Thursday 12th March 2015

[PaulfromYorkshire]

BBC Radio Leeds ‏@BBCLeeds 46s46 seconds ago
NEWS: FRAUD charges are being brought against two former staff members at #Bradford free school King's Science Academy.

[yahyah]

A day when we can agree with Dan Hodges ?


''For all their protestations, the Lib Dems have been caught bang to rights. They are guilty of sleaze. They are guilty of hypocrisy. And in politics — as the Lib Dems themselves never tire of reminding us — both are toxic.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -that.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[letsskiptotheleft]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeat offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

[ohsocynical]

A day when we can agree with Dan Hodges ?


''For all their protestations, the Lib Dems have been caught bang to rights. They are guilty of sleaze. They are guilty of hypocrisy. And in politics — as the Lib Dems themselves never tire of reminding us — both are toxic.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -that.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They are finished. It's hardly made a ripple on Twitter.

[letsskiptotheleft]

Also, I am on my phone, which doesn't help.

[yahyah]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeater offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Not clumsy at all LetsSkip.

Its that certain individuals become bullet proof because of their celebrity status or because they are worth too much money in income to the BBC.

My view is that the BBC should be doing more decent public broadcasting & educative programming and leave the crap like Top Gear to the private sector.
But I suppose the licence fee would have to go up to cover the loss of income from 'talented' pillocks like Clarkson.

[RogerOThornhill]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeat offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Compare and contrast what happened to Messrs Brand and Ross over that phone call.

Result - the right wing baying for blood and demanding sackings. Which they get.

Clarkson acts like a drunken oaf and throws toys out of pram because they turned up two hours late...and the same right wingers want him reinstated and seem to think it''s acceptable to throw a punch at an employee.

Funny old world ain't it?

[yahyah]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeat offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Compare and contrast what happened to Messrs Brand and Ross over that phone call.

Result - the right wing baying for blood and demanding sackings. Which they get.

Clarkson acts like a drunken oaf and throws toys out of pram because they turned up two hours late...and the same right wingers want him reinstated and seem to think it''s acceptable to throw a punch at an employee.

Funny old world ain't it?

The same right wingers who labelled Gordon Brown a bully.

[ohsocynical]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeat offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Understood. And yes. It seems to happen with depressing regularity. I think it's a mixture. They earn the Beeb a lot of dosh while earning a huge amount for themselves. The line blurs between their real self and the public self. The power and adulation, bowing and kowtowing turns them into even worse monsters.

[TechnicalEphemera]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeater offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Not clumsy at all LetsSkip.

Its that certain individuals become bullet proof because of their celebrity status or because they are worth too much money in income to the BBC.

My view is that the BBC should be doing more decent public broadcasting & educative programming and leave the crap like Top Gear to the private sector.
But I suppose the licence fee would have to go up to cover the loss of income from 'talented' pillocks like Clarkson.

I think it is unfair to Clarkson to argue he is anything like Saville. There is no real evidence he is a problem star. Filming is very very arduous, it has stupidly long hours and somebody in the BBC screwed up in looking after the stars. That doesn't necessarily excuse Clarkson getting a little physical with the person he blamed for the screw up. However I suggest any of us having been cold and stressed for 16 hours might have snapped when told we had no decent food available.

I had something very similar happen to me years ago, left in a room without decent heating, and with no food after a 16 hour day and with a key meeting the next day. If I had been in the same location as the HR idiot responsible for that I may well have lost it.

[ErnstRemarx]

A day when we can agree with Dan Hodges ?


''For all their protestations, the Lib Dems have been caught bang to rights. They are guilty of sleaze. They are guilty of hypocrisy. And in politics — as the Lib Dems themselves never tire of reminding us — both are toxic.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -that.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They are finished. It's hardly made a ripple on Twitter.

They actually made themselves irrelevant to the UK electorate by late 2010, I suspect. I think that many people - not me, I hasten to add - were willing to get the Fibs the benefit of the doubt when they went into coalition with the Tories, on the basis of their small 'l' liberal credentials and manifesto. And of course, many people agreed with Nick (although it shouldn't be forgotten that he presided over a loss of seats in 2010).

