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.
Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest:
Bookmark the permalink.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=415585&in_page_id=1770&ico=Homepage&icl=TabModule&icc=NEWS&ct=5
1600 terrorists being tracked by MI5.
200 “networks” active in the UK.
i think that is what you call a serious problem.
the IRA , by comparision, only had about 500 to 800 members at its peak during the 70s.
Jeez, they don’t miss a trick do they?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6135148.stm
the more i read and re-read the MI5 chief’s speech , the more i am seeing utter incompetence of the highest order.
lets put it another way – if you heard that the I.R.A. had 200 cells in the UK and that there were 1,600 trained I.R.A. volunteers running around Britain, and being funded, supported and trained in Britain, wouldn’t you think that you’d be on the phone immediaetely to your MP in utter disgust at the incompetence of the security services?
wouldnt be asking questions about why weren’t the S.A.S. being deployed to go after those terrorists?
anyone else see it as bizarre and odd that 1,600 terrorists are being allowed to run around the UK – that we dont see mass arrests , or even internment?
“anyone else see it as bizarre and odd that 1,600 terrorists are being allowed to run around the UK – that we dont see mass arrests , or even internment?”
Is it not the case that as long as these people are being closely monitored and not at a stage near to carrying out attacks it’s better to leave them a) to gather more evidence to ensure a conviction and b) to get intelligence on other groups they communicate with.
i would buy that Cockney, if it was a mere handful of terrorists – but 1,600 sounds as if its getting out of control.
bear in mind that the IRA at its height numbered only around 500 to 800 , and the vast bulk of them were in Northern Ireland.
Iraqi official: 150,000 civilians dead…
“Previous estimates of Iraq deaths held that 45,000-50,000 have been killed in the nearly 44-month-old conflict, according to partial figures from Iraqi institutions and media reports. No official count has ever been available.
Health Minister Ali al-Shemari gave his new estimate of 150,000 to reporters during a visit to Vienna, Austria. He later told The Associated Press that he based the figure on an estimate of 100 bodies per day brought to morgues and hospitals — though such a calculation would come out closer to 130,000 in total.
“It is an estimate,” al-Shemari said. He blamed Sunni insurgents, Wahhabis — Sunni religious extremists — and criminal gangs for the deaths.”
In October, the British medical journal The Lancet published a controversial study contending nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war — a far higher death toll than other estimates. The study, which was dismissed by President Bush and other U.S. officials as not credible, was based on interviews of households and not a body count.
Al-Shemari disputed that figure Thursday.
“Since three and a half years, since the change of the Saddam regime, some people say we have 600,000 are killed. This is an exaggerated number. I think 150 is OK,” he said.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061109/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
John Reith
“The World Service earns every penny we put into it, by promoting our world-view and policy, It has done so in the past and will continue to do so in the future”. Margaret Thatcher.
Even if Margaret Thatcher was correct, as has been pointed out, that you have to dig up a 21 year old quote to back up your position is telling.
Now Margaret Thatcher was a great Prime Minister in many ways, but she certainly failed in the great task of our time, which is eradicating leftism. I’d go so far as to say that she didn’t even recognise the ongoing danger of leftism to free people and this may well have led to her blind spot in 1985. We know the BBC was already on the road to leftism in 1985 becasue it famously wouldn’t distinguish between Our Boys and the Argies during the Falklands War, referring instead, in a show of supposed impartiality, to ‘the British’ and ‘Argentinian’ forces.
And yes, the BBC should refer to Britain’s armed forces with ‘us’, ‘we’ and ‘ours’.
.
On the Fall of the Wall, US Elections and Guatemalan Birth Rates
The reason why so many Europeans are pleased with the Democratic victory is because they see it as a vindication of their own anti-Americanism.
Some Europeans will deny this, and say that they are not at all anti-American • just anti-Bush or anti-neocon. It this were true one might just as well argue that the reason why the regimes in Iran and Syria are pleased with the outcome of the American elections has nothing to do with anti-Americanism but only with feelings of antipathy towards the Bush administration.
