Soft Focus 2174

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Staring at the screen in disbelief as the BBC broadcast a preview of a quite literally soft focus “interview” of Theresa May by a simpering Nick Robinson. North Korean stuff. For Panorama.
“Prime Minister, a lot of people liked it when you described yourself as a bloody difficult woman”. Astonishingly sycophantic stuff from the state broadcaster.

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2,174 thoughts on “Soft Focus”

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  • Vercingetorix

    Growing up I remembered watching Brian Walden interviewing political heavyweights – and ruthlessly grilling them. 35 years later and we’ve got this shit. The thing we’ve all become soft and the political class know it.

  • Crispa

    Not BBC but telling quote from former Labour Chancellor, Alistair Darling in Andrew Rawnsley’s “Observer” piece to-day on the 2008 financial crash. “He wryly observed that he had spent his life (as Labour) being told that state intervention was folly, public ownership was idiocy and there was no alternative to untamed free markets (advice that he seemed to accept), and now the very same people ‘are telling me I have to nationalise the bloody banks’.(which he did at great political cost to Labour). The price of running with the hare of neo-liberalism and then hunting with the hounds of neo -liberalism. Blair / Brown’s “third (unprincipled) way still has a lot to answer for..

    • JIm C

      If you explore how the monetary system has evolved over the centuries, you’ll discover it’s become less and less a genuinely capitalist (ie, a contended market of companies competing with each other and facing bankruptcy when they fail) industry to become a crony cartel licensed by the government to issue the vast bulk (some 97%) of the nation’s medium of exchange: ie, money.

      Alistair Darling (and every other politician in every other “capitalist” country) should have nationailsed the banks and let their bond- and share-holders lose everything. The central banks could have guaranteed depositors’ funds. Yes, it would have been disruptive but it would have re-introduced the knowledge that risky lending had consequences.

      By allowing their central banks to bail out the banks and drop interest rates to ridiculously low levels, governments destroyed the last vestiges of capitalism in banking, and set the scene for the vast explosion in financial asset prices we’ve seen since the crash.

      As Henry Ford observed “It is well that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.”

      • Nick

        I think there are many people on both the left and right of the political spectrum who don’t want to see the future of humanity as debt-slaves. Which is where we’re at now (and have been for a long time, I guess).

    • Paul Greenwood

      Darling was International Marxist Group in his younger days after his time at Loretto which is apparently an elitist prep school frequented by Andrew Marr but then again Darling was born in London

  • exiled off mainstreet

    The BBC has degenerated into a disgraceful sycophantic war-mongering neoliberal morass of filth. Blowback from their anti-semitism campaign against Corbyn and independent labour may result in doing the impossible, reducing the disreputability of anti-semitism.

    • DiggerUK

      Yes comrade, I put my hands up and confess. Send me for re-education immediately, but can I clean the snow off my boots first…_

    • Borncynical

      I can’t take credit for this definition but someone on another website observed that the definition of “traitor” has been updated to mean “someone who demands to see evidence”.

  • N_

    Train operator Arriva has been caught stealing 10% of the cash from lost and found wallets. This so typifies contemporary Britain.

    Meanwhile there are water companies that tell customers they “owe” 5 months’ payments in advance.
    Banks demand £1000 or more from debtors to clear their debts.
    And if you contribute to crooked airline FlyBe’s on-flight “charity collections” you must be mad.

    Doubtless Anon1 will spittingly defend the stealing by Arriva. After all, they didn’t ask people to lose their wallets, and the wages they pay the employee who hands the wallets back eat into their profits, right?

      • Sharp Ears

        It could get even worse!

        ‘The company began operating in December 2003, taking over from Wales & Borders. Following the introduction of the Railways Act 2005 and Transport (Wales) Act 2006, responsibility for the franchise has been held by the devolved Welsh Government. Arriva Trains Wales’ franchise is due to expire in October 2018, and the company did not bid to renew. It will be succeeded by KeolisAmey Wales.’. Wiki Arriva Wales

        Who they are – https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/KeolisAmey_Wales

        B I G Plans!!! Watch out. Note the collapse of Carillion cane into the equation.

