Please use this thread for off-topic, but preferably BBC related, comments. Please keep comments on other threads to the topic at hand. N.B. this is not an invitation for general off-topic comments – our aim is to maintain order and clarity on the topic-specific threads. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog. Please scroll down to find new topic-specific posts.
(UPDATE: I’ve bumped the timestamp on this open thread forward rather than start a new one so soon. Several new posts below.)
Update: my mistake, he isn’t a councillor, I missed out the the words ‘candidate for’ in front. Need more coffee. 🙂 Now you’ll accuse me of bias I’m sure, but genuine error, if I could edit the post I would.
I fully expect most of the regular readers here to assume that the story is false, that it’s all a mistake, that nobody as nice as a white surpremacist BNP councillor could be involved in anything ‘dodgy’ or that it must be a fix-up by a bunch of those dodgy muslims.
you assume a lot.
saw this yesterday on laban talls blog.
…………………………….
“He’s not a terrorist and it’s not a bomb factory but we are interested in what we have seized from his house. It will take expert advice to establish exactly what he has got.
“He was arrested under the Explosives Act on suspicion of possessing chemical substances that aren’t in themselves an offence to possess but if combined may be capable of making an explosion.”
………………………………
http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/newsheadlines/display.var.947927.0.exbnp_man_held_in_bomb_swoop.php
……………………………….
and thats the best you’ve got.
Paul Robinson “The new front in the BNP‘s war appears to involve biochemical weapons. What a lovely bunch of people.
You stretch the informtion we currently have.
& not necessarily anything to do with the BNP.
Ex-BNP man faces explosives charge
http://www.burnleycitizen.co.uk/news/pendle/display.var.951775.0.exbnp_man_faces_explosives_charge.php
my mistake, he isn’t a councillor,
but you wish he was.
Oh dear, Cockney, sad to say but you vent like the mental version of a curry fart — ‘macho bollocks….blah blah blah’ — the standard sad clapped-out British non-argument about reining in and civilizing those crazed American cowboys.
AKA, set up a strawman and declare victory. Is it just you, or are Brits generally reduced to this?
No-one is saying that the first, second or fifteen-thousandth option is to bomb NK, merely that it is an option. The first priority out here in the real world is to find out what happened.
Thereafter, whatever decision is made is none of the EU’s business. Do you think you get a vote on the welfare and efficient use of the thirty thousand American troops currently on the NK border?
If you and your schoolgirls actually want to do something (inconceivable IMO), then go right ahead. Meanwhile, your diplomats will get tea and sympathy and nothing else, i.e., precisely what you deserve, and you have no-one to blame but yourselves. The ‘special relationship’ is long dead. Viva Eurabia!
If you’re perplexed about Australia — that cultural cringe thing redux? — look at the effing map. Put bluntly, Australia matters and the UK doesn’t (also, Australians are much nicer people). As for China, its economy is now slightly larger than Italy’s and about the same size as the UK’s. And the Chinese will be more worried that Kim Il Suck’s off his meds and gone ronin than even the Japanese. Do you have a point?
Better you stay with fantasies about what Koreans stick up their artillery tubes. As I said, this is for grown-ups.
knacker
The first priority out here in the real world is to find out what happened
What “happened” is that the north koreans have managed to do what they’ve been saying they were going to do for ages. Develop WMD. The fact that the US decided to make Iraq the first target out of the “axis of evil” nations has nothing to do with WMD but stability in the middle east. North Korea is chinas problem. Iran, well that’s different as I say. That that is what’s happened is fairly obvious.
Where are the grown ups in Afghanistan ?
hilarious bit of political correctness on the radio 2 news a minute ago.
the cops are after a rapist. they describe him as
“having ancestral links to the West Indies”
(and no – i’m not kidding. i just heard it…)
“North Korea is chinas problem”
i concur – i wouldnt be surprised if the Chinese either invade or sponsor a coup.
they simply cannot risk their economic progress and trade with the West for the sake of a lunatic Stalinist.
Actually the bloke is right in one respect. We don’t yet know whether it was a successful nuclear test or a bluff or a dud, which is the first step in coming up with a strategy.
