140 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. john says:
    January 22, 2011 at 3:19 pm

    I stayed up all last night studying to become an AGW scientist (It only takes 10 hours – courtesty of the East Anglia University Fast tracking Masters Degree).
    My model (unfortunately) is stuck on the carpet, but it does predict that the BBC is in meltdown.

    Hurrah !

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  2. Moise Pippic says:
    January 22, 2011 at 3:59 pm

    Just listened to “payback” on BBC Radio 4. According to that, 9/11 was payback for the US/Kissinger support of Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, as was the US Marine barrack bombing in Beirut in 1983 and the bombing of the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August 1998 These atrocities just happened, spontaneously as it were, no mention of Hezbollah or Iran or Al Qaeda. It was all Henry’s fault!! <img src=”chrome://searchshield/content/safe.gif” border=”0″/>

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    • matthew rowe says:
      January 22, 2011 at 4:06 pm

      “payback” i wonder if the Beebles have any sense of the irony of picking  the title of a film by Mel [“Fucking Jews…the Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world.”] Gibson ? nahhh never!!!! :-$

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    • John Anderson says:
      January 22, 2011 at 8:29 pm

      I heard the play too – was listening in “background mode”.  But soon realised this was not an attempt to tell some of the history – it was pure polemic.

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  3. Millie Tant says:
    January 22, 2011 at 4:25 pm

    Sometimes you just have to laugh. Digital Spy reports that Miriam O’Reilly, formerly of Countryfile, who won an age discrimination case against the Beeboid Corporation, is going to present a Tonight programme on ITV next month about treatment of older people working in TV.

    A source is quoted thus:
    “She will explore if there is a general culture in TV that favours the young over the older, more experienced faces. She has already approached the BBC about putting someone senior up to talk to.

    “It will be embarrassing for the Beeb, but they will have to take it on the chin.”
    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/news/a299519/axed-bbc-host-oreilly-lands-itv-job.html

    I look forward to seeing the designated senior Beeboid wriggling and weaselling, not to say lying through Beeboid teeth.

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  4. pounce_uk says:
    January 22, 2011 at 4:29 pm

    The bBC continues on the Herculean task of trying to reinvent ‘Islam’ as a religion of peace:

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  5. Cassandra King says:
    January 22, 2011 at 4:35 pm

    Brian Cowan has gone 😀 .

    Of course his loyalty to the euroslime and his fanatical disregard for the result of the Irish referendum means that he will almost certainly get a very very cushy assignment at euroslime HQ.
    Selling out your country has great benefits nowadays, in the olden days it would get you hanged but now its rewarded.

    Funnily enough EUREF had a great cartoon of Cowan on a dung heap celebrating ‘four more weeks’ looks like he barely made ‘for more days’ niiiiice. The BBC as we remember supported the yes campaign in Ireland and chose to smear and misrepresent the no campaign.

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    • Samantha Vickers says:
      January 24, 2011 at 12:42 pm

      Well Brian Cowen is on his way out if not yet actually gone. His rule already looks a disaster and I would imagine that the incoming government will uncover more.

      I wonder if news of this disaster that is Ireland will reach the BBC’s economics editor Stephanie Flanders. She of course told us that both Ireland and Greece would get nowhere near default. She more recently wrote an article on Irish Finance Minister Brian Lenihan entitled “A Good Man”.

      So good it would appear that he negotiated an interest-rate with the EU/IMF that leaves Ireland looking insolvent…

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  6. Julio says:
    January 22, 2011 at 4:43 pm

    Theo Sarrazin (German who was fired from his position in the Bundesbank on account of his controversial views on muslim immigration) interviewed on – of all places – the BBC. Credit to Mr Sarrazin, he keeps his head and argues his views admirably well despite being harangued by muslim grievance mongers and politically correct Beeboid dweebs.

    http://europenews.dk/en/node/39257

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  7. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 22, 2011 at 4:44 pm

    Here’s the BBC’s Justin Rowlett telling you that steel workers in Pennsylvania are wrong and that United Statesians are just lashing out in China in impotent frustration at our own failings.

    He quotes Journolista and China lover Tom Friedman, who has made a fortune writing books and articles trumpeting China’s wonderful success story.  Friedman loves China’s autocratic command economy as much as the BBC.  Notice how this follows on Matt Frei’s recent Newsnight segment telling us we’re stupid to be afraid of China.  Actually, I think this was shown on Newsnight after that segment.  They had a story they wanted to tell, and went out and told it, regardless of facts on the ground.  Agenda?  What agenda?

    Funny how it’s okay for Cadbury’s workers (one out of many recent examples we could name) to be pissed when their jobs go out the door to a foreign country, but when United Statesians are pissed of about jobs going to China, they’re merely afraid out of ignorance and jealousy.

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    • OWEN MORGAN says:
      January 23, 2011 at 8:31 am

      Justin Rowlett really is the pits.   His holier-than-thou tour of the USA as “Ethical Man” epitomized the BBC’s bias.   There were more basic errors of fact in that sequence than in a Media Studies GSCE.

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  8. matthew rowe says:
    January 22, 2011 at 5:02 pm

    Just been on order order and there is a anony having a go at Murdoch and defending the BBC so just posted this up !=
      Hmm Murdoch  is dangerous is he ?lets have a look at this  he has some control over 22% yet the BBC 39% the BBC have single handedly killed off local news and radio their internet service is out of control to the extent that  when some  I,S.P’s  complained about BBC on line’s chewing up of band width and how they should  stop it   the beebles threatened 
    ‘ Those that did so may find themselves named and shamed by the BBC.’
    The BBC threaten and intimidate millions for cash and if you don’t pay they put private hired thugs like this=
    ‘ 2005, a visiting officer was convicted of assault against an Ormskirk resident who claimed he did not need a licence and started filming the officer. Two months ago an officer was convicted in Maidstone Crown Court of perverting the course of justice and four charges of false accounting after he fabricated confessions by four members of the public whom he hadn’t even visited, echoing an almost identical earlier case in Wales.’
    ‘Some officers are self-employed and are paid £20 if the resident signs up to a direct debit, or £18 if they pay in full there and then.’
    Nice !
    sky seems  have been found guilty of  sod all ! yet  the BBC=
     ageism censorship  financial deception and found to have been  inaccurate  and lacking  impartiality also  the BBC’s own controller of editorial policy admitted that people felt that the corporation was guilty of a “bias of omission” by not covering their views.
    yea Murdoch scares me !!!!
    Was I too hard on anony I wonder?’ O:-)

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  9. Gerald says:
    January 22, 2011 at 5:21 pm

    Defence spending.

