Monthly Archives: September 2011

Partial Reporting

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Who wouldn’t vote for the bid for Palestinian statehood? Why, I’d vote for it myself after reading Wyre Davies!
Anyone who relied on this article couldn’t really help feeling that the Palestinians’ unilateral bid for recognition at the UN is anything other than the right thing to do.
After all, Wyre writes, Israel was less than euphoric about the glorious Arab Spring. In fact they were lukewarm! The right-wing Israeli government ‘they say’, opposes the bid because it would not lead to peace, he continues, and they give warnings and make threats without offering constructive alternatives.
Israel even refuses to countenance perfectly reasonable suggestions that it should stop building in illegal settlements on occupied Palestinian land! If the Israelis won’t accede to the Palestinians’ demands and accept their “pre-conditions”, he appears to be saying, what else is there left for a poor Palestinian to do but press ahead with a unilateral bid for statehood? The US is the only friend Israel has, and that’s only because Obama wants to take the credit for bringing about ‘Peace’. No, Wyre concludes, all the EU countries will get together and do the right thing, make life very uncomfortable for Israel. Israel has been busy cooking up a case against the bid. Wyre doesn’t quite don’t know what that is, but he suspects they haven’t got a leg to stand on.

Pity Wyre Davies listens to Jeremy Bowen and not Robin Shepherd.
If he did he might have added a few suggestions as to why Israel’s case is worthy of being explained to the mob. As it is, the comments below Wyre’s article display an astonishing degree of ignorance and hate. One in particular merely reiterates two discredited media stories which were manipulated to exhibit Israel’s malevolence, the notorious Al Durah incident and the Gaza beach explosion. Despite the fact that they are off topic, inflammatory and untrue, the comment remains.
So, for the mob, here are a couple of points that Wyre hasn’t mentioned, which Robin Shepherd does.
The bid is a blatant attempt to avoid direct negotiations with Israel, thereby avoiding making concessions themselves.
The 1967 borders, (ceasefire lines) upon which the bid for statehood is based are indefensible for Israel. The American veto will mean the bid goes the General Assembly where it’s success will be a symbolic gift to Israel’s enemies, Hamas, Hezbollah, Bashar al-Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood. Robin Shepherd writes:

“If you watch the BBC or read the Guardian you obviously won’t be aware of this, but opinion polls have consistently shown that the Palestinians only support the idea of a Palestinian state sitting side by side with Israel as a stepping stone to a future one state solution in which they rule over the Jews (assuming they are ruled over and not slaughtered or “driven into the sea” as they are wont to say).

As I noted in an article in May, a comprehensive poll by the Israel Project in November 2010 showed 60 percent of Palestinians agreeing with the proposition that: “The real goal should be to start with two states but then move to it all being one Palestinian state”.

Two thirds supported the proposition that: “Over time Palestinians must work to get back all the land for a Palestinian state”. And 71 percent said Yasser Arafat was right to reject Bill Clinton’s two-state peace proposals in 2000 and 2001.

In other words, the Israelis have always been in the near impossible situation of being asked to negotiate with people who plainly don’t want any long term peace involving the acceptance of Israel as a legitimate state with a secure future, whatever their leaders say about recognising Israel to gullible Western media.”

Meanwhile, Catherine Ashton hasn’t achieved consensus at the EU, and the UK government wavers, and is being put under pressure by members of the US Congress.
“There are no circumstances where Britain should be voting ‘yes’ unless you want to give support to the continuation of terrorist activities,” said Allen West, A Florida Republican.

So Wyre, dust off your impartiality manual, and start delivering the full picture. Otherwise you should be on half pay. Half a story, half the salary.

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RUFFLED FEATHERS?

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B-BBC contributor Alan notes the following;

“Watching a film recently on the BBC I spotted the name ‘Michael Nyman’ in the credits for musical composition. His name rang a bell and Google delivered the goods on him.

