XMNN posted:

so any idea when that ham-faced prick will have finished speaking to MPs? I'm guessing he will just tell them that "tough poo poo, I'm in charge" but who knows

forkboy84 posted:

Thought he'd explicitly refused to talk to the SCG?

spiderbot posted:

I stand with Miftan on chocolate oranges

Angepain posted:

i'm excited to gradually find out the new ways that the new site owner is weird and bad, as is forums tradition for every position of power. probably not a wife beater though so that'll be nice

quote:

As I've written before, the true face of Labour's antisemitism problem is not people who have hatred in their hearts, but people who are either simply unable to see the problem when it is in front of them, or are unwilling to confront or condemn expressions of it when they see them.

OwlFancier posted:

I don't think we have any of those

Payndz posted:

Cutting the size of the army and the Royal Marines means they get to save money on forces wages and small boring stuff like logistics, while at the same time keeping open the direct pipeline from taxpayers --> BAE Systems. (Weren't they very recently talking about ordering a bunch more warships because of "the threat from China" or something?)

Rule Britannia faces axe in BBC’s ‘Black Lives Matter Proms’
The BBC is agonising over ‘decolonising’ the Last Night’s traditional bill

The BBC is discussing whether to drop Rule Britannia and Land of Hope and Glory from the Last Night of the Proms in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

The traditional anthems are hugely popular with the flag-waving prommers who ordinarily cram into the Royal Albert Hall, but organisers fear a backlash because of their perceived association with colonialism and slavery.

Dalia Stasevska, 35, from Finland, who is conducting the Last Night, is among those said to be keen to modernise the evening’s repertoire and reduce the patriotic elements.

A BBC source said: “Dalia is a big supporter of Black Lives Matter and thinks a ceremony without an audience is the perfect moment to bring change.”

The team drawing up the programme for the occasion includes David Pickard, 60, director of the BBC Proms, Stasevska, who will be only the second female conductor to preside over the Last Night of the Proms, and Golda Schultz, 36, a South African soprano.

They have been meeting regularly over Zoom but have yet to agree the Last Night programme, which is on September 12. They are also concerned about how to strike a sombre tone during a global pandemic and how to respond to the ongoing debates over race equality.

The coronavirus restrictions will certainly make it difficult to perform Rule Britannia in the traditional way, and could provide an excuse for the BBC to drop it.


This is the ONLY relevant bit. There is ZERO proof anywhere about a directorial decision to drop the Horst Wessel Lied. Lots and lots of insinuation of black and LGBTQ+ people doing 'something' at this years Proms

Rule Britannia is usually performed by about 80 members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a chorus of more than 100 singers. But social distancing guidelines mean the orchestra is expected to be at about half of its normal strength, with only about 18 singers able to perform. There will be no audience to sing along.

Jan Younghusband, head of BBC music TV commissioning, confirmed that Rule Britannia’s place in the Last Night repertoire was still being reviewed.

She added: “We have a lot of problems about how many instruments we can have. It is hard to know whether it is physically possible to do it. Some of the traditional tunes, like Jerusalem, are easier to perform . . . We also don’t know if we’ll be in a worse situation in two weeks’ time.”

Again, it is ONLY a discussion about the practicalities

The coronavirus has forced the Proms’ organisers to contend with a host of new problems, including performers’ spittle, which mean spacing is vital. Robotic cameras will also replace human operators to create more space.

Tom Service, the Radio 3 broadcaster and Proms presenter, noted that the festival had faced hard times before, including during the Second World War, but said that these were “arguably the most challenging set of conditions that the Proms have ever experienced”.

One insider described this year’s season as the “Black Lives Matter Proms”. The live performances, which begin on Friday, will open with a piece written by Hannah Kendall, 36, a black British composer, and will close with Schultz leading the Last Night’s ceremony on its 125th anniversary.

The Proms’ live soloists include Anoushka Shankar, who will perform on the sitar in honour of her late father, Ravi; the cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason — who played at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex — and his sister, the pianist Isata Kanneh-Mason; and the Japanese-born pianist Mitsuko Uchida.

Wasfi Kani, 64, chief executive of Grange Park Opera in Surrey, whose parents sought refuge in the UK after the partition of India in 1947, is among those who would cheer the removal of the songs.

That's a lotta forrin names for Times to cite in this absolutely nothing piece

“I don’t listen to Land of Hope and Glory and say ‘thank God I’m British’ — it actually makes me feel more alienated. Britain raped India and that is what that song is celebrating,” she said.

