BBC News Infotainment

The worlds gone crazy, surely, BBC once respected for a perceived honesty, is in my view, no more honest or objective than the Murdoch press, in fact probably less so, populated and run by smug airhead institutionalised types that frequent our tax funded state and public sector.

Having watched news over the last few days, you cannot help notice, how trivial news coverage has become, hours have been spent covering Oscar Pistorius, (of course the allegation of murder is serious as it is tragic), however this morning at just after 9 once the big story of the day some catholic priest accused of  "inappropriate behaviour" as if, the BBC news channel then dug up a story about his brother facing charges for something like manslaughter. Now no doubt the original story satisfies basic human interest as does this later tit bit but for Gods sake do we need endless reporting on this? How can a "news" channel exist on a diet of celebrity bullsh!t, surely the halfwits who lap this sort of garbage up are watching some channel showing trashy reality programmes.

One story dead beat state broadcast media wallahs have not sought to report is, this, the passage of Lord Lester's Defamation Bill, which seeks, on the scant knowledge I have, to protect free speech.

In the very vague understanding I have, the new Defamation Bill, is being promoted to curb the practice of companies and others with deep pockets, corruptly using the law to stop free and honest debate, it's acknowledged that whistle blowers, bloggers, scientists, doctors etc have been curbed by threats of being buried under the weight of malicious actions and of course money grabbing lawyers.

Reforming defamation law becomes more important every day as newspapers and media shed jobs particularly in relation to local news, and without a doubt, bloggers fill the gaps in our knowledge like Michael Child, Louise Oldfield and Simon Moores particularly on  local issues.

We citizens are taxed to fund the BBC, so it would be nice if they could revert to their tradional public service remit, still as I alluded to, that deadbeat public service ethic, it's worth reminding ourselves that public institutions such a Kent Council spend a fortune on PR and confidentiality agreements, why ?( You'd have to ask Tory Leader Paul Carter or one of his cohorts or officers)  One incident that caused me to stop blogging was when a firm contracted by KCC objecting to me reporting on Kent TV (Cost to you at around 2 million) although I'm sure that no councillors or officers were involved in trying to discourage reporting on what was an expensive failure, that said I did feel it prudent to confirmed with  KCC bods that they understood the law on freedom of expresson.

As I say BBC don't seem to be to bothered to report, what is a serious issue, even more since the Labour party have thrown a spanner in the works, which is reported in the press (Something I first saw in the Sun) but ought to be reported by the deadbeats of the BBC, who admittedly are in crisis having disgracefully shielded a paedophile, even into death.

Finally almost as rare as the BBC news channel, living up to its name, must be this butterfly I photographed a week ago,  somewhere out on track in Camdem, North London during a break, unfortunately being nippy it didn't hang round for me to get a better shot, last seen for flying toward the massive redevelopment at the back of Kings Cross.

Margate High St. "Portas" money, Where is it?

Now there's a surprise "Portas" money (David Cameron's High St. intiative) disappears into the shadowy world of Margate's  great and the good, well at least according to the Independent newspaper, as it becomes apparent that of all those, sent freedom of information requests, to see just how wisely or not town teams have been, Margate was the only one unable to open up and let the world know how or if they have used any of the taxpayers one hundred thousand pounds in the high profile government initiative.

Just to add to concerns about Margate, Cllr Clive Hart (Labour Leader), has recently announced that he has taken over  responsibility for economic development and regeneration, so far Clive's achievements as Labour leader have included, discouraging business at Manston Airport, backing Ian Driver over hardworking Mark Nottingham a longtime and loyal member of Labour for the Northwood ward, ( Ian Driver having been elected as a Labour member soon left the Labour group, with some discord, still a not unreasonable move given the circumstances). 

I rang the council this morning and no shock here either, anyone who might knows what's going on with Margate High Street and the £100,000-00 were "in a meeting".

Click here for Mary Portas report not sure whether it recommended sitting on the money and  doing nothing, that would take true Thanet bred genius, still since much of the first few pages were filled with, I this and I that, I didn't bother reading further, still why should I, the only beneficiary of  all this will I assume be Mary Portas and Channel 4's viewers who unless they've been close to the Portas experience will naturally assume that every high street is full of Muppets, who are privileged just to be pawns for the inevitable Channel four documentary.

