Once again Bernie writes off democracy

From [en.espnf1.com]

Speaking on the topic of cutting the old traditional venues from the calendar, Bernie rejected the need to listen to other opinions:

Quote
And in case anyone thought he might listen to increasing unrest about his expansion plans, he made clear he had no time for consultation. "I don't think democracy is the way to run anything. Whether it's a company or anything you need someone who is going to turn the lights on and off. We had Mrs Thatcher and when she was in charge she did turn the lights on and off. She brought the country to where it was before it got muddled up again.

and further:

Quote
He also said he believed Max Mosley "would have been a very good prime minister" and that Saddam Hussein made Iraq a more stable country - "Absolutely. It's been proved, hasn't it?"

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

"any publicity is good publicity" - obviously Bernie's favourite saying

Morbid Wrote:
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> that Saddam Hussein made Iraq a more stable country
> - "Absolutely. It's been proved, hasn't it?"

Well there is an element of truth behind that. Obviously some of Hussein's methods were, er, questionable, but there is a school of thought that with him in power it did keep a sort of equilibrium of stability throughout all the different religious denominations in Iraq and prevented external influences (e.g. Iran) from interfering

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X (@ed24f1)

You can understand his point to a certain extent, we've read countless times about all the bickering when teams get involved, they even rewrote the Concorde agreement so motions were carried by a majority rather than a 100% agreement

I'm not saying I agree with it, but I can understand it.




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ESSENTIAL OILS aren't essential unless you're an engine, a gearbox or a twat

Mosley for PM anyone?

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"Trulli was slowing down like he wanted to have a picnic" LOL

Having Saddam Hussein in charge of anything is obviously not a attractive proposition in anything... however having said that... the USA and UK haven't exactly improved the situation for IRAQ. If anything they opened the floodgates for other would be tyrants and oppressive groups.

So yeah.. I can probably see what Bernie is getting at, though his example is bound to offend many people.

Would Max have been a good PM? Well... no worse than any other in my view.. at least he has the confidence to stick to his guns. I never liked Tony Blair much... I hated some of the things he did, and some of the attitude with which he did it, yet I always respected the fact that he had the confidence and defiance to stick to his guns and push things through with minimal wishy washiness which is just as bad if not worse.

And I see Max & Bernie in a similar vein... some of the things they do can be very unpalatable, yet ultimately you'd have to be extremely clever to pick proper holes in their logic, and if they stopped every time someone cried foul! then they'd have never got anything done at all.

That's the thing... you need a balance between democracy and dictatorship... yeah everyone needs their view and input... but ultimately you have to have someone who takes the decision and sees it through.

I love when Bernie stirs the @#$%&, because people think he's serious. Dude could say he's planning a GP on the moon and everyone would believe him.

Oh, and democracy is not how to run a sport. We tried giving the teams a bit of democracy with the team group thing and all they did is get together and bitch about each other and agree on nothing. A sport needs a governing body who needs to say "These are the rules, if you don't like them then GTFO". Whilst input from teams can be appreciated, they should certainly not be given any power. Especially when most of the grid is car manufacturers who don't give the slightest sh*t about the sport, and will vote for decisions that would kill off the sport if it benefited them.

When teams run championships, do you know what you get? You get Bridgestone Presents the Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford, in Association with Cosworth. And it took a healthy series to death in half a decade.

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Who says he is not serious? Bernie never said that he isn't serious about dictatorship. I have not seen anyone else say that he isn't serious about either. That is something you read into it. Probably because you want it to be true.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/21/2010 06:37PM by Morbid.

Every interview Bernie does for the BBC he says stuff like this. But because it's on TV you can see the cheeky smilie he gives at the end. I read into it because I'm familiar with Bernie interviews, just like Mika Hakkinen interviews.

Not that it matters. The context that Bernie is talking about is sport (unless the interviewer was so pathetic to walk up to Bernie and ask his opinion on Saddam), and in sport democracy is a bad plan. This would have been clear if ESPN didn't cherry pick quotes in order to sensationalise a non-story to get traffic.

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Strange as it seems to me, that several participants in this thread, and previous threads on the same topic, have access to the same BBC interviews that you do, and they do not present this conclusion. Is it really your opinion, that they are not familiar with Bernie interviews?

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Several people in this thread also went "well actually..." too.

Bernie likes to @#$%& with people. It's why some days he gives one word answers, some days he gives long complex answers that having *nothing* to do with the questions, and on this day, managed to answer an incredibly badly worded way with an answer he knew would cause a bit of a stir over nothing.

