Channel 4 to be privatised

[om15]

There is much to be gloomy about these days, however occasionally the sun comes out and cheers us all up.
Channel 4 news is no longer going to enjoy being able to hiss and shriek their anti Tory bilge at our expense, well done Boris, the BBC next would be a great thing. I haven't watched Channel 4 since around 1985 but I understand that it is most unpleasant.

[llondel]

I suspect that Channel 4 is a test run for doing the same to the BBC in the future.

[TheGreenGoblin]

There is much to be gloomy about these days, however occasionally the sun comes out and cheers us all up.
Channel 4 news is no longer going to enjoy being able to hiss and shriek their anti Tory bilge at our expense, well done Boris, the BBC next would be a great thing. I haven't watched Channel 4 since around 1985 but I understand that it is most unpleasant.

Go and live in Russia, right now. You might actually be happy there!

EDITED to remove a personal attack - don't do it!

[barkingmad]

Once upon a time I would have happily signed the 38Degrees petition to leave Channel4 alone to it's ramblings as a supposedly public service broadcaster.

They have produced and transmitted some good programs in the past but their record on the Brexit controversy and their supine grovelling adherence to the "official narrative" on the plandemic has destroyed any support I might have had for them.

Just as the Beeb seems to be indulging in the longest suicide note in history, by it's output and fixations on issues which the man on the Clapham omnibus has no interest whatosoever, so goes Channel4 and whatever happens to them it is their fault and not that of the Nadine Dorries' privatisation obsession.

[TheGreenGoblin]

the Brexit controversy

You mean the Brexit con surely...

[barkingmad]

the Brexit controversy

You mean the Brexit con surely...

The people voted for it, despite the £9,300,000 of their money being blown on the “Vote Remain” leaflet.

The politicians, starting with Theresa May or May Not followed by Johnson, failed in the correct prompt execution of the task assigned to them by the peasants and here we are with the current shambles.

Next slide please...

[om15]

There are those few people who still feel that Brexit was the wrong thing to do, but very few these days, often the complaints are voiced by people who came to Great Britain because their own countries failed and are angry that we reject the political views that led to their own demise, Zoe Strimpel has summed the situation up quite well in this article,

In the cultured, metropolitan circles of contemporary Britain you are just as likely to find yourself in the midst of a stimulating conversation about a new opera or play as you are a dreary sneer-fest about how dreadful this nation is. About what a laughing stock we have become in the world, what utter, pathetic fools government ministers are, and what a mess we are in since leaving the EU. Everything we do, according to these people, can only ever be unethical, craven, stupid, corrupt.

If only this endless, haranguing anti-Britain perspective was just tiresome. But it is mad as well as bad, a pathology so tenacious and distorting that it seeks to turn the best things about us into further evidence of our rottenness. It is a fatal attraction to making enormous toxic mountains out of molehills.

There is more than a shred of Remainiac venom in the relentless condemnation of Britain still afoot. It’s there in Partygate, a matter so trivial, in the scheme of things, that no other ruling party in the world would be brought to its knees by it. It’s there in the reaction to the Rwanda asylum plan (a policy that has yet to be pulled off without disaster, but which, based on initial reports into what the asylum seekers can expect there, is not as awful and inhumane as the Britain-haters want to believe). And it’s there, mystifyingly, in our handling of Ukraine.

Britain’s self-loathing problem hangs itself on whatever is going. In the case of Partygate, it’s a hugely over-egged question of which ministers secretly consumed which foodstuffs in company, where and for how long during lockdown. There is some understandable anger among parts of the electorate over this, but in the main it has simply become an excuse for distorting or drowning out everything else going on. Like trying to come up with a workable border policy. Or our exemplary attempts to save Europe from the grotesque ambition of a malign, nuke-happy Russia.

The most embarrassing thing of all about Partygate is that in almost any other country, it wouldn’t even bubble to the surface. This is partly because most places are actually in worse shape than Britain, and next to the unrest and discontent they face, a scandal over cakes and ale would be, well, a luxury. A joke.

Look at France, convulsing with violent social and economic strife so dire that it is now on the brink of voting in either Emmanuel Macron, a man who is loathed by most of the country, or Marine Le Pen, considered by many as a far right stick of dynamite. Would a scandal over cake really gain traction there?

