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The BBC, Chinese material procurement in Africa and half a story.
China’s hunger for African minerals
A dozen workers carrying metal poles stand in a factory warehouse. Several wear camouflage caps on top of their blue uniforms. A forklift truck heads towards them and drops off a huge white bag full of dust, minerals, and rocks. The workers pierce the bag, then hoist it onto a pile. During the afternoon, they stack up dozens of bags onto a pile of hundreds more. The white bags contain copper and cobalt shipped in from Africa.
‘Minerals equal stability’
The Huayou company processes the raw materials and then sells them on to other Chinese factories. “China is hungry for minerals and Africa has rich reserves of cobalt and copper,” says Li Xiao Dong, who runs the factory. “Africa is full of opportunities – it’s just like China when we started opening up a few years ago.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/6264476.stm
Now read how the Economist covered that very same story in January last year.
China and Africa
No questions asked
Jan 19th 2006 | BEIJING AND LAGOS
From The Economist print edition
Human rights are no bar to China’s hunt for resources
CHINA has long been an advocate of keeping human rights and other pesky political issues separate from business, and in Africa it is practising what it preaches. In recent years, China has rapidly stepped up its involvement there, finding not only the resources it so urgently needs, but also willing business partners in places—Somalia, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Libya, among others—where many western nations have been reluctant to do business at all. In 2004, the new Chinese president, Hu Jintao, made Africa one of his first foreign destinations.
…………………..
European governments are increasingly concerned at China’s involvement, because it undermines their own efforts to tie trade and aid to human rights, and to help Africa overcome corruption. They fear that Chinese companies show scant regard for either consideration. In Ethiopia for instance, which has seen much of its European aid suspended because of gross human-rights abuses, China is believed to have offered to make good any shortfall. In Sudan, which has been accused of genocide, Chinese state firms have built a refinery and are getting involved in production. In repressive Equatorial Guinea, China is also sniffing out opportunities to rival the dominance of western companies.
The CNOOC deal in Nigeria has in particular raised eyebrows, partly because the company has bought a block that a rival energy consumer, India, had shunned after an initial bid. The stake was sold by a former Nigerian defence minister, who was awarded it when Nigeria was under military rule. That China has entered into this deal, when details of the ownership structure and contractual stipulations are so unclear, speaks volumes about the kind of risks it is willing to ride out in Africa to secure energy supplies.
I’m sorry I cannot link into the article as it is covered by my subscription.
Yet another misleading, insulting BBC article about the US. This time it’s about Barak Obama’s chances of becoming President.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6466453.stm
Mostly, though, it’s just an excuse to tell you all how horribly racist the US was, and the South still is. Obama has precious little hope, Nick Bryant tells us, because he “will ultimately have to attract southern white support.”
Is Nick Bryant a regular BBC employee, I wonder, or just a freelancer getting the odd thing published? Either way his logic is typical of the anti-American attitude we see so much.
First and foremost, unfortunately, there is no denying the racist history of the US, especially the South. Yes, there are still white southerners who will not vote for a black man. There is no denying this. Bryant, however, is stuck there, just bashing the US (retroactively). He even gets in a little “Bush stole the election” dig when he mentions that all the Democrat Presidents since 1964 have been from the South. He lists them all up until Clinton, then adds “and, his disgruntled supporters would argue, Al Gore.” So in a supposed news analysis piece, the BBC are dragging out the old canard that Gore really won, and all that nonsense. Oh, and President Bush is from Texas, a nominally Southern state. Strangely he does not make the list, even though Texan Lyndon Johnson does.
There are two major factors against Obama’s chances which are completely ignored by Bryant.
1. He has no experience in elected administrative positions, and has barely two years experience as a US Senator. What Bryant should be telling us, rather than beating Americans with the “racist” cudgel, is that no US President since 1964 got elected from being a Senator. To a man they have either been state governors or Vice Presidents. Not Senators. In fact, no US President at all since then was anything other as they ran for the office. With the exception of John F. Kennedy (who quite possibly did have the election stolen for him by his father’s minions), Americans have shown their preference for someone with leadership and administrative experience at a very high level. Thus the trend for ex VPs, governors, or top-ranking Generals during war time. Obama has none of the preferred experience.
