125 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. George R says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:04 am

    Will BBC-NUJ campaign for her, as it does for Ethiopia Muslim Binyam Mohamad?:

    “An inspirational teacher is fired. So who will tell the truth now?”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1321411/As-teacher-Katharine-Birbalsingh-fired-tell-truth-now.html#ixzz12hu2u1DP

       1 likes

  2. Millie Tant says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:21 am

    Why did she get fired, and how did she get fired so quickly, considering that incompetent teachers rarely get fired and even when they do, the process takes years? Amazing, isn’t it?  Half the time they go on paid sick leave or special leave for months or years  and may eventually be allowed to resign or given early retirement or some such fudge.

       1 likes

  3. Katabasis says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:37 am

    I have to third / fourth this issue. Katharine’s treatment is not getting nearly enough attention – and as one of the commenters at Cranmer’s place notes: “I trust that many people will be keeping a close watch on those who attend and speak at the next Labour party conference. Any teachers there should be exposed in the press and on the blogs and given the same treatment as Ms Birbalsingh. Use the same tools against the socialists as they happily use against the rest of us.”

       1 likes

  4. George R says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:41 am

    BBC-NUJ ‘leftist’ Ms. Montague admonishes Chile’s President on Pinochet!

    On BBC TV 24 hours ‘Hardtalk’ interview today, she criticised President Pinera for being ‘rightist’ and ‘neo-populist’ (a new one on me); unfortunately for Ms. Montague, Pres Pinera gave her a neat little min-lecture on the origins of ‘left’ and ‘right’ in political history (going back to the French Revolution) and rejecting Ms Montague’s typically arrogant presumption that the ‘left’ has a monopoly on social justice. (UK viewere can get it on ‘iPlayer’.)

    Perhaps another reason for BBC-NUJ not to like Chile’s Pres. Pinera:

    “Churchill inspired our mine rescue, says Chile president as he is welcomed in Britain ”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1321441/Chile-President-Sebastian-Pinera-Churchill-inspired-trapped-miners-rescue.html#ixzz12i4AawJB

       1 likes

    • RGH says:
      October 18, 2010 at 12:13 pm

      Well said. The BBC has deep issues with ‘populism’ which is always about listening to what people really think and conducting a dialogue as opposed to the left wing elitism wich  patronises ‘the man in the pub’. The ‘we know better than you and we know what’s best’ arrogance of the Left.

      The Left and the statism it spawns appropriating a monopoly of social concern is as the French would say, ‘deficitaire’.

      Justice is enough. The word ‘social’ diminishes and distorts it.

         1 likes

      • Mark says:
        October 18, 2010 at 4:29 pm

        Ah the “man in the pub” alas long gone. All hail the blog even more of a potant force for populism.

           1 likes

    • Span Ows says:
      October 18, 2010 at 12:25 pm

      I have no way of proving it but the news of the Chilean president visit, despite it having Uk news on the link and address name, was only accessed via the latin american page, probably because he said he liked David Cameron (scroll down…a lot)


      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11557578

         1 likes

    • Martin says:
      October 18, 2010 at 1:10 pm

      Did the dozy bitch try to link Thatcher as well? I expect the BBC are saving that one up.

         1 likes

    • Barry says:
      October 18, 2010 at 4:47 pm

      “…’neo-populist’ (a new one on me)…”

      I think it was Maggie who referred to the left’s habit of inventing titles for their beliefs.

      Good way of shoring up a dodgy idea; gives it a status it probably doesn’t deserve.

         1 likes

  5. Abandon Ship! says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:56 am

    Another day, another hardline commie on BBC radio, this time its History of the World object number 96
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ahow

    Eric Hobsbawm (who supported the Nazi-Soviet pact as well as the Soviet invasions of Finland and Hungary) waxes lyrical on the Russian Revolution.

       1 likes

  6. Abandon Ship! says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:58 am

    Apparently Number 97 is going to be a brick from the so-called gas chamers at Auschwitz, discussed by Neil MacGregor and David Irving.

       1 likes

    • Dr A says:
      October 18, 2010 at 12:56 pm

      No, no, no. The BBC LOVES holocaust Jews… its Jews who are self-reliant, courageous and successful they hate.

         1 likes

  7. Derek Buxton says:
    October 18, 2010 at 12:08 pm

    I was disgusted with the “non fictional” Dambusters, the comments by Shaw were completely out of order.  Yes German civilians were killed but surprise, surprise, he never mentioned our people who were killed by the Luftwaffe.  He also passed on who started the war in the first place, it couldn’t be that elected Reichkanzelor A. Hitler…. could it?  
    The BBC re-writes history, it’s what we do!

