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Media loves little more than talking about media. No surprise, then, that a letter in praise of the BBC signed by such entertainment bigwigs as JK Rowling and Chris Evans should ride high on the news cycle. But what did the Press make of it?
JK Rowling and Chris Evans have joined a host of A-list names to have signed an open letter to the prime minister calling on him to protect the BBC from cuts to its service
If your names on the list, you’re in. Imagine the upset as celebs not on the BBC register realise they rank below Adil Ray, Mark Rylance and Reggie Yates.
The full text of the letter:
The battle for the BBC
Dear prime minister,
We have seen that the government has pledged to modernise the licence fee, return funding that had been diverted to pay for broadband roll-out, and increase the licence fee in line with inflation in return for the BBC taking on the costs of licence fees for the over-75s.
The government and the BBC are now entering the charter review. We are writing to place on record at the very start of the process our concern that nothing should be done to diminish the BBC or turn it into a narrowly focused market-failure broadcaster.
In our view, a diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain.
The BBC is a very precious institution. Like all organisations, it has its faults but it is overwhelmingly a creative force for good.
Britain’s creative economy is growing and enjoying unprecedented success. The BBC is at the heart of this as the global showcase for our creative industries. The BBC is trusted and loved at home by British audiences and is the envy of the world abroad.
During the course of the charter, we will continue to make the case for a strong BBC at the centre of British life and will be vocal in making the case for the BBC as it approaches its centenary.
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Yours sincerely
Clara Amfo
David Attenborough
Clare Balding
Melvyn Bragg
Brian Cox
Daniel Craig
Richard Curtis
Judi Dench
Chris Evans
Stephen Fry
Nick Grimshaw
Miranda Hart
Lenny Henry
Gary Lineker
Michael McIntyre
Steven Moffatt
Trevor Nelson
Annie Nightingale
Graham Norton
Jamie Oliver
Michael Palin
Adil Ray
JK Rowling
Mark Rylance
Simon Schama
David Walliams
Rachel Weisz
Claudia Winkleman
Reggie Yates
Over in the Times, the story is how so many names got together to write a letter:
BBC organised celebrities’ protest letter
Well, of course someone must have. Sat in the BBC canteen, one of them must have kickstarted the project and drafted the thing. Given the lack of wow!, fist bumps and seagull droppings we’d says the root was either Schama or Adil Ray*, the latter chiefly because we don’t know who they are and they could only benefit from the exposure.
The Times says that’s wrong.
The letter was presented as an independent protest against plans to reform the BBC, but The Times can reveal that executives at the highest level helped to co-ordinate it while the corporation officially denied all knowledge.
Annie Nightingale, BBC Radio 1’s longest-serving presenter and one of the letter’s 29 signatories, said she had been invited to be a signatory by Ben Cooper, the controller of Radio 1. She had not seen the text of the letter before its publication.
And then this:
Mr Cohen is friends with two Hollywood stars who signed the letter, Daniel Craig and his wife, the actress Rachel Weisz. They attended his 2012 wedding, where Weisz was a bridesmaid. Neither the actors nor the BBC would comment on whether Mr Cohen had helped to persuade the couple to sign.
Is that a big deal? And, in any case, when Hollywood stars tell the unwashed how great the BBC is, does anyone listen? Yeah, weak politicians do, the ones who view the arts as mirrors to their own sensitive souls, shiny things to pick up and drop when an easy photo opportunity is needed.
But better than reading the grandstanding talent and listening for the politicos reactions are the readers comments papers chose to feature. The Guardian, which is pretty much the BBC’s in-house news sheet, heads its readers’ letters page:
Friends of the BBC will oppose the government’s vicious attacks
…
Tories, and their friends among the circling vultures of the commercial sector, assume that in doing popular programmes the BBC has been muscling in on natural commercial territory. But they are getting their history back-to-front. The BBC got there first – by several decades. It would be more accurate to say that commercial broadcasters have been muscling in on the BBC’s natural territory. Perhaps the government needs an expert panel to investigate whether they should be scaled back?
