Eck pure greetin wi laffter at SSY's election liveblog

Batten down the hatches, the Tories and the BBC are officially aware of SSY’s website!

That’s right, it’s not just the police who read our blog! In a BBC documentary following Scotland’s dear leader Alex Salmond, Michael Portillo – the former Thatcherite Tory MP who famously lost his seat in the 1997 NewLabourThingsCanOnlyGetShiter landslide and went on to become a tv politics pundit with a boak inducing penchant for flirting with Dianne Abbott - can clearly be seen not only viewing the SSY blog but even VISIBLY CHUCKLING! You can view the documentary here (we’re at 40 mins 39 seconds, but it’ll only be available for a week!)

Of course it’s not the first time SSY have left their mark on the Tories…
SSY infiltrate Tory Headquarters
SSY ambush Scottish Tory Headquarters
SSY vanquish evil Tories from Scotland
SSY egg David Cameron’s car
SSY pour pint over Boris Johnson

We’re sure Michael enjoyed his wee tour of the website, presumably stopping to read Leftfield, marvel at our street fighting skillz, and purchase a copy of our pamphlet Afghanistan: Three Centuries of Imperialism. Hi Michael!

In case you were wondering, the article he was reading was about the SNP’s backwards, unscientific & unhelpful view on the formerly-legal high Mephedrone and their call for it to be banned. Fancy doing a documentary on that Michael?

SSY BLOG ON TV - FUCK YEAH!

VISIBLE CHUCKLING

OH MA GOD MUM MA NAME'S OAN TV!

They’ve went n put up mento right-wing UKIP n poshboy Pirate Finlay Archibald, but no the SSP, even tho we’ve stood there hunners ae times. Well, we’ve stood there every election since we were formed, kno?

Am no huvin it. Ah’ve awready bin oan the auld dog n bone tryin tae git thum tae sort it oot. N ah’ve emailed them n aw. Gonnae dae us a favour troops? Please take wan minute tae fill in this feedback form http://news.bbc.co.uk/newswatch/ukfs/hi/newsid_3950000/newsid_3955200/3955259.stm

A few days ago, they published an article unearthing “alarming smears against Tories by state-owned BBC” including appalling behaviour by Basil Brush.

What mischief has that lovable fox been up to now?

THE Basil Brush Show featured a school election with a cheat called Dave wearing a blue rosette.

The BBC’s Head of Corporate Affairs Tina Stowell worked for William Hague; former senior political correspondent Guito Hari has become Boris Johnson’s Director of Communications; Political Editor Nick Robinson was national chairman of the Young Conservatives; and the BBC’s Westminster editor Steve Mawhinney is son of a former Conservative cabinet minister.

Anyone who’s been paying attention knows that whoever gets into government after the general election is going to try and slash public services of all kind. Both Labour and the Tories are obsessed with getting back the money the government has spent on bailing out banks, and they intend to get it back from you and me.

In the case of the BBC, it’s no secret that the Tories have done a major deal with Rupert Murdoch’s News International. The Murdoch family control Sky TV, The Sun and a host of the UK’s most powerful media outlets. In return for their support, the Tories have effectively let the Murdochs write their media policy. Part of this agenda is cutting the funding of the BBC, so that it can compete less effectively with their products.

But what’s shocking about the cuts announced by BBC Director General Mark Thompson is that they are trying to pre-empt these cuts by making their own. It’s an approach that will fail in any kind of public service that tries it. The only way to stop cuts is to fight them from day one, not try and make them more acceptable.

The National Union of Journalists understands this, and has pledged resistance. Their General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: “Mark Thompson has put BBC management on a collision course – not just with us and the hundreds of BBC staff who face losing  their jobs, but with licence fee payers up and down the country.

“BBC management’s strategy of desperate, hopeful self-sacrifice is fundamentally flawed. Far from convincing an incoming government or commercial rivals that the BBC should now be left well alone, their self-harming approach will only encourage commercial media operations to demand more cuts. Public outrage at the proposed cuts has been overwhelming. A ‘Save BBC6 Music’ Facebook group has gained almost 90,000 members in just a few days and group members have appealed to us and other BBC unions to organise a joint demonstration. We’ve seen an increase in requests for membership from BBC staff right across the UK.”

