Open thread – for comments of general Biased BBC interest

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.

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

  1. ghost of john trenchard says:

    today will be a VERY good day to bury bad news

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6176769.stm

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  2. Cockney says:

    TPO

    I am at work paying for your pension. These days we all work 70 hour weeks but are allowed the odd coffee or internet browse as long as we get stuff done. Flexible economy and all that.

    Permesso surely? We might as well extend the spelling n’ grammar fetish into the old Italiano.

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  3. Cockney says:

    GOJT If anyone still gives a flying monkey’s toss what happened to Princess sodding Di they should get the same treatment as Pete’s Commies. Enough enquiries already.

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  4. Cockney says:

    On BBC matters, there was something on Newsnight last night about Western entrepreneurs looking for business opportunities in North Korea. Lots of clean streets, happy looking modern Korean people and convivality. It was quite interesting but screamed out for a bit of starving peasant style balance.

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  5. John Reith says:

    Clarification:

    My original comment wasn’t about spelling.

    It was about the consistent use of the noun ‘bias’ as an adjective.

    Those who remember Gary Powell should know exactly what I mean. Those who still read Pounce surely do.

    (I apologized to Bodo because his was a genuine typo….)

    It’s a curious phenomenon – rather like the widespread habit among gangsta-rappers in the US who say ‘axed’ instead of ‘asked’.

    I wonder what it correlates with?

    Maybe IDS’s team have done some work on it.

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  6. John Reith says:

    Bryan

    a reprehensible propaganda video titled Israel’s Secret Weapon.

    Israel’s Secret Weapon wasn’t reprehensible. Nor was it a propaganda film.

    Apart from one Sunday Times journo – every interviewee was an Israeli or an American, so far as I recall.

    Anyway, here’s the script. Spot any factual errors?

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/correspondent/transcripts/17_03_2003.txt

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  7. Bryan says:

    I forgive pounce any small grammatical errors he may commit. His eye for BBC bias is excellent. You pecking away at him over it wont change that fact.

    Besides, I’ve noticed that the incorrect use of bias is rife throughout the internet. As is the spelling of ridiculous with an ‘e’.

    Love to stay and chat, but I’ve gotta run.

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  8. Bob says:

    Has anyone bought linguistically challenged JR a French dictionary yet (I refer to Rueful Red’s correction of the patronising moron’s spelling)?

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  9. knacker says:

    blahreith…blahreith…blahreith…gangsta-rappers in the US who say ‘axed’ instead of ‘asked’.
    I wonder what it correlates with?

    Skin color. And your point is…?

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  10. Anonymous says:

    TPO: I regard the Dutch as less than human, so we’re even. The land of euthanasia, sexual perversion and the monetization of every value is a plague spot at the centre of Europe. I cannot say anything bad enough about that pleasant, expensive suburb of Hell. So you can tell your Dutch friend that I am proud of his contempt; what would bother me would be if a Dutchman had something good to say about us.

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  11. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    That was me, of course. Cookie failure.

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  12. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    TPO: you have showed how much you understand. “No permissio.” No braino. I met a cop like you once – took the side of the villain because he did not like my accent. Since then I have not bothered going to the British police any time anything happened to me.

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  13. John Reith says:

    Knacker

    skin colour

    Mmm.

    Actually, the ‘aksed’ (prounced ‘axed’) / asked thing is an interesting example of metathesis. The original Old English axianis the root. Pattern (from patron) and wasp (from waeps) are a couple more.

    The ‘bias’ thing is different.

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  14. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    Pete_London: yes, but when I wrote that, the third Test had not started yet. Nor, for that matter, had it started when people voted. Voters cannot be expected to read the future, and until now, Panasar has given more reason to hope than to be confident.

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  15. max says:

    Could it be that the Israelis have opted for the lesser of two evils?
    Nom de guerre | 14.12.06 – 4:14 am

    In addition to what Bryan wrote:
    Al Jazeera, albeit being a propaganda tool for jihadists, allows Israel to respond and comment in Arabic on news events and media allegations. In that, as far as Israel is concerned, they provide a better platform for Israelis to redress bias/ false perceptions in the Arab world. It lets Israel speak for herself and to counter-balance the Arab and world-media propaganda.