       1 likes

    • Martin says:
      October 18, 2010 at 1:14 pm

      Yes Shaw (why do they get these third rate celebs to do this stuff?) did spout utter crap. Innocent civilians? Well where do we start with that one? The massacre of Jews, French, Dutch, Norweigens etc by the vile Nazi’s. Funny I don’t ever hear the BBC use the word ‘innocent’ when referring to the Blitz for example.

      Has anyone seen ‘Greatest Tank Battles’ on Discovery? The Germans who talk about the battles they had with the allies (especially the ex SS ones) still have that German arrogance that they were just unlucky to lose and that they were still the best.

      You’d NEVER get that sort of arrogance from Germans on a BBC show.

         1 likes

  8. Abandon Ship! says:
    October 18, 2010 at 12:21 pm

    Compare and contrast on the BBC’s The World Service programme “Interview”

    One week Pastor Terry Jones is interviewed and is in effect called stupid (by the BBC interviewer). I do agree that Jones is not too bright but this was an astonishingly rude interview by the BBC interviewer.

    The next week lefty author Peter Carey (a HIGHLY irritating individual) is interviewed and calls American people (outside New York City) stupid (and Bush and Cheney cretins), practically unchallenged.

    Listen to both here;

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/interview

       1 likes

    • Abandon Ship! says:
      October 18, 2010 at 12:38 pm

      By the way, note the way that Owen-Bennet Jones, the interviewer with Pastor Jones (no relation) focusses completely at the start on Pastor Jones’s attitude towards homosexuality/Leviticus. It is simply an attempt to undermine the Pastor from the beginning. Imagine him doing this to a muslim.

         1 likes

  9. john in cheshire says:
    October 18, 2010 at 12:29 pm

    Does anyone have any new of Mr and Mrs Chandler, the couple who were captured by somali muslim pirates? It must be about a year since they were taken, under the noses of our gallant sailors, some 300 miles off the coast of somalia.

       1 likes

  10. Dazzler says:
    October 18, 2010 at 12:56 pm

    just listened to Wales’ environment minister for nearly a hour. The show(radio wales phone in) was a complete and utter platform for the bitch.

       1 likes

  11. Deborah says:
    October 18, 2010 at 1:19 pm

    WATO – my husband asks… why is the volume up so high….me ‘It is the only way I can hear what Simon Wolfson is saying’ (in support of the government). 

    Whatever the next item was we had to turn the volume down because Carney and whoever appeared to be shouting (or as we chose …..used the off button)

       1 likes

  12. fred bloggs says:
    October 18, 2010 at 1:23 pm

    Lack of DEMONS.  I am wondering when the demonisation of Bliar/Brown is going to start.  As we are told that the bBC is actually unbiased,  then as Thatcher was turned into the bogeywoman because of her record.  Surely in the interests of fairness, the bBC should do the same for Bliar/Brown seeing that, if their unenviable record is laid out honestly, it is far worst then Thatchers.  So I wait in anticipation for the hacks in the bBC to get their knives out  and into Bliar/Brown.  

       1 likes

  13. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 18, 2010 at 2:00 pm

    I just lauged out loud at the BBC’s self-promotion of their Spending Review coverage on the News Channel.

    “With objective coverage and expert commentary…”

    This was preceded by quotes from Peston et al about how nasty the Tories policies were.

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      October 18, 2010 at 3:59 pm

      “With objective coverage and expert commentary…”  

      I think someone might need to take Aunty, and her ex 10:10 crisis management advisers, to one side and explain that just because you try to say what you’d like to be the case, often… AND LOUDLY, doesn’t mean anyone believes them gilding their own turds makes them any less rank.

         0 likes

  14. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 18, 2010 at 2:10 pm

    BBC hypocrisy again on Wikileaks.  In their profile of the hacker behind it, they do mention that he has been busted for hacking.  Yet, they make sure to whitewash it with this:


    Daniel Schmitt, a co-founder, describes Mr Assange as “one of the few people who really care about positive reform in this world to a level where you’re willing to do something radical to risk making a mistake, just for the sake of working on something they believe in”.

    See?  It’s okay if we portray him as a ‘white hat’.  It’s not criminal activity if he holds approved thoughts.  In the main article about the next supposed rash of “leaks” about Iraq, well, Spot the Missing Word.  Unlike all BBC reports about the CRU emails.

       0 likes

  15. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 18, 2010 at 2:30 pm

    I know I commented on Mark Mardell’s blog posts on the previous open thread, but the video version is worth watching, just to see the blatant White House propaganda he spouts.  It’s also amusing to watch him roll out that poster, as if it’s got some kind of special power.

