Sep 21, 2019 at 10:58 AM | AK

It will be interesting to see how the BBC and Guardian report further developments. Many of the traditional Labour faithful won't attend Momentum's firing squad, so their views won't be aired publicly.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/sep/21/tom-watson-plan-to-remove-me-as-deputy-leader-is-drive-by-shooting

Len McCluskey and Jon Lansmen know they have limited time to eradicate opposition for their chosen successor to Corbyn.

"...  time there can be no dodging from Roger."
Sep 21, 2019 at 10:16 AM | It doesn't add up..

Awest Woger.

Even if a correction is issued, the propaganda was produced for the benefit of demonstrations prior to the UN Air Miles Competition.

Destructive dismissal perhaps?

Sep 21, 2019 at 9:42 AM | AK

Constructive Dismissal then?

The BBC and Guardian can see that this does not bode well for Remain or Labour. The Liberals are already counting the extra support this will generate.

Obviously many are waiting for the ultimate Oracle, St Greta to make a pronouncement concerning the number of Polar Bears that will be deep fried in melted sea ice as a result.

Mark Hodgson

Many thanks for pointing up the fallacious wind story. I shall submit a formal complaint. This time there can be no dodging from Roger.

The Hinkley Point price is currently £101.99/MWh off a 2012 base of £89.50/MWh.

https://www.lowcarboncontracts.uk/cfds/hinkley-point-c

A more accurate report

https://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/3081767/clean-energy-auction-smashes-offshore-wind-cost-records

Though they exaggerate the wholesale cost of power.

"The Guardian view on transport emissions: the trouble with planes and automobiles
The headline figure of a 44% cut in the UK’s total emissions conceals a multitude of failures, with motor traffic and aviation high on the list"

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/20/the-guardian-view-on-transport-emissions-the-trouble-with-planes-and-automobiles

Sep 21, 2019 at 7:32 AM | Mark Hodgson

The "multitude of failures" includes all the politicians and civil servants around the world that have failed the people that pay their wages.

gc. Tom Watson cannot be sacked, attempt is to remove the position he holds.

"This may explain why the BBC sometimes fails so badly to spot a change in the nation’s mood — in hugely important areas..."

Sep 21, 2019 at 7:49 AM | Mark Hodgson

The BBC is too busy trying to shape the nation's mood, and only engages with true believers.

I don't know how long ago Humphrys announced the timing of his retirement from the BBC, but the Daily Mail interview does seem timed for maximum impact.

Should Tom Watson be consulting a Lawyer about his imminent sacking by Trade Union leaders?

"The Terrier unmuzzled: Days after leaving his beloved BBC, Radio 4's John Humphrys lambasts the corporation's liberal bias, craven PC culture and slavish support for the EU in his explosive new book"

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7487737/Radio-4s-JOHN-HUMPHRYS-lambasts-BBCs-liberal-bias-craven-PC-culture.html

"...The morning of the EU Referendum was different. Leave had won — and this was not what the BBC had expected. Nor what it wanted.

No nods and smiles when the big bosses appeared. No attempt to pretend that this was anything other than a disaster.

Their expressions were as grim as the look on the face of a football supporter when his team’s star player misses the penalty that would have won them the cup.

A few days later, I happened to be doing an interview for the Radio Times and mentioned the mood in the office that morning. When the story appeared, my phone pinged with a message from one of the big bosses.

‘Thanks a lot,’ it said with all the sarcasm it’s possible to manage in a short text, ‘I thought you were supposed to be on the BBC’s side.’

The Brexit crisis had exposed a fundamental flaw in the culture of the BBC.

Its bosses, almost to a man and woman, could simply not grasp how anyone could have put a cross in the Leave box on the referendum ballot paper.

I’m not sure the BBC as a whole ever quite had a real grasp of what was going on in Europe or of what people in this country thought about it....

...So is there some grand conspiracy orchestrated by a group of sinister Lefties?

I don’t believe that for a moment. That there is a form of institutional liberal bias, however, I have no doubt. And a big factor — perhaps the biggest — is the Corporation’s recruitment process. As a potential employer, the BBC can pick and choose between the cream of the arts graduates from the top universities — a disproportionately large proportion of whom had been to private schools.

And it’s a racing certainty that there won’t be more than a handful of Tories among them — if only because most will have spent three years being taught by academics on the political Left. (Eight out of ten academics in the leading universities are Left-wing, according to a 2017 survey.)

Plus, overwhelmingly, most BBC recruits are from the middle class. For many of them — perhaps most — the BBC is regarded as a continuation of institutional life by any other means.

I was one of the vanishingly rare exceptions. No degree, no middle-class credentials.

For much of my career, I’ve felt rather like the junior butler trying to blag a seat at His Lordship’s dining table in Downton Abbey.

There’s been another factor at play that may help explain the liberal bias, and it’s a bit more tricky to evaluate.

There is, I believe, a groupthink mentality, an implicit BBC attitude to what makes news. Decisions are influenced, if only subconsciously, by what the organisation has done in the past. So it can too often be willing to settle for the status quo, settling into the same lines of thought.

This may explain why the BBC sometimes fails so badly to spot a change in the nation’s mood — in hugely important areas..."

And much, much more.