2. There is a large – mostly hushed up by the white, liberal MSM – undercurrent of mistrust for Obama among the black American public. Or at least, a severe lack of automatic support solely because he is a black man. Why doesn’t Bryant mention this? Because the reason is a racist one: American blacks don’t like Obama too much because he’s not a slave descendent. He does not share the same “heritage” as the vast majority of African-Americans, so he doesn’t automatically get the black vote. The “Black Vote” has long been taken for granted by the Democrats, and Obama will not get it for them, at least not without a huge amount of effort.
There is one other thing that puts the lie to Bryant’s race-baiting: the American public, including white southerners, have recently shown that they absolutely would vote for a black President. In fact, before the last election, there was talk about getting Colin Powell in as VP, with the obvious expectation that he would then go on to be the nominee for President next time. Colin Powell does have the top-ranking General thing going for him, as well as having held an extremely high-level national position – Secretary of State. Speaking of which, there has also been rumbles amongst white people that Condoleeza Rice should have been VP this time round instead of Cheney.
The US is certainly ready to elect a “Black Man” as President. Just not an anti-Iraq war, quasi-socialist with no experience whatsoever.
But the BBC don’t want you to know that, do they? Pathetic.
Strange that the BBC could not think of any difficult questions to ask his Holiness Al Gore Here is a tip for future interviews:
“Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ”An Inconvenient Truth,” have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims. For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society’s Journal of Climate reported, “Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame.”
Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa’s Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, “Although it’s tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain’s foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests’ humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine.”
Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.
Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.
Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, “Africa’s deserts are in ‘spectacular’ retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa.”
Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, “the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain.” In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.
Gore claims the Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of global warming. Yet the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of Nature magazine reported Antarctica as a whole has been dramatically cooling for decades. More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century.”
http://antigreen.blogspot.com/
“The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.”
Thomas Huxley
This should be the axiom of all scientists and scientific commentators.
“David Preiser | 03.07.07 – 8:25 pm”
one thing you never hear on the bbc is the amount of conservative black callers to right wing american talk radio.
you have to listen to the likes of hugh hewitt or michael medved to hear it.
Buzzdroid,
Right. And even if the BBC did notice, they’d just put it down to the negative influence on blacks of Evangelical Christianity.
Al Beeb beginning the campaign to ‘explain but not justify’ the bombings. Tonight on Newsnight we are promised the tasty dish (a taster shown on News at 10) of an ‘interview’ with one of the suspects’ friends.
Get ready to hear the usual shit such as: he was a good man but felt very very angry with Iraq.
The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, skepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.
Thomas Huxley
Or just take the motto of the Royal Society:- Nullius in verbum. Take no ones word for it!
http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/12172/Brown:-Don
Gordon Brown has banned ministers from using the word “Muslim” in connection with the terrorism crisis.
and so macavity the cat sticks his head in the sand.
on newsnight now , we have MUSLIMS being interviewed . hang on a minute – it was Scots who were targetted. why no interview with them about how they feel?
beyond the fucking joke.
Or just take the motto of the Royal Society:- Nullius in verbum. Take no ones word for it!
Gordon | 03.07.07 – 10:50 pm | #
A wonderful motto – more relevant now than ever. I also like Mark Twain’s observation:
If you don’t read the papers you are uninformed. If you do read them you are misinformed.
“Former US Presidential Candidate Al Gore”
Why not “Former US Vice-President Al Gore”?
indigenous | 02.07.07 – 10:46 pm |
speaking of ‘articulate’, did anyone here hear the exchange between two wimbledon presnters on world service radio a couple of days ago? a man said that he found Nadal’s (IIRC) stance to remind him of (George) Bush…a woman piped in “but i’m sure he’s more articulate”…
i mean, it was just so gratuitous, self-serving and automatic. the man, attempting to laugh it off and taken aback, i believe, said, ‘oh dear… are we going to be dispensing insults in here?…is this going to america?’
Mr Rees warned: “We need both to reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases and to prepare for the impacts of climate change.
“Those who would claim otherwise can no longer use science as a basis for their argument.”
http://www.politics.co.uk/issueoftheday/foreign-policy/international-institutions/united-nations/royal-society-action-must-be-taken-on-climate-change-$464951$464905.htm
Martin Rees is Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Master of Trinity College at the University of Cambridge. He holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal
“..and has served on many bodies connected with education, space research, arms control and international collaboration in science”
http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/IoA/staff/mjr/
“Today, Einstein’s Theory of Relativity remains a theory even 101 years after publication. And so it should be. Although some parts of the theory have withstood skeptical challenge other parts remain problematic. The assumption that nothing travels faster than the speed of light is under relentless attack and transition from a theory will advance or regress depending upon the outcome of these challenges.