What about in the US, where Biden opens his mouth only to put his foot in it, and each day sees a new low in America’s bitter, self-immolating culture wars? I don’t think Americans would have the bandwidth or interest in an illicit lockdown gathering, what with their other fish to fry.

Partygate is not only insignificant next to what else is going on, it also misrepresents Britain’s Covid response in order, once again, to make us seem like fools. The funny thing is, as those now riding the Partygate wagon used to wail, the British response was actually seen by many as too soft-touch.

They make it sound like Britons were truly under the lock and key of an authoritarian state, when really we had one of the shortest and, taking the whole pandemic together, least onerous lockdowns. We never had to fill in forms to be inspected by police if we wanted to step outside our front doors, as happened in Italy, Spain and Germany. We weren’t followed by drones to the supermarket, as also happened on the Continent. We’ve never had to show vaccine paperwork to go on trains, or in restaurants or museums, as was the case in many US states and again, Europe. And we were one of the first Western countries to shed restrictions entirely.

In short, the fashion to insist that Boris and co are “criminals” unfit to run the country, or to handle the Ukraine crisis, is pure topsy-turveydom and hyperbole. Comedian Nish Kumar’s wilfully stupid, wildly popular tweet sums up the problem neatly. “If the Prime Minister didn’t know a birthday party was violating his own f** lockdown rules maybe it’s not a great idea to have him in charge of a country during a f** war.” This was liked by no fewer than 118,600 people.

It is sad, really, that this is all they can see. That in their myopic world, it matters not that in the face of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the daily butchery of innocents and existential threat to the West resulting from it, Britain’s response has been the strongest in the West. That our contribution of aid and weaponry, which has already led to important victories, may well staunch the worst of the Russian threat. That last week Boris actually turned up in Kyiv to meet with Zelensky, a gutsier move than any of his counterparts have managed, and garnered praise from Zelensky for “helping more” than other leaders in the West.

If we get rid of Boris now because of wine and sandwiches, Ukraine, and world peace, also takes a hit.

But the bigger truth is this: Britain is not rubbish, not even close - a truth that is self-evident in comparison with the rest of the West and indeed the world.

We are not perfect. The Government often appears mystifyingly silly, as well as wrong-headed, on numerous issues.

But compared to what else is out there? I think we’ve got it pretty good.



Brexit is the best thing to happen to the UK since Trafalgar, an 80 seat majority proved that.

Boris Johnson is a great man, and Great Britain is a great place.

[barkingmad]

om15, nice one, but wait for the incoming fire due anytime soon.

Despite protestations from some here there are still many closet Marxists or at least Lefty’s here who will foam at the gob over your quoted article so apoplexy is never far away, particularly if “drink has been taken” as we say in Oireland.

[Boac]

We are wandering far away from the thread topic, but.................

Boris Johnson is a great man,

Until we have a proper Prime Minister that privatises the NHS, Border Force, parts of the Police Service, disbands the BBC, carries out massive purges of leftie councils we are stuck with it.
We need a proper right wing PM, not this wet leftie, socialism simply does not work

Someone logging in using your username, om, or has something miraculous happened?

[TheGreenGoblin]

We are wandering far away from the thread topic, but.................

Boris Johnson is a great man,

Until we have a proper Prime Minister that privatises the NHS, Border Force, parts of the Police Service, disbands the BBC, carries out massive purges of leftie councils we are stuck with it.
We need a proper right wing PM, not this wet leftie, socialism simply does not work

Someone logging in using your username, om, or has something miraculous happened?

The level of delusion in this splenetic or, perhaps, sclerotic, and contradictory, outburst would be tragic, or worrisome, if it wasn't so funny...

Purges, lefties, privatisation... blah blah...

It is straight out of The Rise and Fall of...

[om15]

When we look at the actions, responses and evasions of Macron, Merkel and Biden over Ukraine and the response of the United Kingdom any normal person would give Boris Johnson credit for his actions.
Being banned from Moscow is quite an accolade, as is being banned from other totalitarian establishments, don't you think?

[Boac]

Now we know the 'miracle' (it is Easter, after all). Hallejulah. You just need to be banned from Russia. Great PM! Shame he isn't banned from Downing Street. That would be a miracle.

