Open Thread

Something for the weekend?

New Open thread for your general BBC bias related observations

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190 Responses to Open Thread

  1. My Site (click to edit) says:

    blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100086848/chris-huhne-wrecked-the-yes-to-av-campaign-will-he-now-wreck-the-lib-dems/

    “Yes” campaigners seemed genuinely not to understand that Caroline Lucas, Ed Miliband and Benjamin Zephaniah do not, among them, cover the entire political spectrum.

    Maybe the next QT could be from a place that concentrates the ‘genuinely not understanding’.

    Perhaps Jon Humphrys at deputy chairperson, with the above added to as guests by Mr. Huhne and Mr. Izzard, all held in Brighton… for no reason at all.

    They may even be able to still convince themselves, and the studio audience, that black is white. Though sadly, for now, the public keeps messing up this voting lark.

    Cue even more re-education and mis-informing per a very odd, possibly unique Charter obligation.

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Phew, Miliband. E ‘accepts the result’. 

      If he hadn’t, that could have been a constitutional crisis.

      The BBC must run this statesman’s latest pearl of wisdom all day.

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      • Grant says:

        My site,

        Yes, it is simple.  Clever people voted “Yes”, stupid people like me voted “No”.   I really must get re-educated so that I am as clever as geniouses like Huhne and Izzard.  i really should have an inferiority complex, but don’t.  Does that make me doubly stupid ?

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        • john says:

          Grant,
          I don’t think so, but there again I’m not as wise as say Eddie Izzard or anyone “working” for the BBC.
          Perhaps you should contact them on their “Have your say – Am I stupid ?” site.

             0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Nothing would surprise me after having just watched the last episode of QT.

      A supposedly serious political programme where people debate whether or not the world’s most evil being was buried in correct accordance with Islamic ritual!?!? WTF!

      They should’ve put him through a wood chipper and fed him to the pigs!

       

       

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    • Grant says:

      My site,

      I have just posted to Prick’s blog under my BBC name of “Isatou”, my wife’s name ,the African muslim version of “Ayse”.  Don’t suppose Beeboids would know that, but let’s see if it gets through the teenage moderators !

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      • ltwf1964 says:

        I posted too,but let’s see if it gets posted

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        • Grant says:

          Itwf,

          Our posts are on. Teenagers up early for a saturday morning !

             0 likes

          • ltwf1964 says:

            excellent

            they clearly are short staffed today after the AV celebrations……

            oh,wait……..

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            • Grant says:

              Itwf,

              I posted another, maybe pushing it a bit, let’s see. What fun !
              I try and wind up Michael Prick about once a month, it is good for my health !

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              • Grant says:

                My second post has got through !  Wonders will never cease.  I guess all the BBC bigwigs are at their holiday homes in France. Saturday morning is best !

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      • NotaSheep says:

        Well done. The BBC seem to not even bother acknowledging my complaints any more.

           0 likes

    • john says:

      What the f*ck is a “full time BBC car” ?
      If they can’t even manage to turn it off they may as well get Patten to sit in the front and drive into the sunset (or better still over a cliff).
      Or perhaps it’s one of those new AV models which veer to the left and never stop at the scene of accidents of their own making.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      I didn’t think Patten had it in him – he’s such a sleek fat cat. “…Why would I need a chauffeur?” Ha! ha!  Clever.  Has the message been received and understood, though?

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      • Grant says:

        It’s a hat trick  !!   I got my 3rd post through on Prick’s blog.  What a week  !!

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Grant, the moderators must be either asleep or are rebelling.  The comments thread is full of attacks on the BBC’s left-leaning propaganda and poor behavior.

             0 likes

  2. Grant says:

    2 muslim jokes on “Have I got news for you” last night.

    First, the reason the Paki security services didn’t know about  Bin Liner was that they were   “too busy watching rape victims being stoned”.

    The reaction of the audience was very revealing and clearly disapproving.

    Second.  ” Bin Liner couldn’t have used his wife as a shield as she would be walking 3 paces behind him “.

    Cut to Victoria  ” pretty but dim” Coren, who clearly didn’t like that joke.

    I may not have got the wording right, but that is the jist.

    Would similar joke about, say, Jews or Christians have been met with the same reaction ?

    I think most posters here know the answer.  No further comment required.

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    • cjhartnett says:

      Thanks for this Grant!
      Will watch the repeat if the BBC don`t add their black rectangles to the “inappropriate” items here!
      Ah Victoria Coren eh?…no nepotism here then eh?
      Just as well it wasn`t Cohen-or else she`d probably not be invited to the BBCs licenced caves of dissent like Broadcasting House or Desert Island Discs. Keeps the Bolly chilled you know!

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      • Grant says:

        Ha ! Ha !

        Nice one , cj.  Vicky almost stumbled over her lines.
        A friend of mine was in the audience one time.  Apparently there are about 20 script writers and it takes about 6 hours to record, with breaks. Funny, it comes over as being live and spontaneous.

        By the way, why do they keep Paul Merton ?  He hasn’t been funny for years .

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  3. ltwf1964 says:

    another talking head-head of the BBC newsroom this time on the laughable “News Watch”

    complaints about the coverage of Bin Liner gettng stiffed……..wait for it……

    “we think we got it right”   HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    a sneaky one slipped in via a viewers email……..the coverage was in contrast to the bBC’s “usual balanced coverage of the Middle East

    you can’t make this stuff up

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      wait for it……  “we think we got it right”

      Larks. Ta very much. Just for that I am going to have to watch it just to see if there is any hint from any of them how daft that platitude is now when trotted out as a mantra in the face of actual reality. And near enough every darn week.

      I think it may be dubbed TEGIARwatch*

      *Intoned a la Snake in the Simpsons: ‘Totally Excellent Getting It About Right’

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      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        One for Craig’s talents perhaps, but did I hear from Ms. Hockaday’s luscious lips following Uncle Ray’s suggestion that:

        ‘Maybe we need to be more sceptical..’

        … that they maybe should look through various accounts and present them all impartially to let the public decide in context when much remains uncertain or a matter of opinion?

        In which case, maybe she might have a word in the shell-likes of the 3 Whores of the Apocalypse first?

        ‘Or is it all, uniquely, still dependent on narrative when such applies?

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        • Craig says:

          Yes, typical ‘Newswatch’.

          First the carefully picked emails, all coming from the same perspective, summed up by this:

          Conrad Bool: I’m astonished by the ‘celebratory’ nature of much of the coverage. Your normal balanced factual coverage of the Middle East difficulties has seemingly been replaced today by a raft of pro-American back slapping.