But once again it's not like it matters. The quotes have been cherry picked out of context regarding his ruling of the sport in order to create a bit of a fuss. Essentially, ESPN created news. Or Bernie wanted this to happen and he's actually a media genius who does indeed play by the rule of all publicity being good publicity. Either way, I give this story a 5 on the lol scale.

Edit: The "lol scale" is copyrighted and may not be reproduced, copied, torrented, printed, read, or unread without permission.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/22/2010 09:53AM by DaveEllis.

DaveEllis Wrote:
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> Bernie likes to @#$%& with people.

Exactly, and the shortcuts idea earlier this year was probably the most amusing example of it.

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X (@ed24f1)

He also suggested a sprinkler system, said it with a completely straight faced, and that'd he'd installed it on Paul Ricard to test it. :D

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I have a hard time believing you that you can be this naive.

If do just a slight bit of research, you will see how often Bernie has slated democracy as a system. He has publicly called out for a dictator to rule Britain. He has even gone into public verbal brawls with British politicians on the issue. He has lauded many dictators in the past. He has done so in contexts that has absolutely nothing to do with sports, or his position in F1. This has been a consistent opinion of his for over a decade.

If you don't actively want something else to be true, it is easy to see.

But because he has success, is good at making you laugh, and delivers prime grade entertainment, you close your eyes to the facts and go into denial. Seriously, if he really didn't mean these things, why aren't people in the F1 paddock regularly having a laugh at in the press. They do that all the time with everybody else... Briatore probably being my favourite example. But not with Bernie and dictatorship. Nobody in the entire F1 circus says anything about it.

TBH, I think the deafening silence from the people that work with him every day, speaks much louder, than your gut feelings and "interview familiarities".

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

Morbid Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have a hard time believing you that you can be
> this naive.
>
> If do just a slight bit of research, you will see
> how often Bernie has slated democracy as a system.
> He has publicly called out for a dictator to rule
> Britain. He has even gone into public verbal
> brawls with British politicians on the issue. He
> has lauded many dictators in the past. He has done
> so in contexts that has absolutely nothing to do
> with sports, or his position in F1. This has been
> a consistent opinion of his for over a decade.
>
> If you don't actively want something else to be
> true, it is easy to see.
>
> But because he has success, is good at making you
> laugh, and delivers prime grade entertainment, you
> close your eyes to the facts and go into denial.
> Seriously, if he really didn't mean these things,
> why aren't people in the F1 paddock regularly
> having a laugh at in the press. They do that all
> the time with everybody else... Briatore probably
> being my favourite example. But not with Bernie
> and dictatorship. Nobody in the entire F1 circus
> says anything about it.
>
> TBH, I think the deafening silence from the people
> that work with him every day, speaks much louder,
> than your gut feelings and "interview
> familiarities".

Bernie probably has no idea what is going on, he is well past his use by date, but he has the money and the power.Its interesting in modern society how people respect rich king pins and their ideas, even if they are full of crap, they still remain powerful and in charge.
Just look at George Bush Jr. and the county of America in general as an example.

*Bump, because I felt it fitted the title of this thread*

[www.bbc.co.uk]

F1 boss Bernie Ecclestone pays to end bribery trial

What do we think about this then?

I personally think that because of his age and the stage his career is at, it doesn't make much difference for him personally. It might affect the future of F1 more though.


TBH, I think the deafening silence from the people that work with him every day, speaks much louder, than your gut feelings and "interview familiarities".

You think wrong. Nothing speaks louder than gut feelings, especially not in a particularly intuitive person like Dave. I'm afraid that you are the one who's being naive.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/30/2015 01:12PM by EC83.

I find it both hilarious and depressing that the court case against him for bribery ended in another bribe.

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It's only after we've lost everything, that we are free to do anything.

This might be an unpopular opinion but I think it was sensible to end the case like that. To really convict Bernie the court needed to prove that Bernie knew that Gribkowskywas an official. As far as I heard this proved to be impossible so a conviction became unlikely. I have the feeling that this 100m payment is sort of a win-win situation. It seems to be a bit odd but it was a pragmatic decision.

Also, just for the record: the sum one has to pay to end a trial (under certain circumstances) depends on one's personal fortune so everyone can do this.

What annoys me is that only 1% of the sum will be donated to a children's hospice.

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used to be GPGSL's Nick Heidfeld