    Mardell speaks with two white men who are disappointed in the President.  Curiously, he does not suggest that they’re racist.  Perhaps that’s because they both voted Democrat last time.  The second man (the pizza shop owner) said that the Obamessiah Stimulus was a waste.  Being the good soldier, Mardell feels he must explain to his viewers that this is wrong.

    At 2:30 in, Mardell is driving across a bridge from Missouri to Illinois.  He points out that the reason these people see no evidence of any Stimulus success is that the projects haven’t even started yet, and so of course they can’t see any effects.  He says that there is a Stimulus project to fix up the very bridge he’s crossing, which will create 900 jobs, but it starts next year.  So it’s really only short-sighted, instant-gratification types who don’t get it.

    This is why Mardell said in his first post that “some people” are new to economic difficulties, and in his second post – the one where he talks to black folks in a barber shop – that black people are more patient, and understand that these things take time.

    What Mardell fails to mention – because he doesn’t actually realize this himself – is that those 900 jobs will be temporary.  What happens after that?  More government spending to create more temporary jobs for them?  Where does that cycle end?  He has no idea, doesn’t want to know.  All Mardell cares about is getting across his message that The Obamessiah’s Economic Plan For Us will work, and these doubting Thomases are simply wrong.

    Never mind that $25 million for 900 jobs works out to roughly $27.777 per job.  Total.  Not per year.  How’s that going to work?  Are they all going to be dangerous, back-breaking construction jobs at minimum wage, plus a few well-paid white bosses?  Again, Mardell doesn’t care.  He just spouts White House talking points.

       0 likes

    • John Horne Tooke says:
      October 18, 2010 at 10:33 pm

      The BBC are just waiting to unleash a QT edition on her “record”. It will be similar to the 9/11 one but without the balance.

      Disgusting lot.

         0 likes

  17. George R says:
    October 18, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    Will INBBC  feature this report by ex-Beeboid, Andrew Gilligan?:

    “Tower Hamlets” [Islamic] “extremist vote poses Ed Miliband’s first big election test”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8068839/PICS-AND-PUBLISH-Tower-Hamlets-extremist-vote-poses-Eds-first-big-election-test.html

       0 likes

  18. Only Winding says:
    October 18, 2010 at 4:31 pm

    BBC Homepage:

    “COMING TO A LOCATION NEAR YOU? NUCLEAR SITES IDENTIFIED”

    And so it begins, the BBC’s shilling for Caroline Lucas and her batty Green Party.

    Strange however that the BBC would never run a story informing you that that a super mosque would be built near your drum.

    Recent proposals to build such structures in places like East London and Dudley in the West Midlands never raised an eyelid amongst your average crusading Beeboid.

    I suspect Chris Huhne is about to discover that he is no longer in favour with his old muckers at the Beeb.

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  19. Martin says:
    October 18, 2010 at 5:19 pm

    So the 6PM news

    Cuts all the way

    That econimic genius Postman Pat lectures us on hoe the Tories are evil and he has the answers to the debt (forgetting that he was part of the Government that ran it up in the first place)

    Then we get James Lansdale give an easy ride to two disgraced Liebour Lords and unbelievably Lord Paul gets a soft ride. Anyone want ot bet if Lord Ashcroft was caught out on expenses the BBC wouldn’t make it the top story for weeks?

    Then it’s cuts all the way again.

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  20. Martin says:
    October 18, 2010 at 5:36 pm

    Panorama tonight is a full on BBC attack on the Chile mining system. So expect Pinochet/Thatcher/Tories and the current ‘right wing’ President to get a bucketful dumped on them.

    Meanwhile yet more miners in China die and the BBC ignores it. Communism=good you see.

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  21. George R says:
    October 18, 2010 at 5:38 pm

    Wow! Robert Spencer of ‘Jihadwatch’ gets to reply at the ‘Guardian’; whatever next, INBBC?

    Spencer defends Geller in…The Guardian!

       0 likes

  22. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 18, 2010 at 5:46 pm

    I wonder if this whole BBC “Firstclick” campaign to get people online (read:  online to the BBC) is connected to their desire to get the license fee enforced on computers as well as TV sets?

    At your expense, they’re sending Terry Wogan and others around to cajole people (all pensioners, presumably) to join the wonderful world of the internet.

    The report I just saw on the News Channel made sure to highlight the catch phrase from Outside Edge, “It’s not compulsory”.

    Of course, if the BBC gets its way, it will be.

