Google News versus Apple News

My ten-year-old laptop died some eight weeks ago. I replaced my Macbook with an Apple tablet. (I hopefully will review the product at a later date - but I am exasperated at how bad so many apps are! Thankfully one can still use sites via a browser.)

Over nigh on a decade, due to the politicisation and propaganda out-put of the once-highly-trusted BBC, I have had to find alternative sources of news (I am non-partisan: examples can be found elsewhere on this blog of some of Auntie Beeb’s failings). For myself these other sources have included facebook, twitter, UK newspaper sites, foreign newspaper sites (the only way to find out about some news items on occasion due to blanket silence in the UK), blogs, and specific websites (such as Reuters and medical ones). However, I was never privy to Google News nor Apple News until the purchase of the tablet: the latter was already downloaded and so I sourced the former.

After two months of usage I cannot say I am impressed with either app. Neither gives access to foreign-language media, and often no access to their English-language versions. If it is not in English, you have had it. This surprises me, for as I understand around half of US Americans speak Spanish. I can read the news in Spanish, German and French without too much difficulty, and to some extent Dutch and Italian news where I have sufficient context. I already keep track of some European media, such as Wiener Zeitung from Vienna, Austria and El País from Spain. Even trying to opt in to publications & websites proved impossible (an explanation follows later). It had been my hope and expectation that I might be able to use either or both Google News and Apple News as a central hub for the news stories in which I am particularly interested. This has transpired to be impossible.

Both news sites give one the option to select topics of interest, but neither gives you the ready ability to opt out of subjects at the inset. Apple News is the better here, for at least one can opt out of subject matters if &/or when such appears in one’s personalised news-feed. For example I was able to opt out of American Football fairly early on. Google News however, fails to let one opt out of football/soccer news and, despite clicking every time such has appeared in my feed on the “show fewer news items like this”, it is still putting soccer in my top five news items each & every day. I have read criticisms elsewhere about this issue, so Google are more than aware of it, but for some reason do not wish to alter their algorithms or prefer to annoy users out of intransigence or pertinacity. Perhaps interestingly, it appears I have had more success in opting out of so-called celebrity news or, alternatively, there has been a dearth of such stories.

When one obtains a weekend newspaper, the first thing one does is separate the different sections. At this point the sports news goes straight into my recycling bin. In a similar fashion, one ought to be able to opt in and out of various news sections prior to reading either news service. This is a personalisation service that then avoids time-wastage and irritation. I personally, as just one example, would want to opt out of royalty news but opt in to constitutional affairs and UK politics, so mention of the royal family would only appear in my news-feed if it was in connection with one of these other related areas. The UK newspapers The Independent and The i already act likewise in their actual reporting.

Both services permit one to choose the media from which one would like to receive news, but in both cases the media sources are extremely limited. As stated above, foreign-language and indeed the European English-language versions of such sources are excluded. Both sites exclude left-wing (European political terminology not US definition here and henceforth) media, although Apple News does share stories from the left-of-centre The Spectator. Indeed, the vast majority of sources appear to be centre-right. This automatically restricts the perspectives one receives in the news-feed. Whilst much but by no means all of my personal politics is left-of-centre, I still wish to know what others are thinking and suggesting. This assists in challenging one’s own beliefs and thoughts and either strengthens them or causes one to alter one’s opinions. This I believe is the nub of liberalism. (For US readers, in Europe this means open-mindedness and a willingness to listen and learn, and the term should not be confused with Liberalism - with a capital - as this latter is a political/philosophical/economic stand-point.)

It should also be pointed out that neither site gives access to news from medical websites. Google News does not permit one to opt for feeds on specific conditions, Apple News on the contrary does do so. However, in all the instances I have seen, and I covered a variety of conditions, news is at best high-level and at worst uninformative and in some cases merely an excuse to advertise a specific product or service without overtly stating that it is some kind of product-placement. My advice is to stick with the sources one already follows for up-to-date information on research, treatments and possible medications for illnesses & specific impairments.

Similarly to the lack of medical website access, there is no entry to blogs, no matter how big or influential.

Whilst Apple News does permit one to opt for news about certain subjects, it is only from a pre-determined list. I was surprised that even then, there were zero items listed under some of these topics. It certainly is not due to there being no news on such matters, simply a failing by Apple to seek out &/or provide such news. I find this deeply disappointing and slightly troubling. It certainly has reduced my trust in brand Apple.

