Off Topic The Politics Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!

Should the UK remain a part of the EU or leave?

  • Stay in

    Votes: 56 47.9%

  • Get out

    Votes: 61 52.1%
  • Total voters
    117
  • Poll closed .
Fiona Bruce apologises for appearing to dismiss Stanley Johnson's wife-beating as a 'one-off'. I haven't watched QT for years because of its pro-Tory bias (apparently it was decreed that the audience should reflect the government's majority), but I'm told by friends that Bruce regularly steps in to contradict anti-government comments. The BBC has become so cowed by constant (unfounded in my opinion) accusations of left wing bias that it has become an organ of the Tory party.
 
Uber_Hoop said:
I’ve been trying to get animated about the Lineker thing but in all honesty I can’t. Had he given his views during a BBC broadcast it would be different, but this isn’t the case. On his own Twitter account I’d have thought him perfectly at liberty to say what he wants. If you disagree then engage with him or ignore it.

The most interesting thing for me is how this further highlights the shift in the political divide. I increasingly get the impression that the old left/right division has changed and is less about (say) classes and haves/have nots, and now more about social liberal ideals. I suspect many so-called working class people are more supportive of the government taking measures to curb illegal (not legal) immigration than they are of Lineker’s position (at least that’s what my tea leaves are telling me).

As far as the Beeb is concerned, I’d clear out all the highly paid presenters every 5 years or so anyway. Why does the Beeb need to pay Lineker more the £1m? Let him go to Sky or whatever and bring on the next generation for a quarter of that or less. Same with his fellow pundits and common ‘taters.

P.S. on the Beeb bias point I’d say it’s clear in this instance that they’ve caved in to pressure. Suspect this Tweet is the proverbial straw.
Click to expand...
You're right Uber - the older left/right division has changed. In the past so called far left politics were focussed on collective ownership of the means of production and exchange and on everything which increased the class consciousness necessary for class revolution - against this background Marxists would have been against immigration because it divided the working class along ethnic lines. Marx himself was a definite racist and Engels stated that those races and cultures which could not develop a proletarian consciousness would be cast on the dungheap of history (so much for socialist internationalism). At the same time the Nazis had a left wing group (Strasserism) which wanted to bring all industry into public hands. So which is left and which is right ? Nazism was very deeply anti Capitalist so were they left wing ? Surely, according to this 'far right' politics means neo liberalism and free marketeering and the issue of race has nothing to do with the left-right spectrum. I like living in a multi cultural society but this has nothing to do with my politics - racism can be found on all points of the political spectrum.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kiwiqpr and Uber_Hoop
bobmid said:
What were corbyns nazi-like antisemitic policies?
And Staines, make sure you look at yourself hard in the mirror. Get your Mrs to help if necessary
Click to expand...

Corbyn's Labour was investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for antisemitism. He was found culpable and kicked out of the Labour Party for his anti-Jewish activities and those of his henchmen. I believe the first politician so investigated since Mosley's British Fascist Party.
 
Goldhawk-Road said:
Corbyn's Labour was investigated by the Equality and Human Rights Commission for antisemitism. He was found culpable and kicked out of the Labour Party for his anti-Jewish activities and those of his henchmen. I believe the first politician so investigated since Mosley's British Fascist Party.
Click to expand...
I think you misunderstood my question. What were his nazi-like antisemitic policies you mention?
 
sb_73 said:
Regardless of who the broadcaster is the presenters views should be restricted to appropriate channels. If they are reading the news, or presenting a football show, that would not be the place to spout personal political opinions. If they are being interviewed about their opinions, or their job is to give their opinions - like Portillo and Abbott on that show with Andrew Neill which was stupidly cancelled leading to his GB News fiasco - and it’s always clear that they are giving a personal opinion, that’s fine. Some people are there to have opinions for money - like Clarkson and Liddle in the papers. They are still employees.

Is ITN meant to be impartial too? Always seems it to me. Sky not sure, but the credibility of a news channel must to some extent depend on at least an attempt at objectivity/balance. Where this isn’t the case - Fox in the US, GB News and Channel 4 news here - you just have an echo chamber largely viewed by people who want to hear their own opinions shouted back at them so they can agree the **** out of it.

If the broadcaster has rules about use of social media (don’t know if the BBC has) then the presenter would have to decide whether they are happy to follow the rules or resign. The company I used to work for was very clear on this. Use social media as you wish, including for political reasons, but don’t discuss our products or our competitors, and, of course, don’t engage in illegal stuff, incitement to violence, racist comments etc.

Not in response to your question, but it’s just occurred to me that Lineker and his colleagues were allowed, probably encouraged, to talk about and highlight human rights issues in Qatar while working for the BBC during the World Cup. Yet he is castigated for using a personal platform to comment on human rights in his own country? Smacks of Stainsey’s favourite word….hypocrisy.

Football Focus and Final Score dropped as no one is prepared to present them. Sadly this is overtaking discussion and debate around the immigration policy itself. Braverman must be delighted.
Click to expand...

Yes, I agree that Lineker is perfectly entitled to give his opinion on anything.
I think his use of a comparison to Nazi Germany was ridiculous and is probably what lead to a lot of the outrage.
I would expect all TV stations to have unbiased news coverage, although as you point out, some definitely don't.
I do think a publicly funded broadcaster should be unbiased.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sb_73
daverangers said:
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/entertainment-arts-64895316

Football Focus will not be broadcast today as Alex Scott and other presenters pull out in support of Lineker. It seems everyone who presents anything football related is backing him. Shows that a) he really is a very powerful figure and b) he must be a decent bloke, and good to work with otherwise surely some of these presenters would be taking the opportunity to stab him in the back. Quite telling that no one who works closely with him has backed the BBC.
Click to expand...
And for some of these people, like Jason Mohammed, presenting final score etc is their real job, they probably don’t have millions to fall back on. Impressive solidarity though I’m not quite sure it’s worth it.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kiwiqpr
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back