126 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. Timothy Montague-Mason says:
    January 7, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    “Indeed, since the cuts were announced, Radio 4’s Today programme has given a daily, uncontested voice to taxpayer-funded organisations warning about the perilous effects of the cuts, warnings that would be described as “moral panic” were they from the other side of the spectrum. Yet I don’t recall the BBC giving the Taxpayer Alliance (which isn’t funded by the taxpayer) much airtime during Gordon Brown’s binge years. They may as well rebrand the programme “CutsWatch”.”

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100070909/call-that-a-bonfire-of-the-quangos/

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  2. Martin says:
    January 7, 2011 at 4:51 pm

    Radio 5 now wheeling out ex Tory lags (hint hint voters remember the Tories had people locked up to) to give us sob story.

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    • Craig says:
      January 8, 2011 at 7:51 am

      There was another on Radio 4’s The World Tonight last night.

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    • hippiepooter says:
      January 8, 2011 at 1:52 pm

      Personally I think its outrageous that these (dis)honourable members were prosecuted.  Parliament should have its privileges for those we elect.  Being barred from Parliament is punishment enough.  Certainly, if these disgraced ex-members are paying back the money punishment should go no further than disbarrment.  Playing to the media gallery has set an extremely dangerous precedent in British Parliamentary politics.

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  3. Umbongo says:
    January 7, 2011 at 5:35 pm

    Crone Sharon Shoesmith is, I assume, being paid good money (taxpayers’ money natch) to speak at a bureaucrats’ beanfeast: the North of England Education Conference.  Although shunned by anyone with any pretence to good taste, her opinions (since they meld in seamlessly with the BBC’s own) are given publicity here

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-12137310

    Sharon screams that
    Cuts ‘will lead to vulnerable children dying’

    Poor suffering humanity – will the “cuts” never stop?  Actually, as the BBC knows only too well, the “cuts” have even not started and, furthermore, there is no intention that, in aggregate, there will be any cuts.  As Jeff Randall informed us 5 months ago here

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/8007556/The-Coalition-is-spending-even-more-than-tax-and-waste-Labour.html

    “According to estimates from the Office for Budget Responsibility, the figures will be £696 billion in 2010-11 (up from £669 billion in 2009-10), then £699 billion, £711 billion, £722 billion and £737 billion”

    Not something the BBC or, funnily enough, the coalition or Labour for that matter say much about.  You’d almost think they didn’t want the little people to know.

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  4. Charlie says:
    January 7, 2011 at 5:47 pm

    BBC World Service presenter interviewing Dany Boyle about his latest film is very upset at the demise of Socialism, complaining about the number of films about individual endeavor. Danny Boyle agrees but says his films point is that his hero eventually needs to rely on other people. How do they manage to weave a political points into a film review. They even have a go at the Tea Party. So why is it so bad to be individualistic, why do we need to be limp wristed individuals who can not manage on our own. Stephen Pound said “With maturity comes Socialism”  I prefer with senility comes Socialism. A little over 8:20 mins in. 

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00ct65v/The_Strand_06_01_2011

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    • RGH says:
      January 7, 2011 at 6:41 pm

      This 83 minute documentry (shown to Parliamentarians in Brussels) by a young Latvian filmmaker ,documents in full the horrors of Socialism and makes clear how Nazism and Communism are in essence the same murderous expression of totalitarianism. The film makers criticises the lack of awareness and dishonesty of western socialists of the nature of Marxism and Socialism as actually is.

      The West, he says, lacks awareness of the Red Holocaust.

      The docu-film is very strong stuff. I think of the Labour apologists, the Marxist professors, the half-witted students and pray that they never achieve the kind of power that their communist colleagues did in Russia and elsewhere.

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      • Charlie says:
        January 7, 2011 at 7:02 pm

        Thats a shocking film, but why I hate Socialism.

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      • Grant says:
        January 7, 2011 at 9:27 pm

        It won’t have any effect on the EU Commissars. They are of the same mentality. Even worse, it may give them ideas !!!

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  5. Martin says:
    January 7, 2011 at 5:59 pm

    boyle was also moaning about the British film something or other that used Government money to fund British films, Slumdog was made using this money.

    My question is quite simple, Slumdog made a lot of money, who got that? Why didn’t the money they used get put back into this fund?

    Nope as usual the luvvies seem to think their lifestyle should be funded by the tax payer (we take the risk, they get the rewards), somehow though unlike the banks, the BBC doesn’t seem to see the British film industry as parasites.

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  6. George R says:
    January 7, 2011 at 6:00 pm

    Another misleading, politically biased INBBC report on Radio 5 (a few minutes ago) on ‘Asian’ sex crimes against white non-Muslim girls in Britain.

    INBBC’s Peter Allen gave uninterruted propaganda spot to a Muslim to speak on behalf of English white non-Muslim girls, their families and friends about the crimes committed against them!

    The  phrase ‘Asian men’ was use throught the broadcast, not ‘Muslim men'( which is an insult to Hindu men, for example). Nobody dared suggest that some tenets of Islam treat white, non-Muslim  women as inferior to Muslims, and so only deserving of inferior treatment.

    INBBC should be added to this list: 

    “UK: Police and social workers covering up role of Pakistani Muslims in sex gangs”

    [Extract, which directly applies to INBBC and Radio 5]:

    “One is not either ‘Muslim’ or ‘white.’ Islam is not a race. There are ‘white’ Muslims. The problem is here is not just a fear of being called ‘racist,’ but also of being called ‘Islamophobic.'”

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    • George R says:
      January 7, 2011 at 6:07 pm

       Critiques of the sex crimes of Muslim men against non-Muslim girls in Britain, which raises the role of Islam, as INBBC never does:

      http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_search.cfm

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    • Guest Who says:
      January 7, 2011 at 6:40 pm

      Newsnight is on the case… along with other topics…

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2011/01/friday_7_january_2011.html

      ‘Stephen Smith will be bringing us an all-American fairy tale.’

      Cripes, are they being realistic about Aunty’s US coverage from its crack core of ‘reporters’?

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    • Millie Tant says:
      January 7, 2011 at 7:39 pm

      Why not just call them simply what they are, namely English girls and Pakistani men?  

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      • Mick says:
        January 8, 2011 at 5:56 pm

        Because they aren’t?
        The majority of the men are legally as English as the girls, albeit of Pakistani origin with no intent to integrate or adapt whatsoever.

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        • Millie Tant says:
          January 9, 2011 at 2:13 pm

          They are Pakistani; that’s what they call themselves even if they are born in England. Even if I were speaking legally, which I was not, legally they are British, as that is what citizenship is defined as and how passports describe the status of the passport holder.

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    • sue says:
      January 7, 2011 at 8:03 pm

      Having been woken up by last night’s thunderstorm I switched on R4/BBC World Service. I heard a tale about forced marriage and violence against women and young girls  in Azerbaijan.

      Then later on, Crossing Continents. This time it was about the latest fashion amongst Arab Muslim women of ‘restoring their virginity’ either by a minor operation or a new Chines invention, the artificial hymen, complete with fake blood.

      It’s not quite as funny as it seems, but a matter of life and death. The narrator didn’t ask all the questions you or I might have asked, but it was almost all the better for that. The things that were left unsaid had almost more resonance than if they had been spelled out.

