WUFOOB … (Apr – Jun 2016)

English football fans embrace continental cafe culture

Reuters, Friday 10th Jun 2016
French police stepped in to break up small groups of English and Russian football fans who squared up and hurled taunts at one another in Marseille on Friday, ahead of the opening match of the Euro 2016 football tournament. TV footage showed one bare-chested supporter in the back of a police van and a handcuffed English supporter being frogmarched by two officers along the edge of Marseille’s old harbour.

‘Vindictive’ David Cameron tries Brexit blackmail

Daily Express, Monday 13th Jun 2016
David Cameron was accused of attempting to “blackmail” pensioners last night after claiming that retirement benefits could be slashed if Britain quits the EU.

Channel 4 slammed by watchdog for shameless plugging

BBC News, Monday 6th Jun 2016
Channel 4 breached regulations on product placement in an episode of its quiz show Countdown, media Ofcom watchdog has ruled. A complaint was received about the 21 March programme after host Nick Hewer referred to the Ideal Home Show “at Olympia… until 3 April”. Later, guest Mark Foster talked about being an ambassador for P&O Cruises, referring to activities on offer. Ofcom ruled that both references were “unduly prominent” and “promotional”.

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EU makes net migration target ‘impossible’

BBC News, Thursday 12th May 2016
Figures show 1.2m more EU migrants have got National Insurance numbers in the past five years than have shown up in immigration statistics. Boris Johnson has attacked the government’s pledge to cut net migration, saying ministers know it is “legally impossible” to achieve. The ex-London mayor said EU membership made it impossible to control immigration and criticised politicians who “promise that they can control it”. He said the government had “absolutely no control” over the numbers coming from the EU, adding: “What’s certainly not a good idea, politically, is for politicians to stand up year after year and tell the British people ‘we can cut immigration to tens of thousands’ when they know full well that that’s legally impossible.”

The parallel universe of political correctness

Telegraph, Monday 18th April 2016
One of the several accusations against John Whittingdale, the Culture Secretary, is that he consorted with a prostitute. The BBC, for reasons of self-interest which do not need restating, has pursued this story with unusual enthusiasm. BBC reports, however, have preferred the term ‘sex worker’. This is because the word ‘prostitute’ is considered politically incorrect, and insulting to the practitioners of the trade.

Jeremy Corbyn changes his mind about EU membership

ITV News, Thursday 14th April 2016
Jeremy Corbyn urged supporters to back the European Union “warts and all” as he made his first major intervention in the referendum campaign. In what many have described as a U-turn, the Labour leader – a long-time critic of the EU – used a speech in London to insist that his party is “overwhelmingly” in favour of Britain staying in the union.

David Cameron under pressure over father’s offshore fund

Independent, Monday 4th April 2016
David Cameron’s father ran an offshore fund that paid zero UK tax for 30 years. He was allegedly involved in hiring what has been called a small army of Bahamas residents – including a part-time bishop – to sign paperwork for an offshore fund in what may have been an effort to avoid paying UK tax. Papers leaked from the Panama-based law firm Mossack Fonseca are said to suggest Ian Cameron was part of the scheme as a director of Blairmore Holdings Inc.