Is the BBC really any better than the Sun or the News of the World? Not if this morning’s politics show is anything to go by; the obsequious reptilian journalist Andrew Marr asked prime minister Gordon Brown if his sight was deteriorating and followed it by asking him if there was any truth in the stories that he was taking copious pain killers.
Brown dismissed the question and the questioner with a rare look of absolute contempt but he; (Marr) got his 15 minutes of fame; he displayed rat like cunning and a willingness to swim in the gutter.
This kind of thing does occasionally surface in our famously embarrassing gutter press but at least they have the excuse of being told what to do by the odious and repulsive Murdoch; what is Marr and the BBC’s excuse; a new depth has been reached in journalism and who would ever have thought that it would be plunged by our national broadcaster; another nail in Britain’s reputation; a sad day.
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33 comments:
Brown is PM of Britain, the man with his finger on the nuclear button. That makes his physical and mental health a legitimate subject for discussion.
Your indignation over Brown sits uneasily with your views on Lady Thatcher,Sir Winston and H.M.
Terry, Marr is married to Jackie Ashley, one of Browns journalistic cheerleaders.
Also, in yet another example that he is totally unfitted for office, didn't GB give this same Marr an exclusive interview a few months ago, royally p*****g off the rest of the media crew?
The man is a basket case. Come back Tony, we love you
I saw that and couldn't believe what I was seeing. Absolutely shocking stuff. I'm no Labour voter and no fan of Gordon Brown but the treatment of him by various internet outlets and the media is nothing short of a disgrace.
If it were just about policy that would be acceptable but this all smacks of a personal vendetta.
(Ariel) 27/09/09
An entirely predictable response from someone who swims with Marr and the rest of them in the gutter.
It was a calculated smear designed to reel in people like you.
(Anonymous) 27/09/09
If you are naive enough to equate being a Guardian columnist with support for Labour then you would have a point but a cursory glance at her columns which you obviously haven’t had reveals that she has harmed the Labour cause over the past months as much as any right wing Daily Mail moron.
Notwithstanding Marr’s underhand questions Brown sailed through the interview and I have just watched him at conference for about an hour and a half answering questions from candidates and delegates in a show of absolute knowledge and confidence as well as his recent display of resolve and intellectual rigour in the face of unprecedented media hostility and personal abuse.
He is fit for office alright hence the abuse from people like you.
(penny royal) 27/09/09
The media in Britain is right wing and these incidents come along occasionally to remind us of that; no right wing politician in my memory has ever been subjected to such abuse but think about the treatment of a) Ken Livingstone b) Tony Benn c) Arthur Scargill d) George Galloway e) Neil Kinnock, I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised but; it is sickening to see our so called free press up to their elbows in sleaze.
Councillor, under Labour, we have become the most spied upon people on this planet CCTV, ID cards, NHS databases et al, all without a whimper from you.
Now, unbelievably, you, Brown and even Mandelson, God help us, go all girlie about a personal, but legitimate, question to the PM.
Are you saying that the mental state of our PM is no concern of anyone else?
(Ariel) 13:32
Can you give me a precedent for Marr’s questions?
It was a smear out of the Senator McCarthy book of political sleaze; you deserve each other.
Even the cretin Churchill did not face such questioning and it was bloody obvious that he was barking.
Terry, this performance you watched on TV, would it be the one with the room less than half full and the few that did turn up, hand picked pussy cats?
But to get back to your post,I see Obama has his medical results published, so why not our Leader?
(Anonymous) 15:51
You are running away from the issue; this was a deliberate smear by a well known BBC journalist; anyone including you who say different is either an idiot or a coward or perhaps in some cases both; those who hide behind anonymity would fit the latter.
Can you give me a precedent for a PM being asked something like this?
'Can you give precedent for Marr's question?' Yep, Kevin Mcguire about David Camerons supposed drug taking. (and DC is only Leader of the Opposition!) Next question.
Again, just to help you Terry, Brown's mental state was questioned initially by, amongst others, Charles Clarke and the Noble Lord Mandelson. Not exactly typical Tory Grandees are they?
