E10 Rifle wrote:
Yeah, I've seen nothing in the Eye's coverage that suggests they've ever spoken to anyone in Tower Hamlets other than the Tory group spokesperson and single-issue former East London Advertiser hack Ted Jeory. Fearless probing it ain't.
I gave up on Private Eye for its Tower Hamlets coverage. One of its targets happened to cross my path on Twitter, and confirmed my suspicions about it.
Ian Hislop is, as I understand it, a Tory albeit a One Nation Tory. There was an interview with him from a few years back where he admitted his constituency MP is Anne Widdecombe and he considered her to be very good. Not a good sign.
HIGNFY was brilliant for years but lost a huge amount of its relevance and its sting when Deayton was sacked. He had to go, that's not in question, but his deadpan delivery of incredibly acerbic lines was one of the things that made the show so watchable. That and, back then, both Merton and Hislop took the show very seriously as opposed to now when it seems like it's just something they do out of habit. Will Self has summed it up well with his reasons for not appearing on the show any more:
In its heyday HIGNFY was in the very cockpit of British satire: a prototype kind of reality TV in which unwitting politicians were parachuted into a jungle full of backbiting repartee. The combination of a witty dissection of the week's current events and an opportunity for viewers to see their rulers - or wannabe rulers - excoriated in front of a live studio audience was a must-see, and for some years the programme formed part of the political discourse, as well as provoking myriad belly laughs.
...
I'm afraid that without the reality element, the programme has become just like any other pseudo-panel contest, where funny fellows sit behind desks cracking jokes. Moreover, in the post-Hutton Inquiry era, the BBC seems to have lost its bottle so far as edgy satire is concerned: the sharpest crack I made all evening — and the one that received the most audience laughter — was cut for transmission.
...
I'm afraid that without the reality element, the programme has become just like any other pseudo-panel contest, where funny fellows sit behind desks cracking jokes. Moreover, in the post-Hutton Inquiry era, the BBC seems to have lost its bottle so far as edgy satire is concerned: the sharpest crack I made all evening — and the one that received the most audience laughter — was cut for transmission.
"VGE, if he was in this country, would be in jail. He's one of those charming leaders the French come out with... every time. He's the architect of this thing [Constitution]." Hislop went on for a couple of minutes about how bad an idea it was before Steel interjected with, "Blimey, if we'd let you go on for a bit longer that would have turned into 'Fuckin' Italians! Fuckin' Frogs!'" before Hislop seethed at Steel for misrepresenting him before adding "Although, in this context, 'Fuckin' Italians' is probably pretty apt." Winding down he said something like "Did you know that Article [whatever] of this Constitution says we all have to be loyal to it? So if the Constitution was passed I would now be charged with a crime?"
I've a few questions over this so would appreciate any input
1) Just who was VGE? A good President or not?
2) Why would he have been in prison if he was British? What law would he have broken?
3) Is that true what he said about the Constitution and, as I'm assuming it's bullshit, why did nobody pull him up on it?
EDIT: Found the video, it's at 10:22 of this clip.
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