Both news sites only give abbreviated headlines, and in the vast majority of instances this renders them meaningless and thus useless in aiding one identify whether a story will or will not be of interest to the reader. One either has to take a chance that an article will actually be of interest or just decide to move on. This situation is absurd from apps which are supposed to be guiding one to the news one wants!

In the UK approximately 1:5 individuals have some kind of impairment or disability. In the USA this figure stands at 1:4. Thus we are discussing vast numbers of people. As an advocate - and previously an activist - for disability rights issues, I am fairly aware of the situations disabled folk find themselves in both in the UK and the USA, as well as many other places around the Globe. Additionally, I keep abreast of current happenings and issues. I can honestly state that both news sources totally fail to convey the reality of disability in our respective countries. For example under the topic “Disability and Poverty” there is only one item from nearly a year ago.

Just a few screenshots of the many I have taken to back up my assertions.

So, perhaps you may be interested in my final evaluation: my advice is to ignore both of them and continue to obtain news from wherever one already does so; neither Apple News nor Google News is likely to add to the sum of one’s knowledge nor expand one’s horizons. Given that both are huge international businesses, these pathetic offerings shame them, in my opinion of course. However, you do not have to take my word: please do try them. I should love to hear your experiences and view-points. For example, the reader is at liberty to use the comments section below or email me privately if you should so prefer.

Happy news-gathering!

International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2016

This year, as part of the events for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2016, the United Nations (UN) wants to look, amongst other areas, at the success or otherwise of the Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD, which I shall abbreviate to UNCRPD).

If you have been following my blog, you are probably aware that the UN decided to investigate the United Kingdom for "grave and systematic violations" of UNCRPD, which they upheld.

According to the BBC:

UK welfare reforms have led to "grave and systematic violations" of disabled people's rights, a UN inquiry has said. [Link is to 22-page report from the UN's Committee in pdf format]

Changes to benefits "disproportionately affected" disabled people, the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled Persons (CRPD) found. [7th November 2016]

The UK is the only country to have been investigated thus far, as the threshold for investigation is set very high and huge amounts of data and reports have to be amassed prior to any investigation even being considered. UK charities, think-tanks and disabled persons' organisations (DPOs), inter alia, submitted the required information, and continue to submit same for matters continue to pejorate for those of us with disabilities here in the UK. The UN's CRPD committee made several recommendations to the UK government. Lamentably, the Conservative, often referred to as Tory, government refused point-blank to accept a single one of them. The committee apparently will be reviewing the UK government's response in March 2017 at a meeting in Geneva.

*

 [Image description: © AltrinchamHQ's own image of the cobbles]

Another area the UN wants to look at this year is the accessibility or otherwise of the built environment, specifically in towns and cities. In the past couple of years my lovely hometown of Altrincham has undergone many changes to the built environment. Prior to commencing the works, residents and users of the town's facilities were asked to comment on planned changes. As a disabled person I put my concerns to the researchers and to the councillor-in-charge and enquired as to what account had been taken of disabled and/or elderly folks' needs, etc. The councillor failed to see any need to look into how all this might effect disabled folk (thus completely ignoring the requirements of UK disability legislation). I can no longer frequent one of my favourite eateries, The House Restaurant & Wine Bar as the ability to park close by has been removed (a loss of amenity). Despite making two freedom of information (FOI) requests, I never heard a dicky-bird. Alas I have long bouts of illness, which means I could not and cannot currently pursue this failure.

One of Altrincham's major stores is Marks & Spencer (M&S). The Council decided to remove the paving in front of the shop and along much of the main pedestrianised street and replace with a cobbled surface. Whilst not the traditional smooth-stoned cobbles, which can be lethal to traverse, they are small, rough-textured oblongs (see image above). I had to wait until this past Summer to try to walk on them, as much of the year I have to use my wheelchair. I find it very difficult to raise my legs when I "walk", rather I shuffle like many an elderly person. Alas, it is impossible to shuffle across the new cobbles. I can now no longer enter M&S under my own steam and independently. I actually moved from my former home in Sale to Altrincham to get away from a cobbled street upon which I kept falling. I wonder how many other disabled or elderly folk have reduced or stopped visiting the town?

