is lefty.

and yet they've employed Jeremy Clarkson, Carol Thatcher, Michael Burke, Patrick Moore (latter two mentioned just due to sexist comments made in past)...

Patrick Moore is very right-wing on immigration too, unfortunately.

and yet they've employed Jeremy Clarkson, Carol Thatcher, Michael Burke, Patrick Moore (latter two mentioned just due to sexist comments made in past)...

... and Andrew Neil and Michael Portillo and Nick Robinson and Quentin Letts ad nauseum

Michael Buerk is a Conservative?

Only when it comes to the BBC employing women, I think... women who get jobs he wants, that is

sexist, conservative, racist - all the same

Regardless of how many sexist conservative racist rightwingers are employed there, the very existence of the BBC as a huge part of the media landscape is a slap in the face to Tory free market ideals, so obviously they want to pare it back. I don't think it's all about Murdoch.

In my own experience, sexism is not limited to conservative men!

LOL, far from it!

Wondering how many Tories are anti-Beeb (lol anti-Auntie, don't mind me) cz free market ideals, nanny state trying to make us pay for socialised tv, drag out ancient acronym about the commies etc, and how many are in favour of preserving it as a Great British institution from the days when Great Britain etc etc, y'know, a relatively staid old thing that doesn't put quite as many flashing neon colours and topless ladies on as the other channels

I mean, the other group does exist, right? Or is this the sector of small-c conservatives who wouldn't admit to being such and vote Lib Dem? (PS this is not really intended derogatively as it describes much of my family and quite possibly me)

Hardly any of the latter and none who matter <--------- satirical poetry

and even they would be appeased by one radio station playing Test Match Special, the shipping forecast and The Archers

the opposition from Murdoch, the Mail etc is predicated purely on the BBC grabbing a fairly hefty slice of online eyeballs and TV ratings that might otherwise be going to their properties - however Murdoch's greatest fear is that the BBC carries advertising.. because then the advertisers would spread their (finite amount of) money over to the BBC innit

however Murdoch's greatest fear is that the BBC carries advertising..

also many BBC supporters greatest fear surely

i can't believe i said "carries" instead of using the subjunctive. GAH

Fun fact: the BBC was nationalised under a Tory government.

yeah, THAT'll stop their commie styles in their TRACKS! oh wait (a long time)

Some guy on the weather forecast talking about a lull in the rain definitely used the phrase "a bit of rest-bite" today. Beginning of the end if you ask me.

Given the accuracy of the Met Office, that forecast might prove to be something of a damp squid.

now we have a weatherman wearing jeans. It's a speedy apocalypse.

Don't be such a milk toast.

DAMMING REPORT
was behind the newsreader on the lead item a few weeks back. ten o'clock news.

I read something about Prime Gordon Brown on their website a few minutes ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8273467.stm

The person in the video is not Clarie Middleton. I don't know who it is! (Not to mention that the new chief executive's name is "Clarie", not "Claire"...)

goddamn liberal shilly-shalliers

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/dec/16/bbc-africa-have-your-say

I suggest all gays are put on a remote island somewhere and left for a generation - after which, theoretically there should be none left!

(is it legit to do a kind of quasi-homophobic zing here? along the lines of DIDN'T THEY TRY THAT WITH AUSTRALIA? OH!)

More of an Australophobic zinger there

patosceptic

Ban all Ugandan discussions, that'll solve the problem.

lol

Heard they were making a film about this - Last Queen Of Scotland.

Actually that's not funny.

you've just qualified for your own BBC3 series tho

Too subtle

it was delivered by seinfeld in a guest role

No, it was just a horrible joke to make, apologies.

i'm am literally sitting here typing in protest & outrage. i have half a mind to make a cup of tea and drink it.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51ER4DVRPPL._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Frankie Boyle will probably steal it anyway

steve punt it's ironic because his name rhymes with sleeve

"four original episodes" plus several hours of shouting

and that's just people who've been bought it

Several hours of sitting in a corner, arms round your knees, rocking back and forth, muttering, "Why why? Why me?"

Wonder how much they like them in Uganda?

Now here's a funny song
To help you all along
It's really a bit corny
But at least it makes me money

I play this 'ere guitar
On Radio 4 ha ha ha!
The Now Show is just cack
it's a schoolboy shouting match

dum d-d-dum dum... dum dum! ba-dum pish!

LOL

not even gonna read it, just LOL repeatedly

is this about the axing of last of the summer wine?

go to www.bbc.co.uk and giggle like a giggly one

uh what was happening on the BBC homepage an hour ago?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-10520487

ah. up to the minute as usual.

Yeah, any day now they're going to stop saying "haitch tea tea pee colon forward slash forward slash" before they tell someone a website address.

right, am going into broadcasting house.

Er, why?

Back in one day, in love with the liberal cunts all over again...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/17/mark-thompson-bbc-fox-news

Mark Thompson: I enjoy crack rock and trolling

"Kelvin MacKenzie said he should be able to host a debate about immigration or Britain pulling out of Europe without having to present a countervailing point of view."

Yeah I bet.

lol in what sense do you have a debate without a countervailing point of view yeah i know it's MacKenzie ignore him or shoot him in the balls

Debate:

"I say deport the lot of them" "No, no, we must shoot them all"

"I say your three cent titanium tax goes too far."
"And I say your three cent titanium tax doesn't go too far enough."

like, who/what in the hell is mark thompson fucking in the photographs with which murdoch is clearly blackmailing him?

got no problem with dropping the pretence of impartiality in news broadcasting btw, it's just that Thompson and everybody involved in News International and their families and friends are cunts

isn't there already a channel like fox news in the UK, ie sky news? only know it from kay burley bullshiteness, tho, never really watched it, and heard its coverage of the protests/riots was more Fair And Balanced than the beeb's.

and that fat ugly dude who blew his stack at alastair campbell during the general election.

that was Gordon Brown iirc

i believe GB blew his load, not his stack

thompson didn't actually say "like fox news" right?

this 'justice' season is bobbins really isn't it

Trailer certainly was, hence not watching it.

screening undergrad seminars is really scraping the barrel

All BBC websites are down just now, is this a sign of something truly terrifying?

iPlayer 2 launch

its been down for ages. I asked a bbc employee
A Question for Ronan?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/03/technical_problems_3.html

oh no, where will i get my news about america now

i'm on the today programme at 0810 on this morning talking about ireland, in a non professional capacity. fyilxorz.

oh no, where will i get my news about america now

http://www.tmz.com/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9451000/9451025.stm

i'm on this 2 mins in

You're an official "young person"!

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Person

I thought I recognized your voice at the time but wasn't certain until John Humphries thanked you at the end.

one week out of the bbc and i can be a contributor...was quite cool meeting john humphries.

my friend M4rk was on the Today programme this morning as well! clearly it is the official Young People day today.

Well done Young Ronan! :-)

"you've been called a 'man of oats'.. however you are also called 'ronan'. which is it?"

ronan!

humph humph humphries

http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2011/06_june/13/television.shtml

first they came for pebble mill...

v badly cut pic in this story...http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/14509068

you're right, they should have cropped out his face

http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/dqf/ataglance.shtml

Changes to the BBC's TV channels:

Protecting BBC One and Two in peak time, albeit with small reductions in entertainment programming and acquisitions;
Making BBC One the channel for all new general daytime programmes;
Changing BBC Two's daytime schedule to feature international news and current affairs programmes at lunchtime. Other parts of the daytime schedule would be repeats of mainly factual programmes, including science, history, natural history and arts, as well as live sport;
Re-focusing BBC Three and BBC Four to play supporting roles to the two bigger channels; and
Replacing the HD channel with an HD version of BBC Two to broadcast alongside the existing BBC One HD channel.

