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Another bunch of hand-picked, whining lefties on Question Time, with the token UKIP chap for “balance”.
Archduke – the dismissive “4 hours to come up with 3 lines of text” bit was, I think, what the Americans said. I beleive they also said – with great understatement – that this wasn’t the UN’s finest hour. Need to see further reports to confirm this.
I’m guessing it’s the Russians who won’t play ball, but I take your point about baggage.
ah. i found out who this “yvonne thompson” is.
http://www.cityshowcase.co.uk/index.php?section=BiosDetail&BioID=4vkxtqPcfa
“has run her own marketing and PR Company • ASAP Communications for 23 years.”
and
“Until March 2004 when the company was sold to The Capital Radio Group • for 15 years she was a founder and also a director of the UK’s only legally black owned radio station Choice FM.”
so, your usual PR/Media chatterati type. and black.
we’ll have her on question time so.
however, there’s a lot of tax payer funded stuff going on in her c.v.
**********************************
# is in her second term as Chair the London Central Learning and Skills Council
# Member of the National Learning & Skills Council Committee for Equality and Diversity
# Chairs a mayoral initiative the African Caribbean Business Network •
# is a second term Board member of the London Development Agency
# Chairs Equality Monitoring & Review Group for the LDA
# Second term Observer on the board of Business Link for London,
# Recently resigned after
• One term as member of the DTI’s Small Business Council,
• Two terms as Chair the DTI’s Ethnic Minority Business Forum.
• A 4 year term on the Economic and Social Committee in Brussels
Me 29.03.07 – 11:09 pm spellcheck on “believe”
“Anonanon | 29.03.07 – 11:09 pm ”
American pressure can be ferocious.
this was not brought to bear. gotta ask yourself why. i just subscribe to the “Jimmy Carterization” theory. Bush does NOT want to be dragged into this. He has his own plans for Iran.
Al Beeb ‘Newsnight’ on Iran crisis was pathetically weak in four respects:
1.) Paxman’s chairing and interviewing of the Tehran professor
and retired British diplomat was not fundamentally critical and seaching;
2.) there should be no apologist on ‘Newsnight’ for the Islamic Republic of Iran;(this same Iranian apologist has been given lavish air-time on Al Beeb all week); there is no free propaganda for the British position on the media of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Al Beeb’s current policy will be regarded as weakness and dhimmitude in Tehran.
3.) there was no alternative pro-British view to the diplomat’s ‘wait and see’; (the only exception to this was not provided by a British person, but by the doughty American, ex-Ambassador John Bolton, on a different programme.)
4.) Al Beeb fails to improve its critical education about the nature of Islamic jihad, and what the implications of this are for us infidels in the present crisis.
I heard Liam Fox saying this morning that American pressure is not being brought to bear because they have no credibility and that they are keeping a low profile because their involvement would hinder rather than help.
QT: now on about slavery.
curiously Islamic slavery isnt mentioned. and neither is the 500,000 Irish slaves who were carted off in the 16th/17th centuries.
“Sarah | 29.03.07 – 11:16 pm”
liam fox has it completely wrong and is merely mouthing off the Beeboid view of the world.when it comes to hard cash and hard diplomacy, “credibility” doesnt matter a bit.
America gives a lot of aid and military advice/supplies and has trade deals with an awful lot of UN member states. the fact of the matter is , is that the 800 pound gorilla choose NOT to arm-twist severely in order to back britain with its full might. for what reason, i dont know – honestly. i would be guessing if i did.
At last – on QT – Nigel Farage mentions Irish slaves. at last. somebody says it.
somebody else in the audience mentions that the coverage is pure white v black and is counter productive. nobody is mentioning the blacks that sold other blacks to white slave traders.
farage is on fire and getting lots of applause.
may i add sayeeda warsi is good as well.
last question on qt is “how much of threat is david miliband to david cameron”
dimbledores interest perks up on the miliband v brown question. LOTS of questions direct by dimblebore at Blears.
The Iranians have an embassy in Basra !!!
Clearly this is outside Iranian territorial waters and inside Iraq.
How about we capture all of them and despatch them post haste to London.
If Iran wants them back they can make concessions for them.
If they don’t immediately kowtow we can threaten to try all of them as spies.