Proms presenter Josie d’Arby, who is black, said: “This year, everyone is thinking about racial equality . . . The Proms has always done that, but . . . it is upping it out of respect for the current climate.” She argued that the evening should be inclusive but retain tradition: “Part of being inclusive involves including your traditional audience and the diehard fans.”

So it's about being a bit respectful. Where does that say dropping Rule Brittania?

Each year, the main singer on the Last Night can include a piece close to their heart. Last year, the bisexual mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton chose Judy Garland’s Somewhere over the Rainbow, a gay anthem. Schultz is yet to announce what she has chosen, but when accepting the position, she tweeted: “Honoured to be representing for Africa”.

Last month, she said: “Dalia and I want to pay tribute to the culture that has invited us into its space, and also make sure we do something that speaks to the times we are living through.”

Camilla Kerslake, 32, the Brit-nominated soprano, suggested the lyrics could be changed: “It’s possible to find a way to respect the music but make it modern.”

The Last Night ceremony will include a new work by Swedish composer Andrea Tarrodi. Schultz will also pay tribute to Stephen Sondheim, in the year of his 90th birthday, by performing two numbers from his musical A Little Night Music: Night Waltz and The Glamorous Life.

While God Save the Queen and Jerusalem will be performed, Auld Lang Syne is also in peril because it is sung by the audience.

Weirdly, didn't see anyone lose their poo poo over Auld Lang Syne

The entire Proms repertoire has had to be reworked in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. While orchestras and choirs have shrunk, the stage has expanded, and musicians will have to have daily temperature checks.

Spitting creates one of the biggest logistical problems. “There’s a lot of spittle going on in an orchestra,” said Younghusband, who is an oboist herself. “Brass and woodwind are almost impossible, and even if you are playing a flute, you are blowing across it and blowing out. It is not possible to seat an orchestra in the normal way.”

Musicians will be spaced more than 2m apart, each turning the scores themselves, and will have stand-ins ready in case they become ill.

Ben Weston, the executive producer of Live Wire Productions, which is producing the TV coverage of the Proms, said the distancing requirements meant some works were impossible to perform: “We’d normally be able to get hundreds of people on the stage using the biggest extension, but we are talking about 30 to 40, not much more than that. We can’t do Mahler’s [Symphony No] 2, those types of works are out.”

There will be no audiences for any performances, which will affect the acoustics, making it more “lively” and also removing punctuation points such as bowing.

Presenters, including Katie Derham, will stand on a new platform in the stalls that Weston likened to a “helipad”: “You’d be amazed at how big the platform has to be for two guests and cameras. It is closer to the stage to stop Katie feeling like without an audience she is in outer space.”

Many pieces will be recorded live earlier in the day and then broadcast later, but the Last Night will be fully live.

Alan Davey, the BBC Radio 3 controller, said that it also represented an opportunity: “We have turned the Royal Albert Hall inside out . . . We can’t use the changing rooms, and everyone has a circle around them of 2m. But you can also do shots in the hall that we won’t normally do, and the hall can come to life, which it can’t when it is the background.”

Service added that he expected all the difficulties would mean that the concerts had an “extra fire” to them: “The audience’s absence will be felt, but . . . there will be a burning desire to communicate to everyone though the microphones and the cameras and to make that electricity happen.”

OwlFancier posted:

They should axe them because they're poo poo songs, OP.

Anyone who goes around knowing the words and singing them is suspect IMO.

Also get rid of god save the queen. She can save her loving self.

OwlFancier posted:

You... posted it though?

Like yes, sure, it's not happening, but I would be happy if it did, and that's probably the least terrifying thing I've posted recently as far as culture war poo poo goes.

Borrovan posted:

I think G-man's point was that the "story" is bait designed to make us say "actually yes we should stop singing Rule Brittania because it literally brags about slavery" so the right can then use that as a strawman & say that if you say you're English you get arrested & thrown in jail, meaning that engaging with it to point out that it's obviously not true is very different to engaging with it to take the bait.

However, we totally should stop singing Rule Brittania, because it literally brags about slavery. That's just not the argument we should lead on in the national discourse, because it allows them to control the narrative.

Considering they choose who gets to participate in the discourse and how though, I don't think anything we have to say is worth a drat tactically, maybe we should just be arresting people & throwing them in jail if they say they're English