125 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Martin says:

    I see the EDL have issued another statement stating Brievik never had any contact with them, but the BBC (and other media) keep repeating it as if it’s a fact.

    This is typical of our media who just follow each other like sheep.

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    • Lloyd says:

      Puts me in mind of an incident during hackgate when the BBC were running the story about Chris Bryants allegations that officials at Buckingham Palace had objected to Cameron’s appointment of Andy Coulson. Despite swift and unequivocal denial of the story from Buckingham Palace the BBC continued to run the story for the rest of the day, but just adding a tagline about BP denials. They’re fucking shameless.

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  2. Span Ows says:

    I hope he doesn’t mind but I report the last one from the earlier Open thread that was posted there at the same time as this new thread appeared:

    My Site (click to edit)
    Speaking of tweeting as/vs. ‘news’..  
     
    bbc5live BBC Radio 5 Live Your Call: @NickyAACampbell wants your reaction to the tragedy in Norway. Send us a tweet and follow online >> http://j.mp/clTSfG  
    Go on… REACT!!!!!!!  
    If it suits, it will be read out.

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  3. fred bloggs says:

    just seen the news of the maid in the DSK case giving her interview and then the bBC summing up.  The bBC showed the U.S. clip, mentioned the false written statements, mentioned the change of police statement when it did not stack up.  Did not mention the drug dealing boyfriend.

    Then compared the humble maid, against the rich powerful DSK.  I question the word ‘humble’,  their own presentation showed her to be unreliable, where does ‘humble’ come from; ‘ extremely dubious’ possible; ‘unrelable’ almost certainly; ‘humble’ NO.

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    • Martin says:

      Interesting how the BBC allgeged left wing rapists. Don’t remember DSK getting the soft treatment like Julian Assange. In this BBC article the claims by the women get a single line.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-14120464

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    • RGH says:

      They should have said ‘lowly’ as in low-life  That might be more appropriate.

      Humble is cognate with humility which in moral terms, our culture equated with virtue.

      I liked the ‘rutting chimp’ comment by DSK’s oh so French socialist former partner.  So oh la la.

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  4. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC, it’s hatred of the US, the wonders of Ramadan and half the story.
    Libya unrest: Ramadan to slow anti-Gaddafi rebels
    “We won’t arm cowboys”.
     When Osama, a Libyan rebel commander, heard those words he knew all hope that the US was going to tip the balance on the ground in their favour had disappeared. This, he said, came from an American government representative during a meeting in Benghazi not long after Nato’s air campaign began. “The truth is, they’re worried about getting their weapons back,” Osama told me at his headquarters in the besieged port city of Misrata, which has been surrounded and rocketed by Col Gaddafi’s forces for months now. “So, we’re fighting with weapons from the 1970s though we’re doing pretty well with them,” he said. The European leaders that galloped into this conflict, despite reservations from some of their senior military advisers, expected it to be over by now. Next week, Libya will begin observing the holy month of Ramadan.
    Two things have slowed it down for the rebels.
    One is the lack of good weapons and ammunition, the other is that the rebels say Nato has demanded proper organisation and accountability from the fighters on the ground before any agreement on minute-by-minute co-ordination.
    So according to this report from the bBCs Middle East Bureau editor the Yanks are to blame why the conflict in Libya hasn’t finished by the start of Ramadan. What Paul Danahar leaves out of his little hate/love fest is that actually the US (as is everybody else) is forbidden by the UN, yes the UN from furnishing anybody in Libya with weapons. (UN Security Council resolution 1970) Yes the French have done so, but their legality is been questioned.  Funny enough he also left out the bBC article which mentions that arms embargo. Talking of weapons remember that John Simpson article/video where he found a bunker full of British Mortar bombs. (which I pointed out at the time were very old simply because the MOD hasn’t used wooden boxes of ammunition for over 40 years) well notice how the bBCs freedom fighter states that they are using weapons which are…40 years old. The very same weapons that the Pro Gadiffi crowd are using.
     Err John Simpson would you like to make a comment or should I take it you are nothing more than a misguided commentator.
    But hey, its Ramadan soon, expect the bBC to start issuing warnings over the airwaves of when fasting begins. (Fasting indeed, they stuff themselves in the morning and then stuff themselves 16 hours later)

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    • Wally Greeninker says:

      They could just as easily refer to it as the ‘annual fast of ramadan’ –  so why do they have to use the formulaic phrase, ‘holy month of Ramadan’ every time. Indeed, since it’s the traditional time for going on jihad, ‘unholy month of ramadan’ would be a more accurate description.

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  5. stevefb says:

    Gosh, I enjoyed Alastair Campbell’s recent guest spot on Test Match Special. Absolutely spiffing stuff!

    We simply don’t see enough of this fine fellow on the BBC. I’m sure if Auntie tried really hard she could squeeze him into a few more programmes.

    Cripes! I’ve just had a corker of an idea! I bet he’d make a fine Director General of the BBC when Mark Thompson steps down…

    What a wizard wheeze that would be!

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    • jarwill101 says:

      ‘Spinner’ Campbell will be slugging it out with Mehdi Hasan. My money’s on the wailing shi’ite, but I’m not sure which one.

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    • john says:

      Bad light would not stop Campbell batting all day.
      Indeed, if the players, umpires and crowds had all gone home, he’d still be there for at least 45 minutes and then tell the BBC what the “score” was.
      Cake anyone ?

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  6. pounce_uk says:

    The bBC, reporting civilian deaths from Afghanistan and half the story.  
     
    How many times have you seen, read or heard a bBC report about how NATO/ISAF have killed somebody. With the briefest of information they will have a Taliban Press spokesman explaining how dozens of people have died within minutes of the attack. Quickly followed by the bBC defence experts view that such deaths are a bone of contention in Afghanistan.    
     
    Yet when the Taliban murder somebody, the bBC goes out of its way in which keep people in the dark how, actually the Taliban not only murder (yes bBC murder) 4 times as many people (NATO 205, Taliban 1169) NATO /ISAF accidently kill. That actually, that NATO figure has been decreasing. While the Taliban figure is increasing. Which could explain why the public in the UK have this impression that NATO is accidently killing more civilians than the Taliban.    
     
    ON that note how many people here have heard this story about the peace loving Taliban whom the bBC feels is getting a bad press.  
    Afghan Insurgents Hang 8-Year-Old Boy  
    KABUL, Afghanistan –  Insurgents in southern Afghanistan hanged an 8-year-old boy six days after they abducted him, the Afghan government said Sunday.The boy’s captors had demanded that his father, a police officer, supply them with a police vehicle and he refused, said a statement from President Hamid Karzai’s office. The militants hanged the boy Friday in Helmand province’s Gereshk district. “President Karzai both strongly condemns this act and rejects it as a brutal and cowardly crime that is not acceptable in any religion or culture,” 
    Nothing from the bBC but look funny at some bearded twat who wants to kill as many people for allah. Then it’s a human right crime.  
     
     
    And on cue  the bBC has an article about how  the British have hurt 4 children in Afghanistan.   

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    • Martin says:

      Actually since Obama came to power he’s massively increased the number of drone attacks, yet not once will you see the BBC criticise Obama for tihs policy.

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    • Martin says:

      Actually since Obama came to power he’s massively increased the number of drone attacks, yet not once will you see the BBC criticise Obama for tihs policy.

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  7. RGH says:

    Gavin Hewitt has produced a comment which is worthy of note as it demonstrates assumptions which I have never seen revealed so clearly.