    • N_

      Reports say a man and a woman were taken ill this evening, Sunday 16 September, in the Prezzo restaurant at 52 High Street, Salisbury. Emergency personnel attended, including some who were wearing hazmat suits and gas masks. Surrounding roads have been cordoned.

      Some kid on Twitter says the couple are Russian. (Whether this person can distinguish the Russian language from Bulgarian, or indeed whether they have been anywhere near Salisbury today, is not known.)

      I have yet to see any report worth mentioning that says what the two people’s symptoms were, or whether they have been taken to hospital, etc.

      • Los

        Obviously Theresa May pressed the “Security Theatre on demand” button just in time for her Hagiography.

        Expect at least 3 Reichstags in the forthcoming General Election.

      • Paul Greenwood

        Prezzo chain owned by Texas Pacific Private Equity has been in CVA since Feb 2018 and closed 100 of its 300 restaurants…….I doubt insolvency has anything to do with poor hygiene standards ex-ante or ex-post

        • Paul Greenwood

          Oh and before I forget – Zizzi is owned by Bridgepoint Capital. What a place Salisbury is where suckers eat at chain Italian places with names like “Zizzi’s” and “Prezzo” owned by Private Equity Groups……..it makes you see how truly pathetic lives are in Salisbury that Up-Market McDonald’s are regarded as “restaurants” and surprisingly people need men in Hazmat Suits for dessert. Can see why the Russian Boys chose not to eat in town !

          Salisbury is nothing but a giant Military Base with Porton Down and Munitions factories and Salisbury Plain…….it is getting to be like Chernobyl

  • BrianFujisan

    King of Welsh Noir
    September 16, 2018 at 08:49

    ” Did you see Kirsty Wark interview a journalist from RT about the latest Skripal nonsense? She had the gall to suggest to the polite and well-mannered RT journalist that RT was a conduit of state propaganda. The arrogance, sneering condescension and utter lack of self-awareness was breathtaking. The RT journalist pointed out the same charge could be levelled at the BBC which is why so many in the UK now tune in to it. Touché. Then she hung up leaving Kirsty Wark wondering why.”

    Well said KoWN.. There are a lot of Dead Iroquois, Libyans, Syrians, Murdered with the help of bbc lies,

    Here is the video of the Odious uppity Numpty Wark Trying it on with Margarita Simonyan –

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0d2poUGleU

    Node
    September 16, 2018 at 17:35

    good Find dude.

    • Hatuey

      Kirsty Wark is one of the most compromised and corrupt presenters on the BBC. She was caught out in 2005 when it emerged that she had been regularly accommodating the then Labour Leader and First Minister Jack McConnell at her holiday home in Majorca.

      Think about that… BBC Scotland’s main news and politics anchor inviting the head of the Scottish Labour Party to stay with her in her holiday mansion. How cosy eh. As I understand it, he and his wife stayed with Wark and her husband several times.

      Needless to say, her hatred for the SNP isn’t even vieled. It was so bad that the BBC was compelled to apologise for her insulting treatment of Alex Salmond in an interview that she conducted (I think that was in 2008) … and as far as I know that’s the only time this has ever happened in Scotland or anywhere else in the UK.

      • Jo1

        The Wark interview with Salmond was in 2007 Hatuey just after the SNP won the Scottish election for the first time. (Kirsty was clearly still seething about that!) Blair had had his meeting with Gadaffi and had discussed “Libyan prisoners in the UK”. There was only one of course and he was in a Scottish jail. Blair’s government therefore had no jurisdiction over him. Salmond pointed this out. Wark flipped and accused him of “trying to pick a fight with Westminster”. She made a monumental fool of herself while Salmond remained cool as a cucumber. Not her best interview but entertaining all the same. And of course, as you say, she had to apologise later.

        • Hatuey

          That’s right, she accused him of making a political football out of the issue….that’s like someone spitting in your face and accusing you of making a political football out of it if you object.

          They like to brush over this chapter in British history…. doesn’t sit well with what was to follow.

      • Paul Greenwood

        I thought Kirsty Wark had her slavish loyalty to The State enshrined in her interview with Glenn Greenwald

    • N_

      Is that an impressive sigh by Wark at 2:29?

