General British politics discussion thread

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Both true to an extent.
Entertainment, panel shows and politics light (Mash Report, HIGNFY stuff) have a clear left bias without any real attempt to hide it.
Politics & News have a clear right bias but are more subtle about it.

People look to BBC News and current affairs for their political information though. They don't look to comedy or satire. Also, the people most likely to vote (and vote Tory) are not even watching any of those satire shows.

Strazdas wrote: »

People look to BBC News and current affairs for their political information though. They don't look to comedy or satire. Also, the people most likely to vote (and vote Tory) are not even watching any of those satire shows.

What makes you think that. They have some of the highest rated comedy in the UK. Recently they have had huge hits with the Waller Bridge stuff for instance. I love how you can just flat out say an entire nation don't go to the BBC for comedy.

And ya the Tory voters are not watching that satire but what has that got to do with anything

Capt'n Midnight wrote: »

Tories are trying to emasculate the BBC , look at the whole OAP licence fee thing. There's history too given how Granada (Death on the Rock) didn't get renewed. ITN changed to ITV and the individual regions got subsumed.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/czpxkvk2qxpt/the-guardian

The Tories were very quick to jump on the reform angle when the Bashir stuff came out. A lot of that reform will probably have nothing to do with him or what he done

The British Politics/News Media Venn Diagram is going to receive a massive shake up over the next few months starting in the next few weeks when GB News starts broadcasting.

While they haven't declared a political allegiance, their chairman is Andrew Neil formerly of the BBC and still involved with The Spectator. They have said that they are looking to mimic the format of US broadcasters including Fox and MSNBC with shows centered around strong presenters so I expect we will see the emergence of some highly opinionated opinion formers after a period. British News media is supposed to maintain impartiality under the governance of Ofcom so it will be interesting to see if this is the case. Neil has said that he is going to have a section on his show dedicated to 'Wokewatch' which I'm sure will arouse the interests (figuratively and literally) of many Boards users who seem to have a keen interest in such topics.

Tell me how wrote: »

British News media is supposed to maintain impartiality under the governance of Ofcom so it will be interesting to see if this is the case.

The Ofcom with Paul Dacre at the helm?

devnull wrote: »

GB News is going to be anything but impartial.

One of the leading people behind it, Andrew Cole has posted this on LinkedIn: “GB News: Over time we will conduct special enquiries to expose those who act in the worst interests of the UK.

“We will also drive critical campaigns: one could be calling for a public enquiry into certain MPs, members of the Lords and civil servants who acted against the UK and in favour of a foreign entity (the EU) during the Brexit years.

“Many of our target audience wish to see this enquiry happen.”

Notice how he presents his opinion as a fact. I have no doubt that there will be a lot of this to come. I don't object to anyone airing the view that he has, even if I disagree with it and think it's wrong, but this kind of stuff is very much the kind of nonsense you'd expect to see in America, not the UK.

This traitors narrative is a very dangerous thing and leads down a path that ends in things like people storming Capitol Hill with weapons, nooses and handcuffs or nutters shooting MPs like Jo Cox

I really think the UK is in a dangerous position in terms of what way it's electorate are about to be manipulated over the next few years.
GB News will definitely attract those of a particular mindset and I expect there are going to be a significant number of discussions on topics such as the efficiency of the NHS, the role of the BBC and whether or not it warrants having a license fee propping it up, the argument against Scotland voting to leave in a future referendum will get it's fair share of attention and a regular helping of lambasting the EU, Labour, Climate activists, BLM, and all these pesky progressive ideals that have gotten in the way for so long.

They'll have no shortage of candidates to appear on the various shows and I expect people like JHB, Kate Andrews, Farage, Tom Harwood, Brendan O'Neil and others will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of being invited on to speak to even more agreeable hosts than they've been used to in some circles.

I don't know if anyone saw a clip from Talk Radio recently where two guests, along with the host, gleefully awarded Femi Oluwole the title of 'Plank of the week' for having the gall to speak out against Brexiteers continued insistence that the problems the UK is experiencing is the fault of the EU or remainers or whoever. It was quite unsettling to see them lambast him without him being there to defend himself or without them, even for a second, providing a counter point to his argument.

As someone else pointed out, Paul Dacre has been chosen to lead OfCom so as to rebut any calls that will come saying that GB News or other broadcasters who try to chase after their audience are being biased.
It all feels quite sinister and to use the analogy often aimed at Democrats in the US where they are accused of bringing a knife to a gunfight with the GOP, Labour in the UK look like they are arming themselves with water pistols and nerf guns against opponents in fighter jets and attack helicopters.

We've already seen how the Tories have acted with Boris's flat upgrade, contracts to friends of cabinet ministers, setting up a review in to how Covid was handled etc, once there is a very friendly high profile national broadcaster in place to help massage how the public hears about this, they could really lose the run of themselves.

Tell me how wrote: »

I really think the UK is in a dangerous position in terms of what way it's electorate are about to be manipulated over the next few years.
GB News will definitely attract those of a particular mindset and I expect there are going to be a significant number of discussions on topics such as the efficiency of the NHS, the role of the BBC and whether or not it warrants having a license fee propping it up, the argument against Scotland voting to leave in a future referendum will get it's fair share of attention and a regular helping of lambasting the EU, Labour, Climate activists, BLM, and all these pesky progressive ideals that have gotten in the way for so long.

