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“I am being driven mad by the likes of Michelle Malkin whose anti British feelings”
as an irish man, i’ve never really understood the “special” relationship. in anglophile and trade terms – yes, understandable – but lets face it – those yanks had a revolution against the empire. you HAVE to work that relationship – its *not* a given.
as for Malkin – cant blame her to be honest. from their point of view, they’ve got a kick in the teeth from their closest ally. not nice.
the Brits have let the side down so to speak. badly. and it’ll take years to repair it.
i wouldnt fancy being a Royal Navy man walking into a bar full of U.S. Marines right now. i’d be laughed OUT of the bar.
further to the above – here is what the Yanks now think of the Royal Navy
http://bp3.blogger.com/_rqH4fUbko2U/Rheuh6mDCMI/AAAAAAAACIY/_d6LiVSpXkI/s320/arthurbatcheloraz4.jpg
not nice. years to repair – and they want to go ahead with tabloid “tell all” stories and pocket 100 grand or whatever in the process?
by contrast, here’s what yanks think of their marines
http://www.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2006/01/29/mn_marine_photo8.jpg
yes. its propaganda. but for f**ks sake, somebody over here needs to get a grip. fast.
“passion of the christ”…. on channel 4 now.
(the bbc is becoming more and more of an irrelevance…)
Archduke wrote:
“I’m not ex-forces, so i am seriously hesistant to comment on this publicly.
you dont know the half of what i think about this fiasco. ”
I’m not ex-forces either but I have spoken to some of my colleagues who are and they are utterly disgusted by the entire affair: it’s a dreadful indictment of our Blairite military. What one of my colleagues (ex-Navy) noted was that there was a time during his period of service when an offoicer could demnad of a rating that he “do 10” as a disciplinary measure – ten press-ups. Not any more! It’s a breach of their human rights.
Another colleague (also ex-Navy) observed that the calibre of recruit had dropped noticeably over the period of his service, and that discipline is lax because the ratings and officers want to be molly-coddled.
This is the mark of Blair, no question – and it is deliberate.
Nothing that happens in this country surprises me anymore. This only shows to me how 10 years of a completely corrupt government, who have nothing but contempt for the British people, have decided to make us a laughing stock. First it was in Education, then the Criminal Justice System and the Police and now the armed forces.
To top it all there is no-one waiting in the wings to put this right.
How can anyone abroad not think that all British people support the government when NuLabour has been elected 3 times in a row – does this not show support for their line? Well we all know that only 21% of the electorate actually voted for them but this is not widely reported especially by our good friends at the BBC.
maybe its just me so – unwilling to admit that the forces have stooped so low.
the same british forces that burned down numerous towns in my homeland of ireland, and raped and pillaged like there was no tommorow.
in other words – a tough fucking bunch of hardened violent warriors, whom we had a lot of respect for. of course, my ancestors gladly shot a lot of them, but that was a tough war and that was that.
i am just perplexed because this is not the british army that my ancestors FEARED and fought against. fear was a big part – the reprasals were the stuff of legend. not saying that the brits were “wrong” – it was war. and that is what war is about.
Jon writes:
“How can anyone abroad not think that all British people support the government when NuLabour has been elected 3 times in a row – does this not show support for their line? Well we all know that only 21% of the electorate actually voted for them but this is not widely reported especially by our good friends at the BBC.”
It is also the direct result of the policies of the BBC.
If advertising and propaganda didn’t work, then Ford, Unilever and all the rest wouldn’t waste their money on it.
The seizure of the British media by the Left has achieved a great deal of what it set out to do, as this latest farce has demonstrated only too well.
all perfectly sensible – if you want to stop the Jihad spreading in France, you stop Muslim immigration.
Or encourage them to pass straight on through
Sangatte, the camp for illegal immigrants that France promised to shut down, is back in a new location close to Calais as organised gangs offer passage to Britain for as little as £200.
A Sunday Times investigation has found a network of Afghan gangs servicing a shifting population of 500 immigrants at any one time, seeking to enter Britain illegally.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1626724.ece
What’s remarkable is how everyone treats this as a propaganda victory for Iran – as though propaganda is serious.
Ultraviolence: Propaganda is very serious.