          Then the inevitable patronising, TEGIAR-spouting BBC big-wig:

          Mary Hockaday (Head of the BBC Newsroom): Some very interesting comments here and I’m clearly sorry if some viewers weren’t happy with the tone. We think very hard about tone and I have to say on this one I’m broadly very satisfied we got it right

          …and I think we were right.

          The reply to Uncle Ray’s question, “Is there anything the BBC can do to be more sceptical on first reports?” ended, “One of the journalistic tasks that we’ve been very focused on is trying to look through the different accounts, work out where we can what we feel confident to point to and say it’s accurate, where we simply have to attribute and say there’s a difference of account or opinion here, we can’t reconcile it but we want to lay out for people what’s being said.”

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          • Grant says:

            Craig,

            I was thinking of making an intelligent comment, but instead I shall paraphrase Shirley Valentine  ” Aren’t the BBC full of crap ? “

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          • My Site (click to edit) says:

            Craig. I don’t know where you get the patience, but these transcripts are solid gold.

            Damned by their own weasel words.

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            • My Site (click to edit) says:

              I sat there for a wee while trying to page ‘grab’ the pages with the subtitles on, but they didn’t scan very well… or match either.

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            • Grant says:

              My site,

              I don’t know if you followed Craig when he had his own blog, sadly closed some time ago. Now that really was solid gold  !
              Craig, come back , all is forgiven. Come , face it , there is not much else to do down there in sunny Morecambe  😎

                 0 likes

  4. Ronald Todd says:

    BBC news just had some labour person on, AV vote was at weong time the campaign was too short …

    followed by two interviews with liberals. No tories of course.

    But they did something I did not see them do before the actual election one of the liberals was against AV.

    The pre-election message from the BBC was Tory liberal split, with very little mention that half the labour party was voting no.  What they did not give the least hint off was that there might be the least split within the liberals.

    To be fair neither did they highlight any split within the Tories I suspect because they could not find any Tories who were voting yes.

    Mentioning splits on one side but not the other is what they do on Europe. How often do they have a anti europe socialist/liberal on?

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    • Grant says:

      Good point , Ronald.  There are many Labour supporters and politicians who are anti-EU and many who support withdrawal ( that was Labour policy until some years ago ), but you never see them on the BBC.
      BBC pro-EU bias, surely not ?

         0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      Witness John Humphrys comment during his interview of David Cameron. The bias or lack of knowledge is so blatant it hurts.

         0 likes

  5. cjhartnett says:

    Oh dear-the collapse of the BBCs liberal dream seems to have rattled them in all manner of ways!

    1. The closing news headlines at 6.30 p.m last night referred to the crushing defeat of the “No” campaign…am guessing that Rory Morrison meant yes,but hey,what do I know?

    2. Dear old John Humprys mentioned the conclusion of the “5/5 inquest” in his review of the(approved) papers this morningat 7.15 or so. No-don`t laugh…he`s of that age now,

    No doubt Raj Persaud could be called in from the cold to give us the significance of the Freudian analysis of such errors. Subconscious wishes unrealised but expressed in the hope that one day “the world will live as one?…with an additional dyscalculic” diagnosis for  the sclerotic BBC mouthpiece with too little sleep!
    Oh who`s to say?…life`s too short!
    Thanks though to John for delivering the No vote after  the Cameron interview…if I  hadn`t  then I might one day  have ended  up as confused as him-so NO it was then!

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  6. Alcuin says:

    The map of AV votes is rather interesting. Apart from a couple of oddities in England, there was a cluster of Yes constituencies around and including – wait for it – Islington. Could it be my own cynical and suspicious mind, or could it be highly significant and representative of how massively out of touch the Islington Set, which forms much of our punditry, actually is?

    Do I expect some self examination in the BBC as a result of this big slap in the face? Do I expect to see some humble pie being eaten? Or, as the inimitable Angus Deayton once remarked do I expect to see “a large sow cruising at 30000 feet”?

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      To his credit, a Beeboid on the TV news yesterday said  ” the constituencies who voted “Yes”  are the same ones that would vote “Yes” to the legalisation of cannabis “.
      I don’t expect to see him again for a month or so while the BBC send him away to be re-programmed.

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      • Alcuin says:

        Cannabis? Ah, yes … “Progressives”. We should give it to them, then they would be so stoned that their opinions would hang them in public.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      With that statement about Islington, it’s as if you’re suggesting UKUncut is made up of spoilt clueless brats with no understanding of economics whatsoever . . . . 

         0 likes

  7. ltwf1964 says:

    I’m waiting for universal Shami to pop up gurning about how the AV vote is an attack on basic democracy and civil liberties

    a compare the meerkat advert would be more suitable for that ****

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  8. cjhartnett says:

    Let it not be said that the BBC does not shelter and support the aged community!
    Dear old Humphrys was sharing his denture tumbler with Dame(only the best for John) Elizabeth Butler Sloss this morning.
    Turns out that she would rather the oiks of 7/7(not 5/5 John!) not bang on about how 52 people died in 2005-hasn`t Hallett spoken of their dignity and restraint-for Gods sake,what MORE do these people want?
    Well maybe, some acknowledgement of the cultural cringe that let the Khans and Tanwhirs do as they liked in the run up-the callous and contemptible murder and disposal of De Menezes( no fuss over his burial rights as I recall!)-and the fact that the likes of Butler Sloss would not have wanted them detained unless Shami had said it was OK-which she never would!
    In short, “lessons will not be learned”. Thes fools refuse to learn them. We can be sacrificed as long as their “rule of law” is worshipped( the Met did not ensure JC De Menezes heath and safety remember?).
    Butler Sloss never learned them-after the Cleveland Child Abuse enquiry that she held, we not only still have everyone involved in post and promoted-but we`ve had one or two cases since I believe!

    Still-like Baronesses Williams and Warnock etal-tried and trusted trouts from Bloomsbury  to add a bit of bottom to the BBCs sober “mission to explain”-and in cut glass voices doncha know?

    PS Aaronovitch getting the Moral Maze gig as Buerk gets a break…hope that Ferguson is similarly “impartial” as I ask him to referee the game with Chelsea tomorrow!

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  9. Llew says:

    I suppose we are going to get inquests now for the next week. Inquest into Lib Dem loses. Inquest into Yes To AV failure. Inquest into Labour total failure in Scotland. Inquest into Labour’s not that special gains in England. Inquest into Labour’s failure to take the majority of the Welsh Assembly. 

    With all those inquests there’s just no room to analyse anything out of the Tory successes! How different to the lack of inquests and total celebrations in 1997, 2001, 2005. 