Changes to the BBC's radio stations:

Protecting Radio 4 by keeping its underlying budget stable, excluding the impact of productivity savings;
Greater sharing of news bulletins between Radio 2 and 6 Music, Radio 1 and 1Xtra, and Radio 3 and 4;
Reducing the amount of original drama, live music and specially recorded concerts at lunchtime on Radio 3, and reviewing the BBC's orchestras and singers;
Reinvestment in the Proms to maintain quality;
Focusing Radio 5 Live on core output of news and sport;
A new more focused Asian Network with a 34 per cent reduction in its content spend; and
Making savings in radio distribution costs through long term changes to Medium Wave and Long Wave.

Changes to programming and services in the nations and regions:

For TV, protecting underlying investment in news programming; producing fewer non-news programmes and rebroadcasting more of them to UK audiences; and increasing investment in network programming produced across Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales;
For nations radio, reducing investment in non-news programming and focusing on peak-time; and
For English local radio, focusing spend on peak-time programmes, but with increased sharing across regions in off-peak slots.

Reducing the amount of original drama, live music and specially recorded concerts at lunchtime on Radio 3, and reviewing the BBC's orchestras and singers

a small price to pay to keep Radio Britpop running

For English local radio, focusing spend on peak-time programmes, but with increased sharing across regions in off-peak slots.

So... keeping "Newsdrive" type shows with the rest beamed in from London. Brilliant.

Can't wait to hear BBC Radio Sussex, live from Salford.

Re-focusing BBC Three and BBC Four to play supporting roles to the two bigger channels

What does this mean? Repeats, right?

or expanded versions of shows broadcast on the main 2, yeah

Spin-offs like Doctor Who Confidential, right?

Oh.

Delivering Quality First: an hour of BBC2 time on Sunday wasted asking whether it's going to snow in Britain this winter. The answer was: at some point in winter it is very likely to snow somewhere in Britain.

Delivering Shovels First morelike.

Even worse, I watched it

Does it feature Positive Weather Solutions?

This topical programme taps into the nation's obsession with the weather and asks whether we are heading for another 'snowmageddon' as experienced in the previous two years.

Can forecasters give us warning this time around? How does the 'olde' weather lore compare with the supercomputers? And what are we doing across Britain to prepare ourselves as we head into winter?

'Will It Snow?' predicts what another extreme cold snap would spell for Britain's economy as it puts the science of weather forecasting to the test and asks the experts what we are in store for between now and spring.

heading for another 'snowmageddon' as experienced in the previous two years.

It used to snow more than that every bloody winter. #kickaballinthestreet

what are we doing across Britain to prepare ourselves as we head into winter?

Probably 'sod all' as usual.

I have booked my market stall on the frozen Thames. When I was young there were two or three Frost Fairs even in summer, when the golden corn stood tall and you walk around naked till November, plucking ripe apples from the hedgerows. The partridges flew into your mouth feathered and cooked. It were a grand ride down, mind.

there are apples still on the tree i can see from the office window. nb i am fully clothed.

This is just comically piss-poor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-16692342

"News" item on phones going off during concert performances on BBC Breakfast was followed by a Q & A with 2 (2!) people about this. What's there to say, other than "it's annoying"?

Breakfast is hilariously beige tbf

"coming up later, we have a performance from the newly reformed Turin Brakes live in the studio"

government conspiracy to hurry you out of the house for work

Get the benefit scroungers out down the job centre to look for jobs that don't exist

I know this is Media Theory 101, but the way it sort of flattens things out infuriates me, mounting tension with Iran being made to seem equivalent with some stupid nonsense they all grin and simper over. STOP GRINNING!!!

pretty sure the benefit scroungers are watching Jeremy Kyle on the other side

This is just comically piss-poor

ffs what a bunch of pretentious wankers

it was tl;dw - can u give us a precis?

It was like the Raygun interview, except with graphic designers.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Call it a return to the 19th century guild model of the arts and craft movement - or a kind of Andy Warhol's Factory. Many artists and musicians of the Chicago scene swing by all day and night.

Next, a charming young French woman inherits a large estate and decides to leave Paris to try and make it as a farmer, but get this: she's always wearing cool clothes!

Actually Next:

Online teen editor's secrets to success Watch
Tavi Gevinson talks to the BBC about being a blogger, an editor-in-chief at RookieMag.com and a young girl.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9356176/BBC-Rogue-Traders-Dan-Penteado-pleads-guilty-to-fraud-allegations.html

schadenfreuding so hard at this

dear BBC, why the fuck do i need to hear half hour updates on the pistorius case every morning?

like i know it's easier to put a correspondent in pretoria than in damascus but does anyone outside south africa really give a shit???

this is Spellbinding Court Drama, mordy.

i did learn that south africa doesn't have a jury system

An olympic icon shot his model girlfriend in the 24 hr news era you should expect to be hearing about this

Pistorius is much better known in Britain than, say, OJ Simpson was.

haha yes thats true , and that trial was all over the 24 hour media too.

"now we will interrupt this very interesting report about Japanese desperate attempts to rejuvenate their economy through massive infrastructure spending to take you back to the bail hearing we already wasted most of your morning drive covering"

fuck oscar pistorius, fuck his bail hearing and fuck bbc for being totally worthless

It's a Good Story. That's all the BBC is interested in, as well as most of the rest of humanity. Japanese economy? Complex issue, no easy solution, therefore = boring/Not A Good Story.

i understand that the news will never be as "pure" or whatever that i want it to be but i want to hear some actual news during my 30 minutes in the car, not 25 minutes of speculating over whether he'll get bail (surprise! he did!) and 5 minutes of traffic.

There are a lot of implications in the Pistorius case - about the continued corruption of SA's police forces, about the facade of The Olympic Spirit, about violence against women, and about gun control, among other things - so it's not just True EastEnders. Nonetheless that doesn't bother the media - all they want is something that will hook readers. listeners and viewers.

As for BBC News; chronic over-investment, not enough actual "news" to fill dead air time, hence all the bulletins with survey findings, etc.

it's the hot morning commute news slot! you cannot convince me that there are literally no other stories in the world worth covering this week.

It's just that the management are convinced. Why, listeners might get bored and go watch Sky News!

tbh i'm surprised there's not a 'man walks from shop to car' incident in america that the bbc could be obsessed with

or maybe that's just the web site

it's over

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01cgwgb

the bbc is over. it can fuck off now. it can get to fuck.

it's over, everyone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyxYdj9dGcI

the bbc has always tended towards the ideologically supine, vaguely bien pensant most of the time but complaisant whenever anything serious is happening, like the cardiff school of journalism study which showed it gave less coverage to sceptical nongivernmental voices than any other broadcaster during the iraq war

it's nosedived into unexamined banality and idiocy-pandering from top to fucking bottom

for me it's a source of national shame

List of sources of national shame (UK edition)

tbf describing anything as a 'national shame' is being just as bad as those semiologically infantile morons

they're just cunts. no shame here. what even is a 'nation' except their own self-affirmed demographic

makes u think

how are benefits claimants not "taxpayers"? what the living fuck????

it's completely within the Beeb's public service remit to address the concern of morons. repeatedly. for several hours a day.

