Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:


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703 Responses to Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:

  1. archduke says:

    galloway – “there is no al qaeda”

    23:04

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  2. Ritter says:

    QT audience 15%+ muslim? Maybe because it’s a ‘special’ programme?

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  3. archduke says:

    “I don’t understand why people just sit there and let him trot these lies out.”

    damn good point.

    watch through your recording – galloway never mentions the French – who supplied a frigging nuclear reactor to Saddam…

    its all bush/blair.

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  4. Grimer says:

    They keep cutting to shots of Galloway and he looks like he’s going to cry.

    Nobody else, is getting a look-in

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  5. archduke says:

    to be honest – this panel is crap. it really needs somebody like Peter Hitchens or Freddie Forsyth or Norman Tebbit (pbuh) to counter the Galloway ranting… and to really pin him down and demolish his arguments. this isnt happening.

    I’m staggered that Liam Fox is letting him get away with this.

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  6. Grimer says:

    Tebbit versus Galloway would be superb. I know why the BBC would never set it up, but it would undoubtedly go down as the most explosive/electric QT ever.

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  7. Grimer says:

    23:12

    “Was the Brazillian Boy shot and slandered?”

    (it is not possible to slander the dead)

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  8. archduke says:

    jesus h christ … galloway is really losing it.

    liam fox – “george, just calm down…”

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  9. Umbongo says:

    archduke

    “I’m staggered that Liam Fox is letting him get away with this”

    It’s all part of the constructive opposition (= no opposition) policy of the so-called Conservatives. Find something positive in what Galloway (or any other shite) is saying and agree with it. That way we make ourselves electable – as if.

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  10. Grimer says:

    Over time, I’ve really come to respect Tebbit. He’d eat Galloway for breakfast. But of course he is ‘an old Tory dinosaur’, so he’s been sidelined.

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  11. archduke says:

    same here grimer. the man is fountain of 100 per cent common sense.

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  12. Grimer says:

    Great comment from the audience regarding the PC obsession destroying the Police’s ability to do their job.

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  13. archduke says:

    there was one shot a few minutes ago that went to galloway’s face – yeah- he sure did look as if he was going to cry.

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  14. archduke says:

    pc obsession -> yeah, but it got short shrift. onto the next item..nobody on the panel followed it up.

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  15. Grimer says:

    Dimbleby didn’t seem keen to explore that one, did he?

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  16. archduke says:

    english flag issue – everyone lying through their teeth. even galloway , with his support of the england team.

    yeah right.

    if tottenham were playing madrid in some UEFA cup final, would arsenal supporters be cheering on tottenham cos they were fellow londoners? course not.

    i’m irish – but living in england. but it’d be bloody ridiculous for me to go walking around in a england shirt , waving an england flag. lets be honest here…

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  17. archduke says:

    but may i add – i love england , and love living here. but when it comes to footie, its a bit more tribal.

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  18. archduke says:

    on teletext:

    “what is this? a galloway political broadcast?”

    that beard though…hmmm. might we see galloway making a visit to a certain area of saudi arabia , around november?

    [i’m trying my best not to say anything libellous]

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  19. archduke says:

    liam fox comes down on the side of censoring rap/hip hop – he mentions the “social impact”

    oh dear. shades of the anne windecombe statist mindset there i think.

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  20. dumbcisco says:

    The BBC seem to have overlooked the fact that Hamas has issued a statement regretting the death of Zarqawi :

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/724681.html

    Of course we should send them shiploads more taxpayers’ money.

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  21. korova says:

    Galloway once again peddled out the lie that we armed Saddam. Why doesn’t anybody ever take him to task and point out the facts?

    His Socialist heroes armed Saddam (France, Russia and China). Germany provided the chemical weapons factory.

    I don’t understand why people just sit there and let him trot these lies out.

    Grimer, you are right we did not ‘arm’ Iraq, we merely provided them with the funds to buy the military hardware they required. Not to mention the BNL scandal. ‘We’ just were a little more subtle than Russia, France and China. I suggest you read this:

    http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/

    It’s all in the national archives.

    Oh yes, might be worth noting that ‘Germany’ did not exist during this period.

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  22. dumbcisco says:

    Germany didn’t exist ? That’s funny, I served in Germany in the early 1960s and visited a few times in the 1980s.

    I must have been imagining it.

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  23. dumbcisco says:

    Apparently the applause at the press conference when Zarqawis death was announced was just the Iraqi journalists. The Western MSM reps did not clap, just folded their arms.