Professor David Hendy
University of Sussex
Compare and contrast that to the top reader comment in the Times, the paper owned by Rupert Murdoch, who also owns Sky TV:
John Prince
What a sad reflection on the Beeb! They try to play dirty by organising their grubby little letter, then lack the testicular fortitude to admit their involvement.The FOI request will get nowhere – emails inexplicably deleted, so sorry.
Spike
All the luvvie rats trying to save the ship how quaint, a few will go to the bottom. I must admit though the list of people who signed are actually talented there are some exceptions but not many..
John black
I have a sickening feeling that the BBC problem will turn into another Greece. We all know it is wrong, however it will drag it on and on until the public get taken again.
* Ray created Citizen Khan, the dire – and I mean turd-stinking bad – BBC sitcom.
Posted: 16th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
Transfer Balls: Manchester United are looking to sell Angel Di Maria.
The Times says Paris Saint-Germain will bid £45m for the Argentina winger who hates living in Manchester.
That’s far less than the British record £59.7 million fee United paid Real Madrid for Di Maria last summer.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: 15th, July 2015 | In: Manchester City, manchester united, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Anorak would pay good money not to see TV ‘funnyman’ Michael McIntyre, the Johnny Boden of comedy. We take comfort from knowing that among McIntyre’s biggest fans are members of a police helicopter surveillance team who spotted him on a London street, took a photo and tweeted it.
Officers from the London branch of the Met’s National Police Air Service posted the photo on their @NPASLondon twitter account. The tweet invited readers to play detective:
“Whilst on tasking in central London this morning we spotted a certain energetic funny man … Can you guess who?”
Says the Met spokesman:
“This tweet does not as far as we know constitute a breach of data protection legislation. The tweet was deleted because of a negative response on Twitter.”
Superintendent Richard Watson, of the National Police Air Service adds:
“We are aware of the tweet and as far as we are aware it does not breach any data protection legislation.
“We feel however it was inappropriate and it has since been removed. We will be speaking to the person who posted the tweet.”
If Watson can ask the uniformed pigeons to keep an eye on BBC breakfast news presenter Bill Turnbull, ITV’s Fiona Phillips and footy pundit Robbie Savage, and let us know when they are not working and it is safe to watch the telly, we’d appreciate it…
Posted: 15th, July 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
Transfer Balls spots Nicolas Otamendi. The Sun says he’s threatened to go on strike at Valencia in a bid to “force through a mega-bucks move to Manchester United”.
Is Otamendi really desperate to play for Man United?
The Daily Express expands the market to both big Manchester clubs:
Nicolas Otamendi set to choose between Man Utd and City as agent flies in for crunch talks
You might suppose the agent is flying into Manchester. He isn’t. The agent is flying into Valencia.
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Posted: 15th, July 2015 | In: Chelsea, Manchester City, manchester united, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Dobbed in
Undercover sheriff’s deputies in Arizona arrested Pennsylvania man Michael Crawford, 68, on suspicion that he flew 2000 miles to have sex with a horse.
Police say Mr Crawford had advertised for a willing horse owner to let him ‘ride’ their beast. The Animal Crimes Investigations Unit spotted the ad and began to lay a honey trap.
The police conversed with Crawford. When he arrived in Phoenix, they took him to Tolleson, and showed him two ponies.
Crawford wonders why he was pinched when all he’d done was talk about sex with a horse. In any case, he’d been engaged in bestiality since 1970. And had any horse complained?
Posted: 15th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
And so it came to pass that Raheem Sterling completed his move from Liverpool to Manchester City for a whopping £49m and £200,000 a week.
This one had threatened to run all summer, leaving media and fans talking more about the Sterling transfer story than actual football deep into August. Sky Sports would herald the new Premier League season with an M People powered montage of Sterling’s best transfer stories trailed by health warning on the perils of inhaling gas from party balloons.
But we can now enjoy the sense of freedom as Sterling moves to his dream club [insert name here]. As he held aloft a scarf in City colours, Sterling said:
“I’ve just had to learn to take it all in my stride. I never imagined I’d be at this point at the age I am now and breaking a transfer record fee. You don’t think about it when you’re a kid — but things have come really fast in the last couple of years. It’s a good feeling and a really happy time for me and my family.