But imagine if the Royal Society, the “national academy of science of the UK and the Commonwealth”, were to issue public statements attempting to block further scientific challenge to Einstein’s Theory. Scientists, and indeed, the public, would be appalled. Quoting Huxley, mass media would condemn the Society as suppressing the very spirit of true scientific enquiry • ‘science doesn’t work that way’, the press would protest. And they would be right.”
http://www.fcpp.org/main/publication_detail.php?PubID=1524
I prefer this interpretation of the motto
“The motto of the Society, Nullius in verba, which has been translated as “take no theory on trust,”
http://www.sirbacon.org/royalsociety.htm
On the subject of quotations – I think this one is apt.
“Those who have an excessive faith in their theories or in their ideas are not only poorly disposed to make discoveries, but they also make very poor observations.”
Claude Bernard (1813-78) French physiologist, 1865.
in the past, we had popularisers of science like this guy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_asimov
now we’ve got Al Gore.
the film “Idioracy” might not be too far off the mark. (do try to see it.. think its on DVD release)
idiocracy
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0387808/
Jon. Plenty of interesting references and links. Can I politely suggest you are cherry-picking some interesting sources?
David Gregory (BBC): But isn’t that the way? For every “truth” that is given by some scientist or politician, there is another “truth” that contradicts it.
Now we can ask Alan Johnston what being kidnapped is really like and if he repudiates anything he said on video:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSMAC37439320070704?feedType=RSS&rpc=22&sp=true
THE BLESSED AL JOHNSTON IS RELEASED ALL PRAISE HAMAS
Now for the book, and the media blitz in support of Hamastan.
Maybe Brooun will make Alan our first British Ambassador to Hamastan!
I am overcome with emotion!
Free at last!
Khairallah Khairallah on BBC right now – this was all a Hamas Game!
Khairallah Khairallah a respected Palestinian journalist … is now at 2.15am letting the cat out of the bag on BBC, revealing what I have been saying on here for months that this was all a Hamas media stunt.
We’ll b*gger me! This isnt going to script.
Someone shut him up fast! …
Thats its BBC anchor cuts him off after 3 minutes. Back to the propaganda.
BTW
Alan looks fantastic for a hostage! Walks well, looks well fed, shaved. Smiling.
Someone should put this on YouTube.
Alan now off to see His Excellency the Palestinian PM Ismail Haniyeh!
Thank you soooo much Prime Minister!
I must say … if one is going to be taken hostage by a “Salafist Organisation” then Army of Islam should come highly recommended!
Jon. Well no. I don’t believe science works like that. It isn’t a case of competing truths. Its standing on the shoulders of giants instead.
isnt hamas just great.
they just released one of their friends, who was nearly fed to death.
how come there are live pictures coming from there. that requires a sat uplink and a lot of equipment.
now if it was mobile phone quality i’d understand – but full tv quality?
hmmmmmm
now i see the traditional pallywood “get as many people in front of the camera” move, to make gaza appear overcrowded.
a big car swarm in other words.
Question – Has any licence-payers money been paid to Johnston’s “kidnappers”?
hamas releasing alan johnson = “we are moderate”
which means that
a) they are after the money given to abbas by israel ( about $500 million in withheld tax revenue)
b) they can then buy more weapons to kill jews.
C) we can demonstrate a car swarm.
Its 3.18am and HAMAS HAS HIT PAYDIRT!
What a Guy Alan is! So composed. So Relaxed. So Calm.
Some Beeboid is on now saying he deserves a medal, he is superhuman, the BBC anchor Martine “I have got the shakes!” …
So exciting … lets hear the details.
Between meals, and dessert Alan was able to follow events on a Radio that the “Army of Islam” aka HAMAS had thoughtfully given Alan.
Alan is superhuman! How he can be so calm in the prospect of the impending book deal, lecture circuit, Hollywood film film …. George Clooney to play Haniyah, can we find a young Robert Duvall to play Alan?
Alan, “I think i’m ok!, im in Hamas leader Haniyah’s house sitting next to him, I have to go, but call me back on Ghazi Hamad’s phone …”
Now Palestinian journalists Madi is saluting Alan and Hamas! Hamas has brought security to Gaza!
