– Dr Who was ace. Perhaps the best ever.
Apart from that, this is an 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.
Don’t blink.
Bushes visit to the Pope
Worth comparing these two VIDEOS
BBC version
Watch the video on this page
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6737367.stm
RTE (Irish network)
Check the video here
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0609/pope.html
Interesting difference of emphasis. The BBC’s take is that Bush got a scolding – RTE version shows Bush explaining why Benedict was worried the fate of the Christians; in an extreme islamic society.
From Getty images – the fine band of people who turned out today to oppose the pro-terrorist demo in London:
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/74478908.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1936C93A00DCCA1DB5014950742396A352E
http://cache.gettyimages.com/xc/74478910.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=17A4AD9FDB9CF1936C93A00DCCA1DB504561B4AE22213259
Salmond given apology for ‘rude’ Wark interview. See attached report from the Herald. Kirsty Wark has her nose too far into the NewLab trough to be an unbiased journalist.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1459986.mostviewed.salmond_given_apology_for_rude_wark_interview.php
Matt Morris, head of Radio 5 Live, quoted in yesterday’s
Times on user-generated content (phone-ins):
“We’re not interested in Mike and his Mondeo saying bring
back hanging”.
Just another example of the sneering snobbish contempt in which these people hold their listeners/viewers/tv-taxpayers.
But the article continues: “the BBC’s resources allow it to
appoint an audience editor to keep a database of people who
can be used to offer a relevant opinion“.
I was unaware of this list of approved participants with their “relevant” opinions.
Here’s the proof that one doesn’t need a TV licence to enjoy truly stimulating, informative, passionate, polemical television, unlike the usual “supposedly-all-points-of-view-but-actually-only-anti-society-Leftist-points-of-view” BBC fare.
The beauty of the Internet is that, unlike the MSM, it is neither Right nor Left. It even embraces heretic Leftists like Christopher Hitchens who, because of moral conviction, on occasion endorse the policies of conservatives like George W. Bush.
This video is emblematical of that difference. Surely, the days of viewing by threat of imprisonment are numbered.
big BIG deal today is a about the CIA flying a load of musl….
yawn..i’m bored already
and then we have a shoot em up .. yawn again…
this is chris morris made real.
i’m over here stuffing myself with cake.
The thing about the ‘CIA flights’ story on the BBC is this: it is taken as fact that the suspect were on their way ‘to be tortured’.
I am pleased someone else enjoyed tonight’s Dr Who as much as me, I even felt moved to post something on my blog in appreciation – http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2007/06/dr-who.html
“Despite the British press reports that make their own soldiers out to be cowering on bases in Basra, truck after truck of them here were in high spirits. News flash: Those reports are false. Derelict media coverage is another aspect of this war British and American soldiers share, and it rankles here in the southern part of Iraq as deeply as it does everywhere else. Practically no one writes about the Brits down here. Important pages in history remain unwritten, while policy decisions are based on the public perception that all is lost here.”
http://michaelyon-online.com/wp/death-or-glory-part-ii-of-iv.htm
I wonder what angle a BBC reporter would take if they were embedded with the troops – well no I don’t.
Ban Wikipedia
2p | 09.06.07 – 9:59 pm |
To be fair to the BBC, if you are willing to give them your `phone number, (I have registered my mobile on HYS), they will from time to time ring you up, usually to ask if you would like to comment on a programme on R5.
I generally decline their offers, but I don`t think I could be classed as left wing.
The green shoots of reason
Melanie Phillips: Last night I was on the panel on BBC TV’s Question Time, which you can view here. The subject of the G8 and global warming came up, and I made a brief reference to the remarkable speech made by the Czech President Vaclav Klaus when he appeared before the American Congressional committee on energy and commerce.
Indeed. Of course, most of the Question Time audience were open-mouthed at my heresy, as one would expect with an ideological Big Lie which takes a society by the throat and brooks absolutely no dissent.
That’s why Vaclav Klaus was absolutely bang on to identify man-made global warming as yet another totalitarian ideology
More
http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/
A classic, vintage piece of Kate Adie on Sunday AM, today, betwee 0915 and 0930, during the review of the Sunday papers.