    I bet the BBC didn’t applaud. Their fox had just been shot.

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  24. archduke says:

    korova -> nobody doubts that the UK and U.S. governments were involved in some wayt with the arming of Saddam in the 1980s

    the point grimer was making was that Galloway is allowed to rant about the UK/USA exclusively arming Saddam – while Dimbelbey looks on, doesnt interrupt and doesnt mention the French, Russian, German angle.

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  25. archduke says:

    “Apparently the applause at the press conference when Zarqawis death was announced was just the Iraqi journalists.”

    true. i got word of that too. a collective sigh of relief.

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  26. Grimer says:

    We didn’t give Saddam $30 billion. Get real. The man had oil coming out of his ears and spent the proceeds on Migs, T64s, T72s, Mirage jets, etc.

    Look at:

    http://www.sipri.org

    http://www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/TIV_imp_IRQ_70-04.pdf/download

    http://www.sipri.org/contents/armstrad/REG_IMP_IRQ_70-04.pdf/download

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  27. Gary Powell says:

    Korova
    We had a Conservative government for 18 glorious years in that time we had one war that lasted less then 3 months. so I dont know what you mean by “ALL GOVERNMENTS.”

    The BBC, MSM or Tony Blair ( I THINK YOU WOULD AGREE ) did not want or cause 9/11 7/7 or the hundreds of recent terrorist attacks all over the world, since the mid 90s.

    The twin towers HAPPENED OK you did not DREAM IT. However the BBC does give our nation and our allies enemies the oxygen of publicity, the BBC much more then most, and much much more then it has to.

    Hinding ones head in the proverbial sand never helped anything ever. I personaly have no problem with you doing this if it helps you get though your day. However I have four children and feel a resposibiliy to see them not only live to grow up . But also to grow up in a free country, and possibly a safe free world. As Archduke says you can fight terrorism without destroying the British peoples freedom. If that is what you want to do and the people that vote for you also want this. In a democracy you will not stay in power for long if you dont do what the people want.

    Socialists dont give a damm about freedom, never have and never will. They dont even use the word if they can avoid it. Except when describing something they allow a enemy of the British people to have. I despise all government efforts to restrict the personal freedom of all law abiding British people, wherever they were born. The best and most practical way of doing this is making sure thay as much as humanly possible are not in the country in the first place. If they are found locked up for the rest of their natural lives. There is no sane person that thinks any different. Before wondering if WE have taken in PROPERGANDER look in the mirror first, then look into your childrens eyes, if you have any. Then wonder how stupid you would feel if one of those non-exsistent unorganised missguided muslim friends of yours blew your kidds legs off, on the way to school.

    It is not the MSM that blows up the people of the worlds confidence in the country in which they live, it is a delliberate policy of our enemies. This is the nature of terrorism, acheiving something without the need for a large expensive army. The BBC is the terrorists biggest and stongest weapon it can use and they are quite aware of this FACT. Trust me on that one.

    BTW how do you think a small poor country like Viet-nam “defeated” the most powerfull army in the world, if not by useing the western media as a tool? Apart from the draft I dont recall civil rights in America being curtailed because of the war. It may have escaped your notice that the American army has no conscripts anymore, this is very largly because of Viet-nam.

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  28. Grimer says:

    Britain’s arms supplies to Iraq account for about 0.3% of the total.

    To claim “we armed Saddam” is a lie. Pure and simple.

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  29. Gary Powell says:

    AnotherBTW
    There will never be a revolution in Britain while there is a Labour government. This is because it is only the Labour movement that could ever organise such a thing.

    There could never be one in America because Americans might moan a bit but they nearly all LOVE their country, and so they should.

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  30. archduke says:

    “To claim “we armed Saddam” is a lie. Pure and simple.”

    i think the yanks provided the funds – to counter the Iranian invasion.

    so , technically, we didnt “arm” him – but we did support him. but galloway and his ilk ignores the geopolitical consequences of NOT supporting saddam at the time.

    it would have allowed the Iranians to conquer the saudi oil fields.

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  31. archduke says:

    we can nitpick away Grimer – but didnt the BBC broadcast, in the wake of Saddam’s defeat, wall to wall Russian tanks?

    funny how galloway forgets that in his “bush/blair armed saddam” rants.

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  32. boblog says:

    Dumbcisco, 08.06.06 – 5:23 pm
    ‘Let’s say it plain in case you misread some of the comments here.’