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  23. George R says:
    October 18, 2010 at 6:22 pm

    Criticism of ‘multiculturalism’ reaches CNN, if not INBBC:

    “Germany’s Merkel is right — multiculturalism has failed”

    (by David Frum)

    http://www.cnn.com/2010/OPINION/10/18/frum.merkel.multicultural/

       0 likes

  24. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 18, 2010 at 6:36 pm

    So the BBC has hired far-Left “journalist and broadcaster” Michael Goldfarb to come up with yet another explanation of why the Democrats are in trouble with the upcoming mid-term elections.  
     
    Excuses abound, none of which are even remotely connected to the President and His policies.  
     
    Goldfarb mentions the Tea Party movement.  His exclusive focus:  Christine O’Donnell, naturally.  He tries to paint a picture of a country experiencing a malaise, feeling as if it might be in decline.  This is only natural, he explains, because of – you guessed it – a series of failures by George Bush.  The US, like a baseball team, wants to feel like a winner, and we apparently feel we’re in a slump because of what Bush did.  
     
    Then, of course, he blames divisiveness from certain quarters for causing some unwarranted anger.  He also says that this malaise can be overcome by pointing to the way Blair’s “Cool Britannia” story brought the UK back from the doldrums brought upon you by Mrs. Thatcher.  It won’t surprise anyone here that he talks about this while mentioning his time spent at an elite universtiy.  
     
    A key bit of hypocrisy stands out, though. After describing how Thatcher ruined any chance at a recovery, Goldfarb says this:  
     
    Thatcher’s approach foreshadowed the Bush Administration’s approach to governance from 9/11 onwards. The effect in both the US and Britain was the same – a sense among almost half the population that the country was no longer theirs.  
     
    If you take away a person’s sense of being part of the team they are bound to think of the time when they were part of it as being better. The team is no longer what it was. Without them it is in decline.      
     
    So when Bush was in charge, this is considered normal.  But now that The Obamessiah is in charge, somehow this is a bad attitude which leads to extremists who even shock Karl Rove winning Republican primaries.  
     
    Goldfarb also manages to find a moment to call people in Arizona racists.  Isn’t he charming?  No wonder the BBC paid him a bit of your license fee to write this drivel.  What was (I think) supposed to be a piece about how the US will recover and is not losing its place as a world leader ends up being yet another BBC dig at the usual pantomime villains, and a shifting of blame away from their beloved Obamessiah.

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  25. dave s says:
    October 18, 2010 at 6:40 pm

    I heard Laura K, she of the aggressive delivery, on 1PM TV news tell us that the “cuts ” would affect us and her. Us maybe but her certainly not unless the massed ranks of beeboid reporters are about to be drastically culed or have their wages slashed.
    They really do live in a different world.

       0 likes

    • Only Winding says:
      October 18, 2010 at 7:02 pm

      I have seen her knocking back the firewater on more than one occasion (those eyelids are the result). The only way the cuts will affect her is if the courtesy booze is curtailed.

         0 likes

    • Asuka Langley Soryu says:
      October 18, 2010 at 8:11 pm

      Maybe she’s being shitcanned. May she be the first of many.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        October 18, 2010 at 9:15 pm

        No, Laura K is the odds-on favorite to replace Nick Robinson as BBC political editor whenever he decides what he wants to do next.  He handed things over to her behind the scenes some time ago, to judge from his behavior.  Robinson is so out of touch now that he’s spending all his time doing a big series of special reports about the Spending Review (when did he become an economics wonk, then?) that, according to a Guido spy, he had to ask Laura what to say for a BBC News segment about politics.

        I hope his special reports turn out to be more insightful than what he’s reporting on the News Channel just now.  Apparently the new Labour leader doesn’t like the Tory plans for cuts.  Gosh.  Robinson then laid out these brand new Labour suggestions which he said Labour announced today.  And what a shock: they’re the exact same thing Gordon Brown campaigned on, and the exact same thing Ed Balls spouts every time he’s been on the BBC for the last five months, and the exact same thing Andy Burnham spouts every time he’s on the BBC, and Robinson didn’t bother to point that out.

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  26. Himself says:
    October 18, 2010 at 6:42 pm

    As one invariably does when discovering a new blog, my arrival here was by a chance circuitous route.

    I thought I might leave you a link or two that may be of interest.

    I recently featured an article written by Indy Media journo Shane O’Curry, a more staggering display of BBC bias would indeed be a hard find.

    Although the story is nearly two years old, it’s ‘cor blimey’ effect is still as fresh as the day it was written.

    I have no political agenda in leaving my comments here, nor am I trying to spam your blog.


    Trust us we’re the BBC features the stories of both O’Curry and BBC Ireland correspondent, Mark Simpson, and must be said, it’s a doozy.