The Indie has a front pager about fat British children. Ms. Adie seamlessly moves it to a five minute Hate-Piece about how fat the Americans are, how difficult it is to move down the supermarket aisles, and how one DREADS getting on an airliner in the States because there might be a fat person sitting next to one. (I would have thought that there were other reasons why airline travel in the USA is a bit risky, and they don’t involve obesity).
Then there’s a discussion with another guest, an Admiral, a Falklands veteran, on whether we could retake the Falklands as we did 25 years ago. Yes, says the Admiral; we’ve got better toys nowadays.
Oh no, chips in Ms Adie, (in her agonisingly pompous, slow and nails-on-a-blackboard drawl); we wouldn’t get any public support for such a mission. You see (she explains), it’s all down to military events of the last five years………
Chuffer, they’re both wrong. Adie for obvius reasons… but the Admiral isn’t keeping up with his own fleet it seems. We’re mortaging the future of our neval capability on the promise of a pair of aircraft carriers that may never be built, and if they are may or may not have the right deck configuration for the planes we may or may not end up flying from them. If we get the JSF, all good. If we ditch it and go for the french Rafael then we’re screwed, as our carriers won’t be able to launch em without a hefty re-design.
Then there’s the fact that the Type 42 is late and over budget, and the fact that the fleet tenders are all being sold off to accomodate the budget increases, plus the fact that it’s simply not fit for purpose. We’d have been as well buying a dozen US Arleigh-Burkes… but we’re lumbered with the 42 because it’s part of our commitment to the potential EU joint task force. It’s the Single European Frigate.
Right now we wouldn’t be able to mount anything like the falklands. There’s no political will for one thing, but more importantly we simply haven’t got the fleet anymore. It’s been sold or is in mothballs waiting to be scrapped. We could concievably pull the mothballed ships back in to service again but they’re old (though reliable) and not the big new toys the admiral seems to think we have.
“the BBC’s resources allow it to
appoint an audience editor to keep a database of people who
can be used to offer a relevant opinion”.
But according to Reith the audiences are entirely the luck of the draw!
I’m shocked! Shocked I say!
Fighting flares up in Gaza
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6737969.stm
Fresh fighting in Gaza between rival Palestinian groups Hamas and Fatah has left a Hamas commander dead and at least 30 men injured
As usual when Pals kill each other fighting mysteriously “flares up” and people are “left dead” No-body is at fault at all. They report it as if it’s a natural disaster. Now if that was Israel I know we all know what the headline would be – “Israel kills Hamas leader” (or something worse). The neverending message from al beeb – the jooos are always to blame – the Pals must never be held for responsible for violence.
In the previous OT an anonymous posted this:
The CIA ran secret prisons in Poland and Romania to interrogate and even torture some detainees in its “war on terror” under a programme authorised by the countries’ presidents, an official European inquiry concluded yesterday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/09/wcia109.xml
It got me thinking, why has the EU suddenly found these prisons in Poland of all places? I know it sounds a teensy bit conspiratorial, but Poland and several other eastern european member states have been, shall we say, very recalcitrant. Poland has quickly realised that its EU membership is not the panacea it thought it would be, and any benefits it’s getting already existed with its prior negotiations for access to the free market and so on. The Polish president has stated as much several times. Now Poland stands accused of playing host to CIA torture jails…
Maybe I’m too cynical. It just strikes me that this is something like the soviet union’s practice of labeling dissidents as ‘mentally ill’ and the shipping them off for treatment. The EU bureaucracy itself has taken a similar attitude toward people who don’t toe the party line. They’re put on unpaid leave for ‘mental health reasons’ and subtly slurred now and then. Now they’re apparently doing it to entire countries.
Yes Dr Who was ace which just shows how good the BBC can be and what a shame the naff biased drivel they produce far too often is.
Muslims love Bush shocker!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6738055.stm
archonix,
“We’re far too nice to Muslim extremists”
Minette Marrin: “My counterterrorist wish list goes as follows.
Silence all imams who break the law in their preaching with incitements to violence (the government’s record has been abysmal). Monitor all mosques; refuse visas to foreign imams who speak poor or no English (the government lost its nerve over this, as over so much). Control and monitor imams visiting prisons (the Prison Service is so shambolic that it is impossible to know whether all its 130 or so visiting imams have been security vetted). Segregate Islamist prisoners in jail (this is done in the best prisons but is out of control in the rest). Isolate radical Islamist prisoners (this is against the Human Rights Act). Stop them having internet access (not all prisons do).