    Interesting today to hear the BBC line as “defence spending cuts” when talking about the Ark Royal pasrade in Portsmouth today.

    If I remember correctly it was only a “defence spending review” when Labour chopped the Sea Harrier to save money two or three years, ago which effectively ended the usefullness of our aircraft carriers. RAF Harriers on an aircrsaft carrier was a pointless exercise as they couldn’t defend themselves or the carrier from air attack. They also only had dumb bombs to use against surface vessels. Sea Harriers had air to air and air to ship capablity.

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    • pounce_uk says:
      January 22, 2011 at 5:44 pm

      Ref the Sea Harriers George. The reason they were scrapped was because the Harrier fleet was given an upgrade from GR7 to GR9 via the GR7A which included a new engine. However the Sea Harrier couldn’t be fitted with the new engine without a very time consuming and costly refit. With the F35 presumingly just around the corner it was retired. But hey we wouldn’t be British if we didn’t scrap things we actually needed after we had build them. TSR2 anybody?

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      • Martin says:
        January 22, 2011 at 6:00 pm

        But the point is Pounce that the Sea Harrier had a radar fitted to it, it was capable of the air intercept role, as we saw in the Falklands war if ships do not have that protection they are very vulnerable to missile attack.

        The RAF Harrier does not have that capability, also the RAF Harrier was some 100 knots slower than the Sea Harrier due to it’s extra bulk, making it even less capable in actually intercepting aircraft.

        It only carried sidewinder missiles for self defence.

        As was correctly pointed out in the OP as soon as the Liebour party scrapped the Sea Harrier it made the carrier fleet obsolete.

        It should also be noted that after 9/11 it was Sea Harriers placed at London City airport that were used to protect London in case of a similar 9/11 attack on the city.

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        • pounce_uk says:
          January 22, 2011 at 10:43 pm

          I’m not correcting you martin, I was just imparting a little info. I agree totally that most governments are pound foolish and penny shy when it comes to funding the military. I mean when I joined the army in 1980 I wore bloody putties around my feet. Which modern army does so? Contrary to the news, the argies had kit which was a lot better than ours in 1982. But returning to the Sea Harrier the simple solution would have been to purchase the US AV8B, Just for the info my mate happens to be an ex sea harrier pilot ( A bootneck at that) and he’s currently in the states flying the F18 (As are many other ex sea harrier pilots) in which not only to keep their hand in but also to get them up to speed on landing on a flat top. Now he left last year long before they opted for the carrier variant of the F35. Makes you wonder ?

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      • dave s says:
        January 22, 2011 at 9:39 pm

        Pounce
        if you are interested I heard from a man who was in BAE in a senior position exactly how the remaining TSR2 managed to survive. A most bizarre tale that still seems to be unknown to many. Let me know if you are interested
        Dave S

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        • pounce_uk says:
          January 22, 2011 at 10:30 pm

          Thanks Dave, but I’m something of a spotter (helps having done the vehicle recognition course at larkhill) and have hunted down the 2 remaining kites down and taken their pictures and in the process learnt their stories. The first is at Duxford (in the new air hall) and the latter is at RAF Cosford. I mean however would I be able to pick holes out of the bBCs so called defense experts if I didn’t know my stuff.

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          • matthew rowe says:
            January 23, 2011 at 10:47 am

            What a waste of a fantastic plane  and we never got the F-111 to replace it  just a huge bill Thanks to Healey [wonder what party he belonged to ?? hmm] !
            Mind i have to say I still feel  privileged to have  actually sat in the pilots seat of XR220 at Cosford !

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        • NotaSheep says:
          January 23, 2011 at 11:30 am

          I would be interested…

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  10. Cassandra King says:
    January 22, 2011 at 5:51 pm

    Bully boy  thugs preying on the elderly and weak like the hyenas they truly are, its a scandal that these scumbags from crapita can lie and cheat an deceive and act with all the morals of sewer rats and yet if if other industries tried the same tactics then the BBC would be up in arms with moral rage, there would be wall to wall panorama investigations and the news would flog it to death.

    The standards they demand of others and the standards they accept happily are different it seems. When its the BBC bank balance on the line the BBC suddenly lose interest in high moral virtues or any virtues whatsoever. Money trumps all in beeboid land and it highlights perfectly the fabricated concern for ordinary people.

    But then again thats the left all over isnt it?

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  11. Craig says:
    January 22, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    How many times are the BBC News Channel going to re-show that interview between Maxine Mawhinney and Alistair Campbell? It’s been shown in full (about five minutes each time) 3 times already this afternoon.

    Within the last fortnight, we’ve also had Campbell on Newsnight, Question Time, Loose Ends and Book Talk. And next week he’ll be on Steve Wright in the Afternoon.

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    • Grant says:
      January 23, 2011 at 6:56 am

      Craig,
      He was also on some Channel 4 programme on Friday evening which, thankfully, I didn’t see.

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  12. Millie Tant says:
    January 22, 2011 at 6:04 pm

    Opera on now!

    Rigoletto live performance from the New York Met just starting on Beeboid Radio 3.

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    • Craig says:
      January 22, 2011 at 6:16 pm

      Ah, la maledizione!!

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 22, 2011 at 6:35 pm

        Thanks for the reminder, Millie.  For those outside the UK not able to access the iPlayer stream, WQXR in NYC has a couple of options at higher bit rates than the regular pop-up player on the Radio 3 website.

        Looks like just about everyone in the cast is making their Met debut today.  Orchestra sounds in good form today.

