18 March 2021
Diary of a Corbynista
The real cancel culture
by Don Urquhart
10 March
Tim Davie has been Director General of the BBC for nearly 6 months. His appointment raised some concerns about political bias given that he had been Deputy Chairman of the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservative Party. The appointment of a new Chairman of the corporation a couple of weeks was a fine opportunity to redress the balance but what we got was Richard Sharp, a former adviser to the current Prime Minister and to the Chancellor and a considerable donor to the Conservative Party – £400,000+.
11 March
The most significant fall-out from the Oprah Winfrey interview with the Sussexes is the confirmation that our press is the worst in the “democratic” world. Between the lines Meghan had it that the press had driven them out.
The press and media generally will cluster round to deny this. It’s what they do.
12 March
Message Board responses to Corbynista in Shaw Sheet 270:
Walsall:
Following on from the Society of Newspaper Editors, or whatever they are called, I was a bit surprised to find out that he had done the honourable thing and fallen on his sword. Maybe the government should take a leaf from his book given the arrant nonsense they trot out.
Bloviator in chief called out by John Ashworth and Lindsey Hoyle incapable of enforcing something which should be in his purview, i.e. admit the PM was incorrect and correct Hansard.
Corbynista:
I agree totally on the PR issue by the way. We were sabotaged by Cameron’s lies in 2011. You wouldn’t believe the nonsense! “It’s not fair because some people get 2 votes!”
Walsall:
Indeed.
I get very frustrated with the misinformation.
What is wrong with getting the politicians you don’t like if enough people vote for them?
Also, 2 votes? Who gets 2 votes?
The answer is everyone.
In fact they may have 2, 3, 4 cracks of the whip, depending on their preferences.
If your candidate doesn’t make the cut, then your votes are redistributed based on your preference, but you only vote once in each round.
At least, that is my preferred PR method
Corbynista:
You would be amazed how stupid some people are or make themselves appear to gee me up.
Scientist:
I suspect that the success of the vaccination program was due to the NHS and GPs rather than the government. My gut feeling (i.e. the maker up of conspiracy theories) suspects that the government decided that, having made a pig’s ear of everything else to do with Covid, they decided to delegate the responsibility to the NHS et al. If all went well, they could take the credit; if it failed they could blame the NHS etc.
Our illustrious prime minister keeps lying to us and parliament, and his support in the country increases! We are growing our own little trump and everybody; especially the BBC and the media are avoiding pointing this out.
13 March
The BBC has just cancelled the weekly satirical show “The Daily Mash”. The star, Nish Kumar sees the cancellation as an attempt to silence criticism of the government. Here is an extract from Metro’s report:
Several people expressed their sadness over The Mash Report coming to an end, with broadcaster James O’Brien tweeting: ‘The Mash Report, a comedy program critical of the government has been axed by the state broadcaster, reportedly for political reasons, and at the behest of a director general appointed by the government. ‘Finally, a stone cold example of what ‘cancel culture’ looks like.’
As if that were not enough Test Match Special has not covered the tour to India. Reason enough for the Director General to resign.
14 March
Sarah Everard’s murder has inspired a revival of initiatives aimed at protecting women. Among these people ask what can be done to stop such crimes. Many remedies are proposed but I am not hearing any talking heads suggesting that the answer might lie in detecting and dealing with potential perpetrators at a young age.
A friend of mine was employed as an expert witness for one of the children who killed James Bulger. He formed the view that the boy’s problems could have been identified and dealt with before the tragedy occurred.
Teachers in state schools are asked to identify children with behavioural problems but when they do so educational psychologists are so thin on the ground that they might as well not bother.
In private schools things are better. Educational psychologists are on tap and parents are asked to take children away if they continue to behave badly.
15 March
The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill goes for its second reading today.
There may be many excellent improvements in the Bill but the aspect causing most concern is that it empowers the Home Secretary to decide on an ad hoc basis what constitutes a permissible demonstration.
It has a bad look coming just after women attending a vigil for a murdered lady had the bejesus beaten out of them by the Metropolitan Police.
16 March
I have a tendency to rant on and festoon all comers with the breadth and shrewdness of my beautiful mind. Alice was born in Tashkent but has lived in England for many years. She has always listened kindly but one day suggested I might read a book called Silk Roads by one Peter Frankopan. Frankopan? He should really be a cake ingredient but his book helped me understand that history is not Euro-centric. There were bigger and better things happening in Asia while we were still patting each other on the back for making cool pointy things out of stone.
So when I clocked that Frankopan was a contributor on Newsnight I was heartened that at last they had someone who knew something rather than the usual hacks and PR people.
I would advise people to read his book and watch the programme.
He was critical of the Foreign Secretary’s enthusiasm for doing business with oppressive regimes:
That was why Dominic Raab’s statement tonight is so unhelpful, because Britain is getting a reputation for saying one thing and doing another.
