Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Been busy today, but:

There was a bit on the Radio this morning about the Gdansk shipyards facing large cuts because of EU competition regulations - on the grounds of their massive state subsidy.

Story Here

I'm not bleating a position either way on this, but it would be ironic that the birthplace of the Solidarity movement which heralded the lifting of the freedom of association restrictions in Poland - heralding the decay of Communism there - would fall foul of another Superstate.....

Or that it only survived the fall of the wall with massive state aid......

In other news....the Beeb has yet again leapt to the aid of Gordo by publicising some data errors in a Conservative Briefing. One wonders why they didn't castigate Patsy (remember her...?) when she pumped money into marginal constituencies, or is there any in depth investigation as to who appointed all the denying chief execs - and just what Millbank's hold on them is.

To be honest when faced with shaming their lords and masters, they will all close ranks, won't they.

Hat tip to Kate for the source for the second one.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

"or is there any in depth investigation as to who appointed all the denying chief execs - and just what Millbank's hold on them is."

Given that one of the people who pointed out one of the factual inaccuracies - and publically apologised for it - I think this attempt to refocus the Tories' ineptitude is doomed to failure.

Accept it - on this one, the Cameroonies made a booby. Let's hope it teaches them the value of proper research. I'd dearly love to see Labour get a kicking on healthcare, but sadly Cameron's team just isn't up to scratch on this one.

If it was your team at work involved, surely you'd hold your hands up to wider management and say 'yeah, we weren't on the ball with this one' ?!

Nicodemus said...

Agreed - they dropped a clanger. And with any luck they will come out of it with their pencils sharper.

I think it is a salutory lesson to them that they Left Leaning Media, those with their snouts in the Government trough and those in Hock to Millbank over their appointments will close ranks, so their research had better be seriously tight - and realise that the Media will play the man, not the ball when issues like this arise.
Not only must their figures be spot on, but they will have to field strenous denials from those that fear their Labour backed lifelines, and a shrill Media leaping on any percieved fault. A seriously uphill task.

Anonymous said...

Anyone who fields such slack research will quickly get shat on by the media. So the 'left-leaning' attempt is poor too. You're starting to sound like Andy Coulson - ie. desperate.

Nicodemus said...

yep, slack research - and it deserved to get shat on.
However - I would say that the beeb in this case is showing it's true colours - witness their coverage of Redwood and his tax announcements - does the bbc show the footage of Kinnock tripping on the beach when he announces another policy, or Brown picking his nose everytime he is mentioned?

I detected a whiff of glee from the bbc on this. They seem to be only to happy to do NewLabour's job for them....but as I said I'm not denying it is sloppy research.

As for the Beeb not being 'left leaning' it is even accepted by itself that it is.

My point is that they need to learn their lesson that their enemies are not only in Millbank, but in the media themselves, and that their research will receive double the scrutiny compared to the spurious nonsense this government spews forth - and the beeb reproduces without much challenge.

Anonymous said...

"As for the Beeb not being 'left leaning' it is even accepted by itself that it is."

source?

The media is - or should be - fiercely scrutinising all politicians. Its role could be percieved as 'enmity' but the Tories are old enough, and ugly enough, to make whining about it look childish and immature at best.
They (you) should take it on the chin and crack on with the job at hand.

Nicodemus said...

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-23371617-details/We%20are%20biased,%20admit%20the%20stars%20of%20BBC%20News/article.do?expand=true#StartComments

is a good start, but Andrew Marr himself recently confirmed it.

I for one don't 'whine' about the media - especially the BBC - I am merely pointing out that anytime a party seeks to reduce the size and power of the state - a large nationalised organisation who's mouth is around the government spoon will always turn against them. It knows not to bite the hand that so lavishly feeds.

If the bbc did cover NuLab's failings with the same alacrity, however, it would be a little easier to be so sanguine about matters.

Therefore they should really be more careful and treat the beeb as 'part of the problem' and not a route to the soulution.