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archoptimist

Listed below are comments made by archoptimist between Wednesday, 12th August 2009 and Saturday, 24th October 2009.

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Nick Griffin on Question Time 12:00pm on 24 Oct 2009 I have attended many management courses during which my department's performance and my personal attributes/weaknesses were discussed by other participants. A rule for these feedback sessions was that the recipient accepted all comments without responding or defending themselves against any negative perceptions during the session and reflected on them later. Some comments were considered unfair or ill informed but most had some element that, if acted upon, enhanced group and individual effectiveness. The practice is widely practised in commerce and industry..I get the impression the Beeb editorial team would have some difficulty with it
Nick Griffin on Question Time 09:09am on 24 Oct 2009 Sorry...it won't wash. Question Time was a debacle and the editors would be well advised to learn from it instead of patronising viewers because, as "simple folk", they misinterpreted what they saw and heard and are being mislead by the "non- BBC" media. The only person to emerge with any credibility is Bonnie Greer: her short and concise summary in today's Times is a beacon of common sense and logic. Saying more in a few paragraphs than all the BBC political presenting team combined. David Dimbleby, Paxo, Kirsty, Gavin and our esteemed bloggers could learn a lot from her.
Was 2,000 a myth? 2:09pm on 15 Oct 2009 500, 2000 or even 5000 extra UK troops is not going to make a lot of difference to the outcome in Afghanistan. Obama realises that and has strong reservations about sending 45,000 more US troops. Sure they will kill more Taliban fighters and kick them out of targeted areas each time they launch their surges...but they can't keep it up indefinitely and the Taliban are too smart to accommodate them with decisive confrontations. Obama and Brown are mixing political aspirations (to get out) with military strategy (to win a war)and they are incompatible. The architects of the Afhanistan and Iraq adventures anticipated a short shock and awe victory and had no intention of being stuck with occupation and nation building. The generals' priorities are their armies' honour and morale..they will never call "uncle". The politicians have to give them a way out and come up with a different strategy.
Map of the Week: Forgotten white working classes 8:03pm on 14 Oct 2009 I don't think this alienation of a white underclass requires any profound sociological analysis. They feel neglected because they have been neglected. They feel forgotten because they were forgotten during the flawed and damaging drive to establish a multi-cultural society. They don't believe that globalisation, multiculturalism and diversity are to their benefit, because they are not, they are the collatoral casualties of ill conceived and discriminatory social engineering. They see no future for themselves and their children because there is none. They feel that nobody cares about them because nobody has. Their only hope is to finally be recognised as a minority group with special educational needs in the same way as other minorities have been. Were any of them ever considered to be in need of citizenship lessons, allocated with quotas and favoured with positive discrimination in the jobs market?..I think not, they have only appeared on the radar screens now because an election is looming.
Labour bets on bashing bankers 2:20pm on 28 Sep 2009 Labour always seem to be playing 'catch up'. They decide to bail out the banks with taxpayers money....OK so far, because it would ease the credit famine and stimulate the economy...but why didn't they lay down the terms and rules while they had a firm grip on the bankers' essentials? Once again, they have been totally outwitted and are now faced with trying to claw back money the bankers have already allocated to their salaries and bonuses. Fat chance of that! the bankers are back to business as usual and have the money in their coffers. Darling will be lucky to get a token gesture of restraint...the horse has bolted.
Map of the Week: How green is your valley? 09:06am on 28 Sep 2009 The global warming sceptics will love this. They have always suspected that crofters and cottagers in rural areas, using a car to travel to the nearest town 15 miles away are causing more pollution than Londoners stuck in traffic jams for hours every day and working in lit up offices in the City. I suppose the conclusion will be to repeat the 19th century clearances of the offenders.
1Xtra: Getting passionate about politics 2:36pm on 05 Sep 2009 The end result seems to be that the participants did not learn much but had (and took) the opportunity to show off to any of their friends watching. The sad thing is that neither Gordon Brown or Tina Daheley thought it worthwhile trying to explain to 21 year old Remy and plucky 19-year-old "Cheekz" why many ten year olds, who find education including history interesting, would be capable of filling in a housing form and conversing more sensibly with the Prime Minister. These disengaged twenty somethings need to be told what holds them back and why other young people are doing so much better. I suppose programme producers and presenters would find that too boring for their target audience.
What future for media and journalism? 10:34am on 01 Sep 2009 If the Murdoch empire held the dominant position in the developing media/journalism battle, does anybody think it would surrender a single advantage it had over competitors? Has it made any concessions to other broadcasters in transmitting national sporting events for which Sky has exclusive rights? Not on your life..viewers have to sign up to Sky or they don't get to watch. Now,son of Murdoch is fretting because the BBC prevents him from exploiting a system of pay to view news coverage. The thought of him succeeding is horrific. All that is needed is for the BBC to withdraw from competition with commercial channels in pumping out rubbish reality shows and consolidating its position as a producer of quality entertainment, news coverage both on TV and the internet. The BBCs Achilles heel is that it, too often, appears to be less neutral in political issues than its charter requires. Having said that,
Murdoch Inc. has always adopted a Citizen Kane approach..more to be mis-trusted and feared than anything the Beeb might get up to. The BBC should hold on to whatever advantages it has and be meticulous in using them to the advantage of the public. If they fail, the license fee will be cut or removed and de-regulation will lead to degraded news reporting.
Devolution dilemma 3:22pm on 19 Aug 2009 Why would Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi drop his appeal? If as Kenny MacAskill and member of the Holyrood Parliament claim, no quid-pr-quo of release on compassionate grounds was discussed, neither Megrahi nor Ghadaffi had any way of knowing that release was on the cards. Megrahi would simply be abandoning his claim to be innocent and resigning himself to dying in prison. There is only one conclusion..a deal was struck to prevent the appeal hearing and disclosure of a miscarriage of justice with the connivance of several governments. Releasing him on compassionate grounds stinks and is an insult to the families of all the vistims. Dress it up as you will, Scottish jurisprudence has been discredited and the rest of the UK will be held in equal odium by the USA and other countries who won't understand Blair's flawed devolution model. MInd you, most people in the UK don't understand it either.
Mandelson fights back 11:04am on 12 Aug 2009 Mandleson is just confirming, if it ever needed to be confirmed, that he is, and always has been, the "Puppet Meister" behind the New Labour Project. His power over the party has never diminished, regardless of his location, unelected status, who the nominal PM has been or the temporary rise of various aspiring PMs in waiting. He towers intellectually over the rest of the hapless Brown and his cabinet..and probably most of the Tory team. He can command more supportive coverage than any other politician from the media, including the BBC, for any attack he wants to make on the opposition. He will focus on Osborne and the economy to divert attention from the Iraq Inquiry, Afghanistan and other inconvenient outstanding issues. The Tories and Lib Dems can't beat him at his game and would be well advise to simply refuse to play it. Brown, Balls, Harman, Johnson will simply trail along in his wake hoping to be one of his accolytes during the election campaign.

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archoptimist