…doesn’t mean the Beeb has to agree. This “story” is bogus. President Bush, after all, was not slow to declare a state of emergency along the Gulf Coast. Mayor Nagin’s reaction to this “news” is laughable and hypocritical but the Beeb is happy to serve us New Orleans sludge.
Update: DFH, one of our B-BBC commenterati has two very helpful posts here and here. Auntie can’t get away with what she once did.
Simo,
Strange how we didn’t have any film or s still photo even of the oak beam that fell from the roof of the Scottish Parliament. Is the palace some sort of mystical centre off limits to mere mortals?
Gary Powell,
Don’t be surprised if Mrs Clinton doesn’t get a lot of coverage in the run up to the next US election
Rob
Re grammar schools, in the land before Antony effing Crosland, parents didn’t pay for private education when there was a perfectly good grammar school at the bottom of the road. Private schools were going bankrupt and closing down through lack of pupils. Anthony effing Crosland threw the private sector a lifeline and it has never looked back. Parents now are prepared to mortgage themselves to the hilt to pay private school fees.
“‘kin ell, if it was the United States Marine Corps sailing up the Thames I’d run and join’em!”
As with Mr Begg, if you hate Britain and love the US so much then why don’t you f**k off and live there??
re grammar schools
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/4755270.stm
is this just market forces at work?
in that, if the middle classes are all competing with each other to get their kids into grammar schools, therefore the intake will therefore be more academically gifted – and therefore the grammar school gets better results.
a self-perpetuating circle so to speak – irrespective of whether grammar schools are actually any good or not.
linked to on the front page:
“Former UK solider on what it is really like to be on tour in Iraq”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/4770954.stm
the soldier says EXACTLY what we’ve been all saying for weeks, months now:
“When I see the bad headlines I get depressed and the press need to be careful because they are risking lives.”
> “As with Mr Begg, if you hate Britain and love the US so much then why don’t you f**k off and live there??”
We aren’t living in Britain any more. The constition of the United States is based very strongly on the common law. The common law comes DIRECTLY from the U.K. The Americans would be liberating Britain from the Gramscian coup that you might notice has destroyed the UK system of bicameral parliament, replaced civil rights with state entitlements for the more equal and made massive damage to the system of justice and police.
Well if the US is some sort of utopian approximation of what the UK should be then the question still stands – why don’t you f**k off and live there?? Anyone who has had the pleasure of living and working in both countries will appreciate the ludicrousness of that view in any case.
The Gitmo circus carries on this week with a totally one-sided film on Channel 4 about the Tipton detainees.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2072767,00.html
It is appalling that these jihadist freaks are held up as some sort of Boy Scouts. Theucidides was right when he said that those whom the gods wish to destry, they first make mad. Britain is going totally looping giving airtime to these fanatics.
More on Northern Ireland and grammar schools here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/the_daily_politics/4779690.stm
archduke:
The point is that if you get all the academically good children together then such a school will be able to attract the best teachers for academic subjects.
So it’s a virtuous upward spiral, not a vicious downward spiral.
Neil Younis?
Dunno, but he’s sepulchral. Really has a voice for the print media. Unlistenable to.
Archduke
“She worries about some of the anecdotal evidence she has heard about local state schools.”
That’s putting it mildly, many parents equate the local comp to the old secondary modern, a death sentence to a good job.
My wife went to Kidbrook Comprehensive when it was first opened (1957) Then they streamed classes by ability, since when they have been downgraded and devalued to such an extent that Labour MP’s won’t send their kids to the local comp.
Harriett Harman MP sends her kids to an Orpington Grammar School.
If you don’t hear from me, I’m not beig impolite, just off to work.
I’ve just read Enoch’s speech. I don’t agree with all of it. I think his langauge is offensive in places and some ideas are totally impractical as well as wrong (repatriation). However, he makes some very good points that seem self-evident.
a) Numbers are important
b) Everybody should be equal under the law
c) Integration is essential
d) Minority groups should not be given special treatment (surely everybody can see that this causes resentment. The Beeb seems oblivious to this)
e) The British people have never been consulted on their views (just as we are never consulted about the EU or BBC). Our ‘betters’ have decided on a policy and ‘we’ have no say in the matter.
I find it remarkable that he has been villified to the extent that all most young people know about his is his ‘racist speech’. As I understand it, he was once respected as the most intelligent MP of his generation.