Just look at the GW lunatics – they use a tried and trusted method of propaganda – FEAR:
“When a propagandist warns members of her audience that disaster will result if they do not follow a particular course of action, she is using the fear appeal. By playing on the audience’s deep-seated fears, practitioners of this technique hope to redirect attention away from the merits of a particular proposal and toward steps that can be taken to reduce the fear.”
http://www.propagandacritic.com/articles/ct.sa.fear.html
If you follow the BBC techniques for imparting “information” they use a comination of most types of proaganda techniques. But overall it boils down to this:
“The first stage is to focus attention on whatever injustices can be found within the present system. The second is to present the issues in such a way as to create sympathy for “victims” and hatred against “exploiters.” The third is to claim that the problem can never be solved until the present system is replaced by an entirely new one that offers justice and respect for the common man.”
http://www.freedomforceinternational.org/freedomcontent.cfm?fuseaction=confessionsecon&refpage=issues
which is a classic example of Marxist propaganda –
Only the state can solve your problems, individuals can’t – thereby forever increasing the power of the state ad infinitum
Brian:
There is certainly still hope for Britain.
Yes, indeed there is. Where there’s life… The hope, I suppose, must be that it’s darkest before dawn. If you’ll forgive all the cliches, it’s way past time to start cleaning house. But the need really is rather obvious.
To be effective, as you know, you have to do it yourselves, sans Uncle Sam in every respect. Very little sign of that happening, so the decay will continue. Somewhere down the road, there’s a point of no return. If that sounds ominous, and not merely a little hackneyed, it is.
Still, I certainly can’t predict the outcome. Can you?
http://news.bbc.co.uk
several of the stories (and highlighted on breakfast news) arent actually “news” – but plans/announcements on stuff thats going to happen in the future.
iraqi shias prepare for protests
(the protests havent happened yet.)
plan to help black boys acheive
(a union says something about a “plan” to happen in the future)
tories to hear schwarzenegger
(not news – its in the future)
bbc man missing for four weeks
(yeah. we know already.)
kazakhs promised aral sea aid
(something that’ll happen in the future.)
by contrast, if you have a look at Drudge (a 1 man band operation) you actually get a lot more hard “news”
http://www.drudgereport.com
U.S. economy, the pope, Iran Nuclear Day, Space Nerd blasts off, MIT scientist/climate change, U.S. cold weather, Dow Chemical buyout, Solomon islands quake…
“Passover” anyone?
Apologies if already spotted, but go take a look at Harry’s Place, where brownie has spotted an interesting addition by the BBC to the President of Iran’s comments. An addition, by the way, that is absent in the quote in other news sources:
http://hurryupharry.bloghouse.net/
The BBC: “I luv Iran”
http://news.independent.co.uk/media/article2433039.ece
http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2007/04/the_way_to_the_.html
stephen glover writes.
“Mr Cameron’s policy of wooing The Guardian, or at any rate not being at loggerheads with it, is central to his strategy. The Guardian may have comparatively limited sales, but it is the BBC’s in-house journal. The Cameroons are certain, after the
trauma of three successive election defeats, that the Tories can never win power again with the liberal media against them. The BBC is of course infinitely more powerful than The Guardian, but that newspaper occupies roughly the same role within the corporation as Chairman Mao’s Little Red Book once did amongst Chinese Communists. Win The Guardian over, and you have almost won the BBC.”
knacker | 08.04.07 – 7:59 pm & 09.04.07 – 8:07 am
Your real name is Ahmed from Cardiff and I claim my £5
Still, I certainly can’t predict the outcome. Can you?
knacker | 09.04.07 – 8:07 am,
Nope, and I’m looking at this from the outside since I don’t live in Britain.
Kassam rockets still being fired into Israel:
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879265683&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Hezbollah have re-armed to pre-war levels:
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4043
Hez War part 2 coming?
“Palestinian Suffering : who’s responsible”
http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2007/04/01/palestinian-suffering-whos-responsible/
very interesting, comprehensive essay from the Augean Stables blog.
more on the Pallywood definition of “ceasefire” – you cease, we fire.
http://wizbangblog.com/2007/04/08/if-this-is-a-truce-gimme-war.php
“During the truce, Palestinians have continued to fire crude Kassam rockets into Israel, although at a slower rate.”
how nice of them. in a Pallywood version of a “truce”, they’ll agree to just cut back a bit with the rocket firing…
“Crude rockets” ar now officially “aimless rockets”:
http://www.israellycool.com/blog/_archives/2007/4/7/2865082.html
The BBC: “I luv Iran”
Abandon Ship! | 09.04.07 – 9:33 am
Here’s Iran’s Passover gift to the Jews:
http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1412
Report: BBC Reporter may have staged own kidnapping
By JPOST.COM STAFF
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1173879275043&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
[Some of the comments resulting from this post below have been deleted and/or censored on grounds of poor taste or worse. Nor do the administrators of this site necessarily agree with those that have been allowed to remain. Since this story did appear in the Jerusalem Post, and hence is a story in its own right, I have let the thread stand – but I will state that I am in very little doubt that it is just one more of the many fanciful rumours that pop up in the fevered atmosphere of Palestinian politics.