“I’m just glad it’s all over and done with and I can’t wait to get on the training field.
“I’d also like to thank all the people around me — my mum and sisters, my management team, and Aidy Ward for helping me focus and get where I am today.”
Sterling’s protracted Anfield exit became increasingly acrimonious. But in the end he won. And his agent laughed all the way to the bank. Who needs laughing gas when you have loadsa money?
Posted: 15th, July 2015 | In: Liverpool, Manchester City, Reviews, Sports | Comment
In 1938 George Weidenfeld arrived in the UK from Austria. 1938. The Times says the young Jew had “only a few shillings in his pocket”. But now he has grown rich from a publishing business, the former BBC man is repaying a debt:
Now aged 95, he is funding an organisation to rescue up to 2,000 Christian families from Syria and Iraq and resettle them elsewhere. In the first phase of Operation Safe Havens, one group of 150 Syrian Christians was flown to Warsaw on Friday to seek refuge in Poland.
Christians are being persecuted in the Middle East. In areas controlled by Islamic State they are being slaughtered.
Weidenfeld, a committed Zionist, is repaying those who showed him kindness:
He credits his survival to the generosity of members of the Plymouth Brethren, a Christian group, which took him in, fed and clothed him.
“I had a debt to repay,” said Lord Weidenfeld. “It applies to so many of the young people who were on the Kindertransports. It was Quakers and other Christian denominations who brought those children to England. It was a very high-minded operation and we Jews should also be thankful and do something for the endangered Christians.”
He says:
“Isis is unprecedented in its primitive savagery compared with the more sophisticated Nazis,” he said. “When it comes to pure lust for horror and sadism, they are unprecedented. There never was such scum as these people. My main concern is — and this is terribly important for me as a member of the generation that can look back to the time before World War Two — the lack of will to defend oneself; to get boots on the ground and to get rid of these people. The lack of desire to fight the enemy, to slay the dragon in his lair.
“I am appalled by the lack of action. The brave Kurds have shown in the battle for Kobani that you can defeat them. In a disunited world, the road is wide open for the terrorists.”
Adding:
“I can’t save the world, but there is a very specific possibility on the Jewish and Christian side,” he said. “Let others do what they like for the Muslims.”
Everyone can do their bit for humanity.
“An SS man or a Gulag attendant justified their cruelty in the name of Hitler or Stalin. A jihadist thinks he has Allah in his pocket. It is very difficult to fight. It is cruel and international. It does not only affect the so called Arab Spring countries, but also Africa, Boston Massachusetts, the suburbs of London. It has to be fought very systematically. It must not be the subject of attenuating circumstances. They have to be seen as enemies of mankind and punished accordingly.”
You beat them by defeating their culture and championing your own.
Sophia Adams have won a prize to become a model. the Sun is excited, highlights Sophia’s “size 16 frame and 32JJ breasts”, making her a “far cry from the slender models that strut the catwalks”.
The Sun is delighted, noting:
Sophia endured years of cruel taunts — “fatty”, “man-beast”, “whale” and even “big jugs” from a young age…
Good of the Sun to stuck up for people with less idealised builds. Sophia weighs 13st 7lb. We don’t know her height, but
But, then again, this is paper that thundered “Fatties cause global warming” and “CHILDREN are getting even fatter”; branded anti-Page 3 MP Clare Short “Short and fat“; mocked Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney for not having a six pack; calls football fans “fatso”; and taught readers how to get a “bikini body in 10 days”, allowing “Sun fitness expert” Nicki Waterman to teach readers to be “taller and slimmer”, with a “smaller bottom”.
How many of those cruel kids who mocked Sophia Adam’s “curves” read the Sun?
Posted: 14th, July 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews | Comment
A woman in her 30s was masturbating with a sex toy when she drove her Mini into the back of a fish delivery van.
The van diver with M&J Seafood reviewed footage from the vehicle’s rear camera. He saw the woman clutching a Rampant Rabbit-style sex toy and doing up her trousers.
