(1030) Morning all, the thick poison-fog seems to have cleared. Elevenses are upon us. (1102)
10. To be served by humans, not machines
9. Moo corner
8. Will Jones at Lord Toby’s site
“The BBC has axed Football Focus after 52 years amid plummeting viewing figures following a ‘woke’ revamp that aimed to ‘modernise’ the show. The Mail has the story.
The BBC has announced that long-running football show Football Focus will be coming to an end at the end of the season after 52 years on TV screens.
First broadcast in 1974, the show has been a staple of televised football ever since, but dwindling viewing figures have seen the channel scramble to try and keep offerings of interest.
But they have failed to do that, amid criticisms that the show has been pedestrian, vacuous, uninspiring and uninformative in recent times in a bid to modernise programming.
In March 2024, Simon Jordan wrote in the Daily Mail that the show had become “too smug, comfortable and pally-pally” after Dion Dublin interviewed former Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, and debate arose over why a gay West Brom supporter had been invited on to talk about his sexuality.
Former pundit and BBC regular Mark Lawrenson, meanwhile, has previously argued that the channel is “top of the woke league” following its rebrand that saw him lose his job.
And fans on social media appear to have seen the cancellation as a good thing.
One posted on X: “Good – it’s been an awful woke joke for years. #defundtheBBC.””
7. Interesting question raised by these flags
Were you to accept the CofStG, Saltire, Dragon, Ulster and Union flags, and let’s add Kernow and Eire itself … plus a local flag … in which order, top down, would you raise them on the pole? Which would you leave off?
6. IYE
“At this point, how could I think these are all coincidences now. CET Vest power plant in Romania just had a 10,000 kW transformer explode with 30 tons of oil on site. That brings the total to 5 major energy infrastructure incidents in 5 days across 4 continents, on top of every incident documented above since February 28. No missiles. No drones. Just “accidents” everywhere, all at once.” (Link in comments.)
JH: There’s that … and of course the dead or disappearing “scientists”. There is also this to consider re the explosions:
