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!
Bookmark the permalink.
Amazing, just had a look at the BBC’s main politics page and you would wonder whether the Conservatives existed.
The only mention of them is a headline stating that the LibDem are saying that they are not Tories, which is a revelation that I am sure I could have worked out for myself.
I see the fat one eyed jock is accused of trying to keep jobs in Scotland.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1057483/Brown-accused-meddling-HBOS-12bn-takeover-protect-banks-Scottish-jobs.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7622102.stm
Is this part of the broader BBC plan I wonder? Stage 1: Excuse the radicalism of the UK’s biggest enemy at the moment – extreme Islamic terrorism. Stage 2: Denigrate the police whenever they are tough on the above mentioned. Stage 3 (this article being the e.g.): (re-)run stories about army “bullying”, in an attempt to make soldiers less…aggressive? I feel we’ll hear more of this again and again. Just a hunch.
Darling has openly admitted he was in there guaranteeing Jock jobs at the expense of the English plus the merger documents contain extraordinarily detailed statements favouring Jockland.
I assume Gay Gordon is ensuring he is welcome back home when he inevitably loses his current job.
Not a word of this on the Al Beeb of course.
Did anyone catch Paxman’s pisspoor performance on Newsnight last night? There was actually a very good debate between Irwin Steltzer and Naomi Klein. Klein, not surprisingly was spouting the lefty line but in a very articulate, challenging and intelligent way. Steltzer was his usual intelligent, logical and sardonic self. Paxman as usual put his great fat Beeboid ego intio the frame and constantly interrupted (to both their annoyance) with stupid, irrelevant comments. Why do therse people feel they have the right to control all thinking??? Another good discussion ruined by Beeboid vanity….
Worth watching.
Peregrine | 18.09.08 – 12:51 pm |
You are absolutely right. There is a glaring absence of other political parties except Labour / LibDem.
Aren’t any other UK parties allowed a say? What about Conservative, UKIP, Scottish National? Or if you fancy a good laugh the Alliance for Green Socialism…
If I hear Robert Person mentioned once more I’ll go bonkers.
He’s on Radio 5 in a bit.
The BBC are treating this useless turd like a god.
What’s next for Peston? A job with Osama?
Oh and I see the BBC has a programme on tinght sticking the knife into the army.
Apparently, the army bulies people!! No shit. Anyone that served in the forces knows that sort of thing goes on.
If you can’t put up with someone pissing on your shoes, I don’t think you should be fighting the Taliban.
Funny how the BBC are quick to go undercover for the Police (full of white racists) and the army (full of white racists) but THOSE bearded fuckwits that want to blow us up they don’t seem to care.
I wonder why?
OK, here’s a very serious issue, not necessarily about BBC bias, but about the way we are governed and the BBC’s active complicity in undermining the rule of law.
Yesterday morning, Robert Peston ‘broke the story’ that HBOS was in merger talks with Lloyds. Later, he was quick to point out that this was with the government’s strong persuasion (and, it was hinted, intervention). Yet, crucially, HBOS’s shares were not suspended. Essentially, what we therefore had, all yesterday, was a FALSE MARKET in HBOS shares.
So there’s a really serious (by which I mean legally serious) question here about how Peston got his scoop. If, as I strongly suspect, he got it by it being leaked by a member of the government, then the government itself, in collusion with the state broadcaster, is guilty of conspiring to create a false market. If that’s so, someone somewhere not only needs to resign, but more importantly, the Met needs to get the cuffs on them.
Given that Peston was privy to the information that the Competition authorities were to be by-passed on the deal, I can’t see that his ‘inside’ source can be anyone but a government employee or minister.
The people who govern us may find that government via unattributable newsleak to the state broadcaster is an acceptable way to run the country -after all, prior disclosure of policy to parliament is so old-fashioned isn’t it – but attempting to manipulate the financial markets in the same manner is, quite simply, a matter for the police.
