Maitlis on Newsnight - BBC hypocrisy

I heard this and thought that's ott but then the BBC is no longer what
it was! Personal agendas take precedence over objectivity even if you
are a Public Service Broadcaster and so the decline into irrationality
proceeds. I tried (in vain) today to see if the BBC web site was still
carrying the story of one of the most blatant breaches of PSB
regulations and ethics sadly just this year! No it had been removed nor
was any mention made of it on the BBC 6pm News. Clearly the BBC thought
that having been told off it was time to draw a line under the whole
affair! For details see https://www.edinburghnews.scotsman.com/read-this/heres-what-emily-maitlis-said-about-dominic-cummings-and-why-she-wasnt-newsnight-last-night-2867216 which I obtained from the Scotsman since the BBC has removed it. Proof to me how weasel like much of journalism now is! Only an hour previously Sam Coates of Sky who had led much of the attack on Dom Cummings continued to pursue his? agenda of getting DC out of government by asking 2 Civil Servants 'had they been instructed not to answer questions relating to DC'. Both answered
(in my view correctly) 'that they do not do politics!' Yet this story had been running for nearly a week! And the BBC 6pm news continued with it (Laura Kuennsburg)
And Maitlis is no also ran - she is an experienced investigative journo
and has been around for many years opining and influencing - she
definitely knows the score! So weasel like is the best description of
many present day journos - time to draw a line under it all I think. 

The Country is un-hinged

When I was living in London and aged about 10 my mother (Convent educated) suggested I should go to Tottenham to see Billy Graham (Evangelist). The event has left me with a lasting impression but not that intended by the evangelists. While I was there we had the usual hymn singing and praying it was clear that to gain adherents there was a policy of creating mass hysteria whereby individuals would approach the stage and in euphoria pledge belief in God and the literal truth of the Bible. Deep inside me I felt very disturbed that I was being pressurised into becoming subservient to a version of the world which was not that which I had observed and experienced – nor one that I wished to experience as it clearly was to be an existence of blind acceptance regardless of other facts. I rejected this approach and left deeply disturbed at the manipulation of many individuals by supposed Christians.

So I come back to the events of the past few days with some questions:

1) Does the Bishop of Leeds think it Christian to call the Prime Minister a liar:

“The question now is: do we accept being lied to, patronised and treated by a PM as mugs?” (Daily Telegraph 26^th May 2020);

2) How is it that the following are not being similarly criticised (as Cummings):

Stephen Kinnock drove hundreds of miles to see his elderly parents during lockdown or that one of Labour’s few remaining MPs in County Durham, Kevan Jones, attended a constituents’ birthday party. Labour MP Tahir Ali who attended a funeral in his constituency as one of 100 mourners at the start of April.

Having regard to political experience across the pond – personality and identity politics, reality TV and the pork barrel we need to think very carefully where we are going. Remember the Euro Election results of just a year ago! This is not a time for hysteria and hypocrisy but extremely careful thought as to where this could end up. Is this hysteria preparing the ground for a UK Trump!

And No I am not a Tory and have only ever voted Labour. I may be a cultural Tory (many have accused me of being an old fashioned Tory) but I have not met any others who (as I do) want a Wealth Tax, very heavy and stringent Inheritance Taxes and restoration of Trade Union Rights to ILO standards.

Now tell me the country is not un-hinged!

A Country Unhinged

This will not be a popular posting, I have no doubt! But I do honestly believe that the UK is engaged in madness over Covid19. First we have a government which initially appeared to want to follow a policy of riding out the pandemic. Then we have a view (it is no more than that) from an Epidemiology Modeller [Prof. Neil Ferguson] suggesting that up to 500,000 people could die if stringent measures were not taken i.e. “Lockdown”. The fact of the “Modellers” track record not being reviewed is lamentable incompetence on the government’s part. Facts as to “track record”:

{In 2005, Ferguson said that up to 200 million people could be killed from bird flu. He told the Guardian that ‘around 40 million people died in 1918 Spanish flu outbreak… There are six times more people on the planet now so you could scale it up to around 200 million people probably.’ In the end, only 282 people died worldwide from the disease between 2003 and 2009.

In 2009, Ferguson and his Imperial team predicted that swine flu had a case fatality rate 0.3 per cent to 1.5 per cent. His most likely estimate was that the mortality rate was 0.4 per cent. A government estimate, based on Ferguson’s advice, said a ‘reasonable worst-case scenario’ was that the disease would lead to 65,000 UK deaths. In the end swine flu killed 457 people in the UK and had a death rate of just 0.026 per cent in those infected.

In 2001 the Imperial team produced modelling on foot and mouth disease that suggested that animals in neighbouring farms should be culled, even if there was no evidence of infection. This influenced government policy and led to the total culling of more than six million cattle, sheep and pigs – with a cost to the UK economy estimated at £10 billion.

