Weird sounding audience. Typical perhaps of the ITV audience.

Note the lead in footage cut for those with nano-second attention spans.

I think what's funny is that Ant and Dec suggested she had nerves of steel and then we witness an onstage breakdown and then what looked like disappointment mixed with the start of a mini-tantrum.

Nothing against her but these shows indulge these kids with their fucked up parents and collective delusional fantasies. As someone else said about BGT you ordinarily wouldn't pay any kind of money to see this kind of end of the pier entertainment but you call it a contest, stick it on ITV and suddenly they can get thousands of crazies texting in and buying DVDs.

Watching the final right now for the first time and it's dreadful. They've managed to make another kid cry. Doesn't help that I detest Piers Moron.

>> ^ant:
Was this shown on TV too?


Absolutely. This looks like it's from his time on ITV.

I also have to admit, it is not all Wal-Mart any more. Most retail outlets are starting to think the same way. The real problem is that Wal-Mart is ‘Blazing the way’.

If you want to compete in today's retail market, you need to study and follow Wal-Marts business plan. Now all the employers are sucking the employee dry.

Next, The manufacturers are battling to get the next Wal-mart contract, and this is already happening, yes, enter the sweat shops. The clothing stores who manufacture for Wal-Mart are now gouging the employees as well. There are clothing outlets that house the employees in a compound so they never leave.

I don’t want to go into all the sweat shop stuff but It's an endless cut throat business that cares nothing for the employee and the basic rights of other human beans...

Despite a well-publicized "Made in the U.S.A." campaign, 85 percent of the stores' items are made overseas, often in Third World sweatshops. Read more about sweatshops, Wal-Mart and other U.S. retailers.

Here is a report from November 28, 2003 issue:
http://larouchepub.com/other/2003/3046wal-mart_pricing.html

Open your eyes people:
Go to: http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/stores3.html
And: http://www.pbs.org/itvs/storewars/sweatshops.html

Yeah I'm in Ireland!

Man, I was a news junkie for years, I picked it up from my grandfather. I was one of those guys who sat and watched BBC News 24, all day long, changing over to the ITV news to see their take on the same stories. All I ever watched on TV was News and Star Trek.

I remember the exact moment when BBC News started to change and go the way of American news. It was in 2003, when David Kelly, the british UN weapons expert was found dead in a forest near his home. Just a couple of days previous, I had watched the entire live 2 hour cross examination of David Kelly in front of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, as he completely tore holes in the dossier that the UK government had put forward claiming that Saddam had WMD. I had been following the whole story in impeccable detail, online, on TV, bookmarking everything I could, and I had been looking forward to seeing David Kelly appear in front of the committee.

Anyone who watched it live was completely blown away by it, it couldn't have been any more dramatic. The government totally shot themselves in the foot. That night on the news, the BBC got stuck right into Tony Blair and the UK government and they continued to do so for the next couple of days, exposing all the lies about the Iraq war. It seemed finally that we were going to get the whole truth, and David Kelly was the key to the whole thing.

Then David Kelly was found dead, an alleged suicide. The same day the government went on the offensive against the BBC, people in the BBC were sacked over the next few weeks, government mouthpieces started appearing on all the TV news programmes shouting down presenters and acting very very strange indeed.

That is the exact moment when it changed. The BBC started becoming very very dumbed down very very quickly. Reports on the Israel/Palestine conflict became very watered down, that was when I really knew that the government had gagged the BBC (also happened in the 80s when Thatcher was in power during the Falklands war). The only decent reports were hour long specials broadcast at 1am or 2am, the normal daily news became a joke. Even the presenters were changed.

Within a year, the ITV News (Independent TV news in the UK), which had been reporting very consistently about the whole debacle ceased broadcasting.

Now the House of Lords - very little of what goes on in there is ever covered on the news. To see it you have to watch the live broadcasts on the Parliament channel (which I don't get any more cos I cancelled my cable a few months ago). It's where law is made, the house of commons is the showpiece for the public. All the stuff they decide in the commons has to go to the Lords where it is actually discussed at a very high level of detail and intelligence before it can be made law. The Lords also recommend what the UK prime minister should be saying to foreign presidents during state visits, a good example was when Blair was going to Russia and the Lords wanted him to confront the Russians about old KGB type activity rearing its head again - fascinating stuff, not a bit of it was ever on the normal news.