(Ariel) 18:03
Yes I remember that; politicians and celebrities were being asked if they had ever taken drugs Clinton said he never inhaled; not quite the same thing, a bit desperate really. If you are relying on Clarke and Mandelson to damage Brown you are even more desperate.
You are so twisted and dishonest that I have to spell everything out for you show me the precedent where any other PM was treated like this by the media, Dennis Healey once described Thatcher as Rhoda the Rhino and Michael Foot called Tebbit a semi house trained polecat but they did not mean literally that they were actually a Rhino and a Polecat.
I’ll give you a hint, to find this level of personal abuse by the British Media try; Scargill, Benn, Livingstone, Galloway, Foot etc.
You're right Terry, no other PM has been asked a question like that. Reason being, no other PM has been in need of sectioning.
Scargill, Benn, Livingston, Galloway, Foot, Kinnock. Not sure I'd want to see my hero lumped with that lot, but you put Brown in there, not me.
One thing links your initial six lunatics - Matron kept them well away from the nuclear button, whereas yer man Brown, probably keeps it under his pillow and that makes Marr's question relevant.
(Ariel) 28/09/09
How could I not print this? How do you maintain such high standards? Are you a royal by any chance?
The Sun and Murdoch don't represent the gutter they are the gutter. The Labour Party has spent large amounts of money and time groveling to them! If you don't like boot-licking to such scum as Sun editors, gutter journalists, and media barons, then you had better take it up with the legions of 'advisors', 'press secretaries', media assistants', 'image advisors' and the rest who form the core of your now sadly degenerate party.
I was at the Labour Conference and the lamenting and panic about the Sun's decision to stop supporting Labour was pathetic. Go on Terry! give us a few headline grabbers about Union Jacks and immigrants (remember the imbecilic comments of 'keep them out' immigration minister Woolas about 'thousands of Nepalese Gurkha families 'swampming our island'?- Jesus Christ!?). That'll get the all important Sun constituency back on Labour's side right?. The infantile 'don't rock the boat', 'there is no other choice', 'the Tories are covert Nazis' mantra is typically condescending to working people. Five wars in six years: Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Desert Fox, Afghanistan, Iraq. 'Let traitors sneer', you can say that again! Just as long as we keep voting Labour and being polite the PM ay Terry?
“The Labour Party has spent large amounts of money and time groveling to them!”
Please explain this; give me some facts; not ravings.
“lamenting about the Sun's decision to stop supporting Labour”
The complete opposite of the truth and truly desperate.
“Go on Terry! give us a few headline grabbers about Union Jacks and immigrants”
WTF does this mean.
“'keep them out' immigration minister Woolas about 'thousands of Nepalese Gurkha families 'swampming our island'?”
Another lie he did not say thousands and he did not say swamping our country he said if we agree to their demand we will be swamped by applications, you are a sordid liar.
“'the Tories are covert Nazis' mantra”
Judging by your standards you should be working for them.
A complete fiction from someone who is clearly not able to tell the truth, a highly subjective rabble.
Thanks for reminding me BTW I’ll say it again just for you; “let traitors sneer” or in you case lie & sneer.
I notice you didn't mention the 'five wars in six years' claim. Is this a 'sordid lie' also? Perhaps you were too busy to notice them, or maybe you have short term memory problems.
In 2002 Blair attended a conference in Pebble Beach, California, (all on party expenses)with Murdoch News International in which he praised Murdoch as a 'friend of Labour' and at which Murdoch made it clear that he did not want a referendum on the euro as this was 'too risky'. In 2003 Blair, with cabinet approval, reversed Labour's position on a euro referendum.
Blair spent time sucking up to Murdoch three times in the 10 days before the outbreak of the Iraq war - once on the eve of the US-led invasion, asking 'what he thought about it'. The telephone conversations were among six calls between the two men detailed by the cabinet office in response to a freedom of information request by the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Avebury.
