137 Responses to OPEN THREAD

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  1. Billy-no-mates says:
    October 14, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    What annoys me (along with pretty much everything nowadays) is where press releases and PR stunts are reported as news. What surprises is how dumb news editors are at spotting them. Take the news this morning on the Today programme where Tesco has mispriced Terry’s chocolate oranges at 29p – what are the chances of that happening? (two brand names!!!)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-13621315
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-12939234
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10312959
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_8107000/8107301.stm

    oh well!

    How much would you pay to have punters exploring your shop for non-existent cheap goods? How much did the company actually lose by this “mistake? My guess is they made a profit.

    I know all media “falls” for this with their advertising partners. The news story here is why the BBC keeps falling for it.

       0 likes

  2. noggin says:
    October 14, 2011 at 3:32 pm

    inadvertently came across this today wonderful example of BBC 5Contrive bias.
    the back story remember Paxo failing dismally interviewing Stephen Lennon head of the EDL on newsnight, beebo obviously smarting as next morning N Campbell hosted a so called debate, between Majid(i should be a lawyer)Nawaz & Stephen Lennon, think you ll agree, not so much bias, as a contrived pincer movement, with Campbell/Nawaz double teaming.

    http://youtu.be/8xOlhYuD1J4

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  3. PDC says:
    October 14, 2011 at 4:00 pm

    Relying on the BBC to find out what’s going on i the world isn’t a good idea.
    The story of the Iranian attempt to kill the Saudi ambassador on US soil has been treated dismissively on the BBC.
    I’ve just read that the Iranians killed a Saudi diplomat in Karachi in May,
    http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/intelligence-links-iran-to-saudi-diplomats-murder/2011/10/13/gIQAFzC
    So they’ve got recent form. Pity that the BBC can’t tell us.

       0 likes

  4. RCE says:
    October 14, 2011 at 4:46 pm

    Yet more twisting and turning on Today this AM about how Pakistani gangs are very definitely not to blame for the grooming of underage girls in the UK.  Evan Davis reckons Jack Straw has got it wrong.

    A serious interviewer would have asked how on God’s green earth an inquiry can take two years when the person leading it clearly knows the key facts already.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      October 14, 2011 at 6:49 pm

      RCE,
      I wonder how Evan Davis would feel if the muslim gangs were targetting young boys , instead of girls ?   Ooops, sorry, he would probably support that !

         0 likes

    • Dez says:
      October 15, 2011 at 4:32 am

      RCE,

      “Yet more twisting and turning on Today this AM about how Pakistani gangs are very definitely not to blame for the grooming of underage girls in the UK.  Evan Davis reckons Jack Straw has got it wrong.”

      Wrong. At no point in the interview did Evan Davis claim that Jack Straw had “got it wrong”.

      From the interview:

      Evan Davis – “There were cases/prosecutions of some Pakistani men, I think in one city. There were then newspaper reports of particular ethnic groups having particular issues around sexual grooming and abuse. Is that part of the story you are looking into?”

      Sue Berelowitz – “That’s very much only part of the story. The picture we are picking up is that this is happening all over our country. So in Cornwall as well as in Derby and in other cities. But also in rural areas. And the ethnic make up of the people who are doing it to the children and of the children, very much depends and varies  according to which part of the country. So I’m afraid there is no part of our population that seems to be immune from this at all”.

      Evan Davis – “So it’s not a particular Pakistan gang issue or anything like that?”

      Sue Berelowitz – “No it absolutely is not. It’s happening everywhere and it’s being done by people from every ethnic group.”

      Evan Davis – “Because I think Jack Straw, former home secretary, said Pakastani men sometimes see white girls as easy meat. But I mean that may or may not be true but white guys see girls as…?”

      Sue Berelowitz – “I’m afraid white men are doing this too; and to white girls, and black girls are also very much at risk…”

      RCE – “The BBC is complicit in paedophilia. It is that simple.”

      How do you come to that “simple” conclusion RSE? Care to explain?

         0 likes

      • RCE says:
        October 15, 2011 at 12:33 pm

         

        Dez – by way of explanation:

         

        First of all, evidence that there is a specific problem with Asian/Pakistani sex gangs can be found in a report by CEOP which states that approx 20% of child grooming offences are committed by ‘Asian’ men:

         

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8606003/Quarter-of-child-sex-groomers-are-Asian-report-reveals.html

         

        Now, Asian men make up approx 3% of the population, and Pakistani men approx 1%:

         

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_England

         

        So, the premise that there is disproportionate offending by Asians/Pakistanis is supported by a strong statistical correlation.

         

        But contrary to this, in the ‘interview’ as you have quoted it, Davis sets about dismissing this premise by stating “There were cases/prosecutions of some Pakistani men, I think in one city” (my emphasis).

         

        “One city”?  Which “one city” could that be?  Rochdale?

         

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1346066/Gang-9-Asian-men-arrested-grooming-white-teenage-girls-sex.html

         

        Derby?

         

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8157739/Asian-gang-prowled-streets-searching-for-rape-victims.html

         

        Blackpool?

