Please use this thread for comments about the BBC’s current programming and activities. This post will remain at or near the top of the blog – scroll down for new topic-specific posts. N.B. This is not an invitation for general off-topic comments, rants or chit-chat. Thoughtful comments are encouraged. Comments may also be moderated. Any suggestions for stories that you might like covered would be appreciated! It’s your space, use it wisely.
General BBC-related comment thread!
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BBC Teletext is flashing that 8 “people” have been arrested for murdering that Asian kid in Dewsbury. West Yorkshirestan.
I note that they haven’t named any names (though they must know)…
I take it then that they are not people of pallor; and, in fact, feature names like Mohammed, Khan, et al?
In the event I am inccorect, I apologize in advance for my lack of sensiPC-tivity.
“Our market is … the sorts of people who would read The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune,” says Frei.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this the same Matt Frei who reported Hurricane Katrina from a gym in L.A.? This quote helps explain why, I suppose.
Oi, you buggers leave Mr Clarkson alone…he is about the only person worth watching on El Beeb!
Mailman
“Oi, you buggers leave Mr Clarkson alone…he is about the only person worth watching on El Beeb!”
On bbc Spain I presume?
Oh dear.
BBC website £36m over budget: Trust criticises management
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/may/29/bbc.digitalmedia
From the above article:
“The BBC’s management has been accused of “poor financial accountability” by the BBC Trust after it emerged today that the corporation went almost £36m over budget in its spending on bbc.co.uk in the past financial year.
A review of bbc.co.uk published today by the trust shows that the actual spend in the 12 months to the end of March 2008 on the corporation’s UK web operations was £110m – almost £36m, or 48%, above what had been budgeted.
The review by the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governance and regulatory body, branded this incident a “serious breach” of bbc.co.uk’s service licence.
So what are they going to do about it? Shut it down? Yes please – and give us our money back!
Johnson’s father in election snub
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/oxfordshire/7425090.stm
So why’s “snub” not in quotes? Er, because no one in the story described it as such, and it has no reflection on what happened.
Here’s Johnson senior’s enraged response to being ‘snubbed’: “Of course I am very disappointed but I certainly understand and accept the reasons…. I am sure whoever is selected by the members will do a superb job and will win a convincing victory.”
And here’s the reason he wasn’t selected (snubbed): “The local Conservative association has decided in this instance to restrict the short-list to local candidates.”
And here’s John Walsh, chairman of the South Oxfordshire Conservative Association, on why they decided Mr Johnson needed a dressing down:
“Where we have not chosen a local candidate the Liberal Democrats very much pick up on that and criticise it significantly.
“I think it is designed this time that nothing goes wrong. The primary importance is to make sure our electors turn out.”
So in what way is it a snub?
-Oi, you buggers leave Mr Clarkson alone
Sorry, I don’t intend to.
In fact, like GT I don’t live all that far from him. I look forward to the day when I meet him at a local function and can spit in his face (although, to my great satisfaction, we don’t move in the same circles – I tend to shun Neanderthal yobs). The man is a disgrace to human evolution. No wonder he has a BBC programme.
Clarkson for PM
Peres announces the Hoopoe as Israel’s national bird
Israel finally has a national bird.
After a nationwide vote, the hoopoe has been named the country’s ornithological symbol. President Shimon Peres announced the winner in Jerusalem on Thursday.
More than 150,000 Israelis cast ballots leading up to Israel’s 60th birthday in May. Environmental groups launched the campaign to draw attention to endangered birds.
Some of the 10 nominated birds created controversy. The Griffin Vulture was deemed too violent, and some Israelis had misgivings about making the Palestinian Sunbird the symbol of Israel.
The hoopoe is identified by its long beak and red and black crest. Ornithologists describe it as a beautiful, monogamous bird that takes good care of its children and uses creative tactics to defend itself.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoopoe
The nest is in a hole in a tree or wall. Like those of its relatives the kingfishers, the nest tends to contain copious amounts of faeces and smell very foul as a protection against predators. Nesting hoopoes are capable of squirting fecal matter at intruders.