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  10. pounce_uk says:

    Lets be serious here folks. The sole aim of why the bBC is pro anti government is because they know if the government does a full term then the bBC will suffer. They know the PM doesn’t like them and as such they will back anything which will allow them to survive.

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    • Ronald Todd says:

      If we ever got a real Tory PM the BBC would be worried until then they are safe.

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  11. cjhartnett says:

    There IS the chance that the Beeb luvved up community MIGHT wish to reflect and learn the lessons from the AV disaster(see…I can use this word as inanely as they do!).
    Given,however, that long term cannabis usage does play havoc with the mind; I am optimistic that they have already forgotten the result of yesterday and put it down to an “instiutionalised bad trip maan!”

    If then you hear some confused types strolling round W12 in linen suits muttering about ” revisitng this at a later date”…or ” it was Kier Hardie that lost it”…whatever…do not approach them with a microphone-for that is what the BBC are now all too happy to do.
    Keeps drugs off the streets you see….heavy!

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  12. pounce_uk says:

    Can anybody please explain why the bBC remains silent on the huge protest in Eygpt yesterday outside the Israeli consultate where hundreds of people demanded that Jews living in Israel submit to Sharia law.

    Why while it has no problem shouting out how good labour did in lecister, they leave out how Muslims in the area received an extra mailshot which explained that Liberals are all for gay sex (maybe the reason why liberals saw a fall in those areas)

    Why, the 4 regions in London which voted yes to AV are also ones with a very high islamic popualtion. (MPACUK has been out promoting the virtues of AV in london)

    And how instead of remaining silent on that pro Bin Laden march in London yesterday, the bBC rewrites it so the BNP and EDL are to blame for any problems…I mean do you really have to guess the two missing nouns from this bBC article.

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  13. fred bloggs says:

    Just heard the end part of Today, on it is Poly Toynbee (again)!   She was allowed unchallenged to spread her lies, she said the current economic problems are due solely to external factors.  No fault of the last gov,

    Just how long is this lying propoganda going to be allowed to be propogated on the bBC.

       0 likes

    • matthew rowe says:

      Just how long is this lying propoganda going to be allowed to be propogated on the bBC.
      Well probably until us stupid serfs bow to our betters and get with the program !! 😀

         0 likes

      • fred bloggs says:

        Matthew,  stopping the propoganda is the business of the bBC trust.  Judging by the weak survey they are using about 5dead, (weak meaning easily fiddled), I also do not see it happening.  The charge of bias and proof must come from the Trust, as the gov must have clean hands, otherwise the political backlash will be great! 

           0 likes

  14. cjhartnett says:

    Well done Fred!
    It has now six days since PollyWatch was started-and clearly she has run low on brioches,hence her side saddle ride into town on her high horse to describe the view from the Tuscan hills. We lucky people!
    As the season ends,my mind turns to the Annual ” Sword and Trusty Shield” awards to those rare creatures that cause Auntie Beeb to reach into her capacious handbag for the smelling salts.
    1. Melanie Philips-as ever!
    2. Douglas Murray
    3.Richard Littlejohn
    4.David Starkey
    5.Niall Ferguson
    By no means consistent or ideal-but the best I can do for now…although young Quentin Letts is on later

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  15. Span Ows says:

    Looking at the UK politics page…notice something odd? Of the 17 links visble to articles only one mentions the Conservative Party: “ruthless tories”. It gets worse, go to the page and of the 40 or more links availbale the ONLY other Conservtive mention is the welsh leader losing his sea (note also how England is last in the table of results, couldn’t possibly show the good Conservative result could the?)

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

    Obviously this will change throughout the day

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    • NRG says:

      Which is the real problem. 1. BBC’s lying propaganda or 2. Cowarldy Cameron for not doing something about it.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Of the 17 links visible to articles only one mentions the Conservative Party’

      I believe that is what is semantically deemed by the the Beeb/Graun/Indy axis of weevils to be a fair ‘split’… when it suits.

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    • Grant says:

      Well spotted Span, blatant bias.  Chris Patten will get hold of that like a dog with a bone , if he ever finishes lunch.

         0 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Thanks Grant…6 hours later there are some changes but STILL no mention of the one English party that achieved something unexpected.

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  16. james1070 says:

    Not on the BBC

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    • pounce_uk says:

      James thanks for that link, I hope you don’t mind but I’ve added it to my blog post on said march.

         0 likes

      • james1070 says:

        Nabbed that one from the Blaze.

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      • Span Ows says:

        Pounce, I’m going to add you to my favourites…by the way…you have been pinged by people upset:

        “Content Warning

        Some readers of this blog have contacted Google because they believe this blog’s content is objectionable. In general, Google does not review nor do we endorse the content of this or any blog. For more information about our content policies, please visit the Blogger Terms of Service”

           0 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          P.S. Your header image goes off to the right. Probably looks fine on big screen but 15′ or less (laptops etc) need to scroll right to see edge of blog.

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  17. cjhartnett says:

    I did wonder what had happened to Vince Cable!
    Does his like(Ashdown,Hain etc) just hang upside down in the closet of dreams  at Bush House until some sweet boy in the editing suite wants to continue the revolution by other means?
    Oh-am choosing to replace Niall Ferguson  (above )with Peter Hitchens, Carol!

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      It is a measure of Cameron’s gutlessness that he hasn’t sacked that idiot Cable, especially after his comments about the Tories AV campaign.

         0 likes

  18. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC, breaking stories and its love fest with Islamic terrorists.
    Afghanistan: Kandahar governor’s compound under attack
    The above link takes you to the breaking story from the bBC about how Islamic terrorists (Taliban) are attacking the local govenrnors compund from inside a shopping centre which I presume is next door. But where do the bBC get this info from? Here’s a clue from the article:
    “The Taliban insurgency says it is behind the assault, with spokesman Yusuf Ahmadi claiming “heavy casualties have been inflicted on the enemy”.
    Get that this incident is still on going and the bBC are already on the line to the murderious thugs who are behind this.Knowing how the bBC has a habit of changing the story here’s a screen dump.