    I make known my feelings for the BBC in this short post, and another post on the state of journalism in this country, and although only tangential, includes the inimitable George Orwell.

    I trust you enjoy, and all pics, should anything take your fancy, are in the public domain.

       0 likes

  27. Pierre says:
    October 18, 2010 at 9:08 pm

    I normally enjoy ‘Spooks’, it’s the only thing on BBC 1 I can actually watch. Granted, it’s pretty daft but it moves along at a cracking pace and its spies and terrorists stuff is usually harmless nonsense.

    Tonight’s episode however can be summed up thus:

    Islamist terrorist attempts to stop a mad Israeli from killing the US President and derailing Middle East peace talks.

    Yes you read that right.

    I’m getting a ‘Bonekickers’ kind of vibe…

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1034512/BBC-Bonekickers-drama-blasted-showing-images-Muslim-beheaded.html

       0 likes

  28. Gerald says:
    October 18, 2010 at 9:16 pm

    Lovely throw away line on the 11 o,clock Radio 2 news this morning talking about “the letter” in the DT was “some of whom are Conservative supporters”.

    Has anyone heard a similar statement about multi signature letters published in that major circulation newspaper The Guardian or elsewhere supporting a previous government policiy.

    Lovely interview with Ken Follett on the arty programme yesterday afternoon on Radio 4. He somehow managed to get in “the media are all so right wing”. No comment after to say that he is a Labour supporting millionaire married to a Labour M.P.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      October 19, 2010 at 8:05 am

      I am not always a great fan of Bryony Gordon, but some weeks ago she did an interview with Follett in the “Telegraph”. She made it quite clear he came over as a total prat. Don’t think she will be invited again.
      Worth googling.

         0 likes

  29. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 18, 2010 at 9:30 pm

    Good grief!  Mark Mardell has finished his mini-trip to find Hope among the faithful.  He whipped out the holy relic four times!

    Naturally, we first hear from the JournoLista Mardell quoted approvingly in his last blog post.  What’s tragic is that the JournoLista – Dana Milbank – blames the President for leading him to believe that He was the Savior.  I am still wiping tears from my eyes over that one.

    Then Mardell goes to the other side of DC and meets two more black people.  Yes, one of them is working in a barber shop, and the other just lost her job as a beautician.  No racial stereotypes there, no sir.  Not when a Leftoid does it.  Of course, the black folks do not blame Him at all, and are more pragmatic than those whiney whites.

    The one overarching theme of Mardell’s mini-series is this:  None of it is really the fault of His policies.  It’s all about misconceptions and misunderstandings.

       0 likes

    • Martin says:
      October 18, 2010 at 11:29 pm

      I’ve often wondered what a beeboid would whip out if they met Barry 🙂

         0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:
      October 18, 2010 at 11:50 pm

      Funny opening para. The relic!   😀

      As for stereotypes, well indeed. Speaking of which, didn’t Mardell say that the reason some people didn’t like The One was that he wasn’t the right black stereotype?

         1 likes

  30. Martin says:
    October 18, 2010 at 10:11 pm

    Michael Prick looked worried, his hair greasier than normal (if that’s possible) it looks like the BBC might have ot absorb the cost of free TV licences into it’s existing budget, poor old pricky he looked like he was ready to drop.

    but then we hear it might not now happen, come on Tories the BBC won’t like that one little bit. 500 million a year off the BBC budget, Jesus they won’t be able to afford a good line of coke or a firm young rent boy

       1 likes

  32. Buggy says:
    October 18, 2010 at 11:31 pm

    Did anyone else happen to catch the interview with Bill & Melina Gates on Breakfast on Monday morning ?

    The Gateses were on to talk about their extremely generous philanthropic plans for the present and the future, and Bill was expanding on how they hoped to provide help in other countries.

    Incredibly, this gave Stayt and Reid the chance to attack the gov’t for ring-fencing the Overseas Development budget !

    To paraphrase: “Our gov’t has stated that the Overseas Development dept won’t be facing reductions. Now if you’re somebody in this country, and you’re seeing this being CUT and that being CUT, you’re surely going to think “Hang on a minute: why are we forking out all this money abroad and not using it in this country ?”

    (This actually happens to be roughly MY point of view, but it’s assuredly NOT the POV of liberals and the Beeboid Collective for whom the sight of the British state chucking money at foreigners (and esp. foreigners who hate us quite a lot) is enough to trigger a state of permanent orgasm. Thus, the Gateses were being encouraged to have a dig at the coalition).