A source explains:
“A driver was called into the office and feared he was getting the sack. He’d been on his first shift after looking for work for ages. The bosses told him it wasn’t his fault and then said ‘Have you seen this?’. They all had a good laugh.”
Says the company, based in Cirencester, Gloucestershire: “The matter is now in the hands of our insurers.”
Posted: 14th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
The story in Newsweek is headlined:
Healthy 24-year-old granted right to die in Belgium.
On what measure is a woman who wants to die healthy?
Newsweek reports:
Doctors in Belgium are granting a 24-year-old woman who is suffering from depression but is otherwise healthy the right to die as she qualifies for euthanasia under the Belgian law, even though she does not have a terminal or life-threatening illness.
Aside from the poor mental health the woman is healthy. Or to ou it another way, apart from the crippling illness the patient is perfectly fine.
The 24-year-old woman, known simply as Laura, has been given the go-ahead by health professionals in Belgium to receive a lethal injection after spending both her childhood and adult life suffering from “suicidal thoughts”, she told local Belgian media.
Laura has been a patient of a psychiatric institution since the age of 21 and says she has previously tried to kill herself on several occasions. She told journalists: “Death feels to me not as a choice. If I had a choice, I would choose a bearable life, but I have done everything and that was unsuccessful.” The date of Laura’s death is yet to be decided.
Belgium passed a law to legalise euthanasia in 2002, the second country in the world to do so after the Netherlands. The law states that Belgian doctors can “help patients” to end their lives if they freely express a wish to die because they are suffering from intractable and unbearable pain.
Do we understand her suffering?
TV works in seasons. Summer means Celebrity Big Brother. And that means a visit to Blighty for Farah Arbaham, famous for a sex tape and all the things that go with it: rehab, regret, ‘Made in Hollywood’ jugs and a rubber mould modelled on her primary sexual characteristics avilable to anyone in need of a novelty washing up glove or moneybox as Full-On Farrah Vibrating Pussy and Ass.
But things didn’t quite go to plan for Farrah. The chance to stick your penis or head inside a fake rubby anus shaped like hers (with ‘love tunnels’ heated to a ‘lifelike’ temperatute buy two ‘warming wands’) was not her ticket to fortune.
In January told InTouch where she says the release of her sex tape was a huge mistake and if she could take it back, she would.
“It made it hard to have friends and a private life and to trust family, who I feel use me for money. If I went back in time, I would not have done it. The sex tape ruined my life.”
Despite warnings from family who feared selling the X-rated tape would send a terrible message to her 4-year-old daughter, Sophia, Farrah did it anyway — and says she quickly realized it was a bad idea. “Knowing my sex tape was out there for everyone in the world to see … was overwhelming,” she says. “I wanted to hide my face and not go out or pick up my phone.”
One other reason it was bad idea was that those porn tapes don’t pay as well as the marketing states. The headline story was that sex movies are so rare that Farrah’s backdoor romp earned her $1.5 million. FOX411 said Abraham actually earned around $10,000.
Farrah is now much changed:
“Therapy helped me understand I can’t continue experiencing life [the way I had been], that I’m more special than sex tapes. Hearing others tell me my worth is [all based on] my body. … I’m stronger than that.”
Or as the Sun puts it:
The former star of MTV shows Teen Mom and Sixteen and Pregnant has cashed in once again thanks to CBB bosses, who hope she’ll make the series more X-rated than ever.
F0or a fee, she might…
Posted: 12th, July 2015 | In: Celebrities, Reviews, TV & Radio | Comment
According to the Met Office, 1 July 2015 was the “warmest July day since records began”. The record was set at Heathrow Airport “when the temperature reached 36.7 °C at 3.13pm. The previous highest July temperature was 36.5 °C on 19 July 2006 in Wisley, Surrey.”
Hot, then. But was it really a record?
Mark McCarthy, Manager of the Met Office National Climate Information Centre discusses records and how we record them.
He states:
1 July 2015 has the honour of holding the highest recorded temperature for a July day with 36.7 °C at Heathrow.
What do we know about Heathrow?