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    • John Anderson says:
      January 22, 2011 at 8:40 pm

      I have it on,  full blast.  I am not especially an opera afficionado – but what else is there on TV or radio ?

      In the Internet age,  I would happily pay a subscription to ther New York Met to have streamed opera. As Millie will know, during their season,  the Met performs a whole lot of operas,  popular and obscure,  with excellent commentary and interviews.  

      I would also be willing to pay via tax or subscription to keep Radio 3 on the air as a contribution to UK culture.   Out of the entire BBC budget it probably accounts for about £3 a year per person.

      The rest – dump it or privatise it.   Privatise it with a clear rule that Murdoch could not buy it,  too much monopoly power.  There are many entrepreneurs who could raise billions to buy the BBC – and aim to strip it down to worthwhile programming channels.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 22, 2011 at 9:27 pm

        Like +1

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      • Millie Tant says:
        January 22, 2011 at 10:41 pm

        I start Saturday evening at 5 o’clock with Jazz Record Requests on Radio 3 and have done for years. The trouble is, in recent times they often move it so you can’t ever be sure it is going to be there –  could be at an earlier or later time or sometimes it doesn’t appear at all, which is annoying.  After that, it’s the opera, usually at 6pm or 6 30 but occasionally earlier, if it’s a particularly long one or maybe for another reason.  I love the Met season as there is always such a great sense of occasion with it and the atmosphere that comes off the live performances. 

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  13. George R says:
    January 22, 2011 at 6:10 pm

    Islam Not BBC (INBBC)’s misleading reporting on the Islamic Republic of Iran, has:

    1.)Friday, 21 January –

    “Iran nuclear talks start in Istanbul ‘positively'”

       -” Iranian officials say”.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12247254

    2.) Saturday, 22 January –

    ‘Disappointment’ over Iran talks

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  14. Will says:
    January 22, 2011 at 6:15 pm

    BBC’s Ireland correspondent in discussing Fianna Fail’s travails likens the situation to the split Tories (under Major) who tried to paper over the cracks by claiming that “we are all in this together”(!!??) & took a generation to get their act together.

    Strange analogy? He couldn’t have considered the early 80s Labour Party as an alternative example of being hopelessly split, could he?

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  15. Dino64 says:
    January 22, 2011 at 6:31 pm

    Great news, not BBC related, but Keith Olbermann, who was recently softballed by Rhod Sharp in Up All Night has ended his run on MSLSD.
    Did he fall or was he pushed?  Who cares because all of sudden the sky is bluer and the birds are singing more loudly than before!

    From the brilliant Hot Air: http://hotair.com/archives/2011/01/21/breaking-olbermann-announces-the-end-of-countdown/

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    • Martin says:
      January 22, 2011 at 7:33 pm

      MSNBC get their arses kicked by Fox News, enough said. Just like CNN MSNBC is screwed. No one watches it.

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    • John Anderson says:
      January 22, 2011 at 8:48 pm

      Lawrence O’Donnell,  Olberclown’s replacement,  is even more rabid.

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  16. RGH says:
    January 22, 2011 at 7:48 pm

    The BBC view:

    Justin Rowley on the Benguela Railway.

    “But, as the train grunted and clanked on through the savannah, with its occasional vivid red acacia tree, it seemed to me that what was happening now was very different from what the British had done here.
    The Angolan oil which pays off that loan is now sold abroad at the prevailing market rate.
    Very different terms from those of the British, who carted hundreds of millions of tons of precious African copper down this line without paying anyone a penny for it.
    So, while it may be tempting to see today’s China as just another imperial power out to exploit the riches of Africa, it seemed to me that there is a big difference between the Chinese presence and the British one.”

    Another, less ‘I am embarrassed by my country’s history and will suspend critical faculties even in the face of reality ie Left BBC view”:

    “In Angola, a country weakened by years of conflict, and now notable for its institutional corruption,China has proposed low-cost loans (1.5%), to be paid back in oil.For the elite of Angola, unlike other investors, China does not insist on transparent accounting or the assurance good governance. The long-term consequences for African democracy may be serious. As noted in a South African newspaper, “China’s no-strings-attached buy-in to major oil producers, such as Angola, will undermine efforts by Western governments to pressure them to open their oil books to public scrutiny.”

    Compare and contrast.

    1. BBC

    2. Reality

    I believe in the truth, not a Blue Peter patronising fairy-tale. So, TBTG, do the posters, here.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      January 22, 2011 at 7:55 pm

      That’s the same Justin Rowlett who went to Pennsylvania to tell you that US workers are ignorant and blindly fearful of China just because of a few job losses they can’t control.  Narrative?  What narrative?

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    • Grant says:
      January 23, 2011 at 7:11 am

      RGH,
      How strange that Rowley doesn’t mention the effect of Portuguese rule in Angola and the only Imperial power, in Africa, he refers to is the British. I haven’t read his whole article so I may be doing him an injustice. In any case , to listen to the BBC you would think that the evil British were the only Europeans to colonise Africa.

      The good old Chinese will, of course, not exploit Africa. They will pay market rates for everything, refuse to bribe African leaders, never use slave labour , respect the rights of ordinary Africans, and spread the rule of law , democracy, and peace throughout the continent.

      In the twisted, perverted, little minds of Beeboids, the Chinese in Africa are wonderful for one main reason –  They are not BRITISH  !!

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  17. David Preiser (USA) says:
    January 22, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    The BBC’s reporting on China lately is starting to remind me of this:

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    • RGH says:
      January 22, 2011 at 8:33 pm

      DP,

      The following is an extract from the 1960 German ‘Democratic’ Republic Handbook for Journalists:

      ……..that is only a part of the function of journalism in the German Democratic Republic. Its primary mission is to build the enthusiasm of its readers, listeners and viewers for the noble cause, and to explain to them the laws of historical development in our day. More than that, as the Politbüro of the ZK of the SED said in its decision on press matters of 29 April 1959, the task is “not only to influence and change thoughts, but simultaneously actions in every area of the transformation. . . Each editorial staff should therefore strive to initiate its own actions in the political economic and cultural spheres.”

