Hidden amongst other news: the BBC
Firstly, the best news headline I’ve seen for a long time. It’s in The Times: “BBC journalists could strike over merger of news channels” (link, paywalled). Oh please go ahead and strike! Please do! Don’t expect us to come crying and begging for you to come back. You won’t be missed!
Remember how the BBC and the rest of the MSM were splashing the Met Office predictions around, about ‘amber warnings’ and ‘killer thunderstorms’ and all that? Well, that turned out to be rather less scary than predicted. This morning’s front pages are the proof – it’s a veritable hotchpotch, a grab-bag, with something to suit someone’s taste (link). You won’t find headlines about yesterday’s predicted thunderstorms killing people, flash floods disrupting normal life …
There was a tired little report yesterday evening in the BBC News (link). Even the fear mongers had to acknowledge that water standing at a roundabout ‘drained away quickly’. If this was an example for a ‘killer flash flood then I don’t know what they’d write about real killer flash floods.
Perhaps the ‘creators’ of this and other MSM reports are simply too young to remember proper, devastating flash floods like the one in Boscastle in Cornwall. That was in August 2004 – too long ago for the kiddies now ‘doing something in meejah’. Clearly, they’ve never heard of ‘archives’, never mind finding their way to the place where such things are kept in whatever MSM outlet they work in.
Sadly, they even seem to be incapable of using the web browser they trust to check things out, even though such facilities are literally at their fingertips: their own PCs. Instead of the expected reports of weather mayhem we find that the latest spin is that, yes, there’s rain but it won’t be enough! Here’s The Times, suitably somber (my emphasis):
“Britons have been told to prepare for flash flooding and thunderstorms as a prolonged dry spell is forecast to come to an end in much of the country. Experts said that while parts of the UK would be deluged with rain during the early part of the week, the downpours will not be enough to bring the drought to an end. The Met Office warned that the weather could result in travel disruption and floods which could pose a danger to life.” (link, paywalled)
Note the ‘coulds’ sprinkling the Met Office’s statement! However, the DT had more ‘original’ quotes from the Met Office. For their abysmal fear mongering these quotes should be kept for the record:
“Households should pack up their valuables and prepare for floods, the Met Office has said, with three million homes at risk of flooding. In Devon and Cornwall, floods began on Monday afternoon as thunderstorms brought hail and almost three inches of rain in some places, with the weather service warning of danger to life from flash floods. Forecasters said there would be an “incredible deluge” over the next few days, which will hit ground baked hard in the heatwave and could cause flooding within an hour.” (paywalled link)
There’s more. I have to question both those Met Office ‘officers’ and the DT’s editors for the reason why they believe such mammoth fear mongering is needed, especially when ‘events’ show them to have been pure hyperbole:
“Grahame Madge, a Met Office spokesman, said: “If people know that properties may have flooded before it might be the time just to be ready – have a clear up, put any valuables at a higher level. It could be as simple and as fundamental as that, so that if you do have to move quickly you are already halfway prepared.” (paywalled link)
Ah – the good old ‘precautionary principle’ at its scare-mongering best! Do as the Met Office says, and be afraid, very afraid! That’s not sufficient though – see this:
It’s incredibly challenging to identify where you are going to get the most extreme events.” […] Flooding can unfold “very quickly”, Mr Madge said, adding: “We could get situations changing within a couple of hours or even an hour.” Anyone taking a journey by car should be “prepared to get stuck” and expect flooded roads and run-off from fields, including soil.” (paywalled link)
What should we make of these ‘amber warnings’ when we’re told on the one hand that it’s ‘extremely difficult’ to predict where those ‘most extreme events’ will strike while on the other we read that:
“A yellow warning for thunderstorms is also in place across the UK on Tuesday and in the south of England on Wednesday, but meteorologists said it was not clear exactly where the storms would strike.” (paywalled link)
Do these Met Office people and the ‘journalists’ copying their every word really believe that people should put their lives on hold every time there’s an ‘amber warning’, something concocted by Met Office ‘officers’ who also find predictions ‘extremely challenging’? Have they never heard of yon boy crying wolf once too often?
I’ll not even mention the weather-equivalent of ambulance-chasers who were trying so hard to get photos of ‘disaster floods’. Trust the DM to have the most ‘orrible pictures (link) – pictures which could be made at any time then there’s heavy rain, not least thanks to the inadequate local drainage systems up and down our country.
I wonder if and when people will sue the Met Office for their blanket warnings which are of course available on an ‘app’ for the ubiquitous smartphones. After all, a generation which depends on being told what to do by apps should feel suitably aggrieved when they planned to do something, cancelled it because ‘killer thunderstorms’, and then nothing happened.
