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  Talking of Lukwesa Burak... Straight after Dharshini's latest performance on the BBC News Channel, Lukwesa turned to something completely different.  And I've never seen a BBC News Channel newsreader look so happy about announcing something. She beamed with what looked like delight, and her voice became excessively loud and giddy with seeming excitement.  Now what could have so lifted Lukwesa's face and voice into the stratosphere and beyond? Well, a bit of identity politics, that's what! The actual words really don't do justice to just how over-the-moon she gave the impression of being. (Of course, she could have been faking it). It was quite startling. That woman in the big pink frock on North Korean news couldn't have looked happier if Kim Jong-un had opened a new nuclear weapons factory.  Anyhow, here's the news wot did it: The UK's largest umbrella organisation for Muslim groups has elected a woman as its head for the first time.  Zara

  Sarah Vine, wife of former Environment Secretary Michael Gove, tweeted  this tonight:  Tuned in to watch a bit of David Attenborough but am now being subjected to propaganda. Yes, I know: humanity is an evil plague on the planet. But can I just look at some elephants please? # PerfectPlanet Of course, the answer to Sarah's question is, 'No, you can't just look at some elephants. This is the BBC'. Wonder if Michael was watching and felt the same way?

  BBC One's early evening news bulletin stuck with the BBC template of the day with Clive Myrie introducing the CPTPP story and asking Dharshini David, "We have just left the European Union, now we want to join another trading block?" That question struck ex-MEP Roger Helmer as a poor one: For heaven’s sake, after the Brexit saga do they still not know the difference between an FTA and a political union? Dharshini, probably not giving Roger's non-BBC groupthink distinction even a second's thought and evidently being very fond of her joke from earlier, responded "And one with an even less catchy name, Clive".  A career in Radio 4 comedy beckons.

  More BBC-related Freedom of Information (FoI) news tonight,  courtesy of Matthew Moore of  The   Times ... The   Times has had an FoI request rejected by the BBC - personally, by the outgoing BBC chairman no less:  Sir David Clementi has blocked the release of the BBC’s licence fee collection strategy in one of his final acts as chairman.  The document, understood to set out plans for maximising revenues from the compulsory levy, was approved by the BBC board last year. In response to a freedom of information request from The Times , the broadcaster confirmed that it held the paper. However, it declined to disclose it on the ground that publication would “prejudice the conduct of public affairs” and “inhibit the free and frank exchange of views”. The BBC, despite being "free and frank", turns down an awful lot of FoI requests.

     Talking of David Buik, his reaction to today's  The Andrew Marr Show was this : David Buik : Well done Liz Truss for standing her ground in good humour against a cantankerous Andrew Marr! My word this seasoned inquisitor wears his heart on his sleeve! And the leader of the Conservative group in the London Assembly wasn't too impressed with Mr Marr either: Susan Hall AM : Andrew Marr, you are a disgrace. You apologise gently when interrupting your other guests but barge in all through your interview with Liz Truss. Bring on GB News - Andrew Neil treats all his guests the same regardless, as I am sure the station will.  One of the problems was that Andrew Marr had a lot of questions to get through and Liz Truss was his final interviewee, with time running out. She - unusually for politicians on TV - was actually answering his questions, but whenever she continued saying something interesting Andrew Marr interrupted her to tick off yet another 'gotcha' questi

David Buik, a man who knows a thing or two about the global economy, was watching BBC One a few minutes ago and then took to Twitter : David Buik : Really negative take by BBC News on the UK applying to join a free trade area made up of 11 Asia and Pacific nations, Sneering comparison to EU. From little acorns do great big oak trees grow! We've left the EU. Please get over it! Shoulder to the wheel - EVERYONE! This is what he saw and heard: Ben Brown : The Government has announced that Britain wants to join a trade partnership of 11 countries including Australia and Japan. The partnership is known as CPTPP. It was only formed in 2018 but could offer tariff-free trade with a host of countries in the Pacific. Well, our Global Trade Correspondent Dharshini David is here with me now. Dharshini, some people might say, why have we let the EU to join another big global trading block? Dharshini David : One that's thousands of miles away when we've only just shaken off th

According to The Mail on Sunday , Labour's shadow business secretary Lucy Powell claimed her BBC TV licence on parliamentary expenses, thus charging it to us taxpayers.  I think the very words Ms Powell began a tweet with yesterday might be appropriate here: This will, rightly, anger many. 