         

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1374443/Police-hid-abuse-60-girls-Asian-takeaway-workers-linked-Charlene-Downes-murder.html

         

        Rotherham?

         

        http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1327056/Gang-Asian-sexual-predators-jailed-grooming-girls-young-12.html

         

        Preston? Blackburn?

         

        http://www.lep.co.uk/news/local/112_teenage_victims_of_preston_s_sex_gangs_1_2917794

           0 likes

        • RCE says:
          October 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm

          Next, having downplayed the issue by misleading the audience to believe that the Pakistani angle is limited to “one city”, Davis and Berelowitz then have a cosy chat about how child “sexual grooming and abuse” is “happening all over our country…  there is no part of our population that seems to be immune from this at all.”  This obfuscatory tactic of addressing a false hypothesis is a BBC favourite.  The hypothesis that Davis and Berelowitz are addressing is that only Asian/Pakistani men commit child sex grooming, which is, of course, not true; no-one has ever said that child sex grooming is unique to one ethnic or social group.  The key fact is that the incidence of Asian/Pakistani men abusing non-Asian/Pakistani girls is hugely disproportionate within the wider phenomenon.  This is the point.  But here the debate is corrupted by the substitution of the real issue with a proxy that is then used to deconstruct a fictitious argument.

             0 likes

          • RCE says:
            October 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm

            Now, back to Jack straw; Davis goes on:

             

            “Because I think Jack Straw, former home secretary, said Pakastani men sometimes see white girls as easy meat. But I mean that may or may not be true…”

             

             

            In fact, as per the below report, ‘Jack Straw said there was a “specific problem” in some areas of the country where Pakistani men “target vulnerable young white girls”.’

             

            http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jan/08/jack-straw-white-girls-easy-meat

             

             

            30 seconds on the internet establishes that the former Home Secretary and MP for Blackburn (with a huge Pakistani population) Jack Straw is absolutely, 100%, incontrovertibly, correct (as per the links above – I know you like links, Dez).  But Davis still thinks it apposite to question what Straw says, so that the audience are given the impression that there is reasonable doubt over established facts.

             

            Information on the predatory nature of Pakistani sex gangs is thus kept from parents, carers and potential victims because the BBC ideology that muslims cannot be criticised takes precedence over the sexual abuse of young girls.   As such the BBC is complicit in paedophilia.

               0 likes

            • George R says:
              October 15, 2011 at 3:15 pm

              Yes, and as a supplementary, here is more material:

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

                 0 likes

              • cjhartnett says:
                October 15, 2011 at 4:14 pm

                Fine work RCE!
                These individual stories , when collated: tell us that there is a BIG problem here.
                How typical of the BBC to downplay it when it comes to Muslims.
                Had it been EDL paedophile rings , I doubt that the Beeb would be so relaxed about it.
                AS a white bloke I deeply resent the implication that this behaviour cannot be linked to a mindset engendered by one particular attitude of Isalm in extremis.
                This is not to tar all Muslims with the same brush-but we put our kids at risk if we deny what the true evidence is…and the BBCs continual smearing of the indigenous population ,in favour of their pet Islamist population( those that bomb or commit sexual offences by way of Jihad) is utterly despicable.
                Which means that the BBC will wallow in it until we roll up their prayer mat and send them to Lahore with their own kids, to investigate our prejudices.

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                • Dez says:
                  October 15, 2011 at 10:44 pm

                  cjhartnett,

                  “As a white bloke I deeply resent the implication that this behaviour cannot be linked to a mindset engendered by one particular attitude of Isalm in extremis.”

                  Paedophile gang in Devon:
                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-14082306

                  Paedophile gang in Lincolnshire:
                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-13711320

                  Paedophile gang in Edinburgh:
                  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-13458501

                  Paedophile gang in Newcastle:
                  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/7417871.stm

                  Do you resent the “implication” that none of the above behavour can be linked to a mindset engendered by one particular attitude of Isalm in extremis?

                  Do you think you are in anyway responsible for the actions of your fellow “white blokes”? Perhaps you should roll up your beer mat and leave the country for the sake of “our” kids. Huh? ;p

                     0 likes

                  • David Preiser (USA) says:
                    October 16, 2011 at 6:05 pm

                    Dez, it’s interesting that three out of the four paedophile gang reports you’ve listed involve homosexuals.  I grant you this could be considered irrelevant to your debate with RCE.  But it is interesting nevertheless, especially considering that the theme of that debate is essentially “Muslims are dangerous to white girls.”

                    And before you ask: no, I would never say that homosexuals are more likely to be paedophiles. Although there’s always going to be an unfortunate grey area regarding teenagers.  But that’s another debate entirely.

                       0 likes

                  • hippiepooter says:
                    October 16, 2011 at 11:53 pm

                    Yes, Scez really scraping the barrel with those links.  The first one isn’t to a “gang”, its to an individual, and the rest of course, not exactly comparing like to like.

                    Scez has had a good and true hammering from RCE, proving everything we’re always saying about just how sordid BBC bias is.