I feel sorry for those genuine people, who've worked to resuscitate Margate, one such person being Louise Oldfield, who was interviewed earlier today on BBC radio Kent, Saying "I don't think anyone knows where the money has gone" commenting "that there was a general lockdown of information on the budget" asked if she was aware of any money having been spent said, no. Toward the end of the interview Louise added this " that the situation was more than sad, it was tragic" and frankly it is.

Maybe it's time for Council Leader Clive Hart to stop posturing about what hard work he and his comrades are doing and actually do something, likewise where is Cllr Will Scobie, Margate Mayor in all this, yes we all know that as part of the "grooming process"  for standing in the May  county council elections he's been meeting and greeting us plebs, but come off it get involved! 

What's left in Britain?

I realise that my choice of entertainment is not normal source material for a blog, however on the morning commute, amongst the mix I usually listen to, that ranges between Sinatra, Motown, Bowie, good knows what else, my iPod/phone's random selection, Elgar's Land of Hope and Glory.

Music often sets the mood for the day, yesterday the Beach Boys fun, fun, fun bought the suggesting of summer holidays, and this morning Elgar's music which at one time would have summoned up a mood of national pride, history and all that malarkey, but just left me empty.

I've considered why pride in Britain and it's heritage is hard to muster and it's this Liberal, Labour and Conservative politicians have sold this nations sovereignty to a blancmange of Eurocrats, this country no longer legislates for it's own people, even worse, we have surrendered our borders, millions now live in this country, who've no investment in the country and by that I mean historic and cultural links, distinct from those of us whose families, have contributed to Britain as it is today, over many years, funding and creating a civilised infrastructure of Education, Health, Welfare and Law.

The chances are that in discussing this I'm breaking the law, still it's my belief that uncontrolled migration has damaged this country and things will only get worse.

You can take this as the moronic ranting of,  well a moron, or a plea for politicians to invest and protect the British people, those of us who actually built this country and maintain the facade of a once great nation.

Now there's a surprise Huhne confesses

Its a fact, that few of us expect our politicians, to be totally straight, during Thatchers time, and this is probably how it is today, tomorrow and forever, being "economical with the truth" became a well known technique for government.

Something that explains, how the EU for instance was allowed to develop from the "Common Market" to the all pervasive malign superstate with its French/German centered social and cultural engineering. 

Anyhow today in the face of overwhelming evidence Chris Huhne fesses up, at last, big deal! and this is what separates the crooks from the enthusiastic politicians pushing their manifestos.

Hopefully this wont result in dodgy political coverage such as, how will this effect the Liberal Democrats? type questions, God knows, every political party has had and will continue to have dodgy members.

Lets hope that Huhne does not think his public statement today lent any dignity to the actuality, the guy has been telling porkies for some considerable time, as far as I can tell, the reality of his resignation as an MP, is not really within his control anymore. 

A Stumble through Sunday

Weekends are precious, still some bloggers have time to ramble, me I thought I might take a quick stumble, perhaps knocking over the furniture as I go.

As Sundays goes this one, on a scale of one to ten, is probably about 6 or seven for newsworthiness, first a hangover from last week, is the apology given by the aged Rupert Murdoch for a cartoon that appeared in last weeks paper, accusations of antisemitism flew over the cartoon which depicted Israeli PM  Netanyahu cementing a wall with blood red mortar.  It seemed bang on the money to me, can anyone ever criticise Israeli war crimes, human rights abuse, confiscation of property, bombing civilians, murding UN observers, without being accused of being anti jewish. 

Moving on slightly, my Sunday got off to a bad start, with Tony Blair, on the telly in that slippery slick role of his, as ambassador for American interests, apparently arguing for a never ending war on Islam, turned the telly off.

The news is full of Gay marriage, whatever that is? my view is that marriage is two people man and women, end of, as per the dictionary and before that the bible. Am I homophobic, I don't think so, why should homosexuals engineer a situation, where priests and holy men/women have to change centuries of teaching, tradition etc.  This debate has left a trail of damage in our local council and it looks likely, to do the same thing nationally and for what, as far as I know civil partnership offer the same as marriage, so whats the problem.(please don't tell me)

In the real world people are frightened for their jobs, the issue of migration is top of the agenda, I'm convinced that British nationals are not welcome in some of the larger industries such as agriculture, so while it's right to start cutting welfare and weening workshy off the sofa, unfortunately our indigenous people, will be hard pressed to get a job, particularly with what 3-4 million east europeans having been invited by the last  Labour government to help themselves to everything this country has to offer.