  Sticking with The Sunday Times, the paper's Katherine Forster has given Naga Munchetty a highly sympathetic interview .  She says the BBC presenter has a "no-nonsense likeability" off air as well and on air and is taking to her new Radio 5 Live show: "I’ve always been quite critical of my voice and I’ve been told it’s like a foghorn, and grating, but it seems to be working on radio, which I’m really delighted with", says Naga. We're also told , among other things that,  "like her nemesis Trump, she is a “slightly obsessed” golfer — she has a handicap of seven — and is desperately missing the green." I was aware that her husband's name is  James Haggar, so if she had taken his name she'd have been Naga Haggar.  On interviewing politicians Naga says: Politicians are in a very tricky situation and I don’t think we should blame anyone for not having a crystal ball. But our viewers are more than capable of recognising when someone doe

Gillian Reynolds, the doyenne of radio critics (as I seem to  always  call her), reviewing a Radio 4 programme called  The Disrupters , which "tells stories of business success and failure", also in today's  Sunday Times,   said something in passing  that struck me as being quite interesting. She was saying that Editorial Director of BBC News Kamal Ahmed's reorganisation of BBC radio news showed that he was no good at either teamwork or admitting mistakes (well, he is BBC after all) but at least her has nerve: "I will admit it certainly required nerve to nudge quite so many outstanding reporters, Mark Mardell for one, into early retirement." I wasn't aware that we have Kamal to thank, though I don't think Gillian herself approves of Kamal's "nudging".

  Camilla Long in  The Sunday Times   writes today  about how last Tuesday, prior to the EU uniting most of the British Isles in fury, "anti-Brexit stories were still running hot and cold on the BBC website": We learnt, for example, how poor shoppers were being charged more for goods from the EU.  One woman paid a whole £30 extra for earrings from Greece.  “My model car cost £12 more,” moaned Londoner Sascha Grillo. “Second-hand pottery on eBay was more expensive,” ran another sob story.  I bet the average person who voted leave must be feeling devastated knowing that used pottery, model cars, designer leather goods and gold trinkets are costing people in London ever so slightly more. Camilla isn't wrong.  And in the days between Tuesday and Friday's EU fiasco, the anti-Brexit stories kept on coming, with one particularly ironic one -  NI Protocol 'obstructs free movement of military'  - coming on Friday itself.  We also got  Brexit causes ferry t

  If you stayed up to watch the highlights of Crystal Palace v Wolves on Match of the Day you'll doubtless have caught Gary Lineker putting on an earnest expression and saying:  Starting on Monday is LGBT-Plus History Month, and across the BBC, we'll be telling the stories of sportspeople who've helped shape attitudes. So that's February '-ism' taken care of.

This in intriguing.  This morning we posted a transcript of Mark Easton's News at Ten report from Blackpool without being aware that Blackpool Council had  denounced it - and the BBC - in no uncertain terms  earlier in the week. (It was also broadcast on the BBC's News at Six and on the BBC News Channel). There are some serious allegations against the BBC here: The Leader of Blackpool Council has condemned the BBC for its “wholly misleading” coverage of COVID-related death rates in Blackpool.  The corporation broadcast reports on its main news channels suggesting that Blackpool had one of the highest death rates in the country, but did not take into account local factors such as age of the population, which distorts comparisons with other areas.  Although these “standardised” rates, which take those factors into account, were provided to the BBC team, demonstrating that Blackpool had relatively low rates compared to other parts of the North West, they chose

(h/t StewGreen ) The BBC's (environmental activist) environment analyst Roger Harrabin often gets accused of behaving like a campaigner, and sometimes it's hard not to see why.  He certainly not a fan of a new coal mine in Cumbria and has written four separate BBC News website articles about it in just over two weeks: 14 January :  Government defends Cumbria coal mine green light The government’s chief planning officer has defended its recent decision to allow a new coal mine in Cumbria. 19 January :  Coal mine go-ahead 'undermines climate summit' Britain's climate change leadership is being undercut by a government decision to allow a new coal mine in Cumbria, MPs have warned. 24 January : Climate change: Six questions about the Cumbria coal controversy Pressure is growing on the prime minister [sic] to ban a new coal mine in Cumbria. 30 January : Climate change: Minister rapped for allowing Cumbria coal mine The government’s climate ch

  As you've been noting in the comments, the BBC's Europe editor Katya Adler hasn't been having a good week.  This tweet caused considerable controversy the other day, as it simply wasn't true that the Johnson government had "berated" the EU: Rather like the EU itself last night, Katya backtracked yesterday in what is probably the nearest we're going to get to an apology from her: (She could have claimed it was an "oversight"!) And now she's put her foot in it again - h/t richard d .  She was on this morning's Today programme talking about how the fears of dwindling supplies of jabs in the EU are being realised, with several countries running low, and said: Partly this is to do with pharmaceutical companies not honouring contracts, particularly AstraZeneca , with which the EU has a big row at the moment... There was no "allegedly" or "they claim" in there, or anything like it. It was stated a

  Here's a cryptic BBC headline:  Fire breaks out at asylum-seekers barracks What does that mean? The use of the passive tense suggests it could have been accidental (an unattended chip pan, some faulty wiring). But it's ambiguous and could also mean it had been started deliberately. But if the latter, by whom? By racist local residents attacking the asylum seekers maybe? Or by the asylum seekers themselves? Ah, read on!... "The fire began [passive tense again]  after "upset" residents "caused a bit of a ruckus in the dining room", a charity said." So it was the asylum seekers ("residents"). But a supportive charity says they were "upset" and it was only "a bit of a ruckus", so no big deal by the sounds of it: Contrast that with this far more instantly understandable Daily Mail headline: Another contrast is that the BBC uses the term "asylum seeker" while the Mail used "migrants". D

