Tag Archives: televised

#Whitty and #Vallance to appeal to the public over #Covid19 – because nobody trusts the Tories any more

Whitty takes over: the chief medical officer – with chief scientific officer Patrick Vallance – will be making a televised address to the nation because nobody trusts the Tories any more. From the state of this image, not even Whitty.

Trust in Conservative ministers has eroded so badly that they have been forced to hand over a televised update to the UK’s chief scientific and medical officers.

Patrick Vallance and Chris Whitty – who was last seen shouting at performing monkey prime minister Boris Johnson and his boss Dominic Cummings in a photograph published in The Spectator – will make an appeal to the public to stick to new rules on Monday (September 21).

Whitty and Vallance are likely to compare the UK with other European countries such as France and Spain, which have seen a sharp rise in cases translate – after a lag – into increasing hospitalisations and then deaths. The UK saw 3,899 new cases and 18 deaths on Sunday.

The scientists will set out the latest data on the spread of the disease, and urge people to exercise caution. Whitty is expected to warn: “We are looking at the data to see how to manage the spread of the virus ahead of a very challenging winter period.”

Their intervention comes after ministers were accused of eroding trust, from failings and broken pledges on testing and tracing to scandals such as Dominic Cummings’ lockdown journeys.

Covid-19 is now on the rise across the UK, among people in all age groups. Cases are doubling each week.

The Tory ministers – like Johnson and Matt Hancock (also seen recoiling from Whitty in that Spectator shot) – are said to be hoping the scientists’ broadcast will help bring home the message that tough new restrictions will be unavoidable if the situation fails to improve.

So it is the Tory mailed fist behind the velvet glove: comply with restrictions, including the “rule of six” limit on social gatherings, or see stricter measures imposed.

Source: UK at ‘critical point’ over Covid-19, top scientists to tell public | World news | The Guardian

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Tory and Labour leaders clash in TV debate – and Corbyn walks it

Did anybody really think Boris Johnson would beat Jeremy Corbyn in a televised debate? Well, he didn’t!

Mr Corbyn’s calm, confident delivery trumped Mr Johnson’s bluff and bluster in a confrontation that was all over long before the end credits rolled.

This Writer was contributing to the Twitter debate, and you can tell how it was going from some of my comments:

(Here’s another good comment on that.)

Here’s my snap verdict:

And I wasn’t alone:

In the end, discussion dissolved into ridicule of Mr Johnson’s repetitious verbiage:

It seems likely Mr Johnson wishes he had been!

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Brexit: May challenges Corbyn to TV debate – but will SHE turn up?

This cracking meme was created by EL4JC When Theresa May refused to attend a TV leaders debate before the 2017 general election. She sent Amber Rudd instead.

Amazing: Theresa May – the woman who sent Amber Rudd to a televised debate between political party leaders in the run-up to the 2017 general election, because she was frightened of Jeremy Corbyn – has now challenged him to debate with her, on television, about Brexit.

Apparently she thinks it will be part of a charm campaign to persuade the nation – and MPs – to support her failure of a Brexit deal.

But even she has nothing good to say about it. All the Independent article can say is that she is warning MPs that rejecting her plan will “open the door to more division and uncertainty, with all the risks that will entail”.

That’s a threat – that bad things will happen if we turn down her dumb deal.

But she – and the Tories – created the conditions that have made all those bad things possible!

So it’s not a persuasive argument.

And here’s another thing – can we even trust Mrs May to turn up? Some commentators are already expecting a repeat of the 2017 debacle:

Others have pointed out that we have no reason to believe her offer has any integrity at all – in light of the fact that she is touting for support in a vote that she did everything she could to prevent:

Throughout Brexit, the rest of her premiership, and her time in the Home Office, we have learned all we need to know about Theresa May.

If she turns up to any TV debate at all, we know not to believe her.

Emily Thornberry criticised Theresa May for “hiding behind the curtains at Number 10” rather than turning up for a televised debate with Jeremy Corbyn.