😆
I’ve seen Hoopoes a few times in my garden in Spain. I look forward to the next sighting with renewed interest.
With Olmert as PM, shouldn’t Israel’s national bird be the Turkey?
Ritter: No, just like Oliver, they will ask for more from the general public. Only difference is, we get to go to prison if we don’t pay up.
This new site & Mag seems promising…and this article seems to show how lightweight the UK response is to Terrorism.
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/88
LOL Jack!
Actually I’m surprised the ultra orthodox parties haven’t complained.
From wikipedia:
They spend much time on the ground hunting insects and worms. That diet may have been among the reasons the Hoopoe is included on the Old Testament’s list of unclean birds (see Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18 ).
Oy vey, a triefe national bird!
Haha Nearly Oxy, I find your “Neanderthal yobs” comments somewhat ironic…given your desire to act like one around the lovely Mr Clarkson 🙂
Mailman
Lovely line….and how true…
“The police — in their capacity as the paramilitary wing of the Guardian — seem to be turning a blind eye to “honour crimes” and to the informal resort to sharia law, even when this involves manifestly criminal offences.”
http://www.standpointmag.co.uk/node/88
I made the mistake of listening to Radio 4 for ten minutes this morning.
The first thing I heard was a trailer for a regular slot on the Toady show for a dossier of negative anecdotes about private care homes that the BBC has secretly compiled for the Purpose.
There then followed the news, which as always contained no negative stories about any State organization or individual, even in these times of record-breaking State corruption and incompetence.
It was then time for Radical-Marxist-Feminist-Betterthanmale’s Hour, presented by radical Marxist-Feminist Jenni the Hutt. The first item was an interview, conducted by radical Marxist-Feminist Jenni the Hutt, with a radical Marxist-Feminist solicitor promoting a campaign for Marxist-Feminist equality of outcome in the legal profession.
Mz the Hutt opened by claiming that 60% of solicitors are betterthanmale. What more evidence of a malesexist conspiracy could there be? This figure was later corrected to 43% by Mz the Hutt’s radical Marxist-Feminist interviewee, who also shockingly revealed that the remaining 57% are malesexists.
According to the dull, ponderous, hesitant radical Marxist-Feminist solicitor interviewed, betterthanmale and betterthanwhite solicitors are paid less than whitemales, and this is entirely due to the well-known fact that whitemales are sexist, racist thoughtcriminals who conspire against superior betterthanmale and betterthanwhite candidates when hiring and promoting staff. Mz the Hutt concurred with this analysis.
The fact that no betterthanmale or betterthanwhite legal geniuses have ever prosecuted their whitemaleracistsexist oppressors under the Marxist-Feminist laws crafted for that very purpose was cited as evidence of the power and extent of the conspiracy against them. Mz the Hutt concurred with this analysis.
The opinion of non-Marxist, non-Feminist thoughtcriminals was neither sought nor aired.
Then it was on to a light-hearted article about the cosmetic effects of suncream.
fewqwer: Looking at my mid morning dump sounds more interesting that what you listened to.
Nonsense, Mailman. Such people understand one language, and one language only: a pie in the face, which was what he deserved and received at Oxford Brookes uni. Mind you, the idiot vice chancellor deserved one just as much.
Yes, hoopoes are beautiful. I saw one near Jericho, and probably one in Jerusalem but am not sure after all this time.
max:
The Beeb sees the light. Or is it the fuse?
http://blogs.news.com.au/dailyte…title_launched/
max | 29.05.08 – 8:25 am | #
Interestingly spokespersons for the aforementioned bomb community – which is apparently burgeoning in the southwest, – are unaware that terrorism is at all linked with the religion of peace. “It’s nothing to do with Islam” they protested in the local press in the aftermath of the incident.
Subsequent press coverage concentrated on their fear of a ‘backlash’ until yesterday when a spokesperson belatedly decided to condemn violence.