                       0 likes

                    • Dez says:
                      October 18, 2011 at 2:04 am

                      hippiepooter; “Yes, Scez really scraping the barrel with those links.”

                      Sorry if the convicted paedophiles I listed weren’t up to your usual standard.

                      hippiepooter; “The first one isn’t to a “gang”, its to an individual…”

                      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-devon-14082306

                      “Police said he was part of a paedophile gang who used the social networking site to target victims”.

                      hippiepooter; “and the rest of course, not exactly comparing like to like”.

                      Some paedophile gangs better than others huh?

                         0 likes

            • Grant says:
              October 15, 2011 at 3:51 pm

              RCE,
              I suspect Dezzie boy will go AWOL now  !!!!!

                 0 likes

        • Dez says:
          October 15, 2011 at 9:04 pm

          RCE, thank you for your reply. After refering to the CEOP report, you state:

          “So, the premise that there is disproportionate offending by Asians/Pakistanis is supported by a strong statistical correlation.”

          But this specifically not supported by the report, which says:

          “Caution should be taken in drawing conclusions about ethnicity due to the relatively small number of areas where agencies have been proactive around this particular type of crime. We do not draw national conclusions about ethnicity from the data available at this time because it is too inconsistent.”

          “In relation to ethnicity, the data was often recorded to a particularly poor standard at the point of capture.”

          and:

          “We find that the data collected in this assessment is likely to represent only a small fraction of the full picture and is an inadequate basis for national findings.”

          Click to access ceop_thematic_assessment_executive_summary.pdf

          “Davis sets about dismissing this premise by stating ‘There were cases/prosecutions of some Pakistani men, I think in one city’ ”

          Davis is doing nothing more than asking a question in the form of a proposition (standard interviewing technique). To which Sue Berelowitz responds; “The picture we are picking up is that this is happening all over our country. So in Cornwall as well as in Derby and in other cities. But also in rural areas.”

          So according to the intervewee, it’s happening all over the country. What is your problem with this?

          “The key fact is that the incidence of Asian/Pakistani men abusing non-Asian/Pakistani girls is hugely disproportionate within the wider phenomenon.”

          The CEOP report repeatedly states that this has not been established as “fact” due to the limited number of responses to it’s survey.

          So in this case you have come to a conclusion based on absolutely zero significant statistical information.

          Perhaps you should begin to ask yourself why you have done this?

             0 likes

          • Span Ows says:
            October 16, 2011 at 7:02 am

            I’m surprised Dez still exists, he has had a new one ripped so many times there can’t be much left.

               0 likes

          • RCE says:
            October 16, 2011 at 5:47 pm

            Dez – You are failing to draw a distinction between the findings of the report and the comments about those findings.

            They are two different things; but given that the topic under discussion is the cover-up of child sex grooming by Pakistani gangs it is very odd that you should draw attention to examples of officials desperately doing exactly that!  The findings are the findings, Dez.

            However, you may note that I used ‘approx 20%’ rather than ‘one in four’, ‘28%’, or ‘a quarter’ used elsewhere in the media, very much in order to reflect the caveats of the report.  The point being that whichever way you look at it, the rate of offending is much, much larger than the 3% that would reflect the percentage of Asian men in the wider population.

            You wrote ‘So according to the intervewee, it’s happening all over the country. What is your problem with this?’

            Read the second of my three concurrent posts again, Dez.  I address this point thoroughly.

            ‘So in this case you have come to a conclusion based on absolutely zero significant statistical information.’

            Once again for your benefit: the CEOP report statistics show a vastly disproportionate degree of offending by Asians/Pakistanis; no matter how much you, Peter Davies, Evan Davis or Uncle Tom Cobbly try to pretend that the findings are different, they are not.  In fact, the observation that the geographical limitations of the report skew the findings is moot; the incidence of offending by this group in an area or town where there are 0% Asians/Pakistanis will be zero.  A serious study would investigate whether or not child sex grooming is more common overall in areas where there were more Asians/Pakistanis; that’s called falsifying a hypothesis.

            “Perhaps you should begin to ask yourself why you have done this?”

            That’s easy: it’s because I’m from a town that is blighted by this disgusting, perverse slavery of vulnerable young girls, so i know from experience what goes on.  Somehow I doubted you’d accept that as evidence.

               0 likes

            • Dez says:
              October 18, 2011 at 1:35 am

              RCE,

              “…you are failing to draw a distinction between the findings of the report and the comments about those findings.”

              You are being disingenuous. These aren’t comments ‘about’ the findings they are the findings. Which include (from the actual report):

              “We do not draw national conclusions about ethnicity from the data available at this time because it is too inconsistent.”

              “These fields [nationality & ethnicity] were incomplete in many cases and overall the quality of much of the data was extremely poor. As such, it is not possible to substantiate any correlation between offending behaviour and nationality or ethnicity”

              “We find that the data collected in this assessment is likely to represent only a small fraction of the full picture and is an inadequate basis for national findings.”

              http://ceop.police.uk/Publications/
              (Out of Mind, Out of Sight – 2011  Thematic assessment”)

              I might as well publish my own survey; that 90% of the people I questioned yesterday said they were born in Manchester. But this doesn’t apply to the uk as a whole because I only questioned 10 people in Manchester City centre.

