Ernie- I see you've joined Cosicave sitting on the fence. Come on -what do you really feel about our Bernie?
Right, Genji, I've had a look and there are already several facebook pages up and running. Do we start one of our own or back those which are already there? I'm inclined to think that one strong one with a huge following will be more effective than lots of little ones but maybe we could back those already there with our not 606 one if we set it up. What do you think? I'm increasingly incensed by the BBC's head-in-the-sand attitude and, if the responses to Ben Gallop's blog are anything to go by, so are at least 6000 other people. The BBC also tried to bury his blog but people found it and have complained so much that they did this. Now they have relented and made it visible again. It seems they may be starting to appreciate that this scandal cannot be sunk.
I don't know, Max. Are any of them suggesting affirmative action like a mass boycott of one of this season's races or an organised social networking assault? I think we need to get organised on Twitter. That's what most of the media seem to report these days. Facebook died a death after 'RIP Raoul Moat you leg end'. Perhaps we should share Twitter nicks and retweet each others' abuse? I mean lots of us, not just you and me.
Well isnt Bernie just the most and complete utter ****ing little greedy prick that has ever existed on this ****ing planet.
Well, I don't use facebook and don't have a twitter account, though I will set one up for this purpose if it's worth it. Incidentally, I'd like to suggest we all make an official complaint to the BBC, if you haven't already. https://www.bbc.co.uk/complaints/forms/ This way it is officially logged and they must respond.
Incidentally, this thing about the Concorde agreement and that key loophole word "only". Isn't it true that 50% of next year's races will "only" be on pay TV? Wouldn't that break the agreement?
What kinds of complaints have people made to the BBC? I can only really think of two: firstly, that they're entering a partnership with Murdoch's insidious empire and, finally, that they're cutting F1 with blatant and astonishing contempt for their licence fee-paying customers instead of tackling waste and closing sectors of the business that have minimal audiences.
Unufortunately, I very much doubt it. The Concorde agreement makes no specifics relating to full coverage for every race throughout a season; it remains vague with a general statement that it simply be available on Free to view TV. As far as I know, this does not imply that every race be shown 'live' on Free to View. Alas, the Concorde Agreement was conveniently vague. Clever old Bernie eh?…
The BBC is a government agency. The government of this country are once again adopting a contemptuous attitude towards the UK's long-suffering, tax-paying, TV Licence paying public. The government of this country have facilitated Murdoch's rise for nigh-on 40 years; they have allowed him to infiltrate our most prestigious Police Force and to intrude into the lives of the commoner. The BBC and Murdoch are very closely related: they are both a means of propaganda for the government and an effective means of control of public opinion through the information they allow, or spin, or disallow. It is important that people see the big picture in this. The government would far prefer to allow Murdoch to quietly continue undisturbed, keeping everything hush-hush, just as the Metropolitan Police did and would still like to. The whole thing has become an embarrassment for them all, but only because it has come out into the public domain. The whole establishment of this country is to blame for what Murdoch is being allowed to do to international sport; the media; the public; and now the extorted F1 fan. It is too easy to suggest there are 'comfortable arrangements' for those who go along with Murdoch: it is patently clear that he is a man of dubious integrity. Yet even in the face of the current scandal, he is rewarded with what he really wanted: F1! It would be laughable if it was a Shakespeare Farce. But it's not on stage and is very notFunny!
Well mine went like this: I must register my disgust at your new deal with Sky. You have betrayed your paying customers and you have betrayed Britain. You say you need to save money, so do we but now we must pay much, much more to watch the sport we love(d). You have a duty to licence payers but you have conned us and have the audacity to tell us this is a good deal for us, adding insult to injury. You risk making criminals of law-abiding people who will seek illegal streams rather than pay the Murdoch dollar. Many, like me, cannot afford his prices. You should be duty-bound to show F1: it is part of our culture, it is a great British business and most of all it is a sport in which we continue to excel, unlike most others. You should also be duty-bound to respond to our protestations but Ben Gallop, Head of F1's blog has been hidden from main sport and F1 pages, countless people's comments have been removed by censors and no response from Ben to over 5500 comments of complaint, and counting despite making his page less accessible. May I remind you that you are a public service and we are the public who pay you to serve us? It is intolerable arrogance to ignore our ire. You should be ashamed of yourselves for betraying a regular 6 million viewers and for sabotaging a global sport which has been a great British success story, as F1 will surely wither without easy access for potential future fans. Please do not tell me that this is a good deal; no one I know believes this. Please do reconsider and find a way to keep F1 accessible to all, otherwise I want a licence fee reduction, say just 50%. After all, I need to make cost cuts in my life too.
Nice one Max. Let's hope that they continue to be bombarded with similar stuff. The whole thing stinks, particularly in light of the recent Murdoch/News Corp scandal.
Thanks! Ben Gallop's blog has now been closed to comments, despite the fact that there was still a constant stream of complaint being posted there and Andrew Benson has instructed us not to post comments about the Sky deal on his blog. Really?! They are so out of touch with public feeling on this subject. It's being ignored by the news; I've found more written about the public anger in the French media than I have in ours! I guess they feel more free to comment objectively than our media do. Anyway, Please do complain. Make several on different angles: the licence fee; the Murdoch factor; the waste of £900m on Salford; 22m for 'The Voice' etc.; the threat to British jobs and business etc. This site may be useful: http://saveformula1.com/organisations-to-write-to/ A list of addresses to complain to.