BBC are cockroaches, obv, but also fuck the 'claimant' (assuming they're actually real) for collaborating with this shit. Fucking tool.

otm

Two of the hard-working taxpayers (HWTs) are so effortlessly patronising, they only heighten one’s sympathy for the struggling claimants. Before meeting an unemployed single mother, one HWT says she won’t be happy if her victim spends money on cigarettes and alcohol: cut to the woman smoking a fag while some beer cans rest in a nearby bin bag.

http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/tv-preview-nick-and-margaret-we-all-pay-your-benefits-1-2992234

i'm looking forward to Nick and Margaret: We All Subsidize Your Underpaid Employees

im currently petitioning to morally adopt a family of four in rotheram who will be required to prove that every morsel of gruel purchased with the excise tax extorted from my burgundy is used in an efficient and equitable fashion

xxp and the very first comment on that article is from some odious Daily Mail reading fuckhead

It's almost as if the government was deliberately setting the unemployed and those on low incomes against each other as a way of distracting attention away from Tory right wing cuntishness and greed driven capitalism OH WAIT

Claimant with brand-name trainers and Apple hardware revealed to be recent university graduate who bought all these things while working. Programme seems to be suggesting that the second you apply for JSA, you should hand back all these things to some central Office of Hairshirts so as not to annoy or confuse some numpty in George for ASDA.

maybe we actually have to watch it first?

i don't need to experience a kick in the balls to know it will make me feel sick

maybe we actually have to watch it first?

lol yeah maybe we've got it all wrong u guys

More info:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/proginfo/2013/29/nick-and-margaret-we-pay-your-benefits.html

Will the taxpayers feel that benefits are too high or not enough?

Who cares?

And will the claimants decide that hard work is good for them or will the sacrifice be too much?

Yeah, all claimants must be unemployed by choice.

and get a taste of the reality of working life.

And no claimant has ever worked before.

With the battle lines drawn between claimants and taxpayers

OH WORD?

And anyone who self-describes as a 'hard working taxpayer' should be drowned in a peat bog imo

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/corporate/images/width/live/p0/1b/z9/p01bz98p.jpg/608

Even their faces seem hateful / contemptuous.

can imagine the photographer saying 'That's fine, but could you look a little bit more like pompous sneering cunts? cheers'

Outraged that those two snivelling shitbags are getting a slice of my licence fee tbh.

i like them normally tbh it's just once you sign up for hate propaganda like this you're out of my good books forever :(

this othering of benefits claimants is unbelievable btw, the language the show uses is making "people who claim benefits" a separate social class, ignoring the number on working family tax credit or any of the other state benefits that don't go to the unemployed.

just hope pensioners, preschool children and people receiving hospital treatment realize they'll be next.

^^^brb reposting this to 'trenchant social commentary'

emphatically otm, of course :)

i just keep reaching a point where i want the whole welfare state dismantled just so i don't have to listen to idiots and libertarians whining any more

perhaps out of the ashes of total social catastrophe will come a new dawn, led by the people for each other

point at the ashes of civilization in 10 years time as gated communities with private militias fight off the rampaging feral hordes and say "YEAH IS THAT BETTER YOU LIKE THAT HUH????"

perhaps will come riots, poverty and ruin

lol @ our interleaving

perhaps out of the ashes of total social catastrophe will come a new dawn, led by the people for each other

Yeah, because that always works...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/55/Hitler_1914_1918.jpg/170px-Hitler_1914_1918.jpg

Hey, he's a little guy who had a dream. Keep on reaching for that rainbow.

Pity Hitler didn't reach for this kind of rainbow...
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies.jpg/240px-Rainbow_flag_and_blue_skies.jpg

perhaps, broadly, this isn't a crisis. just the usual showboating language designed to score points in the navel-gazing world of parliamentary politics. a few votes won and lost and a few soundbites, the welfare state never to be dismantled but chipped away at here and there, gradually replaced with quasi-private institutions that do the job roughly as efficiently as the state. the public bitching and whining and mean-spiritedness just the default attitude for a section of the public, and a bunch of radio/tv/internet outlets designed to cater to that attitude in the name of feeling communal and being entertained. the marginalized never pushed far out enough to feel truly resentful or recognize an injustice. no end times. a bunch of us angsty liberals fretting about how beastly people can be then turning the TV off and slapping ourselves on the back.

^ <high five>

it feels worse though, though, though that may be a question of perception. like thatcher's spawn coming of age (or major's spawn, or even blair's).

The quasi-private institutions are never as effective as the public sector, and furthermore bounce all FoI requests because they're 'commercially sensitive'. I want accountability from the government of the day and from corporations much more than I want it from any individual victim of socio-economic conditions. Also, if a person's private insurance policy for whatever reason required some kind of forced labour component to collect, consumer rights programmes run by the BBC would be down their throats in an instant.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nick-hewer-margaret-mountford-investigate-2043331#ixzz2YgeLtLln

maybe this show isn't as terrible as it seems?

although maybe not

Nick also takes a hard line with one father called Chris, suggesting he needs to buck up his ideas and make a few more sacrifices.

“One chap wouldn’t work away during the week and return at weekends because, being a modern father, he said, ‘I want to see my children’.

"Fathers are busy changing nappies now, which is something I never did. In my day, quite a lot of people worked away.

"I did it. I worked in London and the family were in the country.”

Really, if the BBC adore the free market so much they should arrange to be privatised, and live by its rules.

Coming soon on BBC1: Concentration Campwatch.

that wouldnt surprise me at all marcello

the only difference between the bbc and the khmer rouge is that the latter were at least nominally committed so some idea of solidarity -- the bbc are just rabid neoliberal wolves

ahahaha how am I the one who got trenchant social commentaried

gonna do the honours myself

...for fear of being struck by another's trenchant social commentary

snobes ✓

And so?

About as grotesque as you might expect. Old rich people who've never needed to claim touring the system, 'hardworking taxpayers' eg. single people on £16k a year judging people with children. Obviously, the made-redundant dad applying for 10 jobs a day is seen more favourably than the heavy-set woman with the same amount of kids and pets (apparently you shouldn't have pets or a telly if you're not working). Worst bit: dimwit rail-thin whinging woman who couldn't stop taking inventory of chubby woman's possessions and pets as if it proved anything, standing beside the chubby woman in the supermarket insisting she didn't buy a whole chicken because 'you should get the fillets' and who could not be persuaded to shut the fuck up about it. Chubby woman finally told the crew to stop filming; rail-thin woman got all smirky when her charge bought her a drink in the pub she visits one night a week - all over her skull of a face, that weird, greedy, snide expression you see in workplace/schoolyard bullies. I'd have bought a pint just so I could've chucked it over her. She actually asked the chubby mum if she could cut back her own food budget because her kids were getting free lunches at school and thus the undeserving bastards were getting an outrageous TWO hot meals a day. Petty bitch.

Guy on incapacity benefit who'd been through a 20-year wringer of unemployment, intermittent homelessness, relationship breakdown etc was managing to keep his two little girls on an even keel, described himself as a 'homemaker'. Twice, the mothers of his children abandoned them to him, giving him sole or main custody. He put every ounce of energy he had into running his home, but had trouble walking more than a hundred metres without having to rest. In between school runs he spent most of his time bargain-hunting for decent food (and was the best shopper/from-scratch cook of the claimants). He'd have about £6800 a year from his IB and child benefit to feed, clothe and keep the heat on for a family of three; the rest of his £15k/year benefit bill went straight to a landlord. It's disgusting.