Earlier this year a long letter was published in the Western Morning News by the leader of a Devon and Cornwall Islamic organisation, marking Holocaust Remembrance Day. Bemoaning at length various atrocities, genocides and ethnic cleansings, he could not bring himself to utter by name, even once, the six million Jews that perished at the hands of Adolph Hitler.
Oh Well, I suppose the decision to unboycott the event itself was more than one could have expected. We should be grateful for small mercies.
Like the Labour Government, the BBC is trying to stick to its
‘Green’ propaganda, however publicly paid for it is, however undemocratic the propaganda, however scientifically misguided is the message, and however much the poor pay for it all.
This week BBC highlights its chums at ‘Greenpeace’, in a piece 95% supportive and uncritical:-
“The campaign group: Greenpeace”
(Brian Wheeler).
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7338875.stm
BBC’s Wheeler recognises that ‘Greenpeace’ is undemocratic, but makes no criticism of that fact, presumably because his own BBC operates its political propaganda in a similar manner:
[Greenpeace] – “unlike a party – they have no direct input into policy formation. There are no leadership elections or conference debates.
“Most national offices elect a board of directors, who make decisions on local campaigns, but global objectives and budgets are decided by Greenpeace International, which owns the Greenpeace name and has its headquarters in Amsterdam.”
BBC’s Wheeler does not question ‘Greenpeace’ about its finances, nor about the strong anti-‘Green’ arguments here? Why not?:
“Scientists question climate change consensus”
http://www.thefirstpost.co.uk/37938,features,whatever-happened-to-the-climate-change-consensus
I see the BBC has a Green MEP on QT tonight.
Why give airtime to a party that has no more support than the BNP?
Oh dear.
Ritter | 29.05.08 – 12:35 pm | #
‘Oh dear’ indeed.
And an interesting reaction from an equally interesting quarter:
Commenting on the BBC Trust’s review of bbc.co.uk which highlights a £35 million increase in the website’s intended budget, Liberal Democrat Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary, Don Foster said:
“This report is a damning indictment of the management of bbc.co.uk.
“A cocktail of overspending and budget mismanagement has led to this huge increase.
“Future investment will only take place if accountability is increased. Not only has the BBC lost track of a phenomenal sum of money, but this mismanagement will now directly impact on the future development of this popular service.”
Lib Dem Press Release
bio — Hoopoe is included on the Old Testament’s list of unclean birds (see Leviticus 11:19 and Deuteronomy 14:18 ).
Well that doesn’t sound terribly kosher!
What if they wash the birds..will that help? 🙂
Mailman
Well that doesn’t sound terribly kosher!
Jack Bauer | 29.05.08 – 5:11 pm
But then I don’t suppose many Americans eat eagles. 😉
What if they wash the birds..will that help?
Just don’t get behind it!
“Why give airtime to a party that has no more support than the BNP?”
Indeed…but it’s not just the BNP…
Crewe & Nantwich Election results
Green 359 votes (0.87%)
Monster Raving Loony 236 votes (0.57%)
‘I see the BBC has a Green MEP on QT tonight.
Why give airtime to a party that has no more support than the BNP?’
to ensure that there are at least 3 left of centre speakers (Labour, Lib Dem, Green, Johann Hari, Sami Chakrabati etc) in the panel of 5.
BBC report on Iraq’s plea for financial assistance:-
“Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki called for debt cancellation, mainly from neighbouring Arab nations.”
It seems that these Arab oil billionaires have decided to spend on assets elsewhere:-
“The $300 billion Arabs are coming”
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23488244-details/The+%24300+billion+Arabs+are+coming/article.do
Snr/Snra Figures:
I look forward to the day when I meet (Jeremy Clarkson) at a local function and can spit in his face (although, to my great satisfaction, we don’t move in the same circles – I tend to shun Neanderthal yobs). The man is a disgrace to human evolution.
Been a while since I studied the theory of evolution, but I don’t recall face-spitting ever ranking as a superior achievement.