More widely, recognise that the problem now lies with “self-radicalisation” in suburban front rooms. Stop the creation of religious schools (Blair sold the pass on this). Monitor madrasah schools. Restrain the practice of importing brides and bridegrooms in arranged marriages from the Third World (this is well known to inhibit integration, but the government abolished the “primary purpose” rules preventing such marriages, presumably for electoral advantage); this could be done by following the Danish example of strict entry requirements and a minimum age of 24, which enables young people to choose more freely. Spend much more money monitoring young dual-passport Britons’ trips to Pakistan and deport them for attending training camps (these routes are watched but it is expensive and the Pakistani government is unable to help).
Teach schoolchildren the facts about conditions in Muslim countries http://tinyurl.com/3kjl3 (as opposed to right-on grievances about the “black hole of Calcutta”). Teach them what happens in jails in Muslim states, compared with what has happened in Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo Bay http://tinyurl.com/33znfm Teach schoolchildren and young adults what sharia involves; stop listening to the so-called representative bodies of British Muslims, not least the Muslim Council of Britain. Require the government to reveal the names and CVs of its advisers on Islamic affairs. Censor the violent Islamist recruitment sites on the internet, including the insidious hip-hop and rap sites. America and even China manage it for different reasons.
But all this is too little, too late. How can one not feel a furious, frustrated rage at the betrayal of our civilisation and our safety?”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/minette_marrin/article1323814.ece
The BBC and a little hissy fit over President Bush
Bush’s Europe tour diary: Day Six
US President George W Bush has become the first US president to visit Albania, as he continues his European tour. BBC state department correspondent Jonathan Beale is travelling with the president and recording his experiences in a daily diary.
Finally a country ready to welcome Mr Bush – without reservation.Albania is not showing much sign of protest at the visit
US and Albanian flags line the route from the airport to Tirana centre along with huge banners – rather ambitiously – declaring “President Bush in Albania, Making History”, and “Proud To Be Partners”.
I’d be happy if he just made a bit of news. They’ve even renamed the road in front of the parliament “George Bush Street” and the post office has issued new stamps in his honour.
How on earth can this tiny country consider themselves “European”? Don’t they know they’re meant to be protesting not handing out bouquets?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/6738275.stm
Must really stick in Jonathan Beale throat that a Muslim European country doesn’t toe the BBC’s line.
The BBC and hiding the news.
Anybody else seen this BBC news item.
Protest march over ‘conversions’
Police say they are listening to concerns from Birmingham Sikhs who are demanding action against alleged forced conversions to Islam.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_midlands/6738455.stm
I wonder why the BBC isn’t airing this story on the national scene?
Mind you did like this snippet found under that picture;
“The demonstration was a peaceful protest”
I wonder why that is BBC?
archonix | Homepage | 10.06.07 – 11:44 am
It got me thinking, why has the EU suddenly found these prisons in Poland of all places? I know it sounds a teensy bit conspiratorial, but….
Your latest whacky theory might be worth checking out…. if the Council of Europe actually had anything to do with the EU.
But it doesn’t.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_of_Europe
So what? The Council is what spawned the EU. The same ethos rests behind them. Hell, the thing designed the flag and picked the EU’s ‘national anthem’. It was the council that was responsible for the general thrust of each treaty that bound us to ‘ever closer union’. It is the council that promoted the idea of the European Union. The fact that it is a seperate organisation means nothing. It’s like saying that Shell international office is separate from Shell’s UK office. It’s accurate, but it misses the bigger picture, which is that while they appear to be seperate organisations, they have the same aims and goals and are very closely linked.
The report was carred out on behalf of the Commission, after certain MEPs and Commissioners raised the spectre of the dreaded CIA rendition flights passing through EU territory.
Now, if you’d wanted, you could have pointed out that my theory becomes tenuous on the fact that this report has been over 19 months in the making. You could also have pointed out that Poland’s president has changed since the report was started. Of course I could then counter that Poland and several other eastern european member states sided with the US against so-called old europe, but then you could counter that by pointing out that it happened several years ago and is probably unrelated.
Come on JR. I expected better. 😉
One of the best Blogs around with the added benefit she is good looking.
