General British politics discussion thread

Danzy · 16-01-2022 5:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118484372#Comment_118484372

Even Betty Windsor has a bang of Mass off her nowadays.

PommieBast · 16-01-2022 5:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118483760#Comment_118483760

The general view of Elizabeth being a good monarch but Charles being a bad one is one I heard a lot when I lived over in New Zealand. They expect Charles at most being a stop-gap monarch while William's children are still young.

PommieBast · 16-01-2022 6:43pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118482917#Comment_118482917

A major fault with the Labour party is the extent they think people will swing behind them sooner or later, so they have yet to take the hard look at their policies they should have done after 2015.

Itssoeasy · 16-01-2022 6:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485326#Comment_118485326

Well he’s in his early to mid seventies so in comparison to his mother he will be a stop gap. If William and his family weren’t next up I wonder would there be much appetite to keep it going ?

pixelburp · 16-01-2022 6:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485531#Comment_118485531

You'd want to imagine that even if the head was a bit of a plonker, the royals are worth keeping for the cultural and tourist boost alone. Americans can't seem to get enough of that myth of the English Upper Class, be it Downton or the Windsor's themselves. As brazenly hostile as I am to inherited wealth and power, I recognise their engrained value to the economy - and the unlikeness a referendum would be supported in any area benefiting from that myth.

PommieBast · 16-01-2022 7:22pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485531#Comment_118485531

William seems to front the royal family a lot more than Charles, so I am pretty sure Charles will step aside sooner or later. Appetite for Charles seems pretty low and him hanging around will push one or two more countries towards republics.

What I am not sure about is whether the Prince Andrew thing might make William vs Charles a moot point.

kowloon · 16-01-2022 7:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485586#Comment_118485586

I remember seeing that Versailles sees more tourists than any of the British royal establishments. You don't need an actual monarch to draw in the tourists. They could even be trimmed back substantially without affecting tourism.

The thing that interests me is how the land ownership of the royals would be handled if the UK ever decided to shed them. Aren't a huge proportion of the land and sites maintained by the National Trust actually on a permanent loan type arrangement from the royals?

breezy1985 · 16-01-2022 7:50pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485531#Comment_118485531

Royal family is going nowhere anytime soon. The church in Ireland raped on an industrial scale and although massively diminished are still running most of our primary schools and have a presence in every town.

The royal family are the English version and as much as they might not like Charles or his possibly noncy brother the average person if it came to a vote would not be able to fathom losing the pomp and tradition. Just like all the atheists/agnostics in Ireland who still use a priest to marry and baptize their kids

Capt'n Midnight · 16-01-2022 7:52pm

Between security costs and lost taxation the UK royal family cost almost £350m a year. Money that could be spent on the NHS !

It's about 10 times what the Dutch royal family cost. So it should be possible to remove some snouts from the trough.

The Royle Family cost £0.1m when they had to reshoot an episode.

kowloon · 16-01-2022 7:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485803#Comment_118485803

It's more of a hypothetical thing. I don't expect it all to collapse when the current monarch goes. I wonder if we'll find out if Andrew was into the industrial-scale rape and how much more damage he can do. I didn't expect them to make such a quick move before there was a day in court.

ancapailldorcha · 16-01-2022 8:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118484898#Comment_118484898

They do. However, it's hard to see it as anything other than a pro-Tory mouthpiece when the head of Politics is Laura Kuenssberg, succeeding Nick Robinson. Only a few days ago, they were pledging to air flat earth views in the interest of "balance".

Sam Russell · 16-01-2022 8:37pm

Can't remember where, but I heard it speculated that Charles will cut back the recipients of royal recipients to quite a small number, with many grace and favour positions eliminated. It was suggested that only his descendants would be in the running. Even Harry could miss out.

The tourists will come anyway - more so if they can gawp at the internals and private bits of these palaces. They could do a nice attraction with rides in the rollers or even the State Carriage. May be worth keeping those fellows with the tall furry hats and bright red jackets marching up and down outside. Great for the tourists to get their selfies.

Danzy · 16-01-2022 8:44pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118485518#Comment_118485518

That's been the case for most of the last 50 years.

There has to come a point when someone looks back and say our record is mostly absolutely shi7 and we have alienated 2 blocks of our voters who arguably were the most die hard party supporters that any party in Western Europe had.

That will never happen, it's the media, the gammon electorate in their council houses, Hindu voters, Coconuts and Uncle Tom's, Zionists and false consciousness and on and on.

The labour party never forgave the working class or wider electorate for failing to appreciate them and do a great deed by falling in line behind them.

That's not just a problem in the British Labour party.

There is no shame in electoral success and implementation of many of your policies.

Aidric · 16-01-2022 8:46pm

That Max Hastings article from 2019 has proved to be very prescient. It's up to the Conservative party to call time on this joker. His only supporters in the main are the lackeys promoted above their abilities, Truss, Patel & Rees Mogg. When a bully is confronted with their actions their response is to go on the attack, see Rees Mogg's attack on Douglass Ross.

10000maniacs · 16-01-2022 11:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118484898#Comment_118484898

I noticed that the BBC's presenters have been less sympathetic to the Tories and Johnson especially recently.

I thought this was both obvious and strange until I saw the BBC license announcement today.

"Might as well get hung for a sheep as a lamb" and give Boris a good ass whipping as we have nothing to protect anymore is what's going on here.

