BBC need to fortify or shut the doors

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It doesn’t really matter to me how other people write their own history.  If Queens Park claim to be the same Club as the Queen of Clubs, they are welcome to, as long as they respectfully allow me to express scepticism.  Fortunately, Queens Park’s business model is not dependent on making such an outlandish claim.

A whole lot of nonsense has been written on the subject of a recently liquidated football club, “it was the holding company that was liquidated”, when it wasn’t actually a holding company, and then we have claims about advice from a “panel of the London Stock Exchange”, which was quickly withdrawn.

We are asked to believe that a football club cannot go out of business.  It’s an interesting thought, not one I subscribe to, but interesting nonetheless.  If you are happy with this belief, fair play to you, it doesn’t matter what anyone else believes.

I’ve met Jim Spence.  He’s a guy who emerged from the Dundee Untied fanzine world and established a reputable career in the game.  His affinity for United has never been hidden, nor should it be.  United, as all clubs, have gone through periods of turmoil but Jim has called things as he has seen them, with his own club, and with others.

This week Jim made a comment about a football club which went into liquidation.  It was more tempered than comments made by a former manager and director of the liquidated club, by the chief executive of its successor club, by all the contemporary newspaper coverage, and by the successor club’s current head of PR.  Despite this, Jim has been on the receiving end of a sustained campaign by the thought police.

Jim may privately think what those at the successor club once said, but if he also wants to express those thoughts, the consequences can be acute.

He’s not alone.  I know others in the media who have told me straight that they are not prepared to touch the Newco/Sameco subject, the resultant hassle is not what they got into journalism for.

Charlotte Fakes has given us a glimpse into how powerful people can manipulate and control Scotland.  It has given reason to pause ahead of next year’s big decisions.  The BBC and only the BBC are strong enough to stand up against bullying, you can forget the commercial media for one simple reason, this subject is the equivalent of commercial self-harm.

It wouldn’t seem like the weekend without Rangers International writing about going legal on someone or other, although I suspect they’ll be content having played to the gallery with this one and not trouble the BBC, but questions remain for the BBC, no matter what happens next.

I consume enormous volumes of BBC output every month, it is my first port of call for news, and often my last.  It is one of the best aspects of British life, but if it can be intimidated like the commercial media, there is no point in it existing in the first place.

Fortify your journalists or shut the doors.

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1,483 Comments

  1. Steinreignedsupreme on

    “England defender Kyle Walker will not face action after being pictured inhaling legal high”

     

     

    The world is beyond saving.

  2. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    Chavez

     

    12:15 on

     

    9 September, 2013

     

    Re Australia, after WWII they were terrified of an Asian influx of immigrants diluting their white paradise. Some Aussie veterans returning with war brides had schooled them in English so they’d get through the language test…only to discover that the authorities decided to test their knowledge of Gaelic!! Pretty sick, really.

     

     

    Sad to say you`re right.

     

    Mind you,a good number of Diggers were prisoners of war of the Japanese after the fall of Singapore.

  3. Haw….BMCUWP….

     

     

    How Are Things Working Out For You In Swindon…..

     

     

     

    Having Given Over The Run Of Your Pad To A Family Of ‘Needy’ Economic Migrants

     

     

    Settling For A Kitchen Cupboard As Your ‘Own Wee Space’……

     

     

    Where You Sleep With Your Bespoke Winkle-Pickers,Your Monthly Change Of Y-Fronts……

     

     

    And Plenty Of ‘Swaallae’….?

     

     

    Still….Laughin’…..

     

     

    (Off Oot)

  4. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS forza Oscar and Mackenzie on

    STEINREIGNEDSUPREME

     

     

    Most desirable?

     

     

    A very good point. Personally I don’t have many problems with immigration,mainly because if I lived in some of the Godforsaken hellholes they are escaping from,I would want to live somewhere that gave me and mine a better life.

     

     

    The idea that these unfortunate people should only be entitled to move to the nearest safe country is risible in an age when local disputes transmute to regional conflagrations.

     

     

    No-one feels safe till they are well clear of their persecutors. A few miles down the road doesn’t do that.

     

     

    Additionally,a previously stable country with a civil war on its borders can be destabilised by refugees.

     

     

    Seven million from Syria alone.