  It's a bit of a catch-up morning today after a busy week has prevented much blogging.  It did note this on Wednesday's BBC One News at Ten covering the earlier stages of this week's EU-AstraZeneca row.  I've colour-highlighted it to show the bits that put the EU's side (in blue) and those that put AstraZeneca's side (in red). I think it shows a considerable imbalance:  BBC newsreader : The European Union says the drug company AstraZeneca should honour a contract to supply vaccines by using its British factories to make up a shortfall. The European Commission is angry that the company might provide the EU with millions fewer doses than it had initially promised.  Our Europe correspondent, Nick Beake, is in Brussels. What is the latest stage of this row?  Nick Beake, BBC :  The EU certainly thinks it's in a very strong legal position and it's asking AstraZeneca to publish the contract that was agreed,  but this row is escalated very publicly toda

Here's a story you may have missed yesterday (understandably)... The government's black, female equalities minister took umbrage at a black, female journalist journalist yesterday and all hell broke loose on Twitter.  (When is all hell not breaking loose on Twitter?) Here was minister Kemi Badenoch's Twitter thread denouncing HuffPost journalist Nadine White: A sad insight into how some journalists operate...On Wednesday, I shared our positive, well-received cross-party video to increase vaccine confidence in the midst of so much disinformation. Last night we heard great news about the Novavax Vaccine which I’ve been trialling. Today, an unfortunate reminder of why there is so much confusion and mistrust. Was in meetings all day yesterday and been made aware of 2 emails received from HuffPost journalist, Nadine White. Disinformation is on the rise, yet HuffPost are looking to sow distrust by making up claims I refused to take part in a video campaign…(which

Talking about Lewis Goodall (as I always seem to be), his Twitter feed last night was characteristic:  Absolutely extraordinary. A trade border on the island of Ireland has been created at the stroke of a pen in Brussels - and yet no-one there thought to tell anyone in Belfast or Dublin.  Throughout the Brexit process there was (justifiable) criticism from Dublin and Brussels that the British government seemed insensitive to the particular problems of Northern Ireland and the problems around the border. Now the shoe is firmly on the other foot.  That said, it is possible to think that the EU is behaving very badly but also recognise that the post-Brexit relationship (and how new it is) does build in a certain instability in the EU/UK relationship and (as many of us have pointed out) an especially perilous position for NI, as it is, betwixt and between the two. We’re  [seeing]  some of those dynamic play out.  The fact is, this is going to happen a lot. Northern Ireland’s status

  Going back to Tuesday... One conspicuous feature of the BBC's reporting of the moment when UK deaths from/with Covid-19 passed the 100,000 mark was how its high-profiel reporters managed to make it 'about' their pet subjects.  On BBC One's News at Ten , for example, Mark Easton made it about his perennial theme: how unequal the UK is.  And, over on Newsnight the same night, Lewis Goodall made it about his perennial theme: how bad the Government is.  Here are the transcripts:  ******* MARK EASTON'S  NEWS AT TEN  PIECE Mark Easton : In the year since Covid first swept across Britain's shoreline, it has killed 100,000 people, among the worst death rates of any country in the world. The corner of northwest England around Blackpool has proved particularly vulnerable. So, could this part of Lancashire help explain why Britain has been so battered by the virus? There are political questions, of course - too little, too late, is the criticism - but the germ

  Time for a new open thread.  Thank you for your support and comments.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art  Robert Lehman Wing  through July 18, 2021 German artist Georg Baselitz  and his wife,  Elke,  have gifted six landmark paintings by the artist to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in honor of its 150th anniversary in 2020. The portraits, made in 1969, are among the first that Baselitz created using the radical strategy of inversion, in which the pictorial motif is literally turned upside down, enabling the artist to focus on painting's possibilities, rather than the image of the sitter in direct relationship to the viewer. The compositional and conceptual conceit of upending the figures fundamentally destabilizes the viewer's perspective, thereby thwarting our ability to firmly identify elements like narrative, content type, and artistic tradition, thus setting Baselitz's works in a category of their own. The six paintings will remain on view in  Georg Baselitz: Pivotal Turn  in The Met's  Robert Lehman Wing 

  The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. February 21–June 20, 2021 David Hockney,  Under the Trees, Bigger,  2010–11, oil on 20 canvases, David Hockney Inc. © David Hockney / photo: Richard Schmidt view slideshow       Two visionary artists, separated in time and space, are united by a shared fascination with nature. See the work of David Hockney and Vincent van Gogh side by side in  Hockney – Van  Gogh: The Joy of Nature . This exhibition examines the common ground between British artist Hockney (born 1937) and Dutch artist Van Gogh (1853–1890). Both expressed their profound love of nature through brilliant color and the capacity to see the world with fresh eyes.  The Joy of Nature  reveals Van Gogh’s unmistakable influence on Hockney in a selection of carefully selected landscape paintings and drawings. Through a bold use of color and experimentation with perspective, each artist crafts a painterly world that is utterly individual and true