 [Image description: screen-shot from AltrinchamHQ's faceboo page]

The organisation in charge of Altrincham's town-centre PR, AltrinchamHQ, could not even be bothered to respond to my comments (see above), despite replying to many others. This is the same town-centre with a multi-storey car-park with allocated disabled bays (fantastic) close by to the lifts (elevators) that transport one to the shopping level. Fabulous one might think? Except, between the parking-bays and the lifts are manually operated doors - not electric with a push-button to open them. So, one has to await an able-bodied person to come along to let one in. In short, tokenism towards those with impairments.

A further example of poor planning are pedestrian islands in the centre of roads built to such a stupid design that a person in a wheelchair or mobility-scooter cannot safely pass someone with a pram and similar.

In a nearby town, Knutsford, a recently constructed café was built without a lift to enable disabled or infirm or elderly folk to access the actual facilities, despite the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) having been passed in 1995! (This was replaced in 2010 by the Equality Act.)

No-one seems to ever bother to check real-world usage.

The UK planning system does not in fact expect local authorities to consider the needs and requirements of disabled folk. Rather, it is expected that disabled folk will take legal action once any building has been constructed. This to any sensible-minded person is farcical. However, the authorities rely on folk not taking legal action/s. Such has become much more difficult due to Legal Aid changes introduced by the former Conservative-led and current Conservative governments.

*

From my perspective, as a disabled person born and residing in England, the United Kingdom as a whole, is not currently a great place to be a person with disability. Great strides were taken in opening access to society prior to 2010, but since then the deterioration has been shockingly rapid.

The Centre for Welfare Reform attempted to do a cumulative impact assessment (cia) using all available data. They discovered:

For political reasons, the costs of this debt is primarily being paid by people in poverty, by disabled people and by other vulnerable groups. As we have explained:

People in poverty are targeted 5 times more than most other citizens

Disabled people are targeted 9 times more

 

People with the severest needs are targeted 19 times more

In other words the attacks by government on disabled folk are deliberate. And they continue…

My Genealogy Hobby: Researching My Family-Tree

Some nine years ago, for some long forgotten reason (possibly due to FriendsReunited - the facebook of its day - suggesting I try it out), I signed up to GenesReunited and began to research my family-tree. Being disabled and housebound for the vast majority of the time, I needed a pastime to keep me occupied on those days when I am compos mentis. Over the years as I have become gradually more bed-bound, this hobby has helped me keep my sanity. Indeed, whenever I feel anxious, I find that I can retreat into the safe world of research.

Some days I feel like a sleuth trying to follow clues and thinking laterally in order to find data. However, the vast majority of the action of retrieving information is repetitive, laborious and requires very little active thinking.

One of my favourite sites is FreeBMD: where one can find the official record of births in England & Wales from 1837 to around the mid-1970’s. Not all records have yet been added. Their ultimate aim is to list all the records up to the mid-1980’s. They have two sister sites which I also occasionally use: FreeCEN, covering the 1841, 1851, 1861, 1871, 1881, 1891 & 1901 censuses; and, FreeReg, which records parish records from around the whole of the UK including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. The records contained on the last two sites are very incomplete, so I tend to use them as a last resort.

My favourite parish record site is lan-opc.org which lists many, but again not yet all, of the parish records of births, deaths & marriages in the county of Lancashire. Most of my personal ancestors are from said county, so this has proven to be an invaluable source.

Alas there are not equivalent sites for Staffordshire and Warwickshire, the two counties with the highest concentration of the surname Peakman. In these instances I use FamilySearch (FS) which superseded the International Genealogical Index (IGI) - often referred to in the older episodes of the BBC television series Who Do You Think You Are? This site is owned and run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), the Mormons. They are however very willing to share their data.

Since I started working on my family-tree on my own computer rather than on the GenesReunited site, I have solely used MacFamilyTree (MFT) produced by Synium as my software of choice. The current version gives the option to share data with and from FS. One of my very first contacts, in New Zealand, led me to the IGI (FS as it is now) and I am ever so grateful.

[image description: RP, a fifth cousin once removed and a Maori,

performing a haka, featured in & © Life magazine]

That same contact opened up a whole off-shoot of distant (literally & genealogically) cousins in New Zealand, a whole ‘tribe’ of Maori. For me this was and still is one of the highlights of my research. I am not related to any royalty, no nobility, no gentry. My ancestors include a fair few smiths, other metal-workers and metal-dealers, petit bourgeois, as well as miners and quarrymen. My modern relatives include some leading scientists & researchers. Criminality is represented by a living Canadian (drugs) and a living chap from the USA (speeding), and in the past by a bigamist, a couple of fraudsters and a few bankrupts (from the days when they were imprisoned). Most folk have been and are ordinary working people.