    I’ve highlighted three points.

    “With globalisation, national identity seems to have become more important. The nation state stubbornly remains the focus of most people’s identity. And so nationalist parties have made gains in many parts of Europe.
    There are frequent expressions of concern about the growing influence of these parties. Others say that they provide a useful channel for the feelings of frustration and alienation.
    Some of Europe’s leaders, from Angela Merkel to David Cameron, have questioned multiculturalism.

    The danger, of course, is that such statements can encourage extremism. Others say that in Europe the debate needs to be had, openly and transparently about immigration and multiculturalism”

    1. The nation state is ‘stubbornly’ resisting globalisation. The assumption here is that it shouldn’t be, or that it is, somehow, a bad thing that it should do so?

    2. Growing concern. On whose part?

    3. Merkel and Cameron’s statements, of course, carry the danger that their interventions might encourage extremism. Why ‘of course’.?

    Note that then ‘others (ie not Gavin) say open debate is needed.

    This is the crux of the BBC left liberal view.

    They assume that the nation is somehow passed.

    They assume that disquiet expressed in a democratic way is a ‘concern’.

    They assume, as a matter of course, that mentioning multiculturalism as possibly flawed opens the door to extremist danger.

    And, of course, they are impartial.

    Heck, they are.

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    • Martin says:

      The left have been unhappy since the fall of communism, they want to see a federation of leftie liberal elitists.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      Have they even noticed the sheer number of small countries that have been springing up all over just as the Eurocrats are planning their very own single super EuroState? You’d think that phenomenon in recent history would have told them something.

      The “Others” may have been intended as a reference back to European leaders. Or maybe not! Could be as you say.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      They’re constantly going on about ‘diversity’ as well. There wouldn’t be much of that without different nations and cultures would there!

      Speeches don’t cause extremism, politicians continually ignoring the will of the majority of the electorate certainly does though. 

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  8. cjhartnett says:

    So then-this free press and democratic right to speak freely that we`re supposed to stand for!
    Well the BBc seem to approve of the fact that the Norwegian mass murderer is only to be tried in closed session…and lots of Twitter/Facbook types clamoured for this-so that`s the democratic will of the people then is it?

    The BBC think that any open trial might allow him to peddle his worldview…not Islamic, not Murdoch bashing…pass along folks…you`d not be wanting to  hear him then!

    Apparently he might speak in code to his “followers”(eh?)…there are security and pre-trial issues-and of course the sensibilities of those that grieve!
    That however does not apply to the Winehouse family or to the Dowlers though.We like to pool the grief and get a good view of the street shrines in such cases…lessons to be learned and all!

    This nuts problem is that he is not anti-Western, anti Big Pharma or an Eco Warrior…so best not give him this free speech right thingy that the EU/BBC seeem only applies to the unions or the Taliban.

    Nicky Campbells inbox-or more like Alistairs-is the new Forum for the political arm of the British people!

    That twenty one years bit seems not to be enough too-haven`t we all learned at Aunties twisted teat that “prison doesn`t work”…so maybe they could tell us what purpose revenge serves in this one case!

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  9. Kendall Massey says:

    The BBC wheeled out one its most senior journalists to apologise for its Murdoch campaign.

    On Friday Nick Robinson went on air on ‘Any Questions’, Radio 4 and said (specifically referring to the phone hacking coverage):
    “I have lived and I have learned and I apologies for the excessive coverage”.

    This is the same Nick Robinson who said in another Radio 4 Programme ‘Moats, Mortgages and Mayhem’ from 29/6/2009:

    “We in the media, we’re telling them, in effect what to be outraged about; what to be horrified about.”

    This is good evidence for the forthcoming enquiry into the power of the media.

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  10. Anders Thomasson says:

    I was in Sweden for the last couple of days and last night I tuned into BBC World News which happened to be broadcasting a summary of this week’s events in the UK. Naturally they led with the appearance of Murdoch et al in front of the MPs’ Committee, then they went to the high-profile police resignations, then they went to a piece about cuts in the police service with Yvette Cooper given free rein to cut loose on the present government rather than explain that her friends in the previous government caused the situation in the first place. Quite apart from the fact that I question the validity of that particular item on a piece broadcast worldwide, it is obviously not enough for the BBC that they push this socialist crap on us at home – they must openly criticise this country’s administration in front of the rest of the planet. Personally I see that as some kind of treason but doubtless the BBC would say that “We got it just about right”.

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    • RGH says:

      That’s Aunty BBC as she lives and breathes.

      World Service should be hived off and run by a private contractor not be paid for (as intended) by the licence payer from 2014.

      If the government, or the BBC want to talk to the world, let them …but not subsidised by the licence fee collected from every tv owning household without a 75 year old grannie.

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  11. Millie Tant says:

    The Daily Mail has given Vince Cable space to expound at length on where he has been lately; his own Murdoch dealings; the trap set by the Daily Telegraph at his constituency office; the subsequent witch-hunt by the media; his views about sleaze and corruption and what needs to be done to regulate the media:

    The test of whether the top executives of News International are ‘fit and proper persons’ to run a broadcasting company must now be pursued by Ofcom since there is still a large News International stake in BSkyB and James Murdoch is the chairman.
    And we need a clearer and firmer set of rules on media ownership: with maximum market shares and presumption against cross-ownership between Press and TV. At present the rules are open to constant legal challenge.
    I do not want to curb the freedom of the Press. The Press does need freedom to investigate genuine cases of public interest. After all, it was another newspaper – The Guardian – which exposed telephone hacking.
    No one wants a British equivalent of the Chinese People’s Daily. Where reform is necessary is in creating a proper set of independent professional standards – as the British Medical Association does for doctors – with a disciplinary process for serious misconduct.
    The present set of rules on Press complaints also needs re-evaluating; they should enable victims of seriously…

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2018056/Vince-Cable-My-brush-Rupert-James-Murdoch-lessons-I-learnt.html#ixzz1T7VfzjLA

    As concerned as he is about media dominance, he managed that whole long survey of the scene without once mentioning the Beeboid Corporation. Anyone would think he had an axe to grind.

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    • Millie Tant says:

      Sorry; the extract from the article begins with the second paragraph above: “The test of whether the top executives of News International…”

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  12. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Had a quick (very) surf and it seems that, as far as Aunty’s political bloggers are concerned, nothing has happened since they closed up shops Thursday.

    Meanwhile Mardell seems have gone AWOL having admitted all that money p*ssed up a wall means nothing to him.

    Amazing what £4Bpa doesn’t buy these days.

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  13. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Beeboid doing the business news on the News Channel just told a lie.  He said that one of the dangers of the US Government not reaching an agreement about the debt deal is that Social Security payments stop next week.

    This is simply not true.


    The Social Security trust fund holds about $2.4 trillion in U.S. Treasury bonds, which its trustees are legally entitled to redeem whenever Social Security is running a current account deficit. Thus, if we reach the debt ceiling (which I continue to think is a remote prospect, even if less remote than it seemed a week ago), this is what will happen. The Social Security trust fund will go to Treasury and cash in some of its securities, using the proceeds to send checks to recipients. Each dollar of debt that is redeemed will lower the outstanding public debt by a dollar. That enables the Treasury to borrow another dollar, without violating the debt ceiling. The debt ceiling is not a prohibition on borrowing new money; it is a prohibition on increasing the total level of public indebtedness. If Social Security cashes in some of its bonds, the Treasury can borrow that same amount of money from someone else.