Sorry, should read:
I find it remarkable that he has been villified to such an extent, that most young people only know about his ‘racist speech’.
Archduke
I failed the 11 plus but got into grammar school at age 13 after an IQ test and interview. There is no reason why kids cannot sit exams at 11, 12, and 13 for grammar schools. I was no good at woodwork, but some of my fellows in sec moderns were churning out tables and sideboards. Academic and practical skills are different and should be recognised as a fact of life. One size fits all doesn’t work, it just means misery for all.
“So it’s a virtuous upward spiral, not a vicious downward spiral.”
indeed gordon. yes. market forces , with a touch of darwinian selection, at work. i cant see whats wrong with that. that’s just life.
the obssession with making all schools equally crap is utterly beyond me.
RB
As with Mr Begg, if you hate Britain and love the US so much then why don’t you f**k off and live there??
Stepping over the odd assertion that Begg loves the US, if you knew anything about me you’d know that I detest modern Britain and would do everything I could to bring it and it’s architects down. I am working on your idea in any case and would be in the US if it didn’t favour Mexicans and Somalies over it’s British bulldog allies. But here’s to determination, RB. One day we may be communicating this way with me in New Hampshire and you in the People’s Socialist Republic of Europe.
I would like to explore your idea of ‘fucking off’ if you don’t like Britain. I assume you’re not so much of a retard that you wouldn’t apply your principles to all. So, shall we draft a letter to 1.6 million muslims? Signed by RB? It can say: “If you don’t like Britain then fuck off.” What about to the Gramscian Left? “If you don’t like Britain fuck off – fuck off to Cuba or North Korea – just fuck off.” Oh this is good fun, RB. I like your game! Who else? Cab drivers with rasta flags hanging from the rearview mirror? “Hey rastas – fuck off!” Turks with their sweet shops in their Stoke Newington ghetto? – “Fuck off”. I bet you never realised what an right winger you are, RB, an a very extremist one to boot.
Or are you just a liberal hypocrite?
I find it astounding that any schools continue with un-streamed classes.
I went to the local Comprehensive until the age of 16 (they didn’t do A-levels) and they used streaming. 48% of pupils left with 5 A-C passes. Considering a majority of the pupils had parents in the Armed Forces, and had attended a lot of schools, it wasn’t a bad result).
The other local Comprehensive didn’t use streaming and they only had 22% of pupils getting 5 A-C passes.
(sorry for not closing the html)
Touche !!!
grimer -> “As I understand it, he was once respected as the most intelligent MP of his generation.”
he was light years ahead of his generation – a monetarist and free market thinker decades before Thatcher.
according to his bio on Wikipedia, he was a Professor of Greek by the age of 25. By 70, he was learning his 12th(!!) language – Hebrew.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enoch_Powell
compare that to the current shower of lawyer-social-worker-know-fuck-all bunch of people that call themselves “MPs”
i would disagree with Powell on lots of issues – i would not deny his intellect and stature.
Learning Hebrew? Another reason for the left to detest him
Peter_London,
I’d hand out ‘Fuck Off’ slips to anybody on benefits that is trying to sue the government.
I once read about a Russian Asylum seeker that was suing the government (using legal aid), because her £230,000 Council House wasn’t up to scratch.
She’s have definitely been presented with a “If you don’t like Britain then fuck off.” if I worked in the benefits office.
He was also a wartime Brigadier, I believe, at a very young age.
The most valid thing Powell ever said about immigration is that it is very much a question of numbers. People want reasonable stability, not sudden changes.
New Zealand has just appointed a Maori soldier as head of their armed forces. Maoris represent 15% of the NZ population, they were there first, and there are generally excellent community relations. The problems have arisen with large influxes of people, mostly with no skills of any use to the NZ economy, from the South Pacific Islands.
What we also want with immigration is the truth. The real figures, the real facts. And not the BBC treating people like MigrationWatch as some sort of right-wing extremists.
Islam, muslims, islam, muslims, ISLAM!, MUSLIMS! – Year on the BBC continues:
Europe’s angry young Muslims
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4781290.stm
Europe is home to a new generation of alienated young Muslims whose anger may turn to radicalism, the BBC’s Islamic affairs analyst Roger Hardy finds in new three-part series.
Roger Hardy’s three-part series “Europe’s Angry Young Muslims” begins on the BBC World Service on 8 March.
I am really fed up with this. How come Sikhs, jews, christians, hindus, and those of no faith can, more or less, get on with each other and life in relative peace, whilst muslims/islam cause trouble wherever they go?
