Mrs BM too. She’s a staunch supporter of the People’s Front of Yorkshire, and believes it should have its independence. ‘God’s Own Country’ indeed.

Weak attempt at levity, realising it was all getting too serious (mea culpa).

May I nominate Yorkshire?

This covers a lot of this thread’s subjects off nicely – why it’s hard to be an objective and and fair person and NOT a ‘Fox Hater’ (Tally-Ho), why one can’t help fearing for Assange even if he is a prat, AND the fact that we have some values around what is acceptable and what isn’t (regardless of law, it seems) that seem increasingly different to even our close cousins.

Bob Beckel, speaking as a salaried pundit on a Fox ‘News’ business slot:

“A dead man can’t leak stuff. This guy’s a traitor, he’s treasonous, and he has broken every law of the United States. And I’m not for the death penalty, so…there’s only one way to do it: illegally shoot the son of a bitch.”

He was upset because Wikileaks were involved in the release of footage of a US Apache attacking a crowd of civilians, including children, at a road junction – with 30mm cannon.

Bear in mind that this man was fired from Fox, but not for the reasons a Brit might expect (incitement to murder). It was due to ‘illness’, though industry gossip alleges it was for being too liberal.

The fact he is lying low, and not using the opportunity he has to defend himself in a court of law, with the world watching (surely that’s his ‘thing’?) says something to me at least.

Yes, I have been known to read the Guardian, but even so – I don’t think we should loose sight of the fact that we have evolved into a nation with codes of morals and ethics embedded into society that are NOT shared by some others. Let’s not be afraid to acknowledge that, whatever we think of nationalist idiots, past Empires, immigration or even left versus right.

We are not all the same. Think of the former Soviet Union. Russia, the prime influence for decades, has still not properly recovered from a war that slaughtered a generation and a brutal dictatorship that murdered millions more – selectively imprisoning or simply killing moral philosophers, political thinkers, intellectuals of any kind who did not toe the party line. Think about who and what was left at the end of this process, over several generations. That society is seriously ‘damaged goods’. A majority seem to like Putin because he murders his enemies, not in spite of it. They call it ‘strength’.

There is no way you can then put it on a par, in terms of values, with a nation with a different history, such as our own. I only use Russia as an example. We need to face up to cultural difference, and understand it. That does not mean ‘go along with it’ – Some of our own remaining values we should defend to the hilt.

All a bit odd.

JC, with reference to your bit about it all being the last lot’s fault, you might be interested in this – It’s OK, you can read it, it’s from the Telegraph:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/pmqs/12125734/Whos-to-blame-over-Google-the-bedroom-tax-and-migrants-Labour-of-course.html

Maybe that’s what some people would like to happen.. can’t let the BBC give news to the masses. Might say something off-message.

Seriously, though, publishing a news story to the web is broadcasting. Saying it’s not is like someone in 1950 saying television isn’t broadcasting because it isn’t radio. The phrase refers to the act of dissemination of information outwards from a single source to many recipients. It came to mean radio..and then TV.. when those were the only broadcast media in town. The world has changed – for the better, maybe?

I presume Mr Deacon would want to ban the Fox News website too? No? How about sky.com?

Or how about Telegraph.co.uk? After all, you can buy a Telegraph, so surely that site is unecessary too?

Edit.. it seems this chap has had it in for the beeb for months, his editorial rantings in what are billed as programme reviews getting more and more strident. I think I have found out why he has been asked to do this.. a Barclay brother or two is upset, maybe? (Lovely chaps – look them up)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-35152295

I refer to my earlier ‘off message’ comment.

This story, annoying to the Johns of this world, is why we need to keep independent news organisations online.

Example – George Osborne. He often claims that low bond prices (caused by quantitative easing) are caused by his fiscal policies – he thinks that shows him to be a genius, when it actually shows he doesn’t understand the difference between fiscal and monetary policy.

Osborne has claimed that low inflation is a result of his policies – but cannot point to why. (Clue, George.. oil prices).

George Osborne has no more than GSCE maths, and is singularly unqualified to run an economy.

He gushingly praised the Irish economy just before it imploded. He has presided over the longest decline in wages in the UK on record

I think it’s fair to infer that any positive changes to the economy are pretty much accidental as Osborne bimbles in his tabloid-created bubble of praise. If it wasn’t for some very smart treasury Sir Humphreys he’d be dangerous.

Couldn’t resist either!

“…this is the legacy of the last administration, something we are working hard to reverse”.. Oh, no, wait, that the response to bad economic news, isn’t it?

Of course, if you take those on zero hours, waiting for the phone to ring out of the unemployment figures then they get lower. If you include the hundreds of thousands of near-slave immigrant workers that allow Tesco to pay b*gger all for agricultural produce into the employed figures then they go up.

Hurrah, pip pip and trebles all round!