    Unfortunately (though hilariously for we connoisseurs of BBC confusion !) the scrupulously polite Melinda Gates proceeded to regale us with accounts of the good that British aid was doing overseas, how grateful people were to the British for their generosity etc etc.

    This was hardly playing the game, clearly, and a period of silence descended, broken only by a sort of fizzing noise which I presume was the sound of the ReidBot’s circuitry going on the blink.

    Thank you Bill & Melinda ! 😀  

       1 likes

  33. John Anderson says:
    October 19, 2010 at 1:54 am

    Snow is expected this week.  Will Black and Harrabin and Shukman blame it on global warming ?

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      October 19, 2010 at 7:16 am

      It is now [something scary] climate change, mainly to address the inherent flaws in the GW handle when the weather proves inconvenient on a local or temporal basis. 

      If our two heroes are to comment, they will have course to do so from the other side of the planet (Japan, I think), where they get to go so you don… mustn’t.

      Oddly, they seem to be mainly meeting a bunch of like-minded, if irony-challenged fellow travellers on the green gravy train, mainly for little more than group hug as things have looked a bit iffy of late.

      I actually have an interest in many aspects of eco, though mainly on a waste reduction and increase efficiency front, but still way too much seems to be belching out vague, often selective boogey-scenarios with ‘solutions’ hat hardly seem destined to actually reduce GHGs.

         0 likes

  34. Martin says:
    October 19, 2010 at 6:55 am

    Racist Jessie Jackson now spouting his hate on Radio 5, where next?

       0 likes

  35. Martin says:
    October 19, 2010 at 7:22 am

    The racist is now on BBC 1. So the BBC have given him

    Newsnight
    Radio 5
    BBC Breakfast

    Just how many more BBC shows can they get the racist on?

       0 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:
      October 19, 2010 at 7:44 am

      It was announced on Today in a tone of awe that they would be speaking to Jesse Jackson about Obama.  I wasn’t able to listen to it, and wouldn’t have wanted to.  But anyone who does, can they confirm whether it’s the kind of lefty wankfest I was anticipating?

         0 likes

  36. deegee says:
    October 19, 2010 at 7:49 am

    How times change
    Interesting photographic piece on Princess Alice’s visit to Saudi Arabia in 1938. In most of the pictures (i.e. the ones chosen on the video) she is wearing normal Western clothes for the period. There is a few where she wears an abbaya with face uncovered but the impression is that this was more fancy dress than a political choice. It appears that she only wore it on one desert excursion.

    There is a WTF moment. At 3:18. She also went to Mecca but of course she was not allowed to take photographs there!  =-O

       0 likes

    • George R says:
      October 19, 2010 at 8:25 am

      Apart from the intrinsic interest of the photos, it is interesting to note that this little film was produced by the BBC Arabic Service (financed by British taxpayers), and commentary is provided by Exeter University which has financial ties with Saudi Arabia, pp103-109 in the following report: http://www.socialcohesion.co.uk/files/1238334646_1.pdf 

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  37. George R says:
    October 19, 2010 at 8:06 am

    INBBC: don’t mention the Islamic jihadists in New York –

    “Four guilty of plotting attacks on New York synagogues”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-11570674

       0 likes

  38. George R says:
    October 19, 2010 at 8:17 am

    “Is the Coalition preparing to go to war with the BBC?”

    By Tim Montgomerie


    http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thetorydiary/2010/10/is-the-coalition-preparing-to-go-to-war-with-the-bbc.html




       0 likes

  39. Bupendra Bhakta says:
    October 19, 2010 at 8:59 am

    So in fact the BBC doesn’t cost us 3.6 billion quid a year it costs us 4.1 billion a year.  It gets worse.

    Radio 5 Persistent Vegetative State asks this morning, ‘Less Defence Spending, Greater Danger?’ 

    It could have asked, ‘Is Defence Spending Bloated? but no.  That would be impartial you see.

    Dame Nicky this morning talking about Margaret Thatcher and the Falklands…

    ‘Arguably decisive action from the PM and she had a large lead at the polls’.

    Gotta lurve that ‘arguably’.  Not sure what he was trying to say vis-a-vis ‘the polls’.  Possibly implying she only sent the arguably decisive task-force so she could win an election.

    It’s the inability to mention Baroness Thatcher without inserting some dig to satisfy either/both himself and the pretrendie leftie Mafia within the BBC.

    Pathetic whatever the reason.

    Shortly thereafter Tittering-Coquette was interviewing the sink-school teechur who spoke at the Tory Conference.  The Dame left T-Q to do this interview until teechur started praising the Conservatives.  Then faster than a speeding twat Dame Nicky jumped in and moved the conversation on, away from dangerous ground.

