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can you chaps now see why i had a “paddys day watch” on march 17th as a kind of Rorsarch test. seem what i’m on about now?
Congratulations on your 60th TPO. I’m still goggling at the Chris Cramer story and quote. The word ‘prat’ certainly doesn’t do the guy justice…
BioD – lets face it the BBC thinks its ‘controversial’ for Israel to defend itself against an unprovoked attack – let alone closing down conflict by winning (a concept alien to them altogether).
Indeed – congratulations, TPO & Biodegradable.
Wisdom comes with age, clearly.
TPO | 22.03.07 – 4:52 pm
Is this the guy?
Anonymous | 22.03.07 – 5:17 pm |
One and the same.
I don’t think ‘prat’ quite does justice to this spiteful, self-absorbed c**t.
Anonanon | 22.03.07 – 5:38 pm | #
I called him a communist c**t and from what I remember of him he was a tad pompous and self absorbed. I do remember him once telling me about the Libyan night flights going into Mindanao to supply the Islamic terrorists there. I think with the complicity of Malaysia.
I remember after the siege that he was on telly singing the praises of the SAS guys (some of whom he may have met in North Borneo when they were on training exercises). It was years later when it was the ‘politically fashionable’ thing to do that he recanted.
Totally irrelevant but have to throw it in. I was out having lunch in Godalming today with my child-bride and two year old daughter when I espied a BBC type in the same restaurant. He’s the untalented one in Tikkabilla. (those with little ones of their own will know exactly who I mean). I wanted to go over and give him an earful about why he wasn’t at work seeing as I was paying his salary but the C-B reminded me of my age and threw something in about ‘growing up’. I let him off this time. I’ll most likely bump into the weatherman in Sainsburys tonight.
something you wont see on the BBC Americas page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/default.stm
“McCain warns against the spread of socialism”
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D8O0NPQG0&show_article=1
Bio
Many congrats …. Did you say you were in Spain?
child-bride? huh?
are you going all Islamic on us TPO?
Archduke
“And the sight of Israelis enthusiastically embracing St. Patrick’s Day with the help of their good friend Guinness was merely the first of many eye-opening experiences.”
At least the sports correspondent mentioned they raised a glass in Tel Aviv (if it’s any consolation)!
D Burbage wrote;
Where is pounce?
I’ve been away for the past 3 weeks.
No news.
No computers.
NO BBC.
Give me a few days to play catch up.
TPO
Congratulations!
On Monday morning 19th between 2 and 4 am gmt a BBC big shot was interviewed on the World Service about their policy on balance, impartiality, bias etc but I don’t know what was the name of the program and how to listen to it again. Can anyone help?
Welcome back Pounce.
I’ve been reading the comments on the sports page on the Israel report. All positive. The world would be a better place left to these guys.
Here’s a taster:
“This article has also made me smile all day. I agree with happy joker, it is indeed rare for a British journalist to capure Israel in its true light. Im an Englishman currently living in Ramat Gan but I will be supporting Israel. Israeli players, unlke the Enlish players, understand what it means to pull on their countries shirts, and do it with pride. I hope all the English fans enjoy the unique Israeli hospitality that will be on offer and get a chance to see this beautiful country. Best of luck, GO ON ISRAEL!”
When John Redwood failed to sing a long with the Welsh National Anthem, the video clip was played ad nauseum on the news and every BBC current affairs quiz show. Do you think they will afford the same level of coverage to this?
http://sjhoward.co.uk/archive/2007/03/22/gordon-brown-eats-his-greens-from-his-nose
here’s the sports article on israel
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A21003698?s_fromedit=1
very upbeat ,positive. the st patrick reference is bizarre – didnt know they celebrated it out in Israel.
(then again, the tactics of Michael Collins was a major influence on the Stern Gang in the 1940s, so i suppose thats where the connection comes from…)
maybe thats because sports reporters dont have an axe to grind? theres no agenda to set in sports reporting – its actually quite a factual form of reporting, something that regular BBC “news” seems to have forgotten about ages ago.
Indeed – congratulations, TPO & Biodegradable.
Wisdom comes with age, clearly.