      That’s where she implies for her central government paymasters that asking Boshirov and Petrov whether “Novichok” had been found in their hotel room would have been far better than asking them whether they were carrying poison.

      Clearly nothing is as good as spewing out MI6 lies, barefacedly repeating self-contradictory propaganda, always referring to the country you work in with reference to its monarchist regime as if they were the same thing, and getting loads of money in return.

      You f***ing dirty unscrupulous lying scumsucker, Wark.

  • Den Lille Abe

    “Sycophant” I think it is a inborn British trait. Like something inherited in the DNA. It has always been apparent, the British like to grovel to those in power. That’s ‘prolly why the Danes with no concerted effort tried to civilize the country back in the day. 😉
    Seeing T. May make the deep neigh to an unconstitutional monarch is sickening, to me at least.You can pay them respects , but you don’t have to grovel.
    But its Tories right, scum of the earth! I got that right: Ever since the failed to assassinate the Iron Lady, the country has been sliding, and its too late to save now.
    We will not miss you (We fake that, and play for the camera) and have a nice trip (Down)
    Ohh , yes Craig the BBC is not really a news organisation, its more like Vokischer Beobachter like, you know his name, I will not say it, Goodwins law and stuff!
    My best social democratic wishes from socialist Sweden!
    (Yes we have millions of refugees, I have learnt a few good recipes)

    • N_

      Hi and welcome, Den Lille Abe.

      You are totally right about the level of sycophancy in Britain. I often tell people here how “UK” isn’t the same as “Britain”, in an effort to get them to think about what is actually going on, and only about 1% begin to understand what I’m saying. The term “UK” is used ever more and more here.

      The passing down of the sycophancy – and the lack of self-respect with which it’s associated – is cultural, not by DNA 🙂 Be careful even when you say that as a joke, because the ideology that reigns here is precisely that some babies are born superior to others.

      Soon Malthusianism will be coming home.

      Many here can’t get their heads around just how much hatred comes downwards through the class system, which is something that puts Britain apart from other countries. (I’ll add that this is just as much in evidence in Scotland as it is in England.)

  • Michael

    Were you expecting anything more? The BBC doesn’t seem to have much in the way of courage when it comes to dealing with the far right. I note, however, that they have plenty when going after the left.

  • berlingooner

    Compared with C4 Michael Crick’s recent interview with her in South Africa it’s no wonder the BBC’s reputation is now so poor. I feel sorry for some of the decent journalists still under contract there.

  • Malachi Malagrowther

    (AP) Rumours are coming in, that Sergei and Yulia Skripal have remained “incognito in Salisbury”, and were “washing pots and working in the kitchen in Prezzo”, to earn some lolly untill “Sergei’s inlfated house sale to The Treasury goes through”. It is said that, “Yulia did not wash a couple of plates properly, that were used 5 months ago, by Boshirov and chum”, and that these plates may have contained traces of Novichok. The said plates then used by Sergei for two pizzas, that were served to a couple of tourists, who became unwell.

    Head of fakery at the Metropolitain, Mark Rowley, (unknown to be related or not to Charlie Rowley), has sent in some people in Haz Mat suits in case there is an another opportunity to smear the Russians.

    There are also unconfirmed reports coming in, “that some mini cab driver had bought Sergei’s car, and that the people in Prezzo may have been poisoned by the air con system in Sergei’s old car on the way to Prezzo”. The air con system supposedly being the original source of the poisoning of the Skripals. But then it was “the door knob”. The question remains, whether Sergei was “mini cabing on the side”, againsts MI6 wishes, and that he may have picked up Boshirov and chum, at the train station, when they wanted to go to Stonehenge.

  • SA

    And the BBC regularly ‘interviews ‘ the sadly non-convicted war criminal TB thereby giving him time to express his views on Brexit and Anti Corbyn rants and criticism. These ‘interviews ‘ are always friendly and non challenging to TB. I also wonder whether, knowing how TB operates, whether he gets paid for these.

  • BrianFujisan

    Wot.. Another Fake news Story Brewing in Salisbury, I wonder What Nationalds may be involved.