      The more we hear about certain cultural practices the better. Surely the BBC can’t keep on trying to normalise them. But the connection between this and the sexual depravity of Muslim men and their perverted attitude to women in cases like the one above mustn’t be ignored.

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  7. Umbongo says:
    January 7, 2011 at 6:08 pm

    If you want a depressing experience and to discover out who laps up the BBC view of the world undiluted, I suggest you read the comments on Peston’s blog concerning bankers’ bonuses

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2011/01/why_government_cant_stop_big_b.html

    Apart from a few commenters who have an inkling of how the real world functions, the rest of the teenage scribblers and Gulag overseers manqué provide copious evidence of the appalling ignorance that the “education” system (and public service broadcasting) in this country has created in the last 40 years.

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  8. Techno Mystic says:
    January 7, 2011 at 6:09 pm

    See my blog post on how to trace links from Labour activists to the BBC using Twitter:

    http://rachelreevesgloballeader.blogspot.com/2011/01/connections.html

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  9. Martin says:
    January 7, 2011 at 6:24 pm

    So the BBC gives us a simpering report on Muslim males grooming white girls for sex, yes we know that it’s not just Muslims who groom girls beeboid scum, but it’s RIFE in northern cities, AND it’s being done in a racial and religious way.

    Muslim males look down on females generally and white ‘slag’s in particular, funny that if some white male Tory went around calling white women ‘slag’s he’d have the lesbian left in the BBC castrating him live on the BBC, so why do bearded Pakistani men get away with it?

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  10. pounce_uk says:
    January 7, 2011 at 7:05 pm

    Has anybody seen this bBC excuse of an article into why there are so few Greeks living in Turkey?
    Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival
    This week members of the Greek Orthodox Church celebrated one of the most important dates in their calendar, the Feast of Epiphany, with young men competing to retrieve crosses thrown by priests into rivers and seas around the world. The most important ceremony takes place in Turkey’s biggest city, Istanbul, where the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, throws a cross into the Golden Horn. The Church here traces its origins back through a continuous line of patriarchs to the 4th Century. But most of the Greeks watching the ceremony are overseas visitors. Official tolerance of minorities in Turkey has improved over the past decade, but the local Greek community has dwindled to fewer than 3,000, and there are now real fears for its survival.
    And that people begins another of its horrid history lesson from the revisionist bBC  which goes well out of the way in which to cover up the unsavoury bits about the ROP® Which it does by trying to make the blessing of the waters by a priest look like a  circus act (You know as only Christians can) by only looking at the last aspect of this ceremony. Contrast that with how the bBC remains very silent on how Shia muslims have a habit of cutting little children on the day of Ashura (And themselves) In fact while looking for this info I noticed that searching for both these events on the bBC website only one is explained on its religion site want to bet which one that is?
    Also note how the bBC gets around the fact that minorities are actively discriminated in turkey by saying ‘Official tolerance of minorities in Turkey has improved over the past decade’ But more on that later.
    Finally while the bBC article is about the Greek Orthodox Church and its relationship with Turkey, they leave out a very important bit of information, the headquarters for the Church (Like Rome/Mecca) is in Istanbul, but the Greeks still refer to it as  Constantinople. You would have thought a so called impartial news agency to have mentioned that fact.

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    • pounce_uk says:
      January 7, 2011 at 7:07 pm

      Part 2
      Greeks have lived in the territory of modern-day Turkey for more than 3,000 years. Up to the last years of the Ottoman Empire, they still numbered nearly two million, dominating much of the commerce. But after the violent birth of the Turkish republic in 1923, most of those living along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts were expelled in a matter of days through an agreed population exchange with Greece.The sizeable community in Istanbul, though, was exempted, and until the mid-1950s there were still nearly 70,000. But nationalist emotions stirred up by the crisis in Cyprus were directed against the Greeks in one night of horrific violence in September 1955, in which mobs attacked shops and churches, raping Greek women and forcibly circumcising priests. Hostility towards the Turkish Greeks continued for many years, forcing thousands to leave Istanbul.
      So while the bBC mentions that Greeks have lived in areas of modern day Turkey for over 3000 years. This so called impartial news agency leaves out that actually huge tracks of Greece was stolen by the conquering Turks, which explains why Greeks can be found in Turkey. I wonder if Abu Bowen would like to write an article on the plight of these peoples who have had their lands stolen.
      But I really want to discuss the latter part of the above bBC diatribe. You see the bBC blames the Greek Nationalist problems in Cyprus as the reason why Turks decided to attack the Greeks in a night of violence in September 1955.
      And here is what the bBC isn’t telling you;
      Istanbul Pogrom
      The Istanbul Pogrom was a pogrom directed primarily at Istanbul’s Greek minority on 6–7 September 1955. The riots were orchestrated by the Turkish military’s Tactical Mobilization Group, the seat of Operation Gladio’s Turkish branch; the Counter-Guerrilla. The events were triggered by the news that the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, north Greece—the house where Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was born in 1881—had been bombed the day before. A bomb planted by a Turkish usher of the consulate, who was later arrested and confessed, incited the events. The Turkish press conveying the news in Turkey was silent about the arrest and instead insinuated that Greeks had set off the bomb. A Turkish mob, most of which had been trucked into the city in advance, assaulted Istanbul’s Greek community for nine hours. Although the mob did not explicitly call for Greeks to be killed, over a dozen people died during or after the pogrom as a result of beatings and arson. Jews, Armenians and Muslims were also harmed.
      Thirty-two Greeks were severely wounded. In addition, dozens of ethnic Greek women were raped and a number of men were forcibly circumcised by the mob 4,348 Greek-owned businesses, 110 hotels, 27 pharmacies, 23 schools, 21 factories, 73 Greek (and other Christian) churches and over a thousand Greek-owned homes were badly damaged or destroyedThe American consulate estimates that 59% of the businesses were Greek-owned, 17% were Armenian-owned, 12% were Jewish-owned, 10% were Muslim-owned; while 80% of the homes were Greek-owned, 9% were Armenian-owned, 3% were Jewish-owned, and 5% were Muslim-owned. In August 1995, the US Senate passed a special resolution marking the September 1955 pogrom, calling on the President of the United States Bill Clinton to proclaim 6 September as a Day of Memory for the victims of the pogrom
      So an event by Turkish nationalists which caused the Greek population to leave by the bucket load is blamed by the bBC on Cyprus. How unusal.