So what was the turning point? Tuition fees? The back slapping support for Osborne in his first budget? The NHS bill? Hard to know, but the descent has been so vertiginous and so fast that even wondered if there was a bedrock of support who'd stay with them, as the polls seemed to indicate. But no, past 15%, down to 10%, and now it hovers around 5%, and it's arguable they're lucky to be in the leaders' debates at all on that basis.

A fatally wounded party, mired in their own scandals and sleaze, proven to be no better than their Tory chums, by whom they slavishly stick, even now, and despite mood music to the contrary. A useless and utterly compromised party for whom only the most partisan and gullible would consider wasting their vote, led by men (and it is men, not women) whose personal lack of integrity and honesty is something of a byword now for everything that is wrong with politics in the UK, and why they and their Tory chums - who've always displayed the same characteristics - deserve to swept out of the Augean stables that currently is government office.

I'm looking forward to May to watch their destruction and the arrival of the most principled party leader I've seen in decades as PM.

[yahyah]

The point I think LetsSkip may have been making, and I certainly would is not that Clarkson is anything like Savile but that the BBC let the over paid 'talent' act like prima donnas and don't deal with them like most employers would.

[RogerOThornhill]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeater offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Not clumsy at all LetsSkip.

Its that certain individuals become bullet proof because of their celebrity status or because they are worth too much money in income to the BBC.

My view is that the BBC should be doing more decent public broadcasting & educative programming and leave the crap like Top Gear to the private sector.
But I suppose the licence fee would have to go up to cover the loss of income from 'talented' pillocks like Clarkson.

I think it is unfair to Clarkson to argue he is anything like Saville. There is no real evidence he is a problem star. Filming is very very arduous, it has stupidly long hours and somebody in the BBC screwed up in looking after the stars. That doesn't necessarily excuse Clarkson getting a little physical with the person he blamed for the screw up. However I suggest any of us having been cold and stressed for 16 hours might have snapped when told we had no decent food available.

I had something very similar happen to me years ago, left in a room without decent heating, and with no food after a 16 hour day and with a key meeting the next day. If I had been in the same location as the HR idiot responsible for that I may well have lost it.

Er...yeah but apparently they'd been in the pub for three hours before finally turning up at the hotel two hours late.

One of the others did say that he couldn't recall what happened exactly as he was blind drunk.

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-ox ... e-31735214" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Andy Couldrick, then head of children and families at Oxfordshire County Council, and now chief executive of Wokingham Borough Council, said: "[The serious case review] does not paint a picture of the concerns raised in 2007 that I recognise entirely.

Where's all the "in denial" stuff?

[Willow904]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeater offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Not clumsy at all LetsSkip.

Its that certain individuals become bullet proof because of their celebrity status or because they are worth too much money in income to the BBC.

My view is that the BBC should be doing more decent public broadcasting & educative programming and leave the crap like Top Gear to the private sector.
But I suppose the licence fee would have to go up to cover the loss of income from 'talented' pillocks like Clarkson.

I think it is unfair to Clarkson to argue he is anything like Saville. There is no real evidence he is a problem star. Filming is very very arduous, it has stupidly long hours and somebody in the BBC screwed up in looking after the stars. That doesn't necessarily excuse Clarkson getting a little physical with the person he blamed for the screw up. However I suggest any of us having been cold and stressed for 16 hours might have snapped when told we had no decent food available.

I had something very similar happen to me years ago, left in a room without decent heating, and with no food after a 16 hour day and with a key meeting the next day. If I had been in the same location as the HR idiot responsible for that I may well have lost it.

I agree everyone deserves to be cut a !little slack. We don't know the full story. I can't help but agree with other posters, however, that any ordinary employee would not be afforded the same indulgence, whatever the provocation. It's the sense of double standards that grates. A JSA claimant gets sanctioned for not receiving a letter or a spelling mistake in an application. I guess I struggle to see why they can't be allowed a similar amount of leeway the great and mighty seem to be willing to grant each other.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I get Skippy's point fine.

There's a big problem with people on normal wages having to manage people on far bigger wages. I don't know what you do about that really.

[letsskiptotheleft]

It's the he ''can't be touched'' that gets to me.