    Now, I’m going to be generous here and say that the BBC is not, in fact, lying outright about this. I’ll state right now that they don’t actually know they’re reporting something that isn’t true.  What they’re doing is simply repeating what they hear from the White House.  The President is threatening senior citizens with the stoppage of their support payments, even though the payments will not actually stop.  He knows this.  The President is lying, and the White House Commnications Director disseminates that lie.

    And the BBC dutifully reports it as fact.  The BBC is nothing more than the foreign branch of the White House press office.  Don’t trust a thing they say about US issues.

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    • Martin says:

      The BBC don’t care, they have a view (Republicans and tea partiers are nutters) and will peddle it day and night.

      I think the BBC do know, they are just not interested.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I actually think they don’t know what they’re doing.  That’s no excuse for the shoddy, biased reporting coming out of the US. Just an explanation.  It’s a disgrace that the BBC is acting as a propaganda outlet for a foreign Government, but at least we can see their ideological blindness exposed for what it is.

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    • dave s says:

      I very much doubt the BBC knew this. Nothing in their recent coverage of the US gives me confidence in their abilities.

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  14. My Site (click to edit) says:


    CritReaction Critical Reaction Nick Robinson’s just told #TMS that when it comes to politics ‘he sees things other people don’t. 6 years of Cameron’s brilliance for 1. 

    What I really want to know is… did Nick ‘I see dead careers’ Robinson really claim this? With a straight face?

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  15. Martin says:

    Also, the BBC seem to have been very quiet on Obama’s destruction of NASA turning it from one of America’s greatest successes to the ‘Muslim outreach’ organisation he so loves.

    4000 ‘public sector’ jobs have gone (the BBC seem quiet about that) losing some of the most intelligent and skilled workers in America.

    Bush was also at fault for asking NASA to go back to the Moon but didn’t fund them, but Obama has totally wiped out NASA as an organisation for putting men into space.

    When you think of the billions handed out in the Obama stimulus it’s created virtually no jobs, yet he couldn’t be bothered to ive Nasa a few billion to get them back to the Moon.

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    • RGH says:

      One is tempted to ask BHO “How’s that QE stimulus thingy doin’, bro?”

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I still don’t understand what that Muslim outreach deal was all about.  It doesn’t seem to have accomplished anything at all, just a bizarre PR stunt that failed.  I think a lot more public sector jobs than that have been killed by the end of the shuttle program and others.

      NASA needed to be privatized anyway.  It’s a great, bloated, behemoth, with massive waste and bureaucracy.  A properly incentivized private sector will get us into space much faster and more efficiently than any government organization.

         0 likes

      • Martin says:

        That’s true, all of the space craft were built by the private sector, but I doubt if putting men into space will ever be a real commercial activity unless there is some new technology that comes along.

        Launching cargo, satellites etc is fine the private sector can do that without any issues, but when it comes to pure exploration I fear America will be left behind by China. That is not good for the free world.

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        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Agreed about China, but mining asteroids is money, and space tourism is money, so look for the private sector to succeed there.  If, that is, they’re allowed to and not shut down by even more anti-business regulation or the EPA.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:

      You can bet he doesn’t cut funding for this activist
      http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/jhansen.html

         0 likes

  16. cjhartnett says:

    After Murdoch, the BBC now seem entitled to do as they please.
    To hear Jon Sopel presume to grill the Prime Minister of Norway about whether “any mistakes” were made was an outrage!
    Sopel then went on to presume(yes-that word again!) that he was speaking for “what the Norwegian people might accept” in terms of a jail sentence…surely the BBC have the right to a seat on the jury…and maybe Sopel could try to get that silly 21 year rule amended!
    If we don`t slap these presumptuous and arrogant pipsqueaks down in this country we deserve their Common Purpose EU Superstate with Obama as Emeritus President for as long as he likes!
    It`s up to us-no license fee and as many FOIs,as many spanners in their works as we can muster-it`s now a worldwide imperative as far as I can tell!
    Or else Churchill will be wanting words. We can`t let the BBC speak to the world like this any longer…or else there`ll be no jobs for the daily Mail reader, let alone us lot!

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  17. noggin says:

    Thatchers boy dave
    “There’s a sense that the rich and the powerful – politicians, bankers, the press and the police – have been serving themselves, not each other”.
    ….sorry Mr Camoron wrong…
     they have been serving themselves, AND each other, VERY NICELY thankyou very much….
        
     just to the detriment of everyone else

    Cameron: Hacking has shaken the public

    you know its getting to the stage, where i can t bloody stand him

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  18. RGH says:

    The worst drought for 60 years, we are told is afflicting the Horn of Africa region. Visions of hunger and emaciation yet again. Somalia is the epicentre o0f this human disaster.

    Fine. The BBC is on-board.

    Rainy season has failed and a ‘biblical’ famine is upon us.

    Two years ago, 2009, was the 25 anniversary of the Michael Burke Ethiopia report (spawned Live Aid).

    Just two years ago, Time Magazine, was telling us this.

    http://nazret.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/19/ethiopia_languishes_25_years_after_the_g

    Full shock horror, famine’s back, and has never gone away.

    Only that is not the case.

    It never happened.

    They are talking nonsense.

    Even the BBC tells us now:

    “BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says many people at the heart of the current disaster – in Ethiopia – have emerged relatively unscathed.
    This is because the government in Addis Ababa has such an extensive safety net in place, he says.”

    The Ethiopians must be doing something right at last.

    Helped by what the New York Times tells us:

    “Historically, Ethiopia’s feudal and communist economic structure has always kept it one rainless season away from devastating droughts. Ethiopia has great potential to be a producer, as it is one of the most fertile countries in Africa. According to the New York Times, Ethiopia “could easily become the breadbasket for much of Europe if her agriculture were better organized.”

    According to a recent UN report the GNP per capita of Ethiopia has reached $1541 (2009.

    The same report indicated that the life expectancy had improved substantially in recent years. The life expectancy of men is reported to be 56 years and for women 60 years.

    Next door Somalia, is hit by drought and starvation. It’s neighbour is not. Maize and Coffee exports are doing fine.

    So BBC, please nuance away from drought as the sole factor and draw to our attention that Somalia is an imploding, Muslim country. I am not impressed by the Islamist Shabab patronisingly allowing limited food in……it’s their Moslem duty after all (isn’t it?)

    Ethiopia’s problems were caused by feudalism followed by communism. One drought away from disaster. It is now moving towards a reasonable multi-party state.

    70% are Christians

    Somalia is a disaster zone.

    100% Muslim.

    Just a coincidence?

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  19. Martin says:

    The BBC once agian spinning lies to present a story from a lefite point of view.

    Maternity units are struggling to cope with all the new births stated the BBC, this is down to women having children later in life and more multiple births.

    Wow all of that is causing this chaos, well not really the BBC left out the issue of immigrant  women who are also creating this excessive demand, yet for some reason the BBC chose not to mention it (even in passing in their report)

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2014418/Overly-fertile-foreign-mothers-older-women-biggest-baby-boom-1962.html

    Would someone from the BBC like to explain why?

       0 likes

    • Ron Todd says:

      The truth you common horrible little people could not handle the truth.