There is nothing suspicious about him having waited for his captors. He presumably wanted to interview them. That is how Daniel Pearl was captured, if I recall correctly.]
Edited By Siteowner
Well, well, well. Whoda thunkit?
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3385970,00.html
Palestinian security forces are looking into the possibility that BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston staged his own kidnapping, according to a report by the London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat on Monday.
Palestinian sources reported that Johnston received notice of his dismissal from the BBC, and subsequently fabricated the kidnapping in order not to lose his job. The BBC refused to comment on the report.
The report also said that Johnston was seen waiting for one of his captors for about 15 minutes on the day of the kidnapping, before accompanying him to an undisclosed location.
Johnston, a resident of Scotland, has been the BBC’s Gaza correspondent for the past 3 years, and was kidnapped on 12 March by four gunmen in the city. According to initial reports, he managed to drop his card on the sidewalk when abducted, which helped security forces identify him.
The report in Al-Hayat said that Palestinian security forces were looking into two possible scenarios with regards to the kidnapping.
According to the first scenario, Johnston is being held hostage by a Palestinian family in the Gaza Strip who hope to receive an estimated $5 million in ransom. The second scenario says he is staying with the family of his own free will.
The sources added that the family holding the BBC reporter hostage has yet to come forward with official demands of ransom in exchange for his Johnston’s release. “It seems the family that kidnapped him is afraid of the response,” the sources said.
The issue has become a source of concern for Palestinian security forces due to the pressure by the British, the United States, and Johnston’s colleagues.
The sources said that although the British want PA security forces to execute an escape operation, they feared that the family was “armed and backed by funds and weapons of other Palestinian sources, which were using them for other purposes”.
[See note above concerning the plausibility of this story.]
Edited By Siteowner
A Jew-free “history” of Gaza, for one thing and Israeli “responsibility” for the Gaza beach family deaths, for another.
IF this is true about Johnston don’t expect the BBC to report it!
dave t | 09.04.07 – 4:52 pm
My link above has been updated – BBC now deny it.
London-based Arabic language newspaper Al-Hayat reported Monday that BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston may have staged his own kidnapping. Shortly afterwards, the BBC stated that this report was completely unfounded.
We shall see. It is certainly all very odd. It’s been a long time, apparently no demands. UK envoy talking to Hamas, etc., etc.
“Shortly afterwards, the BBC stated that this report was completely unfounded.”
Well…they would say that, wouldn’t they……
If the Al-Hayat report about a staged kidnapping is true then, as someone else has said, wow. If just the part about Johnston getting his notice is true then the gushing praise he has received from BBC bosses reeks of hypocrisy. If, as the Beeb claims, the report is unfounded does that mean that Palestinians are spreading lies to discredit Johnston and the BBC? Imagine the heartbreak that will cause!
[Reference to earlier deleted comment was itself deleted.]
Perhaps just as important as what he may or may not have fabricated is what he simply didn’t report, and what the BBC continue to omit from their coverage of Gaza. For example:
Egypt uncovers tunnels on Gaza border
or
Internal violence flares in southern Gaza
In Gaza, a gunbattle between two warring families in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday killed three people, including a bystander, medical officials said.
Just as the BBC decide not to broadcast a programme about a British soldier being awarded a VC for fear of offending the anti-war brigade, so they don’t want to offend the anti-Israel brigade by publishing hard news like the above. After all, they’ve invested a lot of time and effort convincing the world that the Israelis are to blame for the “predicament” of the “Palestinians”. That’s work they have no intention of undoing now.
Here’s a typical piece from [deleted] Johnston in Gaza:
Palestinians’ high-risk human shield tactic
Note that the fact that the use of human shields is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, when Israel is accused of using “Palestinians” as human shields when the IDF enter suspected terrorist stronghelds we’re told that in no uncertain terms.
Note also the inversion of “David and Goliath” in line with the attempts to show Arabs as today’s Jews and Israelis as today’s Nazis.
[Remainder deleted – and see note further up the thread.]
Edited By Siteowner
I meant to say Note that the fact that the use of human shields is prohibited by the Geneva Conventions is not mentioned.
Here’s reference to UK’s under-reported (by e.g. BBC), migration problem:
“‘Britain’ is suffering an exodus of skilled staff ” (9 April).(go to ‘News’).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk
“Kiss and tell? Steady, boys, steady” by Robert Fox (9 Apr.)
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk
Fox’s conclusion:
“The Navy’s management of this episode has edged towards shambles. This has not gone unnoticed in the two capitals that matter most in this crisis – Tehran and Washington.
“John Bolton, former US representative to the UN, and still a close Bush consigliere, told the BBC that all this makes the need for regime change in Iran more urgent.
