Dodgyvictorians

The BBC is in crisis in the same way that GB News would be if you put Owen Jones on the board armed with a veto and plenty of coffee.

One strange thing about the BBC/Trump row is that the programme in question was actually made by an independent production company. Yes, the BBC producers and Panorama’s editor should have checked everything before it was broadcast. But…
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Yes. My wife’s mother’s family spring from a long-established Sri Lankan Christian family.

At risk of sounding like the kind of trite clergy comedians are fond of imitating, I’d say patriotism is caught, not taught. It’s when something happens and quite suddenly you feel proud of those who did it. An opposite revulsion is what this man inspires.

Me too.

I already don’t watch and have no license but I can’t bear to give up Radio 3

Yes. I heard it live, occasionally looking a live clips. That was one good meal absolutely ruined.

I’ve written to Keir Starmer, Kemi Badenoch and Nigel Farage urging them to condemn Donald Trump’s attack on the BBC.

The BBC belongs to Britain, not Trump. We must defend it together.

Huge fun, and I’ve always thought extra terrestrials ought to explore the cephalopod form more.

Oh absolutely they have done more than any other organisation to destroy the UK and contaminate debate here. But I think they aren’t far right enough for the far right for all that.

You have a general context of course, but absolutely nobody else’s views on it. Trump was very plainly intending to provoke violence. I didn’t know how far he would succeed. But as I listened, and I am to trade someone who evaluates the written and spoken word, I knew a coup was what he intended.

My very far right American friend has, sadly, broken off contact with me, for fear of my contaminating his views. But in 2021 he told me to listen to Trump on 6 Jan. I did, horror struck, my dinner congealing on my plate. Listening live to a speech in full is a good test for a historian.

To be entirely fair, while it solidly supports the right, it only sometimes supports the far right and doesn’t really espouse ‘pulling everything down to see what happens’ and still dislikes facts that are excessively ‘alternative’. So not far right enough.

Yes

It’s nauseating and infuriating and I’ve no idea how to stop it.

A purple circle on a black background, with the words 'Intersex Day of Solidarity' written over it in yellow.

When I found out that I'm intersex I knew, statistically, there were lots of other people like me out there, but only about a dozen were publicly visible. It has been a great joy to me to watch this movement grow over the decades and begin to exert real pressure for our human rights to be respected.

It’s pleasing isn’t it? A play of regular irregularity.

Just pass them onto deserving acquaintances? It’s just not Christmas without a sugar mouse.

Under the same article on Facebook every comment was to the effect that Islam was a real threat. Utterly depressing.

So often so very often.

Annual ‘be thankful I live in the absolute arse end of nowhere’ day.

My grandmother (born 1875) used to try that argument. My father (born 1910, so much more modern) used to hand her her arse on a plate EVERY TIME. Blimme are we back in 1925??? Or, 1825? Or WHAT!

Yes but it makes a nice change even to get that far.

That’s a fabulous angel. I do love a good individual angel. So many appear to be hangers-on from a teen movie.

Yes it’s been native in Scotland all my life. It’s changed of course, but things DO change, they adapt. Up here, as long as I can remember, there’s been a wild variety of costumes and Guisers going door to door. Turnip lanterns then, pumpkin now. Fruit and nuts used to be the majority reward.

Ain’t that the truth.

An entire generation recognised the utter fail the attempt at Strong Men ism had been, because so many in fact (Tolkien, Lewis, Vaughan Williams to name a very few) were condemned to both wars, and the Second was organised vastly differently to the first because of lessons learned.

And the Shire is saved, entirely, by two small people. Indeed it’s mostly saved by Sam, who totally devotes himself to Frodo, who could not conceivable have done it alone. It’s not violence or strength but utter self-giving that does it. The strongest man, Boromir, fails worse.

More like a failing King Rat, I think.

Falls into the general category of ‘tell me you never read or watched LOTR without telling me you never read or watched it’.