Must annoy those who contribute

BBC stars handed bumper pay rises for podcasts

Laura Kuenssberg and Nick Robinson pocketed some of the BBC’s biggest pay rises last year thanks to podcasting and other BBC sidelines.

Robinson’s annual salary was £410,000-£414,999, making him the corporation’s highest-paid journalist.

The rise from £345,000-£349,999 in the previous financial year was thanks to his weekly hosting of The Today Podcast, plus his interviews with party leaders during the general election. This comes on top of his main role hosting Radio 4’s Today programme.


It can be useful to describe BBC journalists as instructors rather than journalists. From this perspective they instruct viewers on what to notice and what to ignore, how to think about those things they notice and how to discuss them socially.

He allotted a salary from his own funds to the two instructors, a salary twice as large as their meagre official salary, and one day he said to some one who expressed surprise, "The two prime functionaries of the state are the nurse and the schoolmaster."

Victor Hugo - Les Misérables (1862)

The Howell Effect

Drought declared in the Midlands - as people are urged to 'use water wisely'

Drought has been declared in the West and East Midlands, with dry weather continuing to "impact water resources across England".

The Environment Agency said the National Drought Group (NDG) had stepped up its operational response and "asks people to play their part in managing the drought and use water wisely".


It's been raining for hours in our corner of Derbyshire. Not that one wet day will fill the reservoirs, but it's an entertaining reminder of Denis Howell's role as Minister for Drought in 1976 and the heavy rainfall which occurred a few days after his appointment.

A shriek in the supermarket

A shrieking child in the supermarket - familiar enough to all so there is no point paying much attention to it, but it does raise the issue of how long it can take to come down from an emotional outburst.

Worth pondering because there are adults who also take too long to come down from an emotional outburst even though they don’t fill a supermarket with unappeasable shrieks. At a quieter level though – that may be just what they do and it may go on for much longer than the shrieking child.

If we go off at a tangent to this problem of not letting go, then we come across another familiar type of behaviour. We come across people who can’t let go of a weak argument, dubious standpoint, misplaced loyalty or even a factual inaccuracy. It can be emotionally disturbing to let go in such cases. There are no shrieks in the supermarket, but it can seem undignified.

Yet if enough members of the same social class share the same dubious standpoint, the same loyalties and even the same factual inaccuracy, then no dignity is lost by holding onto it. Being wrong can be the dignified standpoint. Even a pompous idiot can be dignified in these circumstances. There is such a thing as dignified idiocy, as Dickens frequently highlighted.


Mr Podsnap, as a representative man, is not alone in caring very particularly for his own dignity, if not for that of his acquaintances, and therefore in angrily supporting the acquaintances who have taken out his Permit, lest, in their being lessened, he should be.

Charles Dickens - Our Mutual Friend (1864–1865)

Oh dear

OPEC bans media outlets accused of advocating transition to “a net-zero economy”

The Oil-price outlet is reporting that OPEC has refused accreditation for Reuters, Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Financial Times, and the Wall Street Journal for its meeting in Vienna, which is taking place this week.

“We believe that transparency and a free press serve readers, markets, and the public interest, and we object to this restriction on coverage,” Bloomberg quoted a Reuters spokesman as saying, adding that it had been given no explanation by OPEC for the decision to refuse it accreditation.

"We believe that transparency and a free press..." 

As long as it allows the one-sided advocacy of expensively fashionable politics our social class supports.

Lord Ridley v the 'Experts'

 

Under threat

‘Extreme’ heat and rainfall is becoming the new normal in the UK, says Met Office

The Met Office has warned that extremes of heat and rainfall are becoming the normal as the climate continues to warm in the UK.

The latest state of the UK climate report, published in the Royal Meteorological Society’s International Journal of Climatology, shows the impact of human-caused global warming on the UK’s weather, seas, people and wildlife...

The Energy Secretary called the findings “a stark warning” to take action on climate and nature.

“Our British way of life is under threat,” Mr Miliband told the PA news agency.


No it's not a stark warning, nobody thinks it is a stark warning, or even a warning. Only a few loons believe that. 

As for "the new normal", it seems to be a constant stream of low grade official propaganda, but this particular blob of drivel comes across to this observer as transparent distraction politics. 

“Our British way of life,” began fading away some time ago under the influence of a range of pressures, including persistent government incompetence, overspending, mendacity, fashionable ideology, ignorance and neglect. One of those pressures on “our British way of life” comes in the shape of Edward Samuel Miliband, but there are many others.

It's desperate stuff though, trying to distract voters from the unlovely mess by pointing a flaky finger at what on the whole is better weather plus a few extremes we've always had to deal with, even if dealing with them via arm-waving has become the new normal.

Two Tier Fairness

Tax 'fairness' comment is latest hint from government increases could be on way at next budget

Speaking to Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander was asked if Sir Keir Starmer and the rest of the cabinet had discussed hiking taxes in the wake of the government's failed welfare reforms, which were shot down by their own MPs...

Ms Alexander said she wouldn't comment directly on taxes and the budget at this point, adding: "So, the chancellor will set her budget. I'm not going to sit in a TV studio today and speculate on what the contents of that budget might be.

"When it comes to taxation, fairness is going to be our guiding principle."


Labour to spend millions on electric car handouts

Labour will unveil £700 million of taxpayer-funded subsidies to encourage the public to buy more electric vehicles (EVs).

Heidi Alexander, the Transport Secretary, will this week announce grants for drivers to help cover the cost of a new EV, as well as more cash for charging points.


To be fair, it's worth adding that two tier fairness is a key point of socialism.