I do not buy that argument. Anti-American feelings are growing in Europe. I think these feelings will exacerbate in the coming years for three reasons, all of which have to do with the current crisis in Europe:
(1) Its welfare states are on the brink of implosion;
(2) Its moral and legal order is collapsing, while the influence of radical Islam is growing;
(3) Its nation-states are falling apart.
More
http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/1641
Cockney
Is it not the case that as long as these people are being closely monitored and not at a stage near to carrying out attacks it’s better to … blah blah waffle waffle …
Cockney, you voted Labour in the last election. You voted for the shits who dismantled our borders. You voted for the lying scum who have let in thousands of terrorist sympathisors, funders, fixers, meeters and greeters. You voted for them and and we now have at least 1600 extremly dangerous individuals working round the clock to kill as many Britons as possible.
Thanks for that. I hope you have a shit weekend.
pounce
That Red poppy ‘less Christian’ claim thing –
Yep, the BBC shilling for any Christian cause or group is deeply suspicious. It so happens that I listened to an interview this morning with the leader of these moral infants on the Nick Ferrari show (97.3FM, 7am – 9am, a right antidote to the Today Programme). This guy may be a Christian, but he’s also extremely politically motivated, and his line is pacifism. His own words made clear that this white poppy nonsense is nothing to do with the poppy not being Christian, but everything to do with pushing a hippy-dippy, happy-clappy, anti-war peacenik line.
‘but 1,600 sounds as if its getting out of control.’
Or somebody is trying to scare you.
The intelligence services could never track that many and thus would not allow them to roam free. The lack of bodies or arrests suggest that the figure is grossly inflated.
Well would you Adam and Eve it?
Following on from the Yahoo report which I posted earlier (hat-tip Counterterrorism-Blog), the Beeb have finally reported on Iraqi Health Minister’s Ali al-Shamari estimates on the precise numbers of civilians killed since the Allied invasion.
No surprise that his comments that “Sunni insurgents, Wahhabis — Sunni religious extremists — and criminal gangs (were responsible) for the deaths” have been ignored.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/61355
Oh, now that anonymity has been rightfully stripped from my visage, I can also add that Ali al-Shamari’s comments about the Lancet’s figures (“since the change of the Saddam regime, some people say we have 600,000 are killed. This is an exaggerated number”) have also mysteriously disappeared into the BBC’s filtration system.
One good reason to raise a capitalistic beer this evening – Markus Wolf, number two at the Stasi for 36 years and all round commie trash, is dead.
The Today Programme, at 8.45am spent gave some time to remember him, during which the female presenter (can’t remember her name) repeatedly mentioned Wolf’s ‘remarkable achievements’. The reference was to the thopusands of spies he successfully ran in Western Europe, and some in GB. The piece redognised that he was a staunch commie to the end, and yet we still kept on getting references to his ‘remarkable achievements’. Commie scum, the lot of’em.
The BBC and half a story.
The BBC finds a champion to speak out against the fascism of wearing the poppy.
TV’s Snow rejects ‘poppy fascism’
Channel 4 newsreader Jon Snow has sparked controversy by refusing to wear a Remembrance Day poppy on air in protest at “poppy fascism”.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6134906.stm
So there we have it folks the BBC says that wearing the poppy is a form of fascism.