On 1 July the maximum temperature recorded at Heathrow (36.7 °C) was higher than Kew (35.7 °C).
Read the rest of this entry »
The policeman caught having sex with a PCSO in Manchester toilet has not been sacked. This is because the coppers were caught shagging in the offices of Greater Manchester Police in Newton Heath.
Being sacked or not being sacked for having sex whilst policing depends on who sees you.
A police sergeant spotted having sex in public while on duty has been sacked from the Devon and Cornwall force.
The officer was dismissed without notice, the force said, after an internal hearing found his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.
If fellow police officers catch you shagging on the job, you remain on the force; if the public see you, you’re sacked. Got it?
A police officer has been sacked for twice having sex while on duty with a man he met via a gay social media site. Pc Anthony Taylor, 30, was in full uniform when he met the man in Manchester.
Oh?
Assistant chief constable Dawn Copley said: “Pc Taylor’s actions could have put the public in danger and put undue pressure on his colleagues. GMP and the public rightly expect a high standard of professional behaviour from both officers and employees. Taylor’s conduct while on duty unfortunately fell well below that standard.”
If you want to get away with it, shag another copper.
It’s 7:22pm on July 2. A person has ordered a pizza. They call the police. They say a neighbour has taken their pizza. Police discover the neighbour has also ordered a pizza.
It’s 8:03pm on July 2: Neighbour wrongly accused of pizza theft reports being upset.
Posted: 12th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
Compare and contrast the newspapers “exclusives” on former teacher Jeremy Forrest, 33, as he is released from prison. Forrest was imprisoned for five-and-a-half years after running away with his 15-year-old pupil to France.
The Daily Mail:
The Sun:
Such are the facts…
Transfer balls: Manchester United have joined Liverpool in the hunt United move for Aston Villa’s Christian Benteke. Well, so says one newspaper.
The Sun shouts that “CHRISTIAN BENTEKE is next on Louis van Gaal’s hitlist” because “Manchester United’s boss has made signing a top striker a priority.
Is Benteke a top striker?
The Birmingham Mail announces:
Stats that reveal why losing Christian Benteke would not be the end of the world
So why do Man United want him if, as the Brum Mail says, Charlie Austin’s the better player?
In any case, the Guardian told us on July 6 that Liverpool had agreed to sign Benteke:
So expect all hell to break loose this week as Christian Benteke, with his £32.5m release clause dynamically, explosively and apocalyptically triggered by Liverpool, leaves Aston Villa for a journey of mind and body under Brendan Rodgers, who will apparently make the Belgian his seventh summer signing.
The Daily Express agreed:
But they were pipped to the news by TalkSport’s man in the know, who stated on July 1:
“I expect him to sign if not today then certainly in the not too distant future. Liverpool have done their work and have sealed a deal [with Aston Villa].”
But on July 4, the Mail said Liverpool had not triggered Benteke’s £32.5million buy-out clause.
Benteke remains of interest but there has been no dialogue with Villa or bid and that is likely to remain the case unless the Midlands club show a willingness to reduce their valuation.
And, apparently, now Manchester United want the Belgian. Liverpool had best find the money to secure the player or risk losing him to their big rivals. Well, so says the Sun in a story with not a single source. Wonder what Benteke’s agent makes of it all?
No words from Benteke. But Man United and Liverpool fans might care to know what he said before:
“I’m not afraid of making enemies at Villa by saying I love Arsenal… When I joined Villa I didn’t know where they played. I thought they were a London club!”
Such are the facts…
Posted: 12th, July 2015 | In: Liverpool, manchester united, Reviews, Sports | Comment
Transfer Balls: It’s been a busy few weeks of doing nothing for Aston Villa’s Fabian Villa Delph.
July 10, Daily Mail: “Aston Villa captain Fabian Delph set to complete £8m transfer to Manchester City”
The Mail says that in the “next 24 hours”, Delph will be a Manchester City player.
July 10, The Daily Mirror:
The Mirror says Delph is on his way to Man City. But those 24 hours are now 48 hours.
July 11, The Sun: “FABIAN DELPH has dramatically snubbed an £8million move to Manchester City.”