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  40. George R says:
    October 19, 2010 at 9:06 am

    BBC-NUJ’s  on-going political commitment to ‘multiculturalism’.

    BBC-NUJ’s EU man, G Hewitt, has this limited interpretation of Merkel’s speech:

    “‘Failure’ of Multiculturalism”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2010/10/failure_of_multiculturalism.html

    For a fuller assessment of the scale and depth of the problem of ‘multiculturalism’, which BBC-NUJ is still in denial about:

    “Why German Chancellor Merkel Said That Multi-Culturalism is a Failure.”http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/30266

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  41. Martin says:
    October 19, 2010 at 9:23 am

    Radio 5 is a hoot. Cut all the way with some twat who runs some service for illegals and asylum seekers being given a soft interview from Vicky Pollard and being allowed to spout hate at the Tories and wanting more tax rises (just like Labour are suggesting chirps Derbyshire helpfully) and suggesting we are a low tax Country.

    So why is the left up in arms about VAT rising then?

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  42. james1070 says:
    October 19, 2010 at 9:57 am

    Now on the BBC

    Katharine Birbalsingh (the sacked teacher) was on Today this morning.
    Notice how the interviewer blames the conservatives and blames Katharine.

    http://news.bbc.co.uk/today/hi/today/newsid_9104000/9104903.stm

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  43. Manfred VR says:
    October 19, 2010 at 10:56 am

    Guido has given biased BBC a plug here

    http://order-order.com/2010/10/19/paranoid-about-left-wing-bbc-bias/

    He ought to watch the ‘Nasty, horrible Tory cuts show’ AKA BBC  news 24 if he really wants to see a biasfest/bitchfest in full technicolour glory.
    When they manage to tear themselves away from cuts there’s an air of deep regret from the beeboids, as if they are empathising with the viewers frustration at being distracted from the rivetting details of the horrible, nasty Tory cuts.
    But not to worry, anxious viewer, in almost the blink of an eye, we are dragged from the trivia that is not Tory cuts back to some new outrage they have dug up regarding cuts.
    What is even more irritating to me is the supressed smug grin that Laura K. has on her when reporting anything anti-coalition. You can almost see her dancing a jig as soon as she’s off camera.
    She really should do something about her nose though.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      October 19, 2010 at 3:53 pm

      To me it looks like Laura K is often dancing a jig while she’s still on camera.  The cameramen must hate her, she moves around so much.  It’s better when she’s reporting from Parliament because they can get away with doing a wider shot as if the background is providing the appropriate atmosphere.

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  44. George R says:
    October 19, 2010 at 11:19 am

    For INBBC, et al: Britain’s enemy is Islamic jihad, not ‘terrorism’.


    Although there has been a new UK Defence Review and a Security Review in a time of public spending cuts, confusion reigns as to what our main enemy is.

    The main political parties, and most MSM (inc INBBC) seem to go no further than designating that enemy as some vague entity, ‘terrorism’.

    Bill O’Reilly, of ‘Fox News’ is nearer to getting the message:

    http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/oreilly/index.html#/v/4377996/the-muslim-dilemma/?playlist_id=86923
    When will it be explicitly recognised that the main threat to Western security is Islamic jihad?

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    • John Anderson says:
      October 19, 2010 at 12:04 pm

      sorry – I was posting the same O-Reilly piece at much the same time , had not seen your post !

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      • George R says:
        October 19, 2010 at 1:03 pm

        No, it’s a significant piece by O’Reilly which deserves to be widely viewed. I don’t know how long O’Reilly will be able to keep this up, given that the second biggest shareholder of Fox New is of the House of Saud.

        http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_display.cfm/blog_id/26374

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:
          October 19, 2010 at 3:57 pm

          The Saudis could care less about O’Reilly.  Whatever shares they do own is pure business, part of a wider fund, just boring numbers to everyone except their accountants.  If anything, they probably love it when Fox News makes a fuss about Al Qaeda and Iran, since those are bigger problems for the Saudi ruling elite than anything nasty Uncle Rupert might do at an editorial meeting.

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  45. John Anderson says:
    October 19, 2010 at 11:29 am

    The BBC is supposed – no, required – to be balanced.   They argue that taking the output as a whole, over time,  there is balance.

    On Islam,  all we ever get is people preaching at us about how wonderful it is – and how blameless.   And now the BBC has tightened up its “religious guidelines” ostensibly to reduce attacks on all religions,  but in practice to reflect Muslim pressure for their belligerent religion/ideology to be even further protected from criticism.