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      • pounce_uk says:
        January 7, 2011 at 7:08 pm

        Part 3
        Another difficulty for the community has been the official regulations, which have resulted in thousands of buildings once belonging to Greeks or Greek foundations being confiscated by the state.
        And here is what the bBC isn’t telling you about those so called official regulations:
        In 1934 Law 2596 forbade Greek clergymen to wear clerical attire outside the Church.
        In 1937 Moslem deputy directors were appointed to the Greek schools. Since then regulations have been adopted prohibiting any reference to modern Greek history or culture and the removal of all notices in the Greek language in the schools. No funds whatsoever are provided in the Turkish budget for minority education.
        In 1941 Turkey  mobilised all Greeks between 18 and 45 years of age and deported them to special camps from which many never returned.
        In 1942 the “Varlik Vergisi” law imposed a wealth tax on property. The provisions of the law were enforced with exceptional zeal only against the non-Moslem minorities at confiscatory rates. Eg Greeks were taxed at 156 percent of annual income and Moslem Turks at 4.96 percent. The Varlik effectively deprived the community of its wealth with massive numbers of property and businesses being transferred to Moslem hands.
        In 1949 all Greek religious, charitable and community foundations were stripped of their autonomy and placed under the supervision of the General Directorate for Religious Property (Vakuf).
        In 1963 the Turkish Council of State determined that non-moslem foundations  could not acquire real estate in excess of  that belonging to them  in 1926.
        In 1964 the Turkish Authorities closed the Patriarchal printing house and forbade the further printing of the two church  religious journals. By secret decision (6/3801) taken by the Turkish Ministerial Council on 2/11/64 all real property belonging to Greeks was attached and Greeks were barred from legal transactions involving the transfer of property. In the same year the operation of the Greek Orphanage at Pringipos was prohibited and the building forcibly taken over by the Turkish Authorities, literally throwing 117 boys and 46 girls in the street. In the same year 15,000 Greeks were deported on a few hours notice with all their possessions confiscated except one suitcase of clothing
        In 1967 (Law 903/67) imposed an inspection tax of 5% on the income of minority foundations. This law also prohibited the establishment of new minority foundations and the repair or restoration of real estate belonging to minority foundations.
        In 1970 the Ministry of Education prohibited prayers in minority schools. In the same year a new property tax of 6% was  imposed on the real estate of minority foundations.
        In 1971, the Theological School of Halki (Orthodoxy’s most eminent seminary) was closed thereby depriving the Patriarchate of the ability to educate its  clergy and future successors to the Patriarchal Throne. Despite calls from the US,  EU and Australia Turkey refuses to re-open the College.
        In 1983 Christian religious and charitable property was excepted from Law 2912/83. This law cancelled old lease agreements and permitted property owners to charge rents at current market values. By preventing Christians from  benefiting from this law, the Turkish Authorities ensured their financial strangulation.
        There has not been a year in which a Greek Church has not been expropriated or demolished to build new roads or a cemetery not desecrated or a church damaged or burned or a school closed or demolished or property expropriated without compensation; or when compensation has been ordered the funds blocked. Not one Greek has been employed in the public service in the last 55 years.

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        • Grant says:
          January 7, 2011 at 9:57 pm

          Pounce,
          Could you give me a source for your statements concerning “varlik vergisi”  ?

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  11. Mick says:
    January 7, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    Warning to anybody who expresses grief at the death of Salam Taseer Governor of the Punjab, and supporter of Asia Bibi the christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.

    “Some religious leaders have praised the governor’s killer and called for a boycott of the ceremonies in Lahore, says the BBC’s Orla Guerin in Islamabad

    Five hundred scholars from the moderate Barelvi sect of Sunni Muslims have warned that anyone who expresses grief over the assassination could suffer the same fate.

    “No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salman Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident,” said the Jamaat-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat Pakistan in a statement.

    It said anyone who expressed sympathy over the death of a blasphemer was also committing blasphemy. ”

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    • Timothy Montague-Mason says:
      January 8, 2011 at 9:15 am

      When this was reported on R4 earlier in the week, they referred to the Islamic extremist nutcases as ‘conservative Muslims’.
      It reminds one of the ‘neuro linguistic programming’ that Brian Gerrish talks about.

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  12. Millie Tant says:
    January 7, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    From the Beeboid website the following details about tonight’s Any Questions:

    “Jonathan Dimbleby chairs the topical discussion from Hinde St Methodist Church in Marylebone, London with questions for the panel including Michael Portillo, former Tory MP, Ken Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for London mayor, Matthew Parris, columnist and writer and the designer Dame Vivienne Westwood.”

    Very telling: Michael Portillo is cast as former Tory MP but Livingstone isn’t described as former London Mayor.  Shows how the Beeboid mind works, doesn’t it? Yes, I get it, Beeboids. You are promoting his candidature for London Mayor, whenever that is. That is why he is there and he will be constantly on the Beeboid screen from now on.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:
      January 7, 2011 at 9:40 pm

      Can you be a candidate for something that isn’t being contested?

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    • NotaSheep says:
      January 8, 2011 at 12:29 pm

      Ken Livingslime is always on the BBC; when London Mayor, between mayorlties, as MP, out of power etc. etc. etc.

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  13. John says:
    January 7, 2011 at 8:33 pm

    Is there no escape from their bias?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12131401

    Here’s the BBC rankings at the end of the quiz :-

    0-3 / 7 = LIB DUMB
    4-6 / 7 = CLOT
    7/7 = WE ALL AGREE WITH YOU

    They just take the utter piss. Someone mentioned on here the other day they aren’t even trying to hide it any more and this is more proof.

    It’s a bloody quiz, supposedly a light hearted 5 minutes out of your day and yet they still try to poison your mind.

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    • Marky says:
      January 8, 2011 at 4:46 am

      It was probably changed from.

      Lab – We all agree with you
      Con – Clot
      Lib – Dumb

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  14. ap-w says:
    January 7, 2011 at 10:04 pm

    A great bit of objective and impartial reporting from Norman Smith on the World at One earlier today. Nick Clegg has become something of a “hate figure” among some, including, for those who give a f**k, Norman Smith’s teenage daughter and her college pals who voted for the Lib Dems and apparently feel let down.

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  15. George R says:
    January 7, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    INBBC ‘Newsnight’ tonight: more censorship on ‘MUSLIM SEX GANGS’.

    ‘Newsnight’ censors ‘Muslim’ and ‘Islam’ out of the analysis, and instead puts up the false dichotomy of ‘Asian men’ and ‘white girls’.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2011/01/friday_7_january_2011.html

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    • George R says:
      January 7, 2011 at 11:10 pm

      Yes, INBBC’s ‘Newsnight’ tonight gives special treatment to Islam and to something called ‘the Muslim community’ on the issue of ‘sex gangs’ committing violent crimes against white British girls.

      There was Labour’s J. Straw, a typical utopian ‘socialist’ enthusiast for mass immigration over decades, and MP for the heavily Islamised constituency of Blackburn.

       He was apparently trying to think like a Muslim male ‘popping with testosterone’, so much does he empathise with such possibly Labour-voting constituents; and how this problem of Muslim sex gangs should be referred to ‘the Muslim community’ (just as non-Muslim sex gangs will not be referred to their ‘community’).

      And there was Ms. Flanders, trying to cling on to vestiges of ‘political correctness’ (inc. preferential treatment for immigrants) and giving Muslim Mohammed Shafiq a bigger say and the last word; while Douglas Murray, critic of political correectness and media censorship on the massive problem of ‘Muslim Sex Gangs’ is typically relegated by Flanders.

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      • hippiepooter says:
        January 8, 2011 at 5:51 pm

        Is this anywhere on youtube?  I’m in Spain and usually can’t view video on the BBC website.

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    • Guest Who says:
      January 8, 2011 at 8:47 am

      They seem to have been a bit coy on the basis of their robust defence of the reality behind the claims, being that they rubbish the ethnic element based on a report they can’t quite be moved to specify, at least in the pre-show blog.

      Didn’t watch. Was this mystery source revealed? And was it objective?

      Or was this chap’s prediction closer/more accurate?:

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/fromthewebteam/2011/01/friday_7_january_2011.html#P104896921

      ‘It will no doubt be from the University College London’s ‘Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science’

      No doubt it’s from Helen Brayley and Ella Cockbain, sat in their little ivory towers at UCL, number-crunching macro-statistics about populations into their computerised stats packages, and drawing dangerously invalid conclusions from poorly sampled data.’