Now Paul Adams BBC correspondant is talking to Mahdi Abdul Hadi … what is teh mesage to the world that Hamas is putting out?
Mahdi (Hamas sympathsiser who works with/for BBC)
“there are three messages:
(1) Gaza is now secure thanks to Hamas
(2) Hamas want to clean Gaza from extreamists …. Hamas are not extreamists
(3) Hamas has delivered their promises to the international community, they have proven that they can keep their word.”
“We are thrilled, that he is Free! We are thrilled, thrilled! …. Alan should be saluted”
… Hamas assured the British Council General that they would not do anything to endanger Alan, we must thank them for this!
This kind propaganda is priceless!Clearly Hamas is an arch media manipulator!
Fox News just reported they expect Johnston (friend of the “Palestinians”) to be transferred to Israel for medical treatment…
Remind me again: Why would a friend of the “Palestinians” have anything to do with them evil Zionists?
I hope the Israelis interrogate / debrief him fully before they let him return to whereever he wants to go… probably Absurdistan!
I’m glad Johnston made it out alive. Even if I held his professional activities in contempt, I wasn’t secretly hoping they’d kill him.
Now then, can somebody please tell me again about how this was really a secret plot by the Israelis? Remember the “who does this really benefit” mutterings? The ultimate hypocrisy now is to thank Hamas and pimp their image to the British public after having darkly hinted at the start that this could be a plot to make Israel look good and the Palestinians look bad.
Especially when the BBC knew early on that a semi-autonomous clan had him the whole time, not under the direct control of Hamas, and not under the control of any Israeli Jews, the people they keep insisting are the enemy of their religion. No, instead the BBC chose to deliberately mislead the British public the entire time.
Johnston will no doubt have to admit who was behind it all. He’ll thank all his supporters, as well he should. But will there be a mention of the notorious letter telling the kidnappers that he was “one of you”?
Something about the Alan Johnston affair stinks to high heaven. I entirely agree that this ‘kidnapping’ was staged. A propaganda stunt was pulled here.
Well done Alistair Crook!
I’m glad Alan Johnston is safe but his reporting in this arena (Palestine) is now thoroughly compromised. He can never again appear on camera and talk about Israel vs Palestine.
Give him a desk job somewhere, off camera and out of harms way.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6267928.stm
“Mr Johnston left the Gaza Strip later on Wednesday morning, entering Israel via the Erez crossing.”
Boy, chutzpah or what! Why not cross the Egypt-Gaza border and get treatment in Cairo?
I hope the Israelis f*ck him off out of the country, pronto.
MAHMOUD ZAHAR, HAMAS OFFICIAL:
“We didn’t work to receive favours from the British government. We did this because of humanitarian concern, and to achieve a government aim to extend security to all without fear.”
I bet ALL doesn’t include Isreal!
Boy, chutzpah or what! Why not cross the Egypt-Gaza border and get treatment in Cairo?
I’m glad Alan Johnston is alive and free. But, as expected, there is no reciprocal gestures towards Israel from the BBC and no gratitude for their help. The BBC only care about their own. No mention at all of Gilad Shalit who’s now been in captivity for over a year. Naughtie and Bowen went overboard to facilitate Hamas’ propaganda coup on Today this morning. Jeremy Bowen went so far as to advise Hamas how they can gain acceptance in the West – let journalists back into Gaza (i.e. BBC journos will advocate their cause) and stop shelling Israel because otherwise Israel will invade Gaza. Yes – not because it’s wrong to attack Israel and kill Israelis – but because Israel will defend itself. So now we know the absolute double standards of the BBC – the lives of BBC reporters are valuable – the lives of Jews are worthless. Anti-semitic shitbags.
Ok help me here. What ever happened to that suicide belt?
Did it misfire?
Oh dear – all that propaganda by the Beeb (see Paxman’s comment on the sidebar) and the public aren’t buying the MMGW story…
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=2&threadID=6704&edition=1&ttl=20070704082731&#paginator
The bBC, militant Islam and half a story.
Militant Islam’s broad appeal
The news that many of the suspects in the failed car bomb attacks in Britain are medical doctors from the Middle East has shocked many and raised questions about connections between class, education and militant Islam. There is a popular misperception that only the destitute or ill-educated are drawn to the ranks of militant Islamic organisations. But nothing could be further from the known facts.