But enough of ‘Teh Weather’. Let’s talk ‘politics’, especially the current PM. The DT reported last evening that Johnson is moving out of No 10 and will spend the remaining weeks of his PM-ship at Chequers (paywalled link), still ‘working’ – or so ‘sources’ say. The DM however has an ‘exclusive’, showing that Mr and Mrs J are enjoying another holiday, this time in Greece (link).
Crikey – what a cushioned life BJ and wifey enjoy! Going on holidays while workers organise their removal, coming ‘home’ to that grand place Chequers: ‘tis like squeezing out the last possible drop of the ‘good PM life’. There’s more:
“According to aides who have worked alongside Mr Johnson for years, he remains “in shock” at the “speed and brutality” of his ousting from Number 10. One senior Downing Street adviser said Mr Johnson’s fury at his betrayal by Rishi Sunak, the former chancellor whose resignation sparked his downfall, has turned to pity as he watches him trail Liz Truss in the Tory leadership race.” (paywalled link)
“Sources” throwing poison darts on behalf of the ‘Big Dog’: how unusual! Saying that BJ was ‘shocked’ at the speed and brutality: well, did he not know that this is how things happen when a Tory PM is ousted? That doesn’t speak well for his political nous. Mind you, I suspect yon ‘sources’ are either Mrs J or ‘friends of Carrie’.
I leave you with news that the Royal Navy will stop their cross-channel ‘taxi service’ on January 31st 2023.. This announcement
“comes only four months after Boris Johnson brought in the first Navy vessels to patrol the Channel, saying the move would help ensure that “no boat makes it to the UK undetected”.’ (paywalled link).
Well, since 20,000 dinghy crossers have already reached our shores this year, this isn’t a page of honour for the Royal Navy, nor for the Border Force, the Home Office or indeed the PM. We won’t mention that the Defence Minister, the Foreign Secretary and indeed the PM have splashed £2bn on yon ‘war in the Ukraine’ – money which might have been used to strengthen the RN and our borders.
We’ll not mention this because we’re doing what Brits always do: talk about the weather. Thanks to the Met Office we can stagger from one ‘killer weather’ to the next while disregarding the real dangers to our country and disregarding the malfeasance of our government.
Mind you – if we all keep indoors ‘because: weather!’ we won’t notice the effects of the ongoing invasion. A pity lighting doesn’t strike all those who are making our lives a misery with their fear propaganda and their failed policies!
On-Line Safety Bill:
https://www.ukcolumn.org/index.php/blogs/dorries-spreads-disinformation-as-the-uk-government-continues-to-attack-democracy
We have to fight back against this before it becomes enshrined in law. Perhaps we can round up opposition to our particular MP unless he/she opposes it – suggestions welcome.
The truth regarding Ukraine:
http://freenations.net/real-reasons-for-the-ukraine-war-the-wests-self-inflicted-energy-crisis-sanctions-cause-russian-influence-in-africa-to-rise
I find this account far more believable than the government/ BBC narrative.
I suppose I’m the only one who has ever heard of the Lynton and Lynmouth disaster about 1951.
My little brother Mike and I were cycling/camping 2 or 3 hundred milles fromhome, in Cormwall somewhere and it had never stopped raining . Mum had invested in two sleeping bags for us which were waterproof underneath and 8 inces or so up the sides. We found an idyllic spot inside the bend of the river with the raised road forming the other side of the meadow.We went to bed early With the tent tight and dry. The Bikes were stood against each other by the tent opening.We figured we would be safe as the river level was at least a foot from flooding.
We woke up when the floating sleaping bags and tent ran inro the bikes. Great hilarity, taking tent down in 6 inches of what was apparently now a lake. With our upbringing and in those days this was OK we could cope with most things, and time for egg and bacon in a cafe. I suppose inthose days two lads on bikes hundreds of miles from home and unconcerned, But it was just normal and OK
The denizens of the cafe were properly amazed, knew the field, and asked wasn’t the bull there. Great hilarity after being told that reports the the lyn villages had been a disaster, and that we had been lucky not to have been swept down. Back at school no one was in the least interested. Back home everybody wasfar too busy to listen to the kids nonsense, until they got the Newspapers. ( Always Express, with Rupert and Adam the gardener )
TG Spokes, no you are not the only one at all. I wasn’t around at the time, but I was under the impression that it occurred in 1952. The deluge of water down the hillside literally washed much of Lynmouth away and has largely been rebuilt, plus more or less at the same time there was a massive tidal surge down the east coast which caused massive damage and loss of life. And also have the Met Office and the BBC (yes them again) not heard of Hallsands in Devon and how that was lost to the sea. Anyone on the receiving end of the relentless propaganda from the afore mentioned politically correct entities who is gullible and has no mind of their own, will think if they take things at face value and believes everything that spews forth out of their mouths, that summer heat, heavy rain, and floods is something that has only occurred over the past few years.