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      • John Anderson says:
        January 8, 2011 at 11:54 am

        Yes – those academics have been wheeled out several times now by the BBC – trying to say that this is NOT a Pakistani problem.

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    • Millie Tant says:
      January 7, 2011 at 11:24 pm

      Would you care to explain?

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      • John Horne Tooke says:
        January 7, 2011 at 11:36 pm

        This new governer has appointed someone  to serve as the state’s secretary of the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. Who says things like this:

        “As a geologist, I love Earth observations. But, it is ridiculous to tie this objective to a “consensus” that humans are causing global warming in when human experience, geologic data and history, and current cooling can argue otherwise. “Consensus”, as many have said, merely represents the absence of definitive science. You know as well as I, the “global warming scare” is being used as a political tool to increase government control over American lives, incomes and decision making. It has no place in the Society’s activities.”
        http://omniclimate.wordpress.com/2008/11/20/jack-schmitt-on-computer-models-vs-the-real-world/

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        • RGH says:
          January 8, 2011 at 10:22 am

          Geologists, Archaeologists and Physicists abound in the ‘skeptic’ camp. The climate ‘scientists’ were ancillary to understanding past climate change and were useful. Then the got into the Met Office equivalents (climate is not weather, they intone quite rightly) and moved from research into prediction (like their meteo colleagues). This is when the whole thing became corrupt and unleashed the greatest moral panic of modern times on a gullible public.

          The scare ticks all the boxes of the mass psychology gamut and politics, to its discredit, has been going along with it and given it house room. Follow the money was never more apt and true.

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  17. Phil says:
    January 8, 2011 at 3:48 am

    In Filey, East Yorkshire,  it only takes one man to read out the local news on the BBC eveing bulletin from 6.30 to 7.00.

    I’ve noticed more staff seem to be required in our big cities to read out the regional news during the same time slot.

    Why is this?

    I’m sure that there is more daily news in London, Birmingham and the Manchester/Liverpool areas than there is in East Yorkshire but why does it need more than one person to read it out in the half hour allocated to each region?  

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    • David Jones says:
      January 8, 2011 at 4:24 pm

      I have always wondered why 5 Dead needs two football commentators (inaddition to a commenter) at a football match. Are they exhausted after 22 minutes and have to hand over to the other one? Other stations make do with one.

      Overmanning at our expense.

      Another gripe about “commentators” is that most of them rarely commentate; they are always giving their opinions about something else.

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  18. pounce_uk says:
    January 8, 2011 at 4:43 am

    Grant wrote:  
    Could you give me a source for your statements concerning “varlik vergisi”    
     
    No problem, here it is.

    Also you may like to look up this best selling Turkish author whose books;
    White turks big secrets/White Muslims big secrets hint that jews (yes jews) run the country hidden behind fake Islamic families. Of course both went onto becoming big sellers. and here is how this now famous author who works for CNN/Turk writes up the events of 1955:

    25 July 1955.

    Greece, by requesting that the United Nations include the Cyprus question on its agenda, transported the problem on the island onto the international platform.

    The London Conference was held on 29 August to discuss the Cyprus question. Turkey was represented by a delegation consisting of Minister of Foreign Affairs Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, Minister of National Defence Ethem Menderes and three generals, accompanied by diplomats.

    No agreement was reached.

    One week later on 5 September 1955 a bomb was thrown at Ataturk’s house in Thessaloniki! This bombing made headline news in a special edition of the Ekspres newspaper owned by DP (Democrat Party) deputy Mithat Perin: “Our national father’s house bombed”.19

    There followed an explosion of anger!

    It was as though the bomb had been thrown not at Ataturk’s house but at five hundred years of multiculturalism in Istanbul.

    Streams of Turks poured into the city from the newly appearing shanty towns; within the space of a few hours they burnt to the ground and plundered the houses and workplaces such as Lebon, Markiz, Lion cake houses and Banco di Roma belonging to Greek, Armenian and Jewish citizens with whom they had lived together for thousands of years. The rage that swept through the quarters of Beyoğlu, Arnavutköy, Bebek, Beşiktas, Δ°stinye and Yeniköy made it as far as the Islands.The demonstrators kept chanting the slogan: “Cyprus is Turkish and will remain Turkish, Greeks are curs and will remain curs.”The balance sheet of the events that took place on 6 and 7 September was frightful: in the attacks that left three people dead and thirty wounded, 73 churches, one factory, 8 holy springs and 2 monasteries – a total of 5 538 properties, 3 584 of which belonged to Greek citizens, were razed and burned to the ground.The government immediately announced its verdict: this event could only be a communist provocation!

     
    I wonder if he and Abu Bowen have the same editor/publisher?

     

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    • Grant says:
      January 8, 2011 at 8:21 am

      Thanks, Pounce
      But that is a Greek source.
      What do the Turkish sources say ? Do the Greek sources mention any atrocities committed by Greeks against Turks ?
      The whole historical question is not as simple as the Orwellian “Greeks good, Turks bad” view that many Westerners take, but this website does not have room for me to go into the details, so I shall just leave it there !

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      • pounce_uk says:
        January 8, 2011 at 10:39 am

        Sorry I can’t help you. My interest in Greek/Turkish relations was born while i served in Cyprus. I was intrigued by how while the greeks still kept the mosques open on their side. In Northern Turkey nearly all the churches have been turned into museums and by  how Greeks who remained there were denied entry back into the Nirth if they went across the border in which to visit family or medical treatment. As for the Greek mistreatment of turks of course that transpired the thing is the vast majority of Greek EOKA violence until 1957 (Not 1955) was aimed at the British. which was 2 years after the bomb went off.
        Don’t get me wrong when it comes to Cyprus I always preferred the company of Turks to Greeks and spend many a day on the other-side of the border. But that doesn’t take away fact from the table. Anyway 60s minutes ran a edition lamenting the plight of the Greeks its on you tube in 2 parts. If short of time then watch the second but together they add up to around 15 minutes:

           0 likes

        • deegee says:
          January 8, 2011 at 12:59 pm

          I visited Cyprus back in 1982 and talked my way into the Turkish occupied side of Nicosia. Doubt that much has changed since.

           

          We had a pre invasion guide book and hoped to see the ‘sights’. one cathedral was particularly noted for murals and stained glass. It wasn’t easy finding it because the Turks had renamed every street but find it we did. It was now a mosque. The walls had all been painted over and the glass knocked out. A Art of more than 1,000 years destroyed.

           

          BTW The BBC profile of Cyprus doesn’t use the word occupied even once, despite 30,000 Turkish troops and a declaration of independence recognised by no one other than Turkey.

           

          A quick Google found 11,400 hits for Cyprus at bbc.co.uk. When occupied was added to the search that dropped to 974 i.e. 8.5% Googling Northern Cyprus 3,470:295 = 8.5%. It would be no surprise to anyone at B-BBC that Palestine 10,500:2,240 worked out at 21% mention of occupation, almost 3 times the mentions for Cyprus.