That is the question, not some garbage about ‘alienation’.
Aaaargh!
“He was also a wartime Brigadier, I believe, at a very young age.”
youngest brigadier in the British Army , by the end of the war, according to his bio.
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?Drayson%20to%20divert%20%C2%A3250m%20from%20Lynx&StoryID=49493910-37CC-443A-9885-5203321F0F20&SectionID=F3B76EF0-7991-4389-B72E-D07EB5AA1CEE
So now the truth comes out, an Italian owned company can build 90 helicopters for 1.2bn
but a US company can build 368 helicopters for 2.2bn
and the UK Govt chooses the first option? what idiot did that?
the MoD is desparate for new helos, and this would have saved the day…
Surely the Govt can change this and buy the 368 the MoD needs? it would be brilliant business sense,? secure thousands of jobs and provide top notch kit for the forces? what more do they want?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4781290.stm
oh dear god
“The French don’t accept Islam.”
the french generally dont accept ANY religion. obviously this has been overlooked by this idiot.
” When you’re called Ali you can’t get a job.”
errr.. maybe thats because the French dont like employing angry Islamic types?
I call that self preservation.
Grimer:
You have to remember when reading Enoch Powells speech that at the time people were more free to speak openly than they are now. Imagine a Tory saying anything remotely along those lines now, not likely, just shows how far the left has stifled free speech.
He had real support then, and people could openly agree with him.
Read the press reports
http://www.sterlingtimes.co.uk/powell_press.htm
Pete-London:
I’m wondering if RB’s second name is Begg.
archduke – it just doesn’t end.
“If you want a vision of the future, Winston, imagine the BBC stuffing pro-Islam propaganda down your throat – forever”.
Pete. As far as I’m concerned anyone who wants to claim that another nation has a better quality of life than Britain but hasn’t made every possible effort to leave is a complete hypocrite.
Presumably your respect for the history and tradition of Britain doesn’t encompass Parliamentary democracy, otherwise you’d be attempting to convince people of the rightness of your arguments and get a government elected accordingly rather than spouting half-arsed ‘Gramscian’ conspiracy theories and wholly impractical A-level economic theory on niche websites.
Off Topic:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4781586.stm
Chinese TV cuts Ang Lee’s speech
The Beeb don’t actually tell us what he said in relation to Taiwan. Is that an attempt to avoid a block being put on the BBC in China?
I used to live in Taiwan and people are genuinely scared of being nuked by the Chinese. They have missile drills in the schools and streets.
The Taiwanese love America and know that the only thing stopping the Chinese attacking is the American Pacific fleet.
Guess what?
Jowell is now ‘out of the woods’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4781370.stm
No unanswered questions to see here, move along now……
DUMBDISCO
Re Should gitmo close HYS.
Shazaz Aziz when googled turns out to be a human rights lawyer who regularly churns out pieces for the times etc.
RB
You might not know this. You cant go and live and work in America without a visa. They would deport you. Even to get a working resident visa in India you nead to bring into the country over $350,000. In many countries it is much more than that. However a lott of people will “BUGGER OFF” to other countries. The wrong people. In fact you will find they already are.
Tories warn of Falklands threat
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4780192.stm
“He said relations with Argentina were strained but it was trying to mount an economic blockade and make things difficult for fishermen rather than having any military plans.”
At the first sign of any ‘invasion’ Straw Man will be on the first plane to Buenos Aires to sign the Falklands over to the Argentines. He only just failed to do the same with Gibraltar, trying to forcibly repatriate them to Spain.
The Beeb of course would loyally report on how our boys were bravely taking on the invaders….err..no, no chance of that.
Yes Archduke….and he spoke fluent Urdu
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/politics/citizens_actionweek.shtml
odd. i thought folks in the UK were “subjects” of the crown.
has the monarchy been abolished so?
Ritter,
Have a look at the related links on the right-hand side of the page.
EU CONSTITUTION
LATEST NEWS
Giscard scorns short presidency
EU admits constitution is on ice
Germany ratification on hold
EU leaders play down expansion
ANALYSIS
Treaty: dead or alive?
Q&A: What next?
Why Dutch said ‘No’
People’s protest EU-style
BACKGROUND
What the constitution says
A guide to the EU draft constitution
Guide: Where EU states stand
Q&A: Myths and realities
Constitution quick guide
RELATED INTERNET LINKS:
Argentine government
UK Foreign Office
European Union
What the EU has to do with it, is beyond me.
