Notices by iona 🐝 (iona@social.coop)

Finally getting around to setting up a new account at a new instance. Please follow me at @iona if you'd like to keep reading my posts. 💜

Same story, two different stations:

BBC Radio Manchester interviewed: A Labour MP who is also a Muslim
BBC Radio Leeds interviewed: Racist Ron from Roundhay and pals

The radio presenter says "I haven't seen any of the bees yet."

You're on BBC Radio Manchester. There is a bee sponsored by BBC Radio Manchester outside BBC Radio Manchester. How can you possibly have not seen it?

There are two people on the radio who have been and seen *all* of the Manchester bees 🐝

Even the one at the airport, and the ones in the outlying districts that are hard to get to and find.

https://beeinthecitymcr.co.uk/

Pleroma Faith

@GreenandBlack I wonder why we're 50/50 these days, both here and in the USA?

It never used to be like this - there were swings between support for the parties, and the party that made it into government used to have a reasonable mandate from the people. Think Labour in 1997 or the Conservatives in 1979, for instance.

Now, it's all so tightly contested and our countries are split down the middle and a victory by a few hundred or few thousand votes is normal.

@RyeToast There was one on Radio Leeds the other day which had a very tenuous link with a TV dancing show (same-sex couples, should they be allowed on Strictly Come Dancing?) but was in effect a "gay people, do you agree?" show.

Most people and places in the West have moved on from this.

@RyeToast BBC stations have no ads, but why would anyone want to listen to this drivel?

The other day even on national Radio 4 it was a phone-in about trans people with the usual crap about "them" going into girls' changing rooms for nefarious reasons.

BBC Radio Leeds in my area is particularly bad though, with several hours a day of racist and homophobic moaning phone calls and messages.

@RyeToast We don't have very good radio in this country. Some of the larger cities have more choice but in most areas you've got a couple of stations playing pop and a BBC local station that's got no listeners other than ancient bigots.

Anyone who cares about listening to the radio has upgraded to DAB, a digital platform with several extra stations to listen to, or just listens online to stations from elsewhere.

@RyeToast Hang on. I've been to America. Isn't your AM dial (and increasingly, FM) packed with endless stations blasting out the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Sean Hannity etc 24 hours a day?

We don't have anything like that, but we do have shit local BBC radio stations that are listened to by old bigoted people exclusively.

You know who hasn't been on this radio station? Muslims.

They are all listening to Sunrise FM and the like, because the local BBC is so right-wing. We all pay licence fees, the station should be for everyone.

I'm driving over the tops tomorrow. I should go over Holme Moss and cut the coax for 92.4 FM.

Bob in Bingley says snowflakes are too easily offended these days. David in Keighley says women in burqas look like letterboxes.

Now here's fucking Adele, traffic news is next.

Briefly had to listen to local radio because I was in my car with broken DAB.

Message after message on the local radio phone in regarding Boris Johnson and his Islamophobic comments.

"Snowflakes need to shut up... just a bit of a laugh... too sensitive... etc etc etc".

I AM SICK OF THIS. EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I take the piss out of local radio a lot, but this is more serious. BBC RADIO LEEDS, SORT YOUR FUCKING BIGOTED LISTENERS OUT.

@capn_pancakes The BBC World Service spent at least ten minutes talking about it. That level of coverage is way out of proportion for what is essentially a by-election to fill a seat for three months.

@GDPRHallOfShame @qwazix On this particular site, I find that even just clicking "I Accept" doesn't get rid of the banner - the button just greys out and I get a spinning icon for the entire time I'm on the site.

Either you're the guy who got 50.0001% of the votes and you win and can push forward with your programme, or you're the one with 49.9999% and you have to sit in opposition twiddling your thumbs for another X years.

I don't know what's to be done about it - when the two alternatives are so diametrically opposed, it leads to anger on the losing side and misplaced triumphalism on the winning side. A shade over 50 percent shouldn't be a mandate.

Listening to a thing on the radio about an election in the US where the margin is currently <1,000 votes between a Democrat and some Trump cheerleader GOP man.

It feels like first-past-the-post democracy is part of what's leading to our divided societies in the West. When the margins are so slim, it becomes pretty much a lottery. People feel disenfranchised and disillusioned with democracy.

From local news - edited to remove violence reference:
> Anyone who witnessed the [crime] or who has any information is asked to contact police via 101, quoting crime reference 13180383141.

I know this is a small town shit hole but is there really *that* much crime here?

From local news:
> Anyone who witnessed the assault or who has any information is asked to contact police via 101, quoting crime reference 13180383141.

Is there really *that* much crime here?