Monthly Archives: June 2008

PARTY LIKE IT’S 1999.

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Following on from Nick Robinson’s onslaught against the Conservative Party tonight, (see previous post) I now see that the offensive against Caroline Spelman led by the BBC continues. It alleges that some (un-named) Tory MPs are calling for Pparty chairman Caroline Spelman to be sacked, after further evidence emerged about her payments to her nanny. Mrs Spelman’s secretary complained in 1999 that the Meriden MP was using Parliamentary allowances in this way, BBC Two’s Newsnight has learned. Well, it MUST be true then. Hey, look like we’re gonna party like it’s 1999 again – with the BBC remorselessly pursuing Spelman for her decade old alleged sins whilst the likes of Ed Balls and Yvette Cooper, not to mention the blessed Wendy Alexander, get a sympathetic hearing for their totally understandable financial accounting misunderstandings.

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CAMERON AHEAD IN POLLS – RED ALERT!

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I wonder if any B-BBC readers happened to catch an amazing hatchet-job on the Conservative Party carried out by Nick Robinson on the 10 0’Clock News? The background to Robinson’s “analysis” was tomorrows excellent poll showing for Cameron’s party and Robinson instantly brought up references to “Tory Sleaze” with Spelman once more being used to undermine Cameron. Robinson intoned that Conservative poll ratings would most likely fall (wishful thinking Nick?) and threw in some images of the 1970’s as Thatcher fought to bring the Unions under control. I thought this was an amazing instance of bias and wonder if anyone else has comment on it? It seems that the BBC are determined to try and undermine Cameron and give whatever aid they can to the busted flush Brown.

[UPDATE BY NATALIE SOLENT: Actually it seems Brown is ahead in the polls. Brown is at 46%, Cameron at 28%. This may surprise some of you, so here is a picture from BBC News to prove it. Hat tip: Moonbat Nibbler.]

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HARMLESS ROCKETS

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. I see that Palestinian terrorists are continuing to fire rockets into Israel, one week into the much vaunted “truce.” I was intrigued to read this BBC report which states that the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade said they fired the rocket, which fell harmlessly, to retaliate for alleged Israeli violations of the truce. Subtle, eh? OK so the Palis did FIRE a rocket or two but they were harmless and anyway those pesky Jews had violated the “truce” so retaliation was only to be expected, right? Why is the BBC so relentlessly pro-Palestinian no matter how blatant the savagery from Al Aqsa and Hamas? Notice the way in which the BBC gives Hamas claims priority in this story.

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IN THE WINDMILLS OF THEIR MIND

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. The BBC is always enthusiastic to put across ONE side of the environmental debate. If you check out this latest news item concerning the announcement by UK PM Gordon Brown that thousands of new wind turbines could be built across the UK over the coming decade as part of a £100bn plan to boost renewable energy you only get to read one side of the issue. Brown warns that this surge in wind power would not come from “business as usual” and he called for a national debate on achieving the UK’s target of 15% renewable energy by 2020. But where is the debate folks? The article provides us with several sources all trying to outdo each other as to just how great windpower will be but there is NO balance of this kind for example..

Professor David J C MacKay of the Cambridge University Physics Department has some fascinating conclusions on renewables. “MacKay offers maps and figures indicating the staggering scale of the engineering. Britain would be literally covered with — and girdled by — massive wind farms, tidal barriers and wave barrages, and every sizeable body of water in the land would rise and fall to the strange new tides of the national grid. We would have literally rebuilt the British Isles as a single mighty renewable generator, pouring concrete and erecting steel on a scale so far matched only by human habitation — industrialising the land and sea in a way that would make intensive agribusiness look like a wildlife refuge. And still we’d be importing power.” How about the BBC does what their master Brown asks and gives us a debate – not a one-sided litany?

