QUESTION TIME LIVEBLOG!

OK – so we go live later this evening and here is the panel for your edification. We have media opportunist liberal Lembit Opik, then there is phew wot a scorcher Conservative parliamentary candidate Margot James, (the new Nadine Dorries now she is mad); there is Trasha from garbage TV, and of course we shouldn’t forget FT Editor Lionel Barber; finally there is lovely boy Chris Bryant from the Rhondda. I invite you to visit Chris”s homepage here if you want a laugh, check out the excerpt from his maiden speech. We kick off at 10.30pm and best of all, I have two good gentlemen to moderate alongside me! David Mosque has kindly agreed to be here – and Geoff may be back for the first time since his accident. All in all it should be a laugh and don’t worry about the direness of the panel – we more than make up for that in our commentary! Be there.

ON CUE FROM THE LEFT…

I think that Stephen Glover has quite a perspicacious article here on the subject of how the BBC operates as a multimedia more powerful version of the Guardian.

As a publicly owned broadcaster funded by the licence payer, it is supposed
to eschew partisan or biased stories with a political agenda. In this case,
the newspaper lobbed a grenade into David Cameron’s back yard by targeting
Andy Coulson. The BBC blindly followed suit. But then the Corporation
often takes its cue from the Guardian. The two organisations share the same
values. Day after day, week after week, the BBC adopts the Guardian’s Leftist
preoccupations and prejudices. The relatively low-selling newspaper serves as
the Corporation’s brain, and many of the progressive causes it
promulgates are taken up by the BBC with its far wider reach.

I think this is about right. And because the BBC is so profoundly institutionally biased that there can be no salvation for it, I’m afraid. It has to be axed and the license tax burden removed. If it wants to push a leftist (or even a right wing) point of view, fine. Let it fund this itself.

Making predictions in the world of politics is to make yourself a hostage to fortune but I believe that David Cameron will shy away from doing what is necessary to the BBC. I believe that he will try to ameliorate the worst excesses of the BBC whilst remaining continually wary of the malign power of the State Broadcaster. He may even think that being nice to them will make things better. It won’t. The values of conservatism are incompatible with the BBC and it will continue to undermine these which is why the only viable option is the complete and utter destruction of the BBC as we know it.

A WORD ON THE EYE

B-BBC readers and in particular those who like to come along to the weekly Question Time liveblog – will know that Geoff aka The All Seeing Eye – is back on the long road to recovery after a serious accident and may even be able to join us tomorrow night! This is welcome news and proof that prayer is answered! So the Liveblog is ON for tomorrow night. Make sure you come along!

Breaking the Silence

“Just in case you’d been distracted by trivial, parochial concerns like BBC salaries and British soldiers coming home in coffins, it’s our duty to remind you once more about the real scandal. The Israelis.”

“Lest you forget, we must tell you again about the war crimes, human rights violations and abuses that took place in Gaza! What’s more the BBC didn’t even have to uncover the scandal because Israelis blabbed about it all by themselves.”

“The BBC is outraged to hear that Israel protects those spoilt Israeli soldiers at all costs. Even putting their lives above the human rights of the enemy! They use deadly weapons, and even innocents – children, babies and women get killed.
They’d stop at nothing to avoid their precious soldiers coming home in body-bags! How typically selfish!”

“If the Israelis were proper soldiers, They’d make do do with cardboard vehicles and a wonky helicopter. They’d put the enemy’s human rights at the forefront and abide strictly by the rules of engagement and be sure to die in sufficient quantities. Unlike the noble martyrs of Hamas who obviously stick strictly to the rules. ”

“Booby traps, suicide bombers, children playing on rooftops, launching rockets from schoolyards, terrorists hiding in houses, hatred and Islamic Jihad are no excuse for not playing by the rules, the BBC has learned.”

Evan Davis quotes Wilfred Owen: “These men are worth your tears!”
As long as they’re not Israelis.

DO AS I SAY…

Wonder if you are impressed as I am by Sir Michael Lyons, the chairman of the BBC Trust, who has laid himself open to accusations of hypocrisy after his remuneration package rose by 30 per cent to £213,000 last year, despite his assurances that the Corporation was cutting costs! Perhaps when BBC talking heads drone on about the “greed” of the bankers they need to look more closely to home to see greed in action? What say you?

WICCAN THOUGHT FOR THE DAY?

Wonder what you make of the news that the BBC is considering whether to hand over Thought For The Day to non-religious speakers?

The long-running Radio 4 slot, which airs during the Today programme, remains
one of the few features devoted entirely to religion and ethics. But it emerged
yesterday that the corporation’s governing body, the BBC Trust, has launched an
investigation into whether it should be opened up to secular and humanist points
of view.

An “investigation”, eh? Yes, we need to hear some Wiccan insights in our wonderful multiculti world. The BBC elite hate the Christian religion and have reduced most “thoughts for the day” to mealy mouthed liberal platitudes but now it seems that is no longer tolerable!

UNDERMINING OUR MILITARY

It’s not really that subtle, is it? BBC lead story is McDoom defending his strategy of under-equipping our military in Afghanistan. In McDoom-speak this means claiming our military are better equipped than they have been for decades. All fantasy, of course. The BBC then segues into a story concerning alleged abuse carried out by a British soldier in Iraq. Simple equation; British Army = bad. The beat is always the same – pretend to be concerned about our Armed Forces then do everything possible to undermine them in order to get the desired result – withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Splash!

That’s the sound of the BBC going way overboard in covering what they seem to think is a big scandal of Dick Cheney’s doing- some secret “plan” concocted with the CIA without Senate knowledge. Last week it was phone-tapping of public figures in the UK by the News of the World, this week Dick Dastardly and his Mutley CIA. Well just as last week’s soft scoop has turned into a damp squib, so will this one, probably. The thing that gets me about this “plan” is that as the BBC admit, “even now its nature is not known”. Wouldn’t it be better to wait until it was before screaming blue murder? Especially as this is midway through a partisan spat focussing on whether House Speaker Pelosi lied about briefings from the CIA. I’m not sure if the BBC is trying to influence anybody (as if, eh?), but this storm in a teacup strongly suggests to me that Aunty’s bias is showing.