              To which, presumably, your response would be; “You are merely commenting about your findings… your survey clearly shows that 90% of the uk population were born in Manchester”.

              “the CEOP report statistics show a vastly disproportionate degree of offending by Asians/Pakistanis”

              No they do not. They show the recorded ethnicity (of just over half) of the offenders in certain areas. Without knowing the demographics of those areas (which you don’t), it is not possible to ascertain whether they are disproportionate or not.

              “That’s easy: it’s because I’m from a town that is blighted by this disgusting, perverse slavery of vulnerable young girls, so i know from experience what goes on.”

              What sort of experience RCE?

                 0 likes

              • RCE says:
                October 19, 2011 at 7:33 pm

                Dez – I was going to write a serious reply to the first 5 paragraphs of your post, but if you cannot distinguish between data and interpretation by now, then you never will.

                As for your Manchester analogy; again, I address this point myself above by noting that any attempt to scientifically observe a subject the subject must – first of all – exist.  The incidence of those born in Manchester will indeed be higher the nearer to Manchester you conduct the survey, just as the incidence of child sex abuse by Pakistani men will increase nearer concentrations of Pakistani men; inadvertently you have made my point that the concept of a national average is completely specious.

                Another way of looking at it would be to answer the question: if a greater percentage of males in Britain were of Pakistani heritage would the grooming of young girls for sex be less common, the same, or more common?  Now that would make a great Panorama.

                You are right that I don’t know the demographics of the ‘certain areas’.  And neither do you, Dez; you don’t seem to consider that the rate of offending by Asians within the unknown quantity is just as likely to be greater as it is to be smaller – that is why we use the known figure from the CEOP report (28%) that so much time and effort is then spent trashing.

                I can’t help but feel from your concluding question that you have an issue with the act of arguing.  But to answer it would require me to betray confidences and compromise others; clearly, I am not going to do that, as anyone with any decency or maturity would both expect and understand.  If you take that to be a ‘victory’ for your argument then crack on fella.

                   0 likes

                • ltwf1964 says:
                  October 19, 2011 at 8:14 pm

                  RCE

                  i wouldn’t bother-

                  it’s five minutes of your life wasted on a tedious twat that you’ll never get back

                     0 likes

                • Dez says:
                  October 22, 2011 at 9:47 pm

                  RCE; “…but if you cannot distinguish between data and interpretation by now, then you never will”

                  Ok, to me the ‘findings’ of a report refer to it’s conclusions based on analysis of the data; were as to you (I think) it means the data its self. Some misunderstanding perhaps.

                  “You are right that I don’t know the demographics of the ‘certain areas’.  And neither do you, Dez; you don’t seem to consider that the rate of offending by Asians within the unknown quantity is just as likely to be greater as it is to be smaller”

                  I completely accept that. What I dispute is your assertion that; “the premise that there is disproportionate offending by Asians/Pakistanis is supported by a strong statistical correlation”

                  “that is why we use the known figure from the CEOP report (28%) that so much time and effort is then spent trashing.”

                  I haven’t ‘trashed’ the 28% figure – just your interpretation of it.

                  “I can’t help but feel from your concluding question that you have an issue with the act of arguing.”

                  Huh? Because I asked you what sort of experience you were talking about?

                  “But to answer it would require me to betray confidences and compromise others; clearly, I am not going to do that, as anyone with any decency or maturity would both expect and understand.”

                  ok.

                     0 likes

      • noggin says:
        October 16, 2011 at 11:25 am

        nurse…nurse…..
        he s out again!

           0 likes

      • hippiepooter says:
        October 16, 2011 at 11:39 pm

        Thank you for showing Scez that RCE’s distillation is true.

           0 likes

  5. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 14, 2011 at 6:19 pm

    Here’s one for the “Imagine If Bush Had Done This” file:

    Obama’s state menu: Japanese beef from Texas

    The White House has released the menu for tonight’s state dinner for South Korean President Lee Myung Bak, and the main course comes from Japanese cattle bred in Texas.

    The Texas Wagyu Beef will be served with orange-ginger fondue, sauteed kale, and roasted kabocha squash, according to the White House.

    Yes, I know the beef is technically from Texas, and the squash was grown in the White House garden.  But the Koreans will know that they’re being fed Japanese cuisine.  This is an insult.  Anyone who is as uniformed as the amateurs at the White House about the historically problematic relationship between Japan and Korea should read this for starters.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      October 14, 2011 at 6:52 pm

      David P,
      Again, is this because Obama is ignorant or is he deliberately trying to alienate traditional allies of the USA  ?
      I still believe that he is just stupid !

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        October 14, 2011 at 7:12 pm

        Nah, this is just down to blind arrogance, which stops them from thinking and being considerate.  This is obviously the White House amateurs thinking they’ll show off fresh produce grown by Michelle (promote the First Lady where you can) right out back (no carbon footprint, right?) and good ol’ US of A beef, grown in Texas, the Longhorn State, they grow ’em big out there.  
         
