BBC: Lib Dems in clear over donation
The Electoral Commission has cleared the Liberal Democrats of wrong-doing over a £2.4m company donation it received before May’s general election.
The watchdog’s probe looked at whether the donation was “permissible”, as electoral law requires donating firms to be registered and trading in the UK.
5th Avenue Partners was based in London but owned by a Swiss-based firm headed by Scottish financier Michael Brown.
The Times: Lib Dems censured but keep £2.4m gift
THE Liberal Democrats have been criticised by the elections watchdog for failing to enforce a rigorous checking process on its biggest ever donation of £2.4 million earlier this year.
However, the party will be allowed to keep the donation after promising to tighten up its procedures…
It was revealed that the money had come from a Swiss bank account, that Mr Brown was not registered to vote in Britain and that when the first donation was made his company did not have an office in the UK…
The businessman, who has confessed to being arrested for bouncing cheques and made his fortune in real-estate deals in Florida in the late Nineties, said that Charles Kennedy was not ready to lead the country.
How confusing! Can anyone explain this divergence of opinion?
And a nice friendly photo of Kennedy underneath a slogan “The Real Opposition”.
Hmm, no bias shown there!
Perhaps they refer to two different reports. I can’t seem to think of any other plausible explanation unless…..
The thing that stands out from both reports is how bad the reporting is. Neither report tells us the relevant facts. Is a donation legal if the recipient reasonably believes that it meets the necessary conditions, or does the donation actually have to meet those conditions ? If the former, how does this reasonable belief standard square with the criticism that not enough checks were made ? If the latter, then were the conditions actually met or not ? The Times obviously has its own axe to grind, since it broke the story originally. But either way, neither journalist’s employer is getting value for their money.
Spot on Lee – I can’t tell from the reports what the rules are meant to be.
I think the two different reports just reflect the fact that The Electoral Commission (EC) fudged the report. They should have been clear and unequivocal – either the donation was legitimate or it wasn’t.
I don’t see how the EC can criticise the Lib Dems and then say “but lkeep the money folks.”
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/
Good Article SiN – thanks
O/T, I just want to say that I really appreciate the addition of the feature telling us when there are new posts under any particular topic 🙂
TB: I just want to say that I really appreciate the addition of the feature telling us when there are new posts under any particular topic
My pleasure TB – glad you like it – the fact that it is appreciated makes me feel a bit better having stayed up ’til 5am getting it working!
It works using a browser cookie – so if you change machines or change browsers the numbers don’t follow you.
Let me know if it causes anyone any technical issues – it shouldn’t cause any problems though.
O/T
I have to say that I’ve had little, even no respect for the Nobel Peace Prize ever since it was awarded to the terrorist Arafat. Now it has been awarded to Mohammed El Baradei of the UN Nuclear Inspection team. Contrast these two articles – one from The Telegraph with the title Nobel rewards failure and the other from our ‘impartial’ BBC ElBaradei wins Nobel peace prize. Apart from a small aside in the article It [the IAEA] is not an organisation that has conducted peace activities – it is very disappointing
Terumi Tanaka
head of Japanese atomic bomb survivors’ association Hidankyo there is no attempt to look objectively at this now dubious honour. Search any of the other BBC related stories and it is the same. It’s a fair guess to say there won’t be any other either.
Cheers Andrew – Many Thanks :+: Time well spent.
My apologies about the above Nobel article I referred to above, it actually does present more than I saw at first glance.
O/T but BBC related:
This is actually a rare, decent Katrina-related feature on a Catholic school in New Orleans; the article is notable more for what it doesn’t do rather than for what it does:
–doesn’t show contempt for Christianity
–doesn’t race-bait
–doesn’t America-bash
–acknowledges that private schools can make a positive difference for poor kids where state-funded schools fail
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4319144.stm
BBC heresies, all!
I really appreciate the addition of the feature telling us when there are new posts under any particular topic.
Agreed. It’s time-saving and user-friendly.
i, too, appreciate the feature showing new posts.
thanks, andrew
O/T:
This lame article on North American grizzly bears has numerous typos, in both the article itself, and in the (D)HYS comments posted with it:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4298174.stm
Aren’t they supposed to be polishing up the (D)HYS comments for grammar and spelling etc?
I can’t believe the number of typos, missing words, garbled grammar etc. that I find all the time in the Beeb’s online content.
With all that money, you think they could afford to hire a few proofreaders. But apparently proofreaders are as rare as fact checkers at the Beeb!
OT:
BBC has fond memories of Che. No mention of the many innocents he murdered. Whoops!
Sorry. Link for the Che eulogy:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/9/newsid_3930000/3930193.stm
O/T
Just waiting for Al-Beeb to lend credence to any Internet rumors that the US caused the recent disastrous Kashmiri earthquake. I’m sure the US naval base in the Indian Ocean was once again seen to be indulging in highly suspicious activities. . .countdown now, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5. . .will (D)HYS open its own “Talking Point” thread on the subject?