Debbie Schlussel thinks the Londonistan Olympic Logo resembles a Nazi swastika.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/
The demonstration, “Dayenu”, was to counter “Enough!”, a group of some 50 organisations marching to protest about 40 years of occupation of the Territories by Israel. “Enough!” included 5 trade unions including Amicus, GMB, TGWU; Friends of the Earth; War on Want; as well as all the usual suspects. The marchers were marching to Trafalgar Square to listen to such luminaries as George Galloway; the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, Riah Abu El Assal (who “has falsified Jewish history” • Melanie Phillips); Lord Phillips of Sudbury who wrote in the Times on March 26 2004: “If terrorism is ‘the systematic use of violence and intimidation’, then Israel, too, is guilty of it”; Dr Azzam Tamimi, who has supported suicide bombings against Israelis and was denounced in Parliament for inciting hatred against the Jews (again thanks to Melanie Phillips). Miriam Margolyes apparently made an unscheduled speech as well. There was also a video message from the Palestinian Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. The Hamas Covenant urges Muslims to kill Jews.
The purpose of the “Dayenu!” (= “It is Enough”) demonstration was to publicise Israel’s willingness to give up territory • as shown by the return of Gaza – but only for a secure peace. The demonstrators wanted to tell the “Enough!” marchers the truth • how Israel gave back Gaza, only to be rewarded with Kassam rockets raining down on Sderot. The ‘Dayenu’ group included Jews, Christians, people of other faiths and indeed of no faith. There was a Holocaust survivor and a Liberal Rabbi and prominent Christians. And several CVF members. The one thing in common was that all loathed the idea of thousands of misinformed and misled marchers on the streets of their capital city with free rein to attack and lie about Israel. The name • ‘Dayenu’ • was in response to ‘Enough’. “Enough lies, enough Kassams, enough anti-Zionism, enough anti-Semitism, enough boycotts, enough double standards imposed on Israel”.
There were around 150 at the pro-Israel counter-demonstration • a great turnout given that it was Shabbat (the Jewish Sabbath) • meaning (i) that neither the communal organisations nor the Embassy could sponsor the event and promote it and (ii) many observant Jews who would not travel on Shabbat were unable to be there. By contrast the “Enough!” marchers • who hoped that they would get 10,000 • got around 3,000 (they began passing the Dayenu group at 2.30pm and by 3.10pm they had all passed by).
The Dayenu group was passionate but dignified. They asked the “Enough!” marchers “Where’s Alan Johnson?”
Enough! included one man who gave the pro-Israel group Nazi salutes and pretended to be Hitler (The police were onto him very fast). Two women from “Enough!” came over to apologise to some of the Dayenu group for the behaviour of their fellow marchers. The pro-Israel group had some powerful signs in particular a banner “Enough Rockets On Sderot”.
What was the significance of 9 June 2007?
Despite Shabbat and the consequent lack of publicity 150 were prepared to come on the streets of London to support Israel. It takes courage to do that, in the face of some very militant people.
“Enough!” did not get nearly the support they had hoped for. Those that did come were the usual alliance of militant Islamists and ageing SWP throwbacks from the 1960s, joined at the hip to their tired-looking SWP banners, as well as dour young Trotskyites and a sprinkling of self-haters.
The Metropolitan Police provided great policing of an event that could so easily have turned nasty. They even managed to keep the naked cyclists out of the sight of both the devout Muslims and Neturei Karta (an extreme Jewish group that does not accept Israel’s existence and marched with “Enough!”).
http://www.vigilantfreedom.org/910group.html
phoebe| 10.06.07 – 4:57 pm
“Enough!” included 5 trade unions including Amicus, GMB, TGWU; Friends of the Earth; War on Want; as well as all the usual suspects. The marchers were marching to Trafalgar Square to listen to such luminaries as George Galloway;
phoebe,
“The lesson is clear. Beware of the Useful Idiots who live in liberal democracies. Knowingly or unknowingly, they serve as the greatest volunteer and effective soldiers of Islam. They pave the way for the advancement of Islam and they will assuredly be among the very first victims of Islam as soon as it assumes power”.
http://tinyurl.com/rf8vq
.
“The Palestinian journalists’ union criticised militants on Sunday for using a vehicle marked with a “TV” sign to approach Gaza’s border with Israel Saturday and attack an Israeli military position across the border fence.”