        They were so focused on their own narcissistic agenda that nobody bothered to think about how serving Japanese cuisine might look to the Koreans.  It simply didn’t occur to them becaue they’re so far up their own backsides.  Gross incompetence, really, no sinister agenda required.

           0 likes

        • Grant says:
          October 14, 2011 at 7:24 pm

          David P,
          Well , it is certainly very insensitive, to say the least  !  Not exclusive to the USA though. 
          I could imagine David Cameron giving a dinner for Polish people and serving them Russian and German food !
          But, I wonder if Obama’s guests had been Chinese and not Korean …..   ?
          ( Assuming he knows the difference ! ).
             

             0 likes

  6. George R says:
    October 14, 2011 at 7:26 pm

    Following the sacking of Liam FOX, perhaps the best candidate for the job of Defence Minister is Patrick MERCER; but, of course he has zero chance of getting the job, having been sacked by Cameron from a shadow post in 2007 for breaking some invisible test on ‘multiculturalism’ -no doubt BBC-NUJ approved.

    Brendan O’Neill (2007)

    ‘After hate speech, the war against ‘mate speech’

    http://spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/2953

       0 likes

  7. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 14, 2011 at 8:40 pm

    Is there no end to this cowboy President’s warmongering and expansion of US Imperialism?

    Obama Sends 100 US Troops to Uganda to Help Combat Lord’s Resistance Army

    Two days ago President Obama authorized the deployment to Uganda of approximately 100 combat-equipped U.S. forces to help regional forces “remove from the battlefield” – meaning capture or kill – Lord’s Resistance Army leader Joseph Kony and senior leaders of the LRA.

    The forces will deploy beginning with a small group and grow over the next  month to 100. They will ultimately go to Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with the permission of those countries.

    How many countries have we invaded since the Nobel Peace Price?

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      October 14, 2011 at 11:00 pm

      Obama is nuts.
      Apart from photo opportunities and staying in luxury hotels, what does he know of Africa ?
      US influence in Africa is on the same par as the UK’s . That is non-existent. ( Apart from “aid”, thank you very much ! ).
      The main mover there now is China and they aren’t sending troops.
      Just juvenile posturing from Obama.  

         0 likes

  8. joseph sanderson says:
    October 14, 2011 at 8:50 pm

    I’m not sure if anyone has heard that the BBC reporter in Tajikstan who had been sentenced to a prison term for belonging to a banned Islamic group has been released on bail?.

    Although it might seem that the reporter in queston was not a member of this group the evidence from his own reporting shows clearly that he was aware of some of this groups members, as this group is a known terrorist group, the reporter Urunboy was obligated by law to report them to the Tajik government, the fact that this Tajik native failed to do so is both illegal under Tajik law, and also reflects badly on the BBC which has technically also broken the law in Tajikstan as well as UK anti-terrorist laws & various parts of the UK Broadcasting regulations.

    I have found some of this reporters articles / reports and clearly he has a great deal of sympathy for this group, their is also evidence that his relationship with this group is much closer than is allowed.

    As I was bored I have hunted down the relevant parts:

    OFCOM: Section 2: Harm and Offence

    Programmes must not include material (whether in individual programmes or in programmes taken together) which, taking into account the context, condones or glamorises violent, dangerous or seriously antisocial behaviour and is likely to encourage others to copy such behaviour.

    Section 3 : Crime

    3.1 Material likely to encourage or incite the commission of crime or to lead to disorder must not be included in television or radio services.

    3.6 Broadcasters must use their best endeavours so as not to broadcast material that could endanger lives or prejudice the success of attempts to deal with a hijack or kidnapping.

    Section 5 : Due impartiality and Due accuracy and undue prominance of views and opinions

    5.1 News, in whatever form, must be reported with due accuracy and presented with due impartiality.

    5.3 No politician may be used as a newsreader, interviewer or reporter in any news programmes unless, exceptionally, it is editorially justified. In that case, the political allegiance of that person must be made clear to the audience.

    5.8 Any personal interest of a reporter or presenter, which would call into question the due impartiality of the programme, must be made clear to the audience.

    5.11 In addition to the rules above, due impartiality must be preserved on matters of major political and industrial controversy and major matters relating to current public policy by the person providing a service (listed above) in each programme or in clearly linked and timely programmes.

    SectionSeven: Fairness

    7.11 If a programme alleges wrongdoing or incompetence or makes other significant allegations, those concerned should normally be given an appropriate and timely opportunity to respond.

    If as seems that reporter and by extension his employee the BBC have breached any of the above sections of the UK broacasting Act than OFCOM are obliged via the courts to either A) fine the BBC or B) remove its license.

    The fact that the BBC has been shown to break the impartiality sections of the Act with its biased political news coverage, religious coverage and environmental coverage, makes me think that either OFCOM is a toothless regulator of BBC broadcasting or the UK has serious issues with how its media seems to have been hijacked by the left.

       0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:
      October 15, 2011 at 6:48 pm

      Don’t bother the BBC with facts and their rules, they are above and beyond such things.