GCcooper | 22.03.07 – 6:10 pm
Thanks, I don’t know about wisdom, more like as Leonard Cohen says, “As you get older, you get less willing to buy the latest version of reality.” 😉
Many congrats …. Did you say you were in Spain?
TPO | 22.03.07 – 6:20 pm
Thanks, yes I’m in Spain, near Alicante.
Your mention of Borneo reminded me of a chap I worked with in the late 1960s – he’d just bought himself out of the Green Jackets(?) having seen a few of his mates die as a result of accidents in Borneo & Sarawak.
On the Israel v England match. I see somebody’s arrived from the Guardian’s ‘Comments is Frei’ site:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A21003698?s_fromedit=1
comment by hailhailsid
posted 7 Minutes Ago
The apartheid state of israel should not be allowed to play in this competition they are not in EUROPE
Check out Gordon Brown picking his nose and eating it at yesterday’s PMQs. It’s on youtube:
Don’t suppose the BBC will be broadcasting this.
Three men arrested over July 7 bombing as police swoop on airport.
“Three men have been arrested in connection with the July 7 London bombings which killed 52 commuters.
They were arrested by officers from Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorism Command on suspicion of committing, preparing or instigating acts of terrorism.
Two men, aged 23 and 30, were held shortly before 1pm at Manchester Airport, where they were preparing to catch a flight to Pakistan.
A third man, aged 26, was arrested at a house in Leeds shortly after 4pm”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=444072&in_page_id=1770&ct=5
I wonder if the latest 7/7 arrests are Muslims?
I wonder if al Beeb will ever mention this, and jihad, was being possibly relevant to the Islamic imperative to kill British people.
When will the UK government protect its citizens by banning Muslim immigration?
child-bride? huh?
are you going all Islamic on us TPO?
archduke | 22.03.07 – 6:22 pm | #
Just a joke between me and the child bride. When we met I was 39 and she was just coming upto 20. We got married in Penang and I said it as a joke and it stuck ever since. Now I’m a kept man (and a pensioner).
Thanks, yes I’m in Spain, near Alicante.
Your mention of Borneo reminded me of a chap I worked with in the late 1960s – he’d just bought himself out of the Green Jackets(?) having seen a few of his mates die as a result of accidents in Borneo & Sarawak.
Biodegradable | 22.03.07 – 7:31 pm |
Lucky sod Bio. Had little one not come along CB and I would have been in Greece by now – much like Martin Belam. However we’ve got her future education to think of so that’s why we’re off to the wilds of Alberta soon.
The Green Jacket ‘accidents’ you mention, were they part of the Sukarno incursions in the early/mid 60s? I watched a programme not so long back which involved Paddy Ashdown and had the Booty assault on Limbang. A rattling good programme about brave men. I think it was done by the BBC, and if so for once a good effort by them.
Welcome back Pounce, good to see you safe and sound, been somewhere warm?
Has anyone heard anything from the following:
Baghdad Tim
Pete London
JBH
Grimmer (someone in the Guardian was out to assassinate him)
Miss their input especially Pete’s humour.
French Jews petition U.S. for asylum
More than 7,000 French Jews have signed a petition asking for political asylum in the United States because of anti-Semitism in France.
Following the barbarous murder of a young Jew because he was Jewish, in the context of the rise in anti-Semitic acts committed by Islamic fundamentalists, numerous members of the community no longer feel safe in France,” reads the petition, which was sent to the U.S. Congress. The reference was to Ilan Halimi, a 23-year-old Parisian Jew who was kidnapped and tortured to death last year by an anti-Semitic gang.
The petition asks Congress to enact a law according refugee status to French Jews. “We believe that the United States, known for its traditional welcome to those under threat in their native lands, must open its doors to us,” the petition says.
http://www.jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/breaking/100725.html
“the st patrick reference is bizarre – didnt know they celebrated it out in Israel.”
Archduke – I think the connection comes from Irish sports teams being in Israel and celebrating Purim (a Jewish carnival festival when everyone puts on fancy dress and gets drunk)- its at the same time of year as St Paddy’s Day and the Israelis, in exchange, picked up on the Irish festivities. I read about it a while back, but can’t find the reference. Nothing to do with terror.