Heads up: a taxpayer on £25k/year is only contributing about £60 of their tax bill towards other people's JSA, so these shitty little martinets who think they can shout the odds because they're hardworking serfs on £16k/year can basically STFU. Since they're paying tax on only £7k of that, JSA claimants are really only into them for about £40/year. Perspective, much?

i wish your review could get to a wider audience than just us, suzy - much appreciated

yep

Yes, it's a great review. I can't really blame people on low incomes for being angry that their quality of life is no better than standard the state regards as the bare minimum for survival. That anger needs to be directed in the right place though. The divide and rule approach to the less-well-off is horribly effective.

One thing I had hoped people would have learnt from the last recession was the fact that anyone can become unemployed. It has nothing to do with how hard you worked at your last job. I've been unemployed and I've been on 13 week schemes in rooms full of people from all kinds of backgrounds and experiences, people who thought they'd never be made unemployed, but they were. I would have thought that every adult in this country in the last ten years would either have been unemployed themselves at some time, or known someone who was, and consequently known that unemployed people are not lazy or workshy, and that the image of the 'benefit cheat' is by and large a myth. But it's a lesson that seems to be getting ignored in some kind of rush to be a judgemental right wing armchair shitbag.
And for the record, I've never met a single person who fits the media stereotype of the 'dole scrounger'. Everyone I've met who's been unemployed has wanted to work, wanted to get a job, wanted to get off JSA.

Idea for a follow-up programme: license fee payers question Mountford and Hewer about how much they were paid to appear on that 'documentary' and what they've spent the money on.

Can't add to or improve what Suzy said above. Snoball also OTM. Next on BBC1: two overpaid presenters try to justify why they should be paid public money for wagging their entitled fingers at people who are paid public money.

I would suspect that the BBC paid St**rt H*ll more money in six months than the single dad on incapacity benefit has received in a decade. Are we going to see a programme explaining the justification for that? (answer: nope)

idk ye all seem to be getting great value out of it tbh

Watching the BBC is SKIVING!

suzy that review definitely needs to be put up somewhere!

darragh your non sequitur arguments are so fucking basic, as are your ~arch~ ripostes

Can I just point out that this meretricious piece of shit has been running since 2009

idk ye all seem to be getting great value out of it tbh

^ WOUNDING ^

The food bank worker who told Nick and Margaret that people were begging for bog roll scared the shit out of them, BTW.

That programme needed an informed smartarse who's been on benefits to explain stuff like the above to their allocated hardwhinging ignoramus. I'd volunteer, but if the price of sanity is no direct contact with the Chicken Fillet Ladies of this world, I'll pay it. £40 is the cost of a cheap night out, or taking you and two kids to the cinema. Apparently, despite constant shaming propaganda, there is a stubborn 27 per cent of British people who believe that benefits should be higher and there's probably a correlation between those people and the percentage of people who feel insulted at the use of terms like 'welfare'. I'm sure working people who received child benefit at the same rate as their unemployed neighbours don't figure that in to their assessment of themselves as somehow superior to that neighbour.

There was absolutely fuck-all on telly last night, but before that we were treated to the sight of three nice chefs who get it intervening to help working poor and disabled people manage their food budgets, which were often £2/day per head after all the other bills went out. It was a much more compassionate programme. The chefs just got on with it and remonstrated with the mum who was giving her kid all the food while filling the gap with 20 cups of three-sugar tea and one meal a day, but instead of endless whinging they sent the lady to a dietician to scare her out of slowly killing herself and helped her to recalibrate her shop so mother and daughter were both eating well.

I can relate: I've been ill enough to be allocated a council flat and when I was getting IB of about £350/month plus a small declared retainer from ESM, I could make it work because I was single with low outgoings, good at both bureaucracy and cooking - I grew up with a single mum who is a ruthless quality food shopper - my 'job' was to get better and I did it well. Not for one second did I ever think I'd be the one having to do this, but I've never begrudged a claimant for any reason; being an immigrant I've of course paid NI and tax from the second I arrived here 22 years ago. I'm back at work developing a long-term project on spec but only doing a feature or teaching work each month so I can focus most on this one important thing. So I'm having to budget on food more than usual, often on less than I got on IB, but I'd probably tear my hair out if I was for real spending less than £20/week to feed myself if it didn't start falling out as a result of malnutrition, anyway.

Ah yes, all those nappy valley RBKC Giraffe World Cafe/Brampton's-subsidising ladies of leisure who whinged about child benefit being cut because it was their "pocket money." No thunderstorms about waste of taxpayers' money there.

Also, if you are still dependent on "pocket money" in the 21st century, the Revolution still has a long way to go.

i don't think that's what suzy meant

i was against the means-testing of child benefit because once something stops being a universal benefit it becomes easier to stigmatize, whittle away and then get rid of altogether

I didn't say that it was.

No, I'm in agreement - give child benefit to those who need it to feed and clothe their children. What is income tax if not means-tested?

But the cost of means testing usually ends up being more than the 'saving' of paying those that 'don't need it'.

Oh, but it's the principle isn't it?

Step one: "I don't claim this benefit"
Step two: "Therefore, I can look down on those that do"
Step tre: "It really should not be as much as that!"

and so on...

I'm against means-testing for the same reason as Tracer and Mark G, who is OTM about the false economy aspect.

But the cost of means testing usually ends up being more than the 'saving' of paying those that 'don't need it'.

Usually down to the cost of having to pay for all those civil servants to do little more than run personal details through a computer rather than someone who can just look at a payslip/bank book and say yes or no. As used to happen.

I don't see what's socialist about giving public money to people who don't need it.

An egalitarian baseline followed by 'according to need'? No, you've lost me ;-).

Why should money that ought to be directed towards families in genuine need be frittered away in the boutiques of Sloane Street? It's as grotesque a waste of public funds as the BBC.

It's like arguing that everyone should only pay 10% income tax because if you ask some people to pay more it will stigmatise tax and, why, at such a low rate they might as well whittle it down and do away with it altogether.

so a benefit is the same as a tax? not heard that one before, marcello.

At what point do you stop defining people as "genuinely in need"? At the moment it's £50,000. Could the money going to people earning £40,000 not be better spent on the poorest? How about people earning £30,000? Surely those earning nothing need the money more? Repeat until it's like legal aid and virtually abolished. The "savings" are never passed on to those in need, either way.

No. But they should be, in the same way as there should be peace on Earth and mutual understanding.

Because then you go back into "what about the middle classes then?" and before long you've argued yourself into being a Tory.

But it's the Tories that seem keen on having this means-tested..

Does that alone make it wrong to do so?

Do you not think they might have an ulterior motive for wanting to stop people being given things as a basic right of citizenship?

Would you support wealthier people being barred from claiming unemployment benefits if they have savings, or being made to pay for NHS treatment?

It sounds to me like you're very keen on supporting wealthier people.

It's a couple of quid a week from each taxpayer that isn't getting spent on Trident. All of that money goes straight back into the economy, regardless of whether it's spent in Sloane Street or Green Street. Just as I'd never dream of telling an unemployed person how to spend their benefits, I'd never tell a middle-class mum how to spend hers.

But if it were child benefit, it wouldn't be "her" money. It would be the Government's money. If funds are set aside for a specific purpose and the recipients are using it for another purpose then that is, technically speaking, fraud.

w/e about wealthier people getting child benefit. Socialism is a bit more than just being all boo to rich people.

Again you seem to be eager to defend rich people.