      Spookily reminiscent of the BBC agenda especially in the light of its distortion of the history of the West, the use of terms such as ‘colonialism’ (as above), but also the other thought crime ‘isms’…so familiar to anyone who had relatives trapped on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain.

      Leftism is a state of mind which attempts to ‘transform’ and ‘educate’. I detect that across the board in BBC news reporting…..Islam, Israel….it is formulaic and left.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 22, 2011 at 8:43 pm

        The BBC is supposed to provide educational programming as well for the public benefit.  Somehow, though, I don’t think the Corporation’s current mission is what Lord Reith was looking for.

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      • Cassandra King says:
        January 23, 2011 at 5:38 am

        The BBC education programming does bear a striking resemblance to Soviet style full spectrum mass political indoctrination.

        Its education Jim but not as we know it =-O

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    • NotaSheep says:
      January 23, 2011 at 11:34 am

      is it just me or there a touch of keith Olbermann at the end of that piece?

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  18. Roland Deschain says:
    January 22, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    Oh for crying out loud!

    “Hippy Imam: the preacher who became a preacher of peaceful Islam in Afghanistan”

    Narrative?  What narrative?

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    • Charlie says:
      January 23, 2011 at 11:23 am

      “Hippy Imam: the preacher who became a preacher of peaceful Islam in Afghanistan” 

      Last I heard the Taliban wanted him dead.

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  19. Jonathan S says:
    January 22, 2011 at 10:05 pm

    Wed 26/01/11 9.00pm Posh and Posher:Why Public School Boys Run Britain….i fear yet another BBC Tory bashing piece of crap

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    • Martin says:
      January 22, 2011 at 11:02 pm

      Yes and it’s done by Andrew Neil, who clearly is taking it up the rectum now to keep his beeboid job.

      The BBC remind me of the Borg, no single thought allowed, everyone is part of the collective, BBC TV centre being the hive home.

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    • Daniel Smith says:
      January 22, 2011 at 11:19 pm

      I had high hopes that this documentary would be on the rise of the political class, an important and worrying trend in politics. The trailer made my heart sink. Cameron and Clegg named (but no mention of Milliband or any of the Labour front bench) and the plummy Jacob Rees Mogg featured at length. The voice of opposition and sanity was given to Peter Mandelson! I’m hoping the trailer, obviously put together by a labour supporting oik, is not representative of the show and that Neil will take an honest look at this, but its noticeable that when social mobility decreased under Labour and that government was choc-a-bloc with the same type of people, the BBC did not feel motivated to make any such documentary.

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  20. Julio says:
    January 22, 2011 at 11:24 pm

    [b]Left-wing bias? It’s written through the BBC’s very DNA, says Peter Sissons[/b]

    Quotes galore about Britain’s most seditious institution.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1349506/Left-wing-bias-Its-written-BBCs-DNA-says-Peter-Sissons.html

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  21. Will says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:18 am

    Saturday’s “Today” (7:51) decided to get together two like minded people to “Debate” the super rich. The two folk seeing eye to eye in favour of squeezing the rich till the pips squeaked were Julia Margot of Demos and global editor-at-large at Thomson Reuters, Chrystia Freeland (Reuters as left-leaning as the BBC?). In fairness to the beeboid host,Evan Davis, he was more sensible than the two guests but he did nothing to put the guests on the spot & make clear to the audience the level of bollocks (historically, politically, logically & economically) being uttered. Well worth the 5 mins on the “listen Again” feature.

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      January 23, 2011 at 6:07 pm

      From what planet do these people come from who think wealth used to be more evenly distributed in the past?  The railroad Robber Barons were an historical fluke?  FFS.  Evan Davis can barely scratch the surface of an actual argument, unfortunately.  Were his hands tied by his producers?  It sure sounds like it.  When the first Marxist said that even if the super-rich earned that money they shouldn’t be allowed “to stay rich”, he was silent.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 23, 2011 at 6:10 pm

        Actually, on second listening, I can hear that Davis is just laughing at the lunacy he’s hearing.  That’s not any better, even if I agree with him.

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  22. Ronald Todd says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:34 am

    Andrew Marr this morning.

    It was Mr Alexander for the man from his party and Nick Clegg for the man from the opposition.

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  23. Guest Who says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:39 am

    Feel the love…

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/andrewgilligan/100073136/ken-livingstone-iran-hits-back/

    ‘Caller: The only reason the BBC’s jealous is because Press TV puts on better programmes…’

    Actually, depending on one’s definition of better, he may be on to something.

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  24. hippiepooter says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:41 am

    I have taken it upon myself, given recent events, to listen to TODAY’s Saturday edition.

    What they have as their lead on the website and the broadcast is:-

    “Andy Coulson’s resignation has refocussed attention on the investigation into the News of the World and the role played by the Met in the affair”

    Well no actually, as a matter of fact POPPYCOCK!  ‘A senior Labour MP’ according to TODAY, has called for an inquiry into the Met investigation.  That is very different to the above.  An honest lead would have been ‘At the behest of the Labour Party we are refocussing attention on the Met’s investigation’.

    I listened to excellent coverage on R5L with Peter Allen, interviewing various guests, and the overall tone, even from Labour sympathetic journos like Michael White, was generosity towards Mr Coulson.  There was no sense at all that Mr Coulson’s resignation had ‘refocussed attention on the role of the Met’.

    R5L has its bias, but compared to the sneering, sanctimonious, ‘knowing’ tone of the reporter on the Coulson resignation, I feel that I’m going to need to take a bath after listening this instalment of TODAY.  It reminds me why I came to R5L as a political refugee from R4.

    Ghastly people.

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    • hippiepooter says:
      January 23, 2011 at 10:31 am

      Strewth, and now I’m listening to Evan Davis on Andy Coulson, doing an ‘incest interview’ with a BBC Correspondent, and Davis said ‘The press role in No 10 should be different from the policy role’.