         0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Typical Beeb!
      Presuming that we need “more investment”, “no cuts”(what cuts by the way yet?) and that nice Ed Balls back again with his fragrant wife…we surely know by now that Labour were right all along.
      Obama thinks so too.
      With the rise in immigrant birth rates, the increase in TB and AIDS, the rise in crime and the apponitment of second language “experts” as well as the rise in housing officers and benefits processing…it is safe to say why the public sector unions crave more “clients” and “researcher opportunities” to be fed to their machines…The Guardian and the Labour voters..what is not to like?

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      • RGH says:

        There is no such thing as government investment. Governments spend.

        The judgement of the success of the spend is political not economic because the government is a bureaucracy and measures success by other criteria.

        If a giant project fails and the capital is destroyed they just “ho hum” and look for more ways to spend the money the tax man chases in.

        I’m sooooo frustrated by this talk of government borrowing against an already over-borrowed balance sheer for ‘investment’.

        Grrrrrrrr.

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  20. John Horne Tooke says:

    “A professor speaks out: money has corrupted our global warming debate”
    http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/a_professor_speaks_out_money_has_corrupted_our_global_warming_debate

    Another “maverick” scientist. I wonder how many you need before you are no longer labeled “maverick”?

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  21. Span Ows says:

    …apologies if already posted:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-14274387

    slipped in…

    “With globalisation, national identity seems to have become more important. The nation state stubbornly remains the focus of most people’s identity. And so nationalist parties have made gains in many parts of Europe.”

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    • Buggy says:

      Probably explains why al-Beeb don’t cover the Tour De France which has something worse than flags of “nation states”………:

      Regional flags ! Flandrians, Walloons, Bretons, Basques, Luxemburgers, all of the blighters waving the hateful symbols of their resistance to all that is good and progressive and fine and inevitable

      Not to mention the appalling representatives of the Vendée who are still yet to apologise for opposing the French Revolution !

      Awful. Just awful. Down with the lot of them.

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  22. Span Ows says:

    3rd paragraph…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14285268

    “The Democrats’ plan would trim $2.7tn (£1.66tn) over a decade and the Republicans’ would trim $1.2tr – but also bayonet babies and rape nuns…

    OK that last bit should read:

    “cut programmes for the poor and elderly popular among Democrats.”

    … but the effect is the same.

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  23. My Site (click to edit) says:

    They were banging on about the EDL’s alleged links to Anders Behring on the 10.00 news. No mention of the EDL’s statements which refute these claims, but they brought on Nick Lowles who they introduced as an ‘anti-fascist’ when he is in fact a violent Communist thug and pathological liar.
    You can read about his ‘Searchlight’ organisation here:
    http://searchlightexposed.com/

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  24. Martin says:

    What a laugh, Newsnight doing a hatchet job on the EDL using two left wing groups (Searchlight and Demos) for opinion.

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  25. Martin says:

    Paxman making a tit of himself “He has 600 EDL facebook friends”

    Wow, real BBC journalism.

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    • Robert Similar says:

      The Newsnight facebook page has 984 Facebook users ‘liking’ it. I wonder how many of those Paxman knows?

         0 likes

  26. Martin says:

    Paxman really is a c*** trying to spout utter crap. Wow he posted on an internet forum.

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  27. Martin says:

    Paxman is rreally piss poor, who did the research for this? Facebook? seriously?

       0 likes

    • John Horne Tooke says:

      No ones watching Martin
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2010720/BBCs-fears-Newsnight-viewers-hit-time-low.html

      Unless the BBC start putting their propaganda in the Saturday night dancing programmes, no one will here it.

         0 likes

      • Martin says:

        In that whole interview (if you can call it that) Paxman and the BBC produced no evidence to link the EDL to Breivik. In fact it was the EDL leader who produced the only fact which was the quote from Brievik’s manifesto that the EDL were not his type as they had non Europeans in the group.

        Real piss poor half arsed journalism from the BBC, the researcher who did that needs firing.

           0 likes

    • John Horne Tooke says:

      “..who did the research for this? Facebook? seriously?”

      Strange – I thought the BBC got their news from Twitter.

         0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Sounded like it was phoned in by Johnny Marbles-but no-one will be checking on the shambles that we saw tonight!
      Paxman is paddling in the septic tank again, but it`s forever Tuscany where the poor fool is stationed!

         0 likes

    • Chris Balfe says:

      Paxman was absolutely disgusting and pathetic tonight.

       

      The guy from the EDL – his name escapes me – made it quite clear how he felt about what happened in Norway, saying it was the opposite of everything that his organization believes in. However, Paxman was having none of it.

       

      Though his accent will have had the BBC set gagging he spoke from the heart, and the moment when he crossed himself – having warned that this could happen here – was genuine and, in my humble opinion, quite touching.

       

      He said his piece and did it superbly, but claiming that the way the views of the British people are being ignored could lead to atrocities here was met with a pathetic “is that a threat?” from Paxman.

       

      The atrocity in Norway has ticked so many boxes for the BBC – it’s only a pity they cannot link Murdoch to it – the glasses will be clinking in all those little Islington bistros tonight.

       

      Even the backdrop to the interview was loaded, I’m surprised they didn’t darken the studio and play sinister music every time the EDL guy spoke.

         0 likes

      • Martin says:

        The beeboids will remember that one.

           0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:

        Great post. It seems that just like the LibLabCon, everything should be done except carrying out the will of the electorate.  

           0 likes

      • Wally Greeninker says:

        Harry’s Place took time off from discussing how many racists and homophobes can dance on the point of a needle to run a thread on analysing whether the single sentence about ‘it could happen here’, from the EDL guy, was a threat or not. The general concensus seemed to be that he was too satanically cunning to make a direct threat, but that it was almost certainly a veiled one.

           0 likes

  28. Martin says:

    Wow, it’s a Tory free zone on Newsnight yet again, now we get the BBC giving Lord Mandelson a chance to tell us how to get Labour re-elected, i noted that Paxo was banging his hand excitedly on the desk as he said it.

    The one thing guaranteed to get a beeboid aroused “Labour election win”

       0 likes

  29. David vance says:

    Saw it. Newsnight is a disgrace.

       0 likes

  30. Martin says:

    Paul ‘commie’ Mason calling Mandelson “Peter”, I really object to that. Clearly winebar buddies.

       0 likes

  31. cjhartnett says:

    Paxman is the ultimate busted flush!
    Tommy Robinson of the EDL made mincemeat of him…all Paxman seems to have is figures out of the air, endless references to Facebook gossip or Twitter as well as one factual error after another. All expected to just get by on the nod-but Robinson continued to point out his errors.Paxman sailed on like the empty galleon that he is.
    Still Robinson got in a few minutes PPB for anti-Islam alliances to come!
    Maybe we`re lucky in the enemies that we`ve got these days-hardly Malcom Muggeridge is it?

       0 likes

    • Martin says:

      Paxman was awful really awful, compare that to the cosy chat with “Peter” later on.

         0 likes

      • noggin says:

        well i did see newnight, which had a “paxman with”…session  
        with stephen lennon, he reiterated,  almost entirely that manifesto piece.   paxman kept pushing the  beebo narrative, in the end being told  
        “well do you want to deal with wild speculation or fact”, i noticed  
        to the  wee beebo ahem “build up” 🙂 to the interview too, pushing facebook pages & the like.  
        in the end, mr paxman was floundering quite badly, & on mr lennon s concerns about the possibility,( if the underlying issues are not addressed & branding everyone with those concerns nazi or mad) of a terrible act being committed here?  
        paxman went for “gold”  
        sounds you(edl) are warning us, sounds like a threat  
        ……..tsk tsk beebo…impetuous impetuous.  
         
        actually lennon voiced a fair point, but considering the present timeframe it was always going to be seized for a tenuous link

        & i would still like to know more about, the “anti semitism/edl” issue from a few weeks back though

           0 likes

  32. pounce_uk says:

    Ref that Newnight Interview with the EDL, I’ll have to admit Paxman really did get panned in that debate . (Are the EDL now taking media lessons?)

