Musings of a Durotrigan

The Last Post

2015-03-31T18:38:00.000+01:00

Well readers (yes, I know that there are at least two of you, so I’m feeling justified in employing the plural), the time has come to call it a day with respect to this blog, and Durotrigan will henceforth be posting no more. For the occasional stray detractor who happens upon this news, this will doubtless be a cause for some satisfaction, whereas for

UKIP if you want to, but don’t get caught napping

2015-03-02T08:20:00.000+00:00

Channel 4 is seemingly going into overdrive in the run-up to the election, churning out a greater than usual stream of pro-mass immigration propaganda.

Review: ‘Children of the Great Migration’, Panorama, BBC1

2015-02-23T21:39:00.001+00:00

This evening, the BBC decided to launch an attempt to tug at the heartstrings and to win yet more support for unrestricted mass immigration into the EU in general, and the UK in particular. Its advance publicity for the programme read: They cross six thousand miles of desert and sea to reach Europe, children travelling alone, on the world's most dangerous migration route. Some of them are as

UKIP Clowns: 'Meet the Ukippers'

2015-02-23T07:36:00.000+00:00

Last weekend Channel 4 launched its anti-UKIP pre-election campaign with its docudrama ‘UKIP: The First 100 Days’, and yesterday evening the BBC waded in with its own effort in the form of a fly-on-the-wall documentary about local UKIP party members in Thanet South, where Nigel Farage is mounting his bid for a Westminster seat in May. As was to be expected,

Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind: Pounds Sterling, or Yuan?

2015-02-23T07:05:00.002+00:00

Oh dear. Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind have both been caught out in a sting operation staged by the Daily Telegraph and Channel 4’s Dispatches. The former Foreign Secretaries revealed that they were willing to sell their services to a fictitious Chinese company, with Straw providing the bargain-basement option, only asking for £5,000 – “So normally, if I’m

Who will govern after 7 May 2015? Readers' opinions

2015-02-21T15:22:00.000+00:00

This year’s General Election promises to be the most unpredictable in living memory. For months, as assiduously documented by UK Polling Report, opinion polls have shown a narrow gap between the two leading parties – Labour and Conservative – with the former generally maintaining a narrow lead over the latter. However, this promises to be no typical General

Richard Dawkins interviewed by Evan Davis

2015-02-18T17:48:00.000+00:00

Evan Davis is the sort of man that Islamists believe should be thrown to his death from the top of a tall building. This is not some lurid exaggeration, but a sad statement of fact, but for Davis, as for so many others at the BBC, the concept of the existence of clear, incontrovertible facts is viewed as something unsettling, rather than being something that should be acknowledged. Not so for

Dire: 'UKIP: The First 100 Days'

2015-02-17T18:09:00.000+00:00

Should national broadcasters be permitted to run 'docudramas' with the intent of interfering in the political process during the run-up to a General Election? Last night's Channel 4 offering, 'UKIP: The First 100 Days', was as predictable and dull as it was woodenly acted and blatantly partisan. How could a review conclude anything else? (Admittedly, I've not read the Guardian review, so it

Review: ‘Digging for Britain’, Episode 2, BBC4

2015-02-10T21:51:00.002+00:00

This evening’s ‘Digging for Britain’, the second in the series, moved location from Norfolk to the Dorset County Museum in Dorchester, to focus upon some of the more significant archaeological discoveries made in the West Country during 2014. One theme which ran through much of the programme was the question as to what extent the population of the region

SNP: ‘The more seats we have here, the more powers we’ll have in Scotland.’

2015-02-09T19:42:00.001+00:00

Thus runs the slogan on the first welcome image (reproduced below) displayed on the SNP’s website landing page. However, for the English this statement, given projections regarding the possible composition of the next House of Commons, would be better displayed next to the SNP’s peculiar logo, which looks for all the world like a noose.

Readers’ General Election Poll Results

2015-02-08T08:30:00.000+00:00

Feeling tempted to vote Green? Then think again. Yesterday, the Green Party Leader Natalie Bennett sought to grab the headlines by announcing that the Greens wish to increase spending on social housing from £1.5 billion to £6 billion per annum by 2017, building an additional 500,000 rented ‘homes’ by this year. ‘Homes’? What form would these ‘homes’ take?