“The USS Nimitz is now steaming from San Diego to lead the third US aircraft carrier battle group in the Gulf.”
Apologies if this has been covered before, but, I’ve been given and just read the “Grumpy Old Men” spin off book of the series, published by BBC books and written by the series Exec Producer. Good to see the BBC worldview extends to written media. Here’s a couple of quotes:
“Who would’ve thought it? The kids who sang ‘Ain’t going to work on Maggies’s farm no more’ went off and elected her. And it’s difficult to remember now how that felt, because one minute it was just a bit of a joke that this completely daft and dreadful old baggage had suddenly become the leader of the Tory party and was going around the place patronising everyone, and the next minute she was the bloody prime minister. It was one of those ‘say it ain’t so moments.”
“One of my best mates, Robert Smallwood…He’s a genuinely good bloke, sane and sensible in all sorts of ways. Hates the Tories…”
” Something rotten…”
(about MOD and Navy ’15’ episode)
http://www.newcultureforum.blogspot.com (9 Apr.)
bbc 2 navel gazing on the “importance” of the media in the 1970s…
err. no. it didnt matter AT ALL… too busy playing skateboards and cowboys and indians…
That ‘blaze away’ article from the Kidnapped Kidder sticks in the craw as a notorious piece of pro-Hezbollox propaganda.
His present predicament is so condign.
To Mr Life-is-Degradable:
Rarely is it possible for crap posted on a blog to have serious repercussions but that was a rare instance of significance.
Here’s a typical piece from [deleted] Johnston in Gaza:
…
Note also the inversion of “David and Goliath” in line with the attempts to show Arabs as today’s Jews and Israelis as today’s Nazis.
[Remainder deleted – and see note further up the thread.]
Edited By Siteowner
Biodegradable | 09.04.07 – 5:40 pm
Comment deleted by Biodegradable to save siteowner the trouble.
😐
Anyone see Match of the Day tonight? The punditry after the Charlton game was interrupted by in-cockpit footage of a plane landing!
Not an incidence of bias, just…surreal incompetence.
Your an inspiration to trolls everywhere Bio!
But seriously, we’re at the crossroads now. Either we withdraw from Iraq or we take it to the next level and attack Iran.
==The BBC is openly Anti-Semitic==
Compare these two statements: “On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet, and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people • with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial • forgave those 15. This pardon is a gift to the British people.”
From the BBC: “On the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great prophet of Islam, and on the occasion of Easter and Passover, I would like to announce that the great nation of Iran, while it is entitled to put the British military personnel on trial, has pardoned these 15 sailors and gives their release to the people of Britain as a gift.”
See for yourself here. You will not find any other report that includes the word PASSOVER.
The BBC is explicitly lying for Ahmadinejad – barefaced lying to cover up his genocidal anti-semitism.
Ultraviolence | 10.04.07 – 1:45 am
http://www.haloscan.com/comments/patrickcrozier/3451009318172767397/#336872
The most repulsive government in living memory:
“Sea anglers may be forced to buy a licence”
More than one million sea anglers will be forced for the first time to pay to fish under Government plans for a licensing system.
Ministers are proposing charges to cover beach anglers, boat fishing and charter trips, overturning a British tradition enshrined in common law nearly 800 years ago.
David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, wants to use the licence fee to help manage fish stocks.
Countryside campaigners see it as a stealth tax.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/10/nfish10.xml
We have joined the nuclear club, Iran gloats to the West
The leader of Iran has announced that the country had “joined the nuclear club”.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boasted that Iran could carry out industrial scale uranium enrichment.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=447525&in_page_id=1811
How the BBC is spending telly tax funds:
http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2007/04/why-did-bbc-pay-off-lady-falkender.html
And the bias? Well, if Lady(!) Falkender was a Tory you don’t think the BBC would have backed down do you?
“in depth : muslims in europe”
its still there…
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/default.stm
Littlejohn: Up the Shatt al Arab without a paddle:
The Ministry of Defence’s complicity in this tawdry horror show is treasonable. But it’s pretty much what we have come to expect from Blair’s Brave New Britain.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/dailymail.html?in_article_id=447634&in_page_id=1790
“How long before the ludicrous Faye Turney pops up on Celebrity Fat Club? I bet they didn’t let her get in the dinghy first. This is a woman who is capable of capsizing the Ark Royal if she shifts her weight to the wrong cheek.”
i noticed that as well.
Are fitness levels in the Navy been lowered to such an extent that a tub of lard could join up?
I’m still waiting for a detailed Newsnight or Panorama report into this murder
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2052478,00.html
I haven’t seen one yet although I may have missed it