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  19. George R says:

    What Islam Not BBC (INBBC) will not recognise about Bin Laden, and Mohammed:
    “Mohammed, a Real Muslim?”

    http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/mohammed-a-real-muslim/

       0 likes

  20. cjhartnett says:

    When we help Dimbleby Major back to the minibus that brought him safely to Broadcasting House, can we find a place for his little brother?
    Listening to him now on Any Questions, he seems intent on interrupting his guests in relation to just how far removed the answers that they give-if he lets them!
    We all instinctively know the progressive consensus` callibration of “virtue and correct thinking”. No Tory obviously-but Quentin Letts neither!
    Only wish I had Craigs dedication to the stopwatch-Dimbleby Minor just continues to pass on gossip from politicians higher up the respective greasy poles than they! He systematically blusters non-sequiters across those he dislikes, and slithers round those who are “on message” .
    Here at Weymouth University, we really need to quantify this baltent bias and its perps! The Dimbleby boys should see out the rest of their twilights in tilting at the windmills atop their Home Counties piles! Cetainly enough wind between them!

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  21. cjhartnett says:

    Yes-I know-blatent!

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  22. George R says:

    An unlikely INBBC TV comedy series?:

    “The Pakistani Hillbillies”

    (inc 37 sec video clip)

    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2011/05/jay_leno_does_osama_the_pakist.html

       0 likes

  23. 1327 says:

    I find times like these to be great moments to be a Beeb watcher. Hit by a triple blow of Labour losing in Scotland , the Tories holding their own and the voting publics two finger salute to AV poor Auntie Beeb is sounding like an elderly relative confused and upset by a trip out into the real world. Listening to the news on Radio 4 the guiding narrative we hate on B-BBC seems to be gone. A fact which makes some reporters appear confused while others seem to love it and produce some cracking reports.

    I fear that as usual this situation will only persist for a few days however so we should enjoy it while it lasts. By Monday morning a new narrative will have been decided and I fear the AV referendum will have been consigned to a memory hole. Don’t expect to hear any mentions of any further referendums either since the peasants have spoken and our masters don’t like what they have heard.

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  24. Millie Tant says:

    I suppose the Beeboids think it is harmful to the Conservatives to broadcast the likes of  Vince-“ruthless-calculating-tribal Tories-ooh” – but-I -wouldn’t-dream-of-giving-up-my-once-in-a-lifetime-thanks-to-the Tories-place-at-the-seat-of-power-so-I-shall-carry-on-working-with-those-ruthless-horrible-Tories-rather-than-resign-on-a-point-of-principle-and-integrity-Cable.  

    Carry on Beeb!  O:-)

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    • Grant says:

      If I were Cameron, I would summon St. Vince and tell him “You’re fired ”  !

         0 likes

  25. London Calling says:

    Cameron in need of an intelligence transplant!

    BBC: “It will not have escaped the attention of Labour loyalists that Scottish independence would permanently damage Labour’s chances of governing at Westminster.The party has 41 seats in Scotland there and would be by far the biggest electoral loser if the nation were no longer represented in the House of Commons.”

    A chance to rid us in England of Labour forever, and what is Cameron’s reaction?

    “If they want to hold a referendum, I will campaign to keep our United Kingdom together, with every single fibre that I have.””

    Yes, Labour’s greatest asset: David Cameron.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      If I were english instead of scots , I would want to get rid of Scotland.  All the best Scots emigrate ( apart from me and Roland, and I shall be going in the not too distant future )  just leaving the dross like Salmond behind.
      He is talking about getting powers to borrow £5 billion on the markets.  Typical left-wing nutter ! 

         0 likes

      • Gerald says:

        Interesting times ahead for Scotland. I believe there is a Bill in Parliament to transfer 10p in the pound of income tax to Scotland and give them the ability to adjust that rate for the Scots.

        I think that at the same time the Barnett formula is to be reviewed with a suggestion that the subsidy junkies north of the border will lose about £4bn a year.

        That should make for some difficult decisions for Mr Salmond as he will not have the power to squeeze business for the cash and can you imagine the uproar if he jacked up income tax!

        It is suggested that the mere suggestion of a referendum on independance has caused businesses to think hard whether to invest in Scotland knowing who will be expected to pick up the tab for the socialist nirvana that would follow independance.

           0 likes

        • Grant says:

          Gerald,

          Quite right.  Salmond is too dim to have thought any of this through. His notion is some silly romantic idea based on his hate of the english and his twisted view that all Scotland’s problems are the fault of the english.
          Well I disagree. Scotland’s problems are the fault some of the Scots, not all , of course.
          Independence for scotland will be a disaster for Scotland and a boon for England.
          And good luck to the english.  My only complaint about them is that they are too tolerant !!!!

             0 likes

        • Andrew says:

          I found myself asking similar questions after the Beeb were getting excited about it paving the way for independence.  In relaity I’m not certain Salmond really wants any of it, but remains content to dangle this nirvana in front of Scots like some romantic dream backed up by his public sector largesse.  My blogging has been a bit dry of lately but it was enough to spur me back into action:

          http://calvinballgame.blogspot.com/

          Although he’s the leader of a Nationalist party he’s an old socialist at heart.  He needs a sackload of other peoples cash to achieve his aim.  That suddenly becomes harder when there are 65 million less people putting into the kitty and your remaining option is to hammer the more mobile businesses that are providing vital jobs in your country.

             0 likes

      • London Calling says:

        The first “assets” an independent Scotland can have back is RBS and HBOS, currently burdening (predominantly English) taxpayers for billions of English Pounds. I’ve no doubt their economy can get by on haggis and whiskey exports, plus visitor centre earnings on boxes of shortbread, good luck to them.

        I’ve had two Scottish wives – I should say both my own, and at separate times, and the one thing I understand about these otherwise fine people is their pathalogical hatred of Tories, its in their DNA.

        So they can keep BBC Scotland, and export episodes of Taggart to remind us how policemen are supposed to behave, unlike the social-worker police Blair gifted us.

           0 likes

        • Grant says:

          London Calling,

          Agree with you, but please, it is spelt   “WHISKY”    !!!!!!

             0 likes

          • Paddy says:

            Here here! Whiskey is an all together more pleasant drink from the land that invented it. It’s distilled three times to make it smoother and softer with a more honey like flavour. Whisky, however is an inferior copy made in Scotland and known as Scotch. It tastes like dodgy cough medicine and is the reason all the jocks sound like Billy Conolly. Now maybe if the sweatties started making whiskey instead of the ough stuff maybe their economy would improve 😉

               0 likes

      • Roland Deschain says:

        Why, thank you Grant.

        Truth is, while I disagree with his politics, Salmond is a very shrewd politician and head and shoulders above the other political pygmies in Scotland.  Who else would Scots in general feel they could turn to?  Even I couldn’t bring myself to vote for the Tories, for the first time ever, although I swivered before.

        And no, I didn’t vote SNP.

           0 likes

        • London Calling says:

          (Another Loch Lomond Liberation Front vote?)