“Yes Archduke….and he spoke fluent Urdu”
wrote and spoke greek from the age of 6.
i despair of the current crop of identikit-social-worker-lawyer-know-fuck-all politicians.
RB,
Most Brits who can afford to do so Foxtrot Oscar to the Costa Del Sol, as do most North Europeans. They only stay in the country of birth as long as they have to stay in work, but many more are leaving at a young age and bringing their kids up in a place where you don’t have BBC News stuffed down your throat, don’t have local London News with a statutory black slot. Where the senoritas wear mink coats when the temperature falls below 15%c without fear of being attacked, where hunting shooting fishing and bull fighting is a sport. This country is enjoying affluence (decadence) because our previous generation went through hell for us. My father was a farm labourer who had one day off a year (Christmas Day) when he got paid enough to buy a new pair of boots and get drunk. Those of us true Brits remember the sacrifice our forebears made and resent spongers layabouts work shy feckless good for nothing Micky takers.
RB
You will always find some people anywhere in the world that critisise their own country. This is good ,and how it should be. However Americans who travel, that I have met, love their country more , the more they travel.
None that come here, would ever want to live here. Its just to expensive, for any normal person to get anywhere in life. Its cold. Transportation is crap. Education system is tottal bollocks. The place is overcrowded, and dirty.
The BBC has made being Anti-America and anti-AMERICANS, a national pastime. We also speak a form of English they cant understand anymore.
If any of you would like to live and work in the USA. They for some reason still LOVE us, for what I can not imagine. Maybe because they dont watch to much BBC news. The cost of living is Tiny in comparison, and peoples earning potential is far higher. If you dont want to participate fully in the system it is easier not to.
The American people work harder than we do. That is the main reason they are richer than us. If you did not know this, you have been watching to much TV. You seem to be implying that working conditions in America are somehow generaly worse than here. It is obvious to me that you have never traveled outside your own office.
RB,
Emigration has DOUBLED since the Tony party won office.
We are fucking off and in record numbers. Who will be paying for your precious 5-a-day nappy coordinators?
RB
My father’s family shares its surname with the small village that some of its members still live in. It’s only in the last couple of hundred years that they’ve abandoned using the de — prefix that they adopted in Norman times. We have evidence that the family was farming there around 800AD and the settlement itself predated the Romans.
As someone who is sick of what this country is becoming, can you explain to me exactly why I should be the one to fuck off?
How to do proper journalism
http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2006/Art/0302/news2.php
RB……your point is a good one and probably a very widespread viewpoint across Europe.
The politicians have chosen to ignore the elephant in the room which is neo-colonialism, otherwise known as the cuckoo in the nest syndrome.
I cannot see how violence can be avoided in all honesty, nor can I see how current trends will end up in anything other that an autocratic dictatorship the foundations of which are being laid by the current British Government.
The American people work harder than we do. That is the main reason they are richer than us.
Actually it is lower land prices and lower energy input prices plus working longer hours
Gary,
I’m not implying that working conditions in the US or anywhere else in the developed world are worse, just different and not necessarily better. Rose tinted specs are at work for anyone who says otherwise. Living and working abroad also makes you appreciate living in Britain more – these things work both ways. When I was in the States I appreciated the wages and costs of living but didn’t appreciate the ludicrous hours, bizarre puritanism within the office social life and inability to get decent food anywhere. When I was in France I appreciated the pace of life but didn’t the total lack of any sort of service culture.
Personally I have lots of permanent and semi permanent US colleagues, many of whom (particularly those from outside of the major coastal cities) will happily ramble on for hours about how much better life is over here. Doesn’t prove anything.
I appreciate that one just can’t decamp to the States, hence my qualification on the hypocrite point, but they’re generally more than happy to welcome exceptional workers who can benefit them. If this isn’t you then in true market forces style get off your arse and slog until it is.
Rob
It’s 2006 and obviously migration everywhere is increasing. Globalisation and all that. Some are decent people we can ill afford to lose. Some are the sort of imbeciles who bum around for 5 years after college being no good to anyone then decide that Australia rather than ineptitude is the answer to all their problems. I can certainly see that if you’ve hit retirement age without amassing the resources to live a life of luxury one would prefer mediocrity in the sun in Spain than in Essex, but I think the UK has more to offer at the top end.