Indeed – congratulations, TPO & Biodegradable.
Wisdom comes with age, clearly.
GCcooper | 22.03.07 – 6:10 pm
The wife thinks I’m a prat, but thanks anyway for the compliment. Not sure that jr would agree though, he’d side with the wife.
There’s also a history of ‘green bagels’ in Jewish delis to celebrate St Patrick’s day in New York and I guess Israelis were influenced by that.
just watched “real story” on bbc 1, about NHS nurses emigrating to Australia. they followed them over to their new jobs, and all teh nurses were pleasantly surprised by the much better working conditions, better funding, and higher morale over there.
so i thought – surely there must be a reason for why these nurses are happy out there. i wonder why. so i dug around and found this:
http://www.dfat.gov.au/facts/health_care.html
“A universal system of health insurance, Medicare, was introduced in 1984. It is funded, in part, through a taxation levy of 1.5 per cent of income.”
“Private hospitals provide about a third of all hospital beds in Australia.”
“About half of all Australians are covered by private health insurance. ”
“Private sector expenditure on health accounts for around one-third of total health expenditure.”
funny how Fiona Bruce never mentioned ANY of this during the documentary.
then again, that would go against the “NHS is Good, private is BAD” agenda of the BBC. and one doesnt want to educate the plebs on alternatives to the NHS do we?
” Oscar | 22.03.07 – 8:45 pm ”
ah! that would explain it. the New York connection. thanks for the info.
ah Purim. of course. if st paddys was happening at the same time as Purim in NYC, then of course they would pick up on each others festivities – such is the melting pot of NYC. and thus exported out to Israel. yes, that would make a lot of sense.
” . | 22.03.07 – 8:40 pm |”
thats got a seriously good chance of being enacted. and i think the Americans will pass that law.
terrible indictment of the EU though. imagine the headlines in America if that 7000 actually do leave en masse. 1930s all over again.
Hold the front page! BBC News today:
Bolton admits Lebanon truce block
A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah’s military capability… Britain joined the US in refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire.
Wow – what a scoop! Oh, hang on – what’s this? Guardian July 27 2006:
Frustration as summit fails to end conflict
For an immediate ceasefire: UN, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Jordan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Canada and Cyprus
Against: US and Britain.
Result: no immediate ceasefire
The US supports Israel’s view that the violence can only end when the Hizbullah militia is disarmed, or at least removed from Israel’s border. “We cannot return to the status quo ante,” Ms Rice told a press conference. Lebanon had to have “one authority and one gun”.
Echoing this, Mrs Beckett said that even if the gathering had called for ceasefire now, it is likely it would have been impossible to implement it under the current conditions. “Even if you could get a ceasefire half an hour ago, you would probably be back in hostilities in a few days,” she said.
Could it possibly be that the BBC wants to stir up a little of its anti-American/anti-Israeli vibe from last summer just to hype a documentary about the Lebanon conflict? And all under the guise of “news”?
its probably linked to forthcoming the England v Israel football game. stirring the sh** in other words.
In the intro to the HYS on reaction to the budget, the BBC write
The Chancellor announced a 2p cut in the basic rate of income tax but the abolition of the lower 10p tax band.
Abolished? No it has been doubled to 20p.
Abolished would have required Brown to steal more of Vince Cable’s ideas & raise the personal allowance by the c.£2000 band of income taxed at 10p.
But we can’t expect the BBC to undermine Brown before his coronation.
Bio “more like as Leonard Cohen says”
Was he supposed to be singing at the time?
Jihadwatch has a brilliantly sardonic introduction to today’s 7/7 arrests. (This intro could well have had Al Beeb in mind.):
” Three male carbon-based life forms were arrested in the UK today on suspicion that they played a role in the July 2005 bombings. Two of them had been just about to board a plane to, of all places, Pakistan. Now why on earth would they have wanted to go there? ”
” UK police arrest three male human beings over July 2005 bombing.”
http://www.jihadwatch.org
” Alan | 22.03.07 – 10:06 pm |”
i think he does have Al Beeb in mind. There are regular British contributors to JihadWatch. But then the Al Beeb provides more than enough material for Mr Spencer anyway.