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THE WAR ON THE PRIVATE SECTOR

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. Social engineering is very much at the heart of Labour policy and the State Broadcaster always falls in line with this as can be seen from this outrageous report into controlling how private enterprise can operate under the guise of “Age Discrimination.” Note how a report which starts off talking about the need to outlaw all forms of age discrimination ends up advocating the requirement to hire women and ethnic minorities ahead of white men. Also note the witch-hunt proposed against the private sector via targeted “investigations” by the independent Equalities and Human Rights Commission. The idea that an employer might seek to reward an employee solely on the basis of merit is alien to the Government and the BBC seems to sell the same line. Indeed the idea is floated that private firms are threatened with loss of public sector contracts UNLESS they have the right ethnic minority mix (whatever that means?) it sails by without a murmur of comment by the State Broadcaster. What could be more natural than forcing diversity at all costs even at a time when every business in the land is trying to control costs? The danger for our society is that we have a left of centre Government hell-bent to socially engineer and a State Broadcaster which acts as its propaganda arm.

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A GLOBAL EXAGGERATION

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. Interesting to see the BBC headline that screams “Aids epidemic a global disaster.” The report makes reference to the fact that the “Aids epidemic” now falls within the UN definition of a disaster – an event beyond the scope of any single society to cope with. I wonder if this is the same United Nations that has systematically exaggerated the scale of the Aids epidemic and the risk of the HIV virus affecting heterosexuals, according to a leading expert on the disease? Mmm – the BBC makes no reference to that, nor to the fact that the numbers of people worldwide with HIV have been inflated and the UN Aids agency has wasted billions of pounds on education aimed at people who are unlikely to become infected. The Aids plague has been a favourite BBC hobby horse and it faithfully assists the UN in misleading and scaring the public by promoting myths about the disease.

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SAINT NELSON.

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Nelson Mandela is in the UK for the next week and given his near saint-like status in some quarters we can expect euphoric media coverage. I was interested in reading the BBC report which stresses his glowing relationship with the Queen and which trots out the mantra about his tireless “campaign around the globe for peace and an end to poverty.” Given the horrendous violence which afflicts South Africa and the genocide taking place in its neighbour Zimbabwe, is it too much to ask the BBC to ask some hard questions about the actual achievements of one of their idols? Is it not reasonable to expect the State Broadcaster review all aspects of Mr Mandela’s career – from his former days as a terrorist to his current period as a man that can do no wrong?

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General BBC-related comment thread

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! 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.

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THE SARKOZY SCARE.

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I was sorry to read about the apparent suicide of an Israeli soldier at a ceremony to mark the departure of French President Nicolas Sarkozy from Israel at Ben-Gurion airport. I note the BBC states that “Mr Sarkozy’s visit was intended to improve relations between France and Israel.” Not quite sure how the BBC draws this conclusion given that he called for Israel to agree to have Jerusalem divided, with half turned over to pro-Jihad jew-hating savages that constitute the world’s most oppressed people . He also called for ethnic cleansing of the Jews living in the West Bank. I suppose the BBC views the serial handover of Israeli sovereignty as a good idea and hence finishes the report with holocaust denier Abbas praising France. Vive la Vichy.

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I am not normally someone who fulminates about the BBC…

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writes Daniel Finkelstein.

No, but we’ll listen when he does– thanks also to David Preiser who has highlighted this in the comments sections:

John Simpson hearts Mugabe

I have watched Simpson for a long time and he does seem to have a soft spot for dictators. He was once rather chummy with some of Saddam’s ministers and expressed a “sneaking regard for Saddam“.

Now he has some rather bizarre things to say about the political situation in Zimbabwe, and presents it all more as though Mugabe had won a game of chess than battered his opposition with violence.

Simpson doubtless thinks he’s being rather clever to see Mugabe’s power-politics through the haze of violence, but it comes across as apologism. One of the big things we should keep in mind regarding dictators is the mythology that surrounds them and protects them- it’s that that Mr Simpson is reporting, rather than the squalid reality. He admires Mugabe’s mythmaking, instead of reporting the reality on the ground.

Hat tip to Iain Dale too.

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