It is true that the appeal of political Islam – from the militant to the more moderate versions – is quite strong among the poor, because it promises a just and equitable society free from corruption and oppression.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6267194.stm
What a crock bBC. Its all about power. Power over women, power over non-Muslims, power over others. Notice how muslims play the victimcard if they don’t get their way. From oppressing women to the so called ban on Alcohol (funny how so many muslims are caught drunk after a crime) to not carrying a guide dog in a taxis. The bullying nature of Muslims is exposed by how they plead they are victims of some sort. Even that Muslim thug who stabbed Young Price in London cried like a baby when caught. (never stopped him pissing in front of a teacher or threatening a young girl with a knife)
In otherwords its about Powwer and bullying. And when bullies are caught out they always play the victim card. Now tell me , how many times does Militant Islam play the vicitmcard. Every bloody day.
I can see that, Muslims can see that, the world is beginning to see that, yet the bBC with its head stuck facing Mecca cannot (Used to be Jerusalem(As per copied from the Jews) you know, but because the Jews wouldn’t convert to Islam, Mohammed cursed them and changed the centre of the Muslim world to the newly captured Mecca)
But then I’m glad I’m away for the most of the rest of the week. Don’t have to listen to the bBC praising Hamas.
Rabbo said Johnston’s release had no value in the eyes of the international community because “everyone knows the Army of Islam is allied with Hamas.”
Voice of Palestine Radio also condemned Hamas, saying the group had itself kidnapped Johnson and brought about his release in order to improve its image.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1183459192339&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
It’s widely known that Gilad Shalit is being held by the same group as had Alan Johnston. It’s also widely known that Israel and Egyptian intermediaries have always negotiated with Hamas leadership in Damascus to secure the deal to release him. In other words it’s widely known that the group holding Shalit and Johnston are affiliated to Hamas. Yet we have to go through this nauseating charade.
Anonymous, Oscar
I turned on the Today programme this morning to hear Alan Johnson thanking….Hamas.
Glad he’s out, now please get him out of the Middle East, like Guerin and Plett, who also became a little too identifiable with one side of the conflict there.
Frank Gardener came on to inform us that kidnapping is a feature of the conflict in the Middle East. Funny that, was he referring to both sides in the conflict, or merely one particular side?
My thoughts as the BBC are now forced to analyse their decision to keep Johnson in Gaza before he was kidnapped:
I am certain that the BBC considered his “friendly” stance (and that of the BBC in general) with regard to the Palestinian cause as representing a significant factor in their decision to keep him there.
Also Hamas featured in the release because
1. They now rule Gaza by force after murdering the opposition
2. They are keen to show they have power now, and what better way than to engineer and oversee the release of a Beeboid?
p.s. I need a sick bucket after Naughtie’s performance this morning – could you hear the violins in the background?
p.p.s. I am very pleased for Alan Johnson’s parents.
Abandon Ship, Anonymous:
Another ludicrous bit of Johnston’s spiel is the statement he ‘knew he was in the hands of jihadis’ when he saw their faces were covered with scarves! Of course Hamas never cover their faces and never look like jihadis.
We’ll have to show more repeats, says BBC in a new series of cuts
Repeat programming will have to increase on the BBC as a consequence of a below-inflation licence-fee settlement, the corporation’s bosses said yesterday… Mark Thompson, the Director-General, said that the BBC “was in many ways going to have to get smaller” and that there would have to be “more repeats across our network”… Other figures show that 18 per cent of viewers believe that the BBC is biased, compared with 16 per cent a year ago.
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2022963.ece
Biased and deceitful – that’s the auntie 70% of the public apparently say they would miss – what – like a hole in the head? The BBC claims it will have to get “smaller” as it’s tentacles reach ever further around the globe.
David Gregory (BBC)
It would be a great shame for you to go down the same route of John Reith and the other Beeboids – your previous contributions have been enlightening and added hugely to the argument. Yet here you have had several facts from David Preiser that fly in the face of Al Gore’s claims as well as his honesty, that you deliberately fail to address. Maybe David Preiser has “Cherry picked” some of these facts (he’s missed out the lies about malaria in Siberia though so there are other points to “cherry pick”) but so what. How about telling us whether you refute David Preiser’s points or whether he is being untruthful? And, assuming he is not being untruthful, why the BBC has not addressed these issues, in the interest of “balance”?