             0 likes

  19. fred bloggs says:
    January 8, 2011 at 8:18 am

    What’s wrong with the message this time?   I expect many have noticed in the past the bBC using the M word a lot.  M being Muslim.  However this sat morning the ‘M’ word disappeared from the bBC lexicon.  When reporting about the 60-70 men who have been convicted recently of sex gang crimes, the news failed to mention that 90% of them are Muslims.  Said they are of Asian extraction etc.   Why not say they are Muslims, or does that contradict the smoke job the bBC has been doing about the Muslim population for the past 10 years. 

       0 likes

  20. Craig says:
    January 8, 2011 at 9:37 am

    Last night, and not for the first time, The World Tonight used Dr Stephen Wilkinson, director of Centre for Caribbean and Latin American Research at London Metropolitan University, as it’s expert on Cuban politics.

    Though never mentioned by BBC interviewers, Dr Wilkinson (who writes regularly for the Guardian‘s Comment Is Free website)  was (is?) a leading figure in the far-left Cuba Solidarity Campaign, editing their quarterly journal. 

    Just the man to talk about Cuba on the BBC then.

       0 likes

  21. edward bowman says:
    January 8, 2011 at 9:45 am

    This morning (Saturday) the discussion was around the rapists who were sentenced for preying on young girls. It is clear that the BBC newscasters were directed not to mention the word Muslim because doing so might bring on a ruinous stutter

       0 likes

    • George R says:
      January 8, 2011 at 10:06 am

      Adopting a hard line political position of defending the ideology of Islam, INBBC will not undertake an inquiry, independent of Islamic apologists, into what the tenets of Islam advocate should be Islamic behaviour against non-believers.

      This is apparent in virtually all INBBC coverage of ‘Muslim’ (sorry, ‘Asian’), brutal sex crimes against white English girls.

      Take INBBC ‘Newsnight’ last night (i-Player available below if you are in UK); to set the political tone, the first and only political party person on the programme is that Islamophiliac  and practitioner of Muslim mass immigration to Britain over many years, Labour’s MP for the the Muslim heavy constituency of Blackburn, Mr. J. Straw. (There’s no Tory MP to be seen on ‘Newsnight’ set up.)

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00xh4lq/Newsnight_07_01_2011/

         0 likes

    • fred bloggs says:
      January 8, 2011 at 10:48 am

      There are wider issues here.  The judge of the latest case said it was not racist.  The word ‘inferior’ is at the heart of the definition of racism.  The girls were targeted because they were white and seen as inferior.  These were racist attacks and the judge is helping to cover it up.  The BNP raised this issue many years ago.  The bBC harangued the BNP for stirring racial tensions.  Well the BNP were proved correct and the bBC wrong for trying to keep it quiet.

         0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:
        January 8, 2011 at 6:04 pm

        FB, Just goes to show how dangerous it is that the BBC has a left-wing bias against a Nazi Party like the BNP instead of a democratic one.  
         
        What occurs to me is they dont target white girls because they think they’re inferior, they want to overcome their own inferiority complex by degrading a race they feel are morally inferior too.  
         
        Also, one reason I would guess they dont target black girls, apart from them not having the same complex about white superiority as they do with black people, is 1) Could you imagine black girls being so dumb?; 2) They know that the black community would be nowhere near as restrained as the white community that is riven with such Thought Police induced hang-ups about ‘racism’.  Quite simply, if these Muslim gangs did target black girls, there would be regular reports of the black community venting its fury on them by absolutely kicking the crap out of them.  
         
        That’s my ha’pennies worth.

           0 likes

    • It's all too much says:
      January 8, 2011 at 11:46 am

      I have posted this before but it admits of repetition – I recall being informed by the media in 2001 and 2004 of the ‘racist smear stories spread by the neo nazis to stir up race hate in West Yorkshire.’  Naturally the smeared population were outraged and the deluded idiot majority population lapped up the lies.  There was a denial that this grooming had/is happened(ing) and that it was a pure fabrication of neo-nazis. 

      It is a pity that Jack Straw didn’t find it expedient to come out and investigate the allegations at the time.  It is also strange that he is talking tough now – just before a bye election in Oldham.  It is however predictable that the BBC, which has been sweeping this under the carpet, has suddenly given Straw top billing

         0 likes

  22. Craig says:
    January 8, 2011 at 10:06 am

    Has anyone else noticed that when BBC reporters go hunting for likely sources of economic growth, they almost invariably end up at some factory where wind turbines or solar panels are being made?

    On the day Britain officially came out of recovery (26/1/10) both Michael Buchanon on The World at One and Jonty Bloom on The World Tonight went to visit renewable energy companies. On Wednesday’s The World Tonight, reporter Luke Walton looked at the unemployment that would result from budget cuts and possible sources of private sector growth. He went to a factory that makes foundations for off-shore wind turbines, met an unemployment man who’s had a job offer from a company that makes solar panels, and talked to a professor who talked of “lots of good things happening” in green energy production. If any other areas of industry offered hope, Luke wasn’t saying.

       0 likes

  23. foundavoice says:
    January 8, 2011 at 11:05 am

    I’ve got a full copy of the BBC’s diversity survey if anyone wants to check out its social engineering agenda:

    http://foundavoice.blogspot.com/2011/01/full-copy-of-bbcs-diversity-survey.html

    Cheers
    FAV

       0 likes

  24. Ron Decline says:
    January 8, 2011 at 12:23 pm

    Interesting that this morning’s other BBC news story has been well managed by lobby groups and activists involved with Disabled people and their benefits payments. I can’t see that any government spokesman has been interviewed this morning about DISCUSSIONS which have started about the reform of travel payment benefits for disabled people. Instead, a number of activist spokesmen have labeled these evil Tory cuts as targeting the vulnerable (as usual) and potentially breaching human rights. This has all been conveniently extrapolated from the deliberate misinterpretation of a discussion which has not yet even entered a phase of consultation.
    Check out the number of times the word ‘could’ appear in any news report today, although it’s presented as a headline story which is already deeply affecting vulnerable people. This really is anti government propaganda and the type of sickening Copy & Paste journalism which seems acceptable these days.

       0 likes

  25. pounce_uk says:
    January 8, 2011 at 12:57 pm

    While I may be come across as racist by pointing this out. I do have to ask the question if this lady had been American/Israeli would the bBC have informed us all which country she comes from?  
    Cheeky Girl cautioned for shoplifting in Cheshire  
    Cheeky Girl Gabriela Irimia has been cautioned by police for shoplifting at a supermarket in Cheshire. Officers were called to Sainsburys in Alderley Road, Wilmslow, on Friday, where a woman was detained on suspicion of stealing groceries. The 26-year-old, from Essex, was given a caution for theft.       

    The strange thing is, in every other bBC article concerning this cheeky girl the bBC has no problem informing the British public that this girl is from ‘Romania’ and not Essex.       
    Opik and Cheeky Girl ‘take break’
    The Cheeky Girls arrived in the UK from their native Romania in 2002   
     
    Cheeky love ‘not lust’, says Opik  
    The Cheeky Girls arrived in the UK from Romania in 2002 and shot to fame with their unsuccessful auditions in the reality TV show Popstars: The Rivals.  
     
    Opik to wed Cheeky Girl Gabriela  
     
    The Cheeky Girls arrived in the UK from their native Romania in 2002 and shot to fame with appearances on reality TV shows Popstars: The Rivals and Model Behaviour.

       0 likes

    • Buggy says:
      January 8, 2011 at 7:40 pm

      I’m surprised you noticed that, when the article gives our Cheeky tea-leaf’s age as 26.