MPs are already coming forward, putting on the record their intention to vote against Mrs May:

They include not only Conservative MPs, but also former members of her Brexit team:

So maybe we should relish the prospect of a TV debate about Brexit between Mrs May and Mr Corbyn.

She won’t persuade anyone.

She might turn a lot of people against her.

And in the end, it won’t make any difference – she’ll still lose the vote. Right, MPs?

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Nigel Farage and restrictions on immigration

This was going to be an article about the seven-way leader debate yesterday evening (Thursday) but there’s a point that needs to be made about Nigel Farage, whose performance was so monotonous it is hard to understand why so many people thought he came out on top.

150312seussfaragetwitOne point he kept repeating was his claim that UKIP wants a cap on immigration at 50,000 – except it would not actually be 50,000.

Allow me to quote from Austerity: The Demolition of the Welfare State and the Rise of the Zombie Economy by Kerry-Anne Mendoza (a book which is proving extremely useful): “UKIP would cap net immigration at 50,000 a year, excluding work permits and students [Italics mine]. Students (282,833) and work permits (147, 385) made up 430,218 of the 2012/13 immigration numbers*. That leaves only 78,190.

“UKIP are actually talking about reducing immigration by 28,000 people a year. Hardly revolutionary.”

*According to the government and the BBC.

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Cowardly Cameron flees head-to-head TV debate with Miliband

This would have been a great opportunity to us the picture of a chicken appearing at the debates next to Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband - but this illustration from the Daily Mirror depicts the situation just as well.

This would have been a great opportunity to us the picture of a chicken appearing at the debates next to Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband – but this illustration from the Daily Mirror depicts the situation just as well.

What are we to conclude from David Cameron’s cowardly refusal to take part in all but one televised leader debate ahead of the general election – and said this must be with no less than six other party leaders?

That he’s running scared from Ed Miliband after coming off the worst in all their recent Prime Ministers Questions clashes?

That he hopes sharing the platform with people like Natalie Bennett means he won’t be the only person putting his foot in his mouth on the night?

That he knows he doesn’t have anything to say that the voting public wants to hear?

Cameron’s office has said he will agree to only one debate, before March 30, and he wants the Democratic Unionist Party to be considered for inclusion, meaning seven other leaders would be vying for attention and he could stay in the background.

This is a strategy that has been tried out in Vox Political‘s local area. In a recent Powys County Council budget debate, televised on the Internet, Tory Parliamentary candidate Chris Davies did not say a single word.

He knew that keeping his mouth shut (and letting people think he was a fool) would increase his chances of election more than opening it (and proving them right).

Other party leaders have hotly criticised Cameron for trying to hold the debates to ransom and for trying to bully TV broadcasters.

“This is an outrageous attempt from the Prime Minister to bully the broadcasters into dropping their proposals for a head-to-head debate between David Cameron and Ed Miliband,” said Douglas Alexander, Labour’s chair of general election strategy.

“That it comes only hours after Ed Miliband called David Cameron’s bluff and said he would debate him any time, any place, shows the lengths David Cameron will go to run scared of a debate with Ed Miliband.”

It seems David Cameron is telling us he has nothing to say.

In that case, why give him your vote?

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TV debates: New format proposed but will Cameron come back?

150119leaderdebates

David Cameron is facing one of the biggest challenges of his political career – now that the TV companies have offered to include the Green Party (and others) in the televised election debates, is he man enough to take part?

Cameron scampered off like a startled rabbit when he realised he could use the Green Party’s exclusion as a reason not to participate, but now broadcasters have put forward new proposals which include the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru.

The BBC and ITV would stage debates involving the Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, UKIP, SNP and Plaid, while Sky and Channel 4 will go ahead with their plan to host a head-to-head between Cameron and Ed Miliband – if Cameron has the guts for it.

However, he still has two possible escape routes – the Democrat Unionist Party will be writing to the BBC and other broadcasters to ask why it is not being included when it has more seats than the three parties that have now been included. Will he demand its inclusion as well?

And Cameron has said he is not happy with the dates being offered for the debates – April 2, 16 and 30 – saying they should take place before the official, ‘short’, campaign begins.

Who thinks he’ll chicken out again?

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