      The last time I heard such digs at a No 10 Press Officer – and ad nauseum – was at Bernard Ingham.  Somehow, when politicisation of the job of No 10 Press Officer went into overdrive under Alistair Campbell the BBC didn’t think it commentworthy.

      I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation.

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      • matthew rowe says:
        January 23, 2011 at 11:17 am

        Ahh so once again the BBC and fatty Pressalot are demanding another expensive look at nothing ! as the C.P.S have batted this back as ‘without evidence?what? 2 times but no fatty has to have his voice!.
        What next? a BBC lead investigation in political interference at the C.P.S probably done by Campbell then when that falls on its arse, a in-depth study into the cost of our failing justice system by Neil[down] just to provide balance !  and maybe even  a crime watch reconstruction!
        Then when enough time has elapsed and still no facts can get what they and their  labour masters  what they want then it will all start again from the top like last time and the time before that !!

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      • Martin says:
        January 23, 2011 at 11:26 am

        That would be Alistair Campbell, a man who actually wrote some of the documentation that took us to war, a war that cost the lives of thousands? An unelected c**t who was accountable to not a single member of the public or Parliament.

        The BBC have short memories.

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        • hippiepooter says:
          January 23, 2011 at 1:28 pm

          Oh, just an ‘in-house’ spat.  Nothing ‘we children’ need to know about.

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        • Demon1001 says:
          January 23, 2011 at 7:03 pm

          Alistair Campbell, Nicky Campbell.   Jesus wept!   I’m definitely siding with the MacDonalds from now on.

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      • Grant says:
        January 23, 2011 at 2:11 pm

        hippie,
        You have coined a great new phrase  ” incest interview “.  Love it !

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  25. Stuart says:
    January 23, 2011 at 11:00 am

    Point of View Radio 4: Has our relationship with nature changed?

    > http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12241405

    I dont know what to say about this one. It was a mix of old testament ‘hell fire and brimstone’ and typical left wing ideological green/socialist clap trap. It was extremely negative.

    Here is a quote to wet your appetite:


    We might do worse than to date our present ecological awareness to the moment when the two bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki….
    Yet despite similarities, environmental destruction differs from its nuclear counterpart in a crucial component. Generals who blow up bombs know they want to kill people. Chief executives who manage lorries transporting milk from depots to supermarkets generally have no motives more sinister than the wish to make some money for their shareholders.

    There are so many ways that the nature and mankind can be discussed in a positive way (without shirking our responsibilities to reduce waste – which is the chief issue here). Instead we get the negative rhetoric…

    And I am not, ‘short-sighted and murderous.” as the article suggests.

       0 likes

  27. Grant says:
    January 23, 2011 at 12:04 pm

    Cartoon in this week’s Telegraph by Britain’s greatest cartoonist,  “Matt”.

    One muslim asking another  ” Is Baroness Warsi a moderate Conservative or a Tory fundamentalist  ?  “.

       0 likes

  28. David Kelly says:
    January 23, 2011 at 1:20 pm

    Labour MP Steve McCabe accusing Andrew Marr of giving Nick Clegg an easy ride.

    http://twitter.com/steve_mccabe/status/29126383485583360

    Good Grief

       0 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      January 23, 2011 at 5:15 pm

      Taking Hippiepooter’s dissection above of what lies behind headline construction at the Beeb (ie: make and/or blow things up on the thinest premise one can locate, abusing the BBC’s uniquely-funded, national propaganda power totally), I am suprised this has not ended up as ‘BBC sees sense in MP demands for more rigour when holding Coalition to account’, for what is some trivial, partisan, Alzheimers-afflicted Labour hypocrite to have a whinge.

      They have based on a lot less.

      However, on reflection, I can see the germ of a nifty notion using their own techniques: ‘Labour also now calling for abolishing of BBC for failures in professional impartiality – ‘What’s the point of market rate talents such as Andrew Marr?’ says one senior MP (evidently not a dinner guest). Cross Party agreement on Corporation’s time being at an end the final blow’

         0 likes

  29. hippiepooter says:
    January 23, 2011 at 1:37 pm

    This on the second TODAY news bulletin yesterday (about 29 mins 50 seconds in):

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/b006qj9z/console

    “Downing Street is beginning the search for a new Head of Communications after the resignation of Andy Coulson.   He quit yesterday saying the row about phone hacking at the News of the World was affecting his job.  Mr Coulson, who used to be the paper’s editor [my emphasis], has always denied any knowledge about hacking but said the claims had become a distraction.  David Cameron has denied making an error of judgement in appointing him. [my emphasis]

    There are more calls for a fresh review of the Metropolitan Police’s handling into allegations that phone hacking was more widespread than the News of the World has admitted.  Paul Farrelly, a Labour Member of the Culture, Media and Sports Select Committee has told this programme there needs to be an independent investigation into the way the Police have dealt with the claims.”

    Oh how I have missed the joys of the TODAY programme!  Let’s have a little bit of textual analysis shall we!

    Firstly, the use of the words “quit” and “row”.  How very tabloid.  Might one venture cheap language to cheapen the subject of the report?

    ‘Mr Coulson, who used to be the paper’s editor, has always denied any knowledge about hacking’ (subtext – ‘ho, ho, ho – the editor not knowing?  Pull the other one’).

    How they choose to report Mr Cameron’s response is revealing too.  One might be left thinking he’s hapless and on the back foot.

    Con’t/…

       0 likes

    • hippiepooter says:
      January 23, 2011 at 1:37 pm

      Con’t/…

      Note the use of the defensive/negative word ‘denied’ features twice in this paragraph.  Not that is – forfend – the TODAY programme was in any trying to lead its listeners as to what conclusions they should draw about the story.

      Then another Labour MP calls for an investigation into the Met’s handling of the affair.  But it’s just one dispassionante voice among many you understand.  There’s no partisanship involved, the calls aren’t being driven by Labour, honest.

      For those with time to listen to the clip, was it my imagination that I detected a snide, gloating, insinuating sub-tone to the newsreader’s voice?  I bet they love him on the TODAY programme, a real ‘team player’.

