Election Year or Fear!

[Geoff Parkstone]

I believe you will find the expression is nit pick, says he, nit picking.....

[MadAmster]

Ah, Farage, the man of the people who voted against improving worker's rights. The man of the people who voted against Laws to protect women and girls more. The man of the people who wants an insurance based health care system a la USA one that would see hospitals privatised and charging huge amounts for anything and everything and that system would see us having an awful lot of families going bankrupt because they can't pay their medical bills. How many? Well the USA has almost 5 times the UK population. USA has around half a million families going bankrupt each year due to health care bills they can't pay. That would see, pro rata, around 100,000 UK families going bankrupt each year. The man of the people who wants to reduce the minimum wage for young uns. The man of the people who recently told bankers that taxing the rich wasn't on. Probably because he is one of the rich.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-03/farage-vows-to-end-exodus-of-rich-in-economic-vision-for-uk

Man of the people? IMO he's no more than a rich Jodrell. who is more than happy to keep the status quo as it benefits him.

[ramAnag]

I tend to source my broadcast news from BBC, Sky and C4. Internet based sources tend to be more inflammatory so I pay less heed to those and social media is something I don't regard as a news source at all but rather a comedy store.

So, to your question, it's hard to answer in specifics but it's an impression I formed when considering the 3 broadcast sources. The BBC coverage seemed less empathetic with the victims and whilst not pro the perpetrator(s,) less "critical" of them. Not just the train incident but ever since Southport I suppose, when we have seen how many similar incidents? 6 or 8?

i suspect the downplaying may stem from the aftermath of Southport and perhaps the BBC trying to not inflamed reactions to yet another mindless act of personal violence committed by an ethnic minority (note I don't say immigrant or illegal here). But that just my interpretation of my perception of differences between reporting.

‘It’s hard to answer in specifics’, you say. Well it would be, because it isn’t true and of course the BBC wasn’t ‘pro the perpetrator’.

I can’t see how the BBC have downplayed it at all. They reported accurately on what you rightly describe as a ‘mindless act of personal violence’. The fact that it was committed by a black guy seems no more relevant than the fact that one of the two identified heroes of the hour was another who you might also describe as ‘an ethnic minority’ and the other, a Forest fan.

Oddly, because I very rarely travel by train, I happened to be on three that day. A return from Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street and a shorter one from Liverpool to Sandhills where the new EFC ground is. It was a busy day with 52k in attendance at Hill Dickinson, followed by 61k at Anfield and Crewe also at home. There was a high police presence at all the stations but the only ‘trouble’ I saw was a couple of particularly dim Villa fans who appeared highly amused by discovering the ability to press a button to repeatedly open and close the inter carriage door and, later in the evening, a drunken woman and her equally drunken partner who were mildly irritating and intrusive and annoyed the ‘guard’ by standing in his way. They were all white btw, which means…absolutely nothing.

[Andy_Faber]

I tend to source my broadcast news from BBC, Sky and C4. Internet based sources tend to be more inflammatory so I pay less heed to those and social media is something I don't regard as a news source at all but rather a comedy store.

So, to your question, it's hard to answer in specifics but it's an impression I formed when considering the 3 broadcast sources. The BBC coverage seemed less empathetic with the victims and whilst not pro the perpetrator(s,) less "critical" of them. Not just the train incident but ever since Southport I suppose, when we have seen how many similar incidents? 6 or 8?

i suspect the downplaying may stem from the aftermath of Southport and perhaps the BBC trying to not inflamed reactions to yet another mindless act of personal violence committed by an ethnic minority (note I don't say immigrant or illegal here). But that just my interpretation of my perception of differences between reporting.

I get most of my ?news? from BBC but anything I?m really bothered about I fact check, and there is often a bit of ?spin? included. What you dont get from not traditional outlets is the things they choose not to report at all, some of the ?unrest? caused by the pro Palestine protestors was easily as newsworthy as that at the ?far right? protest, for instance

Internet sources also run rings round traditional media wrt speed, the ?appearance? of the train perp was all over the internet before the tv coverage even broke the news - I first saw it on a footy forum. Not to say you don?t have to take most stuff with a pinch of salt

[Andy_Faber]

Ah, Farage, the man of the people who voted against improving worker's rights. The man of the people who voted against Laws to protect women and girls more. The man of the people who wants an insurance based health care system a la USA one that would see hospitals privatised and charging huge amounts for anything and everything and that system would see us having an awful lot of families going bankrupt because they can't pay their medical bills. How many? Well the USA has almost 5 times the UK population. USA has around half a million families going bankrupt each year due to health care bills they can't pay. That would see, pro rata, around 100,000 UK families going bankrupt each year. The man of the people who wants to reduce the minimum wage for young uns. The man of the people who recently told bankers that taxing the rich wasn't on. Probably because he is one of the rich.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-11-03/farage-vows-to-end-exodus-of-rich-in-economic-vision-for-uk

Man of the people? IMO he's no more than a rich Jodrell. who is more than happy to keep the status quo as it benefits him.