          Its time for a referendum on having an English Parliament, like the Scots Welsh and Northern Irish have. We don’t need to wait for Scotland to leave us. While they are thinking about it, we can just leave them.

          Then we can also leave the EU. We don’t have to be part of Europe – why can’t we be part of South East Asia? After all parts of England are that already. 

          Then we can finally dis-establish the BBC.

             0 likes

          • Millie Tant says:

            While they are thinking about it, we can just leave them.

            Exactly! I’ve often thought how funny it would be if England left the UK. Instant collapse and end of Yewkay. That would solve a lot of gripes and problems at a stroke and look where it would leave the Scots, Welsh and N Irish. Stranded, up the blooming creek and no paddle. Oh, I’d laugh. 😛

               0 likes

            • john says:

              Mathematics Lesson Number One.

              The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland – all explained.

              Northern Ireland – No one really.
              Wales               – No one really.
              Scotland            – No one really.
              England             – Now we’ve got a problem.

              Not that BBC have worked this out yet, should England succeed to say : The Commenwealth of Virginia,
              Oh Oh !  That’s 90% of our TV licence fee gone west (literally).

              I like the make up of the UK, unlike the BBC who hate England with a passion and yet give anybody who’s been near Scotland, Wales or NI to voice their opinions for INDEPENDENCE because that’s what they want to hear.

              Let’s just hope that if the Union is to dissolve it will be because we have decided it’s the right thing to do and not some f*ucking BBC lefties with an agenda.

              NB : Yes BBC I do have a degree in Mathematics, yet failed in what in passes as acceptable at the BBC ie: play doe for kangaroos Masters – “do they like it or not” ?

                 0 likes

          • Grant says:

            London,

            Agree.  I posted something to that effect above.
            The SNP delusion is that a country can be “Independent”  within the EU  !

               0 likes

        • Grant says:

          Roland,

          Well that is a fair point. Salmond knows how to play some Scots like a fiddle and hits the right spots.  Grievances, self-loathing, bravado, something for nothing etc.   But, at the end of the day, it is all hot air !

             0 likes

  26. Craig says:

    Going back to the the “very satisfied” Mary Hockaday’s comments to Ray Snoddy on ‘Newswatch‘, she made the following assertion about the BBC’s coverage of the killing of Bin Laden:  
     
    I mean in fast-moving news stories, as this was, our first job is to report and, as I say, carefully to attribute. So we were making very clear and showing that it was indeed either President Obama or indeed other press statements from America that were describing what had happened in that way.  
     
    Really?  
     
    Please take a quick listen to Monday’s The World At One, as listening to Mark Mardell’s description of the killing of Bin Laden (up on i-player for another couple of days) shows that he, at least, was not reporting in that way. He initially describes the operation as if it were his own factual report, without any attributions to the Whitehouse or other American sources. He could simply have been reading (without attribution) from a White House press release (and not for the first time).

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      P.S. That same Mark Mardell report provided another instance of one of the things David Preiser highlighted with devastating clarity the other day – another betrayal of personal feeling and swingeing generalisation from this biased reporter concerning the mood of America:  
       
      It’s a mood of exaltation. This is not a nation that perhaps does sort of quiet reflective satisfaction.  
       
      Undercutting this somewhat was the following report from Barbara Plett in New York. She said “there was very much a sense of celebration”, “a sense of relief and victory”, but she also said “when you spoke to people more generally there were mixed feelings. Some of them were quite sombre. Here at Ground Zero they were lighting candles in memory of the 9/11 victims”, which sounds like “quiet reflection” to me. She also said there was a “widespread” sense of “apprehension”.  
       
      This was a more rounded reaction to the American response than Mark Mardell’s knee-jerk distaste.

         0 likes

      • Grant says:

        I wonder if Mark can think of any other nations that don’t do ” quiet , reflective, satisfaction ”  ?   Hint , I am thinking of countries which are mainly a certain religion.  Still don’t get it  ?  OK, the answer is Tibet.

           0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Craig, Mardell always reports White House talking points as fact.

         0 likes

  27. sue says:

    Remember this?
    Zeinab Badawai was furious that Mosab Hassan Yousef betrayed his dad and went to spy for the Zionist entity. Well, she’ll be relieved to hear that it was all part of a cunning plan, and he had us all fooled. Perhaps another Hardtalk, or a few appearances on Deteline would be in order?

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      Sue, watching that Zeinab Bedawi ‘Hardtalk’ in the light of the article you linked too is fascinating. It’s not hard to spot lots of examples of Yousef sending mixed messages, with Israel on the receiving ends of all manner of slyly damaging allegations. It now looks very deliberate. He’s clearly a clever man. He had everyone, including Zeinab Badawi, taking him at face value. And she really was furious!!! Dispassionate, disinterested BBC interviewing this certainly wasn’t.

         0 likes

  28. cjhartnett says:

    Glad to see that Plett has managed to “dry your eyes mate” and finally obtained “closure” over the death of dear ,lamented Yasser Arafat!
    When she is a comparative voice of reason at the Beeb-only shows how used we`ve got to sitting in the slops and sewage of “progressive” groupthink that we are subjected to daily…what IS the Recommended Daily Dose for the BBCs output I wonder?

       0 likes

  29. joseph sanderson says:

    Are the BBC allow to publish articles such as this one with headlines which are so obviously bias?

    Coalition has no mandate, says Labour’s John Denham

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13321665

    Not one Conservative opinion is quoted in the article.

       0 likes

    • Daniel Clucas says:

      There was me thinking the tories won the popular vote, that is a mandate.

         0 likes

  30. My Site (click to edit) says:

    <to be intoned in the manner of Jeremy Clarkson>

    Some say… he’s a master of understatement,
    Others that he’s a bit of a card, that Frank.
    All we know is, he’s the BBC’s top security ‘analyst’…

    Heresy_Corner Heresiarch 
    Just heard BBC’s Frank Gardner describe bin Laden as “a gentle intellectual, albeit a rather destructive one”.

       0 likes

  31. cjhartnett says:

    Salmonds “triumph” means that Labour have nowhere in this land where they can wreak their havoc without collusion from another party!
    A good result in this one way at least!
    So much for “the forces of conservatism” being vanquished under Blair and Clunking Fist then!
    Looking forward to the bitchslapping to come from  within the “progressive left” about why they are reduced to Bryants and Milibands where they once had Cooks and Fields…hardly MENSA, but in comparison to the current crop?…

       0 likes

  32. Cassandra King says:

    Let Scotland go its own way if that is what they want, exchanging the English for the euroslime is not the brightest of goals but whatever floats their boat eh?