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3410880,00.html
“Border raid
Earlier on Saturday, Palestinian militants used an armoured jeep to burst through the Kissufim border crossing, and attacked a nearby Israeli army post, leading to a gun battle.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6737969.stm
Yeah the bbc is not bias in any way shape or form……NOT.
Why no mention of the TV word eh bbc.
Meant to say earlier:
I turned on my radio just before 8 this morning to hear a feature on Radio 4 about how a radical islamist version of Biased-BBC in Gaza was threatening to behead newsreaders whose sartorial habits they don’t care for.
Didn’t someone here say that was a story the ‘BBC wouldn’t ever touch’?
archonix | Homepage | 10.06.07 – 4:28
I didn’t buy the Mail on Sunday today but had a sly peek in the newsagents.
Noticed they led big on the renditions stuff.
Bunch of euro-crazy lefties!
John Reith writes:
“I didn’t buy the Mail on Sunday today but had a sly peek in the newsagents.”
Never thought I’d live to see the day when a BBC apologist defended the Corporation using the Mail as the arbiter of balance and judgement.
Are you feeling quite all right, Reith?
LAST MONTH, the Associated Press reported that residents of Amariya, one of the bastions of Al Qaeda control in Baghdad, turned on the terrorists and, with U.S. help, killed their leader and many of his followers. The fight is emblematic of a larger trend in Iraq.
“Al Qaeda’s new enemy — Iraqis”
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-op-kagan10jun10,0,1196899.story?coll=la-opinion-center
Mail on Sunday
Bunch of euro-crazy lefties!
John Reith
No. The Mail has a pathological hated of Blair. Anything associated with Blair is bad – that aggravates their anti-Bush (& US?) stance.
I turned on my radio just before 8 this morning to hear a feature on Radio 4 about how a radical islamist version of Biased-BBC in Gaza was threatening to behead newsreaders whose sartorial habits they don’t care for.
John Reith | 10.06.07 – 6:23 pm
You’ve really excelled yourself this time JR.
phoebe 10.06.07 – 4:57 pm
The Dayenu group was passionate but dignified. They asked the “Enough!” marchers “Where’s Alan Johnson?”
I imagine the Education Secretary was out campaigning for Labour’s deputy leadership.
Or, alternatively. down at the old Bull & Bush singing ‘Maybe it’s becorze I’m a Lonnonner’.
….And that the Enough crowd were baffled by the Dayenu group’s curiosity regarding his whereabouts.
will,
I no longer buy the Daily Mail . The Daily Mail was once a beacon of conservative values now it spends it`s days criticising the British Royal Family ,and America for freeing the people of Iraq with articles one would expect to see in The Guardian and the BBC..
Hear hear. The Mail (and the BBC etc) claims that just because they have a picture of a CASA aircraft that this proves extra rendition etc takes place. I bet Liberty etc wouldn’t have complained if the Police had come up with evidence that proved their ridiculous claims….
Even the so called EU report by a Swiss Senator was based on statements by ex CIA (sacked perhaps?) officials.
For a media that claims to only print proven and evidence backed reports, the BBC, Mail et al are really kicking the backside out of a non story. IF there were such goings on, then the suspects would be taken to and fro in military aircraft or on ships or something not shuttled through a major UK civilian airport such as Prestwick or elsewhere!
Jeez….. wonder if they’ll ever get round to complaining about the KGB/FSB as it is nowadays and the way they treat the opposition in Checnya, Ukraine etc?
Than again the Mail do print this sort of thing which never sees the ,ight of day at the BBC:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=461031&in_page_id=1770
Can anyone point me in the right direction to find the BBC version of a report on the fact that three “Asian” women verbally attacked a serving CSM in Selly Oak Hospital as he was about to visit some of his wounded soldiers? The local MP Lynne Jones then had the gall to claim that the Army was building a fiefdom in Selly Oak and there were too many staff etc looking after the soldiers/ These are wounded soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq, wars HER party sent them to and she, rather than supporting them attacks them as well as the un-named “Asian” women who were not even arrested!
Jones is said to have retorted:
“But the Labour MP for Selly Oak, Lynne Jones, refused to back calls for more secure facilities for troops.
She said: “The soldiers seem to want a little empire consisting of their own designated staff and facilities, a fiefdom.
“The point of basing the Centre for Defence Medicine at Selly Oak was to make the most of the range of experience here. The priority should always be the standard of clinical care.
