noggin's posts, page 76

Government to suspend Parliament

Yes - in the very early days Strictly's set was shoe-horned into TC4 when there was a studio clash ISTR, but once this became too much of a compromise a Blackpool show was introduced. (Once CiN moved to Elstree D, and Strictly was in Elstree George Lucas there was no longer a clash, so Blackpool became a tradition rather than an operational requirement to cope with studio capacity issues)

40th anniversary of the ITV strike

BBC Two launched in 625 B&W on UHF in 1964, not 1967. 1967 was the year that BBC Two started regularly broadcasting PAL colour content.

Or do you mean that 1967 was the year that BBC Two transmissions started in Northern Ireland (3 years after the channel launched)?

Government to suspend Parliament

I've certainly tried to keep my posts non-party political and more observational. There were a number of questions from Forum members from North America or other parts of the world, and our political system is sometimes quite complex for Brits to understand, let alone those just informed by current media reports.

I guess it is off topic - but probably quite useful to have somewhere - as it informs the discussions about 'What next?' and 'When can we start talking about Election sets?' (I'd be interested to see whether there are any 'odd' BBC Elstree D bookings in November or early December...)

Government to suspend Parliament

Unless Boris Johnson requests to cancel the prorogation as its original purpose, a Queen's Speech, is nullified by his wish for an election?. Humiliating, and very annoying for HMQ, but is that an option?

Strictly Come Dancing | 2019

Yep - Strictly uses a dual ranking system, no weighting of the public vote based on vote volume (just rank)

Strictly Come Dancing | 2019

I think the '4th judge' was more a turn of phrase suggesting that the public were important judges too, rather than suggesting that the public only had 25% of the final say.

Strictly Come Dancing | 2019

As it's at the very beginning of the run - there is the potential to recast without putting the replacement at too much of a disadvantage - so I think it could be a possibility IF they have people on standby.

Brexitcast - The TV Show

Yes - I imagine they could have done it in the Millbank TV studio like they did when they took over 'Politics Live' or when 'The Bottom Line' recorded at Millbank rather than in a radio studio.

I think they are right to avoid turning it into a TV show.

2020 Olympics - Tokyo

Also translates as cool I think?

Government to suspend Parliament

When broadcasters talk about 'opposition MPs' they are adding together Labour, Liberal Democrats, SNP (Scottish Nationalists), Independents (of which there are now far more since the Tory party threw out 21 MPs for voting against the government), Green, Plaid Cymru (Welsh Nationalists), the Northern Ireland parties (including the DUP, but not Sinn Fein who don't take their seats)

(SNP and Plaid are not right wing 'Nationalist' parties. They are typically centre-left social democrats who campaign for their respective countries to be independent nations, not part of the UK, but still within the EU.)

It's important to remember that the UK is not a two party system (however it may sometimes feel like it is as the two largest parties in England do feature heavily in reporting.)

You shouldn't confuse this use of the word 'opposition' with Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party,which is the second largest party in the House of Commons and has the title of 'Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition' party. There is no love lost between Labour and Lib Dems on a lot of issues (particularly since the Lib Dems were in a coalition government with the Conservatives 2010-2015, during a period of post-financial crash austerity)

The Tories still have more seats than Labour, and there are no formal opposition coalitions in place that would allow for a new Prime Minister to be chosen by the House of Commons should Boris Johnson lose a vote of no confidence. (The Tories on their own didn't have a working majority post-2017, and didn't go into a coalition with other parties, but instead agreed a looser 'confidence and supply' arrangement with the Northern Irish, fiercely unionist, DUP party to get them to a narrow working majority. This working majority disappeared when Philip Lee defected to the Lib Dems, and has dropped further on matters European with the 21 Tory rebels being expelled, though on non-Brexit matters these rebels could reasonably be expected to vote with the government - but couldn't be 'whipped' to do so)

If there is a Vote of No Confidence in the Prime Minister , which the PM loses - which could happen if the Prime Minister does not have a simple majority of MPs to support them (i.e. not have 'The Confidence of the House') and all opposition MPs agree to vote against (rather than abstain) - then the House of Commons has 14 days to decide on a new Prime Minister. If that fails, a general election to re-elect all MPs will take place.

The problem the PM currently has is that due to the 2010 Fixed Term Parliament Act, it is no longer possible for the Prime Minister to call an election when they want (technically Boris Johnson could call a vote of no confidence in himself, and that has been suggested, but it is crazy...). They have to wait for the full 5 year term of their government to finish OR get 2/3 of the elected MPs (not just those who vote) to agree to vote to hold a new election (This is how Theresa May triggered the 2017 Election). The FTPA was designed to protect the Con/LibDem 2010 coalition to remove the threats that could undermine the coalition by threatening an election.

There is a suggestion that a simple bill could be past that would call for an election on a simple majaority and bypass the FTPA - but that would almost certainly require a fixed date to be enshrined in law to pass in the current climate. (The FTPA allows the PM to change the date after calling the election potentially)

Government to suspend Parliament

It's a lot easier to do that when your OBs don't have any significant delay on them (unless you pre-record the shots required prior to your main presenter shot)...

Government to suspend Parliament

Shotoku UK was formed by a group of ex-Radamec staff who left after Vinten mergedwith/Vitec took over Radamec. (Shotoku had been Radamec's re-seller in Japan)

As a result, in many UK facilities, Shotoku has become the defecto replacement for Radamec installations or expansions (and is compatible with legacy Radamec installations I believe). Operationally Shotoku have a control system that looks and feels identical to systems that Radamec used to market. I don't know if there was some technology transfer out of the merged company when the Radamec team left the compan. I see Shotoku market Free-d2, which looks to be the same camera tracking system that Rademec used to market (and which was developed by BBC R&D and is used by ITN, BBC Northern Ireland and others), though Shotoku could have licensed this separately from the BBC (though I don't see Radamec marketing it now)

I wasn't implying that Radamec were now called Shotoku, more that Radamec installations were largely replaced by Shotoku systems in the UK (and not Vinten). The BBC switched to Shotoku when they moved to NBH for their non-Furio remote cameras, and I believe Sky have too.

(Prior to the merger of Radamec and Vinten both companies had rival remote camera systems. Most BBC studios used Radamec, but some regional centres used Vinten)