It has been claimed by experts such as Michael Thrusfield, professor of veterinary epidemiology at Edinburgh University, that Ferguson’s modelling on foot and mouth was ‘severely flawed’ and made a ‘serious error’ by ‘ignoring the species composition of farms,’ and the fact that the disease spread faster between different species.

In 2002, Ferguson predicted that between 50 and 50,000 people would likely die from exposure to BSE (mad cow disease) in beef. He also predicted that number could rise to 150,000 if there was a sheep epidemic as well. In the UK, there have only been 177 deaths from BSE.

Ferguson’s disease modelling for Covid-19 has been criticised by experts such as John Ioannidis, professor in disease prevention at Stanford University, who has said that: ‘The Imperial College study has been done by a highly competent team of modellers. However, some of the major assumptions and estimates that are built in the calculations seem to be substantially inflated.’}

(Spectator 16^th April)

All of this information was available at the time! Nevertheless the government panicked and took the “lockdown” decision. Maybe others (from the perhaps inaptly named SAGE committee) agreed but nowhere have I been able to find countervailing views which is strange to say the least! At this point it is right to point out that the excess winter deaths in England and Wales is around 24,000 each year (ONS). Currently (24^th May 2020) deaths from Covid19 are 36,000 and both the rate and daily absolute numbers are declining. The estimated economic cost of a “lockdown” are between £300bn and £500bn. Given this information it is right to review whether the “lockdown” is the most effective means of tackling the pandemic.

In this context the row over Dominic Cummings can only be seen as the lowest sort of politics and self inflated media importance. Of course there would be calls for his resignation – many are afraid of his capabilities and others are old enemies. I believe he has at least not followed the spirit of the advice and instructions but the reaction is just sickening. Political foes cannot stoop low enough – and Labour/SNP/LibDems want an even longer, more strict “lockdown”. The twitterati and faux Facebook crowd will scream but what is required is to engage brain not “gob off” at the earliest and any opportunity.

Now tell me that the country is not un-hinged!

Post Pandemic/Lockdown

When I first thought of writing this blog, I thought it should be about my Post Pandemic/Lockdown Wishlist. However on reflection a longer piece is required given the amount of coverage (in the media, but particularly the visual News Media) of the issue(s).

Twenty four hour news has not always been with us! First we had Town Criers in Market Squares bringing news which could be days if not weeks old i.e. not this immediate stuff (they call it breaking news). Then the written word, letters and Journals, soon sped up with the coming of travel via trains. The radio followed by television. Now we have twenty four hour news. No there has not been an exceptional increase in human activity requiring all day and all night coverage, so how has this come about. My view is that this is part of the anxiety creating syndrome necessitated by commercial imperatives (profit) - the visual media persuades? people that they must have/know certain things and that if you do not then you are not a fully participating member of society. I know the counter argument is that advertisers and producers are only giving the customer what they want. Of course after seeing the adverts they really really want it whatever it is because "everybody" does. Such is the deceit/conceit of the visual media and advertisers. Which brings us back to the news. Why do we have so much. At the production end it is a classic case of work expanding to fill the time available. At the consumption end it is preying on inquisitive (?voyeuristic) tendencies. It is very much like calorie intake of so called advanced economies - we get far to much and not only is the excess not good for us but also the type of consumption (e.g. alcohol, chocolate) which previously were luxuries have now become regular daily (if not hourly) intakes. It is legitimate to ask are we better off with this excess of "news" as some would argue that they fulfill a necessary input to democracy. In part it does but laborious repetition and always seeking a new angle mitigates against rigorous intellectual analysis. Clearly the BBC is no longer what it was! It is simply not possible to have twenty Robin Day equivalents - dilution has occurred because there is too much dumbing and watering down!

Which brings me to my wish list:

a) re-visit Public Service Broadcasters news guidelines stressing the essential need for rigorous objectivity and proportionality;

b) the BBC should strenuously apply Lord Reith's dictum - Inform, Educate and Entertain - n.b. nowhere does it say engage in shameless self promotion and celebrity seeking;

c) avoid the tribal and thereby dysfunctional politics which are consuming the USA at this time (with hints it could happen here)(compare CNN and Fox News). This means, at the very least, all lobbying has to be public without any exceptions - if there are alleged commercially confidential problems a Judge of the High Court would decide but only to the limit of partial non-disclosure;

d) Labour has to end its croneyism and nepotism much of it through the SpAd system (you know those people who have never had a proper job nor lived in the real world);

e) probably a forlorn hope that the Conservatives regain a reputation for competence;

f) accept that Identity Politics is a poison where its claims to autonomy and exclusivity destroy any chance of significant reform (most people see this - correctly - as a demand for very special treatment.

But most important given where we are now we must have an Investment Boom a decade long to get people in good jobs, re-build the economy and facilitate reform.