    But back to the Norwegian mass murderer. The bBC (As well as the rest of media) are really going great guns about this guys so called British connections. But am I the only one to have noticed that his social media accounts are all fairly new. (Twitter/Facebook) That he has laid down many conspiracy theories for people to find on the net. Add the fact that he allowed himself to be captured tells me that actually this man is playing the media like a fiddle. Maybe there lies the reason why the Norwegians decided to hold his day in court behind closed doors. They have understood what he is playing at and denied him the oxygen of publicity.

       0 likes

  33. RGH says:

    Mardell’s really out for the Pres. tonight on the Budget issue.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14285831

    I lookn forward to David P.’s take on it.

    It’s a lulu.

    Featuring the whole checklist.

    Gems such as:

    “They’ve probably stopped Democrats from putting up taxes as part of any final package. It is a pretty straight ideological fight between left and right. So why the charge of nuttiness ?
    It’s that Tea Party, again.”

    Those Republicans who took control of the House last year believe they were elected on a wave of popular revulsion at the size of the national debt and government spending.

    They may be reading too much into their mandate…”

    “But some of the Tea Party’s opponents, even those outside the British cabinet, do think their behaviour is extreme. The White House says they want to balance the budget “on the backs of seniors and the middle classes”.

    “But the charge that they are a few chocolate bars short of a fruit cake is because some of them see dealing with the debt as more pressing than borrowing enough money to continue governing.”

    A veritable compendium of Mardell.

    Groan.

       0 likes

  34. ltwf1964 says:

    I’ve said it before,but once again it’s good to see the number of contributors to the blog who can see through the bBC for the commie train wreck that it undoubtedly is steadily increasing as the days go by

    a warm welcome to you all

    pass the word on to your friends that the blog is here

       0 likes

  35. noggin says:

    Well……did anyone catch R Omar/Life of Moh last night 🙂

    suffice to say, you thought the other 2 episodes were whitewash drivel…

    a couple of bullet points, i will go to town later

    1st 5 mins same fawning, :-
    moh in the” top 3”? world leaders ever, was not only a “spiritual genius”?? but a “political one”??? too, moh the “ultimate role model”????, (re-sharp intake of breath), this man who changed the history of the world forever?????,( omitting that so did Hitler)…..the moniker..THE!  prophet bludgeoned home at every opportunity.

    the apologistfest got ramped up in ep.3, hardly surprising:-
    Aisha….
    sharia…
    role of women…
    the veil…
    the “sword” verses.

    & on these, the amalgamated er.. “talents” of  omar/beebo/red cresent,  are combined, even so it was hard to imagine the tear wrenching “whoppery” that would ensue.

    watch this space 🙂
    i will return….

    Wally, are you around?….

       0 likes

    • noggin says:

      for your perooozment, ep 1 & 2

       

      well well, ep 1,,,,,,50 mins of (victim),moh, (oppressed),moh

      (i kid you not….poor little), moh…..

      followed by a deft change of emphasis, from moh to THE prophet, bludgeoned home at every opportunity thereafter. (conveniently missing out on his mentioned uncles reading/reciting of previous scriptures) for the last 10 mins.

       

      Rageh is hand picked for harmlessness on this one..very VERY

      obscure on the meat n potatoes issues…..waxing on,(& on & on)

      while wistfulling gazing into the ether on debatable nonsense.

       

      A fluff piece of the worst kind, did i say EXCRUTIATING line up of apologists, sheesh! literally the living end…. one drawling man of peace drone,(they did however shoehorn in R.Spencer for ahem…balance don t blink wink wink)

       

       

      Omar skirting around facts & anything possibly erm shall we say “difficult”

      handpicking deliberately obscure reasons for hmmm VIOLENCE

      ie “upset” re VIOLENCE, “offended” re VIOLENCE, “cartoons” re VIOLENCE, “writing a book” re VIOLENCE… oh i m sure you get the picture.

      a prime example :-

      Glibly stating “people”… can come from all over the world to Mecca”

      ….NO THEY CANNOT not if they re non muslim, they can t

      A constant drip drip name dropping, from the talmud/bible

      just like abrahamic faiths etc etc,

      well no it is NOT, it considers everything

      non islamic to be a/. perversion of the worst kind..b/.worse still rectified

      AND you know what that means.

      Piously bleating out that well used apologist drone “theres no compulsion in religion” (knowing full well this was soon abrogated)..and expects us to believe the Western understanding of it. Not the islamic narrative…ie. the observable behaviour of Muslims over 1350 years.

       

      What have Muslims done, when they have conquered, by force or otherwise, non-Muslim lands and peoples?

      Ans. They offer three possibilities: death, conversion, and, at least to those who can be classified as ahl al-kitab or “people of the book,” permanent status as dhimmis, with a host of political, economic, and social disabilities which together added up to lives of humiliation, degradation, and physical insecurity

      and…and…AND…

      there is so much apologist whitewash ALREADY woah! ep2

         0 likes

      • noggin says:

        Did anyone catch “Life of Muhammed” with Rageh Omar….last night?  Ep2.

         

         

        Ep 1 ended up with moh “bigging up” ?? the women”, & was one long nauseating apologistfest. ala…victim moh, persecuted moh, misunderstood moh etc etc. Which seems to be (via the Brit Broad. Cresent..i mean Corp), somewhat excusery & biased.. . . Scholars are divided on Mohammed.

        The accounts I think carry most weight argue that Mohammed did attempt to be.(at first )sincere.

        but later, carried away by success, he practised deception wherever it would gain his end, his mental state increasingly insecure.

        The key to the first period of Mohammed’s life is seen to lie in Khadija, his first wife, after whose death and the loss of five of their children, he became a prey to his evil passions.

        His alleged,(sometimes convenient) revelations,& (laughable) dream miracle, can, it is claimed, be attributable to epileptic fits, or to a paroxysm of cataleptic insanity.

         

         

        So will Ep 2 redress? Well the start …night journey to Jerusalem ? raised my eyebrows on the possible upcoming bias. In the first 5 mins, We are “treated”? To :- moh in the” top 3”? world leaders ever, was not only a “spiritual genius”?? but a “political one”??? too, moh the “ultimate role model”????, (re-sharp intake of breath), this man who changed the history of the world forever?????,( omitting that so did Hitler, & the 95% of world genocidal terrorists still cite moh as inspiration, “strike TERROR into their hearts/I have been made victorious through TERROR”).

         

         

        So beebo that would be not biased then? …..continuing we have the ,(legend in his own mind) “miracle”??????? of a dream he had which is why, wait for it,…. Jerusalem,( you know the place all Muslims point their arse to 5 times a day), is. the 3rd most “holy”? place in Islam?…….one of the reasons for ramped up virrulent anti-semitism, today

         

        & there is much much more. continuing,from the Jersalem pipe dream with well the “bullet” points.