    I hope protesting the BBC’s appalling coverage has also got something to do with it and that the cable company will soon follow suit.

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  16. max says:

    Re JR: Israel’s Secret Weapon wasn’t reprehensible. Nor was it a propaganda film.

    From the transcript:

    00.33.09
    Olenka Frenkiel
    While Sharon has been Prime Minister seven hundred
    Israelis have been killed. But more than two
    thousand Palestinians have died in attacks by Israeli
    soldiers.

    00.33.21
    Olenka Frenkiel
    The Israeli army has used new unidentified weapons.
    In February 2001 a new gas was used in Gaza. A
    hundred and eighty patients were admitted to
    hospitals with severe convulsions.

    00.33.41
    Voiceover
    The Israelis say this is tear gas. But this is not tear gas.
    We have never seen this gas before. We need some
    medicine for treatment. But it must be the right medicine.

    00.33.56
    Aston
    Dr MOHAMMED SALAMA
    Director, Palestinian Health
    Ministry
    We asked, what kind of gas? But nobody verified for us
    the type of gas to give the antidote at that moment. Also
    we don’t know how to check, how to examine, how to
    send this. We are in occupied area. We are surrounded.
    It is impossible to send these samples to international lab
    to test.

    00.34.27
    Olenka Frenkiel
    Israel is outside chemical and biological weapons
    treaties and still refuses to say what the new gas was.

    The assertion that Israel used “unknown gas” on the Palestinians in a special program dealing with WMD looks like Propaganda to me.
    Furthermore, it was aired at the time when the Iraq war campaign ended, insinuating (I’m being generous here) that Israel and not surrounding tyrannies are the real danger to the world (and in the eyes of the BBC, perhaps more deserving of an invasion).

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  17. ghost of john trenchard says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/

    lead story is this:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6179275.stm

    as i said. a good day to bury bad news.

    like this:
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6178403.stm

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  18. Cockney says:

    max – so are the isrealis signed up to the chemical weapons treaty now?

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  19. Pete_London says:

    gojt

    From this link:
    Prisoner vote consultation begins
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6178403.stm

    We get: “Crime reduction charity, Nacro, has welcomed the move. It said “barring prisoners is wrong on principle”.#

    NACRO, The National Association for the Care and Rehabilition of Offenders (‘spit’) is not a ‘crime reduction charity’. It’s a left wing organisation dedicated to eradicating incaceration as a punishment for criminals. Pure Guardianistas, the lot of’em.

    But what was that phrase used by the BBC? Crime reduction charity, Nacro … And how does NACRO describe itself here?:

    http://www.nacro.org.uk/about/index.htm
    At Nacro, the crime reduction charity …

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  20. Pete_London says:

    Stone the crows.

    NACRO FAQs
    http://www.nacro.org.uk/mediacentre/FAQ.htm

    Q: How many staff members and volunteers does Nacro have?
    A: Nacro has 1,426 staff members and just under 1000 volunteers.

    Q: Where does Nacro operate and how big is it compared to other charities?
    A: Nacro, registered charity no: 226171, operates across England and Wales and has grown into one of the largest charities in the UK, with an annual turnover of £59 million.

    That’s alot of expensive liberals!

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  21. Pete_London says:

    gojt

    as i said. a good day to bury bad news.

    Too right you did:

    Blair questioned in honours probe
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6179911.stm

    This is currently on the ‘politics’ page, without even a link in the sidebar, while the news front page gives us: World’s tallest man uses long arm to save Chinese dolphins

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  22. ghost of john trenchard says:

    ” Pete_London | 14.12.06 – 1:52 pm ”

    holy sh**!

    pretty sure Guido Fawkes (or maybe one of the commenters) predicted just that!

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  23. ghost of john trenchard says:

    its only just made the front page…

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/

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  24. ghost of john trenchard says:

    ah – my bad. the international version doesnt have it. the UK version does.

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  25. John Reith says:

    max | 14.12.06 – 1:23 pm

    Interesting that you had to go 33 minutes into a 43 minute film to find anything you could call propaganda.