         0 likes

  30. Umbongo says:
    January 23, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    Let me comment in advance on some BBC output in the same way that BBC news often tells us what will happen rather than what’s already happened.  News in advance serves the BBC’s agenda and, maybe, this comment will serve mine.

    On BBC4 tonight we have the first programme (in an extensively trailed series) on Justice

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/tv/seasons/justiceseason/

    As a taster for the BBC treatment of this subject, the trailer conflates “justice” – basically, what we would expect to see in the courts and the “criminal justice” system – with “social justice” – what the BBC and statists everywhere deem is the standard of “fairness” by which we (but not well-paid bankers who are beyond the pale) should live.  This conflation is the usual basis for endless left-wing critiques of European society – particularly in the constant demands for “equality” – so is not unexpected from the state broadcaster.

    The first programme is Justice: Fairness and the Big Society hosted by Michael Sandel

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xyzg7

    I have no idea of the politics of Michael Sandel who is to front 3 programmes in the series.  However, he was selected to give the Reith Lecture in 2009, is a Harvard academic (whose course on “Justice” there is enormously popular), and his popular works are published by that notoriously non-conservative outfit, Penguin Books so his acceptance by the biens pensants is a given.  Even so, I have (almost) no doubt that Sandel is not a distinguished academic for nothing.  OTOH I also have no doubt that the BBC would not have invited, say, Kenneth Minogue or Roger Scruton to host a similar programme (or anything else for that matter)

    However, we can already see on the webpage introducing the series the sneering references to corporal and capital punishment which, the BBC has already decided on our behalf, were and are so primitive and unjust.  How could we have inflicted such punishment on those poor, disadvantaged criminals?  And, do you know, there are still neanderthals out there who believe in capital punishment?  Horrors!

    Oh yes “justice” is difficult alright.  For instance one of the programmes in the series, devoted to the process at a London magistrate’s court, we are informed that

    “Marc Isaacs’s film delves into the character and circumstances of those brought before the court. The more you get to know the people in this film, the harder it becomes to make “easy” judgements about them”

    Really? In real life I suspect it is generally only too easy and, if it isn’t in this case, I wonder on what criteria “the people in this film” were chosen by Marc.

    Certainly I could be accused of prejudging this series (to which I plead guilty).  However, we will see in time if the customary BBC partiality operates.  I suspect that the biases on display will include:

    (a) the damning of the history, development, application and effects of European – particularly Common Law – justice,
    (b) the deprecation of the creation, continuance and free disposal by individuals and corporations of private wealth and
    (c) the restriction of all civil virtue to those with a dark skin and/or those who embrace Islam (although don’t be surprised if the BBC includes white European criminals and their apologists in academic criminology departments everywhere in the elect of the virtuous)

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      January 23, 2011 at 5:49 pm

      Umbongo,
      I know nothing about Sandel, but if he is at Harvard in Philosophy or similar and gave the Reith lectures, then by definition he must be a Leftie.

         0 likes

    • John Anderson says:
      January 23, 2011 at 6:00 pm

      I heard the Sandel Reith lectures.

      They were mostly boring and predictable leftie drivel.

         0 likes

  31. Biodegradable says:
    January 23, 2011 at 3:25 pm

    BBC’s “whitewash” 

       0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:
      January 23, 2011 at 5:24 pm

      Who wrote that garbage? They could at least have looked at their own Beeboid programme about the incident.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 23, 2011 at 6:27 pm

        It could be the same sub-editor who used to work at CBBC and wrote that dreadful 9/11 piece suggesting that it was only the US who thought Al Qaeda did it.  They didn’t bother checking their own reporting on that one either.

           0 likes

  32. John Horne Tooke says:
    January 23, 2011 at 5:30 pm

    “The way in which people frantically communicate online via social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook can be seen as a modern form of madness, according to a leading American sociologist.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/twitter/8276948/Social-networking-sites-are-a-modern-form-of-madness.html

    Funny how this is how the BBC get their news stories.

       0 likes

  33. Grant says:
    January 23, 2011 at 5:53 pm

    Gordon the Moron is now asking the Met. to tell him whether his phone was tapped. If so, the sheer boredom of listening to anything he had to say would only be relieved by the poor mobile screaming “help” as it flew through the air for yet another collision with a hard object.

       0 likes

  34. John Anderson says:
    January 23, 2011 at 6:06 pm

    The BBC drones on and on about Coulson.

    Hardly ever does it mention that the DPP decided – at least so far – that there are no further cases to answer.

    And seldom do they mention that Coulson has denied repeatedly that he had any knowledge of answerphone tapping.  Never have I heard the BBC playing tape or video of Coulson’s denials.

    What happened to the old notion that a person is innocent unless and until proven guilty ?    Isn’t that a cardinal feature of English law,  fought for over many centuries ?  

    Just another example of the BBC trashing what this country used to stand for.

       0 likes

    • It's all too much says:
      January 23, 2011 at 6:15 pm

      I just wrote a huge cri-de cour about the vile slime spreading labour party and its ability to control the BBC, it appreared twice so i deleted one of the examples and both have gone.  Can’t be bothered to re-create it but Basically Coulson is a non story, no one, even in the labour party cares about the alleged impropriety and this is pure politics.  Can’t the BBC have the decency to reflect on the fact that the population know this.  As for old Pa Broon, perhaps you could turn up in the f***ing House once in a while to justify your salary.

         0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:
      January 23, 2011 at 7:51 pm

      Nothing English can survive on Planet Beeboid.

         0 likes

      • Craig says:
        January 23, 2011 at 8:37 pm

        Yes, in the week when major reforms were announced to the NHS and to education system here in the U.K., when Tony Blair appeared at the Chilcot Inquiry and when Alan Johnson resigned and was replaced by Ed ‘Hitler’ Balls, yet Andrew Marr began his paper review today by saying…  
         
        “Peter, let’s start, I suppose, with the biggest political story – the resignation of Andy Coulson.”  
         
        Only on Planet Beeboid (and its neighbouring planet, Planet Guardian).