         

        back to victim moh, more persecuted/victim moh, the “ummah” muslim community..is based on IDEOLOGY,(oh not religion? then), more poor moh/victim moh, tripe about the Arab code of “honour”, interspersed with grim sycophantic apologists, more victim(but still peace)/banished moh, Mosques are the place the “ummah” meet to seek to “achieve” their objectives,(does that mean plan?), an overlong fawning tilt to a constitution in Medina,(that most see as the islamic excuse, used for jew murder & money/belongings grab)..that is often seen as fictitious anyway today,(but obviously not by the BBC).

         

         

        This all leads to the erm “difficult” Red Cresent Films explanation for the first “holocaust” by moh, there are many disgraceful ,”nuggets” about treacherous jews, deceitful jews, a frankly eyewateringly long excuse ridden drone,(from imams etc)about moh being left with no choice, but wholesale slaughter…

        & how we,(as BBC watchers), have…re emphasised by Omar simply HAVE to understand,

        …..that he had? to do it?!

         

         

        BBC….SHAMEFUL & DISGRACEFUL

         

         

        Are my kids, going to be getting this, as a component of a multi-culti RE lesson,(under a BBC moniker) anytime soon?.

           0 likes

        • George R says:

          Yes;  Islam Not BBC (INBBC)’s 3-part Islamic TV series,  Mohammad, presented by Muslim Somali, Rageh Omaar, of Islamic Al Jazeeera TV, produced and directed by Muslim Faris Kermani (of Crescent Films), commissioned by INBBC’s head of religious programming, Aaqil Ahmed, was the expected and intended  result of a whitewash of Islam.

          On the crucial issues on Jihad and Sharia,  Omaar reversed the truth.

          He ignored the the essential violence of the Jihad message of Islam which is mainly directed against non-Muslim; instead, Omaar tried to spin the familiar devious line on Islamic apologetics, that jihad is essentially about Muslim self-improvement. Omaar, of course, censors out this:

          [Extract from Bill Warner interview]:

          “Mohammed preached his religion for 13 years and garnered only 150 followers. But when he turned to politics and war, in 10 years time he became the first ruler of Arabia by averaging an event of violence every 7 weeks for 9 years. His success did not come as a religious leader, but as a political leader.

          In short, political Islam defines how the unbelievers are to be dealt with and treated.”
          http://www.politicalislam.com/blog/the-study-of-political-islam/

          For more on the truth about JIHAD and Islam:

          http://www.politicalislam.com/search/?sumoURL=search%2F&n=true&f=true&q=jihad&__utma=246259205.548738318.1311526868.1311526868.1311676725.2&__utmb=246259205.1.10.1311676725&__utmz=246259205.1311676725.2.2.utmcsr%3Dgoogle%7Cutmccn%3D%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd%3Dorganic%7Cutmctr%3Dpolitical+islam&__utmc=246259205&PHPSESSID=vlk8jtjr2pjs2p1pak0ftet1a1&__sumo_srd=1

          And for more about the truth about SHARIAH and Islam:

          http://www.politicalislam.com/search/?sumoURL=search%2F&n=true&f=true&q=shARIAH&searchGo_x=28&searchGo_y=12&__utma=246259205.548738318.1311526868.1311526868.1311676725.2&__utmb=246259205.10.10.1311676725&__utmz=246259205.1311677274.2.3.utmcsr%3Dgoogle%7Cutmccn%3D%28organic%29%7Cutmcmd%3Dorganic%7Cutmctr%3Dpolitical+islam&__utmc=246259205&PHPSESSID=vlk8jtjr2pjs2p1pak0ftet1a1&__sumo_srd=1

          The truth about Islam, Mohammad and war and peace is that: Islam will fight against non-believers until they are converted to Islam, and then there  will be the only peace Muslim recognise: a ‘Muslim peace’, as after jihad violence  against non-believers, evident in the 1,400 years of Islamic imperialism, and continuing.

          ‘The Truth about Mohammad’ by Robert Spencer: (video, 1/7)



             0 likes

          • Wally Greeninker says:

            There was nothing wrong with the three part documentary – as long as you believe that Mohammed was the perfect man and a moral  example for all time; also that islam is not only the greatest thing since sliced bread but was also the greatest thing before sliced bread and in fact is even greater than the aforementioned mass produced baked foodstuff.

            As predicted, they obfuscated over the consummmation of the marriage to Ayesha at the age of nine (despite the fact that she is on record as saying she was nine, the Ayatollah Khomeinion coming to power in Iran, reduced the marriageable age of women to nine -his wife had been ten- the Arabist and linguist, Richard Burton, who had travelled all over the Muslim world refers to her as ‘the prophet’s child-wife ‘etc etc).
            I honestly didn’t think Sardar would try it on with the old chesnut about jihad meaning an inner spiritual strugggle.  Even Muslim commentators addressing infidels don’t bother to pretend that, any more.
            There were so many whoppers in this disgraceful series of programmes that you start wondering if these people have pulled the wool over their own eyes before endeavouring to pull the wool over ours.Apparently sharia should be fluid rather than fixed ( it’s a billion odd believers in favour of the lattter and Sardar in favour of the former on that one) and the current crop of terrorists are misunderstanders of Mohammedanism ( and yet have never been declared heretical or  unorthodox by any Muslim religious authority).
            Personally I think Mohammed got through so many women ( concubines and slave girls barely received an allusion) because he had become virtually sterile after the age of 40 and was desperate for a male heir ( the diagnosis that he suffered from acromegaly, according to a group of Dutch doctors, fits an awful lot of the facts known about him).
            The account of the Treaty of Hudaibiya and its breach was a travesty.
            The account of Islam’s treatment of women failed to mention the koranic verse sanctioning wife-beating while the quip that needing four witnesses of actual penetration to prove sexual misdemeanor was stated as though it were proof of Islam’s liberalism. In fact it has made rape a virtually unproveable offence in Islamc countries while claims to have been raped are used as onfessions of unlawful sex resulting in the jailing of hundred of women in countries like Pakistan.

               0 likes

            • Wally Greeninker says:

              The avoidance of Mohammed’s anti-semitism was the worst thing about the ebtire series: the Banu Quraiza were concenrated on (in a highly tendentious manner) to the exclusion of the previous exiling of another Jewish tribe (basically for laughing at his garbled ignorance of the Torah). Why do Muslim fanatics chant ‘Khaybar, Khaybar,- the army of Mohamed has returned’? You will never hav heard of the place from this series – you’ll have to try wiki for details of the atrocity committed there. A dozen verses explicitly vilifying Jews, from different parts of the Koran were not mentioned. In its deference to Mohammedans the BBC has broadcast a programme saying, in so many words: ‘you know those Jews we massacred – they had it coming to them.’

                 0 likes

  36. thespecialone says:

    I had never heard of Searchlight before but I followed ‘My Site’s’ links and was shocked but not surprised how MSM can possibly take them seriously. The Daily Mail has today published ‘findings’ from Searchlight as if they were ‘evidence’ of the link between this nutter and EDL. This to me says an awful lot when a supposed ‘right-wing’ newspaper is prepared to believe anything from this group without checking any facts first. There have been many items in the supposed ‘right-wing’ DM that have slammed the EDL, showing pictures of them with angry faces, whilst portraying UAF as ‘peace-loving anti-facists’. Does it not sink into the brain dead ‘journalists’ that UAF are nothing but a bunch of far-left idiots who are facists because they want to prevent free speech of the EDL?

       0 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Telegraph too, their headline online today almost makes out they were allied to the Norwegian shooter.

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Newsnight’s use of Facebook and a Communist liar to obtain ‘evidence’ was an utter joke. Don’t they realise that anyone can be anyone on a social network site. Going by ‘Searchlight’s’ past tactics, they were probably accounts set up by them.