Quite who goes down for this remains to be seen, but if no-one good down, then Britain’s institutional integrity is yet further undermined in a fundamental way.
And in the meantime, the BBC has to ask itself whether it has any editorial guidelines about its legal responsibilities and indeed legal liabilities in helping to create a false market.
What seems equally remarkable, and deeply depressing, is that no-one in the BBC or indeed elsewhere even seems aware that there’s a deep deep problem here. Perhaps that problem will only be fully appreciated when (and very likely it will be a ‘when’ not an ‘if’) they recieve the first letter from m’learned friends.
Cheeta,
Thats a rather interesting program name aye, undercover soldier.
What would one take from that then? That Al Beeb is brave enough to tackle the hard stories because they uncovered bastardisation going on during recruitment training?
Or, more likely, is the reality that Al Beeb will only go after the easy targets, white institutions like the Army and Police forces?
If only Al Been was “brave” as C4 eh?
Mailman
Martin; here is my problem with your terminology:
Gerry Adams was a bearded fuckwit who wanted to blow us up, I am bearded (sometimes) and a fuckwit (often), and there are indeed people I would like to blow up (in my dreams). Why can’t we call the enemy by its name, so that other homicidal bearded fuckwits (like myself) don’t feel discriminated against?
Hugh – very much enjoying your contribution, keep up the good work.
DR R
what a load of trash, Klein was fking on along the usual line. It was all George Bushs fault and nasty nasty nasty tory toff banker greed.
Paxman said nothing.
Steltzer tried to point out, correctly, that the left wing is more to blame, Paxman told him to shut his face such views are not welcome.
The whole debate was pathetic with endless nonsense spouted that is the usual newsfight fair.
end of capitalism theme was entirely predictable.
Michael Taylor | 18.09.08 – 1:26 pm
My question here is, what can we do to make sure that this is followed up? Write to our MPs? Would that really make a difference?
Eat your heart out Leithhead, here’s how to really report from the Afghan front…
http://www.michaelyon-online.com/
As ‘EU Referendum blogspot’ points out, but the BBC (inc. Peston) doesn’t, the EUROPEAN UNION lurks here:
” A National Humiliation”
[Extract]:
“Remarkably, in the torrent of media coverage about the HBOS/TSB merger, the words ‘European Union’ are still almost entirely absent. Thus, most media outlets wrongly report the merger as a done deal with very little comment on the competition law aspects.
Although the BBC, via its business correspondent Robert Peston, does explore this element, it does so in an entirely national context, reporting that the government will use the ‘national interest’ clause (sic) in the Competition Act to over-ride concerns about competition.
“Peston thus reports that the government will cite the national interest, which would be ‘served by the imperative of maintaining the stability of the financial system.’
“That will not wash with the EU and make no mistake about it, the EU is in charge here. It is a fundamental principle of our relationship with the EU that its law over-rides ours.”
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2008/09/national-humiliation.html
2:22 pm above is me.
More in the daily diet of anti-American reporting from Pakistan from the BBC’s M. ILYAS KHAN (what the ‘M’ stands for, or what his nationality is: unknown).
“Pakistan ‘not told of US strike'”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7622562.stm
He trots out the same stuff about Islamic Jihadists being his euphemistic ‘Islamist militants’, playing down that US hit correct targets, and doesn’t at all assist in reporting against the Taleban and AL Qaeda enemy, unlike this article from a quite different source:
“The Pakistan connection to the UK’s Jihad network”
http://www.jamestown.org/terrorism/news/article.php?articleid=2373989
When will M.ILYAS KHAN be taken off the case by the BBC?
henryflower: I think those here know who I am referring to when using the erm “bearded fuckwits” just as “the fat one eyed jock” is also obvious 🙂
From ‘Evening Standard’ Londoner’s Diary:
“IT’S THE cavalry coming over the hill to rescue Gordon Brown. Step forward John Prescott, who has formed an unlikely alliance with Alastair Campbell, Glenys Kinnock and Richard Caborn to launch a campaign to propel Labour to a fourth term in office in today’s New Statesman magazine.