Has the academic hothouse that is Near Oxford decided that gobbing in people’s faces is up there with quantum physics and virtuoso musicianship as a sign of advanced civilisation?
.
The BBC, in a feature on Mary Whitehouse on Newsnight last night, shows a couple of kids playing a violent video game. What Newsnight failed to mention, was that there are many videogames that are not violent, and yes, even educational. A case, perhaps, of the media scapegoating the videogame industry.
Yet, in the discussion that followed, no one from the video game industry had been asked to defend their art form.
It’s like the rush of the Gadarene swine at the BBC whenever faint praise comes their way.
Take the webbies as an example. The BBC were tossed a couple of baubles and it’s there on the front page of their website for days.
Oddly enough they don’t seem to want to cover this story where their website is mentioned.
BBC website faces budget cut for stifling rivals
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2049182/BBC-website-faces-budget-cut-for-stifling-rivals.html
Crikey, read the synopsis of Frei’s book on Amazon. I assume it’s written ior at least approved by Frei. Why on earth does he live in a country he hates so much?
The latter day Lenin’s like Mac Shane, and fellow travelers of the Fabian Society, are not flying their true colors, of a red flag, with a hammer and sickle stuck in the corner, or wearing their boots and buttoned up tunics, topped off with a Ushanka with a red star stuck in the middle. They hid the red star emblem and trappings of their true philosophy and fronted a red rose, – you fell for it.
So you voted them in three times, and you took your eyes off the ball for eleven years, while they dosed you on easy credit, and hyped house prices. They created an illiterate and innumerate underclass, drunk on cheap alcohol, brain dead on soap operas and cheap flights to Spain. They not merely permitted, but encouraged them to roam loose, to mug and knife the innocent, unchecked by one hundred and thirty five thousand, PC police sitting in their PC police stations, contributing to the raison d’être of the National Statistics Office, and the human rights act for criminals, instead of getting out on the street, on foot, fighting crime.
Simultaneously you completely failed to notice, that the elitist leadership of the dinosaur philosophy of international socialism, was destroying your country from within, steering you to bankruptcy, and selling you to the EU. Came the dawn, no more credit, and daily knife crime, you have yourselves to blame. There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is nothing like a swift kick in the wallet to get attention, is there? • Wake Up. Get rid of the likes of Mac Shane, and their Fabian Fellow Travelers.
I wait patiently for Mac Shane to explain the EUMED to the British people, not excluding one agreement or treaty made over the decades to enable Westminster to sell the UK off to You know to whom!FABIAN SOCIETY.The first meeting of the Fabian Society was held at the home of Mr E. R., a member of the London Stock Exchange.Two of the leading members were George Bernard Shaw and Sidney Webb.Other early members were Eleanor Marx, theosophist and occultist Annie Besant, and author H. G. Wells.The name of the society was suggested by the Spiritualist, Frank Podmore, who named it after the brilliant, elderly, third century Roman general,censor and consul, Quintus Fabius Maximus Verrucosus 303-203 BC who was made a dictator in 221-217 BC and, with his small band of fighters and superior cunning, successfully defended Rome by defeating Hannibal’s much bigger and mighty Carthaginian army through “gradualism” and “terrorism” during the time of the second Punic War.Initially he kept to the hills and cunningly hampered the enemy’s progress by cutting off their food and supply lines with “delaying tactics” until Rome could assemble enough men to defend the city successfully.During the war, his slow, “gradual,” delaying tactics were greatly disapproved of by his soldiers and the civilians and earned him the name of ‘Cunctator’ the ‘Delayer.’But later, after the triumph, his skill and wisdom was highly appreciated. He died in his 100th year in 203 BC.
Fabian Socialism is a “mixture” of Fascism, Nazism, Marxism and Communism all bundled together.However, it is much more deadly because it is much more clever and subtle. The only difference between Fabian Socialism and Communism is that Communists take your house by directly sending in the “secret police” to knock your front door down. Fabian Socialists do it much more subtly and cleverly by “gradually” taking your individual rights away,by gradually increasing property taxes and rates, and finally, when you can’t pay them, they send in their regional “council tax inspectors” to take your house away. But the end result is the same.