The Lords are probably the most well versed people on the history of Europe you could possibly meet. It is an education watching them debate sensibly and intelligently without all the pomp and drama you get on the TV news. They have bloodlines going way way back, they are soaked in the history of Britain and Europe. (Tony Blair near the end of his term even made moves to get rid of the Lords altogether when he wanted to get his 48 days detention without trial bill passed into law, the BBC actually started running hit pieces on the Lords, another sign that the BBC had changed)

Anyway, the point is, the Lords are a bit jumpy about stuff like this, and I'm sure it won't have gotten past them. Someone will have raised it for discussion. Obama making speeches in Israel about fighting extremism is very dangerous for Britain because I have watched discussions about the oppression of Palestine in the Lords and how delicately it has to be handled because the UK is an ally of the US which is an ally of Israel. Following that up with an event reminiscent of a British coronation more than a US presidential acceptance speech will really be ringing alarm bells.

I hope you're following my line of thinking, I'm brainstorming it all right out in full flow...

To Americans, these events will be soaked in pride, hope and patriotism, there is nothing wrong with that.

But to a British politician or to the Lords who have reign over the politicians, it paints a very different picture. It's one thing when Luther King makes speeches about civil rights in this way, it's another when Obama talks about uniting forces against extremism, and even goes as far as talking about Iranian nukes. That's the language of fear, that's the kicker, that's the alarm bell - and I mean that in the most literal sense, this language of fear is one of the things Winston Churchill warned about in the tomes of books he wrote after WW2, about how the world must avoid the same thing happening again, and how he regretted that Britian didn't move sooner against Germany.

These are very specific things contained in Obama's speeches, and I really don't know what to make of it. I think you should be thankful that at least somebody in American media saw this from a perspective of history. WW2 is very fresh in the minds of people in England, the country is soaked in the history of that war in every town and city and bit of countryside and Obama's words are very potent and a bit scary to be frank in that context.

That's why I say it's all about persepective, and what makes it frightening is that Obama's speechwriters couldn't have made it any more potent in the context of WW2.

Phew.

In reply to this comment by NetRunner:
Are you, as your name implies, from Ireland?

I'm definitely curious on your take as to why the House of Lords would have an objection to what Obama said in Israel, or the fact that he plans on giving a speech to 75,000 campaign volunteers at his nomination (different from inauguration, BTW).

I did a couple searches of BBC News's site, and it seemed to generally be reporting positive reactions in the UK and elsewhere to Obama's trip. Is the UK media as distorted as the US's these days?

Here, there's already a meme forming about how this trip is going to hurt Obama domestically.

In reply to this comment by Irishman:
http://politics.videosift.com/video/Obamas-Speech-Something-the-Fuehrer-would-have-done

In regards to this, I think it's important that this stuff be posted, sifted, and discussed. I'm not into posting stuff that I personally believe or subscribe to. I'm quite the opposite, I post stuff because I want to know what people think so I can get a big brainstorm of commentary. I don't know what to make of it, but I have an excellent knowledge of WW2 and whether intentional or not this is resonates with that history and is very dangerous ground for Obama and America to be on.

To be absolutely honest with you, I wouldn't be surprised if this and the Israel visit are items for discussion in the House of Lords in the UK.

ITV: nerds dance awkwardly to show their support even though they hate dancing.

ugh sorry... downvote for pretty much all talent contests on ITV.

continued...

Here is a report on the Venezuelan Supreme Court's decision regarding RCTV:

http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2307


From the Guardian:

http://members5.boardhost.com/medialens/msg/1180195714.html

Television's role in the coup against Chávez

Saturday May 26, 2007
The Guardian


Dear Sir,

We believe that the decision of the Venezuelan government not to renew the broadcasting licence of RCTV when it expires on May 27 (Chávez silences critical TV station, May 23; Comment and Letters, May 25) is legitimate given that RCTV has used its access to the public airwaves to repeatedly call for the overthrow of the democratically elected government of President Hugo Chávez. RCTV gave vital practical support to the overthrow of Venezuela's elected government in April 2002 in which at least 13 people were killed. In the 47 hours that the coup plotters held power, they overturned much of Venezuela's democratic constitution - closing down the elected national assembly, the supreme court and other state institutions.