“When I’ve visited the military ward it has been cluttered with staff.”
How nice of her to support the Army…
So. Is this anywhere on the BBC then?
dave t asks:
“So. Is this anywhere on the BBC then?”
I doubt it. But they did devote most of this evening’s Westminster Hour to the tedious funeral parade that is the election of the next ZaNuLabour deputy leader.
Well, my dear, isn’t everyone fascinated by Labour politics?
I just downloaded and watched the ‘Blink’ episode of Dr Who, to see what the fuss was about. As a fan of the original series, I certainly didn’t want to miss the ‘best episode in history’. Spin your scroll wheel if you don’t want to see the spoilers (or don’t like right-wing rants).
My observations:
– Every 15 mins or so there was a minor cliffhanger where the adverts will go when the People’s Broadcaster sells it to the commercial networks.
It was ripe with feminist multiculti peecee throughout, for example:
– The female lead was bossy, sassy and obnoxious. The male lead was a dim-witted non-threatening wimp who seemed to walk around in a daze the entire time. He actually cowers behind the female lead at one point. She treats him like a child, with barely disguised contempt. If you have ever had the misfortune of hearing The Archers, you will know exactly what I mean.
– The obligatory humourless, sassy female lead:
– – (paraphrasing) “When you say ‘the guys’, you mean the internet, right?” (rolls eyes)
– – Speaking to the Doctor, supposedly a superhuman timelord, demanding that he explain time travel: “I’m clever, and I’m listening, so don’t patronise me because people have died and I’m not happy.” (emphasis added to convey the breathtaking sass). Doctor uses the term ‘non-linear’ to mean ‘complicated’, as is currently fashionable. That raised a smile.
– – almost everything else she says.
The Detective Inspector by sheer coincidence happens to be a young black man with a thick foreign accent who conspicuously can’t act. Goes back in time, marries a white girl and becomes a successful businessman. No peecee there then.
The Doctor wasn’t in it much, and this is the first time I’ve seen David Tennant’s portrayal, but the scripting was exactly as expected. I don’t recall Tom Baker ever using a “timey wimey detector” that “pings when there’s stuff”. DT’s principal influence seems to be Geoffrey from Rainbow.
The Doctor’s assistant was in it even less, but looked pretty and seemed to be a reasonable actress, so no complaints there.
All that plus the fact it was funded by slavery made it virtually unwatchable for me.
“Inside he[Gordon Brown] said “we are the generation” that could make the difference on tackling global warming and ensuring that every child in the world got access to education. ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6738823.stm
It becomes more and more clearer every day that politicians seem to want to be world leaders and sod little England.
With Tony Blair it was Iraq and Afghanistan – with Gordon Brown and David Cameron its “global warming”.
Tony Blairs only “interest” was the “world stage” – Gordon Brown is following in his footsteps – the “policies” may not be the same but the intention is.
These leaders are vain, they seek publicity without any ideology.
And while these “leaders” prance around on the world stage the country is “run” by petty burecrats and quangos.
“By bloating the state in this way, Labour has created a caste of people with a vested interest in pursuing certain policies. It doesn’t much matter how we vote, nationally or locally, as long as decisions are in the hands of strategy co-ordinators and policy directors.
Mr Blair himself has run up against the immobilism of the public sector; how much more would a Tory administration. The sad fact is that, whoever is in office, Britain will still be run by overpaid jobsworths.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/12/30/dl3001.xml
John Reith
If you saw the Mail on Sunday then you would know that their story is based on a clear and obvious contradiction. It was based on the presence of an aircraft registered to a “highly secret” CIA front organisation, and the question “what was it doing here if they aren’t sending suspects for torture?”.
That is quite as stupid, arrogant, facile a basis for a story as I have seen, even from the BBC. To say in one breath that the organisation is highly secret, then to base the whole story on the assumption that the reporter can guess what that organisation must be doing, with no other possible purposes, beggars belief.
As Dave T says the original report is based on the “evidence” of former CIA men. Well I am certain that the European Council have no way of knowing exactly who those people were except by their own claims, and whether their information is accurate or even informationt hey would have had access to. Plenty of people have claimmed to be spies, plenty of people calim to have more influence or knowledge than they actually did, and the CIA does not publish organisational charts.