         0 likes

  9. Grant says:
    October 14, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    The first 13 minutes of “Have I got News for You ”  ( a 30-minute show )  devoted to Liam Fox. ( Is this a record ? ).  The next 5 minutes to Teresa May, then I switched off.  Hyslop there , as usual, happy to take the money !  

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:
      October 15, 2011 at 12:25 pm

      I agree Grant!
      Not only that-but it was completely unfunny too!
      Jo Brand?…the useless Paul Merton?…what`s there to like?
      This vehicle for the liberati to parade their prejudices at our expense is just the Guardians equivalent of the Last of The Summer Wine…way past its sell-by-date, but a cushy retainer for all concerned!
      About time the BBC began to apply its urgent wish for assisted dying(or euthanasia as we`d best not call it) to its own threadbare output.
      The likes of Fox and May are jokes in themselves-we don`t need to pay for Mertons BUPA or Brands HRT do we?

         0 likes

      • Grant says:
        October 15, 2011 at 3:56 pm

        cj,
        Like Steve Coogan, Lennie Henry,  and numerous other clone Leftie comedians,Merton is just not funny any more.
        But, I don’t remember a “HIGNFY”  during the numerous Labour Minister scandals devoting so much time, if any.
        I am almost beginning to think the BBC is biased.  

           0 likes

    • geewiz says:
      October 15, 2011 at 6:10 pm

      I was just going to say the same thing, Grant. It was dripping in sarcasm and hatred of anything non-Labour. They threw in a 5 second snippet about the Lab conference being boring but that was it, other than that it was incessant Fox bashing by Jo Bland and co. Bollocks to watching that pile of crap program ever again.

         0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:
      October 15, 2011 at 6:49 pm

      Thankfully I tool Mrs NotaSheep out for dinner instead of watching HIGNFY; I won’t bother with the repeat tonight. Did HIGNFY spend anything like as long on Peter Mandelson’s various ‘indiscretions’?

         0 likes

    • The Cattle Prod of Destiny says:
      October 15, 2011 at 7:40 pm

      Well, the BBC has been running a series of ‘adverts’ for Private Eye’s anniversary lately.

      Quid pro quo?

         0 likes

  10. Martin says:
    October 14, 2011 at 10:20 pm

    I’ve just watched Newsnight and Allegra Stratton from the Guardian made the very point I made a while back. If Fox had taken some mini skirted bird with him all over the world, none of the press would have held back about asking if he were shaggin her, but with Werrity they all mostly backed off (I think the Sun had an open dig) but the BBC and the lefty press really have been very gentle for a man that they must hate for his ‘hard right politics’.

    As I asked here a while back, why did they back off? Because they feared there might be a ‘gay’ story involved and even a right wing Tory deserves protection from the clan.

    Expect the same over Huhne if he comes under pressure, Huhne is the sort of Lib Dem the BBC like, a barking mad liberal greenie nutter. David Laws also got off lightly from the lefty media because of his homosesual relationship. If some straight Tory had been doing what Laws did with a bit of skirt the BBC and co would have been digging into that story for months after. The BBC NEVER mention Laws these days, yet he’s lucky not to be in jail in my view.

       0 likes

  11. john says:
    October 14, 2011 at 10:27 pm

    Guardian/BBC jobs section w/c Walter Mittie.

    Like Formula 1 ?
    Studying something at university with no tangible links whatsoever to technical excellence ?
    You too could become the next Jake (you guys) Humphries.
    Like Football ?
    If you eat crisps, have a big nose, low IQ and are an adulterer you could well be “in”.
    Like Politics ?
    If your a well off lesbian from a Private school who hates everyone but Sue Perkins, the job could be yours.
    Like Dez and Scott ?
    Well that’s your fault.
    Like Religious Affairs ?
    An exciting opportunity to lay into the Jews, the Jews again and with what little time is left have a go at the Catholics and Protestants.
    Like Mark Mardell ?
    Understandably not.
    Like To wait untill your back teeth grow so you can lie through them as effortlessly as Richard Bacon ?
    This will require a vast experience of hallucinogenic drugs whereby very rich people pretend to have lived on a Council Estate yet have never been anywhere near one, let alone know what one is.
    Like Question Time ?
    See a Doctor.

    It is with regret that my savage dog, “Bob Crowe”, defiled on the remaining 666 pages, so that’s all I have to share with you this week.

       0 likes

  12. Teddy Bear says:
    October 14, 2011 at 10:44 pm

    I happened to catch a few minutes of R4’s Today programme the other day when they interviewed a woman, who could have done with some elocution lessons, and she was telling how the cuts had affected her finding work. 

    It was obvious the BBC were looking for any angle to continue demonizing the coalition’s ‘evil cuts’. I could just imagine a producer thinking about what new could they do to impress just how bad these cuts are, and they have a sudden flash – “Women! – we could get report it as if women are worse hit – that would get at least half the listeners onside against the coalition – at least those not working. And we could call it a ‘Womancession’ – brilliant”.
    >:o

    You know when the BBC don’t give a shit? – They avoid the subject as much as they can.