Susan – Yes, especially since it hit the Pakistani-administered area of Kashmir and quite possibly took out a few terrorists. Had to be Bush.
Yep, another person who really appreciates the new feature saying how many posts are unread. A great bonus 🙂
Good link Go Metro :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/october/9/newsid_3930000/3930193.stm
compare Auntie’s hagiography with this far from unsympathetic account in the Observer, which is less keen than the Beeb to paint over all his warts :
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,1258340,00.html
The thought occured to me today about the liklihood that during recent the Katrina and Rita Storms and the devestation wreaked apon the US, that there may well have been many Muslims around the world gloating about this, and this was Gods’ vengeance. I wonder if the recent earthquakes in the Indian sub-continent confounds this theory somewhat.
Teddy Bear re Katrina & God’s vengeance – BBC’s Mark “Plastic Turkey” Lawson writing in the Guardian
Hurricane Katrina, though, severely challenges this exegesis. What can a president of such simple religious faith have made of the devastation of America by what insurance policies call an act of God? Whereas even an event as terrible as 9/11 could be sustaining and confirmational for someone of Bush’s apparent Manichean convictions, a sudden drowning of the chosen invites only agonised study of the Book of Job. This affront to Bush’s relationship with God may explain his public bewilderment during the weather crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Columnists/Column/0,5673,1587614,00.html
What a prat!
I won’t be donating anything to the relief program. It sounds a bit hard-hearted but it is an established fact that muslims in this country only donated to muslims affected by the tsunami. Let them look after their own this time.
Dan, what is worse is that his article appeared yesterday, after the BBC has backtracked on their initial claim. By having him write for the Guardian they can keep their propaganda going without doing it directly. It seems contrary to their mandate that BBC presenters should be voicing their opinions in any case.
Allan – I can well understand your sentiments. They didn’t even contribute that much to the Tsunami, and even then it was after being humiliated.
Allan – I actually meant Muslim nations rather than UK Muslims. So many Muslims proclaim that they are willing to die as sui/homicide bombers, and do, “to protect their suffering Muslim brothers and sisters victimised by corrupt Western powers”, but when it comes to contributing to spare the suffering of their Muslim brothers and sisters as a result of a natural disaster, their compassion seems to falter. It shows they are really brainwashed by corrupt Imams and leaders who merely use them for an attempt at world domination using any excuse they can think of to incite their terrorism.
Mark Lawson strikes me as the sort of person who would fill his pants if someone missed their cue on “The Late Show” (which he hosts), let alone a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina.
Fortunately the first line of his article saves us the bother of reading the rest of the article: “Given our previous knowledge of President Bush…”.
In other words, none whatsoever. Prejudice yes, speculation yes, knowledge no.
Dan,
What a prat!
I wrote an acerbic comment on Lawson to share with my esteeemed and long-suffering colleagues on this site, but then got the dreaded ‘This Page Cannot be Displayed’ when I clicked on ‘Preview’, and lost the comment.
So I’ll just have to be content to point out that, in my opinion, Lawson is a snide, pompous, self-righteous twit to boot.
Oh yes, and may The Guardian become increasingly irrelevant.
A few points about the Pinochet coup against Allende.
Allende fiddled elections, violated the Constitution, encouraged left-wing terrorism and was outlawed (before the 1973 coup) by both the Parliament and the Supreme Court.
Allende’s violations included the imprisonment and killing of striking workers, the intimidation of opposition journalists and the violent seizure of private farms, companies and schools.
Allende became so unpopular that in the Autumn of 1973 400,000 Chileans demonstrated against him in Santiago. The same proportion of the population in the UK would mean a demo by 2,000,000 people.
I am not making a case for the coup, just pointing out a few mitigating circumstances which never usually get any publicity and illustrate the issue of leaving out uncomfortable facts.
Though he has hitherto denied it, George Bush regularly displays symptoms of dyslexia
The BBC, the pretensive would be moral conscience for the nation, often hiding its bias behind its concern for the weak minorities, often to the detriment of Jews, would launch a tirade against a politician or leading figure who denigrated or scorned a handicapped person. Whether Bush has dyslexia or not, he surely is handicapped in some way. So why does the BBC feel they can heap so much scorn against him with impunity? How many dyslexics, who recognizing the pattern displayed by Bush, suspect he suffers the same disability, and seeing how the media mercilessly mock him, fear that society would do the same to them if they should become famous or powerful, and are otherwise patronizing if they keep a low profile?
