Johnson Threatening To Review Channel 4's Licence After Replacing Him With Ice Sculpture in Debate

[Denzil_DC]

Boris Johnson Is Threatening To Review Channel 4's Broadcasting Licence After They Replaced Him With An Ice Sculpture At Thursday's Debate

A Conservative source told BuzzFeed News that if they win the coming election they will reassess the channel’s public service broadcasting licence.
...
In a dramatic escalation of the war of words between the Tories and Channel 4 that will likely provoke outcry, a Conservative source told BuzzFeed News that if they win the coming election they will reassess the channel’s public service broadcasting licence.

“If we are re-elected we will have to review Channel 4’s Public Services Broadcasting obligations,” the source said.

“Broadcasting organisations are rightly held to a higher standard — and particularly Channel 4 which has a special role enshrined in legislation. Any review would of course look at whether its remit should be better focused so it is serving the public in the best way possible.”

The inflammatory move came after Channel 4 said it would empty-chair the prime minister and Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage at its climate change leaders’ debate, after the two leaders declined to take part.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexwickham/boris-johnson-is-threatening-to-review-channel-4s

Johnson didn't turn up, claiming a "diary clash". Gove visited the debate venue asking to be included, but the other party leaders said that was unacceptable because he wasn't a party leader. There followed the worst sort of gaslighting as Gove claimed repeatedly that the Tories had been "excluded" from the debate.

Link to tweet

Michael Gove ✔
@michaelgove

Tonight I went to Channel 4 to talk about climate change but Jeremy Corbyn and Nicola Sturgeon refused to debate a Conservative #climatedebate

[Twitter video]

So if the courts displease this government in waiting, their role will be curtailed. If devolved administrations prove too awkward, their powers will be stripped, and if a broadcaster doesn't do their bidding, then it faces the chop.

I think there's a word for this style of government, but I can't quite place it.

[dewsgirl]

1. Yikes, it looks like the UK is dealing with some of this

shit too.

[Grokenstein]

5. Oh yeah. Boorish Boris is The Trump of Britain

The big difference is that when Boris runs up to people in the street yammering about how awesome he is, they tear him a new one--on camera, to his face.

[dewsgirl]

6. Better.😉

[Scarsdale]

2. Sounds suspiciously like

Trumpism to me. Our orange mistake does the same thing. Not just with broadcasters but people, especially politicians on the "other side". A soon as he is installed (again) as president, he will declare himself "President for Life" and the USA as we know it will no longer exist. We will be led into the jaws of HELL by a raving lunatic.

[calimary]

3. Well, there's only one remedy for that.

We have to get EVERYBODY out to vote.

And I do mean EVERYBODY.

NO excuses.

NO “I was too busy.”

NO “I forgot.”

NO “I couldn’t get out.”

NO “I didn’t know where to my voting place was.”

NO “I didn’t have time.”

NO “It won’t make any difference.”

NO “what’s the point? We’re screwed anyway.”

NO “He/She just doesn’t excite me.”

NO “I didn’t get the candidate I wanted, so fuck it.”

NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. NO.

You HAVE TO vote. There is NO choice, NO option. NO alternative. And NO excuse. NONE.

And there is NOTHING that is more important next November. I don’t care what else may be going on that day. It’s not as important as getting the fuck OFF one’s ass and finding some way to get to the polls and vote.

Unless, of course, you’re somehow okay with what’s gone on since January 2017, or can otherwise rationalize letting your country down - as in down the fucking drain!

[Scarsdale]

4. Also, we have to make sure the

machines are not tampered with, since Moscow Mitch REFUSES to pass a law making them secure. Someone in Kentucky needs to visit every town and holler in the state, spreading the word about this traitor.

[mwooldri]

7. Fortunately UK doesn't have a machine problem.

Paper ballots counted by hand. But on both sides of the Atlantic the "conservatives" need to be voted out. In the UK severe tactical voting is required - yeah hold ones nose and vote for a party one does not normally support. In those constituencies where a dog with a blue rosette pinned to it would win in a landslide find that wedge issue (Brexit leave vs remain) to get normal Tory voters to switch to the other side or at worst not vote at all. In the US with a two party system it's easier - get out the Democratic vote, and do it in overwhelming numbers to offset gerrymandering and false machine vote tallys.

[Ghost Dog]

8. Apparently there might be a postal vote problem.

Postal votes handled end-to-end by a private corporation, few checks?

Elsewhere in the EU we all have I. D. cards/numbers, locally-controlled (thanks, French Revolution!).

Sure, cheating (such as getting struck-off the local electoral roll) still happens, but less-so. And it's traceable.

In the end, ojo, who counts the votes?

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. " Postal votes handled end-to-end by a private corporation"?

I'm not sure where that comes from. It appears to me that postal votes are sent to the local Returning Officer.

Or are you just saying "Royal Mail is now a private corporation"? Well, yes, but if you think Royal Mail has a large scale operation to divert the mail, then you're saying "never send anything by post". So vote in person.

[Ghost Dog]

10. What? I:m here in Spain, hearing what I hear,

with no vote... ¡Please forgive me.

"Royal `Mail" counts the votes?

You joke. Who?

Ah. "'' 'returning officers". Who?

How do they know I'm not allowed to vote?

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. I'm trying to work out "what you hear"

You said "Apparently there might be a postal vote problem.

Postal votes handled end-to-end by a private corporation, few checks?"

I'm trying to work out what that meant. "Returning Officers" are the public officials who organise elections. They are who postal votes are sent back to, and whose offices will count them - see eg https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/sites/default/files/2019-11/UKPE%20Part%20D-Absent%20voting.pdf . So they can't be the "private corporation" you're talking about.

I guessed that perhaps the "private corporation" that is worrying you is Royal Mail. No, they don't count the votes, but they were the only private corporation I could think of that is involved in getting a postal vote from a voter to the count. But it now appears that's not what you meant.

So what "private corporation" handling votes are you talking about? Where did you hear about this? I looked, and couldn't find anything about postal votes being processed differently from before.

[Ghost Dog]

12. I'll research further. Here in Spain, Correos is still a nationalised

State-run operation, unlike UK-mail. Are you saying there's no way postal ballot-stuffing could be going on in UK elections, where nobody has an I. D. number?

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. No, I'm not saying there's no way it can happen

but I don't think a "private corporation" is the problem - and as far as I can tell, neither do you, actually. What an ID check would help prevent is registering made-up people at an address, which can be done by individuals who have access to that address.

Looking at the current process for registering the first time, they ask for your National Insurance number, but say it is still possible to register without one (maybe they do extra checks in that case?).

[Ghost Dog]

14. Let's just try to make sure the vote's clean, OK?

... To be honest, had I not declared myself, back in the day, to UK authorities as being an emigrant, I could still be pretending, as many do, to be UK domiciled..

[LeftishBrit]

15. Just proves their point, doesn't it?

He is indeed a snowflake!

And government-controlled media is a dangerous thing.