Of course if US intelligence says people are terrorists based on evidence they will not make public, then they are not to be believed. If the European Council says that US prisoners were tortured based on evidence they will not make public …
P.S. I saw the MoS article under similar circumstances. I wouldn’t buy that rag since her weekday sister paper printed a completely dishonest report involving me and the company I work for, which was counterproductive to their stated aim of the security of UK borders. It was also based on false assumptions and mistakes on the nature of my business. Journalists are not known for getting it right, the Mail seems to be worse than most.
ALL THE NEWS THAT IS NOT FIT FOR THE BBC
What are the chances that the BBC wil make anything but a passing reference to these combat violations in Gaza
Palestinians use “TV” Van
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3410880,00.html
Presidential Guards Thrown Off Building
http://www.africasia.com/services/news/newsitem.php?area=mideast&item=070610165035.601588ya.php
both stories have received attention throughout the world
http://news.google.co.uk/news?hl=en&ned=uk&ie=UTF-8&ncl=1117091870
so far their has only been this small muted reference on the BBC website
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/default.stm
contrast it with the amount of prominence given to the attack on this man .. its the BBCs lead story on the Middle East
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6739691.stm
Europe’s leaders should do like Bush
The elected US president should be expected to listen to a single audience – the one at home, argues Janet Daley. Europe’s leaders should follow his example.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2007/06/11/do1101.xml
Bush bowled over by hero’s welcome
President Bush arrived in Albania to the kind of international reception American politicians dream of but rarely experience.
Albania is a rare Muslim-majority country that actively supports the US War on Terror.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article1912989.ece
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Hey anonymous,
as we say in Italy, Janet Dailey lost a good opportunity to keep her trap shut. The time to talk about Bush listening to his domestic audience is not when he is trying to ram through congress a corrupt, enormous and unenforceable immigration bill that every single one of his electors loathes like the plague – and calling them racists and bigots for disagreeing with him about its merits.
Bijan, from your Middle East link
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/default.stm
here’s what we have prominently positioned under FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS:
So near but so far
A tear-jerking tale of “Palestinian exiles” in Jordan. (Ludicrous, when you think about it, since Jordan is actually one of the places where the Palestinians belong.)
And Murky Waters
The Israeli attack on USS Liberty revisited. (This has now been moved down to bottom right under Friday)
My, those nasty Israelis – bombing ships and driving innocents into exile.
Also prominently positioned under Have Your Say, up and to the right of FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS, we get this profound comment:
1967 was built upon lies and myths that haunt us to this day.
What makes me think these are not Arab lies and myths the BBC is fantasising about here? Not only nasty, liars too, those jews. Here’s the full comment that so impressed one of the BBC’s “editors”:
Added: Wednesday, 6 June, 2007, 07:19 GMT 08:19 UK
1967 was built upon lies and myths that haunt us to this day. Ninety years after Balfour, sixty years after the Nakbha and forty years of occupation, the west still covers itself in proclamations of democracy, concern for human rights and pious talk of freedom. Unfortunately, the disease metastisized. Iraq, Somalia, Afganistan are now victims of the lie to cover a lie. Millions dead millions homeless. All to pacify one groups insatiable apetite for land and power. Modern slavery; familiar sin.
Richard, Long Beach
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=6444&start=180&tstart=0&edition=2&ttl=20070611062727&#paginator
Interesting that the BBC chooses to present this neoNazi comment, which attracted a grand total of 11 recommendations, as representative of the attitudes of the broad public re ’67. And also interesting that anyone who wants to respond to the neoNazi can’t do so since the debate has been closed and filed under Read Only.
Now if the BBC could bring itself to drop its narrow little agenda for one moment and reflect public sentiment fairly, it would display a comment or two from the highly-recommended comments on any topic. But it can’t bring itself to do this since those comments so often contradict its agenda.
Are you listening John Reith? And if you are, are you going to try to do anything about this disgraceful state of affairs?
Death penalty opponent finds that the death penalty has a deterrence effect –
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070611/ap_on_re_us/death_penalty_deterrence
Don’t hold your breath waiting for the Beeb to report this.
The most recommended posts don’t make good reading for Mr Bowen, Mr Simpson, Ms Guerin et al.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=6444&start=0&tstart=0&edition=1&ttl=20070611082503&#paginator
No doubt they’ll blame a Zionist conspiracy.