           0 likes

  35. John Anderson says:
    January 23, 2011 at 7:02 pm

    Wasn’t the otherwise-estimable Paul Hudson suggesting recently that the Met Office had in fact predicted a cold winter ?

    This seems to disprove his claim.  Looks to me like the Met Office did not have the faintest idea,  covered its ass with a forecast pointing 3 different ways,  the net of which is that it predicted a 60% probability of NOT a cold winter.

    And nothing to suggest that the Met Office issued any sort of prediction – even the off-chance – that suggested a really severe winter.

    Never mind – give them another few score millions to upgrade their computing facilities.  Then they can get it all wrong even faster.

    http://bishophill.squarespace.com/blog/2011/1/21/a-copy-of-that-cold-winter-forecast.html#comments

    Maybe Paul Hudson should update his story.  There is nil chance that Black or Harrabin or Shukman would report this.  That trio probably costs us over a million a year to keep on the road – and all they do is propagandise.   The Met Office’s failures are a HUGE news story – given the deep-six treatment by the Warmists at the BBC. 

    BBC as the world’s largest news operation  – biggest maybe,  but also the sloppiest and most warped.

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:
      January 23, 2011 at 7:03 pm

      and you can bet your bottom dollar that Black,  Harrabin and Shukman know damn well that BishopHill has published this news.  “Nothing to see here,  move along”

         0 likes

  36. Craig says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:07 pm

    Anti-Western BBC reporter Hugh Sykes (on Broadcasting House) went to an exhibition of contemporary art in Pakistan. He talked about UAV’s (drones) “which have killed so many civilians as well as their intended targets”. An art-work recreates them. The artist (who later talked of the “alleged terrorists” behind 9/11, without demur from Sykes) thinks drones are “not good”, and Hugh asked him this extremely loaded question:

    “The Americans say they are targeting people with the drones. What effect does it have when so many innocent people are also killed by the drones?”

    Another one followed:

    “This produces great anger, I think?”

    This report produced great anger in me.

       0 likes

  37. Craig says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:27 pm

    Paddy O’Connell (biased presenter of Broadcasting House) once interrupted a Labour minister who was praising the NHS to proclaim “Absolutely. And let me go further than you have. Millions of treatments are carried out with great skill, professionalism, and people are very happy. And our listener will want us to say that.”
     
    Today he said “Now after a momentous week for national health, here’s a quick word on its progress.” There followed over a minute’s worth of Nye Bevan vigorously defending the NHS. After the clip Paddy said, “A hark from the past. That’s Nye Bevan, speaking in 1949, soon after the foundation of the National Health Service, and we thought we should refresh our memories.”

    And that was it. Breast swollen with Labour pride, he moved straight on to saying, “We’ll take the dinner table test now though. In the news after a warning of creeping racism from Baroness Warsi, I heard from Michael Winner that millions of tolerant Britons with no racism on the menu would still fail his basic dinner party test.”

    A joky piece about dinner parties followed with no further reference to “racism”.

    Typical Broadcasting House.

       0 likes

  38. hippiepooter says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:41 pm

    Children as young as FOUR to be taught about homosexuality under plans to ‘celebrate gay community’

    Note with interest the reactions of ‘Tory’ MPs to this Daily Mail story.  Editor Paul Dacre was right, the BBC Thought Police have pummelled the Tory Party into submission.

    http://conservativehome.blogs.com/torydiary/2007/01/paul_dacre_accu.html

       0 likes

    • John Horne Tooke says:
      January 23, 2011 at 11:13 pm

      So 4 year olds are going to have instructions on anal sex?  Poor kids having their childhood robbed from them by perverted adults.

      “But some businesses are dumping a waste that is toxic on our children. Products and marketing that can warp their minds and their bodies and harm their future. That can take away their innocence, which I know most parents would agree is so precious and worth defending”

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1252156/DAVID-CAMERON-Sexualisation-children-too-young.html#ixzz1Bu37JZSe
      Cameron the hypocrite. How can anyone belive a thing this opotunist says?

         0 likes

    • Grant says:
      January 24, 2011 at 7:01 am

      Apparently, they are even going to be teaching it in maths lessons. I didn’t even know children had maths lessons. But, either way, this is child abuse pure and simple.
      I wonder what muslim parents will have to say about this ?

         0 likes

  39. Craig says:
    January 23, 2011 at 9:57 pm

    Earlier Paddy O’Connell went to Westminster Hall to talk about the Labour lords filibustering over the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill (dealing with the AV referendum and constituency boundaries).

    First Paddy was guided around the basement by Lib Dem peer Lord Goodhart, investigating mysterious doors and Lords history. At the end of this section Lord Goodhart made a very brief political point against Labour. Next up was Labour peer Baroness Billingham. The whole of her bit was spent attacking what she called “the Tory-led coalition”. Next came Labour Lord John Prescott. Prezza also attacked the coalition and defended Labour at some length.

    Next came someone Paddy introduced, for no good reason (and with silly emphases), as “the Conservative PEER, the Earl of Onslow, is a hereditary PEER, elected to stay on by his PEERS, the other PEERS.” There was no reason to describe him in this way, as the bill in question doesn’t concern House of Lords reform. It was surely just said to weaken the Earl’s argument in advance. The Earl blamed Labour. Now. for the first time, Paddy challenged an interviewee: “I mean, here’s the reason why there’s anger of the other side, Lord Onslow, because this is the revising chamber and you’ve given them no time to revise.” (“For a final word…” he talked to Baroness (Onora) O’Neill (cross-bencher). who criticised both sides.)

    Even when balancing out government and opposition voices, Paddy O’Connell can’t bring himself to report fairly.

       0 likes

    • Craig says:
      January 23, 2011 at 10:12 pm

      And…in his run-through of the Sunday papers, he quoted several newspapers, each just once – except for The Observer, which he quoted three times.

      Broadcasting House manages to cram a lot of bias into an hour!

         0 likes

    • Grant says:
      January 24, 2011 at 7:03 am

      But if Paddy reports fairly, he loses his job.