“He is a prodigious anti-war campaigner who works with the Stop the War Coalition and directs much of his energy towards promoting this stance in his public work.”

 From his diary:
‘Tuesday
I sat down at the piano and wrote a five-minute piece of music called Thanks but no thanks, Gordon – a minor protest about government plans to replace the Trident missile.
Wednesday
Lunch with gallery-owner Michael Hoppen to seek his advice about becoming a photographic dealer. Later I went to St James’s Church, Piccadilly for a benefit for Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a medical officer who believes the Iraq war is illegal. I improvised on the piano, trying to express an idealised plea for peace.’

I remembered him from an appearance on the Today programme which told us the BBC had actually commissioned him to write an anti-war piece for them…..how does the BBC get away with that….pure blatant politicised propangada? How much do you want to ruffle feathers? asks the BBC….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/listenagain_20070309.shtml
‘The latest work from Michael Nyman, “Handshake in the Dark”, was commissioned for the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and received its world premiere at the Barbican in London last night. Rebecca Jones reports.’ 2007. The work is ‘controversial’ says Naughtie…..based on a poem by an Iraqi to his brother captured by the americans (and thought dead)…and is anti-war. Nyman says…’these are disreputable times, wars going on, politicians making terrible illegal decisions about things so this has to be the my anti war piece… it deals with the pain, shock and terror of war.’

What was amusing was scrolling further down the Today programme schedule and you find this prescient(?) diamond of analysis……

 2007
‘The EU will be 50 this year. To mark the occasion a document called the Berlin Declaration has been drawn up. We ask Mark Leonard who wrote the book, “Why Europe will run the 21st Century” and Neil O’Brien Director of the Eurosceptic think tank “Open Europe” what they would like to see in the Declaration.’ Leonard tells us that…’Type Europe and crisis into Google and you get 54 million entries (now 625 million!) but in eyes of an historian it is a miraculous success….so I say bring on the crisis as this is when Europe shines.’

Shining brightly?

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JUSTIN-IT FOR THE AGGRO!

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It’s been a busy morning for the thoroughly impartial Justin Webb. Just after 7.18am he was “breaking the traditional “mood of the conference” at the Liberal Democrat Party Conference in Birmingham, by taking in A4 sized close-up photos of some senior Conservative cabinet ministers and seeing what reaction it would cause”. Nice one. Then @7.55, he was back to interview the “great” Vince Cable. Justin has evidently decided that Vince is back again and is prepared to cut him some slack but ONLY if he keeps serving up BBC-approved policies such as “limiting” what “executives” can earn. Vince wiggled his way around the totalitarianism implicit in his policy, trotting out his dodgy statistics to support it, without retort from Justin. It’s clear that so long as Cable seeks to bash the Private Sector, he will get a largely favourable response from the BBC and obviously a Lib-Dem conference is not exactly a friendly environment for those who create the wealth that keeps the bloated State sector afloat. Webb makes little effort to disguise his anti-Coalition impulses and if this is what it is like for the Lib-Dems conference, just WAIT until Labour host their conference. Will the BBC play the Red Flag?  (Sorry there are no links to the items quoted but despite their £££billions the BBC cannot apparently provide something so simple as of time of writing @ 9.23am)

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DALE FARM

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Remarkably biased coverage of the planned eviction of Gypsies from the illegal part of the Dale Farm on BBC Today this morning. There were two interviews conducted by Chris Patten favourite Sarah Montague at 8.10am, although just before that we had Irishman Fergal Keane on to set the scene as sympathetically as possible for the poor oppressed “Travellers”.Then the lovely Sarah interviewed one of the Travellers who casually informed her that they had followed the law but because the law had not listened they were forced to break the law. That’s called the Sinn Fein defence where I come from – in essence it is never your fault when you choose to break the law. The lady went on to say that they were looking for a public apology from Council leader Tony Ball. When Sarah pursued this line enquiring  if that meant that should they get such an apology they would move off the illegal site, she was given the answer no. Sarah chose not to pursue the utter intransigence and belligerence of the Traveller interviewed.

