Topic: The BBC

[rob1966]

I was talking about the Iphone!

I used to do training courses in Milton Keynes in the 90s - absolute shithole.

Was in MK for a works meeting in Oct, soulless place.

[Statto Red]

Was in MK for a works meeting in Oct, soulless place.

MK must be twinned with Skelmersdale then, both soulless towns & places with a thousand roundabouts.

[Black Bull Nova]

MK must be twinned with Skelmersdale then, both soulless towns & places with a thousand roundabouts.

I did hear once that the roundabout in Skelmersdale was the biggest in Europe, although how you define a roundabout is tricky

https://www.evansdave.com/hal-mile-island/

[rob1966]

I did hear once that the roundabout in Skelmersdale was the biggest in Europe, although how you define a roundabout is tricky

https://www.evansdave.com/hal-mile-island/

Used to mess about on that on Sunday mornings, teaching a mate how to get his knee down on the bike. It was on my way to/from work when I lived in Burscough, so I'd get my knee down going home

[Dr. Beaker]

What's a knee-down - possibly an unsuccessful party?

[Jiminy Cricket]

What's a knee-down - possibly an unsuccessful party?

[PaulF]

I spent some time there in the early 90s assisting my eccentric boss with a review of a company's IT systems. He'd arrived a few days before me and had been unable to find anywhere to eat that wasn't a fast food restaurant. By the time I turned up, he'd come up with a cunning plan to find some decent food - specifically that there must be a traditional pub+grub locally, that it would exist on part of the original town/village and that the old town/village could be identified by being on a road that was not part of the grid system. When we finished work for the day, he handed me a map and told me to navigate and we spent over an hour touring bends in the road in Milton Keynes with not a pub in sight. We'd have been there longer if I hadn't threatened to eat him (I get cross when I'm hungry) and we duly ended up in Stony Stratford. 

There's a harvester, just outside Bletchley and just off a grid road that I always like.
Stony thinks it's great. But it isn't.  Though it is now home to one of my favourite chip shops .

[rob1966]

What's a knee-down - possibly an unsuccessful party?

[Dr. Beaker]

I knew that. I'm clever me.

[reddebs]

MK must be twinned with Skelmersdale then, both soulless towns & places with a thousand roundabouts.

I was going to comment that MK is the non Scouse version of Skem 😂

[Jiminy Cricket]

What's a knee-down - possibly an unsuccessful party?

Yeah, you were whooshed there, rob.

I knew that. I'm clever me.

[CHOPPER]

It’s corruption

[rob1966]

Yeah, you were whooshed there, rob.

I always assume people know nothing 😉

[Jiminy Cricket]

I always assume people know nothing 😉

And most of the time, you would be correct!

[Red Beret]

Huw Edwards leaves the BBC on health grounds.

[Yosser0_0]

What on earth are the BBC doing playing somebody £400K a year to read out the News? It's obscene.

The best way for the BBC to save money would be to close the monolithic BBC News department, completely bloated and a waste of money. I can get my News from the 5 minute bulletins on the radio without the agenda, spin and hype that the BBC seem to apply to every News article nowadays.

[thaddeus]

What on earth are the BBC doing playing somebody £400K a year to read out the News? It's obscene.

They have a weird pay system.  They end up wildly overpaying some presenters - presumably to stop them going to other broadcasters - and then fall foul of age/sex discrimination legal action because they don't overpay everybody similarly (e.g. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-68844320).

I'd be happy if the Beeb were just a proving ground for young presenters.  If they make a name for themselves and want to earn more at a commercial broadcaster then wish them well and bring in the next presenter.  I couldn't care less who is reading the autocue on the various news shows just so long as they're moderately articulate.

I like Gary Lineker as a person and he's a steady presenter but if they advertised his gigs at 10% of the salary they'd still have thousands of high quality applicants.

[Wabaloolah]

Huw Edwards leaves the BBC on health grounds.

the Scum chalks up another victim

[LuverlyRita]

I'd be happy if the Beeb were just a proving ground for young presenters.  If they make a name for themselves and want to earn more at a commercial broadcaster then wish them well and bring in the next presenter.  I couldn't care less who is reading the autocue on the various news shows just so long as they're moderately articulate.

I like Gary Lineker as a person and he's a steady presenter but if they advertised his gigs at 10% of the salary they'd still have thousands of high quality applicants.

Experience may be required in a news environment where events are moving quickly but it's hard to see how the size of some of those salaries are justified.
Arguably The BBC would be better spending some money on fact checkers, especially now that news is a 24 hour rolling thing. They've had a few gaffs recently where they've allowed themselves to be manipulated by people with an agenda.

[Red Beret]

Well if the Beeb are prepared to pay that much to hold onto presenters, then one can assume other broadcasters would want to offer close to that?

I agree it's stupid money to offer an news anchor, especially when there's still a definite pay gap between men and women in broadcasting. But if ITN or Sky is prepared to offer £250k a year, then clearly the BBC feels they have to make an offer too good to turn down.

News broadcasting relies heavily on stalwarts; people connect better to familiar faces. There's a case to be made to bring in fresh faces, and even allow them to move on if they get a suitable offer. But I expect the BBC don't want to be seen as either a stepping stone, nor a revolving door. And in the great scheme of things, there are only so many broadcasters, only so many news/current affairs programmes. The market for presenters, at least on national networks, may well be saturated at this point. Probably very hard to break into.

I'm neither yay or nay on the issue. Just speculating.