England midfielder Delph said: “I want to set the record straight, I’m not leaving. I’m staying at the football club and I can’t wait for the start of the season and captaining this great football club.”
Delph stays!
Such are the facts…
Posted: 11th, July 2015 | In: Manchester City, Reviews, Sports | Comment
On twitter, Donald Trump spent a portion of his valuable time tweeting Modern Family writer Danny Zuker. Trump seems possessed of all the self-awareness of a dog stood by a pile of poo.
danny zuker, donald trump
Spotter: Alternet
Former Utah teacher Brianne Altice has been sentenced for having sex with three teen boys.
“I am human, and I messed up during a very vulnerable time in my life,” a wet-eyed Altice told the court. “If I could, I would personally apologize to each individual that has been affected by this. Grief fills my heart for all involved.”
Deputy Davis County Attorney Cristina Ortega was unimpressed:
“I think it’s very inappropriate the fact that society, for some reason, says, ‘They’re boys. They’re men. This would be any kids’ fantasy,’ ” she said. “It’s not. This is real life. This isn’t something that should be commended somehow.”
Ortega told the judge that Altice should have drawn the line and reported any inappropriate comments the teens made toward her.
“For them, they are young, and they were flirting with their teacher,” she said. “Then it changed because of her… She’s the teacher. She’s the adult… She upped the ante [to] no longer flirting, but sexual contact, with all three students.”
What sayeth the defence?
Altice’s attorney, Edward Brass, told the judge that the inappropriate relationships stemmed from a bad marriage and his client’s issues with self-esteem. He asked for jail time and probation for the woman, saying, she is “troubled” and “has problems with viewing her own worth.”
“She blurred the lines between being a teacher and a friend,” Brass said, adding that Altice also encouraged many young people in a positive way at the school.
Judge Thomas Kay had heard enough:
“I have to say to society, when a female or a male teacher does this to children, this is going to happen,” noting that he has always ordered prison time for teachers convicted of having sexual relations with a student.
That has has to say it is odd.
Maybe now female teachers will be treated with the same suspicison as male teachers?
Spotter: New York Daily News
Uruguay’s Cavani reacted by slapping Jara across the face – an act that earned up a second yellow card.
But now you can relive the incident with this delightful doorbell.
Proctologists may prefer to knock.
Posted: 10th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, The Consumer | Comment
Will sh*t on sticks in the woods
Back in 2013, Wang Kaiyu, of Yunan, China, bought male and female puppies- one of each. Theyw er so cure. And then they grew. Big. In 2015, Kaiyu relaised that his two dogs had mutated into bears:
It wasn’t until Wang saw a pamphlet about endangered wild animals that he realized he had raised two Asian black bears, a Category 2 protected species, by accident. He decided to give the cubs up to the Forest Public Security Bureau in the hopes that they would be able to re-home them.
The cubs now live Yunnan Wild Rescue Center.
Kaiyu’s new dog is green, likes to wallow in the bath tub and get get snappy…
Posted: 10th, July 2015 | In: Reviews, Strange But True | Comment
7th November 1935: German Nazi politician and minister of propaganda Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897 – 1945) with his wife and children. (Photo by Fox Photos/Getty Images)
Copyright Balls: The family of Nazi spin doctor Joseph Goebbels earn royalties from extracts of his diaries published in a new biography by Peter Longerich.
Longerich writes:
“Goebbels repeatedly seized the initiative to play a pioneering role in Nazi ‘Jewish policy’: in 1933 at the time of the Jewish ‘boycott’, in 1935 with the Kurfürstendamm riots, in 1938 when in the summer he tried to unleash a pogrom and a few months later when he played an active role in the November pogrom, and finally during the war with his continuing efforts to make Berlin ‘free of Jews’.”
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circa 1940: A heap of rubble and the shell of a house in the Temple area of London, after a World War II German bombing raid. (Photo by Frank J. Galloon/Topical Press Agency/Getty Images)
In the summer of 1940, Germany attacked Britain from the air. The aim was to smash the RAF in readiness for invasion. Had the Germans have won, well, many of us would not be alive today.
