The Critical Commentator

French Politicians, Royalist and Republican Flora Macdonald Reid (1860-1945) Photo Credit: Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service [CC BY-NC]   David Dimbleby has criticised the BBC for refusing to tackle sensitive topics relating to the royal family and questioned why Buckingham Palace is able to exert such control over the corporation. Dimbleby, for decades the face of the BBC at state events, said the broadcaster, "would not go near things like the power that the palace has to change taxation legislation" or whether it was right for the Duchy of Cornwall not to pay capital gains tax. "All those issues are never touched by the BBC because I think they feel their viewers will not like it - a visceral feeling," he told the Henley Literary Festival. "I think it is wrong and these things should be properly examined." ... Dimbleby ... said that he had been surprised to find the "degree of control that Buckingham Palace has over the image of the royal family...

  The Bone of Contention George Armfield (1810-1893) Photo Credit: York Museums Trust [Public Domain] ... But the rage triggered by the mini-budget is of a different order. It is felt not just by the usual suspects; it has spread to the moderately well-off, the Waitrose shoppers, the red-trouser wearers. It is firing up those who don't normally care that much about politics, sowing anger in the hearts of the previously sanguine. We, the enervated of Middle England, are raging that millions of lives are to be made poorer and more uncertain by a handful of people without an electoral mandate elevated to office by a tiny minority of the population. We rage at the arrogance of those who ignore expert advice because they read Hayek 30 years ago. We rage for all the people who feel rib-tightening anxiety about how on earth they can afford the vast predicted hikes in their mortgage payments, whose homes, bought through years of hard work, now have the sword of Damocles hanging over t...

  The first madness of Ophelia Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882) Photo Credit: Gallery Oldham [CC BY-NC-ND] Spain's El Espanol "21 days with Liz Truss: the pound falls, the Queen dies and the UK has been weakened more than ever since Brexit". It said Truss's first three weeks in office "could not have been more catastrophic"... [The] "UK seems to have imploded. It should be remembered that the British voted in favour of 'Brexit' in the belief that they would take control and become a stronger country if they managed to throw off the yoke of Europe. Well, the exact opposite seems to be happening. And now that they are no longer under the protection of Brussels, they have no right or access to aid from the 27." Germany's Bild  "First Boris Johnson falls, then the Queen dies - and now the British financial system is also shaking. The turbulence on the foreign exchange markets is causing even the most die-hard traders to lose sleep. T...