I admit I am biased though, I genuinely find him and his views repulsive.

Better than him have been sacked for far less.

[ErnstRemarx]

It's the he ''can't be touched'' that gets to me.

I admit I am biased though, I genuinely find him and his views repulsive.

Better than him have been sacked for far less.

I'd like to see him gone from Top Gear, to be replaced by someone fiercely left wing who's actually into cars. Suggestions?

[letsskiptotheleft]

Scottish only polling out tonight, 10pm, Yougov.

[TechnicalEphemera]

It's the he ''can't be touched'' that gets to me.

I admit I am biased though, I genuinely find him and his views repulsive.

Better than him have been sacked for far less.

I'd like to see him gone from Top Gear, to be replaced by someone fiercely left wing who's actually into cars. Suggestions?

That is an amusing idea, but it might be a struggle.

Unless Caroline Lucas drives a Ferrari and keeps a Shelby Mustang for the weekends?

[JustMom]

Ed Miliband is on BBC channel 3 tonight,something called free speech if anyone is interested.

[ohsocynical]

DWP’s new ‘fitness for work’ provider faces fresh allegations

http://www.disabledgo.com/blog/2015/03/ ... 2o.twitter

They really should come to FTN first. I posted the link about Maximus AU. a couple of weeks ago.

[LadyCentauria]

Remploy has been sold to Maximus for an undisclosed sum.

Paywall article in FT.

Sickening I don't suppose there's any suggestion as to whether or not they are legally required to retain the same standards of service, numbers of staff, wage-rates, etc., as Remploy currently operates under? I fear that the permanent jobs the current employees enjoy will be phased out and be replaced with time-limited 'employment opportunities' or training schemes. Regardless, I doubt very much that this bodes well for those Remploy employees who still have jobs at the moment.

In other Maximus news:

I read, in benefitsandwork newsletter, that the ESA form has been redesigned to coincide with. Most of the redesign is just moving the sections around into a different order but they've reduced the size of the boxes you reply in - yet again – and, on the pdf version, you can no longer change the text-/font-size in order to fit more typing into those boxes.

[Willow904]

A day when we can agree with Dan Hodges ?


''For all their protestations, the Lib Dems have been caught bang to rights. They are guilty of sleaze. They are guilty of hypocrisy. And in politics — as the Lib Dems themselves never tire of reminding us — both are toxic.''
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politic ... -that.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

They are finished. It's hardly made a ripple on Twitter.

They actually made themselves irrelevant to the UK electorate by late 2010, I suspect. I think that many people - not me, I hasten to add - were willing to get the Fibs the benefit of the doubt when they went into coalition with the Tories, on the basis of their small 'l' liberal credentials and manifesto. And of course, many people agreed with Nick (although it shouldn't be forgotten that he presided over a loss of seats in 2010).

So what was the turning point? Tuition fees? The back slapping support for Osborne in his first budget? The NHS bill? Hard to know, but the descent has been so vertiginous and so fast that even wondered if there was a bedrock of support who'd stay with them, as the polls seemed to indicate. But no, past 15%, down to 10%, and now it hovers around 5%, and it's arguable they're lucky to be in the leaders' debates at all on that basis.

A fatally wounded party, mired in their own scandals and sleaze, proven to be no better than their Tory chums, by whom they slavishly stick, even now, and despite mood music to the contrary. A useless and utterly compromised party for whom only the most partisan and gullible would consider wasting their vote, led by men (and it is men, not women) whose personal lack of integrity and honesty is something of a byword now for everything that is wrong with politics in the UK, and why they and their Tory chums - who've always displayed the same characteristics - deserve to swept out of the Augean stables that currently is government office.

I'm looking forward to May to watch their destruction and the arrival of the most principled party leader I've seen in decades as PM.