British PM Tony Blair and President George Bush Junior’s globalist
“war on terror” is a classic Fabian Socialist strategy. The philosophy of the Fabian Society was written in 1887 and included the statement:
“The Fabian Society acknowledges the principal tenet of Marxism
the abolition of private property etc.” Of course this does not apply to the elect oligarchy at the top who end up owning the lot.
Sidney and Beatrice Webb published a book of 1143 pages in defense of
Bolshevism. It was entitled Soviet Communism: A New Civilization. In April 1952 the Webb’s were exposed before a US Senate Committee on the Judiciary when Soviet Colonel I. M. Bogolepov, a former Red Army officer,stated that the entire text had been prepared by himself in the Soviet Foreign Office. Appropriately, the defiant coat of arms of the Fabian Society (commissioned by author/playwright co-founder George Bernard Shaw) today is a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.” Until recently it also appeared on the Fabian glass window in the Beatrice Webb House at Dorking, Surrey. Today the Fabian Society is among other things the intellectual wing of the British Labour Party.
Before Tony Blair became British Prime Minister in May 1997, he was
Chairman of the Fabian Society. Since the 1997 British general election there have been around 200
Fabian MP’s in the House of Commons, some of whom have formed almost entire Labour Cabinets including Gordon Brown, Robin Cook, Jack Straw, David Blunkett, Peter Hain, Patricia Hewitt, John Reid, Ruth Kelly, Alan Milburn and Clare Short.
The Fabians now dominate the entire British government. But are resident in all political parties.
Posted by sally I think,but Atlas thought you all might like to read it.
They now of course largely go under the name of Common Purpose. It also go’s without saying that Common Purpose have long since been dominating the BBC.
Frei is a tit.
Frei:
“Imagine a city so powerful that the weapons commanded from its ministries could obliterate the globe many times over and yet so vulnerable that it cannot prevent a seventeen-year-old boy from killing half a dozen of its inhabitants in a shooting spree that lasts for a whole month”
Beyond dumb.
The incompetents at the BBC just cannot get anything right.
BBC pays ‘vandal’ to graffiti Eastenders set.
‘The leader of a highly organised group of graffiti vandals who have caused a “massive” amount of damage was employed by the BBC to change the face of the Eastenders set.
Gang leader Andrew Gillman was already facing trial for conspiracy to cause criminal damage with his group, known as DPM Crew, when he used a false name to obtain work with the BBC.’
It’s your money folks.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article4029114.ece
Unlike the BBC I prefer to take notice of the more reputable polls like YouGov (anyone remember the BBC exit poll following the 1987 General Election when, at 10:01 pm, they were smugly sitting in their studios predicting a 30 seat majority for Kinnock’s party of filth. Mrs Thatcher romped home with a 102 seat majority and Kinnock did his big whine).
Well here’s a poll (YouGov naturally) that’s going to keep the BBC up all night trying to spin it for snotty, if they report it at all that is.
Labour: Gordon Brown support slumps to its lowest since polling began
Conservatives 47%
snotty’s socialists 23%
‘Even under Michael Foot support for the (labour) party never dipped below 23.5 points.’
Did anybody ever follow Kenny Everett’s advice and kick Michael Foot’s stick away.
What scares me is that in any sample group of 100 people there could be upto 23 who are in dire need of help, possibly requiring sectioning under the Mental Health Act.
Missed out the link
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2050682/Labour-Gordon-Brown-support-slumps-to-its-lowest-since-polling-began.html
Perhaps we shouldn’t expect intelligent, fair reporting on the plight of Christians in Islamic couintries in the Middle East from the BBC’s “Arab Affairs Analyst”, MAGDI ABDELHADI.