      I may film myself later, waving my hand in the general direction of a fuzzy computer display in the background and declare, “On this forum we have Evan Davis posting as ‘Lazyeyedretard’ and admitting to raping a goat after an unssuccesful search for a rent boy in San Jose”

      Job done! That’s all the evidence that’s required according to Newsnight!    

         0 likes

  37. john says:

    Back to BBC2’s Newsnight, because of last night.
    The poor viewing figures raise two questions.
    Firstly : Cost.
    Comrades Wark and Paxman’s salaries don’t come anywhere near approaching cheap.
    Their “cover” is at the top market rate and we can only guess what the Editor and his flunkies are on, which I suspect this will be north of £7 per hour .
    When Clown Cameron entertains the press at his weekly magic show in the House of Commons, is it really necessary for Newsnight to send their own journalist when there are already a plethora of Beeboids in attendance ?
    This is but one example of money being thrown at what the BBC calls a Flagship programme. Sunken ship would be more appropriate.
    Secondly : Shedule.
    It would be very interesting to hear it’s defenders explain that it is in a very competative time slot.
    After all, tonight it’s up against “Road Wars”, “Hi-Tech Toys”, “Jewellery Channel”, “Babestation” and “Adult Filth” to name but a few.
    So in conclusion, might the problem be that BBC’s Newsnight is a tired old left-wing advertisement for the following day’s Guardian, instead of expounding impartiality ?
    As the BBC is never wrong and so as to cover its cost tracks, my guess is that News24 will soon be showing Newsnight live as well.
    Those new improved viewing figures will doubtless impress Fatty Patten that all is well at the Corporation, therefore pushing for an increase in the licence fee should be the least he could do in return.

       0 likes

  38. cjhartnett says:

    EDL/Paxman and the conspiracy of silence over our Norwegian story well covered above!
    The crawling round Labour and the smearing of the US senators who would like a return to economic meaning for their country-well that`s perpetual…and as Cassandra says…all but the Guardian reader in his tied cottage of a “job” sees the BBC/MSM for what they are. We shall be avenged…and yes, that is a threat Paxo!
    The Muhammad Show( albeit the one where he`s not allowed to be portrayed…a new idea that might catch on!…Graham Norton Show without him?…) was hopeless.
    ! Rageh might tell us how he can get to Mecca and Medina but the rest of us are`n allowed.
    2 For Rageh to say that wiping out a load of Jews was “controversial” says much about the nature of the BBC…he`d not have got into Saudi to do this show unless it was the right Wahhabi message I`d say).
    3. Boy was he delicate over Sharia, polygamy, incest-marriage and women. Did I miss the circumcision bit?(I don`t think so!).
    In short-Rageh Omar is just Judith Chalmers for the spiritual tourist-and for as long as the passengers don`t want to get off the boat when they get to Jeddah.
    If he let them do so-he`d not be Judith anymore, but he`d end up like Jill Dando!

       0 likes

    • noggin says:

      well i did see newnight, which had a “paxman with”…session  
      with stephen lennon, he reiterated,  almost entirely that piece.  
      paxman kept pushingthe  beebo narrative, in the end being told  
      “well do you want to deal with wild speculation or fact”, i noticed  
      a wee beebo “build up” 🙂 to the interview too, pushing facebook pages & the like.  
      in the end, mr paxman was floundering quite badly, & on mr lennon s concerns about the possibility,( if the underlying issues are not addressed & branding everyone with those concerns nazi or mad) of a terrible act being committed here?  
      paxman went for “gold”  
      sounds you(edl) are warning us, sounds like a threat  
      ……..tsk tsk beebo…impetuous impetuous.  
       
      actually lennon voiced a fair point, but considering the present timeframe it was always going to be seized for a tenuous link

      Today,
      & i would still like to know more about, the “anti semitism” issue from a few weeks back

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      Lying and fleas springs to mind.  
       
      Best not get into any species allusions for fear of a fatwa or quango getting deployed, probably tipped off by the BBC liaison departments they work with.

         0 likes

  39. As I See It says:

    O/T I know but the conversation always comes around to house prices……

    5 Live’s Rachel ‘man of the people’ Burden was on with Game Show Nicky this morning.

    There is a report out that house prices are up and our Red Rachel editorialises for us that ‘higher prices are not good for everyone’.

    Gosh, BBC I bet there were some prospective first time buyers who hadn’t worked that out for themselves. I guess it was just a pardonable ‘right on’ ‘shout out’ for the kids.

    Still, this issue is at the front of your mind if you are preparing for a move to Salford.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/property/article-2005814/North-turn-BBCs-MediaCity-Radio-5s-Rachel-Burden-makes-move.html

    ‘we won’t sell our house,’ says Rachel, 35, referring to her four-bedroom Edwardian home in Ealing, valued at £650,000.
    ‘London prices are likely to rise faster than other parts of the country so we want to hold on to it and let it out’.

    So Rachel which is it

    Is it a case of John Lennon ‘Imagin there’s no possessions….’

    Or more like Joe Tex ‘Just hold on to what you’ve got…..’

       0 likes

    • Buggy says:

      “Is it a case of John Lennon ‘Imagin there’s no possessions….'”

      As Robert Elms pointed out years ago, “Imagine no possessions” was a bit rich coming from a man whose coats had their own, centrally-heated room.

         0 likes

  40. Craig says:

    There’s a uninteresting-looking headline fairly low down the pecking order, in small print, on the BBC News homepage:  
     
    Mirror group to review procedures  
     
    That sounds very boring, doesn’t it? I don’t think many people will exactly be rushing to click on that link. It can’t be about anything interesting, like possible hacking at the Mirror, can it, or the BBC would have put the words ‘hacking’ or ‘scandal’ into that headline? No, I won’t bother clicking on that story. I doubt I’ll be alone in that. Hope I’m not missing anything!

       0 likes

    • Carti says:

      This story actually figured – I think – on the 6 o’clock news, but when I looked up, it was gone. Must have been about 8 seconds, perhaps I was daydreaming. It was sandwiched in between vast heavyweight pieces bashing poor misguided George Osborne for mediocre economic growth figures. Surely we should be getting back on track by now (after 13 years of Gordon Brown’s astoundingly inept debt-driven bust and boomery)? I mean, the man’s had at least 20 months to get things sorted. And what’s more, the Beeb is tiring of George’s mitigating excuses. Gordon would certainly never have blamed external influences for the deteriorating economy. As all at the BBC so fondly remember.

         0 likes

  41. DJ says:

    They can’t even report the sport straight – they’ve used bogus editing to cast Ally McCoist as soft on sectarian bigotry:

    http://tinyurl.com/3qz9wlo

       0 likes

  42. Craig says:

    Going back to yesterday’s Today programme, the first business report (the one that began with the “right-wing nutters”) ended with “a report from the business lobby group, the CBI” (as BBC business reporter Adam Shaw put it) on government intervention to increase ‘flexible working’.

    Adam Shaw described the findings of the CBI report like this:
    “It argued that the government should stop passing laws on the issue and instead look to foster what it calls ‘the flexibility between workers and managers’ that kept job losses in the private sector to a minimum.”

    Indeed. The large private company I work for (though not today!) was highly creative in so doing, negotiating throughout the recession to get its employees’ support for ways to save jobs, and only a very few jobs were (unfortunately) lost.