     

     

    The potential domino effect should be sufficient for The UN to rethink the “nearest safe country” idea.

     

     

    It is flawed,and dangerous.

  5. Hamiltontim is praying for Oscar on

    ernie lynch

     

    11:00 on

     

    9 September, 2013

     

    Hamiltontim is praying for Oscar

     

     

    10:52 on 9 September, 2013

     

     

    ‘Ernie

     

     

    What’s the Pope got to do with it?’

     

     

    ####

     

     

    Well we’ve been told on here that this new Aussie PM is a great bloke and a Catholic so that’s just great, what with him being a Catholic and everything and isn’t it great that this guy’s a Catholic and he must be humane and decent because he’s a Catholic.

     

     

    But it seems that every Catholic organisation in Australia is opposed to the country’s treatment of refugees.

     

     

    So I just wondered what the Pope might think about it.

     

     

    What do you think the Pope might think of it all?

     

     

     

    ——————-

     

     

    C’mon Ernie you’re not really interested in what the Pope thinks at all are you? You’re only interested in point scoring and using underhand, cheap tactics to do so.

     

     

    If you have a point to make then make it.

  6. Stairheedrammy says cmon Oscar on

    Livibhoy- looks like the MSM are trying to ignore it- more interesting would be the reaction from the English fan sites- especially villa

  7. TheOriginalSadiesBhoy on

    sydneytim

     

     

    12:20 on 9 September, 2013

     

    Summi. Thanks for update

     

     

    Are we in oz quick news

     

     

    Ozzie males couldn’t spell manners or know what deorderant is

     

    ……………………..

     

     

    Love it. Post of the day :-))

  8. Steinreignedsupreme on

    macjay1 for Neil Lennon 12:19 on 9 September, 2013

     

     

    “Agreed.

     

    “But cheats rob the disadvantaged and should be brought to account.”

     

     

    The problem is consistency.

     

     

    People in authority generally get away with robbing the disadvantaged, while people with nothing get the book thrown at them.

     

     

    I think there is a lot of hypocrisy as well with the immigration issue. And the saddest thing about it is many of the arguments around immigration have not changed in 150 years.

  9. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS forza Oscar and Mackenzie

     

    12:24 on

     

    9 September, 2013

     

     

    One wee thing.

     

    Please keep an open mind on Tony Abbott.

     

    The blurb isn`t always accurate.

  10. Hamiltontim is praying for Oscar on

    Around 1847 and the years following the Famine in Ireland approximately 1.5 million people departed their native shores in need of refuge.

     

     

    Many of those set sail with the intention of reaching America. Thank God there weren’t CQN posters on the landing quay.

  11. SteinRS

     

     

    Most desirable?

     

     

    Lets be honest, most financially rewarding! I know the majority are real refugees who flee by just jumping on the first plane/boat and have no care where they end up, but lets be fair many do care.

  12. thebhoywithmcgraininhisside on

    macjay1 for neil lennon

     

     

    12:15 on 9 September, 2013

     

     

    I only brought it up because of your snottery reply to the last poster who dared point out your poor sentence structure. I’m glad you now realise the inadequacy of your syntax:o)

     

     

    As for Australia having the right to decide who comes into their country, everyone has the right to refuse anyone entry into their home. However, it is the reasons for doing so that are judged. “I tell you truely whatever you did not do for the least of these, you did not do for me.” (Matthew 25:45)

     

     

    Setting a refugee quota at any figure is irrational. What if applicant 6000 & 6001 are children of the same family and their mother is called Sophie?

     

     

    Gandhi said “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

  13. BOBBY MURDOCH'S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS forza Oscar and Mackenzie on

    MACJAY

     

     

    Tony Abbot will do what he thinks is right,expedient,and politic.

     

     

    He has earned that right,though I hope he tempers his rhetoric with a simple humanity. Not always easy,with power comes responsibility,etc.

     

     

    I’ll judge him by his actions,not his rhetoric.

     

     

    I certainly won’t judge him after a weekend.

  14. LiviBhoy - God bless wee Oscar on

    Stairheedrammy says cmon Oscar

     

     

    Checked a few English sites. Very positive but focus is on the wee boy from 1 Direction.

