General News Thread

[CornwallFox]

2 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Source?

Honestly, you could just Google and find this stuff. 

Eurozone 6.4%

EU 6% (I might have those two the wrong way around) 

US 4.4%

UK was 5.1% if it's gone up slightly you probably know the new figure

 

All of them up in latest figures

Edited 16 December 2025 by CornwallFox

[Kilworthfox]

2 hours ago, CornwallFox said:

The BBC didn't make the programme. They broadcast it. It's common practice to use clips from across speeches to indicate the general theme. In this case the clipping was a bit close to the knuckle in suggesting a direct call to action which didn't happen. The idea this is evidence of BBC bias is laughable tbh. 

 

People are often promoted into positions of incompetence. I can accept this, it's acceptable, but once found out you have to go, and people have gone. 

 

They didn't go with any grace but some astounding amount of pride for there belief in their own and their teams achievements. 

 

When we can't score and lose lots of games ultimately the Manager has to go, not the players, If this continues, then the directors. This has in some part happened here. 

 

Responsibility isn't what you do when your important in an organisation. It's what you allow. They allowed it. They are responsible. 

 

Are there a multitude of other similar stories with a BBC bias on different topics?

 

Climate change for example. Are we globally cooling today of was that just in the 60s? 

 

Are the BBC reporting about how NATO has consistently ignored their promises to Russia that they won't move east? 

 

Are they reporting about how amazing western democracy is whilst banning / improsoning politicians and overruling democratic elections in valuable European countries? 

 

Are there reports of various assaults by Buddhists on Pagans? 

 

If not why not? Obviously they aren't happening. Nothing to see move along. It's not just the BBC I admit. 

 

[Tommy G]

3 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Honestly, you could just Google and find this stuff. 

Eurozone 6.4%

EU 6% (I might have those two the wrong way around) 

US 4.4%

UK was 5.1% if it's gone up slightly you probably know the new figure

Eurozone in 12 months has only ticked up 0.2%, same for EU - so the UK's unemployment rate is growing faster than the rest of europe on average. 

 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-euro-indicators/w/3-02122025-bp

 

US 4.4% up from 4.1% 12 months prior. 

 

 

[CornwallFox]

9 minutes ago, Kilworthfox said:

People are often promoted into positions of incompetence. I can accept this, it's acceptable, but once found out you have to go, and people have gone. 

 

They didn't go with any grace but some astounding amount of pride for there belief in their own and their teams achievements. 

 

When we can't score and lose lots of games ultimately the Manager has to go, not the players, If this continues, then the directors. This has in some part happened here. 

 

Responsibility isn't what you do when your important in an organisation. It's what you allow. They allowed it. They are responsible. 

 

Are there a multitude of other similar stories with a BBC bias on different topics?

 

Climate change for example. Are we globally cooling today of was that just in the 60s? 

 

Are the BBC reporting about how NATO has consistently ignored their promises to Russia that they won't move east? 

 

Are they reporting about how amazing western democracy is whilst banning / improsoning politicians and overruling democratic elections in valuable European countries? 

 

Are there reports of various assaults by Buddhists on Pagans? 

 

If not why not? Obviously they aren't happening. Nothing to see move along. It's not just the BBC I admit. 

 

Just picking up climate change, no we're not globally cooling. All the real world observations and evidence are tracking the worst possible climate change modelling and have been for some time.

 

My biggest gripe with the BBC is they keep giving human existential climate change deniers equal prominence to climate scientists, in an effort to not be biased, when actually the science is so clear and overwhelming that giving both sides prominence is creating a false impression that they both have equal evidence. They don't.

 

Unfortunately, it really is an existential crisis. 

Edited 16 December 2025 by CornwallFox

[CornwallFox]

3 minutes ago, Tommy G said:

Eurozone in 12 months has only ticked up 0.2%, same for EU - so the UK's unemployment rate is growing faster than the rest of europe on average. 

 

https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-euro-indicators/w/3-02122025-bp

 

US 4.4% up from 4.1% 12 months prior. 

 

 

In the latest 3 month period, yes. And is still lower. It's going the wrong way, that's for sure. Presumably if it goes up by less than the eurozone next time you won't be claiming it's a relative good result though

[leicsmac]

18 minutes ago, Kilworthfox said:

People are often promoted into positions of incompetence. I can accept this, it's acceptable, but once found out you have to go, and people have gone. 

 

They didn't go with any grace but some astounding amount of pride for there belief in their own and their teams achievements. 

 

When we can't score and lose lots of games ultimately the Manager has to go, not the players, If this continues, then the directors. This has in some part happened here. 

 

Responsibility isn't what you do when your important in an organisation. It's what you allow. They allowed it. They are responsible. 

 

Are there a multitude of other similar stories with a BBC bias on different topics?