Beyond that his grammar has largely defeated me, so I’ll just reiterate that all logic suggests that the 30,000 US troops on the NK border aren’t seeing any action any time soon (apart from harrassing the local female population presumably).
I’ve also looked at a map to confirm my suspicion that Australia is that big country out of higher estimates of North Korean missile range which keeps us in bar staff and bad lager but otherwise means toss all in the international sphere. They are very nice people though. China on the other hand is that other big country currently providing Mr Kim with most of the aid keeping his country going so might need speaking to at some point.
I suspect that most Euroweenies are more than happy to let you brave chaps get on with it whilst enjoying out thoroughly pleasant lives.
Have fun being a grown up with your big boys gun magazines….
just heard on the radio – heathrow terminal 2 closed. cops dealing with an “incident”
BBC4 gives over 2.5 hours tonight to demonstrate what a bunch of laughs were those crazy commies
Mark Lawson Talks to Alexei Sayle
&
Hammer and Tickle
No competition from BBC1, where we seem to have another BBC programme (after Dr Who, Spooks, Robin Hood) with a message –
The Amazing Mrs Pritchard
where the manageress of a northern supermarket becomes prime minister
there are a few weighty matters to contend with, notably a skirmish in Iran and an uncomfortable telephone call from George W Bush. She has lots of good ideas, too including moving Parliament to Bradford.
Chinese troop leave cancelled on korean border
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/PEK252924.htm
“Hammer and Tickle”
Looking forward to the comedy song and dance number
“How do you solve a problem like Korea?”
BBC News, 13:30, Tuesday.
Weather muppet: “…looks like fine weather right into the weekend, Sophie.”
Sophie Raworth: “WOW!”
Anyone else long for the days when the news bulletins didn’t resemble Jackanory?
archduke:
“having ancestral links to the West Indies”
Presumably that was thought up by a Socialist Darwinist, like the BBC snail scientist, professor Steve Jones,”In The Blood. God, Genes & Destiny”(the major BBC television series, 1996). Somebody who couldn’t come out and directly mention that all our Genes suggest an African root for humankind, kind of thing. I believe that it’s based on DNA testing. I agree it sounds like they are looking for the missing link!
While the BBC continues to blame the right wing Danish People’s Party for the latest ‘Danish cartoon row’ the truth is that left wing infiltrators stirred it up this time.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6037597.stm
Activists from the Danish People’s Party were filmed at a summer camp, drinking, singing and taking part in a competition to draw images of Muhammad, including one depicting him as a camel with beer bottles as humps.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061010/ap_on_re_eu/denmark_prophet_drawings
The video was produced by an artists’ group, Defending Denmark. In a message posted along with the video, the group said it had infiltrated the Danish People’s Party Youth, known as DFU, for 18 months “to document (their) extreme right wing associations.”
“This is not an example of something that is meant to provoke. This is an example to show how things are in Danish politics,” artist Martin Rosengaard Knudsen told Danish public radio.
The clip was removed from that broadcaster’s Web site Monday, as well as from the Nyhedsavisen newspaper’s site. The purpose of the original publication was “not to insult Muslims or expose any members … to any danger,” said the paper’s editor, David Trads.
A party official reportedly said that two youths seen in the video clips had gone into hiding.
“They are very shaken by the huge reaction the drawings have had,” Kenneth Kristensen was quoted as saying on the Web site of the newspaper Politiken.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6037832.stm
BBC to launch TV channel for Iran
Funding will come from the £245m annual grant-in-aid currently given to the BBC World Service by the UK Foreign Office.
and where is it the u.k foreign office
get its money from.
Channel4 is tax payer subsidised. It pays nothing for its share of the broadcast spectrum.
That has enabled it to create More4, which shows wall-to-wall left wing programmes to a predictably minute audience.
Last night it showed the Bush assassination film, which compounded the bad taste with a cliched plot of the knowingly wrong imprisonment of a Muslim.
Why did Channel4 get to show the film so soon after its world premiere? Because they (i.e. us) funded it.
With the BBC, World Service & Channel4 the leftys get a marvellous service at the taxpayer’s expense.
BBC to launch TV channel for Iran
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6037832.stm
sean. | 10.10.06 – 5:15 pm | #
Well spotted Sean.