    Sorry, it was a sad attempt at irony on my part. I understand why he is not universally admired.

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  33. Gary Powell says:

    Grimer
    And I think you will find that most of that .3% was things like army cooking equipment.

    The fact that I have spoken to life long Tory voters that take that large slice of Gallowian Propergander, as “inconvenient TRUTH “is very serious.

    I see our current western problems in the world, not caused by to much FREE WORLD propergander.

    IT IS CAUSED BY 60 YEARS OF A COMPLEAT ABSENSE OF ANY AT ALL

    Coca-COLA may be good at selling coke, but fairly crap at selling an ideology.

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  34. Grimer says:

    Here are the Galloway clips:

    Do with them, what you will.

    I’m off to bed.

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  35. boblog says:

    Korova 08.06.06 – 10:07 pm 08.06.06 – 10:59 pm
    Well that’s alright then. I can stop worrying. Your lucid and thorough presentation of the relevant facts and telling turn of phrase have convinced me that there are no more Islamic Terrorists. What a relief. The BBC were right all along. Goodnight everyone. Sleep tight.

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  36. Gary Powell says:

    Archduke
    I think you will find that the Americans “funded” Saddam by BUYING his oil. Also by not stopping other countries supplying him with arms. Not exactly a moral outrage when your allies enemy wants to start an Iranian stile Islamic revolution all over half the worlds oil supplies. With the dedicated conviction to wipe out the Israeli nation and all its people.

    But dont tell the likes of Korova because to him/her they are just a bunch of unorganised non-exsistant misfits with a social problem.

    How many Iraqis and Iranians does the likes of Korova think died in that war, over nothing very important really?

    Where would the world be now if the Iraqis had been sweeped from the field by the far bigger Iranian Army? We might already have had nuclear bombs going off in the area at least. One thing for sure we would be in a much worse possition than we are now.

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  37. dumbcisco says:

    Frank Gardner on BBC 24 Hours gives a detailed profile of Zarqawi. NEVER uses the T word.

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  38. Market Participant says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5062360.stm

    “He was one of Israel’s most wanted men in Gaza, and was thought to be involved in a 2003 attack on a US convoy.”

    And the BBC fails to mention that it was a Diplomatic Convey, and that three security guards were killed and a US diplomat severely wounded.

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  39. Market Participant says:

    “Despite the outcome of the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, in which Israeli occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the Temple Mount, the enclosure and the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque and a superb range of Muslim Medieval buildings, remain under the jurisdiction of the Muslim religious authorities who control its day-to-day activities.”

    How about mentioning that the Israeli authorities specifically restored the Islamic waqf to control the temple mount. This was quite controversial in the israeli government at the time

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  40. Rick says:

    How about noting that The Dome on The Rock is an illegal settlement on Jewish holy ground

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  41. Rick says:

    Where would the world be now if the Iraqis had been sweeped from the field by the far bigger Iranian Army?

    Probably where we would be if the Germans had swept the British from the Western Front…………..ie. nowhere because neither side could gain a victory, it was stalemate.

    The real issue is had Bremer not disbanded the Iraqi Army would we now have any terrorism in Iraq ?

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  42. Rick says:

    i think the yanks provided the funds – to counter the Iranian invasion.

    No I don’t think so.

    I think Saudi Arabia did – it was afraid of Shia threats to its Sunni traditions. France and Russia and China supplied the kit – after all it was a Super Etendard which fired the Exocet at USS Stark – flown by an Iraqi pilot.

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  43. pounce says:

    Biased BBC and its continuing drip, dripping of anti English sentiments towards the typical English supporter;

    “With the start of the 2006 World Cup just hours away, the UK’s bookmakers must be praying that England do not go all the way in Germany.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5051276.stm

    But how they lament for this football team over how they failed to get to Germany?

    “World Cup Inshallah, a film following the difficult formation, training and World Cup qualifying attempts of the Palestinian national team, will receive its UK premiere in London on Thursday.

    Of all the teams that battled it out on the pitch to qualify for this year’s World Cup, the Palestinian national team had its own particular conflict to endure.

    Made up of a disparate group of players from the occupied territories, Lebanon, Kuwait, Chile and the United States, it was only recognised by Fifa in 1996 and has so far failed to qualify for any major international tournaments.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5049878.stm

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  44. Eamonn says:

    Sometimes the BBC just go too far.