    Interesting too that the bulk of what you do cite as ‘propaganda’ is a 46 second clip of a Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman. So what is it you are saying – that by giving 46 secs out of a 43 minute film over to a Palestinian perspective, the BBC is guilty of propagandizing? Are no Palestinians allowed in programmes about the Middle East?

    You also cite two brief snatches of reporter Olenka Frankiel:
    The Israeli army has used new unidentified weapons.
    In February 2001 a new gas was used in Gaza. A
    hundred and eighty patients were admitted to
    hospitals with severe convulsions.

    Is this true or false? You say ‘it looks like propaganda’ to you. It was widely reported at the time. What reason do you have for doubting the story?

    What is Nes Ziona for?

    What’s your answer to Cockney’s question?

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  26. TPO says:

    Goodness me. I come back from mums & toddlers to find Pete’s fan club dogging my heels.
    Cockney
    ‘I am at work paying for your pension.’ Just like I worked to pay for your education. So maybe its quits. My child-bride works up in town for a large multinational and hasn’t come across anyone who works 70 hours a week except for my former colleagues.

    Cockney, Fabio
    My apologies, I didn’t explain the permesso/permissio quibble that you both have. Just as certain Brits abroad talk in a form of pidgin to Johnny Foreigner, always raising their voice (just think Shirley Valentine, ‘Hey Zorba’ and what followed), so our little goose-stepper in Naples was doing it in reverse. What he was trying to say in English was ‘No permission to land here’. It came out as ‘No permissio’, missing off the ‘n’ at the end.

    Fabio
    My Dutch friend, now sadly dead, and I were working on an Italian run contract in the back end of Saudi (and yes we weren’t allowed through Mecca, we had to use the 70 mile detour road built for infidels). Also on the contact were Yanks, other Brits, Italians and another Cloggy. There was a lot of good humoured banter and friendly international rivalry. My Dutch friend made his ‘Arabs with boots on’ remark to some of our Italian mates when we were sipping sidiki (Arabic for my friend) a very strong illicit alcohol drink. Unlike you they saw the funny side of it and responded in kind. Because of where we were there seemed to be a more mature approach to life amongst my colleagues.
    On another note
    ‘I met a cop like you once – took the side of the villain because he did not like my accent. Since then I have not bothered going to the British police any time anything happened to me.’.
    I’m not like any other ‘cop’ you’ve met because I didn’t do that sort of work. But hey, you seem to infer that you get into a lot of bother. Wonder why that is? Perhaps no sense of humour.
    Must off now to feed the ducks with my little one so I leave with this one question. Do you declare your tips to the Inland Revenue?

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  27. ghost of john trenchard says:

    getting back to Nacro, if you look at page 17 of the 2004 accounts, you can get an idea of their funding..

    Unrestricted Funds
    grants receivable: £9.4 million
    training income: £19.7 million
    Other income: £7.2 million

    Restricted Funds
    housing rents: £5.4 million
    Grants receivable: £18.1 million

    “grants”? i wonder what they are? taxpayer funded perhaps?

    if you scroll back up to page 6 , you’ll see that donations amount to a grand total of : £36,000 – with the cost of fund raising £77,000

    so , its obvious that this “charity” isnt surviving on donations from the public.

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  28. Cockney says:

    TPO

    you can’t have paid that much into my education if you were in the police?? is that a taxpaying salary?

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  29. Jonathan says:

    Pete you go too far.

    The Blair questioned in honours probe IS leading the news front page (surprise, surprise, BBC loves labour lefties but hates Blair and “Blairites”).

    Perhaps it was not to start with though, they can be a tad s-l-o-w.

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  30. ghost of john trenchard says:

    ” Jonathan | 14.12.06 – 2:30 pm |” – check the international version. if you are abroad, that is what the BBC front page defaults to.

    top story – Diana report.

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  31. Anonymous says:

    Cockney
    Surely you must have worked out that I wasn’t always in the plods and paid into the exchequer from other employments (including some of the overseas ones). But either way I was on 40% tax before I called it a day to look after the daughter. Incidentally Mr. Plod pays 11% of his salary into the pension scheme (One of the highest contributions in the public sector).
    Now She really does want to go and feed the ducks so I have to disappear. Take care and will catch up tomorrow unless the wife gives me time off this evening.
    PS – Do you work on the trading floor somewhere?