Although I don't disagree substantially with anything you have said, I hope you won't look too unkindly upon me if I continue to keep my fingers crossed for Tessa Munt and a handful of other Libdems across Somerset because the thought of the Tories triumphantly sweeping back into power across the county is more than I can bear. I'm just relieved Labour are the main challengers where I am. If I was still in Wells I think my head would explode if I had to choose between tactically voting Libdem or face the very real likelihood of a Tory resurgence. In fact, I couldn't ask any Labour voter to do such a soul-destroying thing, however much I hate the Tories. My only hope is that the Labour tactical vote isn't actually as significant in the area as people might think and the Libdem vote will hold up because there isn't really anywhere else for those Libdem votes to go. At the end of the day, every Libdem/Tory marginal the yellow turncoats hold onto is a step closer to no. 10 for Ed Miliband. Needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing the Libdems thrashed in more Labour friendly territory!

[Tubby Isaacs]

I like Chris Williamson.

http://labourlist.org/2015/03/why-does- ... car-parks/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Spacedone]

I've been away from all forms of media this afternoon and I've just got back to hear the shock news that Terry Pratchett has died. I'm genuinely upset, not only because of the loss of one of my favourite authors but also because my Mum has the same illness. I'm going to have to give her an extra big hug this weekend.

RIP Terry.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They're not very lucky in Ipswich. Sixth form closing. It's part of a college that got expensive new premises in 2009.

http://www.ipswichstar.co.uk/news/pupil ... _1_3989719" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This college sponsors an academy too. Brilliant.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Scottish only polling out tonight, 10pm, Yougov.

Yep.

I'm hoping the continued bad GERs figures will have some impact. Though they might have come out after the polling was done.

[LadyCentauria]

One for the HS2 fans

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/s ... _track.pdf" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

HS2_Story_-_On_track

Those pics make it look like Leeds and Manchester Piccadilly stations are going to have lovely big lakes next to the tracks. I hope that the HS2 rolling-stock will float...

[TechnicalEphemera]

Scottish only polling out tonight, 10pm, Yougov.

Yep.

I'm hoping the continued bad GERs figures will have some impact. Though they might have come out after the polling was done.

I think there is evidence that how people say they will vote and how they will vote differ more in Scotland than in other parts of the UK. There is a degree of perceived SNP intimidation.

[ohsocynical]

David Cameron doomed on current polling figures

http://www.theweek.co.uk/general-electi ... ng-figures

[ohsocynical]

Danny Blanchflower ‏@D_Blanchflower 4 mins4 minutes ago

Just calculated Tory lack of imprvt in the polls
2014 avge=32.3 2015 avge=32.3
feb & mar=32.4 jan=32.1 dec=31.8 nov=31.5 oct=31.9 sept=31.9

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://schoolsimprovement.net/basildon- ... ns-schools" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Praise for Basildon Council's work with schools.

It's a Tory council. Wonder how they feel that their own party thinks they're bureaucrats who shouldn't be near schools?

[ErnstRemarx]

They are finished. It's hardly made a ripple on Twitter.

They actually made themselves irrelevant to the UK electorate by late 2010, I suspect. I think that many people - not me, I hasten to add - were willing to get the Fibs the benefit of the doubt when they went into coalition with the Tories, on the basis of their small 'l' liberal credentials and manifesto. And of course, many people agreed with Nick (although it shouldn't be forgotten that he presided over a loss of seats in 2010).

So what was the turning point? Tuition fees? The back slapping support for Osborne in his first budget? The NHS bill? Hard to know, but the descent has been so vertiginous and so fast that even wondered if there was a bedrock of support who'd stay with them, as the polls seemed to indicate. But no, past 15%, down to 10%, and now it hovers around 5%, and it's arguable they're lucky to be in the leaders' debates at all on that basis.

A fatally wounded party, mired in their own scandals and sleaze, proven to be no better than their Tory chums, by whom they slavishly stick, even now, and despite mood music to the contrary. A useless and utterly compromised party for whom only the most partisan and gullible would consider wasting their vote, led by men (and it is men, not women) whose personal lack of integrity and honesty is something of a byword now for everything that is wrong with politics in the UK, and why they and their Tory chums - who've always displayed the same characteristics - deserve to swept out of the Augean stables that currently is government office.

I'm looking forward to May to watch their destruction and the arrival of the most principled party leader I've seen in decades as PM.