      26 !!??? =-O

      An unlikely figure methinks…………almost Brownian in its cavalier disregard for reality or plausability.

         0 likes

  26. deegee says:
    January 8, 2011 at 1:16 pm

    Cheeky Girl cautioned for shoplifting in Cheshire Yet another ‘celeb’ with itchy fingers, YAWN. But just check the photograph.Ms Irimia was once engaged to the ex-Liberal Democrat MP Lembit Opik. Twice in the same short article.

    I’m not a great Opik/Lib Dems fan but surely this is guilt by association – the couple split up in July 2008?

       0 likes

    • Buggy says:
      January 8, 2011 at 7:45 pm

      “….surely this is guilt by association – the couple split up in July 2008 ?”

      No, Lembit only lost his seat at the last election.

      Unlike the radiant Diane !  πŸ˜›

         0 likes

  27. john says:
    January 8, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    If anyone knows of someone who likes to scare OAP’s and Widows, may I suggest an exciting opportunity beckons at the TV Licensing department.
    Here’s an extract from their January 2011 New Year’s best wishes communication :

    Dear Sir/Madam,
    You have not responded to our previous letters.We want to ensure you have the information you may need before a hearing is set at your local court.
    Please read the information below carefully and keep for yor records.You will be allowed to take it into court with you.

    Whilst I don’t know who’s responsible for this masterpiece, I have noticed two flaws in it.
    1) They don’t know the name of the person they are threatening / writing to. (Might be useful for a summons and the court appearance).
    2) Do they know they are watching a TV ? (Might be useful for a summons and the court appearance).

    Well ! As long as it’s money well spent, we shouldn’t complain really should we ?

       0 likes

    • pounce_uk says:
      January 8, 2011 at 4:08 pm

      John its funny you should point out the bullying aspect of the bBCs very own version of the SA.  
      When I bought my house one of the first things i did was pop along to the local post office and purchase a TV licence. A few months later there was a knock at the door and a man introduced himself as the TV licence man and that according to their records I didn’t have one. I stated that I had one and that I would fetch it. Closing the doorI went into the front room in which to fetch it. On my return I found him in the hallway waiting for me. Without expressing any emotion I grabbed him by the neck, and pinned him to the wall and asked him what he was doing inside my house.(well words to that effect) His reply was I had left the door open and that he entered in to see if I had a TV. Still pinned against the wall I thrust my TV licence in his face to which he replied “I had the wrong one” Annoyed at this petty bureaucrat’s arrogance I gently bundled him outside which entailed him bouncing off next doors brick wall, followed by a few choice words. While my reaction could have been misconstrued as violent behaviour. I never received a visit from the old bill I wonder why?  

         0 likes

    • 1327 says:
      January 8, 2011 at 4:14 pm

      Jeez unbelievable you would think an organisation sending such letters would be investigated on Watchdog or one of the many other consumer advice programs on the Beeb .. oh hang on.

      A few years ago due to work I was on the receiving end of assorted threatening letters from a solicitor working for a certain large company. These caused me several sleepless nights until I ended up caving in to their demands. I have since married into the legal trade and have come to learn that 99.99% of letters sent out by solicitors and legal departments are empty threats. I know you can simply ignore these letters or even better have a little fun and cause them some work and expense.

         0 likes

  28. pounce_uk says:
    January 8, 2011 at 4:28 pm

    The bBC and a little hardwork
    Peter Andre is ‘hardest working singer’
    Peter Andre has been named Britain’s hardest working singer for notching up more major concerts in 2010 than any other artist…The singer’s career spans almost two decades, after first releasing an album in his native Australia in 1993.

    And if the person who wrote the above had bothered his arse and worked just that little bit harder he/she would have found out that Mr Andre was born in the UK making him British by birth. But then as his name isn’t ‘Mohammed’ and he didn’t go to Afghanistan to sort out 
    a drug addiction and he doesn’t claim benefits Its easy to see how the bBC got confused and presumed he was an foreigner.

       0 likes

  29. Roger C says:
    January 8, 2011 at 7:13 pm

    I se that the BBC are bigging up the whine from their hero “saint” Bob Crow about the bank bonuses, he says that the bankers are living in luxury. He fails to point out that he to is living in luxury on about £160K on the backs of his gulliable minions. The BBC don`t ask about this.

       0 likes

  30. deegee says:
    January 8, 2011 at 8:28 pm

    Palestinian plight in southern Lebanon refugee camps

    I guess the BBC just can’t help itself. In an article about the mistreatment of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon they start by attacking Israel.

    It is sometimes controversially said that Palestinian refugees in Lebanon live in worse conditions than those during the Israeli occupation in Gaza.

    Why controverial? Because anything that puts Israel into a less negative light is to be rejected? Because it isn’t true?
    What Israeli occupation of Gaza? The one before 2005 or the one that Israel somehow maintains without a single soldier or settler’s foot on Gaza’s ground?

    It is thought there are about 450,000 Palestinians and their descendants living in Lebanon – refugees from Israel’s war of independence. Why the weasel words? UNRWA claims 425,000 registered Palestine refugees in Lebanon. They should know.

    There is always the danger that the camps and their downtrodden residents could again turn to radical Islam. Away from radical nationalism? SEND MONEY! :-$  

       0 likes

  31. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 8, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    Instead of sneering at superficial personal foibles, Matt Frei and the BBC ought to be telling you about something else involving the new Speaker of the House’s actions:

    By an overwhelming 410-13 vote, House members approved a binding resolution that would cut the operating budget of member and committee offices by 5 percent, or about $35 million annually.

    According to the office of Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, the resolution prohibits any congressional office from spending more than 95 percent of what they were allowed to spend last year. If an office requests more money than that, the House’s Chief Administrative Officer will be directed to disallow the request.

    Notice how Frei has been speculating in both this and his previous post that Boehner is really a softie who is going to spend more time fighting against those horrible Tea Party people.  This is his personal political bias on display.

    Boehner has proven him wrong right from the start.  Cutting spending and waste is exactly what propelled these people, whom Frei denegrates so often, to Congress.  They’ve taken the first tiny little step.

    BBC:  ZZzzzzzz

       0 likes

  32. Asuka Langley Soryu says:
    January 8, 2011 at 9:25 pm

    Apparently a US Congresswoman from Arizona – who Sarah Palin had placed on a target map, complete with crosshairs – has been shot in the head. 
    I imagine the BBC will lead the charge against Palin, the GOP and the Tea Party with this.

       0 likes

    • Scott says:
      January 8, 2011 at 10:26 pm

      Biased BBC would probably be best off commenting on the facts of the BBC’s reporting, to be honest, rather than somebody’s imagination…

      Certainly, following the story and people’s commentary on Twitter, there are some very charged sentiments in the US and from people who follow US politics at the moment. It does seem that Palin’s people are currenty removing the map from her website, as well as deleting old tweets and Facebook posts that use gun-related metaphors dating as far back as March last year.

      I, personally, think that such actions don’t exactly help any claims that such gun-related language is NOT a contributing factor in events such the tragic ones currently unfolding in Arizona. I certainly don’t think that Palin’s map, or Sharron Angle’s talk of “second amendment remedies” during the midterm elections, or any of the other examples that out there, would have directly moved someone to change from being a non-violent person to a violent one.