    It’s another distraction From SYRIA.. Obviously. Sorry I meant Another Distraction from WIII

    • N_

      Mainstream media organs are citing a tweet by fellow diner Amanda Worne to the effect that the two people taken ill are Russian. She also said they were “showing the same symptoms as before”.

      As I said above, whether she can distinguish Russian from Bulgarian, for example, is unclear. This may be the same lady of that name who was selected earlier this year by the RAF Red Arrows to train as a pilot in Salisbury.

      • Borncynical

        “the same symptoms as before” – I saw the relatively low-key report on the BBC’s 10.00 news (well it was on in the background rather like white noise) and the reporter said that a number of operatives turned up in hazmat suits etc As an aside, I wonder for how many years hazmat suits are going to be worn for every illness incident in Salisbury. Anyway, that said, apparently it was a man and woman (not again, I hear everyone say) and the report said that the woman became hysterical, stood up and sat down again. “It was believed to be a medical incident.” Doesn’t sound like the same symptoms to me.

        • N_

          The Daily Mail is quoting an unnamed fellow diner who called the police and who says that the woman has blonde hair and is in her late 20s, and the man taken ill was found in the toilet after having a fit. It is not clear whether the woman was experiencing anything worse than distress because of what was happening to the man.

          “A witness in the nearby Cafe Rouge restaurant said they could see police bagging something up in the street outside.”

          “Customers inside the Old Ale House pub have been told they can’t leave, according to the Salisbury Journal.”

          No reports of an army presence as far as I am aware.

  • Sharp Ears

    Going Underground

    In this episode, we speak to:
    . Paul Moore, the former head of regulatory risk-turned whistleblower at Halifax Bank of Scotland on the 10th anniversary of the collapse of Wall Street’s Lehman Brothers and the beginning of mass austerity
    . Rolling Stone journalist and author Matt Taibbi, who famously described Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity”
    . BROKEN NEWS with former Minister of State Norman Baker.

    https://www.rt.com/shows/going-underground/438526-lehman-brothers-collapse-anniversary/

  • alasdairB

    So a Russian run media company schedules a programme on the Salisbury incident and our own free press create a feeding frenzy played out on the BBC & ITV, & general media, casting doubts on the varacity of RT & the motives of the Russian State Broadcaster, which by the way holds a valid license to broadcast within the EU..The BBC, a bastion of probity ask us to only believe their take & trust them without doubt or criticism
    on all matters domestic & international, which of course is news supplied by Government departments & Ministers & which invariably repeats & reflects the opinions the same ministers & Government.
    Can anyone spot the difference between RT & our own self serving & Sychophantic media ?

    • Soothmoother

      I’ve no doubt RT is a propaganda channel as much as the BBC, CNN etc. However, the lies we are being fed are so blatant, the Russian counter propaganda just needs to be the truth.

    • Tony_0pmoc

      RobG,

      I thought you were having a laugh.

      For Fucks Sake

      They have already done that story several times before

      Are they reading Mein Kampf – Repeat Repeat Repeat..

      I always thought Luke was a twat, but sometimes I thought his Welsh mate was reasonably all right. He even published his accounts, and invited me to a Festival in Llangollen He hasn’t half written some shite recently though. They really do not like him on Off_Guardian…

      So who is going to start off an Off_Telegraph? Bryony looks good despite having to run with them.

      Oh Dear. They can’t be serious.

      I quite fancy an Indian Curry now, and I was never in to really big ones.

      Tony

    • uncle tungsten

      Thanks RobG, the imminent obliteration is precisely 50% of the Bliarite reasoning to split from Labor and form a new ‘centrist’ party. hopefully they will be consumed in the Tory conflagration. Pass the popcorn.

    • EricsEars

      I can see it as a game that Russian tourists are going to play: Go to Salisbury, sit at restaurant, eat food, go ‘Novichok!’ and pretend to be poisoned. Police come, BBC come, men in hazmat suits come. Leave without paying bill. Simples! Or as we now say; “Skripals!”.

  • Tony_0pmoc

    This is quite serious.

    We have got The BBC, ITV, Channel 4, The Guardian, The Times, The Telegraph and Even The Sun writing and producing complete NONSENSE as Directed by Her Majesty’s Goverment. They are Making it Up.