Right so paying as much or as little as you like to purchase and wear a poppy is wrong according to the BBC thought police. The funny thing is that while the poppy is worn for roughly a week in the year the Hijab, and its much more oppressive sister the niqab is enforced on Islamic women the whole year round. Oh how the BBc is more than happy to say the Hijab is liberating;
“Covering up is liberating”
What self-respecting girl brought up in the Land of Choice would choose to wear the get-up of an Afghan under Taliban rule? They think I’m either forced into wearing what is technically called hijaab, or I am completely brainwashed by a barbaric ideology of yesteryear. I am neither of these. I chose to wear the hijaab without parental consent, and Islam is more a part of this society today than it was 1400 years ago.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/living/hijabliberating.shtml
In fact the BBC even goes as far to say there is a obligatory case to wear the veil;
Evidence for the obligation of niqab
The main evidence from scholars who believe that niqab is obligatory comes from these verses of the Qur’an.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/beliefs/niqab_2.shtml
So let me get this straight, how many young people, immigrants, and Muslims do you see wearing the poppy? So much for the fascist statement. Now contrast that with the wearing of the Hijab and nigab which in certain places around the world (never mind the UK) is enforced by the religious thought police and the BBC remains silent. Oh my oh my isn’t it strange that when it comes to a certain faith the BBC remains silent.
The wearing of the poppy is a freedom of expression BBC , you know like wearing a rubber band, a yellow daisy or even a badge of a certain children in need teddy bear.
http://www.bbcshop.com/icat/217&source=930
I’ve not seen anybody attacked either verbally or physically for not wearing a poppy.
But I have for Girls caught not wearing the Hijab. I wonder BBC if a presenter on Nov 17th this year who refuses to wear a children in need T-shirt or Pudsey badge will get reprimanded.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pudsey/appealnight/
The BBC and half a story..
Iraqi official: War dead 100,000
Last Updated: Friday, 10 November 2006, 12:27 GMT
Iraq’s health minister says between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war, far more than other previously accepted figures.
Eh?! What about that so-called study published in the Lancet? The one which claimed that eleventy billion had been killed?
Officials say the total is based on estimates of the number of bodies brought to mortuaries and hospitals. Casualty figures are a controversial topic, with estimates or counts ranging from 50,000 to 650,000 deaths. No official count has ever been made public.
I see. So now that Lancet study is recognised as unofficial and an estimate, not definitive.
The health ministry is run by supporters of a radical anti-US cleric. Speaking during a visit to Vienna, Health Minister Ali al-Shamari said the figure was based on an estimate of 100 bodies being brought into government run mortuaries and hospitals every day. In October, the UK medical journal The Lancet published a study saying nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died as a result of the war – a far higher death toll than other estimates.
Sorry, does this make sense to anyone? Are these Iraqi government numbers (100,000-150,000) “far more than other previously accepted figures”? Or are the numbers published in the Lancet (oodles) far more than previously accepted figures?
Is the BBC claiming that the Lancet figures are suspect now? I give this piece a D- for clarity.
Link to that piece: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6135526.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6135526.stm
‘Iraq’s health minister says between 100,000 and 150,000 civilians have been killed in the war, far more than other previously accepted figures.
Officials say the total is based on estimates of the number of bodies brought to mortuaries and hospitals.
Casualty figures are a controversial topic, with estimates or counts ranging from 50,000 to 650,000 deaths.’
Hang on a minute, ‘far more than other previously accepted figures?’ You couldn’t really get a better example of BBC spin. It would be far more accurate to state that this is ‘far less’ then previous estimates, in particular the Lancet Report, which the BBC attached a lot of weight to, stated that there were approximately 655,000 deaths.
And to think I pay for this crap.
A fully moderated (D)HYS: How serious is the threat of terrorism?
The head of the security service has given a stark warning that her organisation is tracking 30 UK terror plots and 1,600 individuals. How safe do you feel?
Is it those plumbers again?
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said young men in Britain were being radicalised at a frightening speed and teenagers are being grooomed to become suicide bombers.
Those plumbers?
Dame Eliza warned that future terrorists could mount chemical or nuclear attacks and said this threat would be “with us for a generation”.
But we’ve had plumbers for much longer than that already.
How real is the threat of terrorism? What is your reaction to Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller’s assessment? Does it worry you? How safe do you feel? How can we stop the radicalisation of young people? Send us your views.
Can anyone tell me if those plumbers are up to their tricks again?
By the way, this piece:
MI5 tracking ’30 UK terror plots’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6134516.stm
Shouldn’t that headline read: MI5 tracking ’30 plumbing terror plots’?