 

Climate change for example. Are we globally cooling today of was that just in the 60s? 

 

Are the BBC reporting about how NATO has consistently ignored their promises to Russia that they won't move east? 

 

Are they reporting about how amazing western democracy is whilst banning / improsoning politicians and overruling democratic elections in valuable European countries? 

 

Are there reports of various assaults by Buddhists on Pagans? 

 

If not why not? Obviously they aren't happening. Nothing to see move along. It's not just the BBC I admit. 

 

 

10 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

Just picking up climate change, no we're not globally cooling. All the real world observations and evidence are tracking the worst possible climate change modelling and have been for some time.

 

My biggest gripe with the BBC is they keep giving human existential climate change deniers equal prominence to climate scientists, in an effort to not be biased, when actually the science is so clear and overwhelming that giving both sides prominence is creating a false impression that they both have equal evidence. They don't.

 

Unfortunately, it really is an existential crisis. 

If anyone wants more info on the specifics of this and why we know what we know, feel free to ask on the dedicated thread BTW. 

[Tommy G]

12 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

In the latest 3 month period, yes. And is still lower. It's going the wrong way, that's for sure. Presumably if it goes up by less than the eurozone next time you won't be claiming it's a relative good result though

We cant just compare to the eurozone - probably the G7 would be a better comparison - where France is leading the way!

 

My point is you should always look at the pace of change rather than just the absolute number. If it was 4% then 5% in 6 months this is more alarming than if it was 6% and has been static at 6% for 18 months. 

[Kilworthfox]

2 hours ago, leicsmac said:

 

If anyone wants more info on the specifics of this and why we know what we know, feel free to ask on the dedicated thread BTW. 

Just to be clear, I wasn't trying to start a topic within a topic here, however using obvious and random examples, some deliberately inaccurate to emphasis how we do have bias in our media coverage. From the BBC and others. 👍🏼

Edited 16 December 2025 by Kilworthfox

[Sly]

4 hours ago, Trav Le Bleu said:

America v Rest of the World

He’s even split in the US to be honest. 
 

I do find people though that like the bloke as I travel. 
 

I don’t get it personally, as he’s just not my cup of tea. Each to their own though. 

[leicsmac]

33 minutes ago, Sly said:

He’s even split in the US to be honest. 
 

I do find people though that like the bloke as I travel. 
 

I don’t get it personally, as he’s just not my cup of tea. Each to their own though. 

It's just unfortunately that the decisions he makes cause issues that harm almost (if not) everyone, so there's not really much room for fence sitting. 

[CornwallFox]

1 hour ago, Tommy G said:

We cant just compare to the eurozone - probably the G7 would be a better comparison - where France is leading the way!

 

My point is you should always look at the pace of change rather than just the absolute number. If it was 4% then 5% in 6 months this is more alarming than if it was 6% and has been static at 6% for 18 months. 

I know what your point is Tommy, relax, labour aren't delivering on jobs or growth, it's true. 

I still think they're doing lots of other good things but they are pretty important metrics. 

Would help if right wing media didn't talk down the economy constantly, frightening business and individuals into making decisions on entirely false budget reporting. But that's not to excuse the government for failing so far on those two measures.

[Tommy G]

Just now, CornwallFox said:

I know what your point is Tommy, relax, labour aren't delivering on jobs or growth, it's true. 

I still think they're doing lots of other good things but they are pretty important metrics. 

Would help if right wing media didn't talk down the economy constantly, frightening business and individuals into making decisions on entirely false budget reporting. But that's not to excuse the government for failing so far on those two measures.

I'm not sure business owners are making decisions based on ''frightening'' right wing media, that's a bit wild and a really poor excuse for the poor metrics. 

[Super_horns]

21 years for Liverpool parade crush driver .

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c8xd97z0k00t

 

Very stupid actions and rightly severely dealt with

Edited 16 December 2025 by Super_horns

[danny.]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

I know what your point is Tommy, relax, labour aren't delivering on jobs or growth, it's true. 

I still think they're doing lots of other good things but they are pretty important metrics. 

Would help if right wing media didn't talk down the economy constantly, frightening business and individuals into making decisions on entirely false budget reporting. But that's not to excuse the government for failing so far on those two measures.

I think most business owners are responding to real world factors like actual increased tax liabilities and minimum wage increases, rather than being driven by "entirely false budget reporting"

[kenny]

1 hour ago, CornwallFox said:

I know what your point is Tommy, relax, labour aren't delivering on jobs or growth, it's true. 

I still think they're doing lots of other good things but they are pretty important metrics. 

Would help if right wing media didn't talk down the economy constantly, frightening business and individuals into making decisions on entirely false budget reporting. But that's not to excuse the government for failing so far on those two measures.

The first thing the government did with the economy was talk it down in the attempt to score cheap points. It was the start of the rot in terms of their useless approach to the economy.