But his report here is woefully poor in its analysis:
“Copts shot dead in Cairo attack”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7425541.stm
He plays down the centuries old persecution of Coptic Christians by Muslims in Egypt.
Abdelhadi misleadingly suggests that ‘Islamists’ have only been attacking Christians in Egypt since the 1990s, and that since then the Egyptian government has been controlling such murders:
“Egyptian jewellery shops owned by Christians have, in the past, been looted by Islamist militants to finance their insurgency, reports our correspondent from the Egyptian capital.
“But that has not happened since the government quashed militant groups during the 1990s.”
Here is a DIFFERENT recent report on the situation of Christians in Egypt by a different BBC reporter:
“Knife attacks on Egypt churches”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4909378.stm
And more broadly:
“How Islam Persecutes Minorities in Egypt”
http://persecutedbyislam.blogspot.com/2007/09/how-islam-persecutes-minorities-in.html
Anyone watch the BBC Newsnight article on population growth? The two women in the studio were hopeless. The one with a man’s name (and yes she did change her name to that of a man) was talking utter bollocks and the blonde haired bird seemed to think that the planet could support 35 billion people.
What she couldn’t come up with (and the useless Emily Maitless didn’t ask her) was what all these people are supposed to do to earn a living?
Oh of course they will all work for the BBC, the local council or the state. How silly of me.
On QT and QT Extra this rather silly story of Green taxes comes up yet again.
“We” are told that the way green taxes are supposed to work (the greens don’t agree with this by the way) is that if you put up green taxes, you are meant to cut other taxes to compensate.
As anyone with a brain can sport though there is a flaw in this idea. If green taxes are meant to reduce an activity, say flying then the tax revenue will fall. So just how does the government make back up the tax loss? Well of course they would have to put non green taxes back up.
The greens and the socialists don’t follow this idea though. They just simply want to raise ALL taxes.
Funny the BBC never point this out.
Geoff Hoon made me laugh. Going on about how the Commons sits late twice a week and he can’t drive home.
Many people will drive much further than Hoon to get home EVERY night (done it myself)
And hasn’t Hoon heard of places called hotels?
Shock horror, I have to say I thought Question Time extra was rather balanced, even perhaps having a slight right wing bias tonight. Missed the main Question Time but was pleasantly surprised by the aftershow. Perhaps Labour’s record lows are making it impossible for the left wing bias to prevail?
Cropstar: Don’t be fooled. Fact is the BBC can fiddle the WT audience, but when they do a show that relies on emails, they can’t hide the anger of people with McLiebour.
If the BBC could spin a show like that pro Labour they would do.
Radio 5 once refused to read out any emails on a subject as the views of people did’nt fit with the view of the BBC (I think it was about immigration)
The Beeboid said something along the line of “…we’ve had hundreds of emails on this subject, and almost everyone of them is anti ……., but we’re not going to read any more of them out…”
A real Radio 5 classic.
What do others here think about a permanent thread available for the BBC tv tax (and keep it close to the top of the blog)
With the election only 2 years off at max, it might be an idea to have a source of discussion, posts of useful links and thoughts on how to go about putting pressure on the Tories (in particular) and others to look at abolishing the TV tax at the next election.
Cameron has wedged the door open with the thought about using BBC funding for other networks, so perhaps we can work on that as a way to re-think the way the BBC is funded.
The TV tax is often discussed in the various threads, but some good thoughts get lost in the general babble.
Of course Hoon has a real problem. That thieving bastard used to fly all over the globe. Now Mr Piggy can’t do it any more.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/west_yorkshire/7426011.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7425915.stm
“A man and three 15-year-old boys have been charged with the murder and robbery of teenager Amar Aslam in Dewsbury.”
Truly amazing. Nowhere does the BBC mention the name of the “man” charged, despite the fact that it is known.
Nothing to do with the fact that the man is MUSLIM ASIAN, like the victim I suppose.
The BBC “news” department decided for us this wasn’t news.
No patronizing PC shite here, move along.