I would rather the BBC being independent and commercial than being beholden to the Tories.

retalivity · 17-01-2022 10:58am

"I would rather the BBC being independent and commercial than being beholden to the Tories."

I think the reason they are not beholden to them is why the Tories want to cut the legs off them.

The BBC, for the most part, is generally left leaning (with the exception of Kuessenberg), most people in TV/Entertainment are. However, I would still consider it far more impartial than the little D4 kingdom we have running here.

hotmail.com · 17-01-2022 11:18am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488120#Comment_118488120

Have people seen the coverage of the Royal Family on the BBC?

People think it's left leaning?

Sam Russell · 17-01-2022 11:34am

I think the Tories would be quite happy if Murdoch and his like were to be running the BBC based on commercial advertising, and right leaning editorial control.

They want Ch4 sold to their chums. Now Ch4 is special case as it is Gov owned but independent, and self funded, and any profits are ploughed back into programming. How would an investor help in any way except control over Ch4 News, that all Tories, especially the Tory Ministers, refuse to appear on - citing bias.

Controlling the media, especially news coverage, appears to be a right wing thing.

ancapailldorcha · 17-01-2022 11:37am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488120#Comment_118488120

The BBC being left leaning is one of those lies from the British right that has been repeated enough times for people to think it's true.

The BBC's real problem is that younger people have no interest in it and, since the Tories need to buy grey votes, the cost will fall on those younger people which is absurd.

breezy1985 · 17-01-2022 11:52am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488298#Comment_118488298

I would say anyone of voting age over 30 definitely has an interest in BBC. Problem is most of people know that the big shows like Fleabag or Killing Eve would probably get made anyway by someone else so are not too concerned.

It's stuff like the documentaries that will be the big loss. They are of way better quality than the clickbait documentaries that many other channels have.

Only when it's gone people will realize how much it will be missed. I certainly noticed how much I miss the iPlayer since moving back to Ireland

ancapailldorcha · 17-01-2022 11:56am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488364#Comment_118488364

I have used the iPlayer once in the past 12 months but because I like to stream Family Guy reruns the odd time on ITV2 I now have to pay for the licence. It's ridiculous. I don't own a TV and I never watch the BBC but I still get threatened with imprisonment.

Younger people are getting their news from the internet, specifically social media. Whatever upper class, well connected person the BBC decides is somehow qualified to present political coverage isn't really relevant and their craven attitude towards intellectual rigour just proves that, where it counts, they're worthless. No amount of David Attenborough documentaries or James Nesbitt police dramas are going to sway me on that.

10000maniacs · 17-01-2022 12:26pm

The thing I will miss most on the Beeb is the lack of commercials. I sometimes veg out on BBC 2 or BBC 4 on a Friday or Saturday with a series of related rock programmes which are excellently produced and no 5 minute long commercials every 15 minutes.

On a related topic, RTE has the worst of both worlds. Commercials, a license fee and inferior programmes.

pixelburp · 17-01-2022 12:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488364#Comment_118488364

I know you just mention it by way of example, but IIRC Killing Eve isn't even made by the BBC we're talking about: it's a BBC America production, which is a totally different entity. Now, I don't know if said entity operates under the same budgetary constraints as the UK based one so maybe they're also in the same hot water.

10000maniacs · 17-01-2022 12:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488120#Comment_118488120

In the aftermath of the Brexit vote, when Johnson became leader, he started threatening the BBC with this license fee talk, the Beeb buckled down and started supporting Brexit, the leave campaign and stifled any commentary or dialogue from the remainers. Conveniently not asking the right questions in interviews.

It is only in the last 3 months or so that they changed policy and started tearing into the Tories again.

breezy1985 · 17-01-2022 12:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488561#Comment_118488561

These BBC co-productions are probably the way things are going to go with big sellable series getting made but the niche stuff getting scrapped.

I would happily pay for the BBC which is why I was excited for Britbox which I thought was all about making money off the BBC abroad but for some reason we can't sign up for it in Ireland

kowloon · 17-01-2022 1:07pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118488578#Comment_118488578

They're going with the flow, everyone is attacking the Tories at the moment. Even the Hard-Brexit media are having a go at this stage.

So, other than Channel 4 news, Sky, ITV and GBeebies what news channels remain?

Strazdas · 17-01-2022 3:07pm

I bet the BBC deeply regret ever facilitating the rise of the English far right via their promotion of Nigel Farage and his numerous media appearances. It directly led to Brexit and a situation where the BBC itself is now under threat - they naively thought they could use these guys as 'entertainment', not realising the dark forces they were unleashing.

beggars_bush · 17-01-2022 3:21pm

SNIP. No insults.

pixelburp · 17-01-2022 3:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118489424#Comment_118489424

The same could be said for that long-running comedic institution, Have I Got News For You; for years it fell in for the "nice but dim" routine of one Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London. Hislop and Merton having a good laugh prodding and teasing the silly toff with the bad hair. Look: I won't be coy. I fell for it too; the guy seeming one of those harmless upper-crust types, coming across like a side character from Jeeves & Wooster. I genuinely hold that show responsible for putting Johnson on the national stage. Maybe it would have happened either way, but HIGNFY accelerated / enabled it.

PommieBast · 17-01-2022 3:37pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118489596#Comment_118489596

HIGNFY is at least intended to be entertainment, unlike Question Time which is supposed to be serious. The latter has had Fine Gael MEPs as guests but never a British pro-EU MEP. Not once.

General British politics discussion thread

Comments