[CornwallFox]

2 hours ago, Tommy G said:

I'm not sure business owners are making decisions based on ''frightening'' right wing media, that's a bit wild and a really poor excuse for the poor metrics. 

I'm not arguing the metrics are poor, or that the government has failed to improve those things. 

 

I'm making a separate point that 3/4s are the media are traditionally right wing and their output does create a narrative that things are really bad that may not really be born out. 

 

Growth is poor (non existent) and the unemployment figures are going up. These are not good things. But they're also not entirely dire as much if the media might paint them. They just aren't very good.

[CornwallFox]

1 hour ago, kenny said:

The first thing the government did with the economy was talk it down in the attempt to score cheap points. It was the start of the rot in terms of their useless approach to the economy.

The economy was crap when they came in and the amount of non budgeted spend was almost criminal.

 

But you're probably right that they could have outlined that with some positivity attached about the change they were going to instigate.

 

Instead they've not really done anything spectacularly different economically and so they haven't improved it at all.

Edited 16 December 2025 by CornwallFox

[Tommy G]

10 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

The economy was crap when they came in and the amount of non budgeted spend was almost criminal.

 

But you're probably right that they could have outlined that with some positivity attached about the change they were going to instigate.

 

Instead they've not really done anything spectacularly different economically and so they haven't improved it at all.

Apart from £60bn of tax raising measures

[kenny]

57 minutes ago, CornwallFox said:

The economy was crap when they came in and the amount of non budgeted spend was almost criminal.

 

But you're probably right that they could have outlined that with some positivity attached about the change they were going to instigate.

 

Instead they've not really done anything spectacularly different economically and so they haven't improved it at all.

Horses for courses, but I much preferred it before when more people were working and taxes were lower.

 

If the economy was crap, what on earth is it now?

[leicsmac]

20 minutes ago, kenny said:

Horses for courses, but I much preferred it before when more people were working and taxes were lower.

 

If the economy was crap, what on earth is it now?

Presumably because you had never to rely on a public service of any kind for any length of time?

 

The laissez faire, low tax and "business incentivising" economic model was very much in vogue in the 1980s and the Gilded Age. What it did (or didn't do) for those who actually needed help the most is reasonably clear. 

[kenny]

11 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Presumably because you had never to rely on a public service of any kind for any length of time?

 

The laissez faire, low tax and "business incentivising" economic model was very much in vogue in the 1980s and the Gilded Age. What it did (or didn't do) for those who actually needed help the most is reasonably clear. 

I've used the NHS, public transport, the police, bin collections etc for 43 years on and off. So I think it's safe to say that I, like every other person in the UK (I may be reaching here) rely on public services.

 

It isn't any better now and we have a worse economy as a result.

[leicsmac]

3 minutes ago, kenny said:

I've used the NHS, public transport, the police, bin collections etc for 43 years on and off. So I think it's safe to say that I, like every other person in the UK (I may be reaching here) rely on public services.

 

It isn't any better now and we have a worse economy as a result.

Then given this expression of respect for such services, I'm not sure both where the expectation for such things to get better in such an unreasonable timeframe and advocating for an ideology that is practically guaranteed to make them worse, at the expense of everyone, comes from. 

 

Pardon me, but that all sounds a little cognitively dissonant. 

[kenny]

6 minutes ago, leicsmac said:

Then given this expression of respect for such services, I'm not sure both where the expectation for such things to get better in such an unreasonable timeframe and advocating for an ideology that is practically guaranteed to make them worse, at the expense of everyone, comes from. 

 

Pardon me, but that all sounds a little cognitively dissonant. 

We have gone from record spending on public services and benefits under the Tories to a government that wants to increase it further without much plan to improve how any of it works.

 

I had to Google cognitive dissonance, but whilst it may sound to you like it applies I'm pleased to say in this case it does not.

 

 

[leicsmac]

Just now, kenny said:

We have gone from record spending on public services and benefits under the Tories to a government that wants to increase it further without much plan to improve how any of it works.

 

I had to Google cognitive dissonance, but whilst it may sound to you like it applies I'm pleased to say in this case it does not.

 

 

Then that will be a failure of execution, not intent, if failure is indeed the result. 

 

Pardon me, but I just had (and have)  trouble getting my head around the concept of someone thinking of lassez-faire economics and valued public services coexisting. If there is a current or even past example of this, I'd be happy to hear it. 

 

 

[kenny]

1 minute ago, leicsmac said:

Then that will be a failure of execution, not intent, if failure is indeed the result. 

 

Pardon me, but I just had (and have)  trouble getting my head around the concept of someone thinking of lassez-faire economics and valued public services coexisting. If there is a current or even past example of this, I'd be happy to hear it. 

 

 

Are implying that the previous government adopted lassez fairer policies?