Morning Bluesky. Off to another TV meeting this morning. But just to start the day in the same space…
If you thought the BBC’s Question Time specifically platformed hard right voices, we now have data:
"deplatforming" actually works and i wish media organisations would do it.
no, we don't need to hear his opinions because we already know what they all are and they're shite. you might as well just put up a card that says "nigel is saying the same shit he always does" and be done with it.
It also damaged our ability to sway the parliament, since iirc the MEPs in his party refused to vote. And I assume they didn't participate in any committees, through which more engaged politicians might have influenced EU legislation
For all his harping about British fishermen, I believe he only attended one meeting of the EU fisheries commission, which he was a part of, the whole time he was in the EU parliament.
Technically I think that's the most honest thing his party has ever done, as most far-right people are simply in it for what they can get out of it.
That being a right-wing grifter is something the world has deemed acceptable and not push back against is a sign of how sick society is right now.
That's what I was going to say. He has stated in an interview that UKIP wasn't a political party but a campaigning protest group. (He never intended to get elected, apparently. 🙄🤥)
OK, I'm not really surprised, which moderates the irritation, but what is actually making me proper angry is that this parade of blow-hard right wing opinion mongers continues while real news journalism in the form of Newsnight is cut.
Despite BBC News’ credulous treatment of the Coalition’s claims to centrism, the 2015 parliament now looks like the cliff edge of precipitous decline. Was this row a turning point quickly obscured by the referendum? Is there a through line from Cameron to Richard Sharp?
www.ft.com/content/7ba8...
I think one thing the right have weaponised very effectively is simply being a reliable contact for time-poor BBC bookers: if you will say, "Yes," every single time they need "viewpoint X" then you make life much easier for them and don't make them expand their contacts list.
Well, looking back, BBC Question Time notoriously gave the BNP leader a platform on the programme as early as September 2009. In retrospect that was very obvious sign of where the BBC political coverage and wider British politics were headed.
I met a some of their researchers back before brexit landed, a daft bunch of cnuts - clearly hired because they were true believers. It was pretty clear what Gentchev et al. were up to
Makes me even happier that I don't have a TV. This bombardment of right wing views has created a fascist faction in the population allowing parties like Reform to get a hold.
For the first time ever I am thinking that PR may have disadvantages if you have a brainwashed electorate.
It’s very much a one person vote though. Once Farage skulks away, Reform will drift back to 6%. One reason why Labour should be working especially hard to win Clacton.
The small d democrat in me feels a bit funny about FPTP's tendency to suppress votes.
Ironically, had UKIP received more than 0.2% of MPs on 12.6% of the votes in 2015, we may have never left the EU. Sunlight is the best disinfectant: 60-70 of them would've ended this one man show pretty quickly.
I've always thought PR the better system, perhaps I am letting my personal antipathy to NF colour my vision. I loathe the idea of him being in parliament, though perhaps he would be better controlled by the systems there than outside fêted by the RW media.
