Agenda 2019

  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/kay-burley-more-than-1100-people-have-complained-about-the-reporters-alton-towers-coverage-10315127.html?origin=internalSearch   Petition to sack Sky News presenter hits 35,000 after Alton Towers interview Kay Burley. An obnoxious, ignorant and patronising woman I first signed the "Sack Kay Burley" petition some 2 years ago after witnessing yet another of her "interviews", that time with a protester outside the Houses of Parliament. Since then, she has appeared regularly on the screens of "Sky News" (not to mention her "performance" on the Dancing on Ice show)demonstrating time after time her obnoxious, ignorant and patronising interview techniques to all. She is also frequently boorish towards other Sky News reporters and presenters . How this awful woman manages to retain employment with organisation is quite incredible. She must have something on those people at Sky responsi...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/generalelection/general-election-debates-2015-broadcasters-to-go-ahead-with-programmes-despite-prime-ministers-absence-10091669.html Tories go to war over BBC's 'institutional arrogance' Election 2015: Seven-party TV debate plan Cameron and the Conservatives, demonstrating all too clearly how holding political office generates and perpetuates arrogance and contempt for any who disagree with them. As someone once said in a different context, "Who does this guy Cameron actually think he is?" The "final offer" from the Prime Minister implies he believes that nothing can take place unless it is on his terms, in his timescale and in his format. At the end of the day, during election campaigning and on the hustings, Cameron is no more important than a couple of thousand other men and women, many of whom are seeking to satisfy their own ego's by attempting to enter the House of Commons as MP...

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/reviews/broadchurch-review-the-stakes-are-finally-high-but-can-we-forgive-the-implausible-plotlines-10049584.html Broadchurch: Can we forgive the implausible plot lines?        Last week, I posed the question "I shall continue to watch as the programme cannot get any more unbelievable.Can it?" and doubted if this "serial soap" could get any worse. I was wrong, because not only has it got worse,it has also become the vehicle for yet another gay affair/relationship. It also is incredible that the story line persists with the pacemaker nonsense of Alec telling people that he thought that he would not recover from the anesthetic. I realise that the programme was recorded some time ago, but a pair of scissors to remove this glaringly mistaken line would have not have even been noticed. I repeat what I said last week "Why Alec Hardy was lingering at deaths door and under general anesthetic...

Now the "Americanism" is now part of our language. Do you? Another Americanism creeps into use on television, on the BBC News as well as SKY . Even the media are caught up in this swing towards the American rather than the usual UK use of words and phraseology.  This time it seems we now use the word "homicide" rather than the UK English "murder" to refer to unlawful killing. Not that the word "homicide" is wrong, it is just not what we have historically used to describe that crime. Too many American "cop" shows on television have no doubt ingrained the "American" language into the minds of the viewer who now accept and even use the phraseology in their everyday lives. Kojak, Colombo, LA Law, Miami Vice and others, even going back to Dragnet, have been littered with variations ad nauseum, of the  the "I am lootenant Colombo LA Police Homicide" introduction of the character. Even the British Police seem to b...

                                     http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/12/28/david-blunkett-tv-regulation_n_4512182.html?utm_hp_ref=uk  David Blunkett Says Satirical TV Shows Need Tighter Regulation The Rt Hon David Blunkett MP Blunkett seeks to put the self interests of politicians above criticism and comment. On a daily basis, politicians of all parties, leave themselves open to ridicule and mockery, with their pomposity, arrogance and hypocrisy. Were it not for Satirical TV Shows, people like Blunkett (who is probably not the worst of a poor bunch) would have carte blanche, to trot out their prejudices without any possibility of widely circulated public comment. To propose, as Blunkett does, that such television shows "Need Tighter Regulation" suggests a desper...

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2013/03/27/sky-news-or-fox-news-peer_n_2963232.html?utm_hp_ref=uk Sky News Or Fox News? Peers Suggest Ditching Impartiality Rules Adam Boulton Bill O'Reily leaving Fox ?  Sky News is already politically biased. It is just that Fox News is far more obnoxious in its presentation. As they are both part of the same empire, we should be thankful that O'Riely has not got a permanent slot following "Boulton and Co"............Yet !

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/comment/simon-english-if-man-united-shares-get-any-lower-expect-glazers-to-grab-first-chance-of-an-exit-8038685.html  No one thinks the Glazers have any interest in football or the desires of the fans. They want to make cash, and have done so. Football in this country died when money became more important than talent. At one time, players would have pulled on a club, or country shirt and played for £20.00 per week, or in the case of country shirt probably for the price of getting to the stadium, but Jimmy Hill changed all that in 1961. The first question that a player asks today seems to be "Will my match fee cover a new Ferrari and I also need a new WAG?". However, I think that even Jimmy Hill would be appalled at the obscene amount of money sloshing around in the game today. Television rights running into £ billions, franchises in the same amounts, transfer fees,"floating clubs on the stock exchanges of the worl...

An open letter to Alan Duncan, Stella Creasy, Mark Oaten, Fraser Nelson and Victoria Coren, regarding last night's (31 st May 2012) Question Time on BBC Television.    At 24 minutes into the programme, a Mr Simon MacCausland asked “Would the UK be justified in banning Syrian delegation members with connections to the Assad regime, from the London 2012 Olympics?” The uprising in Syria has been on going for over a year and during that time, there have been numerous atrocities carried out across the country but, regardless of who carried out this latest atrocity in Houla, be it “armed gangs” as claimed by the Assad regime, or Assad's forces and militia as claimed by the opposition, this event in itself should be recognised as a crime against humanity and those responsible should be held to account. The debate and comments during the next 11 minutes was predominately centred on the barbarity of the Assad regime and what, if anything, could be done by the internationa...

“Inside the Titanic. An ambitious factual drama that reveals moment by moment exactly how the Titanic sank, telling the untold stories of the engineers and stokers who battled the icy water.” If television companies plan to show programmes under the description of factual drama, they should at least ensure that the factual content of the presentation are accurate. Last nights (22nd March 2012) offering over 2 hours on Channel 5, was full of fabrication and historical inaccuracies from start to finish. Titanic carried a total of 20 lifeboats not 16 as stated in the programme. It was the Board of Trade regulations which stated that vessels over 10,000 tons must carry that number (together with rafts and floats for 75% of the lifeboats) which had nothing to do with the number of water tight c ompartments. The orders given by First Officer Murdoch (after the lookouts sighted the iceberg) were “Hard a'starboard”, “Full a'stern” “Close water tight doors” “Hard a...