    For comment on this, Shaw turned to Anne Longfield, chief executive of the charity 4Children, and began by asking her sarcastically, “Not sure I understand what ‘fostering flexibility between workers and managers’ actually means, do you?”…which tells you something about how far removed BBC business reporters are from what happened in the private sector during the recession. And also, why begin by sneering at the CBI’s report, especially when interviewing someone who isn’t from the CBI and doesn’t share their reservations about government legislation in this area (quite the opposite, in fact)?

    Shaw’s next sneer (at the CBI’s expense) was this:
    “This report is saying actually the government should stop that sort of intervention and just, it seems to be, to just leave it up to a sort of friendly chat between the boss and the worker. Is that all it’s come down to?” Anne Longfield went along with this travesty of an interpretation, calling the CBI position (as parodied by Shaw) “extreme”.

    The next question posed the idea that, though it was “nice” to be flexible during difficult times, when the economy picks up “bosses” will not want to have problematic workers with childcare issues – i.e. the nasty bosses will turn back into pre-Christmas-ghosts Scrooges again unless there’s government legislation to stop them.

    As so often the BBC reporter sounded more anti-boss that his guest (who was also opposing the ‘bosses’ lobby’, and wanted government legislation “stepped up a gear”).

    Anne Longfield, incidentally, used to work in the Labour government’s strategy unit, unmentioned by Shaw. Was no one from the CBI free yesterday morning?

    Classic BBC business news.

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  43. Jane Tracy says:

    As ever BBC economics editor Stephanie Flanders is pushing the views of her ex Ed Balls today.  
     
    “But if you see demand as problem number one, like Ed Balls, then you can see why you might want to talk about a temporary VAT cut.”  
     
    Nowhere does she ask why he is pushing for something against economic theory as that argues the cut has to be permanent. Nor does she point out he had one go at it and it didnt work!  
     
    As usual Ed Balls fantasises are presented as economic theory

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Also ridiculous is the way ‘Two Eds’ compared the slow growth in the UK to that of Germany and France on the News Channel.  She supports Balls’ fantasy that Osborne made deep cuts in spending, yet the countries she points to as doing better have been more fiscally conservative.  How about mentioning Canada, Steph?  Or do they throw the curve off so badly that your point falls apart completely?

      So she contradicts herself in an attempt to score a point.  She even tried to say that the US was going to have more than 2% growth, but then later backtracked.

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      • Buggy says:

        Did no-one mention that gold has reached it’s highest price evahhh ?

        Shame we haven’t got so much of it, eh Ballsy ? Why would that be then ?

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  44. Craig says:

    Barbara Stocking of Oxfam was also on yesterday’s Today to talk about the drought in Somalia. John Humphrys had a few pet theories he wanted to share with her (and us).

    What or who is responsible for the extent of the humanitarian crisis there? The weather? The conflicts in that country? The Somali factions? The islamists? The transitional government? Lack of sufficient help from fellow islamic countries? No, Humph wasn’t interested in pursuing those angles.

    His first angle was this: “In Somalia, partly because of actions of the West, in part propping up the transitional government, which has been pathetically hopeless, beyond hopeless, you can’t do anything like that.”

    Ah yes, it’s the West wot did it. It’s always ‘the West’ wot did it.

    Oh, and capitalism: “But you can’t stop capitalism working either, can you?”

    He soon expanded his thoughts about capitalist hoarding:
    “And when you say ‘a lack of transparency’ that suggests that something is happening quite deliberately, that people are actually saying..whoever these people are, multinational corporations or whatever, I don’t know, apparently you don’t know, nobody seems to know…that there is somebody out there deliberately saying ‘We’re going to fill this warehouse with whatever it is, and nobody’s going to know about it until we can get a higher price for it’?”

    Inevitably, it’s probably those wicked multinational corporations!

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  45. George R says:

    “BBC journalists continue strikes”

    [Opening extract]:

    After striking last Friday, 22 July 2011, and a 24-hour strike planned Monday, 1 August 2011, further disruption will occur when BBC journalists work-to-rule indefinitely.
    The National Union of Journalists’ members at the broadcaster where told in an internal memo: “an indefinite work to rule will begin across the BBC from 00.01 on Tuesday August 2nd immediately following the 24 hour strike.”

    http://www.thegrapevinemagazine.com/?newsid=4317

    BBC-NUJ ‘working to rule from next Tuesday? What rule’s that?:-

    -Paxman’s impartiality ‘rule’ towards EDL?

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    • George R says:

      Why doesn’t INBBC officially merge with Islamic AL JAZEERA of Qatar, (and get some of its oil money) given that network’s Muslim Rageh Omaar’s untold number of appearances as Islamic propagandist on INBBC?

      Then everybody can be happy: INBBC folk will, they think, feel perfectly at home ideologically with that Islamic network; and British licencepayers will be better off without INBBC.

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    • Buggy says:

      One-day strikes? Pah ! A child’s tantrum merely.

      Strike FOREVAHHHHH !

      We won’t notice you’re gone.

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    • John Anderson says:

      August 2nd ?

      That’s the day that Obama wants the US dollar to collapse.

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  46. Will says:

    “the BBC have learnt” & “details are emerging” of the chancellor’s & Gove’s meetings with the evil Murdoch empire.

    No! these details have been published. The BBC have not had to smuggle out the papers disguised as part of John Simpson’s ample gut.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      “the BBC have learnt” & “details are emerging” 

      I think it may just be to cover for the fact that they read veeeerrrryyyy slowly and can’t help moving their lips at the same time.

      Possibly the six viewers not on the dole, strike, benefits or sick leave who watch this and may still be suckered that this was out ages ago, but few else will.

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  47. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Democrat Rep. David Wu of Oregon has resigned following admission of a sexual liaison with an 18-year-old girl.  The teenager says it was not consensual, and Wu has been forced to step down.  The Democrat Congressman has previously admitted to trying to force sex on an ex-girlfriend.

    This story has been building in the US news all week, to the point where Nancy Pelosi finally told him to get lost.  Here is the result of a search for David Wu on the BBC website:

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  48. cjhartnett says:

    Oh dear-we just don`t get it right do we?
    The BBC tells us that there`s trouble on the way what with the Tory cuts and all!
    It also tells us via the Brown Rice Brigade that we`ve been spending too much on consumer goods and so hurting poor mother earth…we need “The Good Life” in effect.
    So we spend less and we don`t max out on the credit card-that was the problem wasn`t it?
    But no….we need to be spending now-the bloody government aren`t printing enough money and we need to grow, consume and spend!
    Oh dear-we just can`t get it right for the BBC can we?

    Good row on PM between some huggy rehab charity and-well a DOCTOR no less-but the doctor was just a pressure group with an axe to grind in the rush ot Pharmageddon…or so it seems to our charity cherub!
    Did Amy die in vain?…well I couldn`t hear the good doctor due to the sound of a weeping banshee seeing her bookings fall through the floor.
    Another quango in need of investment I sense!

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  49. George R says:

    So-called:

    ‘BBC 4 World News’ (7 pm tonight)

    – should be more accurely labelled as:

     ‘INBBC Islam Press Office of Organisation of Islamic Conference’.

    The 2 main Islamic propaganda items tonight were:

    1.) an anti-Israel tirade by two Palestinian reps; no Israeli allowed on panel by INBBC;

    2.) immediately followed by plug for Islam exhibition provided by Muslim at British Museum.

    What Islamisation at INBBC?

    What anti-Israel political milieu?

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