      But there is the possibility that such language helps a vulnerable or susceptible person to believe that their misguided belief is being validated by politicians. I do think those possible links deserve further analysis, and just hope that *all* news channels, BBC and Fox included, can be even-handed in their analysis in the hours and days to come.

         0 likes

      • Demon1001 says:
        January 8, 2011 at 10:48 pm

        The BBC have already said how this congresswoman was against the Tea Party.   I didn’t catch the exact quote as I wasn’t expexting any mention of the TP, but already the BBC have manufactured one link to insert into people’s minds.

           0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:
        January 9, 2011 at 10:24 am

        Scott, having just read your posts on DV’s ‘Arizona Shooting’ article, I would suggest you try being a little more consistent.

           0 likes

      • Martin says:
        January 9, 2011 at 8:04 pm

        Very interesting Scott, perhaps you lot on the left might be a bit more outspoken next time some bushy beared wanker calls for the death of those who insult Islam. Or is that just  Muslims expressing their right to free speech?

        I won’t hold my breath.

           0 likes

      • deegee says:
        January 11, 2011 at 6:29 am

        I, personally, think that such actions don’t exactly help any claims that such gun-related language is NOT a contributing factor in events such the tragic ones currently unfolding in Arizona.
        Removing a post ‘said’ to be the inspiration of a horrific crime until the facts are clear (they are now. No Palin connection) is not an admission of guilt. It’s just plain common sense.

        If Gov. Palin’s political advisers didn’t tell her to do it, her legal advisers certainly did. 

           0 likes

  33. George R says:
    January 9, 2011 at 10:57 am

    “Andrew Marr highlights ‘disgrace’ of Melvyn Bragg’s sacking by the BBC ”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8248125/Andrew-Marr-highlights-disgrace-of-Melvyn-Braggs-sacking-by-the-BBC.html

     -And where has Melvyn Bragg gone to?  ‘SKY ARTS’.

    “Revered broadcaster Melvyn Bragg is to join Sky Arts in 2011 for an awards ceremony celebrating the arts”

    http://www.skyarts.co.uk/skyarts/southbankawards/

       0 likes

  34. hippiepooter says:
    January 9, 2011 at 12:52 pm

    An absolutely superb piece by Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph on Pakistani child rape gangs.  One interesting aspect is according to him, the two white men convicted in Blackburn were members of the BNP.

       0 likes

  35. Craig says:
    January 9, 2011 at 4:09 pm

    Broadcasting House this week showed (as it does almost every week) plenty of BBC bias in action.

    1. Sarah Palin’s responsibility for the Arizona killings (see the Blame Palin thread). Unlike the news bulletin that preceeded his remarks, and even unlike Mark Mardell’s indecently hasty blogpost last night, Paddy O’Connell didn’t even bother to frame his insinuations against Mrs Palin by saying something like ‘left-wing bloggers in America are saying…’. No, he just insinuated it as if he were a left-wing blogger himself.

    2. The eggshell-treading discussion between Paddy, Lord Adebowale (an advisor to the Commission of Racial Equality) and Barnie Choudhury (an ex-BBC community affair reporter who thinks the BBC isn’t nice enough to ethnic minorities), provoked by the Pakistani child rapists. Why choose these guests, who were “in violent agreeement” with each other? Why tread on eggshells?

    3. A piece about the blame-game over dustbin collections (or the lack of them). Paddy goes stirring to “Witchhaven, a Conservative-led council in Worcester”, where a Conservative council leader has told the government to keep its nose out. “The elections are looming in May”, Paddy asked him. “You’re all up on your council. Is it going to be your strategy to say ‘We’re not those nasty national Conservatives. We’re local Conservatives?'” 

    4. The paper review begin by doing what Paddy does best – reading out attacks on bankers (five stories quoted).

    5. The programme ended with a rare obituary. Being BH, which regularly lauds left-wing heroes – “We”ll end with memories of a woman who inspired trades unions” – it was wholly sympathetic. This was for Jayaben Desai, who led the strike Paul Foot described “a central battleground between the classes and between the parties,” the Grunwick dispute of the 1970s. BH doubtless picked up on the story because Jack Dromey (Mr Harman) wrote an obituary for Mrs Desai in the Guardian.

    BH is biased BS.

       0 likes

    • hippiepooter says:
      January 9, 2011 at 9:06 pm

      Craig, this is the second time (albeit in capitals only form this time) that you have used an expletive.  What will our colonial cousins like Mr Preiser who visit here think of our British sense of decorum? πŸ™‚

         0 likes

    • Grant says:
      January 10, 2011 at 6:49 pm

      Point 3.
      Here is snowy Edinburgh, we have just had our bins emptied for the first time in 4 weeks.  Don’t tell the BBC. The utterly useless Edinburgh City Council is Lib. Dem.  !

         0 likes

  36. George R says:
    January 9, 2011 at 4:42 pm

    INBBC and The Islamic Republic of Pakistan.

    INBBC’s Islamic middle class reporters in Pakistan, attempt to move away from the very uncomfortable truth about the lack of existence of any meaningful ‘moderate’ Muslims, while INBBC denies the real predominance of orthodox Muslims (which predominates the middle classes).

    ‘Wall Street Journal’ has:

    “Islamists Rally for Pakistan’s Blasphemy Laws”

     [Extract]:

    “The killing [of Mr. Taseer] highlighted the extent to which extremist Islam has permeated Pakistan’s middle class and those close to the political elite even as the country grapples with an insurgency from the Pakistan Taliban and other violent Islamist groups.”

    http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704482704576071701535155530.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

       0 likes

  37. Will says:
    January 9, 2011 at 5:24 pm

    Here’s a “misspeak” that the BBC appear slow to lead their bulletins with

    http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2011/01/alan-johnson-caught-out-over-national-insurance-figure/

       0 likes

  38. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 9, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    Congress works together in the desired bipartisan fashion to pass a law, but the BBC isn’t happy at all.

    Obama signs law hindering efforts to empty Guantanamo

    A couple of provisions blocking Him from sending inmates to any other country on a whim, and from building special federal prisons in the US to get them out of Gitmo.  Obviously this is against His Plan For Us, so the Beeboids are upset.


    Mr Obama pledged to seek repeal of the strictures, but the current Congress is even more opposed to his agenda than the one that passed the bill.

    Oh, no!  Even more opposed to His Plan For Us!  I guess sometimes the BBC doesn’t like the bipartisanship they keep telling us is what we need.

       0 likes

  39. Craig says:
    January 9, 2011 at 6:55 pm

    Radio 4 is broadcasting extracts from the King James Bible throughout today (a fine idea). Each section is introduced by a different person –

    Simon Schama – left-wing historian, atheist
    David Lodge – novelist, “agnostic Catholic”
    Howard Brenton – left-wing playwright, atheist
    Joanne Harris – CND-supporting novelist, refuses to talk about her religion
    Dr Rowan Williams – left-wing archbishop, Anglican!
    Will Self – left-wing novelist, atheist
    Frank Cotrell Boyce – left-wing author, Catholic
    and..
         …..it wouldn’t be the BBC if there weren’t one of these…
    Kamila Shamsie – Guardian-writing novelist, Muslim.

    Thus a fine project becomes tainted by BBC bias.

       0 likes

  40. sue says:
    January 9, 2011 at 7:25 pm

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      January 10, 2011 at 7:53 pm

      Brilliant, Mel, just brilliant !   Look forward to that interview being screened on the BBC any time soon.