         0 likes

  40. Martin says:
    January 23, 2011 at 10:40 pm

    I just turned on Radio 5 to hear fat slug Nolan doing another attack on Sky, this time over the comments from Andy Gray and Richard Keys regarding the female Linesman.

    Why this merits a phone in is beyond me, although I expect the Guardian to pile in next.

    I just get the feeling that the BBC/Guardian are mounting a continual campaign against Sky.

    Perhaps the BBC should put its own house and presenters in order first?

       0 likes

    • Demon1001 says:
      January 24, 2011 at 12:53 am

      Men joking about women not knowing the offside law is as offensive as women talking about ‘Man Flu”.  Will the Beboids take exception to the next woman who uses that expression?  I don’t think so.

         0 likes

    • Craig says:
      January 24, 2011 at 6:45 am

      Your prediction, Martin, was spot on;

      Sky presenters in the firing line over sexist jibes at female match official
      http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2011/jan/23/sky-presenters-sexist-remarks-female-official

      It’s at the top of the Guardian website’s home page. And the BBC considers it important enough to be on its home page too.

         0 likes

      • Guest Who says:
        January 24, 2011 at 7:46 am

        Cue ‘there’s a lot of anger… ‘critics are saying..’ ‘reports’, when there is actually only a small blip of professional stirring being concocted in usual suspect quarters. The Guardian and the BBC then use each other’s coverage to spin up a row to serve their mutual agenda.

        It is inevitable that rivalries will exist between competing media, but the Guardian (which the BBC uses as a quote/quest mine as a basis to kick off a story they want to ‘pursue’ ) has a daily obsession with the Mail and SKY.

        Reciprocated to no small extent, of course, but The Guardian has an extraordinary influence, especially to guide the power of a £4B propaganda machine, relative to its actual readership.

        Unique, even.

           0 likes

    • David Jones says:
      January 24, 2011 at 7:54 am

      That was the lead item on the news headlines I heard this morning on R5. The most important story in the world?

         0 likes

  41. Jonathan S says:
    January 23, 2011 at 11:10 pm

    The BBC News + The Guardian Newspaper = Bullshit

       0 likes

  42. hippiepooter says:
    January 23, 2011 at 11:49 pm

    ¿En qué estás pensando…?

       0 likes

  43. Craig says:
    January 24, 2011 at 7:23 am

    Just an update on something several people noticed here – the BBC’s neglect on Friday of the story about the top civil servant who said Labour lost control of spending. Well, they’re still neglecting it, four days on.

    Here’s how it’s been reported on other websites:

    Labour lost control of spending says Brown’s Treasury mandarin
    (Telegraph)

    Labour ‘lost control of spending’
    (ITN)

    Treasury chief says ministries lost control of spending under Labour
    (Guardian)

    Treasury exposes the full turmoil of Labour’s spending: Three Whitehall departments lost control during party’s time in power
    (Mail)

    Labour Govt ‘Lost Control’ Of Public Spending
    (Sky)

    But from the BBC website…

    zzzzzzzzzzzzz
    (BBC)

    And it claims to be a leading news organisation!!!

       0 likes

    • David Jones says:
      January 24, 2011 at 7:56 am

      Perhaps Scott or Helen Boaden would like to explain this.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        January 24, 2011 at 2:02 pm

        Instead, the top story this hour is the outgoing head of the CBI criticizing the current Government for not having any vision on the economy.  Come on, BBC, you’re not burying Labour’s legacy fast enough, are you?

           0 likes

  44. Martin says:
    January 24, 2011 at 8:18 am

    Yes Radio 5 piling in on Keys and Gray, funny that no sackings took place when beeboids called Jeremy Hunt a C**t twice on air. Oh hang on that was funny wasn’t it?

    You continually hear men denigrated by the female beeboids for being stupid or incapable of doing two things at once (very funny ladies) but again no one is ever pulled up over it.

    Remember how the BBC DEFENDED the one eyed mong for his comments when off air he called a woman a bigot!!

    Seems to me the BBC never liked Sky reporting that and have been looking for payback.

    Oh and the OTHER story being peddled by the drugged up BBC/Guardian is of course that Cameron had dinner with Murdoch, shock horror.

    Funny that NEVER got reported when Liebour were in power and the likes of Bliar sucked up to Murdoch.

       0 likes

  45. Martin says:
    January 24, 2011 at 8:30 am

    Oh god my local BBC lot are banging on about Gray and Keys again!! It’s unending, but shows what I’ve often commented on as to how the BBC uses it’s broadcasting might to force a story to the top of the news agenda.

    Expect Newsnight to pile in as well.

       0 likes

  47. George R says:
    January 24, 2011 at 9:43 am

    ‘Scotsman’:

    “Fears for BBC as report calls for licence fees to fund new network”

    [Opening excerpt]:

    “A REPORT calling for £75 million from television licence fee income to support a new national Scottish broadcaster has prompted warnings that the move could fragment the BBC and damage existing programming.”http://news.scotsman.com/news/Fears-for-BBC-as-report.6699971.jp

       0 likes

  48. Martin says:
    January 24, 2011 at 10:00 am

    So NOW we see why the BBC is so all over this Sky sports story. Dame Nikki just let the cat out of the bag.

    GORDON BROWN. Dame Nikki just stated on air that it was SKY who played the tape of Gordon Brown calling that woman a bigot. The inference was it shouldn’t have been played.

    You just know that the BBC have been itching to get back at Sky News for attacking their sainted leader.

       0 likes

  49. Martin says:
    January 24, 2011 at 11:17 am

    Now Radio 5 is giving airtime to ‘supposed ex Sky employees’ who are slagging off the station.

    Funny that the ONE story the BBC have ignored is Peter Sissons. I wonder why?

       0 likes

  50. Grant says:
    January 24, 2011 at 11:49 am

    I laughed at the BBC trailers for  “Terry Wogan’s Ireland “,  ” the country which made him “.

    Funny, I thought the country which made him was England, where he still lives, when he is not at his house in France.

    ( Don’t want to be critical of Terry, I am a great fan and he has never been a Beeboid or Lefty , in my eyes. )

       0 likes

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