Although I don't disagree substantially with anything you have said, I hope you won't look too unkindly upon me if I continue to keep my fingers crossed for Tessa Munt and a handful of other Libdems across Somerset because the thought of the Tories triumphantly sweeping back into power across the county is more than I can bear. I'm just relieved Labour are the main challengers where I am. If I was still in Wells I think my head would explode if I had to choose between tactically voting Libdem or face the very real likelihood of a Tory resurgence. In fact, I couldn't ask any Labour voter to do such a soul-destroying thing, however much I hate the Tories. My only hope is that the Labour tactical vote isn't actually as significant in the area as people might think and the Libdem vote will hold up because there isn't really anywhere else for those Libdem votes to go. At the end of the day, every Libdem/Tory marginal the yellow turncoats hold onto is a step closer to no. 10 for Ed Miliband. Needless to say I'm looking forward to seeing the Libdems thrashed in more Labour friendly territory!

I've got sympathy with that view. Of course, I'm in the north (west) and we've leeched votes to Fibs for years and thereby lost seats - well at least, we used to. Having the buggers in government opened eyes and since then I've only met two FibDem voters out of many hundreds I've met on the doorstep. Met a lot of ex-FibDems, which tells its own tale. They're finished, and by the end of May, Clegg and Alexander will, I hope, just be an unpleasant footnote in political history.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Scottish only polling out tonight, 10pm, Yougov.

Yep.

I'm hoping the continued bad GERs figures will have some impact. Though they might have come out after the polling was done.

I think there is evidence that how people say they will vote and how they will vote differ more in Scotland than in other parts of the UK. There is a degree of perceived SNP intimidation.

Of people speaking to pollsters?

[ohsocynical]

Danny Blanchflower ‏@D_Blanchflower 7m7 minutes ago
Here is the chart that should get Lynton Crosby fired - poll support for Tories remained flat at 32% since March 2012

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B_65QKJVAAAMoXf.jpg:large

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've got sympathy with that view. Of course, I'm in the north (west) and we've leeched votes to Fibs for years and thereby lost seats - well at least, we used to. Having the buggers in government opened eyes and since then I've only met two FibDem voters out of many hundreds I've met on the doorstep. Met a lot of ex-FibDems, which tells its own tale. They're finished, and by the end of May, Clegg and Alexander will, I hope, just be an unpleasant footnote in political history.

I'm amazed to see they came second here last time.

We've got a "Whig" standing. Isn't that what the Orange Bookers want to be?

[ephemerid]

Remploy has been sold to Maximus for an undisclosed sum.

Paywall article in FT.

Sickening I don't suppose there's any suggestion as to whether or not they are legally required to retain the same standards of service, numbers of staff, wage-rates, etc., as Remploy currently operates under? I fear that the permanent jobs the current employees enjoy will be phased out and be replaced with time-limited 'employment opportunities' or training schemes. Regardless, I doubt very much that this bodes well for those Remploy employees who still have jobs at the moment.

In other Maximus news:

I read, in benefitsandwork newsletter, that the ESA form has been redesigned to coincide with. Most of the redesign is just moving the sections around into a different order but they've reduced the size of the boxes you reply in - yet again – and, on the pdf version, you can no longer change the text-/font-size in order to fit more typing into those boxes.

It hardly matters if they don't bother sending the forms at all.

I posted earlier - Maximus is arranging WCAs before sending the ESA50. People are getting very scared because they know they have to attend but are being denied the chance to put their case in writing and send medical evidence.

I posted last week about what happened to one of Julian Huppert's constituents - it seems Maximus are as bad as Atos or possibly worse; but as the staff and the centres are the same that's no surprise.

I do not mean this to be sarcastic, for the avoidance of doubt - but Sue Marsh has been very quiet lately. I would very much like to know what she's actually doing to improve what her company calls "the customer journey"

[Willow904]

I've been away from all forms of media this afternoon and I've just got back to hear the shock news that Terry Pratchett has died. I'm genuinely upset, not only because of the loss of one of my favourite authors but also because my Mum has the same illness. I'm going to have to give her an extra big hug this weekend.

RIP Terry.

I'm sorry to hear that. My dad was diagnosed with dementia last year. It's pretty tough. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.

[PorFavor]

Goodnight, everyone.

[AngryAsWell]

Ed Miliband is on BBC channel 3 tonight,something called free speech if anyone is interested.

