Unable to cope with their constant failures being reported, Tory ministers are stoking the culture wars against the BBC again.
The BBC is far from perfect, and studies have shown it’s more likely to side with the establishment. But what the Tories want is to force it to be a propaganda machine paid for by the people it tells their lies to.
The People’s Songs is one of those quintessentially BBC projects. Using 50 songs as springboards, it’s a musical and cultural history of Britain since the Second World War. As the name suggests, it’s all about how they affected ordinary people, rather than academics or celebrities. It’s fascinating stuff, narrated with his usual wordplay by Stuart Maconie.
I followed John Redwood’s blog before the last election and found his arguments repetetive and dumb. I haven’t visited much since then, but thought I’d go back and have a look again. He’s still making dumb arguments.
In a post titled Rebalancing the Economy Redwood laments the lack of growth of UK industry. Amongst the reasons he cites for this happening is
Industry needs cheap energy in abundance. The UK is taxing and testing high energy using industries by its dear energy policies, partly required by its consent to EU carbon dioxide policies.
Because Europe’s industrial powerhouse, Germany, didn’t get where it is today by consenting to EU carbon dioxide policies. It did it by exceeding the targets, and building a world leading renewable energy industry to do it.
The Vulcan grinds out his climate change denial nonsense in Open Letter to the new DG of the BBC, pretending to be all high minded and scientific with the non-argument that science is always finding out new stuff so we shouldn’t act on what we already know in case we know other stuff in the future. He also whines that deniers don’t get as much time on air as people who know what they’re talking about. In reality, the “skeptics” probably get more time- relative to their credibility- than they deserve.
If Redwood really cares as much as he claims about energy poverty and rebuilding the country’s industrial base he should put aside the denial dogma and take a leaf out of Germany’s book, or give some support to his deputy leader’s old idea of rejuvenating old shipyards to build wind turbines.
But he won’t do that, will he.
Update And just when I thought Redwood couldn’t make himself look any dumber I found his reply to a comment
There are also problems with Darwin’s theory that need further work. If life came from the primeval slime, why can’t we make it from slime ourselves?
It would appear the Vulcan is a Creationist too, or so stupid he’s swallowed their nonsense. I admit I didn’t have much respect for him before, but if this guy was once held up as the great intellectual of the Tory party you can see how we got this deep in the shit.
Provisionally titled Show Me The Monet, the show’s description could be read as Dragons’ Den or X Factor for artists, depending upon how cynical you are. I don’t have anything suitable at the moment, but you might. Entries close on December 5th. Tell me how it goes.
The wonder of iPlayer means I can watch the best of the Beeb without needing a television. I highly recommend The Genius of Design. It’s a lightweight look at the design trends of the 20th century, highlighting certain key designs and movements, but still full of interesting new stuff for an interested non-expert such as I. The episodes that are up so far are available until 11th/12th of June, which suggests another two episodes are left in the series.
Costing the Earth on Radio 4 today examined the feed in tariff, which should become available with the new tax year, and the economics of buying yourself a windmill or solar panels. You can listen to it through iPlayer.
Normally listen and watch again programmes on the BBC site expire within a week, but this one says it’s okay until January of 2099.
Technorati tag: EcoHouse
Requiem for Detroit is available on BBC iPlayer until March 20th. You should watch it, it’s incredible.
From being the USA’s fourth largest city in its heyday Detroit has suffered a slow apocalypse, destroyed by- amongst other things- the very cars which made it great. Now nature is reclaiming whole neighbourhoods, schools are closing, historic buildings are decaying and being cannibalised for scrap and the roads are all but empty. Requiem for Detroit takes us for a journey through the city and its history. It’s a powerful, scary film, but with just a hint of optimism at the end.
During September BBC4 is running a series of programmes on the British comics industry. Cool.
via BoingBoing
Can you balance the budget, keep the electorate happy and fed and reduce greenhouse gas emmissions? Try the BBC’s Climate Challenge.
Technorati tag: Climate