Forum Message

Topic: Re:Re:Re:Reply
Posted by: Steven Rose
Date/Time: 11/11/25 21:47:00

Jonathan, I was not trying to compare the late night parties at Downing St with the beer and pizza gathering at the Durham Labour constituency office. I was comparing the treatment of Boris Johnson with the treatment of Keir Starmer. The accusation against Johnson is that he lied to the House of Commons when he said that no rules were broken during lockdown. He wasn’t lying. When he made that statement he didn’t know about the late night parties such as the one that took place when the Queen was mourning her husband. He was referring to the gatherings in the garden at Downing St at the end of the day which he believed were within the rules. People working together all day had a right to have something to eat and drink on the premises, especially when many of them would return to their desks in the evening. In the same way Keir Starmer was not lying when he said that the beer and pizza gathering in Durham was within the rules. Party workers who had been in the constituency office all day were having something to eat and drink, after which many of them returned to work. Lockdown rules in the workplace were simply impractical.

The conspiracy theory that Prescott and Gibbs are part of a right wing plot to bring down the BBC is false and, I suspect, a deliberate distraction.  Gibbs did not force Tim Davie’s resignation, as David Yelland, former editor of the ‘Sun’, has alleged.  According to Mark Urban, a highly regarded journalist, formerly the BBC’s diplomatic correspondent, the Chairman of the BBC told Tim Davie last week that he still retained the confidence of the Board. It was Tim Davie’s decision to resign following a series of scandals on his watch, the last one being the transmission of Bobby Vylan’s anti-Semitic rant at Glastonbury. Michael Prescott was not the author of the criticisms regarding bias at the BBC. The bias was revealed after an investigation by the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines Committee, chaired by David Grossman. Michael Prescott summarised the results of this investigation in a letter to the Board which was discussed at a meeting last May. BBC Management largely rejected these criticisms. Jonathan Munro, the global editor of BBC News, now the most senior person left in the BBC, actually defended the ‘Panorama’ programme at this meeting, arguing that the misleading splice of different parts of Trump’s speech was ‘normal practice’. Frustrated by the BBC’s reluctance to accept reasonable criticism, Prescott sent a copy of his letter to MPs in the summer, which the ‘Telegraph’ obtained last week.

As Kemi Badenoch has said, the BBC  should be treasured as a national institution, but it needs to start a process of renewal by showing humility and learning from its mistakes rather than blaming others. So far BBC Management have shown precious little humility for having caused monumental embarrassment to this country.

Entire Thread
TopicDate PostedPosted By
Irony alert!09/11/25 09:17:00 Jonathan Callaway
   Re:Irony alert!09/11/25 10:25:00 Robert Wheeler
      Re:Re:Irony alert!09/11/25 12:27:00 Ivonne Holliday
         Re:Re:Re:Irony alert!09/11/25 12:54:00 Ivonne Holliday
   Re:Irony alert!09/11/25 12:14:00 Ivonne Holliday
      Reply09/11/25 12:26:00 Sue Hammond
         Irony upon irony09/11/25 12:46:00 Jonathan Callaway
            Re:Irony upon irony09/11/25 12:59:00 Ivonne Holliday
               Reply09/11/25 16:53:00 Sue Hammond
            Reply09/11/25 15:34:00 Sue Hammond
               Re:Reply09/11/25 18:13:00 Steven Rose
                  Re:Re:Reply09/11/25 19:23:00 Jonathan Callaway
   Reply09/11/25 18:24:00 Michael Ixer
      Reply09/11/25 19:07:00 Michael Ixer
         Re:Reply09/11/25 19:22:00 Robert Wheeler
            Re:Re:Reply09/11/25 21:43:00 Steven Rose
               Re:Re:Re:Reply09/11/25 22:33:00 Sue Hammond
                  Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply10/11/25 00:02:00 Steven Rose
               Re:Re:Re:Reply10/11/25 12:37:00 Ivonne Holliday
            Reply10/11/25 00:22:00 Michael Ixer
               Re:Reply10/11/25 11:47:00 John Hawkes
                  Reply10/11/25 12:19:00 Michael Ixer
               Re:Reply10/11/25 12:28:00 John Hawkes
                  Reply10/11/25 13:31:00 Michael Ixer
         Re:Reply10/11/25 09:13:00 Lucille Grant
            Re:Re:Reply10/11/25 09:37:00 Jonathan Callaway
               Re:Re:Re:Reply10/11/25 10:06:00 Andy Pike
                  Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply10/11/25 10:17:00 Robert Wheeler
            Reply10/11/25 10:52:00 Michael Ixer
               Re:Reply10/11/25 11:36:00 Andy Pike
                  Reply10/11/25 12:22:00 Michael Ixer
                     Re: Brexit10/11/25 12:50:00 Lucille Grant
                     Re:Reply10/11/25 13:06:00 Steven Rose
                        Reply10/11/25 14:12:00 Michael Ixer
                           Re:Reply10/11/25 14:16:00 Gerry Boyce
                           Re:Reply10/11/25 15:13:00 John Hawkes
                        Re:Re:Reply11/11/25 20:39:00 Jonathan Callaway
                           Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 11:50:00 John Hawkes
                              Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 19:12:00 Jonathan Callaway
                     Re:Reply10/11/25 14:34:00 Andy Pike
                        Re:Re:Reply10/11/25 15:54:00 Lucille Grant
                           Re:Re:Re:Reply11/11/25 21:47:00 Steven Rose
                              Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply12/11/25 20:40:00 Jonathan Callaway
                           Re:Re:Re:Reply11/11/25 22:30:00 Andy Pike
                              Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply12/11/25 23:27:00 Steven Rose
                                 Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply13/11/25 22:52:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                    Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 02:41:00 Steven Rose
                                       Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 12:20:00 Ivonne Holliday
                                          Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 12:30:00 John Hawkes
                                             Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 12:58:00 Ivonne Holliday
                                                Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 13:57:00 John Hawkes
                                          Reply14/11/25 12:38:00 Sue Hammond
                                       Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 19:30:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                    Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 12:17:00 John Hawkes
                                       Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 16:35:00 Steven Rose
                                          Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 19:52:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                          Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 10:47:00 Richard Carter
                                             Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 12:05:00 John Hawkes
                                       Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 19:40:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                          Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 21:25:00 Steven Rose
                                             Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 22:07:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                                Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply14/11/25 22:10:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                                Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 11:53:00 John Hawkes
                                                   Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 13:08:00 Jonathan Callaway
                                                      Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 13:44:00 John Hawkes
                                             Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 11:44:00 John Hawkes
                                                Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 12:22:00 Steven Rose
                                                   Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 13:00:00 John Hawkes
                                          Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 11:31:00 John Hawkes
                                             Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 13:19:00 Steven Rose
                                                Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Reply15/11/25 21:41:00 Gerry Boyce
   Reply15/11/25 13:53:00 Michael Ixer

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