It sounds to me like you're very keen on supporting wealthier people.

i don't doubt this, but i also think it probably doesn't sound/read like this to anyone else reading this thread

If you support redistribution and inequalities of income being reduced as much as is practical, there isn't a contradiction with universal benefits.

You cannot have a "universal benefit" because not everybody is equal.

If you assume that they are, then there is no reasonw why we could not simply say, to hell with it, let's abolish income tax altogether, keep (and spend) everything you earn, and we'll all get on splendidly, like in the Lebanon.

sp: "reason"

You cannot have a "universal benefit" because not everybody is equal.

Why not?

If you assume that they are

Why would I do that? That would be demented.

tbh if doing away with universal child benefit was the worst thing this government did things would be pretty sweet tho

that argument makes absolutely no sense, Marcello.

The fundamental point isn't about supporting "rich people" it's about making it more difficult to erode the rights of everyone else, but that should be pretty obvious.

xp
maybe you would next like to suggest that hospital visits be means-tested "because not everybody is equal"

marcello is this like when you said the royal mail should be privatised because a package of yours took too long to arrive?

The other thing about Child Benefit was to promote actually having kids, which is why my parents didn't get any until they had their 2nd child.

also it's money that (in most cases) goes directly to the mother, not to the household, which can be incredibly important.

Well yes, because then the affluent mother can spend it on herself.

Otherwise you have to say that you're on the side of the affluent neoliberal middle classes and it's all right for public money to go towards subsidising toys and luxuries rather than spending it where it is needed (as in other areas of modern life).

oh my days, god save us from the UNDESERVING MOTHERS who spend public money on TOYS

it's nice that you would rather refuse public money to women because you suspect them of immoral spending habits - they are, after all, so frivolous and awful - than consider that women in ostensibly affluent households can often be completely cut off from control over the finances they need to support themselves and their children.

i'm sure you would also like the fuel allowance to not be a universal benefit, because an old person in a house that is expensive on paper should just sell up and go into a home.

If it's subtext you're looking for, I can help you.

What would you say is your favourite book?

I mean, public money goes towards subsidising toys and luxuries pretty much all of the time? Why are you so eager to jump on it when it's, specifically, women?

What would you say is your favourite book?

tell me about your fav book marcello

I don't actually need an answer to that question; I have, after all, known you on ilx for ten years

marcello, just make up a book and attribute it to me so you can get to the terribly ~damning~ riposte you've thought up.

Do you know the reason why you didn't just tell me what your favourite book was?

If the affluent mother is married to a controlling bastard...

My Favourite book was "The Bridge" by Ian Banks.

I thangyew.

oops, missed an important i in the name there.

Yep, that's a good one.

Suzy xp: the affluent mother should throw the controlling bastard out of the house but as with Lawson/Saatchi it's still happening the other way, much too often.

Back to Steve Voice again..

ugh awful man. What is it with rich UK or UK-based guys who go around like medieval feudal lieges, expecting everyone else (including wife/partner and children) to be serfs?

My favourite book is Animal Farm, the animals on the farm have a revolution and drive out the farmer and the other humans, but then the pigs who are the most intelligent become like the humans and the other animals even worse off than before makes u think

xpost was tempted to say it wsa the drugs, but..

If you read Chas Saatchi's Standard column (which I note he continues to write and get published) before he moved on (or was moved on) to talking about weird photomontages, he was obsessing about crack, heroin and the Dignitas Clinic, so much so I'm surprised he doesn't have a loyalty card.

lex, lex, lex

i don't want have to ask the mods to intervene in order to prevent your relentless ad-hom attacks. i'll ask you nicely to stop.

ps i have not been arguing itt, one doesnt argue with a group tantrum tbh

darragh your non sequitur arguments are so fucking basic, as are your ~arch~ ripostes

― lex pretend, Friday, 12 July 2013 10:39 (2 days ago)

this isnt ad hominem

i watched this programme

what's gonna happen to dr who?

ah it's the snide non-engagement across a couple of threads nakh, it's pure bullying, it's right back to the bad old days if we don't nip it in the bud imo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2omb_4O5DkQ

one doesnt argue with a group tantrum tbh

^ WOUNDING ^

winding

whodini

csm missed a trick not answering "taipei" imo

i actually agreed with marcello until i read him trying to make a case for it.

I do get the 'point', but the alternative is...

It's "Child Allowance" not "Child Benefit"

anyways...

ah man, old ILX is BACK :D

Mark's right: henceforth will refer to the payments by their correct name; using 'child benefit' just internalises the RW/Tory rhetoric/framing. But I will be caning the fuck out of 'bedroom tax'.

oh yeah go4it

8.5 million of us now rent our homes - as fewer of us can afford to buy. This generation has been called generation rent.

In this film we meet the new army of private landlords who are riding this rental boom, who own one in every five properties.

Some landlords like Jim Haliburton AKA 'The HMO Daddy' have found there is serious money to be made. His property empire stretches across the West Midlands and he houses around 800 tenants. His property portfolio is worth £26 million.

The actor, who made his name in US crime drama The Wire, will present two hour-long shows with the working title Idris Elba: King Of Speed.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop will present a three-part look at the British obsession with history and Fern Britton will challenge nine pairs of gardeners to grow their own fruit and veg on an Oxfordshire allotment before their work is judged in a country show-style competition.

There will also be a three-part series about cats and historian Andrew Roberts will examine the life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

No motd2 tonight wtf

Bank holiday, biggest game of the weekend being played tomorrow.

a three-part series about cats

Can't believe the Beeb is denying us details of who will present this. Hoping for Paul F Tompkins as Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber.

The actor, who made his name in US crime drama The Wire, will present two hour-long shows with the working title Idris Elba: King Of Speed.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop will present a three-part look at the British obsession with history and Fern Britton will challenge nine pairs of gardeners to grow their own fruit and veg on an Oxfordshire allotment before their work is judged in a country show-style competition.

There will also be a three-part series about cats and historian Andrew Roberts will examine the life of Napoleon Bonaparte.

― There are a lot of subjective opinions (Nilmar Honorato da Silva), Sunday, 25 August 2013 21:03 (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

the bbc is over

These series would be infinitely more interesting if they just shuffled the presenters around.

Private Eye editor Ian Hislop will present a three-part look at the British obsession with history and Fern Britton

irl giggles ongoing

Cats will examine the life of Napoleon Bonapsrte

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24818769

the last line:

Sweetie will not be used again. She has done her job - showing the predators that they can easily become prey.

an opinion piece as the lead on the news website? or is it an opinion piece?

that is just creepy

accidentally saw part of a documentary about Myra Hindley the other night and there was a clip of the BBC's Michael Buerk starting the report of her death with "Probably the most hated woman in Britain" and i thought really? on the BBC??

Buerk's a bugger for that sort of guff, ever heard the moral maze?

occasionally, but this looked like it was from the ten o'clock news ffs

Britain on the Fiddle.
1/3. New series. The world of benefits cheats, who effectively steal millions of pounds in taxpayers' money every year. Reporter Richard Bilton goes on the frontline with investigators chasing a woman who won £95,000 on a game show but carried on claiming her `allowance'.

There seems to be a strategy in the BBC now to attempt to appease/appeal to the Tory/Daily Mail/UKIP lot.

dunno if any of you are young enough to still have dreams, but perhaps you know someone who really wants to be a journalist for the bbc.

if so: http://www.bbc.co.uk/careers/trainee-schemes/jts

this is how i got in - and now i am saving to do a totally different career but it definitely got the whole news thing out of my system.

seriously though it's a really good opportunity for your little brother or sister or whatever.

never too late: There is no age limit and the scheme welcomes career-changers who have ambitions to work in broadcast news but have been pursuing a career in other industries.