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  32. Pete_London says:

    TPO

    Your Italian colleagues laughing at the ‘Arabs with boots’ comment strikes me as typically Italian, a country where good humour is not in short supply. Fabio strikes me being un-Italian in his preciousness. Even Italians say that ‘Africa comincia a Napoli’.

    Johnathan

    I was quicker than the BBC then. Guido was even quicker, that’s where I picked it up.

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  33. John Reith says:

    Pete_London | 14.12.06 – 2:56 pm |

    …er excuse me, Pete-London – Guido GOT IT FROM THE BBC. He even has the good grace to say so in his headline.

    http://5thnovember.blogspot.com/

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  34. Fabio P.Barbieri says:

    Pete_London: Bossi supporters employ that disgusting and racist statement. I am half Northern and half Southern, and regard Bossi and his kind as an abomination. There is nothing good-humoured about that loathsome saying: it goes with the frequent attempts to drive cars with southern plates off the road (a crime so frequent that the Government has had to change the number plates to remove geographical origins) and with threats and violence in the streets. So you went around with Leghisti. Nice people. But then, like calls to like.

    TPO, the Dutch murder the old, the sick and disabled babies as a matter of routine. There is nothing more to be said, and perhaps you should choose your mates with more care. And no, I did not get into trouble out of lack of sense of humour: I got into trouble because a professional villain with a record as long as your arm damaged my property when I had done nothing to him, and the police then took the villain’s side. Not that there is much to be surprised. Perhaps, you being a cop, they will not tell you to your face, but the most common description of policemen among ordinary Londoners is “useless”, “incompetent”, “lazy” and the like. I should have listened to my friends who said that to go to the police for anything short of murder was a waste of time.

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  35. Roxana says:

    Cuckoo; I comprehend your problem but realistically the hearing majority are *not* going to learn sign language and interpreters can’t always be on hand.

    Here in the states we have ‘deaf advocates’ who fight lip-reading, language training and any other effort to integrate the deaf into the mainstream on the grounds of protecting ‘Deaf Culture’. I hope you don’t have that in England.

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  36. Geoff says:

    I’m probably just being juvenile, but I loved the headline:

    Analysis: Probe mars Blair exit

    Yes, I am being juvenile. But it’s fun.

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  37. Anonymous says:

    …er excuse me, Pete-London – Guido GOT IT FROM THE BBC. He even has the good grace to say so in his headline.

    In that case why were BBC Views Online so tardy? Double-checking because the source was so dubious? 😆

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  38. Anonymous says:

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/6180301.stm

    Mr Balasingham held a British passport and lived in London. The UK classifies the Tigers as a terrorist group.

    WTF? A representative of a group classified by the UK as a terrorist group lives openly in the UK?

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  39. Anonymous says:

    Right now on (D)HYS we have a discussion about Zimbabwe: “Should Zimbabwe’s leader remain in power?”

    On BBC’s World page…
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/default.stm

    …We have the following comment hightlighted:
    The biggest problem is the people worldwide who think they know what’s best for Zimbabwe
    Vincent, Harare, Zimbabwe

    Of course, when you click the “readers recommended” tab…

    http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=4983&start=0&tstart=0&edition=1&ttl=20061214164730&#paginator

    …You find Vincent’s comment 10 pages in, with 0 (zero) recommendations.

    I wonder why some of the more recommended ones didn’t get highlighted?

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  40. Anonymous says:

    Kojo’s papa has been replaced…

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/6180573.stm

    He has promised to reform the world body and rebuild trust in it.

    Rebuild trust in it? Surely the wonderful UN hasn’t lost trust under the stewardship of Kojo’s daddy, the secular saint and Nobel laureate?

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  41. knacker says:

    Reith

    metathesis

    Hark, the sound of a red herring flapping…
    Actually, the ‘use’ of words like this in everyday language is an interesting example of pompous crap. P Daddy/Diddy will be unmoved, just like the rest of us.
    A trifle more interesting is your reflex rush from the public bar back up to Olympus.

    The ‘truth’ thing is different.

    Or are you even now teetering up there on your pinhead over the vowel downshift from colour to color? Only the non-U version can be racist, maybe.