Irwin Stelzer arranged meetings between Blair and other Labour people and Murdoch with the help of National Economic Research Associates. Later, in July 1995 Blair flew to Australia to address a News Corp management conference at Hayman Island on the Great Barrier Reef (more Labour time and money in my book). There he made it clear that Labour had 'dropped' its longstanding policy to force News International to reduce its masive media holdings, etc, etc. If to your mind, all this and more, means that there is, and was no sleazy consort between Labour and Murdoch then you are seriously and I mean seriously, deluded.
OK, you got me on the 'swamped by immigrants' quote, it was as you say, 'swamped by applications for immigration' I suppose you are proud of that statement, albeit in a 'sordid' kind of way.
By the way, what's a 'subjective rabble', hee hee.
Your dislike of the Sun was certainly not shared by the Party.
In 1997, Campbell to Blair, 'Great news, we've got the Sun on side.'
The Belgrano 'GOTCHA' headline clearly mattered more to you than it did to your lying Leader and his Liar in Chief.
The Tories covert Nazis a complete lie?
See Millibands closing Conference speech.
Just seen David Starkey on Question Time, re the Brown/Marr question.
He hit it bang on the button -so many hand on heart lies from No.10 under Labour, people no longer believe a word they say.
Personally, if a Labour politician said it was raining, I'd go outside to check
(Anonymous) 01/10/09
“Your dislike of the Sun was certainly not shared by the Party”
So apart from Campbell and Blair you have checked with the rest of the Labour Party membership then?
Do try harder not to look foolish.
(Anonymous) 01/10/09
I haven’t seen or read Milliband’s closing speech but I’m willing to bet he did not call anyone a Nazi. He accused the Tories of joining with some rather unsavoury types in Europe; an accusation which has already been made elsewhere and on several occasions.
Have a go at telling the truth for once you might even find it refreshing.
(Anonymous) 02/10/09
“David Starkey hit it right on the button”
That sentence precludes you from being taken seriously.
you're sinking Terry, just like your party.
New Labour has condemned us to an extended period of (official) Tory rule.
Thanks a f***ing bunch mate!
(Anonymous) 05/10/09
People who have given up and have no stomach for the fight should stay out of it; that means you.
'People who have given up...' Listen you worthless apologist, I am a postal worker and active member of the CWU. I have paid the politcal levy to the Labour Party all my adult working life and voted Labour at each and every election. This Labour government is now moving to make me redundant and is actively assisting in allowing a bunch of financial raiders to grab my pension.
Would you remain loyal to a thief in your own house and actively pay him or her to ruin your life and all you have worked for. A Labour minister recently told us 'not to worry' and that we would always get work on the shamefully low 'minimum wage'. Where do you find these slugs?
'Given up'-we are too busy fighting you slimy rat! We are on strike even now defending workers and union rights against guess who-your wonderful party.
If you can't stand the fight at least shut up and get out of the way!
James Vernon
CWU
'no stomach for the fight...' During the last Euro elections I attempted to ask my local Labour MEP a question about Afghanistan and she literally ran off! Just like your 'don't mention the wars' position. What a bunch of weaklings!
(Anonymous) 08:53
I will not get into a slanging match with you despite your language; I have counted to ten and I have been in enough disputes and stood on enough picket lines to know why you are angry but; you are aiming at the wrong target.
I personally moved a motion in support of the CWU at my Labour Party Constituency which received total support; I then moved a similar motion successfully through Renfrewshire Council where the ruling SNP group had already transferred their internal mail system to an outside contractor.
I am a labour member of some 40 yrs. And I don’t know a single member who does not back the CWU in it’s dispute; I don’t know about Govt. attempts to make you redundant or raid any pensions; I know through close contact though with CWU officers that RM management are trying to ride rough shod over the staff in their modernisation attempts and that only today you won a massive yes vote for strike action which I whole heartedly support.
Who was the Labour Minister who said that about the minimum wage? He/she should be kicked out. Mandelson was forced into a climb down on the Royal Mail because he was faced with a massive Party revolt both inside and outside Parliament.