Serious question, how come he is / reform is so popular?

[Geoff Parkstone]

‘It’s hard to answer in specifics’, you say. Well it would be, because it isn’t true and of course the BBC wasn’t ‘pro the perpetrator’.

I can’t see how the BBC have downplayed it at all. They reported accurately on what you rightly describe as a ‘mindless act of personal violence’. The fact that it was committed by a black guy seems no more relevant than the fact that one of the two identified heroes of the hour was another who you might also describe as ‘an ethnic minority’ and the other, a Forest fan.

Oddly, because I very rarely travel by train, I happened to be on three that day. A return from Crewe to Liverpool Lime Street and a shorter one from Liverpool to Sandhills where the new EFC ground is. It was a busy day with 52k in attendance at Hill Dickinson, followed by 61k at Anfield and Crewe also at home. There was a high police presence at all the stations but the only ‘trouble’ I saw was a couple of particularly dim Villa fans who appeared highly amused by discovering the ability to press a button to repeatedly open and close the inter carriage door and, later in the evening, a drunken woman and her equally drunken partner who were mildly irritating and intrusive and annoyed the ‘guard’ by standing in his way. They were all white btw, which means…absolutely nothing.

Fine, you live your life, I live mine. Nothing to say we have to agree or that either one of us is right. Your idea of fair and mine can be different, its OK, we dont have to conform. My perception is that the BBC downplayed it because of the risk of stirring up more Southport time reaction given the persistent similarity of (a) victimes and (b) assailants. Ive checked and there have been 5 stabbings in the last month that fit this patterns

[ramAnag]

Fine, you live your life, I live mine. Nothing to say we have to agree or that either one of us is right. Your idea of fair and mine can be different, it?s OK, we dont have to conform. My perception is that the BBC downplayed it because of the risk of stirring up more Southport time reaction given the persistent similarity of (a) victimes and (b) assailants. Ive checked and there have been 5 stabbings in the last month that fit this patterns

Hmmm, soooo selective, GP. You’ve ‘checked’ and ‘5 stabbings in the last month fit this pattern’, whatever ‘this pattern’ means.
I’ve checked too, and there is an average of an astonishing and disturbing 282(!) knife related offences recorded each DAY across the UK. Makes your five that fit your pattern seen fairly inconsequential, except to the victims of course.

[Geoff Parkstone]

I'm talking about ones that make the news, not the countless others that don't, pillock. If all of your 282 did I'm sure the BBC would downplay them too

[MadAmster]

Serious question, how come he is / reform is so popular?

Pretty much in the vein of Trump and Wilders, he/they has/have managed to convince an awful lot of people that there is a shared common "enemy" that bears a striking resemblance to Schrodinger's cat, in a way.

You see "they" come here and scrounge off the state, never work and, simultaneously they take "our" jobs by working for low wages...

There's a meme where you see what appears to be 3 people sat at a table, each has a plate in front of them. One plate is empty, another has one cake on it. The third plate is piled ceiling high and the guy with the filled plate is telling "one cake man" that the cakeless guy is trying to steal his one cake. It's what Trump did. It's what Wilders did and it's what Farage is trying to get away with.

It's all "their" fault and I'll get rid of 'em for you. As long as you and your thousands of mates don't come after what me and my handful of mates have.

[MadAmster]

I'm talking about ones that make the news, not the countless others that don't, pillock. If all of your 282 did I'm sure the BBC would downplay them too

The indigenous people of North America walk in single file... at least the one I saw did.

[Geoff Parkstone]

well the ones that dont make the news can hardly be downplayed by the BBC News can they !!

[ramAnag]

I'm talking about ones that make the news, not the countless others that don't, pillock. If all of your 282 did I'm sure the BBC would downplay them too

Bit uncalled for. You’ve proudly said ‘I checked’ and, to paraphrase, there have been five such incidents - which fit a pattern which you seem reluctant to share or define - this month.
I’ve pointed out that there are an astonishing number of stabbing incidents reported to the police each month - actually it averages between 150 and 282 so five isn’t that significant - and somehow that makes me a ‘pillock’.
You do tend to overreact these days when challenged, but if you throw in unsubstantiated comments and accusations, as in this case you have against the BBC downplaying news items, then you are likely to be questioned.
Perhaps if you made your point more clearly…. .

[SithHappens]

Serious question, how come he is / reform is so popular?

Well 52% voted brexit, and I've just been round the local turkey farm and anecdotally 45% of them are looking forward to Christmas.

[Andy_Faber]

Anyone listen to PMs Questions today? Lammy should have taken a sicky, it was so obvious to everyone but him what was going on

[SithHappens]

Anyone listen to PMs Questions today? Lammy should have taken a sicky, it was so obvious to everyone but him what was going on

I haven't but have heard it was a bit of a disaster