RCTV exhorted the public to take to the streets and overthrow the government and also colluded with the coup by deliberately misrepresenting what was taking place, and then conducting a news blackout. Its production manager, Andrés Izarra, who opposed the coup, immediately resigned so as not to become an accomplice.

This is not a case of censorship. In Venezuela more than 90% of the media is privately owned and virulently opposed to the Chávez government. RCTV, far from being silenced, is being allowed to continue broadcasting by satellite and cable. In Venezuela, as in Britain, TV stations must adhere to laws and regulations governing what they can broadcast. Imagine the consequences if the BBC or ITV were found to be part of a coup against the government. Venezuela deserves the same consideration.

Yours,

Tariq Ali

Tony Benn

Colin Burgon MP,

Dr. Julia Buxton, academic,

Ruqayyah Collector, Black Students’ Officer, National Union of Students,

Jeremy Corbyn MP,

Jon Cruddas MP,

Megan Dobney, Regional Secretary, SERTUC

Billy Hayes, General Secretary, CWU,

Gordon Hutchison, Secretary, Venezuela Information Centre,

Kelvin Hopkins MP,

Chris Martin, Director, The War on Democracy

Joni McDougall, International Solidarity Officer, GMB,

Gerry Morrissey, General Secretary, BECTU,

Kaveh Moussavi, University of Oxford

John Pilger,

Harold Pinter,

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, LSE,

Keith Sonnet, Deputy General Secretary, UNISON,

Hugh O'Shaughnessy, writer and journalist,

Rod Stoneman, Executive Producer, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,

Jon Trickett MP,

Gemma Tumelty, President, National Union of Students,

Cllr Salma Yaqoob.

I saw this thing on ITV the other week,
Said, that if she played with her hair, she's probably keen
She's playin with her hair, well regularly,
So i reckon i could well be in.

- The Streets-chorus, "Could Well Be In"

I've seen it on ITV a couple of times.
apparently children wet themselves whilst watching this progam so they dont show it anymore

LSD?

Wonderful, wonderful Green Wing, under appreciated by morons. I remember it got like 4% of the vote for people's choice at the British Comedy Awards on ITV. That should tell you something.

Wallace wrote (trimmed for brevity):

There is a difference between "stem cell research" and "embryonic stem cell research." [...] Literally nothing has been accomplished with stem cells from aborted feti. [...]

In the news yesterday (31 Oct 2006) UK and US scientists announced they've grown liver from baby stem cells. If that's not pretty freaking amazing, I don't know what is. Mind you, they didn't use embryonic stem cells, but then they didn't use adult cells either.

The fact is, there's a wellspring of research that's being performed in countries around the world... but not America. America is falling behind. I'm sure our biopharm industry is delighted to hear that all of the new patents won't be theirs.

Seems like America exports brains and boobs to the world. That is, we can't produce commodities cheaper, so we develop smarter tech; bio, nano and/or we send culture (e.g. movie, tv, books, and porn) abroad. If America is forced to compete solely with boobs instead of brains, we're at a huge disadvantage.

Fact is, the majority of Americans stand in favor of it. What a shame. This administration with its anti-intellectuallism is crippling every bit of our economy... Well, everybody but Haliburton.

Yeah - the BBC One idents are a little weak (especially in comparison to Channel 4's - at least Two & Three's have a comedic value). Although, they don't have much other competition; ITVs are the usual cheesey kack and Five: well, I just won't even go there...

Good luck with the Monkey Dust hunt: there's a few out there, but not the best. See you on the race-course!

I know Ben lad it's called Capoeira. The idents are pretty lame would you not say. Better than itv's though. Is there now a race on for the monkey dust clips?