Whether you hate Labour or me is of no consequence to me; I will continue to support the postal workers and any other workers in dispute; I know several local Postal staff personally and I regard them as friends as well as union brothers and sisters how could I do otherwise?
(Anonymous) 09:34
“like your 'don't mention the wars' position”
This means one of two things either you are ignorant of my position re. “the wars” or you are a liar.
Along with many others in the Labour Party; I would suggest a majority; I am opposed to these conflicts. I have said so publicly many times and I have written about my opposition in this blog several times.
"I don’t know about Govt. attempts to make you redundant or raid any pensions..." Are you insane? The government initiated this process of so-called 'modernisation' and 'efficiency savings' and set the green-light for RM management to attack us, and top ministers have openly supported it, Mandelson and John Hutton to name only two (not Labour I suppose).
If Labour is 'against' this vicious attack why doesn't it just put an end to it? Don't you know how to govern? Are you afraid of the bosses? Why? Because Labour have adopted a disgraceful lefthand=rhetorical sympathy while the righthand=put the policy in place that you are supposed to be 'against'. I'm sick of you lot!
Cheer us at the conference and screw us behind our backs! You talk about Labour ministers and Labour MP's as if they are not Labour, you must either be on drugs or a slimy hypocrite. You defend the PM while he presides over a policy that is screwing postal workers-whose side are you on? Both I suppose, nice for those that can afford it-two horses one arse as usual. I don't give a tinkers damn for you and your 'friends'. How does your chummy talk help me and my family? I want my years of political levy money back and it'll go to a party I can trust!
James Vernon
(Anonymous) 07:38
I have made my position clear and it is completely in line with the CWU; I will continue to support them and no amount of frenzied loud mouthed abuse from a clown like you will change my mind.
I have already spoken to senior CWU officers who agree with me completely; if your union officers and fellow workers don’t have a better grasp of reality than you then you have no chance of winning; or perhaps the bosses will crumble before your rage; I'm sure they will be terrified.
Union 'officer' 'friends', so what? That will not impress anybody with any sense. Stop lying and distorting the truth. Our Deputy general secretary Dave Ward recently placed Labour's "failures" and "shameful maneuvering" firmly in the frame in this dispute: "We need a national agreement which secures a fair deal on modernisation and reward for the efforts of postal workers in transforming the business. We want reassurances on job security, covering both redundancies and full-time part-time ratios and the Labour Government is failing us. Crucial to an agreement is fair workloads with agreed standards. We've seen cuts and increased workloads and now we need an agreed roll-out of real modernisation. The Labour Government must act now to resolve the pensions deficit which is crippling the Royal Mail's finances and chances to modernise effectively." he stated.
On the other hand, Labour's postal affairs minister Lord Young called us 'misguided' and 'backward' and said: "A national postal strike is completely self defeating and will only serve to hurt consumers and businesses who rely on the post and drive even more people away from using mail as a means of communication." Hey Terry, why don't you and your important pals have him thrown out eh?
Did I imagine Mandelson's and Hutton's 'plans' or have you conveniently forgotten them? Are these 'people' not Labour. If there is any 'frenzy' going on it is from the private-public nutters in Labour and those who try and pretend that they have nothing to do with the Labour government while all and sundry know they are at the centre of it. Is David Ward our deputy gen sec a misguided 'loud mouth'? I seem to recall a guy called Pontius who liked to hang around basins of water who had much the same 'position' as you. If you do not understand the Labour Government's and senior ministers' role in this issue or are too dishonest to admit it publically, then you should go back to selling snake oil to the local cretins.
JV, CWU
(Anonymous) 09/10/09
“We need a national agreement”
I know exactly what you need I agreed with the CWU’s case months ago and I don’t need a clown like you shouting it at me in increasingly over long anti Labour diatribes; this is the third and you are saying nothing new.
This sounds more and more like impotent rage; synthetic fury and a personal agenda. You are saying something different from your own Scottish Union leadership; please explain that.
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