    One slight fly in the ointment will be the border lands, there is no way that the Scots borders will vote for independence and they might well wish to stay to the south of any future border. So its either move the new border north or Salmond moving tanks in to crush those anti independence freedom fighters and force them to be Scottish subjects?

    Stoking up big big trouble if the highlanders think that they will get all the land they desire with an unwilling borders population saying ‘up yours’. No mention of the debatables, no mention of those who will refuse to join this new independent state. All cut and dried?

       0 likes

    • matthew rowe says:

      ‘tanks’ hmm well when they get what their leader wants then all the  jets/ships/subs and every other bit of  military equipment will leave when the bases are closed so salmons better hope the EU give him some cash for a few shotties to protect them selves and help magic up  jobs for all the troops of Scottish origin who will leave  our services !lol also  what they have so far failed to say is what will replace/fund  all the S.A.R and coast guard border agency  services that we currently pay for  !

         0 likes

  33. George R says:

    Compare and contrast:

    – two commentaries on East Anglia Univ/ Select Committee review:

    1.) ‘Daily Mail’

    “Climategate scientists ‘too secretive and may have broken Freedom of Information laws’ ”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384390/Climategate-scientists-secretive-broken-Freedom-Information-laws.html#ixzz1Lhbza3EB

    2.) Mr Black, of BBC-Greenie propaganda:

    “Climate e-mail reviews ‘leave science sound'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13300058

       0 likes

  34. deegee says:

    Cairo: Muslims and Christians clash in Imbaba
    Cairo church on fire after Imbaba clashes

    Nasty old Christians always beating up on defenceless Muslims!
    At least five people have been killed and dozens more wounded during clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo, Egyptian officials say. How many Christian and how many Muslim, the BBC doesn’t say.

    A parish priest, Father Hermina, told AFP that at least five of the dead were Copts who died when “thugs and (Muslim fundamentalist) Salafis fired at them” in the late afternoon attack.

    The Gospel had been laid on a body wrapped in a sheet that was lying inside the church. The church floor was bloodstained as wounded Christians were brought in for treatment. The AFP reports nine dead.

    One thing all reports agree on (although you have to read down), the Muslims attacked the Christians. Ah, the smell of Jasmine in the air!

       0 likes

  35. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Ok, it is the Daily Mail, but it seems to be factual.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1384719/Bin-Laden-I-saw-BBC-news-crew-firebrand-hed-bearded-zealots-IAN-BIRRELL-reports-troubling-aftermath-Bin-Ladens-assassination.html

    One wonders if the actual story of yet more ‘narrative enhancing’ over actual news reporting will be addressed, or the source simply attempted to be dismissed, like usual?

       0 likes

    • Craig says:

      The Mail‘s headline certainly milks it a bit (given that the BBC angle is only a passing detail near the bottom of the piece), but the report itself, by Ian Birrell, looks like the genuine article – proper reporting! – and will be very hard for BBC diehards to dismiss (if they don’t just ignore it) as it’s hardly a typical Mail piece.

      ‘Narrative enhancing’ seems just the right euphemism for this:

      Even at the Red Mosque, scene of vicious gun battles four years ago, the hotheads were friendly after Friday prayers as they ranted about Osama and the need for vengeance.

      There were barely 200 of them, while foreign reporters milled around looking for incendiary quotes. I watched as a BBC news crew carefully repositioned one young firebrand to have bearded zealots behind him to ensure the usual images of Pakistan were presented to the world.
       
      Cut out of the picture were two teenagers laughing and nudging each other at their friend’s antics for the camera.

      If that’s true (and why wouldn’t it be?) that’s quite disgraceful and the BBC needs to answer for it.

      They do seem (like Mark Mardell) to like to keep things simple for their audience, mostly black and white with few shades of gray, and to keep them in line with the general BBC narrative (Americans are celebrating in an OTT fashion, bearded Pakistanis are furious at the wicked West).

         0 likes

  36. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Speaking of imposing in reaction to vs. reflecting the UK public mood…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8500336/Britains-insatiable-taste-for-blood.html

     “One of the things I want to do,” Mr Cohen, the network’s youngest-ever controller, explained helpfully, “is to broaden the palette a bit.”

    The “palette” is how 36-year-old, Oxford-educated Danny and his metro-chic chums think of a night’s viewing.’

    Although ratings do seem a motivator, it seems ideology is a prime over-arching influence. And when you have control of the pitch and ball, even when others pay for it, you probably get to play the game your way no matter what. Fatty Pang, any views on how that comes to be?

    I think I’ll stick with NCIS, if wondering why I still have to send a bung Aunty’s way for the legal right to watch it.

    ‘When the Guardian, a newspaper that tends to take a disapproving view of popular tastes, polled its readers on the BBC man’s views, a thumping 76 per cent said they disagreed with him.’

    So, a bit like AV, etc, the BBC solution seems to be not listening and responding, but moving the vast resources they over-enjoy to yet further re-educational overdrive in ‘correction’.

    Mr. NaughtieMarr, Mr Cameron… why is this so?

     

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Quick, get a Grauniad journo on the news to ‘comment’ on behalf of the nation, stat!

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/willheaven/100086910/another-quiet-and-lonely-day-on-planet-guardian/

         0 likes

      • Craig says:

        Talking of Planet Guardian (or should that be Planet Guardian-BBC?)…

        The journalists invited to appear so far this year on Gavin Esler’s Dateline are (as ever) largely drawn from the unpopular end of the newspaper industry. Here are the total number of invitations:

        Guardian/Observer – 9
        Independent – 3
        Times – 1
        Sunday Telegraph – 2
        Daily Mail – 2

        To break this down:

        From the Guardian/Observer there’s been Polly Toynbee (three times), Ned Temko (three times), Simon Jenkins, Michael White and Isabel Hilton

        From the Independent there’s been Yasmin Alibhai Brown (twice) and Johann Hari

        From the Times there’s been David Aaronovitch

        From the Telegraph there’s been Janet Daley (twice)

        From the Mail there’s been Ann Leslie (twice).

        (It’s almost always either Janet Daley or Ann Leslie from the Right.)

        This is bias, plain and simple.

           0 likes

        • TooTrue says:

          Talking about David Aaronovitch, he was part of one of the Doha Debates, hosted by ex-Hardtalk host Tim Sebastian:

          This House believes the pro-Israeli lobby has successfully stifled Western debate about Israel’s actions

          The panel, for and against the motion:

          Norman Finkelstein, Professor of political science, DePaul University – for

          Martin Indyk, Brookings Institution – against

          Andrew Cockburn, Full-time writer and lecturer – for

          David Aaronovitch, British journalist, broadcaster and author – against

          http://www.thedohadebates.com/debates/past.asp?s=3#

          It was a vey entertainig debate, especially the bit where Aaronovitch attacks Cockburn with withering scorn, exposing him as a paranoid conspiracy theorist.