And also, bear in mind, that LGF has a regular “Britain has a problem” series of posts. The Yanks do keep track of what is going on over here – far more than we realise.
Happy birthdays all round.
>> I would have been in Greece by now – much like Martin Belam.
Sadly still a few days stuck in snowy Salzburg working until I get back to Crete – which seems the ideal moment to say tally ho and farewell chaps.
When I get back to Greece I once again face the wrath of OTE. They are a hideously inefficient nationalised monopoly in charge of telecoms. Imagine Richard Littlejohn writing a sitcom about “living in the unionised hell of Britain in the 1970s” and you’ll have some kind of idea of what it has been like trying to get a telephone line installed. The phrase “Byzantine” about bureaucracy didn’t come from (vaguely) that part of the world by accident. All of which means that as of next week, despite having rented a house there for a year so far, I *still* won’t have managed to get the internet connected to it – and I know how much you worry about us when one of the Beeboids drops off the radar, so I wanted to let you know in advance not to fret 😉
However much we disagre about stuff, I’d like to say thanks, because in all the nit-picking I’ve done I only thought one person was once outright rude to me on here – and I hope you don’t think I’ve been rude or totally troll-ish to you guys.
I’m sure next time I am regularly online again I shall be back to argue the toss, but until then, as I will be saying in Greece next week, efharisto, yassas.
Re French Jews petition US for asylum 8.40
I assume French Jews carry the same EU passport as us.This makes them EU citizens.It must be unprecedented for EU citizens to ask for asylum.If this is not a story then what is ?Or like the Utrecht riots will it be ignored by the BBC and our media? I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of European refugees seeking santuary elsewhere.
Well if the Jews are pretty sure, things are heating up arn’t they?
“terrible indictment of the EU though. imagine the headlines in America if that 7000 actually do leave en masse. 1930s all over again.”
THATS WHAT THEY WONT YOU TO THINK LOL!
NEVAR FOREGET!
(Sorry)
Jerry Timmins, head of Africa and Middle East, World Service posts an Editors Blog entry defending the BBC’s coverage of the middle east in response to Professor Frank Stewart’s attack on the BBC Arabic in the New York Times the other day.
It desperately needs a fisk.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2007/03/both_sides.html
ultra -> the jews of france are the canary in the coalmine.
….as Leonard Cohen says, “As you get older, you get less willing to buy the latest version of reality.”
It’s not so bad being over the hill. You use less fuel going down the other side.
Did anyone catch the BBC’s online coverage of the budget.
Pro-Labour? Surely not.
It desperately needs a fisk.
J.G.
Yes, I saw that Post on The Editors blog. I’ll maybe give it a well-deserved fisk tomorrow.
QT – tony benn has just said a LIE.
“saddam hussein was armed by the USA”
that goes unquestioned by Dimbledore.
he wasnt. he was armed by the USSR and France.
oh – and john bolton is on QT as well. but in classic BBC mode, is on a tv screen – on the outside, looking in.
one audience English moonbat has just sad that life under the taliban was better in Afghanistan. Bolton replies – “this is hopeless” and just shakes his head in disbelief.
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27499
What Ails Mainstream Journalism
Applies to journalism generally but especially the BBC in its credulous attitude to |Islam.
tony benn goes off on a rant
bolton replies – “its not worth responding to that”.
More on the exodus of French Jews to the US – “‘French Jews see the handwriting on the wall and say, `We’re not going to wait until it’s too late.’ ”
http://www.miamiherald.com/460/story/37995.html
he was armed by the USSR and France.
And Germany, from way back. Israel had a furious row with Germany over it, but unfortunately I’m sketchy on the details right now.
J.G. and Bryan
The Jerry Timmins piece on the editor’s blog does definitely require fisking – containing such nuggets as:
“What really upsets him [Prof. Stewart] is that the BBC does not overtly push an American or British government line. He seems to find it hard to understand that an institution can be committed to impartiality and mean it.”