Would never work for that bunch of self-protecting creeps.

As a 23 year old with a BA in creative writing, an MA in American Literature and five years worth of writing experience, is it worth me applying?

Depends whether or not you're "fit."

never too late

hmm, i take that back

As a 23 year old with a BA in creative writing, an MA in American Literature and five years worth of writing experience, is it worth me applying?

Yeah I'd say so. I was 25 when I got in.

There is no age limit and the scheme welcomes career-changers who have ambitions to work in broadcast news but have been pursuing a career in other industries.

The year I did it there was an Irish solicitor who must have been mid or late 30s. As well as some people in early 20s. I reckon it's a lot more competitive now, I got in cos they didn't know what the internet was at this time and they needed people who could harness its dark magic. Little has changed I guess.

what are they looking for? not sure how you'd go about getting the right boxes ticked

As a 23 year old with a BA in creative writing, an MA in American Literature and five years worth of writing experience, is it worth me applying?

― the Shearer of simulated snowsex etc. (Dwight Yorke), Thursday, 28 November 2013 11:17 (3 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The fact you can claim all that and have the gall to elide the possessive apostrophe from "years'" indicates to me that your lying on you're CV

your lying on you're CV

clearly intentional dude

The fact you can claim all that and have the gall to elide the possessive apostrophe from "years'" indicates to me that your lying on you're CV

^^^^^ sentence clearly the work of a savage who uses "whilst" without shame

my novel is currently 92794 words long and heavens! one of those words is whilst. better nuke the lot. how many words is your novel stevie? :)

Novels! What a quaint caprice.

nothing on the BBC

^^^trenchant social commentary

meanwhilst elsewhere...

elsetwhere

int counter = 5;
int factorial = 1;
do {
  factorial *= counter--; /* Multiply, then decrement. */
} whilst (counter > 0);
printf("factorial of 5 is %d\n", factorial);

my novel is currently 92794 words long and heavens! one of those words is whilst. better nuke the lot. how many words is your novel stevie? :)

i'm all about the non-fiction, louis

> whilst (counter > 0);

you could stop at 1 given that that is the multiplicative identity...

Thought u guys would be arguing the relative merits of "is it worth me applying" vs "is it worth my applying" by now

[in all seriousness, and i just felt i should make this clear, you are all welcome to use 'whilst' wherever and whenever you like, it's just my own personal bugbear, and one which has arisen from subbing/rewriting too much copy where 'whilst' has been used to imply a certain level of 'cleverness' that is painfully absent in the rest of the copy]

you could stop at 1 given that that is the multiplicative identity...

― koogs, Thursday, November 28, 2013 3:43 PM (5 hours ago)

Well that's what I get for C&Ping code from Wikipedia without checking it. Oh hang on, someone's edited it...

Five years worth, btw, works either way afaic

No wait, I was looking at the 'while' page just now, which has the 'stop at 1' condition, but the code fragment I copied earlier was from the 'do while' page. Curses to you, Wikipedia! Is it too late to work in some kind of BBC++ joek?

xp C and C++ jockeys love to prematurely optimise code almost as much as assembler programmers

i don't get why the php example is so shonky.

i also missed the 'whilst' change in that original snippet and, therefore, the entire point.

anyway, back on topic. the 'an adventure in space and time' thing to celebrate dr who was good, lots of bbc tvc footage.

BBC News editor/former Times editor James Harding says that BBC News "can't be a free-form jazz band." Why not?

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/dec/09/bbc-news-nelson-mandela-complaints-coverage

(actually I agree with him on his central point; see also the people who complained that live coverage of NM's release back in 1990 meant postponement of Antiques Roadshow. They may even have been the same people)

850 complaints. log 'em and move on.

The BBC received about 850 complaints about the extent of its Mandela coverage, including its decision on Thursday evening to interrupt a repeat of sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys on BBC1 to bring viewers news of his death.
kind of lol but mostly sad

is BBC allowed to have product placements on their shows?

newsnight, for example, gave "flappy bird" or whatever it was quite a boost no doubt last night

hopefully nobody was paid for it

there's also restaurant man. featuring some hotel in mhor scotland this week, and the pullman restaurant train last week. both times their web server went down straight after it was shown

i know because the other member of the household went straight on the website.. (same member who also downloaded that flappy bird game)

BBC things have facebook pages and twitter accounts and they talk about x-factor etc so I suppose anything goes.

BBC3 looks certain to get the chop.

Good

lol @ crass populism that isn't very popular

Say what you really feel Tom. I'm slightly saddened cos it'll mean a loss of diversity to some extent (or at least the notion of it) and obviously it sucks for the people who work there, but otoh I don't think I've actually watched more than a minute of it in my life so *shrugs*

Complete waste of money

They're giving it to Scotland as a leaving present.

it'll mean a loss of diversity to some extent

On the contrary

Great for Being Human and festival coverage, not so great for American Dad/Family Guy ad infinitum. E4 is even worse, though.

(or at least the notion of it)

That's the nub I think. The idea of provideing diversity just by being a distinct channel would have carried more weight in the analogue days, but there are so many channels now that just existing doesn't add much in the way of diversity if you aren't providing something a bit different.

providing

where am i gonna watch Family Guy now?

i'm aware that my reaction to BBC3 says a lot about my worse instincts tbh, but i'm not sure if Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents has added much of value to the culture.

the downside of this is quite possibly more dilution of BBC4 but

in an ideal world, i'm sure there shd be a place for everything, but i'm pretty sure the target audience for BBC3 is more or less exactly the demographic that watches least broadcast telly?

gonna be a lot of godawful stand-up comics and sitcom writers signing on, too

maybe broader, less middle-class-solipsist-scumbag question: is it possible to do Youth TV that doesn't pander?

E4's record in youth drama has been way better than BB3's over the past few years. But we're talking about a demographic that will, by and large, happily shift online with the channel anyway. Given the future of TV is mostly online anyway it might give the BBC more room to experiment here. Or it might just slowly wither on the vine.

Its a shame this has been under 'cuts' rather than from 'this channel is awful, lets use the money more wisely'.

I'm a non-licence-payer who hasn't had a telly in years so take this with a pinch of salt but this channel is almost channel 4 bad

Of all channels, this is one I'm happy to lose. It's remarkably, consistently, bad.

E4 shows TWO BROKE GIRLS and BROOKLYN NINE NINE both of which I like in different ways. E4 is miles better than BBC3 I'm afraid.

xp

i'd be torn in a poll, for sure

wtf @ Pinefox liking Two Broke Girls

BBC3 maybe has less aggressive neo-libertarian or prurient medical docs than C4 tbf

I mean this is probably the first of many cuts at the BBC and let's not lose sight of what the government's longer term agenda is.

finally ran out of episodes of Two Pints.

I was going to until you said that but yeah let's not xp

Can't say I watch it but smdh at all the crowing from CiF bbc4 stans about how the mindless cudchewers are getting what they deserve and it's some sort of victory for the intellegentsia

(My mistake for daring to peek at guardian comments obv)

Didn't jack fucking dee's shitty curbon copy sitcom run for like 6 seasons on BBC4

I'd be ok if they cut both BBC3 and BBC4 and that led for money being used to make better docs (which do require more money than just a roll-out of talking heads, 50 quid at a time) and funding the better comedy scripts.

Both of these could end up on BBC2.