The BBC shows its ‘liberal concerns’ that it loves to portray itself as benefactor of, is merely a sham, and that in reality they have no morality or scruples. A probablt consequence is our society probably loses the greatness that history has bestowed on humanity through dyslexics such as
Architects
Lord Richard Rogers (Lloyd’s Building, Pompidou Centre)
Jorn Utzon (Sydney Opera House)
Artists/Sculptors
Leonardo da Vinci
Pablo Picasso
Auguste Rodin
Andy Warhol
Peter Scott
Authors
Hans Christian Andersen
Agatha Christie
W.B. Yeats
Lewis Carroll
Ernest Hemingway
Roald Dahl
Mark Twain
Actors/Entertainers
Harrison Ford
Tom Cruise
Danny Glover
Jack Nicholson
Whoppi Goldberg
Susan Hampshire
Dustin Hoffman
Oliver Reed
Ben Elton
Billy Bob Thornton
Robin Williams
Anthony Hopkins
Bob Hoskins
Steve McQueen
George Burns
Jeremy Irons
Eddie Izzard
Felicity Kendall
Marlon Brando
Sarah Miles
Computers
Steve Jobs (Apple) Computers
William Hewlett (Hewlett Packard)
Mike Norris (Computacenter)
John Chambers (Cisco)
Entrepreneurs
Anita Roddick (Body Shop)
Richard Branson (Virgin)
Alan Sugar (Amstrad)
Henry Ford (Ford)
Paul Orfalea (Kinkos)
Charles Schwab (Investor)
Ted Turner (Turner Broadcasting Systems)
F.W. Woolworth (Woolworths)
Lord McAlpine
Fashion
Tommy Hilfiger
Jodie Kidd
Leaders
Winston Churchill
George Washington
Michael Heseltine
John F. Kennedy
Thomas Jefferson
Nelson Rockerfeller
Woodrow Wilson
Music
John Lennon
Mozart
Beethoven
Liam Gallagher
Enrico Caruso
Nigel Kennedy
Military
General George S. Patton
Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson
Film Makers/Photographers
Steven Speilberg
Walt Disney
David Bailey
Ansel Adams
Scientists and Inventors
Albert Einstein
Thomas Edison
Michael Faraday
Alexander Graham Bell
Charles Darwin
Werner Von Braun
Wright Brothers
Louis Pasteur
Sports People
Dennis Bergkamp (Footballer)
Paul Merson (Footballer)
Duncan Goodhew (Swimmer)
Johnny Herbert (Motor racing)
Jackie Stewart (Motor racing)
Sandy Lyle (Golfer)
Steven Redgrave (Rowing)
Muhammad Ali (Boxing)
Magic Johnson (Basketball)
Diamond Dallas Page (Wrestling)
Chris Boardman (Cyclist)
Carl Lewis (Athlete)
Allan@Aberdeen
I won’t be donating anything to the relief program.
What a hoot this morning on 5Live. Derbyshire invites comments from listeners along the lines of “will you be contributing to this week’s catastrophe?”
Cue a deluge of emails and text messages telling muslims to screw themselves, or words to that effect. Derbyshire coughed and spluttered her liberal way through the rest of the show, all anti-aid callers and messages obviously not allowed anywhere near the air, in favour of a bunch of hand wringers. It was a most heartening show. The penny is dropping.
Yikes, Teddy Bear, that is some list! Maybe those who haven’t got dyslexia should be the ones considered handicapped. No doubt the DNA (National Association of Dyslexics) should get involved.
OT:
Has anybody here ever tried to book tickets for Question Time online? I did this weekend, given it is coming to the NE this week.
They ask you your position on Europe and the Iraq war. I assume they claim they do this to ensure a balanced audience, but how do you then explain the wild applause anytime someone says something anti-war on the show? Surely with a balanced audience it should be balanced by 50% booing???
They also ask your race. ‘White’ is considered one race, but ‘Indian’ and ‘Pakistani’ are separate races. Is this more PC rubbish?
“Will you be contributing to this week’s catastrophe?”
I’m sure that the left will contribute greatly – by pointing fingers and demonstrating and jumping up and down in order to feel relevant.
Adrian D wrote: “They also ask your race. ‘White’ is considered one race, but ‘Indian’ and ‘Pakistani’ are separate races. Is this more PC rubbish?”
It’s not rubbish. There is a huge difference between most Indians and pakistanis: most Indians aren’t adherents of the ‘religion of peace’. In fact, most Indians are well aware of the muslims’ game which is why the BBC would wish to restrict their numbers on a program like QT.
Reading the Times report suggests that the Liberal Democrats broke election rules by receiving the donation. However, as they have promised to have better checks in place next time they will be allowed to keep the donation just this once…
Has anybody here ever tried to book tickets for Question Time online? I did this weekend, given it is coming to the NE this week.
They ask you your position on Europe and the Iraq war. I assume they claim they do this to ensure a balanced audience, but how do you then explain the wild applause anytime someone says something anti-war on the show? Surely with a balanced audience it should be balanced by 50% booing???
Adrian D | 10.10.05 – 11:23 am
I was a member of the audience a few years ago, and then they simply asked whether you were for or against the Iraq war. This way they could ensure that 90% of the audience and 4/5 of the panel, as well as the chairman were anti war. So now they have added Europe to their criteria.