    Most of it is highly unlikely to be True.

    Oh Dear.

    I quite fancy a Strong Indian Curry now.

    Is anyone going to believe this?

    I may phone up the propaganda department in the morning, and ask them some straight questions.

    Tony

  • N_

    The police have stood down the major incident, saying that nothing suggests the two people have been exposed to “Novichok”, and that one of them is Russian.

    • bj

      You do realize it’s all about making Novichok and Russians household terms?

      It’s all evidence- and fact-free anyway.

  • Brian c

    It is unbelievable that any thinking person can see the BBC as anything other than the primary propaganda vehicle of the British state. When it cheekily made one miniscule effort to deviate from that role during the build-up to the Iraq war its chairman and director general were forced to resign. Since then it has achieved the impossible in getting worse. The only way the BBC will ever act as an effective opposition to the British government is if Jeremy Corbyn is elected prime minister.

    • Charles Bostock

      Is it the role of the BBC – or indeed of any national broadcaster in any country – to act as “an effective *opposition* to the sitting government?

      Isn’t that the job of the opposition political party or parties?

      • Brian c

        The BBC currently sees its role as criticizing the opposition party. Its attitude towards this shambolic government is typified by Robinson’s groveling interview.

      • Peter

        “Is it the role of the BBC – or indeed of any national broadcaster in any country – to act as “an effective *opposition* to the sitting government?”

        No, of course not. Carl Bernstein puts it perfectly, it is the role of the press/media/news producers to provide the “best obtainable version of the truth”. That means providing the best obtainable information and the best obtainable analysis of that information.

        Most governments, of course, and especially this one, would prefer the media didn’t do that and as this one appears to have it’s claws deep into the BBC it appears to be getting it’s way.

        Currently, the only hope for a rejuvenated BBC is a Corbyn government.

        The best available analysis of the history of the BBC is Tom Mills’, though I’m yet to see a thorough or convincing analysis of how the BBC has come to it’s current sorry state since the Hutton Enquiry.

        Carl Bernstein – The best obtainable version of the truth:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=16WiuU1Lbdw

        Tom Mills:

        https://twitter.com/ta_mills

  • Ronnie

    The MSM support the government and the government support the MSM – this means that the government support Israel – this is true in Europe and in the USA.

  • Sharp Ears

    The private equity types who own these chains of High Street nosheries must be sickened off by what’s happened and now happening in Salisbury,

    ‘Prezzo (“price” in Italian) is a chain of British-owned restaurants serving food inspired by Italian cuisine in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first restaurant opened on New Oxford Street, London in November 2000. There are now more than 200 branches across the country. It is part of Prezzo Holdings, owned by TPG Capital, which also operates the Chimichanga, Caffe Uno, MEXIco and Cleaver restaurant brands.’

    TPG Capital
    Private equity company tpg.com
    TPG Capital is an American investment company. It is one of the largest private equity investment firms in the world, focused on leveraged buyouts, growth capital and leveraged recapitalization investments in distressed companies and turnaround situations. ia
    Headquarters: San Francisco, California, United States
    Founded: 1992, Fort Worth, Texas, United States
    Total assets: 75 billion USD
    Subsidiaries: J.Crew, McAfee, Wind River Systems, MORE
    CEO: Jon Winkelried (Oct 2015–), James Coulter (1992–)
    Founders: James Coulter, David Bonderman, William S. Price III

    Similarly Zizzi, ref Skripals March 2018.
    zizzi.co.uk
    Zizzi is a chain of restaurants offering dishes inspired by Italian cuisine in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. The chain was founded in 1999. It was sold by Gondola Group along with ASK Italian for £250 million to Bridgepoint Capital in February 2015.

    The Bridgepoint European Board includes one Alan Milburn, ex BLiar Health Sec etc, multi millionaire etc., Milord Stuart Rose, ex M&S chair and two others, Chow and Idrac. http://www.bridgepoint.eu/en/about-us/european-advisory-board/

    Milord Patten, ex Gov General Hong Kong wa on the board. Previously chair of the BBC (in Savile’s time!) and now Chancellor of Oxford University.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridgepoint_Capital

    Bridgepoint is a giant US private equity outfit.

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