[Image descriptions: some stats from a screen-shot of my MFT]

I have now breached the 7,000 individuals mark on my tree, as well as passing 2,000 families and there are just shy of 1,000 media. I never expected a family-tree of such size as I am from what I thought was a very small family!

MFT allows its users to post trees to a dedicated site. Thus far I have posted two trees. The original I amended four times. The second I posted a couple of years back. The third (version 7) tree is currently uploading as I type……

Alas, having attempted twice, the new tree will not upload. Should I ever succeed, I shall of course post a link below. In the meantime here is the link to tree 2 (version 6).

Cost-wise my hobby has cost me two sets of software and a handful of certified certificates from registrars of births, deaths & marriages. In other words no more than £150. One can of course spend a lot more if one has the resources. So far, I have not felt the need to lay out monies to join sites, purchase dedicated books & magazines, etc.

Would I recommend genealogy as a hobby? Certainly I should. I also recommend as therapeutic too. %)

******

UPDATE

Version 7 (incorrectly labelled version 6!) is now live at https://www.macfamilytree.com/criquaer/Peakman%20or%20Pakeman%20to%20C%20R%20Hunter/languages/en/index.html

A Disillusioned Activist: Falling Down the Rabbit-Hole

Anxiety

Since the increase in anti-disabled polemic in the UK, some five years or so ago, I have had to go back on to anti-anxiety medication.

This past week I sold my mobility-scooter, as for the past few years I have been unwilling to use it. This was due to ongoing verbal abuse every time I have used it on my own since the ConDem co-alition came to power. Obviously such attacks shake one's confidence and adversely affect one's independence. The official statistics suggest that there has not actually been an increase in disability discrimination year on year since 2010 - although very slowly the number of crimes reported to the police services has been increasing. So it must just be me & my friends who are experiencing the increase!

On top of these personal and main-stream media (MSM) attacks, my anxiety has been exacerbated by the topsy-turvy nature of politics both here in the UK, in Europe, in the USA, and in Oceania. Logic, rationality, reasonableness, evidence and proof have all been thrown out, to be replaced by extremist ideologies, dogma, propaganda, spin, outright lies and MSM manipulation (including by the once fairly unbiased BBC - see my blog-posts January 2013, February 2013, August 2013, October 2013, June 2014, August 2015), let alone the usual political rhetoric and polemic. How can one respect authority, when the powers-that-be cannot respect the electorate: one simply cannot.

Activism

For the past few years I have turned to activism - attending my first ever political demo only a few years ago. Since then, whilst I have attended a handful of protests or demonstrations, due to my chronic ill-health and ongoing disabilities I have mainly acted in the rôle of bedtivist (I am bed-bound for the majority of the year).

I have learned to use my blog, twitter, G+ and of course facebook, and latterly linkedIn, to attempt to apprise, share and promulgate alternative perspectives, evidence, reports and harrowing tales of discrimination and in some cases death at the hands of the state apparatus, mostly via the dreaded and notorious Department for Work & Pensions (or DWP).

In some senses, I am one of the fortunate disabled in the UK: I can afford to engage legal assistance. Most folk who need such, no longer have access to Legal Aid to claim what is rightly theirs. I know myself that I was too ill to pursue appeals with the DWP, so had to let benefits to which I was entitled go by the by in the 1990s. Even now though, I live in dread, as most other chronically sick &/or disabled folk, of the brown envelopes from the DWP or even worse the white ones from ATOS/CAPITA/MAXIMUS - the private companies paid to assess one's fitness-to-work.

Illness & Disability

I have a neurological illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 G93.3).

I have a nervous system illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 G72.3).

I have musculoskeletal illnesses (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 M15, M16, M17, M18 & M19).

I have a connective tissue illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 M79.7).

I have a circulatory system illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 I73.0).

I have a digestive system illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 K58).

I have a respiratory symptom illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 R07.1).

I have a mental disorder illness (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 F06.7).