     

     

    LB

  15. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    Steinreignedsupreme

     

    12:31 on

     

    9 September, 2013

     

    People in authority generally get away with robbing the disadvantaged, while people with nothing get the book thrown at them.

     

     

    The irony is that one of the reasons the Liberals were elected here was because of the corruption of N.S.W.State Labor Party and Union officials.

     

    Staggering abuse of the people they claimed to represent…..the poorest workers and the most disadvantaged.

  16. GivehimthemoneyPeterCSC on

    Lots of sweeping generalisations about refugees and Aussies , please show a bit of respect to each

  17. Joe Filippis Haircut on

    I see certain fans of certain clubs bleating about Celtic fans booing Terry and Cueler I would normally respond in defence of Celtic and the support.However,after yesterdays superb turnout of the Celtic family and the superb out pouring of the Celtic spirit I think It is best to leave them bleating in there own ignorance. H.H.

  18. Steinreignedsupreme on

    BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS forza Oscar and Mackenzie 12:24 on 9 September, 2013

     

     

    I agree with those sentiments.

     

     

    I’ve been an immigrant living abroad, and like many on here come from immigrants. I also know many immigrants where I now stay.

     

     

    Some of them are very well educated people serving chips for a living – and not even earning minimum wage.

  19. thebhoywithmcgraininhisside on

    greenjedi

     

     

    12:36 on 9 September, 2013

     

     

    If a refugee has for example no family in his surrounding countries but a brother living 4 countries across are you saying that he should be denied the right to seek to live with his brother? Even though his children would most probably adapt much more quickly and be happier in the company of their cousins?

  20. macjay1 for Neil Lennon on

    BOBBY MURDOCH’S CURLED-UP WINKLEPICKERS forza Oscar and Mackenzie

     

    12:38 on

     

    9 September, 2013

     

     

    Glad to hear that.

     

    Humanity? Have a look at the work he has done personally in and with Aboriginal communities.

     

    Boots on the ground work.

  21. Re economic migrants – 40,000 Irish people moved to Australia in the last two years alone. Scotland and Ireland have a long history of people emigrating to improve their economic prospects…because it makes sense. People go where the jobs are.

     

     

    As for asylum seekers, they tend to come from the world’s most troubled places. I used to teach English to asylum seekers in Glasgow about ten years ago. They were from Somalia, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Kosovo etc…all places with ongoing wars and/or brutal dictators.

     

     

    One thing always missing from debates about migration is the cause of migration. What can we do to make people want to stay with their friends and families in thir own countries, rather than leave them behind to risk moving to an alien culture? Stop arming their dictators would be good. Stop crippling them with debt. Stop flooding their markets with our heavily subsidised agricultural produce. All of them would make a huge difference – but money talks.

  22. BMCUW @ 12 24 . .

     

     

    ” 7 million from Syria alone ”

     

     

    Indeed !

     

     

    Figures for South East Sicily say approximately 10 k Syrians landed in August . More arrive every day . Many are wandering about places like Siracusa and Pachino waiting to do the paperwork . Spoke with 3 Syrian guys on a beach near Pozzallo recently . Excellent English . They told me that the gangsters that transported them across the Med had informed them they were going to Cyprus. . They landed in Sicily thinking they were in Cyprus

  23. TootingTim supports Wee Oscar on

    Morning,

     

     

    wasn’t there an Oz govt minister who justified the ten pound pom scheme way back when with:

     

     

    ” Two Wongs don’t make a white.”

     

     

    HH!

  24. lymmbhoy

     

     

    12:34 on 9 September, 2013

     

    Sydneytim

     

    Spot on, been here 18 months and keep getting the same impression.

     

     

    You two must frequent some real dives or you need to get out from your ghettos a bit more.

     

     

    XenophobiaRules

  25. 13:33 on 9 September, 2013

     

    Morning,

     

     

    wasn’t there an Oz govt minister who justified the ten pound pom scheme way back when with:

     

     

    ” Two Wongs don’t make a white.”

     

     

    Arthur Calwell, Labor Minister for Immigration and later Labor Leader who was shafted by Gough Whitlam.

     

     

    “Calwell was born in Melbourne. His father was a police officer of Irish descent, and both father and son were active in Melbourne’s Irish community (including membership of the Celtic Club).”