Friday 30 September 2011

A Grand Institution



I love the BBC. Let's make that clear right from the off. I have the greatest respect for their efforts to consistantly air quality programing.  We've had a good relationship.

But we're about to have a falling out.

On Thursday it was announced that this season of Doctor Who Confidential would be the last. For those of you who don't know, Doctor Who Confidential is the Behind the Scenes show that airs after every epsiode of the new series of Doctor Who. It provides interviews with the cast and the directors and takes a look at how an average episode is created, everything from CGI to location sourcing. I know at least one person who is interested in a career in film who loves it because of all the background and techincal knowledge. And now it has been cancelled.

According to the official press release it has been cancelled so that BBC3 (under Controller Zai Bennet who has already cancelled popular shows such as "Coming of Age" and "Two Pints of Larger and a Packet of Crisps) "can build on original British commisions unique to the channel." I'd tell you what that means. Except the BBC won't tell me.

You see as soon as I heard the news I swung into action and filed a complaint with the BBC. I pointed out the educational aspects of Confidential along with the shows popularity and also pointed out that as far as "original British commissions unique to the channel" go you can'tget more original or unique than Confidential, based as it is on a original British show and it never having been show on any channel other than BBC3.

They replied fairly promptly. Feeding me the exact same line from the press release.

So I complained again, asking for an actual explanation rather than a simple sound bite. I politly outlined my points again and asked them to provide me with examples of the type of shows they consider "original and unique". They didn't get back to me, so I filed a third complaint again outlining my points and asking both for examples and a response.

They have yet to get back to me. I'm torn between filing a fourth complain or heading straight for Points of View.

As I said above I have the greatest respect for the BBC. But I expect better from them. And as a long time viewer I expect a response to my questions.

Guess I'll just have to keep poking them.

Sunday 25 September 2011

Oh Russia

Taking a look at international events again today, specifically something that came out of the Motherland yesterday. So what exactly has Russia been up to?

Well the United Russia Party (the country's ruling - we swear we're not Communist we promise - party) held it's annual conference this week (it seems to be conference season) and yesterday there were a pair of twin annoucements that will I'm pretty sure have most of you going WHAT!!

To start with incumbant President Dimitri "I'm Not a Puppet or Anything" Medvedev gave his backing for the current Prime Minister Vladamir "Cult of Personality" Putin to run for the Presidency in the elections next year.

Shortly afterwards Mr Putin urged the Party to put Mr Medvedev at the top of the Electoral List for the Parlimentary elections in December. When United Russia win those elections (and it is When not If) that would make Mr Medvedev Prime Minister.

I'll let you figure out what that means for a moment. While you do, have a pictue of the pair.


Guess which one's in charge


Figured out what it means yet?

That's right. Putin and Medvedev are essentially SWAPPING roles.

Now I know what you are thinking. Hasn't Putin been President before? And you would be right in thinking that.   Putin was President for two terms between 2000 and 2008 following the resignation of Boris Yeltsin. The Russian Constituion barred him from holding a third term. However unlike the American Constitution (which holds to the Two Terms and your out rule no matter how you split it) the Russian Constitution seems not to prevent him from taking  the job again after a break. A break in which he oddly become Prime Minister.

His rapid rise to the Prime Ministers office and the fact that Putin has been quoted as saying that he and Mr Medvedev came to an agreement about what to do in the future "several years ago" seems to suggest both that Mr Medvedevs time as President was simply a stop gap until Putin could stand again and that for the last few years it has been Putin who has really wielded the power in Russia.

Oddly the Russian people seem to have no problem with this state of affairs. The Russian Orthadox Church has also endorsed Putin's return to the Presidency and Putin himself is quite popular within Russia. Over the last few years he has built up a Stalinist style "Cult of Personality" (only without the purges). Just Google, "Putin with Motorbikes" or "Putin and Horses" and you'll see what I mean.

And we won't even get into that whole "Let's do Judo with Putin" video that apparently exists.

If anyone has any clue how Russia has succeded in becoming such a powerful nation considering the amount of corruption that seems to pervade it's politics, please put your answers on a postcard. Cause I don't have a cluie.

I suspect it's something to do with Putin's time in the KGB though.

Monday 19 September 2011

Liberal Democrat Conference



Yes it's that time of year again. Party Conference Season. And first up is the Liberal Democract conference in Birmingham.

It's been quite a year for the Lib Dems. They've gone from being the third (and smallest) of the major parties in the HoC to a partner in the Coalition Government. The LibCon Government if you will. This is their chance. Their chance to influence government and put some of their policies into action. A chance to make a real change.

Except it hasn't worked out like that has it? As the junior partner in the Coalition the Lib Dems don't have that much influence. There are in fact only three senior Lib Dems in the Cabinet (Nick Clegg, Vince Cable and Danny Alexander if you're interested) and nearly every time the Lib Dems have tried to force something they have either backed off or been defeated. Nick Clegg even regenged on his promise to vote against a rise in tution fees, though whether that was at the urging of the Tories we will never know.