    Richard Littlejohn heard the programme too and comments here on his similar perceptions.
    With ‘victims’ like these, the cuts can’t be all bad!

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 15, 2011 at 4:08 am

      That is quite a read.

      But.. Tracey? Single muvva? Really?

      Do they have a vox-pop pre-selection check-list? 

         0 likes

  13. George R says:
    October 14, 2011 at 11:33 pm

    TUNISIA.

    Islam Not BBC (INBBC) fails to mention that its following report is about INBBC’s ‘Arab Spring’:-

    “Police in Tunisia use tear gas on Islamist protesters ”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15312227

    ‘Jihadwatch’:
    Tunisia: Thousands pour out of mosques and clash with police over “offensive” movie while attempting to march to TV station

    [Excerpt]:-

    “Self-government depends on government of the self. If Tunisians can allow themselves be whipped up into a fury of this degree over a movie shown on TV, it obviously bodes ill for the future stability of the country.”

       0 likes

  14. My Site (click to edit) says:
    October 15, 2011 at 5:01 am

    There is little to ‘like’ about the BBC’s risible new, improved blog system, but the dislikes is about as scummy as it can get.

    I merely note these two comments from Mr. Robinson’s blog…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15307695

    1. figrat 
    14TH OCTOBER 2011 – 18:01

    Not really surprising eh?
    Same old stuff, but this time with the implied sweetener of ‘if you keep your nose clean’ (wonder how it got that grubby brown tinge?) we’ll keep your seat warm for you.
    Get this bunch OUT.

    +22

    5. WrekinAir 
    14TH OCTOBER 2011 – 18:08

    Re Comment (1)

    And get the last batch who were completely incompetent, bickering and brown-nosed even more back in? And overspent the MoD budget by billions through sheer stupidity? And ran up one of the proportionally biggest debts the UK has ever had?

    Heaven help us!

    -31

    So… those disliking that last (presumably loving the first), really think Labour is the solution? And seem to have the time to post and mark down all they don’t like?

    I have always had doubts about these ‘voting’ systems (anonymous to a fault); this confirms them.

       0 likes

  15. cjhartnett says:
    October 15, 2011 at 12:34 pm

    Let me see then!
    Euro disaster?…The economy flatlining….didn`t these things exercise the BBC the other day?
    Yet here I am listening to Any Questions…usual slew of lefties like Kevin Maguire holding forth from a private girls grammar school.
    Turns out that the likes of Dimbleby are worried now about what Oliver Letwin puts in the park bins ;and whether Liam Fox getting fired is just the start of the end of Conservatism as we know it!
    The BBC and the likes of Maguire only use unemployment or Euro collapses as sticks to beat the donkey of dead politicos…they really do not give a damn as long as there is scalps on the railings of St James Park.
    The likes of Dimbleby and Maguire are just psychic vampires…look no further than their kind if you want to know why politics is as low and irrelevant as it is now.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      October 15, 2011 at 3:58 pm

      No excuse for that idiot Letwin. Thank God there were no security lapses under the last Labour government. 

         0 likes

  16. George R says:
    October 15, 2011 at 3:39 pm

    A surreal moment this afternoon:  
     
     -what appeared to be ‘pastor ASSANGE’ (BBC guru) in London addressing his responsive flock with a denunciation of the guilty greedy bankers.  
     
    (I understand that Mr Assange is still a Swedish citizen, and he is still wanted for questioning by the Swedish police.)  
     
    I don’t get the demands of the ‘left’ on the banks; they seem contradictory, as they appear to want-  
     
    a.) to punish to bankers, and b.) give them more taxpayers’ money to boost the economy.  

    But that citizens’ economics, I suppose.

     
    “Wikileaks Julian Assange attends London protest”  
     
    http://www.kyivpost.com/news/world/detail/114921  
     
     

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      October 15, 2011 at 4:08 pm

      They just want the money to redistributed directly to themselves.  This is greed of a different order.

         0 likes

  17. George R says:
    October 15, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    BBC-NUJ provides a wishy-washy ‘report’ on a wishy-washy demo.  
     
    What’s it all about?  
     
    According to BBC’s embedded Maddy SAVAGE:  
     
     
    “She said: ‘They may not be a coherent group but they appear united in their goal – to criticise the UK’s bankers and speak for what they describe as ‘people over profit’.” -Whatever that means.  
     
    According to the first (curious) sentence of that report:  
     
    “Up to 3,000 people are demonstrating in London’s financial district as part of a worldwide protest against alleged corporate greed.”  
     
    The use of the word ‘alleged’ here is rather odd.  
     
    Are there banners enscribed:  
     
    ‘Down with Alleged Corporate Greed’?  
     
    Later there’s the inevitable reference to BBC guru ASSANGE who is bizarrely trying to show us how transparent he is by wearing a mask.  
     