Suzanne Evans pulls out of Question Time

2015-02-05T13:47:00.000+00:00

This is disappointing news, that caused George Galloway to issue a tweet stating 'UKIP have pulled out of tonight's Question Time. Cowards.' Hardly fair, given that Evans is ill. Galloway was therefore forced to eat his words.

Question Time: George Galloway versus Jonathan Freedland?

2015-02-05T07:45:00.000+00:00

Tonight’s Question Time will be broadcast from Finchley, and judging from the panel it seems that it has been set up to engineer a confrontation between George Galloway and “Liberal Zionist” and Guardian journalist, Jonathan Freedland. Presumably, Tower Hamlets would have been Galloway’s preferred London location, taking into account his ethno-confessional predilections, but instead he finds

Review: Digging For Britain, BBC4

2015-02-03T21:43:00.001+00:00

Alice Roberts and Matt Williams co-hosted the latest instalment in BBC4’s ‘Digging for Britain’ series, providing viewers with the first of four regional updates relating to significant British archaeological finds made during 2014. Tonight’s episode focused upon East Anglia and the Southeast, taking in a wide variety of sites spanning from the Bronze Age to the Civil War. Sitting in the

James Herriot turns in his grave

2015-02-03T19:18:00.000+00:00

It’s a far cry from the cosy world of James Herriot with whom Thirsk has been associated for decades, for this is no tale of vets trying to alleviate animal suffering, but of sadistic practices in a North Yorkshire halal abattoir. Not only are animals slaughtered legally on the premises of Bowood Lamb, employing halal methods which inflict unnecessary and avoidable suffering, but a number of

UKIP's Call: Siren, or Clarion?

2015-01-31T11:15:00.000+00:00

UKIP appear to have two solid policy objectives: to leave the EU, and to introduce a points-based immigration system. All well and good, but beyond that, what do we really know? Granted, these two issues are very important, and the three mainstream parties - along with the Greens, the SNP and Plaid Cymru - all possess the same policies regarding these themes: they are pro-EU and pro-mass

Interactive General Election Opinion Poll

2015-01-30T22:28:00.000+00:00

Out of curiosity, I have decided to poll blog readers regarding their political preferences in the forthcoming May General Election. This poll is, of course, open to those who have the right to vote in the UK. Unfortunately, I have no means of verifying the citizenship of participants, so must rely upon the honesty of my readers in submitting their responses. If you should happen to tick the ‘

Halal Slaughter: Cutting England’s Throat

2015-01-30T08:06:00.000+00:00

This morning, John Humphrys announced on Radio 4’s Today Programme that the number of sheep and goats killed using either halal or kosher methods without pre-stunning, reached the staggering figure of 2.4 million in the past year. This represented a 60% jump in the number killed in this manner compared to the previous year. Why has there been such a surge? Muslim agitation. Not ‘extremist’

Winter 2014-2015 Forecast: Here we go again!

2015-01-29T10:06:00.000+00:00

It is January, normally the coldest month of the meteorological winter in the UK. Outside, in many parts, today has witnessed snow, sleet and blustery conditions; in short, wintry weather. The Thames has not frozen over; the country is not blanketed in snow; snowdrifts have not sundered village from village, and trains have not stopped running because of ‘the wrong kind of snow’. Yesterday,

Review: David Starkey’s ‘Magna Carta’, BBC2

2015-01-26T22:42:00.001+00:00

Having most recently appeared on our screens in characteristically forthright style on Question Time in an entertaining head-to-head with Mehdi ‘Kuffar’ Hasan (not to mention the rest of the panel), David Starkey returned to BBC2 this evening in his professional guise as a popular historian, commemorating the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta. Indeed, this year also marks two other

Review: 'The Great Car Con', Channel 4 Dispatches

2015-01-26T20:56:00.000+00:00

Channel 4’s Dispatches has produced much penetrating investigative journalism over the years, and this evening’s episode confirmed what I have suspected for many years: diesel is neither good for human health nor the environment, but actually bad for both. A lungful of diesel is deeply unpleasant, as any regular cyclist or runner will attest, so it came as no surprise to learn that the