          Good that there is a mute button for Finkelstein.

             0 likes

        • Grant says:

          Well done , Craig.  Quite irrefutable.  What is the circulation of the Guardian ?  4 men and a dog ?

             0 likes

          • John Horne Tooke says:

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2010/nov/12/abcs-national-newspapers

            The BBC pick their “commentators” from the bottom first and work their way up. The Mail has a circulation about 8 times as many as the Guardian. The Independent is lucky to exist with a circulation of 182,412. The Sun beats them all hands down, whch should suggest to the BBC that a Sun reporter should be on every edition of Dateline.

               0 likes

          • John Horne Tooke says:

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/table/2010/nov/12/abcs-national-newspapers

            The BBC pick their “commentators” from the bottom first and work their way up. The Mail has a circulation about 8 times as many as the Guardian. The Independent is lucky to exist with a circulation of 182,412. The Sun beats them all hands down, whch should suggest to the BBC that a Sun reporter should be on every edition of Dateline.

               0 likes

            • Grant says:

              JHT,

              It should come as no surprise that the BBC pick their commentators from the bottom.

                 0 likes

  37. As I See It says:

    Radio 5 Live, Tony Livesey’s topical debate asks  ‘Are we all in this together?’

    I ask: Did Ed Miliband just get his Jim’ll Fix It wish?

    If I wanted to read a Labour Party propaganda leaflet I’d retrieve one from the bin.

    Meanwhile Nicky Cambell is on TV (I’m aware there is a school of thought here that regards him as a cross between Cicero and Albert Schweitzer). I won’t get into that – but seriously, his show sounds like a 4th Form Religious Studies debate.

       0 likes

  38. George R says:

    Will INBBC investigate the nature of the Muslim burial which United States afforded to Islamic jihad mass murderer, Bin Laden?:

    “Did Naval Burial Ceremony for Bin Laden Curse Jews and Christians, and Confer Pardon and Paradise on the Muslim Mass Murderer?”

    (by Andrew Bostom)

    http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9457/pub_detail.asp

       0 likes

    • TooTrue says:

      I’m not sure it matters that much whether he was buried with or without rites in the light of the fact that he died without a weapon in his hands. One would have thought the that the great Muslim warrior would have stayed true to his own fatwa and used the opportunity to try to take some Americans with him.

      Since he failed to do so, it means he forfiets his 72 virgins and gets a 72-year-old virgin instead, poor sap.

         0 likes

      • Grant says:

        Too True,

        Exactly !

           0 likes

      • John Horne Tooke says:

        “..that he died without a weapon in his hands” I think someone is confusing cowboys with terrorists. I wonder if he died with his boots on?

           0 likes

  39. deegee says:

    US releases Bin Laden home videos

    US President Barack Obama has met the military team that killed Osama Bin Laden and praised their mission as “one of the greatest military operations in our nation’s history”.

    Is it BBC bias not to snicker when told that a commando raid against a small, lightly  defended position in a nominally friendly country ranks with the Battle of Midway? 

     

       0 likes

    • TooTrue says:

      We all know what the reaction would have been had Bush made that statement.

         0 likes

    • Grant says:

      deegee,

      Exactly. Obama is shameless. He really is the pits.  Not quite D-day or Iwo Jima, I don’t think !

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      The President has rather slipped into hyperbole territory there. 

      One is sure the media estate will pick him up on it in the time-honoured fashion they reserved for his predecessor.

      Or, perhaps, and in some cases to a unique degree, not.

         0 likes

  40. mike_s says:

    Compare to news report of the same news event.
    BBC;
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13325448

    CNN;
    http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/africa/05/08/egypt.clashes/index.html?hpt=T1

    In the one report the christians strated in the other Muslims. In the one report there were no casualties in the church which was set ablaze . In the other report people jump from the church which was ablaze.
    No prices for who reported what.

    In the first version of the BBC article there was no mention of the christian side of the story.

    In this link from the BBC;

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13325550

    Clashes between Muslims and Christians in Cairo left at least five people dead and the al-Azraa church on fire.

    The clashes – in the suburb of Imbaba – came after Muslims attacked the Saint Mena church to free a Christian woman, witnesses said.

    They alleged she was being held against her will because she wanted to convert to Islam.

    Soldiers and police, backed by tanks, fired guns and tear gas to separate the groups, according to reports.

    You couldn’t be more biased if you tried to.

     

    The BBC is the enemy.

     

       0 likes

    • pounce_uk says:

      Mike, I picked up this story last night and blogged about it then. As I was in at the start, I’ve watched the bBC version expand. However as you point out they have been somewhat remiss in posting all the facts. Not only that but in a clear case of an attack by over 4000 Muslims on 1 Church, they promote the view that the road to violence was equal from both sides of the divide. Err..I don’t think so.  Not only that but they also promote the view that both sides gave as good as they got. When in reality those petrol bombs were thrown in one direction and that was towards the church (which is why it was burnt down as depicted by the bBC film coverage) not only that but idiots also fired weapons into the church.

       

      Also, I’ve noted of late how the bBC has found a way in which to report the blood lust of Islam without tarnishing their religion of peace image. They have started blaming conservative Salafist Muslims as the root of all evil when it comes to Islam. Expect to hear them mentioned a lot more on the bBC.

         0 likes

  41. Betty Swollocks says:

    I get the impression the beeboids are totally gutted the Tories did not get a kicking in the local Elections, Ed Millipede is a great asset to them.HA HA HA

       0 likes

  42. Craig says:

    The Politics Show today featured a report from Max Cotton. He gathered together a number of disgruntled Lib Dems and a single disgruntled Conservative to further stoke up up the coalition-splits narrative. Standard stuff, I suppose. His choice of language, however, was interesting:

    “In the days of yore the sons of aristocrats were too important to be caned at school so some unfortunate pleb was caned on their behalf. A whipping boy he was called and now the Conservatives have got their own whipping boy. His name is Nick Clegg.”

    “I’m also guessing that there’s going to be a limit to the number of times Nick Clegg is prepared to bend over and take six of the best on the prime minister’s behalf.”