1952, t g s.
I googled it and (don’t tell H Armitage) was directed to the dreaded Wikipedia. There I read that the soil was already ‘sodden’, presumably by rain fall.
Now of course to keep the fear at fever pitch we have to be told the land is too hard baked to absorb the torrential rain.
Well, here in North Derbyshire, the grass outside is still green, not parched brown.
There has been NO rain for days on end and personally I would LOVE to have a thunderstorm and torrential rain !!
Oh yes I do like the top headline, its hilarious. Please please please BBC encourage all of your left wing biased and untalented University educated muppet journalists who cannot string a sentence together of proper English to go on strike. And don’t make it a day here, a day there like they are doing on the railways, but do it for a whole year or more, and see who really cares. The majority of us will not miss you or them one iota. In fact just go away altogether. Defund the BBC, scrap the TV Licence Fee, and make it a subscription service, for those who wish to watch your garbage, because that is what it is these days….
The Force is strong in this one, Young WindowPane.
Not ‘Arf Colin. Bring it on!
It’s up to people to defund the BBC – no Gov will get defunding of BBC through the house. Those who still pay are not committed centre Right they are fence sitters.
I think the most worrying item of news is that there is a new Covid jab to tackle omicron.
This will be forcefully ‘recommended’ to many by the NHS.
This at a time when there is more and more evidence that the covid jabs are causing harm, including death.
Back off Oh! Masters of the Universe.
Daily Sceptic cover an article published by the DT (Jordan Peterson) on net zero alarmism report being evangelised by the politicised corporation – Deloitte.
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/08/15/peddlers-of-environmental-doom-are-closet-totalitarians/
You can watch the speech on you tube if not a subscriber to the DT like myself – very powerful speech prompting one to think if the DT published this in response to losing substantial numbers of net zero sceptical subscribers.
Like politicians only fear rejection at the polls newspapers only fear people not buying their products.
Excellent Jake; worth passing around.
On the contrary Viv, I think their policies are going swimmingly for tptb at the moment!
Do the loons at the met office think that we have never experienced thunderstorms before? Clearly they are fully paid up members of the Green Scammers Club.
The Met Office is enjoying its news centrality. It must make the people in it feel particularly important, a truly heady feeling for introverted number crunchers. They are unlikley to forgo alarmism so long as the media continue to report their every statement. It’s a postive feedback loop requiring more and more exaggeration. The number of people who think the Met Office has cried wolf once too often will grow. I look forward to this winter’s headlines.
That is a bit like my reaction Stout.
Surely the ‘sheeple’ are not quite THAT stupid. But isn’t it a shame that something that used to be respected for reliability, as the Met Office was, has now sunk so low.
People like to believe, if not also need to believe, that their goverment is benign. While I lament the ‘sheeple’ I do understand how they are as they are. On demos certain self-satisfied factions shout ‘wake up’ – the claim to superior consciousness is never persuasive – overlooking, as Mark Twain pointed out, that you cannot reason someone out of a position that was never arrived at by reason in the first place (or shout them out of it). Rather, one waits for the herd to recover its senses one by one per Charles Mackay’s Popular Delusions.
In the old Soviet Union people referred to Stalin as ‘Uncle Joe’, but as the years passed cynicism and mistrust of government grew such was the mismatch between what the government proclaimed and the experience of daily life.
Two years ago lockdown sceptics were few (and vilified). Now they are more numerous and more vocal though not a majority perhaps. In the EU, faith in the project is in decline and not just in the slavic states. Even in China the CCP is losing its shine (which makes it dangerous) and Saint Jacinda is in the process of losing her sainthood.
The lessons of history, that you cannot spin and nudge indefinitley, are never learnt. The speed with which sheeple recover their senses is frustratingly slow. That lunatic Drakeford is going too far – they all do eventually – and so his time may be limited like Saint Jacinda’s. I have Scottish friends close to despair waiting for Sturgeon’s downfall, but they say they sense a change in the wind.
The only thing that can speed this up is a politician-orator. We have none at present, but I keep an eye out in hope.
You have a wonderful way of articulating what needs to be said Stout thank you. I look forward to the day when Drakeford and Sturgeon together with all their useful idiots are confined to history. Then Parliament and the uncivil service should be completely overhauled and traitors removed.