    Mmm. Quite.

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  42. Nom de guerre says:

    As usual, the BBC is silent about the heroism of British troops in Afghanistan.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/12/14/nvc14.xml

    The South Asia section of the website does, however, brings us a bizzare feature entitled ‘Insurgency benefits Kashmir wildlife’

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6169969.stm

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  43. DifferentAnon says:

    “As usual, the BBC is silent about the heroism of British troops in Afghanistan”

    Last Updated: Thursday, 14 December 2006, 16:45 GMT

    Currently the story is the fourth link down on the UK page.

    “A hero soldier who died saving seven comrades from Taleban gunfire has been awarded the highest recognition for gallantry, the Victoria Cross.”

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/north_yorkshire/6179661.stm

    As is increasingly common, B-BBC’s esteemed commentariat don’t actually bother to check whether their comments are actually true.

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  44. Nom de guerre says:

    DifferentAnon | 14.12.06 – 5:46 pm

    The story is there now and fair play. I see that it has only been added at 16.45pm and wasn’t up earlier when I looked for it after reading the Telegraph article.

    Furthermore, the title of the story – ‘Posthumous VC for heroic soldier’ – is very vague and makes no reference to Afghanistan or Taliban.

    Yet further, unlike the Telegraph story that I linked, there is no mention that other soldiers who served in Helmand were also being recognised with “a hatful of medals.” The BBC makes Bryan Budd’s heroism sound like an isolated incident.

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  45. Lee Moore says:

    I wonder if they’ve shot themselves in the foot with this one :

    http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/politics_show/6161847.stm?dynamic_vote=ON#vote_6161847

    There are five lefties and two righties :

    Tony Benn, Neil Kinnock, Alex Salmond, Clare Short, Norman Tebbit, Margaret Thatcher, Shirley Williams

    creating a serious danger that the lefty vote could be split allowing Mrs T to win. Shurely shome mishtake, Ed.

    PS • who could possibly have Shirley Williams as a political hero ? Apart from Emma Nicholson, she’s easily the most boring, predictable, smug, nannying, unimaginative, received wisdom spouter the world has ever seen. I suppose if I had to envisage Auntie personified, it would be Shirley Williams.

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  46. John Reith says:

    knacker | 14.12.06 – 5:26 pm

    hark the smell of the lamp.

    Look chum, (since you’re happier in the public bar) it was you who brought pounce’s pigmentation into the discussion. (Presumably you’re too smart to have really thought that the referent of my ‘it’ was the ‘aksed’ habit rather than the strange use of ‘bias’.)

    And I took you for a Brit – so don’t drag spurious allegations of anti-americanism into it.

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  47. dave t says:

    DiffAnon:

    As is increasingly common, B-BBC’s esteemed commentariat don’t actually bother to check whether their comments are actually true.

    Such bravery….. when you pop up, slag off posters and then crawl back under Reith’s desk….silly boy.

    As nom de G says, there were in fact some 130 odd awards including several CGCs second only to the VC yet they didn’t even appear on the MoD website until an hour ago! Are the BBC taking their cue from The Sun which had the story this morning based on leaks from the MoD etc. Oh wait…more “good” news about the bravery of our Forces to bury the bad about Blair?

    PS Chuffed to see an MC for a 19 year old female medic Private Norris. Well done girl! She shows the likes of DiffAnon up for a start!

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  48. dave t says:

    And the BBC STILL don’t have the details of the other awards two hours later – this list of 134 heroes and heroines is one of the most noticeable since the Second World War! Are they ashamed of our troops for some reason?

    And yet again they fail. In the story of the alleged thousands of rapes in Kenya which has now collapsed after WE spent £3 million investigating them, it was discovered that of the 200 odd out of 2000 that might have been true that evidence was faked by senior Kenyan Police officers etc. No mention of this corrupt behaviour on the BBC story of course…just a muttered “no evidence nothing to see here move on…..” rather than the fact that some British lawyers and Kenyans have conspired to defraud the British taxpayer of millions.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2502529,00.html

    As pounce would say – BBC half story Jackanory yet again!

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  49. DumbJon says:

    I’ll let this speak for itself:

    http://ace.mu.nu/archives/208575.php

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