This video from the Sunday Times is, I feel indicative of just how people feel about the change to our country. Sorry this link needs a subscription to Times papers, still for 2 quid its better than buying a half kilo of forest every sunday.

Finally, something I thought I'd never be comfortable saying, is this, I've been listening to Glenn Campbell records just recently after watching a BBC4 documentary on his music, this track I found particularly poignant and quite moving.

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Why you need bloggers

As I've been off-air for a while, it might be handy for you the reader to understand why I come back, well first I enjoy it, second recently spotted in a documentary on "World in Action" the spectre of Johnathan Aitken the disgraced one time local MP and perjurer whose trusty sword of truth was designed to silence honest reporting, and finally gaps in local news media.

Now I'm not suggesting for one minute that, our much local media are biased, just I imagine busy when it comes to using in good news, which wouldn't fit in with local Tories or Slippery Labour.

Anyhoo as many of you are aware, in the horse trading with the Conservatives when forming the current government, Nick Clegg, Liberal Democratic leader and his team stuck to as many of Liberal manifesto promises as was possible, one of these being the pupil premium, my fellow Liberal Democratic emailed  a press release some time ago, but since I wasn't blogging and I thought Rebecca Smith, Editor of the Gazette might use it, I forgot it.

The pupil premium  is one of those policies which unlike many is target where it is needed in this case children from poorer backgrounds  and good knows here in Kent given KCC's dire performance by and preference for looking after children from affluent backgrounds it is certainly needed

Anyhoo with apologies to Bill here it is and of course if it were not for bloggers you would be none the wiser.

Press release (21/12/12)


£295,650 present for Birchington schools – Bill Furness


Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government have given schools in Birchington were given a Christmas present.

The cash is an increase in the Pupil Premium funding, which targets extra money to schools depending on the number of children from disadvantaged backgrounds they have.

The Pupil Premium is a major Liberal Democrat priority that is being delivered by the Coalition Government.

In Birchington a number of pupils are expected to be eligible, meaning that our schools are set to benefit from an extra £295.650 to support disadvantaged children.

The Pupil Premium covers any primary or secondary school pupil that has been registered for Free School Meals in the past six years. For 2013/14, the Premium will be worth £1.65bn, or £900 per pupil, in total.

Commenting, Birchington parish Councillor Bill Furness said:

“Liberal Democrats are building a strong economy and fair society where everyone can get ahead.

“To do that we need to make sure that children are not held back by poverty and disadvantage.

“For too long, social background has been a deciding factor in a child’s chances for the future.

“I am proud that the Liberal Democrats are helping every child in Birchington to reach their full potential.

“This money does not just help the poorest children, it helps every child. Fewer children falling behind means less disruption in class and a better education for everyone.”

Commenting further, Liberal Democrat Schools Minister, David Laws said:

“We are already seeing across the country how the Pupil Premium is making a difference to children’s lives. Extra tuition, better IT resources and closer work with parents are all examples of how the Pupil Premium is being used to support the most disadvantaged pupils and benefit all their classmates too.

“That’s why I’m so pleased that, next year, we’ll be extending the Pupil Premium to another half a million children, and increasing the money that schools get to £900 per pupil.

“This means that, as a result of Liberal Democrats in the Coalition Government, more children will get a better start in life.”

Additional Notes

To see the Pupil Premium allocation for individual schools in Thanet visit:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/adminandfinance/financialmanagement/schoolsrevenuefunding/a00218077/funding-settlement-2013-14


By 2015, it will be worth a total of £2.5bn a year to schools in England.

The Pupil Premium was one of four policy priorities that the Liberal Democrats put on the front page of their 2010 General Election manifesto. The others were: raising the point at which you start paying Income Tax to £10,000 to give people on low and middle incomes a £700 tax cut; creating jobs by making Britain greener; and measures to clean up politics. The Pupil Premium was one of the key measures argued for by Liberal Democrats during the Coalition negotiations.