    This ‘Tory toffs’ imagery reminded me of another Max Cotton report. He was the Politics Show reporter who trotted off to the Somerset and Frome constituency before the 2010 general election to tease Conservative candidate Annunziata Rees-Mogg about her name, asking her (after various questions about it) “You’re not too posh then?” He also spoke to the no-hope Labour candidate who advised voters to vote to keep the Tories out, i.e. to vote tactically for the Lib Dem David Heath, and to Mr Heath himself and to a diary farmer who said he was voting for Mr Heath.

    Back to today’s report though and some more interesting use of language by Max Cotton:

    “So after these elections the Lib Dems need to put some distance between then and the ‘nasty party'”.

    Still with the ‘nasty party’!!! (None of his contributors had used the phrase. It was his choice.)

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      Max Cotton’s BBC profile says he runs  ” an organic turkey farm in Somerset “.

         0 likes

      • Craig says:

        The other interesting factoid about Max Cotton is that his wife is called Maxine (which, as they used to say on The Fast Show, is nice). She also works for the BBC (which is also nice) as a Radio 5Live producer. 

        DB caught her out over an impartiality-busting tweet just after the general election: “Lib-Lab please. No to Cameron.”

        It wouldn’t surprise me if Max and Maxine have very few arguments over politics.

           0 likes

      • Buggy says:

        Max Cotton’s BBC profile says he runs  ” an organic turkey farm in Somerset “.

        Translation: Moved out of London. Keeps a couple of gobblers in the paddock.

        Cynical ? Moi ?

           0 likes

  43. cjhartnett says:

    Far too good a day to listen to the drip -drip of the drips at the Beeb!
    Yet my random sampling of the news this lunchtime surely could not find a South African accent actually attacking the killing of Bin Laden.
    Well done the BBC for finding yet another ex-colonial on a guilt trip a la Hain! Can`t have been easy-unless they`ve gone all soft like we have!

    Maybe if we push the case that the Bin Ladens didn`t actually have a TV license( a posthumous pardon if he did!), then we may yet get someone on the BBC to say that,actually: if his death could lead to other fragile old blokes from the ” Asian community” -yes, CLAIMING their entitlement to their licence fee being paid for them-then he will not have died in vain!

       0 likes

  44. George R says:

    How INBBC misleadingly ‘reports’ Islamic jihad in NIGERIA.

    ‘Jihadwatch’:
    Nigeria: Muslims kill 17 Christians, including wife and three children of a pastor

    [Opening extract]:

    “That detail is left out of the BBC report below, as it is standard for the mainstream media to make every effort to downplay ‘sectarian’ violence as the product of mutual ‘tensions,’ preferring to implicate organized religion, tribalism, or ‘extremism’ in general rather than the stated intentions of one group and its scriptures (the Qur’an, that is) against another. This report shows the targeted nature of the rampage. ‘Muslim Attackers Kill Fifteen Christians in Nigeria,’ from International Christian Concern, May 7″

       0 likes

  45. crabtreecottage says:

    4-ish minutes into (of all things) ‘Sounds of The 70s’ with Johnny Walker on R2, when he intones in a serious voice ‘Just been watching the Formula 1. All I can say is if Rupert Murdoch and News International  get hold of it, it will be a bad thing indeed’.

    Prime time state-supported broadcaster putting boot into (non-state supported) rival broadcaster?

    Impartiality, eh? Must be in their genes….

       0 likes

  46. D B says:

    Remember Jo Abbess, the climate activist who got Roger Harrabin to alter one of his articles? According to her Osama bin Laden was a man with “an inner life” who had “good intentions”. Well he was a fellow climate change alarmist, afer all.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      DB,
      Don’t know about “inner life”,  but he certainly spent a lot of time indoors.

         0 likes

  47. cjhartnett says:

    Fine picture Mr Cottage!
    Reminds me of the man who SHOULD be running the BBC, had we hearkened to his words about Fred Kite and positive shower way back!
    Poor old Johnnie…wonder if he runs his motorbike on carrot juice?  Surely all those nasty polluting cars means that Mother Nature would be happier IF Rupert were to turn Formula 1 into something kinder.
    The BBC did stand by him through his drugs stuff and cancer though-and I`d rather that they became a branch of hospital radio and not the institionalised zealot who won`t believe that John Lennons songbook is NOT the Bible.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      cj,

      We don’t need the late and great Terry-Thomas ( yes, that’s how he spelt his name )  running the BBC.  It is already run by someone who is  a spiv, bounder and cad, dontcha know ?

         0 likes

  48. Will says:

    Orla has arrived in Abbotabad. She tells us that informed locals say that the US claims to have slotted Bin laden are all b*llocks. She provides none of the health warnings that accompany “claims” by the US or UK governments, instead we have Orla suggesting that the views of a local are authorative because “he has sold newspapers for 50 years” – that just reminds me of Randy Newman “Her grandad was a newsboy ’til he was eighty-four. What a slimy old bastard he was”

       0 likes

    • Grant says:

      Will,

      So Alky Ida are lying when they say Bin Liner is dead  ?

         0 likes

    • As I See It says:

      I saw this report on BBC News 24 and was bemused. But hey, thanks Orla! I’m sure they’re saying a lot of crazy stuff out there in Pakistan and I’m pleased my licence fee is paying for you to tell me all about it. Now, Ms Guerin how about finding Elvis for us?

         0 likes

  49. Craig says:

    Predictably, Broadcasting House‘s sole take on the killing of Bin Laden was to contact a former Nuremberg prosecutor who had written a letter to the New York Times in the wake of the operation saying that “illegal and unwarranted execution – even of suspected mass murderers – undermines democracy.” (It probably helped that, looking him up on Wikipedia, they’d doubtless discovered that he had previously called for George W. Bush to be tried for war crimes).

    The interview (which was far from uninteresting BTW) began, “An American who prosecuted Nazi war criminals at the Nuremberg trials has told us that the killing of Osama Bin Laden risks our own humanity.”

    Earlier on the programme a photographer who worked in Afghanistan was on to denounce the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and their harmful effects on our safety and civil liberties.

    Broadcasting House too often gives only one side of the picture (and it always seems to be the same side).

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    • Grant says:

      For what it is worth, it doesn’t risk MY humanity one bit  !

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    • Millie Tant says:

      I heard that interview too and found it very interesting. What a clear, cogent speaker was that 91-year-old prosecutor with his sharp memory of events and his command of the subject and the  figures relating to prosecutions for war crimes – which to me were surprisingly low.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      I heard that interview too and found it very interesting. What a clear, cogent speaker was that 91-year-old prosecutor with his sharp memory of events and his command of the subject and the  figures relating to prosecutions for war crimes – which to me were surprisingly low.

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