I have mental & behavioural disorder illnesses (categorised by W.H.O. at ICD-10 F40, F41 & F42).

The chances of me ameliorating permanently are slight at this juncture - obviously precluding any medical advances or divine intervention. My health is so complex and its management so complicated, I have two lead heath-care professionals (HCPs) rather than the usual one. I keep a spreadsheet of all the illnesses, major symptoms and co-morbidities totalling eighty-five in all. The document includes: supporting evidence; frequency; treatment (if any); and, notes. It is thus, no doubt, quite clear the reason for keeping a record for ease of reference.

State Harassment & Warning from History

Despite all this, and the fact I am unlikely to ever be able to hold down a job ever again, the DWP still believes that I need to be constantly re-assessed. Each time this costs the UK tax-payer (I am one myself) hundreds of pounds, even though the outcome is known - not fit to work. This of course is financial madness, as well as being medical lunacy. But the extremist politicos continue their harangue against we spongers and idlers (recalling the NAZI polemic against Germany's disabled in the run-up to WWII).

Some four years ago I posted the following on my facebook page:

[Image description:  barbed wire graphic; the text reads -

First they came for the disabled,

and I didn’t speak out -

because I wasn’t disabled.

Then they made millions unemployed,

and I didn’t speak out -

because I had a job.

Then they came for the NHS,

and I didn’t speak out -

because I wasn’t ill.

Then they came for me

And there was no one left

to speak out for me.

]

WoWPetition

Many of my chums eventually signed the WoWPetition, which called for Parliament to debate the war on welfare (previously named social security and paid for via a specific tax called National Insurance contributions or NIC) and specifically calling for a cumulative impact assessment (cia) of all the government's changes and cuts to recipients. The petition gained way more than the necessary 100,000 confirmed signatures. The debate happened in February 2014. The ConDem government refused however to carry out the cia despite the debate having been won. Now under a Tory (Conservative) government WoWCampaign have started another petition to get the cia debated in this new session.

Political Disengagement

Poll after poll of the public finds majorities against the vast majority of cuts being implemented by the politicians. Up to and including the 2010 elections I had always read the parties manifestos prior to voting to ensure I was aware of their policies and aspirations. The ConDem government blithely ignored their 2010 documents and forged ahead with a co-alition document, which itself was never fulfilled. Prior to the election this year, the Tories promised this and that and already, after a mere six months, they have breached at least twenty of those promises. This makes the political manifesto moot and not worth the paper it is printed upon. If the political parties cannot be trusted to do what they say they will do, then how is the electorate supposed to decide for whom to vote?

Week in, week out, at Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs), in debates and in committees, we see politicians lying unashamedly in Parliament. They also lie to the MSM, some ministers of government even stoop so low as to feed mistruths and spun statistics to media outlets that will blindly regurgitate them. And there is no redress. There is absolutely nothing the voters can do about it. Parliament either cannot or refuses to hold the miscreants to account.

Now we have the Prime Minister threatening to shut down the second chamber if they do not do what he wants. The result would be no secondary oversight of potential legislation.

The Home Secretary, responsible for internal security, has now defined extremism so broadly that anyone who speaks out against the government, or even a department, can be labelled as an extremist, watched by the security services and subject to detention without trial.

The latest ministerial code advises ministers of the government that they may ignore issues of justice and international law - quite probably illegal, but the UK courts appear to be impotent.

This is NOT democracy: at best it is an oligarchy; at worst, we now have a totalitarian state.

Apathy

A couple of weeks ago, the Conservative Party conference was held in Manchester - a city in which they have not a single MP nor a single local councillor. A huge demonstration was organised with between 60,000 and 85,000 folk in attendance (depending whose estimate one accepts) in the city centre. This was the largest ever demonstration here. I invited 120 facebook friends, most of whom have complained of some aspect of the austerity agenda or other government polices. Only three attended.

This week the Chinese Premier visited Manchester with the UK's Prime Minister. I was too ill to personally attend the organised demo, so I offered to tweet (@criquaer) in support. Over two hours I typed one key at a time, 123 messages. I managed ten retweets (RTs). This really was not worth the exhaustion and pain that it entailed.

The Mercury is Dropping

The image above has been updated, as more and more of the UK population is effected by the austerity dogma:

[Image description: text as follows -

I NEVER SPOKE UP

First they came for the disabled & sick

and I didn’t speak out - because I was neither.