Typically robust column from Gerard Baker in The Times – we know who he is talking about!
Characteristically among most of the world’s intellectual and political classes there seems to have been a good deal more sympathy for Saddam than for the man who toppled him. How terribly uncivilised of the Iraqis to put him to death! So much for democracy, sniffed the sort of people who could barely control their admiration for the recent film about the fictionalised assassination of President Bush.
Having written off American voters as ignorant dorks for getting it wrong two years ago, the world has been gracious enough to admit them back into the fold of intelligent human beings. You could barely hear the news this week on the BBC for the insistent crowing on the airwaves. When news broke that Donald Rumsfeld had been fired, the joy was undiluted. Democrats win and Rumsfeld goes. It was almost enough to make them all believe in a God again.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-2446246,00.html
Jon Snow obviously hasn’t gone as far as gaining faith, he goes out of his way to describe the crucifix worn by the BBC newsreader as “a cross shaped item of jewelry”.
I have submitted a written complaint to the BBC regarding the above, so I will advise you of the reply received, if any.
By the way again, that piece I linked to above re. the 30 plumbing plots, gives space to a response by the Islamic Human Rights Commission, a jihadist front group.
How does one buy Pete_London a drink?
This caught my eye, from a piece by Mark Easton, home affairs ed, on BBC online relating to the murder of Kriss Donald entitled Racism and Race Crime Redefined:
“In the Lozells district of Birmingham last year, tensions defined around race exploded into violence. Asian gangs and black gangs clashed in what have been described as “race riots”. But, in reality, the disturbances were about poverty, housing and fear.”
To which I would say: HOW THE HELL DOES EASTON KNOW WHAT THE RIOTS WERE ABOUT?
Did rioters go around saying, ‘My housing is worse than yours?’ Was there no race angle at all? It’s preposterous rubbish….
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6128466.stm
Dur, just seen it’s been comprehensively bollocksed in the thread already. Pay attention!
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller
“I wish life were like Spooks where everything is, a, knowable, and, b, solvable by six people,”
Excuse me, and c) where everything is Mossad inspired and Christian terrorists are on the rampage?
Should we be worried that she even finds the time to watch this BBC crap?
And what does such a wish say about her state of mind?
Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, on last night’s BBC1 Question Time, has said that the timing of Saddam Hussein’s sentencing was deliberately delayed to fall just days before the American mid-term elections.
Sir Malcolm, a Conservative and a strong critic of the Iraq war, said: “I think he was convicted months ago. The date of the announcement, I suspect – I have no proof but I deeply suspect – was requested by the United States.”
The White House dismissed such accusations as “preposterous” and said Iraqi judges were in full control of the timing of the trial.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;jsessionid=VTQXCE5O3WF1DQFIQMFCFF4AVCBQYIV0?xml=/news/2006/11/10/usaddam110.xml
“Preposterous” is a good word, not just to describe his groundless accusation (& him a barrister!), but the man himself. A man so convinced that his party wanted him as leader that he fought several unsuccessful elections. Only to find that he had little or no support in the party.
Never mind Sir Malcolm you can be the BBC’s token Tory to support most aspects of the BBC’s political position.
From will’s link to The Times:
The ugly call to nativist sentiment was rejected in many places, not least in Arizona, on the border with Mexico, where two prominent leaders of the anti-immigration movement were beaten.
Could it be that the migrants from Mexico now outnumber the Anglos and that the colonisation of the South-West of the US cannot be stopped by democratic means?
SiN
To the bar with you, and I’ll have a pint thanks. There’s a commie in Hell today and I can’t think of a better excuse.
Iraqi official: War dead 100,000
Does this description assist those who seek to imply that the killing has all been carried out by US troops?
” will | 10.11.06 – 2:02 pm |”
that was reported as “news” on the main 8am bulletin on bbc radio 4 this morning.
since when what somebody has said on QT become worthy of the news bulletin at 8am ?