This is extremely worrying. Why on earth am I, the British taxpayer paying millions to pay for a TV channel for Iran? Can’t Iran have their own home grown flourishing broadcast media? Whoops, I forgot, Iran is a one party Islamic fascist theocracy. What exactly is the BBC’s role in providing TV in this environment?
“He said television was “increasingly dominating the way that millions of Iranian people receive their news” and promised the Farsi channel would be “editorially independent of the UK government”.
Well it would have to be. The Mullahs are hardly going to give permission to BBC Iran to broadcast unless they tow the (Islamic) party line.
What next – BBC North Korea? Looks like the BBC already have plans to tap the UK taxpayer for that one….
Meagre media for North Koreans
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6037715.stm
“He said television was “increasingly dominating the way that millions of Iranian people receive their news” and promised the Farsi channel would be “editorially independent of the UK government”.
Ritter | 10.10.06 – 5:38 pm | #
will some one of you tax payers challenge them to PROVE it will also be independent of the iran government/mullahs?
here is the news from yahoo
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061010/ennew_afp/britainirantelevision_061010162430
“The BBC is to launch a new Farsi-language television channel for Iran with British government funding.”
It will cost “15 million pounds a year to operate”
Check this out guys:
“In Iran we are regarded as the most trusted and objective of all international broadcasters… But television is increasingly dominating the way that millions of Iranian people receive their news.
Now wonder the BBC is trying to make the Iranian regime seem like a democracy, of course, otherwise the Iranian dictator won’t let them start their profitable propaganda machine in Iran.
“Like all BBC services, the new television service will be editorially independent of the UK government.”
It is editorially independent yet it is subsidized by the government. What?? Guys I think they are stealing your money cause they don’t care about representing the British people or for that matter, representing democracy at all.
They just want to get government grants to expand their business to where it is profitable, obviously Iran where they have many blind followers.
“North Korea is chinas problem”
Not sure I agree with this.
NK threatens Japan –> Japan decides it needs its own WMD –> China feels threatened and beefs up its military –> Taiwan decides it too needs some sort of deterrent –> more American troops and ships to the area –> oops, who pressed the button
It seems to me it’s everyone’s problem, this could become a serious flash point, not to mention NK’s habit of arming every nutter with a bit of cash
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2006/10/speaking_to_iran_1.html
richard sambrook.
we are finding more people want international news than ever before.
here’s an idea then richard,make them
pay for it if they want it so much.
John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, was interviewed on Radio 4 this morning. If anyone has ever heard John Bolton speak, he/she will know that straight-talking Bolton states what he means – no ‘nuances’. After Bolton had finished, the BBC’s Diplomatic Correspondent was brought on to explain to us what Bolton had said. But I heard Bolton perfectly well, and I understood exactly what he said. This is part of what one contributor described as the BBC’s ‘analysis’: BS masquerading as subtance.
The BBC and subliminal character assassination;
Is Google becoming too powerful?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/default.stm
Now lets look at this snippet from a few days ago;
BBC and Microsoft sign agreement
The BBC has signed an agreement with Microsoft to explore ways of developing its digital services.
The non-exclusive memorandum of understanding sets out a framework for joint projects between the two organisations.
This includes plans for next-generation web 2.0 and ways to share online content in the future.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5390000.stm
and here is what Microsoft think of Google;
“An email from Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and a related memo from Ray Ozzie, one of the software giant’s three chief technology officers, have been leaked onto the Web. The documents are kicking off intense interest in the company’s apparent internal discussions about missed opportunities in the wake of Google’s success. “While we continue to make good progress on many fronts, a set of very strong and determined competitors is laser-focused on Internet services and service-enabled software,” Ozzie wrote in the memo directed at Microsoft’s executive staff. He then singled out several rivals, Google in particular. http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=173601151&tid=5979
Looks like this town isn’t big enough for the two of us according to Microsoft’s stable mate;
http://eclectech.co.uk/thistown.php
Why do British taxpayers have to pay in order for others (Iranians) to receive the service. Why does the government grant money to the BBC in order to expand itself to Iran, rather than give money to other developing newspapers in order to expand themselves in the UK, so that there is competition. Is the BBC becoming an international monopoly?