“On the ‘Today’ programme this morning Prezza was on vintage form, positively steamrolling James Naughtie’s attempts to link the global credit crunch with Labour’s poor poll ratings.”
http://londonersdiary.standard.co.uk/2008/09/prezza-stands-b.html
‘Climate science blogspot’ has:
“The BBC have been putting out a programme on Sundays.. on BBC2 for the last two weeks on global warming. The final part is next Sunday. (The programmes can be viewed online.) It seems clear to me that the series is propaganda in favour of the theory of man-made global warming. Three hour long programmes is rather tedious and the presenter, Dr. Ian Stewart, tries hard to give the impression that he is a neutral observer, while clearly steering us to one conclusion.”
http://climatescience.blogspot.com/2008/09/earth-climate-wars.html
When the market is down yesterday there is a headline story and the UK, French, German and US market indices are shown.
When it goes up, no story and what’s more the US market indices have disappeared entirely.
Scandalous suggestion that the BBC wants to talk the economy down, wants a recession and in particular wants a recession in the US.
Scandalous suggestion – isn’t it?
Michael,
Have emailed my MP re: the false market in HBOS shares.
Suggest we all do likewise.
That Newsnight Paxman interview; why did he say Irvin Setzler had “conceded” that regulations were needed. IS was only trying to debate how much regulation would be needed.
Michael Taylor | 18.09.08 – 1:26 pm |
Totally agree. I mentioned this yesterday, and at least a couple of Speccie readers are aware.
The BBC pretty obviously broke the rules just to make Mr. Brown look good. One would think they learned their lesson after the finger was pointed at them for Northern Rock (although, I must say that while they didn’t handle that as badly as some feel).
Peston is a Friend of Gordon, and is in so close with him as to have written a book about the way Mr. Brown governs. This is very, very shady. I know reporters are supposed to create a close rapport with their sources and all that, but this is ridiculous.
Now the regulator is adding managements’ demands for additional taxpayer money to go to channel 4. Instead of losing an Auntie ….
Channel 4 needs between £60 million and £100 million a year in extra support to survive in its existing form, according to Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom, the industry regulator.
The most likely source of financing is cash from the BBC licence fee, although several options, ranging from free spectrum to direct grants from the taxpayer, are on the table
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/media/article4775894.ece
jesus
if you get rid of the beeb, c4 will have more viewers n wont need extra cash
I hear Peston on the radio several times yesterday . Most notably on the 6 O’clock R4 Bulletin (the one thats supposed to be serious as opposed to Eddie Maiers increasingly wonderful “who gives a fuck” performances on PM) which had two items in which the BBC itself was claiming responsibility for the “news”.
In the latter, about HBOS, Mr Peston sounded so hysterical and self-satisfied that it was like listening to a record company executive at a Xmas Party. His “report” was just a Government Press Release, it was extraodinarily lacking in any balance or analysis.
The week before we had the embarassingly stupid and awful “Red Button Day” shite in which even the educated and accomplished Andrew Marr was persuaded to make a fool of himself in a way that would have been entirely avoided if anyone with any knowledge of science had been involved in the programming.
Every time I think this place is a drop-in centre for right wing conspiracy bigots all I have to do is listen to the radio.
an “extraordinary exclusive”
pillock Peston called it.
it was so amazing ive forgotten what it was but im sure Gordon was involved
adam | 18.09.08 – 5:21 pm |
it was so amazing ive forgotten what it was but im sure Gordon was involved
Peston thinks Gordon is amazing. Even the Guardian says so.
Peston is partisan. He is a Brownite and Brown’s Britain does not disguise it. Despite that, the book is a careful account of the great schism in modern British politics, which is not between Blair and Brown, but between their philosophies. Blair leads the compassionate conservatives while Brown is the hope of the egalitarians who ‘do not rely on the price mechanism to balance supply and demand’ of scarce resources. Brown’s Britain is a social democracy.