Could it be that the migrants from Mexico now outnumber the Anglos and that the colonisation of the South-West of the US cannot be stopped by democratic means?
Aizona had strange, contradictory results. They passed four anti-illegal immigration ballot measures directly but re-elected several people who were soft on illegals. Could be that the illegals voted — in California it’s very easy to vote if you’re illegal.
And yes, many of the Mexicans+Central Americans now outnumber us gringos in the Southwest and they are very, very race-based in their attitudes toward illegal immigration. The Spanish language is to them what The Ummah is to the Muslims.
You guys are looking at Eurabia while over here, we’re looking at Amexico. I don’t know which is scarier, frankly.
With the Democrats in control of Congress and that open-borders fanatic Bush in the White House, it’s all but given that they will pass amnesty for the 12-20 million illegals in the US. And that’s not the really scary part — it’s that those amnesty receivers will then have the right to bring their families in with them.
So we’re talking 70-80-90 million new Spanish-speaking immigrants, crushing us in a huge wave over only 10-20 years.
We won’t survive as a nation that kind of a massive immigrant influx.
It’s been nice knowin’ you guys, but the US is finished and I think you guys are too (let’s not even talk about Canada.) Plucky Little Australia is now the only hope for the survival Anglo-Saxon culture. I wish I could immigrate, but I’m too old (cut-off’s 45 unless you have a needed skill, which I don’t.)
Sorry, above comment was from me.
“Commie scum, the lot of’em.
Pete_London | 10.11.06 – 12:52 pm |”
i heard that – the female today presenter was positively gushing with praise – “remarkable acheivements” – just show the warped mindst of the Beeboids.
Marcus Wolf was a thoroughly nasty piece of work, and enslaved millions of people for decades through the Stasi.
There’ll be many Germans celebrating tonight.
Breaking news:
BNP leader wins race hate retrial
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bradford/6135060.stm
BNP leader Nick Griffin and party activist Mark Collett have been cleared of inciting racial hatred after a retrial at Leeds Crown Court.
They’ll be ullulating on the streets of White City tonight.
“Sorry, above comment was from me.
Susan | 10.11.06 – 2:41 pm |”
I’d rather Amexico over Eurabia anyday.
“We won’t survive as a nation that kind of a massive immigrant influx. ”
you said that when the Irish went over during the Irsh famine. and it was said for each subsequent wave of peoples that went to America.
America survived. and it will survive this time round. i have no doubt about it.
Mark Collet, “The BBC are the real cockroaches”..priceless
“It’s been nice knowin’ you guys, but the US is finished and I think you guys are too (let’s not even talk about Canada.) Plucky Little Australia is now the only hope for the survival Anglo-Saxon culture.”
Calm down, dear. Even assuming the growth of ethnic minorities into ethnic majorities was necessarily the end of civilisation as we know it, muslims account for only 2% of UK population and ethnic minorities less than 10%.
I’m sure, as an Amexican, you don’t intend to, but your comments read straight out of the BNP playbook.
“We won’t survive as a nation that kind of a massive immigrant influx. “
archduke: a few points
1.) The Irish spoke English. The Latin Americans are extremely attached to their language and are not interested in giving it up. They are using their huge numbers to force Spanish on the rest of us, rather than the other way around. The US is becoming a divided nation, divided by language. The last time we were “a house divided against itself”, we had a Civil War that killed off 1/20th of our population.
2.) The Irish didn’t come in at the rates of 70, 80 million at a time. This is an unmanageable number of people.
3) 19th Century immigrants were not that much worse off than the people already here. Most people in the 19th Century in both Europe and the US were dreadfully poor. Not the same thing today. Today you have massive numbers of Third Worlders moving in with First Worlders — a recipe for massive social upheaval. It’s truly gonna be a disaster.
4) Many Mexicans have bitter and angry feelings against white Americans for the Mexican War. They are taught from childhood that the US stole California from them etc. Many of them believe this fervently and that they have a right to come here and take it “back.”