You guys should not pay a dime for something that is not even a public service. I agree with Sean, if the Iranians want the BBC, then have them pay taxes, grants and subcriptions for it.
No taxation without representation guys, the government collects taxes because they represent the public in free elections, the BBC is “independant” so they should not receive grants obtained from British taxpayers.
Under the pathetic headline..”Syrian president’s patient wait for peace” arch-Arabist John Simpson does a snow job on the creepy tyrant currently running Syria. Simpson positively swoons in admiration for the Baathist fascist and saves all his cynicism for the USA and Israel. How much longer are the British people going to keep paying their TV Tax to finance this pro-Arab propaganda . Articles like this are why we call it Al-BBC.
Pounce, it was as recent as 1995 when Bill Gates said that the internet was ‘massively overhyped’!!!
Microsoft have never been cutting edge, they only exist because of their size, by their exhorbitant licence fees and by leaving people with little choice.
Much like the BBC!
They’re both doomed organisations.
The BBC and half a story;
Sudan ‘kills hundreds in Darfur’
Hundreds of Sudanese have been killed in attacks in Darfur, with the apparent knowledge and support of the government, a UN report says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6033231.stm
And how the Guardian reports the same story;
The Sudanese government almost certainly had prior knowledge of militia attacks in Buram, south Darfur, in which several hundred people may have died, Louise Arbour, the UN human rights commissioner, said yesterday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1891572,00.html
and right at the bottom of that guardian report;
“A UN official in Khartoum gave a third possible explanation last night for the attacks. Jean Christophe, a protection officer for the UN mission in Sudan, , said “the location of the emptied villages matches the map of oil concessions in south Darfur, so oil may have something to do with it”. The concession, known as Block No 6, was awarded to the Chinese National Petroleum Corporation, though there are rumours it may have been sold.”
http://www.hrw.org/reports/2003/sudan1103/2.htm
How come the BBC isn’t shouting out “its all about Oil” they do when its America in the frame?
“I agree with Sean, if the Iranians want the BBC, then have them pay taxes, grants and subcriptions for it
Diana | 10.10.06 – 6:45 pm |”
wasnt Radio Free Europe funded by the U.S. taxpayer. I would hope, indeed long for, this proposed BBC Farsi service to be an equivalent (and i would have no problem with tax money funding that)
But based on the BBCs track record, i seriously doubt it. Indeed, i have no doubt that it’ll probably turn into a propaganda arm of the Iranians, influencing the BBCs English output via Iranian employees who are actually planted by the Tehran regime.
“BBC and Microsoft sign agreement”
That really shows the BBC mindset at work.
Any techie will tell you that Microsoft is hated in geek circles. Even the geeks that work with Microsoft products are only doing so for the money.
so one monopoly, which gets it revenues practically through extortion, is sucking up to another monopoly that gets its revenue through extortion.
a match made in heaven.
18 Doughty Street
On air tonight, and now talking about BBC bias.
Is internet-TV the beginning of the end for the BBC?
http://www.18doughtystreet.com/blog/
This morning on R5, pre 9:00 am news, the listeners were treated to Andy Kershaw enthusing about N Korea; the people, the places, the mass rallies. The advercast lasted for about ten minutes and consisted of Kershaw’s recollections about his trip to N Korea; “psychedelic! Like being on drugs, without the drugs”.
We had:
Kershaw on the people; ‘incredible discipline….’;
Kershaw on the view from the Stalinist backwater; ‘ they believe everybody in the world lives like them… They have no curiosity about the outside world….’;
Kershaw on the mass rallies, ‘Amazing! Unbelievable!…’;
Kershaw on the political prisoners; ‘well Amnesty say that, but nobody really knows…..’;
Kershaw on the leadership; ‘everybody talks about the playboy dictator, but there’s a lot of propaganda…..’;
All this was rounded off with a four-sentence review of US Foreign Policy: praise for Clinton and Albright and the S. Korean ‘Sunshine Policy’, followed by the ritual Bush-bash.
I still don’t know why this was ever broadcast.
If the public needed a travelogue of N Korea, other, better people, including journalists have taken the chaperoned ‘Grand Tour’.