Imagine for a moment that a Conservative politician made several comments that were shown to be untrue. The BBC would be over him like a rash, and rightly so. Can you give us ANY answer at all as to why Al Gore should not be subjected to scrutiny like this?
Same subject in the Times:
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/tv_and_radio/article2022963.ece
“Top executives’ pay was also spelt out, with Mr Thompson earning £788,000, up £18,000 on the previous year. However, Mark Byford, his deputy, had his pay cut by £19,000 to £437,000.
No BBC boss took home a bonus because targets for ethnic-minority recruitment were not met. But total pay for the top 11 staff was £4.25 million, a rise of 2 per cent.”
Targets for ethnic minority recruitment eh? Perhaps it means the BBC haven’t recruited enough white English people?
David Gregory (BBC):
The posting was a few days ago so forgive me if I misinterpret you at all, but it immediately jumped out at me. You were discussing the recent severe weather, and mentioned that several local farmers thought that something was up at the moment. Understandably, of course, two dry summers followed by this is not “normal”.
As someone covering climate and science for the BBC, I would imagine you have a fairly developed understanding of meteorology and of the elements that affect the British weather. Notably what are termed the “Icelandic Low” and the “Azores High”. Predictably, these indicate a sort of default position for low pressure areas (Iceland) and high pressure areas (the Azores to the west of Spain). When weather systems follow this pattern Britain will experience fairly “normal” weather conditions, with low pressure troughs feeding their frontal systems west to east across the country, decreasing in intensity as they go (that is why the weather is drier to the east than the west), followed by ridges of high pressure providing fine weather in between.
However, when the position of the Azores high and Icelandic low change, the weather over Britain changes dramatically. This I believe is controlled to some extent by the Gulf Stream, a high level airflow, but here my knowledge is a little sketchy. Anyway, the last three months have provided perfect examples of this. In April the weather systems were well to the north of their usual positions – ie the Azores High was almost at the level of the UK. This meant unusually dry and sunny weather in April. However as June arrived, the systems have slipped a lot further south, with the Icelandic Lows now blazing a trail directly over the UK, meaning regularly poor weather and very few gaps in between.
This has given two extremes of weather, but I would question how extreme it actually is. None of the recent low pressure areas have been unusual in intensity (mostly around 995 mb which is absolutely normal), nor have there been any serious winds that often accompany deep depressions. Of course there have been some nasty pulses of heavy rain, but these are commensurate with the synoptic situation – it is just that this is weather more normally associated with the Shetlands, North Scandinavia and Iceland; not Britain.
Anyone with a passing knowledge of this would tell you the same thing. I am sure that you know all this, yet you are still prepared to tell us that it could be global warming. If you can give me any scientific or meteorological evidence of this, I would believe you, but “This weather is not normal” will not do. There is a perfectly logical explanation for it, and it does not trace back to anything Al Gore said.
One further thing that you mention (again forgive me if my memory fails me a bit). Floods have increased over the past few years. Certainly reported floods have been, but anyone who makes regular long distance rail journeys will tell you that flooded plains are (a) commonplace and (b) rarely make the news. Get a few cowboys to build some homes on said plains (as has happened on a huge scale in the last few years), however, and suddenly the flooding is important. Although I agree with you to a point on this one, I am sure that dodgy planning and building has a lot more to do with it than Global Warming.
Apologies to all about the length and complexity of this post, as well as for any minor factual or spelling errors!
Oh, if only I could leave the country for a fortnight to get away from the constant Alan Johnston worshipping. The whole charade makes me furious. Nobody is mentioning Gilad Shalit who has been held – more than likely by the same people – for more than a year.
The fawning over him, the admiration for his ‘courage’ and his ‘dignity’. It’s bloody insane. And now the BBC will promote the greatness of Hamas more than ever (if that is possible)
I hope there is some major breaking news story today, something… anything…. that would take this pathetic, backslapping, terrorist pandering rubbish off our news channels.
Thank God for this site or else I would feel I was completely alone in my thinking and would need to be committed for my own safety.
Thought for the day
http://www.breitbart.tv/html/2535.html
AL JOHNSTON RELEASED JUST IN TIME FOR BROOUN’S FIRST PMQ! WHAT A COINCIDENCE
Prepare for a Love in for the “Rehabilitated Hamas”