Freeview is mostly crap

i wish BBC4 wd put all the docs i'm too knackered or distracted to watch in the week on at the weekend instead of 48 hours of Whispering Bob Harris

Last night I noticed a slot for a new channel: ITV4+1

ITV4 is okay - show a lot of movies and some of the less desired footie matches

Or itv5 as I will insist on calling it xp

Been doing that for 10yrs not gonna stop now

ITV4 is fine but seriously do we need a +1 channel for it?

yes, as a Tottenham fan who sometimes works late I consider ITV4+1 a key channel.

I want +1s and +2s for every channel coz I forget everything and coz I want to watch prime time after the kids are in bed and coz I've only got 80 hours on my V+ box and it's full of things I won't get round to watching.

i don't mind using what i assume is cheap and plentiful capacity for the +1 channels cos sometimes they have a use - it's a weird niche use, sure, but like i assume many people i still have a download limit with my ISP that prohibits a move to all-streaming all-the-time just yet

and there are also people like me who don't have that thing or a V+ box, just a TV

(I have this computer but I don't watch TV on it, assuming I could)

ilx shows its age.

so the bbc channels will go 1, 2, 4 with a gap? annoying. it's bad enough that there's nothing on freeview channel 8.

lol i have Estuary, Grimsby's Number 1 TV station on Channel 8

I noticed a new channel 'coming soon' on 8.

http://www.estuary.tv/

whether 8 is gonna be assigned to various regional channels like this i don't know

yeah its a slot for some local thing. yay freeview.

as a fan of awfulness even i struggle to watch more than 2 or 3 mins at a time

so the bbc channels will go 1, 2, 4 with a gap?

Argh, nooooo. If there is no other reason to save BBC3, this is good enough. IT WILL DRIVE ME MAD.

Going out on a limb here but I'm guessing that BBC3 isn't really aiming for people like the Pinefox.

The assumption that every young person has a computer/easy access to somewhere to watch online is probably more damaging, it's discriminatory to everyone who can't afford one for one thing.

But PF likes TWO BROKE GIRLS! It may not be aiming, but he is open to it!

BBC3 was less terrible than it sold itself as, in some ways. I ended up catching ten minutes of Reggie Yates' Extreme South Africa, which sounds like the worst thing imaginable, but it seemed like a pretty thoughtful look at poverty, violence and racism. The tabloid documentaries that they did also seem several cuts above Channel 5 and arguably 4 based on my limited exposure. The topics and framing of their factual shows probably put a lot of viewers off giving them a chance and the failure to go full Gypsy Wedding / Extreme Couponing might have cost them from the other side.

Was Pulling on bbc3? It made it look awful when actually it was brilliant.

A lot of the uproar seems less about BBC Three as it is and more about some magical BBC Three that commentators would like to exist.

BBC Three comedy for instance is consistently terrible, the only bright spots in my memory being People Just Do Nothing (comprising one episode) and Ja'ime - Private School Girl (bought from Australia). The "development hell" that turns promising series into shit is legendary there; producers know their vision will be unrecognisable once it comes out the other end. Which is why they approach Sky these days instead. As for "oh noes, there isn't any other BBC channel commissioning comedy", well, they will do once BBC Three goes!

There is a case for a more Newsbeat-y channel but BBC One basically is that already, surely!

Like, the Reggie Yates SA doc really SHOULD be on BBC One. And Family Guy should NOT. Win-win?

But which BBC channel will show a doc where a teenage girl has a visible wee in the middle of a music festival field?

Parliament?

This is the first time in the BBC's history that we are proposing to close a television channel. I can’t rule out it being the last change to our programmes or services. It will save the BBC over £50 million a year. £30 million of that will go into drama on BBC One. And it also means we will extend Children's programmes by an hour a night and provide a BBC One +1 channel. I must stress - all of this is what we are proposing to the BBC Trust. They will have the final say.

Tracer Hand, do you work for the BBC?

Not going to answer on the grounds it may incriminate me

Pinefox, that was a quote, by the way! Not my own writing!

does this mean I can expect to notice a pronounced upswing in bbc one drama

I guess?

As a parent I'm a bit concerned that kids will now start demanding to watch TV until 8pm instead of the much more sensible 7pm. I always thought the cut-off was due to bedtimes rather than a lack of funds.

i wdn't hold my breath

This is the first time in the BBC's history that we are proposing to close a television channel. I can’t rule out it being the last change to our programmes or services.

this reads a little bit like "oh we hadn't noticed any dramatic changes in the production and reception of TV in the last 5 years"

Surely they should've put some of that money into making comedy?

or something funny at least

why start now?

Why Not?

Like, the Reggie Yates SA doc really SHOULD be on BBC One.

This is the point really, if the programmes are good enough they can go on BBC1 or BBC2, perhaps they could find some room by maybe dropping one of their 5000 antiques shows / property shows / cooking shows / progammes about benefits scroungers or whatever. BBC4 meanwhile is a repository for exactly the sort of programmes that used to be shown on BBC2 but have since been replaced by 5000 antiques shows / property shows /cooking shows / progammes about benefits scroungers or whatever.

As a political comedy show that dares to challenge authority, my TV show, The Revolution Will Be Televised, would never have been successful without BBC 3 giving me a platform. Now the BBC are looking to shut the channel down. We can’t let this happen to the only channel that nurtures challenging, cutting edge British comedy.

BBC 3 is the birthplace of comedy careers like Jack Whitehall, Russell Howard, David Walliams and Matt Lucas. It is the platform for voices that aren’t being heard, that go against the grain and don’t fit in with the status quo. That’s why Jono started his petition to save BBC3, because as a fan he knows that platforms like this are sacred. And that’s why me and other comedians like Jack Whitehall, Rick Edwards and Russell Kane have signed.

^ best argument for abolition of BBC3 lol amirite

matt lucas started out on bbc2 right?

pls to abolish bbc2 also

4 channels and they couldn't even find room for Limmy. Fuck 'em imo

I like some the trashy documentary series on BBC3. Whenever I watch "Sun Sex & Suspicious Parents" it just puts me in the mood for a night out.

I am still bewildered by "Snog Marry Avoid" though - why are we all pretending that it's a robot, a talking robot, giving a makeover?

dog borstal

Think lucas started on paramount comedy channel rip gawd bless ya

lucas drummer for vic reeves

would imagine that russell howard's talent would have brought him right to the top no matter the route taken tbf

DOG BORSTAL

But we're talking about a demographic that will, by and large, happily shift online with the channel anyway.

75% of 16- to 24-year-olds' TV viewing is still of live broadcast, though.

dog borstal was fucking awesome

xp

75% of not much is not much, though

the name 'dog borstal' just used to tickle me. would always use it as an excuse for not being somewhere - 'gotta go, dog borstal's on in 15 minutes'...

house of tiny tearaways I remember being good. that, mighty boosh, being human and pramface are probably the only things I ever watched on bbc3

BBC Three comedy for instance is consistently terrible, the only bright spots in my memory being People Just Do Nothing (comprising one episode) and Ja'ime - Private School Girl (bought from Australia).

Comedy obviously most specific thing ever taste-wise (I can't stand those ultra-broad Chris Lilley shows, say, which seem weirdly racist to me), but I feel like there are enough innovative spots in the long list of shows they commissioned to make 'consistently terrible' not true: Nighty Night, High Spirits, 15 Storeys High, Mighty Boosh, Snuff Box, Pulling...