Then they cut legal aid and I didn’t speak out because

I don’t need any legal advice.

Then they came for the NHS and I didn’t speak out -

because I wasn’t sick

Then they came for the jobless [with sanctions, etc]

And I didn’t speak out because I had a job.

Then they came for the renters [with benefit caps &

bedroom tax] And I didn’t speak out because I don’t

rent a home.

They cut the Independent Living Fund and I didn’t

speak out because I’m not disabled

Then they took child benefit & tax credits

And I didn’t speak out because I have no children.

Then they came for the trade unions [ to stop strikes]

And I didn’t speak out because I’m not in a union.

Now they’ve come for me -

And tehre’s no one left to speak to me

{all sic}]

What Future?

My only slight hope for the UK is that Jeremy Corbyn, the new leader of the Labour Party, espouses policies that the vast majority of Brits also back - the electorate is to the left of all the neo-liberal parties. He is backed by the party's electorate but not by the party's parliamentarians. After May's local elections, we may be in a better position to feel more hopeful or equally despondent. However, I thoroughly expect him to be assassinated - I am turning into a cynic!

It looks as if my move to Scotland will remain on the cards, although a tad delayed. Although, that should not be taken to imply that I fully support all that the SNP are doing; they do at least actually still believe in and are attempting to support social justice.

Time to Say Farewell…

In the meantime, I do not feel or believe I can waste any of my very limited time & energy on activism, or at least not in its current form. Unless, I can be convinced otherwise, I shall shortly disassociate myself from all political &/or campaigning groups and turn off the notifications of activist chums, as well as refusing to read anything else on politics. There just seems no real point in continuing to hit one's head against the proverbial brick-wall...

[Image description: a red brick-wall]

BBC Fails Again to Cover Disability Issues

Inter alia the Huffington Post, The Daily Mirror, The Independent and numerous bloggers have managed to put out information in respect to the mortality rates of benefit recipients. This information has been subject to freedom of information requests and a ruling by the Information Commissioner, but the notorious Department for Work & Pensions has fought the release of the data every step of the way. Today, some information was published, concealed apparently within immigration data. Odd perhaps, one might think. However, not unusual for the Ministry of Truth that is renowned for feeding so-called propaganda to the neo-liberal press and sympathetic reporters (hardly journalists!).

The national broadcaster, the BBC, (paid for my a licence fee, a de facto tax on every TV-using household in the UK) has thus far failed to publish any item thereon. Or if it has, it has hidden it from accessible sight. I could find no mention on their main news page, so I searched elsewhere. Below are the timed screen-caps.

Nothing under "UK" news:

Nothing under "Politics" news:

 Nothing under "Science" news:

Nothing under "Health" news:

Next I though I should try specific searches. Here is how I fared.

Nothing under "mortality statistics":

Nothing under "death statistics":

Nothing under "DWP statistics":

 Nothing under "ESA statistics":

Nothing under "Employment & Support Allowance":

 Nothing under "WRAG":

 Nothing under "Work Related Activity Group":

 Nothing under "Iain Duncan Smith" (Minister in charge of the DWP):

 Nothing under "Fit for Work":

 Nothing under "WCA":

Nothing under "Work Capability Assessment":

I consider this yet another Auntie Beeb failure and snub to a large demographic section of British society (about one seventh of the population per ODI figures.). We chronically sick &/or folk with impairments, aka the disabled, deserve better. We also pay for our television licences and deserve for serious news that concerns us to be covered by one of the largest news-gathering organisations in the world.


***UPDATE***

An article appeared on BBC website an hour ago: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34074557?post_id=959487854098217_969804189733250#_=_

No More Austerity Demonstration, 21st June 2014

[Image descriptions: the crowd & the march; via One Honest Man © u/k]

According to The Guardian in an article published at 20.45:

"An estimated 50,000 people in London addressed by speakers, including Russell Brand, after People's Assembly march"

However, details of the number actually on the march are not known and are estimated at tens of thousands, because:

"The Metropolitan police [aka The Met] refused to provide an estimate."

As far as I am aware, of mainstream media (MSM) outlets, Russia Today or RT was the first to broadcast an item on the demonstration at 13.43. The news channel linked the march to recent reports on poverty in the UK:

"The Poverty and Social Exclusion project found that more than 500,000 children are living in families who can’t afford to feed them properly and 5.5 million adults have to go without essential clothing."