Vaizey: Posh Wank trying to look cool

The closure of 6 Music has attracted the biggest outcry, including a lot of support from music celebrities like David Bowie, Jarvis Cocker and Lily Allen. One of our favourites was Adam Buxton, of the Adam and Joe Show, inviting Mark Thompson out for a fight. Some have even suggested that it may well be a deliberate headline grabber, with the BBC manufacturing a controversy so that it can demonstrate how much public support there is for BBC output. This theory was given a boost when Tory culture spokesman Ed Vaizey (who, as a the son of a life peer, in fact bears the title ‘The Honourable Edward Vaizey’), tried depserately to prove how in-touch, cool and not posh he was by changing his mind to support 6 Music. He initially came out in support of the proposals. But once he saw this might make him fall foul of the Facebook/Twitter cool vanguard he quickly changed his mind and declared himself a fan of the station.

Whether in fact it is true that the closure of 6 Music is some kind of conspiracy double-bluff by the BBC remains to be seen-it’s certainly the service with the most public (and celebrity) support, and may well get saved. But as several presenters have pointed out, Asian Network listeners are less likely to be able to mobilise famous people in support, and are also less likely to be Facebook or Twitter users able to generate a huge campaign online. The majority of listeners get the Asian Network via AM rather than digital radio.

The BBC argues that the Asian community in the UK is made up of many different groups, from different places, with different languages and religions. This is absolutely right, Asians in the UK are not a homogeneous group. Where they get it wrong is then going on to say that the idea of a national network that can serve this whole community was never going to work. As one presenter argues, the network brings the communities together, as well as allowing discussion of controversial issues without the racism and ignorance in much of the rest of the mainstream media. Although there are other Asian-based radio stations throughout the country, there is no comparable UK-wide media outlet for the Asian community (and indeed the many white listeners, like me, that enjoy its programmes too!)

The other part of the cuts package is slashing the BBC website, especially the brands aimed at teenagers BBC Switch and Blast! The reasoning behind this is that the teenage audience is already being served by Channel 4. But the whole point of the BBC is that everyone pays for it, and everyone gets something out of it. Once we start accepting that teenagers are better served elsewhere, well let’s not forget that there’s Sky News or ITN to cover the news too. Where does it end? With the BBC providing only niche programming which others don’t do because it isn’t profitable. Teenagers have as much right to expect some service in return for the licence fee which either they or their parents pay as anyone else does.

If it is the case that the BBC needs to save money, then Leftfield has come up with a few ways this could be done with no impact on the quality of programmes. Currently, the BBC pisses gigantic sums of money into the bank accounts of a few people who really don’t need it. This is money paid in by the public via the licence fee. Let’s start with the top:

-BBC Director General Mark Thompson is on a salary of £834, 000. This is several-hundreds-of-grands more than Gordon Brown gets paid, and enough to pay for more than 7 months of 6 Music’s total costs.

Moyles' world record attempt for most amount of chins on air

-Then there’s Chris ‘Great Face for Radio’ Moyles, the boring and sexist Radio 1 presenter, who is on £630, 000 a year. In return we get a man who mocks gay people and says Polish people make “good prostitutes.”

-Or Jeremy Clarkson, who earns an unbelievable £2 million a year, and on top of that gets another £200, 000 through merchandise, and then receives another £117, ooo in “payment as services” i.e. freebies.

-Or Anne Robinson, who is getting £3 million a year from the BBC, after having said “what are Welsh people for?”. She also made old Blue Peter presenter John Noakes cry by asking about Blue Peter dog Shep “Did he die or just run away?” (hope you felt big and clever after that one!) Just how much is a wink worth?

The BBC would of course argue that these salaries are justified, because there is no other way it can compete to get “top talent” to stick with themand not go to other networks. Clearly there’s a very wide definition of talent being used. We suggest that the BBC immediately slash the salaries of all the above to make sure they’re not earning more than £70 an hour. If they say they can’t survive onthat, or they don’t want to, then fuck them. The UK is full of talented people who only want a decent living

Jeremy having fun: you're paying

wage and could produce amazing and innovative programming that benefits everyone. Some of them work for 6 Music and Asian Network!

Save the BBC petition.

Love 6 Music website.

Save 6 Music Facebook.

Save Asian Network Facebook.

Tell the BBC your views.