Thanks! got it on
Can also be followed here on twitter

https://twitter.com/bbcthree" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and here
https://twitter.com/hashtag/AskMiliband?src=hash" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[letsskiptotheleft]

Nighty night PF.

I have no idea Julian Clary's political leanings, but it may be an interesting change if he took over the helm on Top Gear?

http://www.buzzfeed.com/patrickstrudwic ... f-top-gear" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[LadyCentauria]

Ed Miliband is on BBC channel 3 tonight,something called free speech if anyone is interested.

Free Speech Live: Ed Miliband

Starting now on BBC THREE (8pm) Ed Miliband answers unscripted questions from a studio audience of 100 young people (and via Twitter.) It's the first of four such episodes, each featuring a different party leader.

[Tubby Isaacs]

BBC Radio Leeds ‏@BBCLeeds 46s46 seconds ago
NEWS: FRAUD charges are being brought against two former staff members at #Bradford free school King's Science Academy.

Two more. Now three.

[LadyCentauria]

Excuse me for my clumsiness, and if I am crass with regards to a sensitive subject.

But isn't some of the stuff about Clarkson, excuses made for him and so on precisely the kind that enabled Savile to get away with things, I am not comparing the two, but the two, one a heinous repeater offender, the other allegations of a fracas, it's the ""he can't be touched" that bothers me, friends in high places, again.


Clumsy analogy, but I hope people get what I am trying to put across.

Not clumsy at all LetsSkip.

Its that certain individuals become bullet proof because of their celebrity status or because they are worth too much money in income to the BBC.

My view is that the BBC should be doing more decent public broadcasting & educative programming and leave the crap like Top Gear to the private sector.
But I suppose the licence fee would have to go up to cover the loss of income from 'talented' pillocks like Clarkson.

I think it is unfair to Clarkson to argue he is anything like Saville. There is no real evidence he is a problem star. Filming is very very arduous, it has stupidly long hours and somebody in the BBC screwed up in looking after the stars. That doesn't necessarily excuse Clarkson getting a little physical with the person he blamed for the screw up. However I suggest any of us having been cold and stressed for 16 hours might have snapped when told we had no decent food available.

I had something very similar happen to me years ago, left in a room without decent heating, and with no food after a 16 hour day and with a key meeting the next day. If I had been in the same location as the HR idiot responsible for that I may well have lost it.

'Snapped' Well, in those situations (which I've been in, including filming a battle-scene during a blizzard all day then being greeted with cold drinks and sandwiches or cold soup because the catering-trailer's generator had gone kaput) I've never done more than bursting into tears or growling out a few choice swear words. There is no excuse for physical violence, however big a star you are.

[RogerOThornhill]

BBC Radio Leeds ‏@BBCLeeds 46s46 seconds ago
NEWS: FRAUD charges are being brought against two former staff members at #Bradford free school King's Science Academy.

Two more. Now three.

Of course, the chair of governors would have been on the case...oh...wait...

Did we ever hear why no-one spotted there was no chair for a year? Maybe that'll come out at at the trial and the DfE will get a boot up the backside.

[Spacedone]

I've been away from all forms of media this afternoon and I've just got back to hear the shock news that Terry Pratchett has died. I'm genuinely upset, not only because of the loss of one of my favourite authors but also because my Mum has the same illness. I'm going to have to give her an extra big hug this weekend.

RIP Terry.

I'm sorry to hear that. My dad was diagnosed with dementia last year. It's pretty tough. Wouldn't wish it on anyone.

My mum was diagnosed with Early Onset Alzheimer's about 2 years ago and to be honest so far she's been reasonably ok. Her short term memory is a mess but her personality hasn't changed at all thankfully, it's still her.

Hope your dad is ok.

[Tubby Isaacs]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education ... 377410.ece" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Another private school nationalized.

[RogerOThornhill]

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/education ... 377410.ece

Another private school nationalized.

It'd be wise to check the admission procedures...anything like Greycoats and it might just as well be private.

[Spacedone]

#AskMiliband is swarming with party political trolls and jokers right now but however many insults and outright lies they post occasionally an actual young person tweets about how they're more impressed than they expected to be.