Let’s talk about BBC

[First Aspect]

I took redundancy from a former employer because, following a reorganisation, the other option was a move to a post in Staines!

It's Staines upon Thames. Which it is.

 

[icowden]

A family of 4 will cost £400 plus to see a show in the balcony, before you factor in travel food etc. some seats were twice that price. Who is paying £250 a seat in the west end?

It depends a lot on the show, and how canny you are.
For example you could see Elf the Musical on 9th December (7pm) as cheaply as £170 for a family of 4. But you will be in row 4 of the Gods (grand circle). If you have long legs or vertigo forget it. Not so much as an armrest for you. An extra £50 will get you to the front of the Gods. The best sweet spot is the £85 seat - which is very close to that £400 mark for a family of 4. But you can get front of the stalls on the side, or 5th / 6th row dress circle. Obviously if you are loaded you can pay £700 to sit in the best seats (family of 4 cost).

Now one of the most absurd ones is Harry Potter and the Cursed child where the best seats will cost a family of 4 £1040 because you have to pay for two shows. Although if you do that for Cabaret you can spend £1000 just for one show.

I ended up booking my local regional panto with B list celebrities. Cost £125 for all of us in the week before Christmas. I’m sure we will have just as much fun for a fraction of the price.

I'm sure you will. I love musicals and they are obviously entirely different to watching a film, but prices have definitely skyrocketed. My recollection is that a top price ticket in 1993 ish was around £30. That ticket allowing for today's inflation would be around £75. Not £150 or more.

I blame the Americans.

The other alternative is that you go into London and go to TKTS and see what you can get on discount for that day.

 

[matticus]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2...s-bbc-of-censoring-his-reith-lecture-on-trump

The BBC has decided to censor a Reith lecture. They deleted the line in which Donald Trump is described as ‘the most openly corrupt president in American history’.

Did you (or @midlandsgrimpeur , @briantrumpet ) listen to it? Brilliant, wasn't it! I was very impressed by Rutger Bregman, and he was happy to criticise politicians on both sides (USA and Europe).

 

[briantrumpet]

Did you (or @midlandsgrimpeur , @briantrumpet ) listen to it? Brilliant, wasn't it! I was very impressed by Rutger Bregman, and he was happy to criticise politicians on both sides (USA and Europe).

Not yet, but it sounds like I should.

 

[BoldonLad]

I took redundancy from a former employer because, following a reorganisation, the other option was a move to a post in Staines!

Wise decision 😊

 

[briantrumpet]

Wise decision 😊

Avoided having Staines on his career.

 

[Beebo]

Did you (or @midlandsgrimpeur , @briantrumpet ) listen to it? Brilliant, wasn't it! I was very impressed by Rutger Bregman, and he was happy to criticise politicians on both sides (USA and Europe).

I only heard him interviewed afterwards by James OBrien.

 

[midlandsgrimpeur]

Did you (or @midlandsgrimpeur , @briantrumpet ) listen to it? Brilliant, wasn't it! I was very impressed by Rutger Bregman, and he was happy to criticise politicians on both sides (USA and Europe).

I have read the transcript. I knew I remembered him from the Davos bit. @briantrumpet it is definitely worth a listen/read, he explores a lot of interesting ideas. I think most pertinent to the current climate is the idea of a moral courage revolution from people in power to counteract the rise of the likes of Trump and Musk. The Tech bros argument is something I have been thinking about for a while. They are the real great social ill of our time, a small concentration of incredibly wealthy and powerful individuals, all of whom have no interest in using their influence for good. Imagine if just a small handful were committed to changing the world for the better? I know we should not be in a position where just a small group could have such an effect on global issues, whether for good or bad, but the reality is that they do. At present that impact seems wholly negative.