And this is the BBC’s Business Editor. It’s getting to be like the X-Files: Trust No One.
The BBC’s idea of the great schism in modern British politics is between “leftist” and “very leftist”.
Or to put another way, between “a large increase in the television license fee” and “a very large increase in the television license fee”.
On BBC 4 TV News – minutes ago – there was a discussion on whether the present global financial problems herald ‘the end of capitalism’.
Interestingly, the BBC’s ex-Channel 4 presenter, Zeinab Badawi, introduced Martin Jacques, as being from ‘the left of centre, Guardian’.
In her long absence on maternity leave, from her role as BBC Economics Editor, has STEPHENIE FLANDERS morphed into the new PRIME MINISTER of ISRAEL?
‘STEPHANIE FLANDERS’
http://images.google.co.uk/images?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&rlz=1T4ADBR_enGB232GB232&q=stephanie+flanders&um=1&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title
‘TZIPI LIVNI’
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/2978557/Israel-Tzipi-Livni-wins-Kadima-vote-to-become-new-PM.html
George R
Try to understand things this way.
It is not the end of capitalism.
It is the end of a period in history where the people generally believed the lie that the people at the top of the capitalism system and democratically elected government where in some way independent of each other.
When the truth is they mostly never have been, and certainly not for the last 95 years at least. Money can not always buy a power crazed psychopath happiness, but it can always buy him EVERYTHING ELSE in the end. Therefore infinite money = infinite political power in the long run.
We are seeing the end of this greatest of all GREAT LIES . The great lie that organizations such as the BBC, where originally set up to brainwash the masses with.
The system is not going to collapse although it will seem as though it has, for a while. It will change into your worst Orwellian nightmare and then some, unless I am very much mistaken.
Imagine your local Common Purpose initiate in a Neo-Nazi Uniform pointing a loaded gun at your children. Because soon you will not have to imagine it.
JUSTIN WEBB WATCH
Here we go again:
“This is IMPORTANT” trumpets Justin Webb in his blog and send us to a report in the Omaha World-Herald (wow!) about Chuck Hagel (R) dissing Sarah Palin.
http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_page=2835&u_sid=10435997
Beginners (and Justin Webb) start here: the mainstream newspapers are in the tank for Obama, while Chuck Hagel is a Republican only in name has been a pain in the arse for years:
“Hagel Calls for Bush Impeachment”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17786158/
“Hagel : Bush White House more arrogant incompetent ever”
http://thinkonthesethings.wordpress.com/2007/11/29/republican-chuck-hagel-bush-white-house-most-arrogant-incompetent-ever/
Hagel: Bush Iraq speech like ‘Alice in Wonderland’
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Hagel_Bush_Iraq_speech_like_Alice_0327.html
and on and on…
It seems the only person who doesn’t know that our Chuck is a closet lefty, hates Bush, is a famous bomb-thrower and is treated as a joke by most observers is • Justin Webb.
By the way, Webb’s source (the Omaha World-Herald) also tells us that “Hagel, who says he has no plans to endorse either presidential candidate, traveled with Democratic nominee Barack Obama to the Middle East in July.”
Both men came back saying that the surge wasn’t working, we were all doomed and Bush was a liar – yada yada yada, the usual stuff.
And who would you guess might be looking for a job in an Obama administration? It starts with H, Justin, and ends in L
Context, dear boy, context.
staggering… the FSA has banned short selling.
good luck with that.
the shorters will find a way to punish UK plc in retaliation.
http://www.order-order.com/2008/09/fsa-bans-short-selling.html
this is going to get a HECK of a lot worse. all thanks to government intervention.
Atlas mentions Common Purpose, and above is Martin Jacques, one of its founders.
