Tag: BBC

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Big increase in arms spending

Tanks

Increase spending for NHS or more for war? Media neglect of astonishing increase in arms spending

Shouldn’t the BBC and other media be exploring this issue? Spending increases in defence while cuts or inadequate increases everywhere else.
 
Could we have a bit more balance in reviewing where cuts might be made? There was a glaring enormous hike in spending on defence  announced by Boris Johnson on 19 November 2020. Completely unjustified  –  a wild macho gesture and a £16.5 billion increase above the Conservative manifesto commitment. It created the biggest defence budget in 30 years even though we are fighting less wars now that Iraq and Afghanistan are over.
 
Surely we can help Ukraine out of existing budgets. What else is defence spending doing for us? Our arms spending for Ukraine is almost equivalent to the spending of all the EU countries combined. Our contribution is disproportionate. We have crying needs in Britain, too. 
 
If defence can have such an increase as outlined above then surely the NHS and social services could have a similar increase.
 
Why aren’t the media talking about this?
 
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Cleo Laine – Jazz Singer

Cleo Laine, brilliant documentary

I strongly recommend you to see the Cleo Laine documentary on BBC iPlayer.

I bought the All About Me Cleo Laine LP well over 50 years ago, and I once saw her with the Johnny Dankworth band in Worthing.

So I knew she was a wonderful singer with a great voice and a three octave range. But when I saw the BBC documentary, which included many of her performances, shown in full, to celebrate he 95th birthday on 28th October 2022, I was astonished by her brilliance as a performer and musician.

Available on iPlayer – really something very special.

Here’s a sample of her amazing ability. The BBC documenatary has better quality and a lot of interesting info.

Available only till 27th November 2022  –  iplayer link https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001dhjg/cleo-laine-at-the-bbc

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Hans Zimmer – Film Music Genius

Fascinating documentary about a musical genius

Hans Zimmer is the most successful composer of film scores this century. His story was told in a recent BBC2 documentary which can now be seen on BBC iplayer or downloaded from the internet at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d9jf/hans-zimmer-hollywood-rebel

It tells how he was expelled from eight schools in Germany before his mother brought him to England where his creative talent was tolerated or even encouraged. He has had a fortnight formal music education.

He began his music career playing working men’s clubs in the north of England before working with synthesisers and computers in a backstreet studio in London and being discovered by Hollywood.

The documentary explores Zimmer’s approach to creating a film score. He has been astonishingly successful.

Next year, with a full orchestra he is doing a European tour appearing in Europe’s major arenas including the O2 in London.

The BBC documentary tells his fascinating story. iplayer Link  https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episodes/m001d9jf/hans-zimmer-hollywood-rebel

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Blair and Brown on BBC2 – Will the truth come out?

Blair and Brown, 5 part BBC2 Documentary started  Mon 4 October 2021, 9pm

This could be an interesting series about these brilliant and eloquent politicians.

People will never forget the audacity of Blair and his colleagues in ignoring the biggest and worldwide demonstrations of opposition to the war against Iraq, or the worldwide disbelief in the arguments presented.

But will the BBC gloss over the Iraq war and the unprovoked wars against Serbia, and Afghanistan which constitute war crimes under international law.

Will the BBC dodge the question of why these apparent war criminals have not yet been brought to trial?

Does the BBC know the first thing about international law against war?

“To initiate a war of aggression  . . .  is the supreme international crime”  – 

Declaration of the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, 1945. But, to see more of what international law says, please see my blog post, The Law Against Wars.

How often has the BBC ever challenged politicians on the legality of unprovoked attacks on other countries? Instead the BBC has given copious amounts of air time to those proposing war and the death, destruction and human misery it will cause. Criticism of such proposals has been minimal.