Then, Council leader Tony Ball was then interviewed and as you would expect, the glacial tone reserved for Conservatives reappeared. Montague sought to establish that a/ No force would be applied against these kindly Travellers and b/The United Nations has spoken on the issue and found in favour of the Travellers so clearly the Council was in the wrong anyway. I though Mr Ball dealt with the latter point well but throughout the interview it was perfectly obvious where BBC sympathies lie.

I always try to be positive so perhaps in the spirit of UN approved comradeship, the BBC should offer those Gypsy lawbreakers the chance to move in to a nice BBC big carpark, I’m sure the kindred spirits would get along just fine.

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MORE WOMEN?

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I never could understand David Cameron’s enthusiasm for C.I.N.O. Chris Patten becoming BBC Trust Chairman, Here we see Patten once again living down to expectations;

BBC Trust chairman Chris Patten has said there are not enough women in on-air roles at the public broadcaster. “We should have more women on radio and television,” the former Conservative party chairman said in an interview with The Observer. (Naturally) He singled out Radio 4’s Sarah Montague and Martha Kearney as being among the “good ones”.

Oh really? Montague and Kearney “the good ones”? Well, I suppose both can be relied upon to attack the Conservatives, to attack Israel, to worship Obama, to praise the EU….

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BBC Censorship: "Spot The Missing Book Report" Editon

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A few days ago, the media got wind of a new unauthorized biography to come out about someone who holds no public office, is not running for one, and had virtually no public profile until 2008. There were a couple of personal scandalous allegations, and the media turned into the usual shark feeding frenzy, including the BBC. That private citizen is, as we all know, Sarah Palin. The BBC reported that her husband wasn’t pleased with the allegations.

Sarah Palin’s husband Todd attacks biography for ‘lies’

It’s a small mention, but they reported it nevertheless. Notice also that the BBC also rushed to inform you back when this writer had moved in next door to Palin, and then added a follow-up story when she built a fence to maintain her privacy.

Now the media has got wind of a book about someone who does hold a public office and is currently running for re-election, but similarly had virtually no public profile before 2008. This book describes infighting and incompetence in that public official’s administration. The media is about to leap into a frenzy, and it’s troubling that public official enough to launch a strong response, and some of the administration officials quoted in the book are, like Todd Palin, not pleased with the allegations. The BBC has not reported this. Of course, that’s because this book is about the President.

Apparently, He has the one minor quibble with His performance:

“I think one of the criticisms that is absolutely legitimate about my first two years was that I was very comfortable with a technocratic approach to government … a series of problems to be solved.

And He also compared Himself to Jimmy Carter:

“Carter, Clinton and I all have sort of the disease of being policy wonks. … I think that if you get too consumed with that you lose sight of the larger issue.”

Oh, and apparently the White House was a sexist old boys’ club where women felt excluded and ignored. How’s that hopey-changey stuff workin’ out for ya, BBC?

More media coverage here and here, so you know the Beeboids know about it, and that it’s a story they would cover if it didn’t make Him look bad.

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WHAT A GAY DAY!

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I was doing a little research on Lib-Dem Lynne Featherstone for another post I am writing and came across this little snippet;

“Lynne has been a champion of gay rights in Parliament and outspoken critic of the Government’s Equality Bill, which fails to explicitly outlaw harassment of young people in schools because of their sexuality – gay bullying. She has also fought for greater protection against discrimination for transgendered people in the new law. 

The awards ceremony with take place on Thursday, 5th November at the V&A and celebrate “the range of positive contributions being made by the individuals and organisation to the lives of lesbian and gay people in Britain today”. The judges are Sue Perkins and Evan Davis.”

Would that Evan Davies, BBC “Today” presenter and Sue Perkin, much loved BBC “Comedienne”? Good to see BBC employees so ACTIVE in promoting the Stonewall agenda.

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