They'll have no shortage of candidates to appear on the various shows and I expect people like JHB, Kate Andrews, Farage, Tom Harwood, Brendan O'Neil and others will be rubbing their hands at the prospect of being invited on to speak to even more agreeable hosts than they've been used to in some circles.

I don't know if anyone saw a clip from Talk Radio recently where two guests, along with the host, gleefully awarded Femi Oluwole the title of 'Plank of the week' for having the gall to speak out against Brexiteers continued insistence that the problems the UK is experiencing is the fault of the EU or remainers or whoever. It was quite unsettling to see them lambast him without him being there to defend himself or without them, even for a second, providing a counter point to his argument.

As someone else pointed out, Paul Dacre has been chosen to lead OfCom so as to rebut any calls that will come saying that GB News or other broadcasters who try to chase after their audience are being biased.
It all feels quite sinister and to use the analogy often aimed at Democrats in the US where they are accused of bringing a knife to a gunfight with the GOP, Labour in the UK look like they are arming themselves with water pistols and nerf guns against opponents in fighter jets and attack helicopters.

We've already seen how the Tories have acted with Boris's flat upgrade, contracts to friends of cabinet ministers, setting up a review in to how Covid was handled etc, once there is a very friendly high profile national broadcaster in place to help massage how the public hears about this, they could really lose the run of themselves.

I do think UK society as a whole is much more progressive than their media landscape and their political class. If you look at voter demographics, "young" people, which means pretty much anyone under 50, are much more less likely to vote Tory, as is anyone with an education. But the combination of the utterly undemocratic FPTP voting system, safe seats, and voter turn out mean that their voice is just not heard as much.

This is a contrast to the US where there are large cohorts of very hardline young republicans (not saying the UK doesn't have its Tommy Robinson types but they're not as big a factor)

I think this is mainly due to the prevalence of Fox News where the UK doesn't have anything quite that bad on TV and it's mostly the newspapers with their older demographic that are utterly toxic.

I do wonder what the current concerted effort from the Tories to skew the media landscape even further to the right would achieve in taking the UK down that path.

Sam Russell wrote: »

You would have thought Thatcher had it all sown up - but she was ousted.

But even she didn't have a deeply corrupt media trying to keep her in power. Also, the Conservative Party itself is a very different beast to the 1980s. The people with ability have been hounded out and replaced by Johnson and his Cabinet of flunkies.

quokula wrote: »

I do think UK society as a whole is much more progressive than their media landscape and their political class. If you look at voter demographics, "young" people, which means pretty much anyone under 50, are much more less likely to vote Tory, as is anyone with an education. But the combination of the utterly undemocratic FPTP voting system, safe seats, and voter turn out mean that their voice is just not heard as much.

This is a contrast to the US where there are large cohorts of very hardline young republicans (not saying the UK doesn't have its Tommy Robinson types but they're not as big a factor)

I think this is mainly due to the prevalence of Fox News where the UK doesn't have anything quite that bad on TV and it's mostly the newspapers with their older demographic that are utterly toxic.

I do wonder what the current concerted effort from the Tories to skew the media landscape even further to the right would achieve in taking the UK down that path.

In relation to the first bit in bold, the fact that many think UK society is more progressive than it's political class is the problem when you see how in spite of this, they have ended up outside Europe and a completely incapable PM admitting that he'd rather bodies pile up on the street rather than put the country in to another lockdown. And he has a massive 80 seat majority in parliament! :eek:

In relation to the second bit in bold. It could well do from June 13th.
And I don't think that this has happened by accident or because it is purely a commercial venture. A lot of the key players have strong political views and allegiances and it has been said by one of them that Fox News (in structure at least) is a template they are looking to use.
That will help them project an image that most of the country think a particular way irrespective of the reality of that. Which is exactly what Fox News does.

Bear in mind, while many of us might have watched the BBC over the last few years and wondered how come Laura Kuennsberg seems favourable towards Johnson or how come Andrew Marr isn't pushing back when someone says something false on Sunday morning, many of a conservative mindset already think the BBC is too hard on them and not inline with the ideals of the empire out of which it emerged.
The branding of GB News is no accident.

pixelburp wrote: »

I said it in a Current Affairs thread a while back, but I find it darkly amusing that in a classic case of accidental prescience, the 2005 film V For Vendetta managed to predict a dystopian Britain, becoming more actual than many might stomach; in this specific instance, the film's blatantly propagandist British News Network, headed by a ranting demagogue that - for all intents and purposes - sounds exactly what we're going to see with "GB News". And if I remember, the film posited a Britain taken over by fascists in the wake of a terrible pandemic, so ... yeah.

V for Vendetta was a polemic against Fascism/Authoritarianism penned [as a graphic novel] in response to the excesses of Thatcherism back in the 1980s. That it is just as relevant now as in the 1980s (even more so in some respects) is appalling.

I think he was saying the "special relationship" description made the UK look the weaker of the two.

No matter what way he spins it with this "indestructible relationship" they will always be the weaker of the two.

Or is he trying to send a veiled dig at the EU to say the US will be backing the UK? :rolleyes:

it really is odd how the media are almost fawning over how well Johnson is doing. There has never been any question about how good company he is, he will always get on and be the star in most situations.

The problmem is that he fails on details, on preparation and an follow through.

Great for the dinner circuit, hence why is is so good at elections. Where is mostly a brief encounter, a speech, and photo op. Unlike TM he is actually really good in those situations.

But they seemed completely amazed at this. That Biden and Johnson would appear to be getting on in front of the cameras? What did they expect? That Bien woud start calling him out?