    Witness on Today at 7.35am the analysis and interviews with regard to 3 Para actions in Afghanistan. After arriving in a certain area, within seconds 3 Para came under heavy attack by Taliban fighters. Over the next few hours 3 Para dispatched up to 50 Taleban without taking casualties. But rather than celebrating yet another superb feat of arms by our first class soldiers, the BBC instead worries about civilian casualties, hearts and minds etc. At one point the interviewer questions whether one Taleban fighter (now very dead courtesy of 3 ara bullets) was trying to usher civilians away from danger rather than using them for cover.

    What gutless depths will the BBC not go to? Just for once, can’t they simply rejoice in the fantastic military that this country is fortunate to have, rather than whining about the human rights of barbaric theocratic fascists?

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  45. Eamonn says:

    You lot only have yourselves to blame; I did warn you not to bother watching QT last night. I think the best policy is simply to ignore Galloway, otherwise your blood pressure will simply go up.

    Are you willing to learn? If so, then at all costs avoid Any Questions on Radio 4 tonight, as John Pilger is on. You have been warned! Also avoid Any Answers tomorrow, which will feature Pilger groupies phoning in.

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  46. Eamonn says:

    According to the Independent (see extract below), Zarqawi was a creation of the Americans, so Bush is to blame. Wonderful. However, I have no doubt that this is a view held by many in the BBC news rooms; they just can’t say it openly.

    Indy:-
    “It was the end of a strange but murderous career. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was a little-known Jordanian petty criminal turned Islamic fundamentalist fanatic until he was denounced by the US in 2003 as an insurgent leader of great importance.
    This enabled him to recruit men and raise money to wage a cruel war, mostly against Iraqi civilians.”

    Instead the BBC in its typical “Independent-lite” fashion says such things as:-

    “President George W Bush has said the death would help “turn the tide” in Iraq – but there are real doubts over whether it can turn around the tide of American public opinion. Saddam’s capture gave Mr Bush only a temporary blip in the polls, and that was at an early stage in the war when the public was far more optimistic than at present. Growing anxiety over Iraq since then has helped drive down the president’s public approval ratings.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5061838.stm

    and of course, the BBC finishes its main article on the website with:-

    “The violence in Iraq continued on Thursday, with at least 35 people killed in a spate of bombings in Baghdad.”

    Elsewhere the BBC website opines:-

    “But the insurgents might also use this as a chance to refocus their campaign, perhaps concentrating their fire on the security forces, and away from the attacks on civilians that Zarqawi pursued so cynically.
    That in turn could help the fractured insurgency to work together more effectively, and might also help them win more support from the Iraqi people.”

    Perhaps not really Indy-lite, but Indy-heavy.

    Also the Today programme wheeled on Jeremy Bowen to give the Imprimatur to this view with:-
    “Iraq will be a mess for many years to come”.
    So it wasn’t before the fall of Saddam, Jeremy?

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  47. Bryan says:

    Biodegradable | 08.06.06 – 3:25 pm,

    Rockets fired by Palestinians often land in Israeli border towns, occasionally causing casualties.

    It must have cost the BBC dearly to inch a little closer to the truth about the Kassams. It must have been a real wrench for the poor darlings.

    But it’s unlikely that they will actually tell the truth:

    Rockets fired by Palestinians often land in Israeli border towns, occasionally causing fatalities.

    The blogosphere will make sure that the Bullsh*t Backfiring Company’s bullsh*t continues to backfire on them.

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  48. gordon-bennett says:

    Eamonn | 09.06.06 – 8:09 am

    Remember the term “pilgerisation”, ie out-Mooreing Michael Moore.

    Michael Moore was the bastard love-child of John Pilger and Noam Chomsky (in an “intellectual” rather reproductive sense).

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  49. Bryan says:

    You lot only have yourselves to blame; I did warn you not to bother watching QT last night. I think the best policy is simply to ignore Galloway, otherwise your blood pressure will simply go up.

    I dunno about that. I like to think it’s possible to keep plugging away at the BBC and its fellow-travellers without smashing your screen.

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  50. Eamonn says:

    Bryan

    Probably right, but on a personal basis think of your own cardiovascular health when exposed to Galloway on a regular basis. I would suggest that Biased BBCers who regularly watch Galloway, Pilger, Ridley, Bunglawala etc should be prescribed a combination of beta blockers and statins. Regular Today listeners like myself, whilst still at risk, can probably manage on a salt free low cholesterol diet.

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