George R | 18.09.08 – 7:48 pm
i was unfortunate enough to hear about 5 minutes of Jermey Vine on BBC 2 at lunchtime about the same thing – “the end of capitalism”.
cue some raving SWP moonbat being given the airwaves.
yeah right – the solution to the credit crunch is more socialism. as if Gordon Brown and New Labour have been the most libertarian administration ever.
where the hell do they get these people – under a rock from Mars?
T’will be interesting to see the BBCs politically biased audience on the returning Question time tonight.
No doubt Harriet Harmon will be afforded a standing ovation as we come to realise that the opinion polls are merely a sham by the right wing and rabid press.
“Allan@Oslo | 18.09.08 – 8:28 pm”
you lost me. martin jaques? who he?
So why is the BBC in love with its former nemesis Alastair Campbell?
“This latest programme comes after the BBC spent £300,000 of licence fee payers’ money televising Campbell’s diaries and giving his book hours of free publicity.
Many corporation insiders are incredulous at the way bosses are ‘fawning’ over the ex-communications chief credited with bringing the BBC to its knees.
Despite the fact his war with the corporation sparked resignations of the then director general and chairman, he is increasingly a regular face on its networks.
Insiders estimate that, including his diaries, the Radio 4 documentary and the latest programme, the corporation has paid him over £50,000 in the last two years”.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1057571/So-BBC-love-nemesis-Alastair-Campbell.html
archduke | 18.09.08 – 8:28 pm |
The FSA has been trying to chip away at shorts for some time.
APCIMS welcomes announcement by FSA and the Chancellor to ensure transparency in short selling
Around the same time in the US, the SEC was trying to focus on eliminating naked shorting. That’s already illegal, but everyone does it if they can get away with it.
Maybe it’s just me, but this smells a bit like another way to pass blame around and prop up Mr. Brown. “See the firm hand on the tiller. First he directs Lloyds to do the right thing, now he puts an end to those nasty traders who caused whatever it is everyone’s upset about today.”
I suppose Peston will now do another round of appearances saying how this latest move will ensure that Britain can withstand the storm, etc. Can’t wait to read the chapter about this in his next book about how incredible Mr. Brown is. Probably best not to mention tomorrow’s FTSE numbers.
The BBC, that Russian fleet in the Black sea and half the story.
Russian gunboat diplomacy in Crimea?
The row over the future of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea could become a flashpoint in the already strained relations between Kiev and Moscow, says the BBC’s Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, as he goes aboard the Russian flag ship in Sevastopol… The problem is that, by a quirk of history, when the Soviet Union collapsed Sevastopol ended up in Ukraine. Russia has a lease on the naval base until 2017. Then Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko says the navy must go.
But the Russians have no intention of leaving.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7622520.stm
Oh those nasty Russians. Or should I say the BBC is promoting the angle that the west should keep away from the Ukraine as the Russians will fight to stay there.
Here is what that very biased BBC article doesn’t inform the reader.
RUSSIA’S BLACK SEA FLEET PLANS FORCE BUILD-UP AT NOVOROSSIYSK
By Vladimir Socor
Monday, August 6, 2007
Admiral Vladimir Masorin, commander-in-chief of Russia’s naval forces, announced ambitious plans to expand the Russian Black Sea Fleet’s forces and missions during his just-completed visit to the fleet’s main base at Sevastopol in Ukraine. The plans focus on developing Novorossiysk as a major naval base on Russian territory, retaining Sevastopol (past 2017 if it possible), and restoring the Fleet’s capability to re-establish a presence at least to some degree in the Mediterranean…
The 1997 basing agreements (valid until 2017) do not allow Russia to add ships to its Fleet on Ukraine’s territory. Meanwhile, Russia is building up the Novorossiysk base on the Russian coast, in immediate proximity to the Crimea. It is constricting new piers and other port installations there, as well as barracks for marine infantry (ship-borne landing troops) and installations for land-based aviation.
http://www.jamestown.org/edm/article.php?article_id=2372347
and from google;
“In 2003, President Putin signed a presidential decree setting up a naval base for the Black Sea Fleet in Novorossiisk. Russia has allocated 12.3 billion rubles (about $480 million) for the construction of the new base between 2007 and 2012. The construction of other facilities and infrastructure at the base, including units for coastal troops, aviation and logistics, will continue beyond 2012”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Novorossiysk
The BBC, that Russian fleet in the Black sea and half the story.