If that doesn’t work we can just go round seizing Iranians inside Iran until we have enough that they are willing to deal.
Dont laugh, after all it is their logic and the only way to fight fire…
UNITED NATIONS (AP) – The U.N. Security Council expressed “grave concern” Thursday over the capture of 15 British sailors and marines and called for an early resolution of the problem, including their release.
Britain failed to win support for a stronger statement deploring weeklong Iran’s detention of the Britons and calling for their immediate freedom, primarily because of Russian opposition.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6518494,00.html
Judging by another AP report which sounds like it was filed first, it seems that getting the f*cking Russians even to express “concern” was a struggle:
Britain failed to win Security Council support Thursday for a statement that would “deplore” Iran’s detention of 15 British sailors and call for their immediate release, council diplomats said. A senior Iranian official suggested Iran may put the British captives on trial.
After more than four hours of closed-door talks, ambassadors from the 15 council nations were still trying to agree on a watered-down press statement. “It doesn’t look like we’re going to come to agreement today – perhaps we’ll take this up again tomorrow,” US deputy ambassador Jackie Sanders said.
One compromise that would note the council’s concern about the detention of the naval personnel and call for their immediate release was rejected by Russia, the diplomats said.
Russia proposed instead that the statement take note of the general situation and call for humanitarian access, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879210770&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
our friends the Saudis
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070329/pl_nm/saudi_usa_dc_2
oh – and on the Russians anonanon. guess who is building the iranian nuke facilities – Russian engineers.
spheres of influence empire building perhaps. just because they are a market economy and are selling oil to us, doesnt necessarily mean that they are our friends all of a sudden.
I believe it was TPO who, the other day, suggested rounding-up a few stray Iranians on a tit-for-tat basis. That sounds quite reasonable to me.
Failing which, Newt Gingrich’s suggestion of a deadline, following which we flatten their sole oil refinery may be even better.
Meanwhle, the UN has expressed ‘concern’ at the situation. There’ll be a lot of terrified shivering and shaking in the mosques of Tehran tonight, that’s for sure.
Idiots!
gcooper -> i’ve noticed that. no deadline whatsoever. to be honest, its no wonder the americans are distancing themselves right now. why be associated with a bunch of wannabee Jimmy Carters?
is *that* the reason why Chirac has kissed and made up and made the Charles De Gaulle carrier available to the American fleets in the Gulf? perhaps.
archduke: “doesnt necessarily mean that they are our friends all of a sudden.” I never thought they were, but I’m still a little surprised at just how antagonistic they are.
I too like the sound of the Gingrich option. We’d need guarantees of support though – our enfeebled navy couldn’t enforce a blockade on its own, and it doesn’t sound like the White House is in the mood just yet.
I’m sorry
I’ve always tried to be reasonable, but tonight’s effort by the BBC has left me feeling angry and sick.
Before tonight’s reports I was quite hopeful that the spin doctors from the MOD had a handle on this.
Oh no-as pointed out in ALL the above post regarding “Britain’s mouthpiece” I have never witness in all the conflicts I’ve watched on the BBC the most inept display of…..in fact I can’t begin to describe it.
All of it-Six O’clock-10 o’clock, Newsnight, QT-the whole damn stinking lot!!!
We are fighting an information and propaganda war not some Sunday morning religious program.
NEVER in my lifetime has my country looked so weak, pathetic and an almost crippled character as shown on tonight’s “flagship broadcaster”. How must the “British Nation” look to the rest of the world AND YOU PAY FOR IT!!
I’m not from the DM school of chest beating as I hope my previous posts have shown.
BUT I”VE COULD OF FU*KING SWORN I WAS WATCHING IRANIAN TV AT SOME POINTS
That’s why UN snigger and sign “concerned” statements-You only have to look at Al Beeb to show the how amateurish we really are. Not a single ounce of backbone.
That’s why Ken Bigley got it, AJ, all of them…….
Because of four years of “jokes” and “japes” about TB and GWB instead of what was happening in the ME in a proper journalistic way, not the endless talking heads.
Four years of the likes of Moore, Galloway, Yorke, all of the fu*king “voices” crowing across the airways. Not in my name-nope but in fu*cking Iran’s.
