A major victory has been secured by Charlie Weimers MEP over in Brussels, as the European Parliament has finally begun broadcasting GB News. Channel 115 for any co-conspirators stuck over there…
Weimers had been pressing the European Parliament administration to add the channel to the list of available programming for a fortnight, to join all the other available major UK broadcasters. Last week the parliament’s “quaestor” confirmed the move to Weimers, saying “I can confirm that GB News will be added to the bouquet list of channels as of next week”, with the channel finally coming online today. Guido recommends GB News’ presenters brush up on their French…
Lindsay Hoyle has told members and their staff that “I look forward to seeing the house buzzing again” after confirming that from July 19, Covid safety precautions in the chamber – including social distancing and ticks and crosses on benches – will be scrapped. Hoyle says the “successful vaccination program” has allowed these changes to go ahead…
All parliament’s bars and restaurants will re-open and the rule of six will end. MPs will be able to resume bringing guests onto the estate for business reasons. From the start of summer recess, MPs will be able to decide how many of their staff are allowed to return to the office.
For the three days between the 19th and the Commons recess on the 22nd, the Commons will maintain a hybrid model, and while face coverings won’t be mandatory, they will be encouraged. Bobbing to catch the Speakers eye will also not appear until MPs return after the Summer, with call lists remaining the only way to get a question. The perspex screens and stickers on the floor will remain until they can be removed over the recess.
One miffed staffer points out that for MPs in the chamber, masks will be recommended, however they’ll be “required” for everyone else on the estate…
Eric Pickles in his capacity of Chair of ACoBA has slammed Dominic Cummings for breaking rules on post-No. 10 appointments. In a letter to Cummings last month, Pickles noted he is now offering “various services for payment via a blog hosted on Substack”, which he appears not to have consulted the committee about. Pickles told Cummings it:
“appears you may be in breach of the Rules” and was asked for clarification “so the Committee can understand the circumstances behind your apparent failure to seek and await for advice before promoting and receiving payment for your services”
Cummings was ordered to reply by the 5th July – he failed to do so.
Pickles has subsequently reported Cummings to Michael Gove in his capacity as Cabinet Office minister given Boris’s former top advisor has now broken the government’s rules by failing to provide an explanation to ACoBA. Pickles says “it is now a matter for the government to decide what appropriate action to take”…
Read Pickles’ letter to Gove in full:
According to the BBC’s annual report, over a quarter of men (28%) believe that the BBC doesn’t effectively reflect “people like them”. A fifth of women (20%) believe the BBC does not reflect them either. Which means some 15 million adults are forced to pay for something that they do not believes reflects them. Guido suspects the appointment of left-wing Brammar as head of BBC News would only exacerbate this problem…
Simultaneously, the report claims that 75% of men and 80% of women think that the BBC is “effective at providing content/ services that set a high standard for quality” and that almost 100% of UK based adults use the BBC every month. If that is the case the BBC should believe in itself, as well as the research it commissions, and embrace a subscription model…
Labour is today using the racist social media abuse being targeted at England players to push their proposed social media free speech clampdown. Today shadow culture secretary Jo Stevens told Times Radio Labour wants to put an end to self-regulation and instead have the state dictate social media platforms’ content rules. Stevens also calls for “criminal sanctions for senior executives” for repeated offences “because that’s the only way we will get them to change their behaviour about how they run their companies”. A long way from the days of “I agree with Nick”…
Labour’s proposals go much further than even the government’s extreme anti-free speech Online Harms Bill proposal, which at the moment only has criminal sanction provisions for if a tech executive fails to comply with an Ofcom request for information. The social media abuse against the likes of Rashford, Sancho and Saka is unforgivable, however calls to censor the entire internet as a response are absurdly disproportionate…