 

[briantrumpet]

I have read the transcript. I knew I remembered him from the Davos bit. @briantrumpet it is definitely worth a listen/read, he explores a lot of interesting ideas. I think most pertinent to the current climate is the idea of a moral courage revolution from people in power to counteract the rise of the likes of Trump and Musk. The Tech bros argument is something I have been thinking about for a while. They are the real great social ill of our time, a small concentration of incredibly wealthy and powerful individuals, all of whom have no interest in using their influence for good. Imagine if just a small handful were committed to changing the world for the better? I know we should not be in a position where just a small group could have such an effect on global issues, whether for good or bad, but the reality is that they do. At present that impact seems wholly negative.

Have just read it, and yes, it's good, and pretty bleak. He obviously can see where history is repeating itself, and it doesn't bode well.

When the great historian Edward Gibbon described the decline of Rome, he didn't speak in vague abstractions. He gave us names, dates, and details, page after page of cowardice and corruption. Reading the decline and fall of the Roman Empire is like watching a civilization rot in slow motion. Sadistic emperors on gilded thrones, generals who sold out their own armies, and senators who cared more for spectacle than statecraft.

And yet what shocks you most when you read Gibbon today isn't the depravity, it's the familiarity. Gibbon wrote about politicians who lacked seriousness. Elites who lacked virtue, and societies that mistook decadence for progress. 2000 years later, we live in an age where billionaires dodge their taxes, politicians perform instead of govern, and media barons profit from lies and hatred. The Roman elite fiddled while Rome burned. Our elites live-streamed the fire and monetized the smoke. Immorality and unseriousness. Those are the two defining traits of our leaders today. And they're not accidental flaws, but the logical outcome of what I call the survival of the shameless. Today, it's not the most capable who rise, but at least scrupulous. Not the most virtuous, but most brazen.

 

[matticus]

I only heard him interviewed afterwards by James OBrien.

OK, well I'd recommend the actual lecture: I'd argue he gives trump a very hard time, and the censorship - whether you like it or not - makes very little difference to that.

This was the bit that caught my ear:
On the other we had a convicted reality star. When it comes to staffing his administration, he is a modern day Caligula, the Roman emperor who wanted to make his horse a consul. He surrounds himself with loyalists, grifters and sycophants.

 

[briantrumpet]

OK, well I'd recommend the actual lecture: I'd argue he gives trump a very hard time, and the censorship - whether you like it or not - makes very little difference to that.

This was the bit that caught my ear:
On the other we had a convicted reality star. When it comes to staffing his administration, he is a modern day Caligula, the Roman emperor who wanted to make his horse a consul. He surrounds himself with loyalists, grifters and sycophants.

I almost want the BBC to argue their case in court, so that they can demonstrate that Trump is factually the "most openly corrupt President", about which there seems little debate, since all his corruption is out there on public record, since he appears to revel in breaking as many regulations as he can, in order to prove his king-like untouchability.

 

[Psamathe]

I almost want the BBC to argue their case in court, so that they can demonstrate that Trump is factually the "most openly corrupt President", about which there seems little debate, since all his corruption is out there on public record, since he appears to revel in breaking as many regulations as he can, in order to prove his king-like untouchability.

But does the BBC's rule about presenting balance mean that in court they'll have to argue equally for the claimant as for the defendant eg BBC lawyers will have to argue for Trump in equal balance as for themselves?

 

[briantrumpet]

A good thread about the people who want to keep the myths of the British Empire alive. It'll be the same Tufton Street people who are behind 'Restore Trust'.

https://bsky.app/profile/alanlester.bsky.social/post/3m6lxaacinc2r

 

[Ian H]

It's Staines upon Thames. Which it is.

I have fond memories of Staines. An acquaintance lived on the banks of the Thames there, in a bungalow on stilts, made of wood and asbestos. She lived alone apart from 14 feral cats. It was a favourite mooring place for various narrow-boating friends of mine

 

[briantrumpet]

I have fond memories of Staines. An acquaintance lived on the banks of the Thames there, in a bungalow on stilts, made of wood and asbestos. She lived alone apart from 14 feral cats. It was a favourite mooring place for various narrow-boating friends of mine

A judicious use of a hyphen there, to differentiate those friends from the narrow ones who boat.