Four years of limp, short-sighted, weak gutless and lazy news reporting have now come to this utter low point. We now sh*t ourselves and revert to type when the “I” word is mentioned…..
And you know what, there be more of the same tomorrow at 5:30.
Again apologies….:(
Glauca:
I have just read a comment from an American who was just watching BBC World and he was shock that the BBC kept giving Iran’s “assurance” about the Territorial location of the abduction equal merit to that of the British tangible proof shown yesterday by the MOD.
“This Week” invite, completely at random, former Hezbollah hostage (& apparent Stockholm syndrome sufferer) Charles Glass to comment on the Iranian situation.
His opening remarks – the sailors may have been in Iranian waters & detained legally, plus what about the Iranian diplomats detained by the US in Iraq.
There’s balance!
Ingsoc is doublethink | 30.03.07 – 12:12 am
He shoots – he scores!
Uri Geller is on “This Week”. I think I may go down to Television Centre and take a few hostages of my own. What a load of shit.
Anonanon writes:
“Uri Geller is on “This Week”. I think I may go down to Television Centre and take a few hostages of my own. ”
Don’t complain. It’ll need someone with psychic powers to find any trace of a backbone down there.
Just an illustration showing that the BBC has always had the same mindset and why they will never change.
“Why did Reith detest Churchill? In Reith’s eyes, Churchill was of course a warmonger, and Reith, not coincidentally, held Hitler in the highest regard. How little times have changed.”
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/015056.php
Substitute Bush for Churchill and the resemblance is clear.
.
What’s the judicial tariff/going rate for betrayal and treason of your country and countrymen –
About 3BN Pounds/annum it seems !!!
The BBC (now IBC – Iranian Brodcasting Corporation) is beyond words to describe how utterly foul an organisation it has become.
We all pay for this “service”, they must be laughing their little cotton socks off in Tehran, Riyhad, Damascus and Islamabad.
One can fully expect them (the IBC) to wheel out their WMB’s (Weapons of Mass Bullshit) in support of their ally –
“Liberator of Kabul” Simpson.
“Oi’ve bin walkin for 5 minutes now” Guerin.
“War Crimes” Bowen.
And not forgetting of course the Doomsady Weapon –
Ferg Al Keane a.k.a Ali Boo Hoo
– who will force us all to commit mass suicide by smashing our heads through the TV screen just to shut the w*anker up.
.
” Anonanon | 30.03.07 – 12:10 am |”
thinking about it, one reason why the Russians might be antagonistic, as you point out, is perhaps, that they are playing the short term oil price increase game.
antagonism = unsure oil prices. which leads to higher prices which equal – more money for Russia.
but, despite that financial aspect, you have to look at this from the Russian point of view – if it was 15 Russian sailors captured, you can be guaranteed that they would threaten to turn Tehran into radioactive glass, plus the elimination of all of their foreign ambassadors by FSB agents , and that would have been made within about , say, 3 days.
are we doing anything like that? err . no. Putin must be looking on all of this with bemused amusement.
” Ingsoc is doublethink | 30.03.07 – 12:12 am”
i was about to post an angry post when Iranian TV broadcast ,..oops.. sorry the BBC broadcast at 10 o clock. but my anger got the better of me and i just held back. i dont like to swear on here. but you put my thoughts in writing better than i would. mine would have been constant expletives.
one phrase comes to mind about the 10 o clock news tonight – an utter disgrace.
“DennisTheMenace | 30.03.07 – 12:51 am ”
you missed out the “they came in their thousands” stock phrase.
ingsoc -> after watching that BBC output, is it any wonder that the Yanks arent arm twisting like crazy at the UN. they ARE NOT arm twisting. why would you bother if a so called “ally” has a tax funded news broadcaster that is anti-american?
the yanks arent stupid – they monitor the BBC garbage. they are very aware of it.
chickens coming home to roost come to mind.
archduke | 30.03.07 – 1:48 am |
Mea culpa –
On another topic, many posts on this blog refer to the twisted social paradigm promulgated by the BBC (sorry IBC), Grauniad and others as ‘Left Wing’ or ‘Socialist’.
I’m afraid as someone with a longtime socialist outlook I must strongly disagree.
As was explained to me by my Pappy, Grandpappy and several stewards and conveners over the years I came to the conclusion that true Socialism is a fairly simple yet flexible concept.
