The lingering demise of the BBC is a gigantic bluff

BBC begins move towards online-only TV – these channels and shows are at risk

More channels could be axed following the closure of BBC Three and BBC Scotland as the corporation begins its move to an online-only future.

The BBC is poised to shut the two poorly-performing TV channels next week and move their content online, sources claim, as the broadcaster seeks to make £500m in savings and avert a financial crisis. The future of the Radio 4 Extra archive channel is also under scrutiny.

The closures would also kick-start a wider strategy, which could ultimately mean the end of scheduled channels like BBC One, with viewers instead finding programmes on-demand on iPlayer, under genre headings like Drama, Entertainment, News and Sport.


The slow, soap-opera crumbling of BBC finances seems intended to squeeze every drop of sympathy for, or at least acceptance of a last minute rescue by the UK Government. Which is inevitable of course.

I'm reminded of the arts being described as a gigantic bluff in one of Somerset Maugham's short stories. The lingering, constantly reported financial demise of the BBC is a gigantic bluff too.

She had a natural and healthy contempt for the arts. She genuinely looked upon the whole thing as a gigantic bluff, and deep down in her heart was an amused sympathy for all the people who were able to put it over on the public.

W. Somerset Maugham - The Voice of the Turtle (1935)

That's a new one - the London El Niño

Met Office issues polar vortex update amid London El Nino fears

The Met Office has issued an update on the polar vortex that could cause chaos in London and across the UK this winter.

An unprecedented “Godzilla” El Niño event is set to hit the capital this winter, on the back of a record setting dry and hot summer.

The incoming El Niño, a natural climate pattern characterised by the warming of sea surface temperatures in the Pacific Ocean, could be one of the worst on record, according to experts.


Let us check the thoroughly scientific journalese -

 
London El Niño fears

chaos
unprecedented
Godzilla

record setting
one of the worst on record
according to experts

But only this to balance it all -

natural climate pattern

The King of the North has spoken

A few days ago, Joseph Dinnage had an interesting CAPX piece on reasons behind the likely failure of Andrew Burnham's National Care Service. 

Burnham’s National Care Service is doomed to failure

• Burnham announced plans to create a National Care Service modelled on the NHS
• We should reintroduce tax relief for private insurance, making independent healthcare more affordable
• Public satisfaction in our healthcare system has collapsed, despite the NHS receiving record funding

The King of the North has spoken. In an emotive speech, Andy Burnham yesterday set out his vision for Britain.

The Prime Minister pledged to put Britain ‘on a new path’, and cursed Margaret Thatcher and the 1980s for killing ‘working-class aspiration’. What lies down this new path? A route back to the decade that preceded Thatcherism – the 1970s.

The whole piece is well worth reading as another reminder that Burnham is an antediluvian political throwback. He does not have an adequate grasp of the problems he faces nor the slightest clue as to how they might be tackled.

What he may have grasped is that voters don't have a clue either so he may as well play on that. Yet as the next general election approaches, he needs a large dollop of undeserved luck or his party could demand something more than a political return to the 1970s.   

 

Nationalisation is also on the agenda. Environment Secretary and veteran Leftie Angela Eagle will bring forward a bill to bring water into public ownership, and a new publicly owned Great British Grid will be established to compete against private companies to drive down energy costs. Most misguided of all his nationalisation drives is the new National Care Service (NCS).

This ad was popular and nobody is surprised

 

Just another hollow man

An interesting Guardian hatchet job on Zack Polanski. Interesting, not only because of what it says about Polanski, but as an illustration of the Guardian's typically malevolent mix of celebrity culture, theatre, virtue-signalling and power politics.     

At Brighton, Polanski raised his arms in triumph. It felt more like a wave goodbye

The Chronicle of a Death Foretold. It must be weird to realise that you have in effect made yourself obsolete inside a year. Worse, that you have actively accelerated your demise. Even AI doesn’t work at that speed. But that’s precisely what it looks as if Zack Polanski has done. Maybe he should just look on the bright side. He’s managed eight Liz Trusses. Not to be sneezed at.

Polanski is partly a victim of his own success. A cautionary tale of being careful what you wish for. Like Nigel Farage, the leader of the Green party was one of Keir Starmer’s fiercest critics. Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting excepted. Keir wasn’t radical enough. Did not care enough about Gaza. Was too dull. And under Zack’s leadership, voters swarmed from Labour to the Greens. The party climbed to a record high of 18% in the polls and won the Gorton and Denton byelection against the staggeringly dim Matt Goodwin.

But then Keir was airbrushed out of history and Labour chose a prime minister that a lot of people in the country actually liked. Someone who could communicate. Even if they weren’t in love with Andy, voters were willing to give him a chance. Ever since, the Greens have tanked. Now they are down to 11%. Zack’s net approval rating’s almost as bad as Nige’s. Not content with this, Zack has almost certainly fatally holed his credibility by standing in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection, which he is very likely to lose. Shares in brand Polanski have never been lower.

Worth reading as the butterfly response to a changing world comes into view - must settle on something however temporary the perch may be. 

Polanski is is described as just another hollow man which he is, but behind this lies the hyper-optimistic hope that Burnham isn't just another hollow man too, even though he so obviously is.   

There was something rather sad about it all. The Greens had wanted so much more than this. They had believed they had elected a man of substance – someone less polite and deferential than previous leaders such as Caroline Lucas and Carla Denyer – who would go toe to toe with the other mainstream parties. But he had turned out to be a chimera. Just another hollow man. Long on slogans, short on ideas. A leader who had briefly burned brightly but had fizzled out. A victim of his own success. A one-year wonder destined to become a man of absence. Losing the byelection would only hasten the end.

The Benefits Party

The TaxPayers' Alliance has a useful piece on the political pressures behind benefit spending. 


Benefits of Labour

Benefit spending has seen enormous growth since the Labour government came to power in July 2024, with spending on just six benefits reaching over £133 billion in England and Wales by March 2026. [1] Despite widespread recognition that the current system is not working, meaningful reform has proven politically difficult. One of the reasons for this is that benefit spending is concentrated among particular groups, while the costs are spread widely across taxpayers. Those who stand to lose from reform thus have a much stronger incentive to resist change.


No surprises but well worth reading. Here are two of the key findings -

• Labour MP Diane Abbott’s Hackney North and Stoke Newington constituency saw the largest increase in benefit spending, £76.6 million, more than three times the constituency average.
• There were 15 constituencies where benefit spending rose by more than £50 million from August 2024 to March 2026; all were represented by Labour MPs except Birmingham Perry Barr, represented by independent MP Ayoub Khan.

Labour Euphoria

Andy Burnham gives Labour post-landslide euphoria absent under Sir Keir Starmer, says peer

Andy Burnham has given Labour the "post-electoral euphoria" that they did not have after Sir Keir Starmer's landslide 2024 general election victory, Harriet Harman has said...

The Labour peer went on to say that she was "hoping" that the Starmer project would succeed, but "a lot of [Labour MPs] were saying, 'look, it's not going to. Face up to the reality. The reality is that it's not going to'...

"Because although on paper he had a majority of over 100, he couldn't actually deliver anything with that majority.

"And I think now it's absolutely evident that we've got what we thought we got at the general election, which is a stable government with a huge majority which will get on and deliver a programme."

This is the euphoric programme Andrew Burnham laid out when he wangled the role of Prime Minister.

• Building one united Labour team
• A ‘less toxic’ problem solving approach
• Setting a ‘distinctively Labour’ direction
• Governing equally for every UK region and nation
• Taking back control from Westminster

It must have caused a level of euphoria comparable to drinking half a dozen pints of dandelion and burdock.