    How’s about for a bit of balance, this calm commentary by Bill O’Reilly of Fox,  saying he is sick of all the PC nonsense about Islam.   No-one would EVER be allowed to present this view clearly on the BBC :

    http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/10/19/bill_oreilly_on_the_muslim_dilemma.html

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  46. Martin says:
    October 19, 2010 at 11:39 am

    Isn’t it interesting that all of a sudden the BBC is taking great interest in the two aircraft carriers and the fact that no aircraft will be available to put on them.

    You know when the one eyed mong announced the building of the carriers those of us who don’t like Liebour bum poo like the BBC just wondered why no one was asking about the JSF (there have been political problem s as well as technical ones not to mention the spiralling cost) and where the UK would get the money from to buy these aircraft (they will cost more than the two carriers combined)

    This mess was yet another Liebour log laid by the incompetent one eyed mong, remember how the civil I servants got so concerned they wrote letters to Ministers asking for written confirmation of all this spending?

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    • Roland Deschain says:
      October 19, 2010 at 12:16 pm

      But has the BBC bothered with the elephant in the room which has, as always, been pointed out by Richard North at EUReferendum? Namely that this is all part of the formation of an EU defence force.  Which he forecast way back in 2006.  Global warming enthusiasts would give their right arms to have that level of accuracy in their predictions.

      I haven’t heard it mentioned yet, but no doubt someone will point me to where the BBC has discussed it. 

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  47. Roland Deschain says:
    October 19, 2010 at 12:33 pm

    David Jordan has replied on his blog regarding the new editorial guidelines.  Do feel free to let him know what you think.  I have!

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    • Guest Who says:
      October 19, 2010 at 2:50 pm

      Well, he has done an amazing job… of making Helen Boaden seem attentive, intelligent, strategically smart, coherent and PR savvy.

      That much-awaited wadge of waffle said sod all, dodged all the valid questions posed, and hid behind the classic straw man/cherrypicked nonsense that I am sure worked well in the Oxbridge PPE debating team, but would get torn asunder in the real world.

      And he seems to be trying to smarm it all off as a quickie (the last paragraph is illiterate) a man in his position shouldn’t really have been tasked with.

      If any senior manager in any compmany I ever worked for or ran had tried to tell customers they are too busy to do a good job and will only answer what suits them… they wouldn’t last long.

      Only this is the BBC. Who employs them again? Oh, we do. Yet he stays in place on a few hundred grand a year, and I have to co-fund it all.

      Why? Market rate talent my Aunt Fanny.

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      • Guest Who says:
        October 19, 2010 at 2:58 pm

        Before the sad little ‘Aha, you spelled a word wrong so your whole argument FAILS!!!’ grammnazis stop licking their wounds trying to grasp at any stray straw on this blog to somehow disprove thousands they are mute upon (a lot, lately), that’s ‘company’, though wot i rote does serve as the ‘many companies’ that was in my head.

        No proof readers here, or even a guy at a desk next who you might imagine a senior type at a major international media outfit would run a pretty important post past before subjecting to the glare of a by now rather ‘interested’ and critical (in all senses of the word) audience.

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  48. Grant says:
    October 19, 2010 at 1:06 pm

    Now, I am against cuts in the UK’s operational defence capability, so I was delighted when BBC1 News at One led on this subject and that the BBC and Labour are united in opposing the nasty Tories’ cuts.
    Thank God for the BBC and Labour in defending our military.

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    • Martin says:
      October 19, 2010 at 4:29 pm

      Yes Grant, isn’t it amazing that in all the 13 years Liebour were in power, the funding for these aircraft carriers NEVER came up once?

      At it was Dispatches on Channel 4 that highlighted the corruption and pathetic inability of the MOD to manage budgets.

      From the BBC we heard not a word against the Government until now, what changed I wonder?

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        October 19, 2010 at 4:46 pm

        Don’t forget the helicopters that Mr. Brown forgot he hadn’t funded.  Suddenly BBC political correspondents are concerned that “only 12” new ones have been ordered by the Tories.

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      • George R says:
        October 19, 2010 at 4:50 pm

        So, from now on, INBBC will support UK military and intelligence actions against Islamic jihadists?
        Or does the INBBC world revolve around supporting Ethiopian Binyam Mohamed?

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  49. hippiepooter says:
    October 19, 2010 at 1:44 pm

    I dont know if anyone else has noted this, but B-BBC gets a mention today from the great Melanie Phillips:-

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/6387369/tweet-or-twit.thtml

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  50. George R says:
    October 19, 2010 at 3:10 pm

    No apologies from BBC-Greenpeace for its own political propaganda role on climate:

    “Doubts over scientists’ climate change claims”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11574503

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