Of course there are those who say that the Lib Dems actually hold quite a lot of power. If they were to pull out of the Coalition then the government would collapse. But I doubt that will ever happen. For one thing I suspect that the Conservatives would limp along with a minority for a while before scoring big at the next election. I also believe that the Lib Dems will never pull out of the Coalition because this is there one shot at power. I strongly suspect that they know that if they don't buck their ideas up then come the next election they will be hammered by the electorate. We don't like Yes Men. And we expect better from the Lib Dems.

But over the last few days both the leader Nick Clegg and Party President Tim Farron have attempted to change this view. They have argued that while they were "respectful in the beginning" they were now beginning to articulate their differences from the Conservatives and will now aim to "punch above their weight." They also argued that the Lib Dems have "nerves of steel" and will survive.

Whether this is the truth or simple Conference rhetoric I don't know.  But it will be fascinating to see what happens in the next few months.

Sunday 4 September 2011

Summer Summary

So as the Summer fades away to Autumn I thought I would look back over the high profile stories that have occured over what is usually a  very quiet season newswise. A pity that so little of it was good.

Let's start at the very beginning, a very good place to start.

Libyan Civil War



This has already been covered in this page, but as it was at the forefront of people's minds at the beginning of the summer, I'll go over it again.

Following the successful revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and the ousting of Presidents Ben-Ali and Mubarak, the people of Libya rose up in an effort to topple Colonel Gaddafi, leader of Libya for over forty years. Starting in the eastern city of Bengahzi, this gradually spread west ward, before stalling halfway towards Tripoli. However the intervention of the UN, helped the rebels get moving again and as of last week they are now in control of the capital.

Unfortunatly Gaddafi is still at large, possible holed up in his home town of Sirte. I don't know how this will end, with conflicting reports emerging stating that Gaddafi is either willing to talk about a hand over of power, willing to watch Libya collapse to the twin forces of fire and ice before the Western infidels can get their hands on it's oil, or possible both. At the same time.

What ever happens, it marks the beginning of change for Libya.

This was then replaced with the

Phone Hacking Scandal



This one had been brewing for a couple of months, running conncurently with News International's attempts to purchase of BSkyB and thus control the second biggest TV provider in the UK (after the BBC) and had already cost Andy "I swear I knew nothing" Coulson (above) his job as the PM's press officer. Just as we thought we weren't going to learn anything new, the news broke that the News of the World had not only hacked into the phones of celebrities but the phone of murdered school girl Milly Dowler and possible the families of 7/7 victims.

This as you may understand made people very unhappy.  Very Very unhappy.

In fairly short order, News International shut down the News of the World hoping that this would save their attempts to buy BSkyB - and incidently making several hard working journalists who's only crime was to work for News International redudant in the process.  It didn't. In a rare show of solidarity across the Commons benchs all MP's from every party came together to make it clear that Rupert "It's only 1% of the Company" Murdoch should drop the bid. Which he did some half an hour before the Commons debate began.

With investigations into Murdoch's activities going on both in his native Australia and in the US,  former NOTW editor Rebeka Brooks as well James and Rupert Murdoch were called before a Commons Subcommittee to answer questions about their company's behaviour. Apart from a brief fraca involing a shaving foam pie and Murdoch's head things went reasonably smoothly and to the great satisfaction of all those who dislike Murdoch and his strangle hold on the media it was proved almost beyond a shadow of a doubt that frankly he is both

A: Incompetant

and

B: Passed it with absolutly no clue what is going on within his own company.

 I thought this was going to be the end of big stories. At least until the unfortunate and catostrophic events in

Norway



On the 22nd of July Norway, one of the most peaceful countries on the planet, came under attack by one of it's own citizens. Anders Behring Breivik a right-wing extreamist committed two horrifc acts of terroism in the name of "protecting" his country and Europe.

After setting a car bomb outside the Prime Minister's office which killed eight and injured eleven, Breivik travelled to the island of Utoya the location of the ruling Labour Party's annual Youth camp and proceded to open fire on the assembled teenages resulting in a death toll of around eighty people. Eighty people who's only crime was to have an active interest in their countries politics.

As mentioned above Breivik did this in an attempt to "protect" his country from he thought were the twin evils of Islam and Marxism. He wished to create a strong, White, Christian Europe free from outside influence and was willing to commit violence to do this. He is currently in isolation.

I would go on, but this story upsets me so much that I can't.  I would point you towards this though.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9547000/9547476.stm

Things quietened down a bit for a few weeks, and then we got this.

English Riots



This too has been covered in this blog, so I shan't go into any details and rather give a brief summary.

Following the shooting of a man named Mark Duggan in Tottenham by the police, peaceful protests over his death, spiralled into half a week of riots and looting across the capital and the country with hotspots including several London boroughers, Birmingham and Manchester.

While things have settled down since the courts still seem to be in overdrive as they sentence those involved in the looting sprees and the government are now having to think seriously about

A: What they can do to stop something like this from happening again

B: As mentioned in my previous blog post whether the activities of polticians may have helped spark this.

We will recover. We always do. And we did not suffer nearly as badly as Norway.

So that's the Summer's news. For a season where the main news is "Mrs Prentiss Budgie learns to Snowboard" it's been quite eventful.

Of course this would happen just as I go off to study Journalism wouldn't it?