Not to bore people with too much detail its perhaps easier to summarise what Socialism is NOT about –
Multiculturism.
Ethnicity/Race.
Gender.
Sexual Orientation.
Religious bigotry.
Soft on crime.
Pacifism.
Social irresponsibility.
Personal un-accountability.
Positive discrimination.
Anti-wealth (in fact its positively encouraged as there will be more to share).
That’ll do for now, but as you can see this is in almost direct contradiction to the IBC et. al. world view.
As I see it they are neither left wing or right wing — the best orientation I can think of for their political view is ‘between the bum cheeks’. This also probably best describes Labours ‘3rd way’ strategy which as I understand it had ‘Mandy’ Mandelson as one of its chief architects.
So please in future refrain from this left wing stuff – refer instead to left bum cheek or right bum cheek or I shall get very cross and submit a comment full of bold and underlined text (just like the UN).
Of course you can guess where this places the BBC/IBC which ‘occupies the centre ground’ — sphinctersville !!
Most appropriate given what they produce.
.
“Uri Geller is on “This Week”. I think I may go down to Television Centre and take a few hostages of my own. What a load of shit.”
Careful now.
Earlier I was thinking about calling for the terrorist bombing of the BBC, but thought better of it.
“Don’t confuse terrorism with Islam, says EU”
The European Union has drawn up guidelines advising government spokesmen to refrain from linking Islam and terrorism in their statements.
Brussels officials have confirmed the existence of a classified handbook which offers “non-offensive” phrases to use when announcing anti-terrorist operations or dealing with terrorist attacks.
Banned terms are said to include “jihad”, “Islamic” or “fundamentalist”.
The word “jihad” is to be avoided altogether, according to some sources, because for Muslims the word can mean a personal struggle to live a moral life.
One alternative, suggested publicly last year, is for the term “Islamic terrorism” to be replaced by “terrorists who abusively invoke Islam”.
An EU official said that the secret guidebook, or, “common lexicon”, is aimed at preventing the distortion of the Muslim faith and the alienation of Muslims in Europe.
“This type of newspeak shows that the EU refuses to face reality,”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/30/wislam30.xml
British residents held in Guantanamo Bay
JAMIL EL-BANNA Jordanian. In Guantanamo since March 2003. Arrested, with Bisher al-Rawi, in the Gambia.
BINYAM MOHAMED Ethiopian. In Guantanamo since September 2004. Indefinite leave to remain in UK. Travelled to Afghanistan in 2001.
SHAKER AAMER Saudi Arabian. In Guantanamo since February 2002. Was applying for British nationality. Seized in Pakistan in 2002.
OMAR DEGHAYES Libyan. In Guantanamo since August 2002. Allegedly appears on a “Chechnyan training video”.
AHMED ERRACHIDI Moroccan. In Guantanamo since May 2002. Worked in UK for 18 years. Accused of attending a terrorist training camp in 2001.
AHMED BELBACHA Algerian. In Guantanamo since March 2002. Alleged to have attended a training camp.
ABDELNOUR SAMEUR Algerian. In Guantanamo since June 2002. Went to Afghanistan in 2001 and was shot in Pakistan.
JAMAL (TONY) KIYEMBA Uganda. In Guantanamo for more than three years. Was travelling in Pakistan when he was seized
Lots of Traditional Britsh names in there Anon…….lol.
Matt:
Paul Reynolds allows his bias to show in this piece:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/65…/uk/ 6502947.stm
Apparently by disagreeing with the Iranians and stating the sailors were in Iraqi waters, Britain is trying to “ridicule” Iran, and is causing an “escalation” to the whole crisis.
How very DARE we disagree with the Iranians!
Matt | 28.03.07 – 5:56 pm |
and what about the sinister innuendo in this para:
Perhaps memories on the Council of the invasion of Iraq (without which the naval party would not of course have been there) played a part here.
so you see any UN mandate notwithstanding, it’s all britain’s fault because when all is said and done you have no business being there in the first place
. | 30.03.07 – 5:34 am |
don’t look at me…i would say the people most guilty of confusing (am i being pc?) terrorism with islam are the imams of a certain religion and their (and its) adherents.