BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN Twitter used to be a haven for progressives, both in the UK and the US. It was a place where liberals (not the Burkeian kind) gathered to feel gratified and worthy, where their sentiments and gags were well-received; bouncing off the walls of echo chambers shaped by them and venerated by their likes and retweets. Do-gooders went to bed at night feeling … Continue reading Rout of the Twits
BY MATTHEW CORRIGAN A few years ago I researched a Luftwaffe bomber that was brought down over Cheshire. Unpicking the story was fascinating. I had to delve into RAF archives and intelligence records with ‘SECRET’ stamped in the corner; I was lucky enough to find people still able to remember the event. The tale unfolded gradually, a complex but rewarding process of checking and cross-checking … Continue reading The Blitz Spirit and the Media
BY MATTHEW CORRIGAN ‘An inquiry into this period in Britain’s shameful history.’ And so Jon Snow began the Channel 4 News lead story on the evening of Monday 27th February. Keme Nzerem’s report on the abuse of children shipped throughout the Commonwealth under the Child Migrant Programme was indeed harrowing. Though uncomfortable to watch, the reporter deserves credit for sensitively handling a difficult subject. But … Continue reading Snow – Flake or Provocateur?
BY SAM WHITE As discussed here on this magazine a few days ago, the BBC Asian Network went a little off kilter last week. In case you missed it, they sent out a cheerful message in which presenter Shazia Awan, who just arrived from the Middle Ages, vacuously requested listeners to call in with their views on the appropriate punishment for blasphemy. The corporation had to … Continue reading Stealth Blasphemy UK
BY ALEXIA JAMES This week there has been a furore in the First World about some completely ridiculous legislation being discussed in the Third World. In Pakistan, to be exact. Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Tuesday ordered authorities to take immediate action against ‘blasphemous’ content on social media, mentioning Facebook in particular, remove sacrilegious contents and punish the perpetrators, days after a high court order. … Continue reading BBC Sinks To New Low
BY JON ALEXANDER May the 8th. Put that date in your diaries. It could signal the beginning of the end of our once globally respected British Broadcasting Corporation. Over one hundred thousand signatures have been gathered on a petition to request that the UK Parliament discuss the future of the institution which was founded ninety-four years ago, in a world very different to now. For … Continue reading Eighth of May
BY SAM WHITE The BBC, along with CNN, Buzzfeed, and various other media outlets, has every right to be upset at being excluded from the White House’s off camera press briefing last week. But there’s something important the corporation should consider. A significant number of licence fee payers either don’t care, or are positively enjoying the fact, that the broadcaster was left out in the … Continue reading Zero Pity for the BBC
BY DOM WIGHTMAN I am not sure what the real scandal of the Oscars was this year. Was it really the mistaken awarding of the Best Picture Oscar to La La Land when it was due to be given to Moonlight? Was it the revelation that the Oscars require Price Waterhouse Coopers to manage such a simple task in the first place? Are they that … Continue reading An Oscars Lament
BY JIM BROWNE When you reach my ripe old age, Friday nights are not what they used to be. Friday nights are reduced to babysitting the grandchildren or a game of Gin Rummy with the Mrs. Occasionally I escape and potter down to the White Hart for a couple but Friday is also shopping day and I’ve already had a drink (I sneak one in … Continue reading Audience Fail on Any Questions
BY ALEXIA JAMES A few years ago when people like Stephen Fry publicly complained about my generation’s use of the upward inflection in our everyday speech I laughed off the complaints as those of grumpy old buffers. The upward inflection brought in from California or perhaps the nation’s watching of Australian soaps Neighbours and Home & Away can be annoying in millennials when they oft … Continue reading So
CSM POLLS Here Country Squire Magazine is asking whether the BBC Licence Fee should be maintained, abolished, halved or converted into an optional pay-per-view fee such as offered by Amazon or Sky. The licence fee is £145.50 per annum – or just under 40p per day. Fighting for its very future amidst changes at the top and severe cuts to its funding the BBC has … Continue reading Scrap the BBC Licence Fee?
BY SAM WHITE For an indication of how astonishingly badly the left is doing right now, consider this terrifying fact: they’re making Piers Morgan look good. In this clip from Bill Maher’s Real Time, Morgan is verbally barracked by Australian comedian Jim Jefferies. Morgan’s crimes? First, like 63 million Americans last November, he doesn’t agree that Hillary Clinton would make a better president than Donald Trump. … Continue reading Making Piers Morgan Seem Sound
BY MATTHEW CORRIGAN What we know: On Tuesday afternoon an Airbus A330 operated by Pakistan International Airlines was intercepted by RAF Typhoon fighters over British airspace. Originating in Lahore, the airliner was en route to London Heathrow when it was diverted to Stansted Airport in Essex. It landed without incident at 14:50 and was held away from the airport terminal. Police officers boarded the aircraft … Continue reading Mystery at 30,000 ft
BY SAM WHITE It’s not often that one tweet totally encapsulates the political atmosphere, but comedian Andrew Lawrence managed it when he wrote this: Sad that Liberals are so bored with easy middle-class life that they've had to invent a neo-Nazi doomsday scenario to entertain themselves. — andrew lawrence (@andrewlawrence) January 30, 2017 Lawrence is that rarest of professional comedians–one who appears at ease with annoying … Continue reading The Disintegration of Reality
BY ALEXIA JAMES Like many Brits I grew up with Have I Got News for You (HIGNFY). I’d watch it with my brother and parents knowing that we’d not need to go down to Blockbusters for a lazy evening’s home entertainment when it was on. I recall my mother having a soft spot for Paul Merton and practically wetting herself when it was his turn … Continue reading Have I Got Snooze For You
BY MATTHEW CORRIGAN Well Fake News is certainly making the, erm, news lately, isn’t it? In an extraordinary press conference last week (a conference which, if nothing else, showed that the next four years will certainly not be devoid of amusement), US President Elect Donald Trump didn’t just level the charge at Buzzfeed (I don’t know them either), he also called into question the veracity … Continue reading Inexcusably Inaccurate: BBC News
BY JON ALEXANDER Well, it’s finally happened. The MSM (Mainstream Media) have just had a major reality check and realised that their importance has been diminished. They all took a side in 2016 politics and one side in particular has been hit so hard it’s unlikely it will recover. Donald Trump’s press conference last week was a masterclass in trolling and it left the left-wing press … Continue reading The Diminishing Importance of MSM
BY DOMINIC WIGHTMAN As we’ve found for ourselves during these first two months here at Country Squire Magazine, the public read what takes their fancy. They don’t read any old thing thrust in their faces. The process of knowing what tickles one’s readers is a process of trial and error. Success emanates from dexterously riding waves of public interest and by reflecting their will, as … Continue reading From Undressed to Impress
BY NICK JOHNS When your child tells you that they’re not off to university but are going to acting school instead, one’s heart drops. You know the chances of them becoming a well-paid Hollywood or television actor are close to zero. Nonetheless, you smile. You love them, after all. Acting or singing as careers are most often voyages to nowhere; full of hope and angst; famine … Continue reading Sing, Act, Shut Up
BY ALEXIA JAMES Few people tend to remember Tonight. It was a predecessor of today’s BBC Newsnight, which has been on air since 1980. It’s funny how shows which run out of public love and then end up on the TV scrapheap are so easily forgotten. Newsnight was also once the BBC flagship news and current affairs programme. It housed cherished presenters like Peter Snow, distinguished journalists … Continue reading Newsnight’s Inexorable Decline