Under the title "Russell Brand Calls for 'joyful revolution'" ITV (via ITN) commented at 19.20 as follows:

"Comedian Russell Brand has called on thousands of protesters to be part of a "peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution" that seizes power back from Westminster.

The former Big Brother's Big Mouth presenter, who this year implored readers of the New Statesman magazine to abandon the current political system, told crowds gathered in London's Parliament Square that MPs no longer represented the people.

Speaking in the shadow of the Houses of Parliament at the end of a march marking the one-year anniversary of the People's Assembly being formed, Brand stripped off his T-shirt and replaced it with one carrying the message "Firefighters rescue people not bankers".

An estimated 50,000 people took part in the march, which started at the BBC in Portland Place where protesters accused the broadcaster of ignoring the plight of impoverished Britons."

A little later, at 20.17, The Huffington Post also reported on the protest in central London. They quoted Sam Fairbairn, the national secretary of the People's Assembly:

""Soon we will reach a size and influence where neither the BBC nor this austerity Government will be able to ignore us."

He said the group will aim to hold the biggest protest in British history later this year."

Even the normally right-wing Express newspaper reported on the events and even-handedly at that, saying:

"An estimated 50,000 people took part in the march, which started at the BBC in Portland Place where protesters accused the broadcaster of ignoring the plight of impoverished Britons."

Whilst Google did not provide me with a link, I checked Sky News and they also reported on the demo at 10.09 quoting and character-assassinating Russell Brand:

""This will be a peaceful, effortless, joyful revolution and I'm very grateful to be involved in the People's Assembly."

Around 50,000 people took part in the march and Brand was joined by speakers who also included comedian and commentator Mark Steel, MP Caroline Lucas and journalist Owen Jones."

So, the reader is perhaps wondering where are the link to and quotations from Britain's national broadcaster, paid for by every television-owner via the licence fee, the once balanced BBC. Well, Auntie Beeb apparently did not notice the marchers meeting outside its news-gathering HQ, nor the 50K folk who streamed through London. It is really odd, because I live in Manchester, and find that London and the South-East (London's Hinterland) are usually the idée fixe of the Corporation's reporting.

As on previous occasions when I have criticised the BBC, I tried to ensure that I had not missed anything from its website.

At 22.10 I searched for "austerity march". The Beeb had reported nothing, but did give a link to Russia Today:

At 22.15 I searched for "Russell Brand". Again nothing from the BBC, but links to Russia Today again plus The Guardian and The Huffington Post articles:

I tried a several searches for "London demonstration", but kept getting the following screen (I took screenshots at 22.17. and 22.19):

Finally, at 22.20 I succeeded in obtaining the following search result, which only referenced an article in the London Evening Standard from Friday:

What possible explanation could there be for the BBC failing to cover a huge demonstration about a subject clearly of national interest and, as such, importance? The ONLY possibilities now have to be political interference or political bias. Whichever: the BBC can no longer be considered an unbiased, balanced and fair news outlet.

The BBC has form: it failed to report on "Manchester’s largest protest in modern history" back in October last year when a similar number of demonstrators, including this author, protested outside the Conservative Party Conference.

Should you be unhappy with this situation you might wish to lodge a complaint; but don't raise your hopes, for as reader of this blog know, the BBC will just refuse to even take any notice. However, if like the chap in this video, you really want to have a go - he had his call cut off twice - he gives you the telephone number to ring at the end. Good luck!

For anyone interested in following events of the day, check out the hashtag #NoMoreAusterity on Twitter.

UPDATES

BBC

Some time between ten and eleven on Sunday 22nd June, the BBC finally put up a news report entitled "Thousands attend People's Assembly's first austerity protest". The full text reads:

"The first austerity protest organised by the People's Assembly campaign group has taken place in London.

Organisers say tens of thousands of people met at Portland Place and marched to Parliament Square on Saturday.

The group included politicians and union leaders and was protesting about the impact of cuts around the country."

ESTABLISHMENT

I should also point out that besides the Met refusing to provide an estimate of numbers on the actual march and the BBC failing to adequately nor appropriately report, the Guardian article referenced above also points out that the Prime Minister's spokesperson also refused to make any comment. It really does look like the Establishment closed ranks, doesn't it?

LAMPOON

[Image © Rick Campbell]