When it comes to the history of the tensions between N Korea and the world, there are people who actually know what they are talking about and can inform the public with a degree of accuracy.
Quite frankly it was bilge. In a magazine program, this piece would have been barely acceptable as a ‘filler’, putting it out in a news program was a studied insult to anybody capable of understanding English.
Archduke, the US government also provides funding for other stations such as Radio and TV Marti, which are aimed at the cuban population in Cuba, whose only source of information is the dictatorship’s “newspapers” Granma and Juventud Rebelde. The US sponsors these programs with the objective of promoting democracy in Cuba and of promoting freedom of information.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Mart%C3%AD
The US government also funds Voice of America.
However, given the obvious bias of the BBC towards claiming that Iran has a complex government system and not a dictatorship, it is evident that the BBC does not intend to promote democracy and freedom of information in Iran, since the BBC doesn’t even want to recognize Iran as the dictatorship it is. Thus, the BBC should not receive government funding for this unless they committ themselves to promoting democracy in Iran and to providing factual information without bias, which we know they don’t do.
Via Stephen Pollard’s site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/listings/programme.shtml?filename=20061010/20061010_2030_4544_8744_30
watching 18 doughty street – its good. very good.
and we dont pay 3 billion a year for this.
fantastic.
(good quality video too)
heres the link if you dont want to scroll up or google
http://www.18doughtystreet.com
” Diana | 10.10.06 – 9:22 pm | ”
totally agree – its throwing good money after bad.
If Gordon Brown had any sense he should either put rock solid provisos on the BBC or else just write a cheque to the Americans – they’ll do it.
Allan@Aberdeen 9:23 pm —
Alexei Sayle is among the children of members of Britain’s Communist Party who recall what it was like to grow up with the principles of Marxism-Leninism and a belief in the evils of capitalism.
No scare quotes around “evils”?
Marism-Leninism has principles — Capitalism has evils?
next topic on http://www.18doughtystreet.com
is BBC bias
18 DS is very impressive, especially for a first night.
Look at the face of the future BBC, and be very afraid.
18 Doughty Street has great definition, it is really cool that one can watch TV online, I am amazed 🙂
Yes, count me on-board, too.
Hello, 18 Doughty St.
Goodbye, Newsnight.
You have to admire the BBC’s persistent advertising of Robin Hood. So many ‘news’ stories keep cropping up, they would be failing in their duty if they didn’t report them.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/6037962.stm
pounce | 10.10.06 – 7:22 pm,
Sudan ‘kills hundreds in Darfur’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6033231.stm
That’s one incredible headline. As the BBC falls all over itself to resist telling the truth about what is going on in Sudan, it’s starting to write stuff that doesn’t even make sense. So an anonymous mass of people representing the whole of Sudan is killing another anonymous mass representing a part of Sudan? How enlightening.
Seems like you not only have to be Muslim-friendly to work for the BBC these days – being illiterate also helps.
They probably set assigments at the BBC “journalism” college on how to write nonsensical headlines, starting from the truth and working backwards till it has been successfully covered up.
So they’d start with
Sudanese Arabs slay Africans
and take it from there.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6039438.stm
What on earth is a country’s “second most powerful leader”?
And how clumsy is a “claimed nuclear test”?
As as for a professional journalist using “it’s” instead of “its”…
We pay billions for this rubbish.
How to use stealth-edits to blatantly lie.
http://drinkingfromhome.blogspot.com/2006/10/paxman-stealth-edit.html
Paul Robinson 10.10.06 – 12:40 pm,
I fully expect most of the regular readers here to assume that the story is false, that it’s all a mistake, that nobody as nice as a white surpremacist BNP councillor could be involved in anything ‘dodgy’ or that it must be a fix-up by a bunch of those dodgy muslims.
Paul,
If you’re listening, you can’t compare the BNP (or, in this case ex-BNP) to Muslims. There’s no mathematical equation here. The vast majority of terror around the world is Islamic terror.
Using your logic, a child playing with his chemistry set could be compared to Bin Laden.
The problem with you Muslim-friendly crowd on the left is that you have lost the ability to discriminate – if you ever had it in the first place.
Up is not down, and black is not white. And God gave us the capacity for intelligent thought so that we can figure these sort of things out. You should try it some time.