75% of 16- to 24-year-olds' TV viewing is still of live broadcast, though

How has that number changed over the last five years though? Even over the last year? You'd expect that number to be a lot smaller in two or three years' time alone.

had forgotten 15 storeys high. was a long time ago...

Ideal might be the best thing BBC3 have ever shown.

was that the line at the top of the "close it down" report?

Pulling is my favourite ever BBC3 show but they didn't give it much of a push or a third series (I also loved Snuff Box and that was buried six feet deep in the schedule) so I wonder whether the best stuff will actually do better in a digital environment where shows can earn their followings outside of a channel identity that older viewers find offputting. That's the pint-half-full argument anyway.

The three half full pints and a package of crisps argument

a channel identity that older viewers find offputting.

Yeah, this. To the extent that when people have brought up good shows broadcast on BBC3 in its defence, I realised I'd forgotten that they were on that channel at all, so successful has the BBC3's marketing of itself as the home of crass dumbed-down rubbish been.

the BBC3

lol

a channel identity that older viewers find offputting.

Yeah, well i doubt most 16- to 24-year-olds find Radio 4's identity terribly welcoming either.

I am not really a Radio 4 person but I admire it and appreciate its existence and sometimes think, maybe I should listen to this constantly.

I also don't find radio 4#s identity terribly welcoming. Radio David Fucking Cameron.

Pramface was BBC 3, wasn't it? That was ok.

series 3 is on at the moment.

Yeah, well i doubt most 16- to 24-year-olds find Radio 4's identity terribly welcoming either.

True. So what? I'm sure the same scenario would apply there - there are certain Radio 4 shows that would find a broader audience if they were on a digital platform.

they are

matt lucas started out on bbc2 right?

Radio 4 I think

Reasonably certain that most of the standups they mention started as standups, regardless of TV exposure.

I like that matt lucas thing where he plays a lazy and stupid African woman shop assistant

that's almost as funny as Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse's traffic warden sketch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1BP3AHLZWw

Yeah that was awful too. Only thing I liked in 'Harry and Paul' was Whitehouse's intellectual working class man, and the soviet style opening credits.

should have gone with parking papageno and done it all in the style of the magic flute

Stats here are amazing:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-26492684

155,000 given criminal record in 2012 for not paying license fee, accounting for more than 10% of criminal cases.

70 jailed.

Cases

Not sure where the extra 'cases' at the end came from there.

70 jailed.

Pretty sure you don't get sent to jail for not having a TV licence. You can go to jail if you don't pay a fine, which might sound like the same thing but it applies to all kinds of minor crime.

Yes, that's what i assume that they are referring to here. The last time i had a serious look at this was about ten years ago and, at the time iirc, courts pretty much stopped sending people to jail for non-payment of fines relating to TV licenses. Seeing it go back up to 70 is remarkable. The fines disproportionately affect women and (obviously) those dealing with the most extreme poverty so there was a real push to manage things more humanely. Giving people in difficult situations a criminal record for non-payment of what is effectively a debt / bill in the first place is unusual. Non-payment of utility bills / debts isn't generally a criminal offence.

utility companies can cut you off* but the bbc can't

(* actually i think they aren't allowed to deny people such fundamentals as electricty. so instead they install pre-payment meters which effectively do the same thing.)

Isn't non-payment of council tax a criminal thing for the same reason? The council can't turn off the streetlights etc.

They could blindfold you.

Council tax debts are primarily civil offences. Persistent non-payment can lead to criminal conviction where you had the means to pay in the first place. It's not a criminal matter in the first instance so failing to pay won't mean you automatically end up with a criminal record.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/10701148/Noel-Edmonds-Its-time-to-sell-the-BBC...and-we-could-buy-it.html

Original article is behind the times paywall. It's every bit as nuts as you'd expect:

Obviously from a business perspective we are not about to reveal our plans in detail, but our new BBC will not be encumbered with the infrastructure and practices of traditional broadcasting. Today every phone owner is, in effect, a broadcaster. Your smart TV is a studio and your PC is a radio station. You are the master of your media. Such mastery makes a mockery of an organisation that operates more than 50 channels at a cost of £5bn.

Under our plans, the new BBC becomes as important to the consumer as the hardware without which none of us can now function. We refer to this as BBC Gaia — a lifestyle in which the new BBC is the default position for all consumer information, education and entertainment. It’s our 21st-century Reithian vision.

nothing says Lord Reith like Deal or No Deal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAo-xyIEEkI

^ we refer to this as BBC Gaia

RIP the (Newsnight) Review Show
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/culturenews/9905765/The-Review-Show-does-culture-matter-less-than-cookery.html

the review show was fucking terrible, good riddance

however, what will bidisha do now??

too soon?

That article is from match 2013

March 2013

once a month is still TOO MUCH

The final episode is this Sunday, apparently.

http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/2014/03/bbc-axes-review-show-20-years/

I hope they bring back Tom Paulin one last time, if only in order for him to call Harry Hill's X-Factor musical Zionist propaganda, or something.

I just saw the last episode without knowing it was being cancelled, I hadn't seen it in a few months. It and Culture Show and any other similar programmes used to annoy me a lot but I enjoyed them enough to watch them regularly for something like 10 or more years; sometimes there was really good stuff in there.
I'd prefer to think the internet has replaced these shows than the idea that anyone interested in this sort of stuff has dwindled that badly.
BBC 4 really has turned to shit. I don't think I'd mind if BBC was sold, especially if it meant people stopped getting harrassed about tv licences, because I've always dreamed of not having a tv someday.

BBC Broadcast was already sold to an Autralian hedge fund several years ago. What other bits do you think should be sold? And who do you think should be the buyer?

Don't think Robert cares as long as his 'dream' "of not having a tv someday" is realized.

I'll admit I don't know much about the issue and if I am curious enough, I hope all the facts don't take too many hours to read.

I don't even have a dream.

just take responsibility for your own life and get rid of your own damned TV and leave the BBC intact for those of us who want it and appreciate it, even for its flaws.

and who want to pay for it

not really any sentient argument for paying for market-level shit like bbc1 radio1 etc via a poll tax enforced by criminal censure

that shit should all be privatized and the less market amenable public interest stuff financed via general taxation

I live with other people, it isn't my tv.

Actually, fuck privatising the BBC. A TV licence is cheaper than the cable package I'd inevitably be forced to buy in the name of 'choice' in a post-privatised world. I consider that my licence pays for multiple channels and radio stations where I never have to watch an advert for anything but another BBC programme. BARGAIN.

yeah the serenity you get from not having to watch adverts is probably less valuable than ending a system that criminalizes hundreds of thousands of people irrespective of whether they consume bbc content, two thirds of whom are women, along with plenty of non-english speakers, the indigent and vulnerable, whoever the capita tv licensing etc vermin can intimidate most easily in lieu of a search warrant, and dozens of whom are then imprisoned when they can't afford the fine

I have a friend who said the investigating people she met were polite and easy to convince. But I get the impression others are more demanding? If I moved into my own place with no tv, would I possibly have to convince them I don't use the iPlayer or the radio function on my CD player?

there is no obligation to acknowedge them at all unless they have a search warrant

But what if they did have a warrant? How much do you have to prove.

hundreds of thousands of people? really?
I know a real piece of work who takes pride in refusing to pay for a TV licence (despite being well able to, and watching it very loudly all day) and she won't answer her door unless you do a 'special knock' because she's scared of being busted. However, she's never had anything more than a letter every so often.

bbc scotland news is a disgrace. Biased towards the no to independence campaign. Its really turning me against the news department of the BBC.