Mock the Week is truly unbelievable. Yet another tirade against the Republicans, this time from Andy Parsons wondering “where the assassins were” for George Bush’s Presidency (“when we needed them”)
Every week some conservative is abused. The week David Cameron went to Georgia they just ranted about him for fifteen minutes, evidently forgetting it was a comedy panel show, not some juvenile Question Time.
When are they going to get off their damn bandwagons?
“David Preiser (USA) | Homepage | 18.09.08 – 9:07 pm ”
by banning short selling , London can say bye bye to hedge funds.
and there goes our pensions.
why bother trading in London, where you cant hedge your bets, compared to say Zurich or Dublin, where you can open up both long and short positions?
i’m still gobsmacked at the idiocy of the FSA. dont they understand how shorting works and how it lessens the risks of pension funds?
i would not be surprised in the slightest if major funds are now kicking into action the Geneva option – i.e. get the f**k out of London…
“Sam T | 18.09.08 – 9:25 pm ”
that scottish guy with glasses doesnt seem to be yer usual SWP left wing nutjob…
he throws in some seriously un-PC jokes sometimes that most folks dont notice it.
archduke | 18.09.08 – 9:28 pm
Short Selling: Should it be banned?
“These are the arguments for short selling, and I do not think that either of them are good ones. It is true that money can be made from short-selling. It is also true that a combination of ‘long’ and ‘short’ portfolios can reduce the volatility of an investor’s total return. But short selling is only one side of a zero sum game. For every short seller who is making money, there is a holder of those securities who is losing it. In aggregate short selling is of no benefit whatsoever to all those who trust their savings with fund managers. It is simply a new way that the ever inventive City has found to cream profits off the national pot of savings.
So the arguments for short selling just do not stack up. The City’s role is to support the growth of the economy through the allocation of investment capital into profitable ventures. This calls for a positive, constructive mindset that looks beyond the next few weeks and months. The mindset of short sellers is quite the opposite.
http://www.fleetstreetinvest.co.uk/small-cap/tom-bulford-masterclass/short-selling-00084.html
archduke.
Short selling shares that you actually own I have no problem with. The problem is with those short selling shares that they do not own in an attempt to manipulate the market.
It has been a major feature of the vast majority of recent “short selling” situations that a very large percentage of shares in the companies at the time were “on loan”. Without being able to “borrow” shares the market manipulators would have difficulty raising the critical mass to manipulate the market. Thus your friendly hedge fund does not have to shell out several million pounds to have bought the shares first yet stands to make a lot of money while using little of their own, leverage I believe it is called. These and similar smart arse get rich quick schemes run by wide boys have got us where we are now and this is what the FSA should be stopping.
Undercover Soldier: What an utter waste of time. When I joined the air force years ago if you fucked up on the range, you got a kick in the ribs.
One asshole turned around when his rifle jammed poiting it at the people behind. He rightly got a good kicking.
I notice that our “lefty” recruit/beeboid said it would be a challenge having to swear allegiance to the Queen.
An utter waste of tax payers money.
And I had to laugh when the bit about the BNP came up. So the officer told them they shouldn’t vote for the BNP.
So would that also include the Communist party, the SWP and Galloway’s Respect party.
Or just the BNP who are a legal party and the accusation they are racist is not proven.
If I said ALL Muslims are racists I bet the BBC wouldn’t agree, despite Undercover Mosque (two shows) clealry showing otherwise.