[TheGreenGoblin]

Now we know the 'miracle' (it is Easter, after all). Hallejulah. You just need to be banned from Russia. Great PM! Shame he isn't banned from Downing Street. That would be a miracle.

Amen to that.

Johnson needs those images and photo's of himself clinging like a remora to Zalenski's heroic international stature, to save his misbegotten premiership, even more than Zalenski needs arms from any nation that will provide them!

[barkingmad]

om15 sez:---"Being banned from Moscow is quite an accolade, as is being banned from other totalitarian establishments, don't you think?"

'Snot only Johnson, amongst others, who's been banned from Russia.

The Supreme Leader of the Democratic Republic of Jockistan, one Wee Nicola Krankie was also included on the list of undesirables.

But also missing was Ian Blackhead, our favourite SNP irritating bedbug in Westmonster despite his 'boss' being nominated for an award.

And strangely the mad Viet-Taff Supremo Mark Drakefart did not make the finalist lineup, I wonder why?!

Sadly NornIron didn't even get a nomination either, though they couldn't find a Supreme Leader of whom anyone had heard...

Now get your heads down folks, the red pen wielding housemaster will be along soon howling "Thread Drift!", an observation rarely heeded previously when highlighted by one of the troops but is now suddenly an indictable offence...

[barkingmad]

Is this a distraction technique to distance themselves, along with all the other meeja outlets who happily profited from featuring the 'talents' of the suddenly unclean leper?

https://dailysceptic.org/2023/09/21/gen ... lockdowns/

"Following the programme, a spokesperson for Channel4 said: "We've taken down all content featuring Russell Brand while we look into the matter.
This includes episodes of The Great British Bake Off and the Big Brother box sets that he appeared on."

So were their execs asleep at the wheel when he was ranting on their channel?

But what a good idea to blame GenerationX, whoever they are, and the 'plague' lockdowns to help us forget their part in his rise to infamy!

[OneHungLow]

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

More like the Daily Septic...

A Covid conspiracy petri dish... quelle surprise!

Now if BM had put forward a proposition running along the lines of "the internet, and social media have resulted in alteration in the way people process and convey information, and may have impacted the ability of people to discuss or debate complex subjects", then one might be more apt to listen to the argument.

https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-ente ... 15712.html

Social media has left Gen Z without the skills needed for the workplace, including the ability to get along with colleagues who might have diffeent views, Channel 4’s boss has claimed.

Alex Mahon, chief executive of Channel 4, said in a recent talk that Gen Z – those born between 1997 and 2012 (young people aged roughly between 11 and 26 years old) – are coming into the workplace without the ability to “debate things” or “disagree”.

Increasingly, young people are consuming content via short-form videos on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Mahon has said consuming this type of content on social media has impacted the ability of young people to consider and debate ideas.

‌“What we are seeing with young people who come into the workplace, Gen Z, particularly post-pandemic and with this concentration of short-form content, is that they haven’t got the skills to debate things,” she told the Royal Television Society conference in Cambridge on Wednesday (20 September), according toThe Telegraph.

‌“They haven’t got the skills to discuss things, they haven’t got the skills to disagree.”

Mahon added that the shift towards short-form content is a “really dangerous step-change” for young people.

Research commissioned by Channel 4 showed that people in Britain watch an average of five hours of video per day, rather than live television.

According to this research, short form video – typically content of around a minute or less – constitutes 45 per cent of viewing for those aged 16 to 34, compared to 25 per cent of viewing for older people.

Mahon, who is also the RTS convention chair, pointed out that short form videos are often recommended to social media users via an algorithm, which essentially takes “control” of what they are viewing each day.

‌“When the algorithm is in charge, people say they feel emotionally out of control – the immediate dopamine hit fades rapidly and they are left feeling empty,” Mahon said, adding that short-form media consumption is typically associated with “feeling a lack of control”.

In some ways the internet, and therefore social media, is the biggest, uncontrolled experiment ever conducted on humankind! We may love to rue its primacy in our technology, culture and society.

[OneHungLow]

"We may love"... hmmm?

Love and live and let die...

Anyway Channel 4 is safe...