         0 likes

      • John Horne Tooke says:
        January 10, 2011 at 8:30 pm

        Can you imagine the BBC letting someone speak a sentence without interuption? You would never know what a person believes. The BBC hold interrogations and not interviews.

           0 likes

  41. Will says:
    January 9, 2011 at 7:42 pm

    I was wondering why a film with a 2009 release was already being shown on BBC2 tonight. the answer is of course that BBC films put up (part of) its $25m production budget.

    Would the BBC’s interest in producing “The men who stare at goats” be anything to do with a compulsion to inform the world about the crazy US military? (This movie is based on the  investigation into New Age psychological techniques within US military intelligence) Perhaps we had all got tired with the training dolphins to act as suicide bombers tales.

    The film appears to have been found underwhelming by its paying audience (per Rotten Tomatoes)

       0 likes

  42. Martin says:
    January 9, 2011 at 8:02 pm

    Postman Pat can’t even get basics right yet for some reason the BBC appear to be the only news organisation not pointing out his gaffe. I wonder why?

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/8249198/Alan-Johnson-struggles-over-National-Insurance-rates-on-live-television.html

       0 likes

  43. Paddy says:
    January 9, 2011 at 8:34 pm

    Scott,
    Happy new year mate. Good to have a beeboid with sticking power.

    Could you explain in substantive terms why the left hate Palin. All I can see is she is pretty, communicates well, is simply spoken and what the Americans call middle class.

    Hunting is not a crime and if it was, you would have to Jail half the US. She livesi in a State with plentiful wildlfe and hunting is not an inappropriate passtime for a Alaskan.

    She is fiscally conservative and ahe seems softly thatcherite.

    This description could be applicable to a large number of republicans. Why is she a special hate figure.

    Perhaps its because she is anti elitist and the Urban intelectual liberal media owninhg classes see her as a threat.

    I would love to have the choice of a politician that has the guts to truely reduce the overweaning power of the state.

    The government is a parasite which has become too large for its host. Its killing the country and the tea party iin the US have finally cottoned on to this.

    Dave and the Cleggerons are doing nothing to truely reduce the state they are only papering over the cracks.

    If you read the Graun or watch al beeb you would think she was a total Nazi.

       0 likes

    • deegee says:
      January 11, 2011 at 6:41 am

      She is a woman but not a feminist victim.
      She appeals to what would be called the blue-collar who should be solid Democrat.
      She has a charisma that John Cain who was the actual presidential candidate.
      She is in many ways the mirror image of Barak Obama.

         0 likes

    • 1327 says:
      January 11, 2011 at 7:01 am

      I think they really hate Palin because she refuses to play “the game”. Not only won’t she have her agenda set by the MSM but she laughs at them and points out their failings to her supporters.

         0 likes

  44. Paddy says:
    January 9, 2011 at 8:36 pm

    oops sorry for the typos

       0 likes

  45. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 9, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    In the BBC’s profile of The Obamessiah’s new Chief of Staff, they censored one important bit of information.  Supporter Katie Connolly’s goal, of course, is to make sure everyone thinks that William Dailey is the business expert the Administration has so desperately needed.  She even helpfully points out that the reason the President hasn’t had someone with major business experience in His inner circle before is because businessmen generally don’t know nuthin’ ’bout politics.

    Seriously, that’s what passes for competent judgment at the BBC these days.  Also, I like how suddenly the Beeboids are presenting an evil hedge fund guy as a much-needed business expert.  I remember when hedge fund guys were the problem.

    Censored by Katie Connolly and BBC News Online:  Dailey’s experience also includes being a Clinton appointee to the Fannie Mae board, where he served from 1993-97.  Those who rely on the BBC for their news about US issues will be excused from knowing that Fannie Mae is largely responsible for the mortgage bust which led to the recent economic crisis.  Even the far-Left FireDogLake cranks know that.

    Instead, Connolly dutifully feeds you the White House talking points.

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    • Millie Tant says:
      January 10, 2011 at 12:11 am

      Even we Beeboid-fed and misled poor fools know about Fannie Mae. Some things do manage to filter through all the nonsense shovelled our way by the Webb monster, the Frei boy and their pals – far too numerous to name or count, of course. πŸ˜€

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  47. Millie Tant says:
    January 10, 2011 at 7:39 pm

    Look what popped up on the Radio 3 website to greet me this morning:
     How musical are you? Take part in our groundbreaking science experiment…

    About you
    First, please tell us a little bit about yourself

    Gender selectMaleselectFemaleEthnic group selectAsian/Asian British – Indian; Pakistani; BangladeshiselectBlack/Black BritishselectEast/South-East AsianselectMiddle EasternselectMixed race – White and Asian/Asian BritishselectMixed race – White and Black/Black BritishselectMixed race – otherselectWhiteselectOtherselectRather not say
    Hope all will be inspired by this groundbreaking bit of Beeboid engineering.                 

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    • John Horne Tooke says:
      January 10, 2011 at 8:53 pm

      Is there no White British there – or is it only white (of no nationality).

      No doubt I am wrong and Dez will be on to tell me how lucky I am to be part of the majority (who go unlisted, but thats OK as I am not  persucted   and therefore do not desrve to have a catogory that covers the oppresors)

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      • Millie Tant says:
        January 11, 2011 at 12:53 am

        Correct. You are now categorised with less attention than is paid to the description of a tin of paint. And you are relegated to near the bottom of the list, just to rub it in.

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  48. Deborah says:
    January 10, 2011 at 10:24 pm

    I have just watched a brilliant Horizon programme about what is 1 degree. ‘Brilliant’ I thought, ‘just what a science programme should be’.  Until about 5 minutes before the end when the reason for the programme became all too apparent (I had missed the first 10 mins so maybe I would have realised) ..it was all to warn us what a 1 degree rise in the earth’s temperatures would do.  We had some female on the top of the Post Office tower telling us about the 1000s of people who died in Europe due to hot summers – I wonder how many have died this year due to the cold?

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    • 1327 says:
      January 11, 2011 at 6:56 am

      You watch Deborah by April or even March when the weather has started to warm up a little this winter will have vanished down the BBC memory hole and won’t be mentioned again.

      They really do think we are stupid.

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    • Grant says:
      January 11, 2011 at 8:23 am

      Deborah,
      I watched it and applaud the BBC’s effort in having an attempt at a science programme. Reassuring that, at least one BBC comedian, Ben Miller , is a former physicist.
      But, even so, the programme was dumbed down, and pepperd with silly little BBC gimmicks and the eternal background music. They could have covered so much more in 1 hour.
      Of course, it did end up to be about Global Warming, no alternative view allowed.
      It was about measurement of temperature, but no critique of how and where the warmists measure temperature .  The fact that temperatures are increasing in cities, should have given a clue but……………

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  49. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 11, 2011 at 4:03 am

    Possible student riot today? (Jan. 11) 

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  50. deegee says:
    January 11, 2011 at 6:52 am

    It covers ground that has mostly been covered here. Still worth reading.

    Text of Jonathan Turner’s appeal to the BBC’s Editorial Complaints Unit regarding BBC1 Panorama “A walk in the park” 18 January 2010

    BBC Information Reference CAS-180527

     

    Too long to copy here so I have linked it here. Fighting anti-Israel Bias at the BBC

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