5) Our traditional American melting pot is dead, killed by “multiculturalism” that great wonderful thing that al-Beeb loves so much. Thanks to the wonders of “multiculturalism” we no longer have the ability to assimilate newcomers into our essentially Anglo-Protestant culture — especially not newcomers as culturally militant as Mexicans (and Muslims). Mexicans etc. who immigrated here 40 years ago assimilated fine into our culture, because we still had our melting pot culture intact at that time. Not so today.
I’m sure, as an Amexican, you don’t intend to, but your comments read straight out of the BNP playbook.
Who’s this fool guys? I’ve been away for a while and only check in here occasionally?
Another BBC mole?
Different Anon
“I’m sure, as an Amexican, you don’t intend to, but your comments read straight out of the BNP playbook.”
And yours read straight from the Islamists’.
I wonder which you think is the greater threat?
Yes, a basic working knowledge of UK census data makes me an Islamist.
I’ll get me veil and be off then.
Our Egyptian ally speaks…
Mubarak warns on Saddam execution.
“Carrying out this verdict will explode violence like waterfalls in Iraq,” Mr Mubarak is quoted as saying by Egyptian state-run newspapers.
The verdict “will transform (Iraq) into pools of blood and lead to a deepening of the sectarian and ethnic conflicts,” he said.
The BBC’s Heba Saleh, in Cairo, says many Arab leaders can see Iraq turning into a festering sore, radicalising youth across the region and creating more anti-American sentiment.
She says that despite their view of Saddam Hussein as a dictator who brought disaster on his people, many have serious reservations about his trial, held under what they consider US occupation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6134626.stm
Meanwhile, in the war zone…
“The flashpoint city of Baquba, northeast of the capital, reported 10 deaths in numerous incidents.
An Iraqi army source said 34 people were also arrested in Baquba for carrying out violent attacks, including five Egyptians and five Sudanese.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061109/wl_afp/iraq_061109181257
I don’t know if you’re aware but the liberal left, e.g. BBC, have for too long sought to legitimate and apologise for islamofascism. Well, part of that involves demonizing as racist anyone who attempts to counter their arguments. This is what I assume you were doing with your BNP reference. So I repeat my question, who do you think are a greater threat: the BNP or islamists?
Different Anon can I ask if you work for the BBC or just hail from the people’s republic of Camden? Only you seem a little camdescending and morally unserious.
The veil crack might not seem so funny to non-muslim women hazarding muslim areas of what were once northern European towns.
The BBC campaigned (yes, I think that’s the appropriate term) to get the BNP’s leader jailed for saying that islam is a wicked, vicious faith. Griffin stands in front of a jury and quotes directly from the koran in his defence. The jury duly discharged Griffin.
Will the BBC report this on the national television news?
Oh dear BBC! We know you think the BNP are racist scum, but at least get some proper evidence if you want to get them sent down.
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,,1944990,00.html
Stop press: BBC find John Reith:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1640807.stm
K, your question is an irrelevant distraction. As is your question if I’m a Camdenite or a BBC employee. I’m surprised you didn’t go for the trifecta and ask me if I’m a Guardianista.
Regardless of the threat of either the BNP or radical islamists, positing that Anglo Saxon culture is near its last legs in the UK is not supported either by basic demographics, empirical evidence or by common sense.
While what threat islam in general and radical islam in particular poses is worth discussing, giving a latterday rivers of blood speech merely discredits the speaker at best as an ill-informed alarmist and at worst as someone whose views eerily echo the “Enoch was Right” brigade.
Different Anon:
Asserting the irrelevance of a question doesn’t really answer it. Although it does add an oleaginous quality to your condescension that’s definitely a BBC trademark when handling complaints.
And it would be the easiest thing in the world to state that you don’t work for the BBC.
btw, that would answer the question on the islamist sympathies.
If you want demographic stats that counter your pc drivel may I recommend Mark Steyn (a damned sight less ill-informed than BBC journos) http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007760