Our Culture

Our Culture

>> THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2010

The Guardian's favourite cartoonist. "Steve Bell - At the centre of our culture" (David Yelland. Today radio 4.) Update: New Sharon cartoon to replace previous image that wasn't by the Guardian's favourite cartoonist Steve Bell. Sorry for any inconvenience, and thanks to Mr Gregory for pointing out my mistake.

BEYOND PARODY

As several B-BBC readers have pointed out, the BBC has spent countless amounts of our money developing a "carbon footprint calculator" - launched yesterday with the requisite worthy pronouncements about saving the planet - which henceforward all its employeees will have to follow. Not only that, the corporation in its wisdom now plans to foist this smug self-righteousness upon the television industry as a whole. My question is why the hell were the BBC not making such economies of energy use anyway? It's public money and every penny of usage should be tracked. The need for such measures confirms profligacy, and to cloak them in weasel words and nonsense jargon is simply hypocritical, especially from an organisation that has among the most pampered and well-paid employees in the land. What's also terrifying about the footprint nonsense is that it underlines that the BBC is a lead partner in spreading the lies about climate change, and that those lies have infected virtually the whole of industry and the political class. I was at a presentation on Monday at big advertisers Ogilvy and Mather; they have a whole "sustainability" unit that peddles such moonshine among its clients. Yesterday, too, BBC eco alarmist-in-chiefRoger Harrabin was busy chairing a conference held by the National Environment Agency (no cuts there, then!) of a whole legion of fellow establishment fanatics, ranging from the Bishop of Liverpool to Caroline Spelman from the government. All of them were intoning with religious fervour that our ways are wicked and that we are damned. If they weren't gobbling billions of our money in their mad zealotry it would be funny. But it isn't. It's beyond parody.

STUDENT GRANT ON THE RAMPAGE...

>> WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2010

I thought Nick Robinson's coverage of the student thuggery in London was a disgrace. At every opportunity he did his best to excuse the thugs and you know why? Because the BBC loves the set to with the Coalition. Did you see it? Thoughts? Rather than focus on the students violence, it's all about the Lib-Dems breaking promises. Undermining the Coalition is the BBC meme.