     
    “Occupy London protests in financial district”  
     
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15322134

       0 likes

  18. sue says:
    October 15, 2011 at 4:18 pm

    I assumed Stephen Fry would know all about Yasser Arafat, being as how he’s so learned. On Q I last night he called Yasser “a Palestinian with no homeland!” Very amusing. Does he know that Yasser was a Cairo-born Egyptian who not only led the Palestinian movement, but invented it? Or invented the term “Palestinian” as a tag for the Arab refugees that fled in 1948, and their descendants.
    You’d think someone would have noticed the link between the inventor of the term ‘Palestinian’ and other inventions they discussed on the programme, some of which culminated in the untimely deaths of their inventor, since *inventions* was the actual subject of this episode.
    They began discussing imaginary friends. Sean Lock was being quite funny, then:

    Fry: “It was actually Yasser Arafat of all people who said the history of religious wars is the history of people fighting over their imaginary friends. It’s weird, the leader of the PLO, the man who founded the Palestinian movement, which is now of course such a …… is so bound up with religious extremism, was himself rather sceptical about it all. The world has hardly come on, has it? Let’s be honest.”

    Sean Lock. “The most interesting thing I know about him….. he married a French woman. You wouldn’t  think he’d do that, would you?”

    Fry: “It’s not beyond the bounds of reason.”

    Lock: “You’d think, he’s very interested in helping his local area…. he’d choose one of his local women.”

    Fry: “Yes, well he very nature of being a Palestinian meant he had no homeland in which to live, so it’s quite likely he would choose someone from a homeland where he’d had to reside in exile.  And many did in France in fact, for a while.”

    (Does that make sense?) So poor old Yasser had no homeland in which to live. Mainly because he’d refused all offers of one, whipped up his followers into a frenzy of violence, sent his convent-educated  wife off to live in Tunis (and Paris) with $1.3 billion he’d siphoned off from various kinds of funding, she spent it all, asked for hand-outs from Gaddafi and Ben Ali, and they fell out over it. (with each other and with her.)
    Just the topic for a bit of light-hearted ill-informed banter from professor Fry.

    Alan Davies: “Or maybe she was just an imaginary wife.”

    Fry:  “Or maybe she was just damn hot. Foxy.”
    Bill Bailey: “Was he a….?”
    Fry. “A pussy hound? I don’t know.”
    BB: “ I’m intrigued that you thought that was what I was about to say.”
    Upon which they lapsed back into drivel.

       0 likes

    • Grant says:
      October 15, 2011 at 5:07 pm

      For a supposedly educated man, Stephen Fry is unbelievably stupid !

         0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:
        October 15, 2011 at 8:13 pm

        Fry is an extremely nasty piece of work, albeit one dressed in fogeys tweeds.
        The man is a convenient “mental health survivor” but when I saw him enraged and in tears-near enough unable to speak-when gently probed by Anne Widdicombe about his atheism in some programme a few years back…I knew we had a bona fide fruit loop.
        His books like “The Liar” and “Moab is my washpot” are spiritually very unhealthy, and he is a classic prep school self-loather with a Thesausus highlighted for his use.
        Peter Hitchens sums him up well-“he is the stupid persons idea of what a clever person would be like”.
        Truly a useful idiot for hire by any totalititarian regime with deep pockets and no principles…in short , the very epitome of self-satisfied entitlement that is the BBC itself!
        Fry would not make any kind of living without the BBC and his voiceovers…no examined life for this poltroon!

           0 likes

        • Grant says:
          October 15, 2011 at 8:40 pm

          cj,
          Yes, Fry’s self-loathing is so blatant.  I almost feel sorry for him but …………. 

             0 likes

      • james1070 says:
        October 15, 2011 at 9:36 pm

        Fry was always the least talented part of Fry and Laurie. The only way he can pay the bills is from BBC money.

        This is while his more talented partner Hugh Laurie went on to become the highest payed TV actor in history for House and the face of l’Oreal.

           0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      October 15, 2011 at 5:32 pm

      I bet Fry didn’t feel he had to get a Holocaust survivor’s approval to say that crap.

         0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:
      October 15, 2011 at 8:20 pm

      I too like Sean Lock and Bill Bailey etc.
      Yet once they get a certain amount of state money and exposure c/o the BBC; they seem entitled to riff and sneer about subjects that they know nothing about.
      You are dead right to be attuned to BBC bias in its so-called comedy output…Goebbels too knew the benefits of the cheap laugh that demonised the Jews at every turn.
      The likes of Bailey and Lock need to get out of the BBC and try and re-invent themselves bravely.
      Once they start being as fearless with Islam as they purport to be with Judaism, Christianity…then I`ll respect them again.
      Until then…like Ross and Brand…they are Kindertransport clowns seeking the easiest targets…and Israel/Christianity won`t stay so static and stupid for so long.
      After all…the BBC seems to like its rebels as long as they will shut up when the sports results come up…but we`re getting very tired of it!

         0 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:
      October 15, 2011 at 9:32 pm

      Put me in mind of this joke
      PALESTINIAN ROADMAP LEADS TO FRANCE

      The perfect solution for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

      Since the Palestinians want a homeland and it doesn’t seem that chopping Israel up even smaller than it already is, is a satisfactory solution, Let’s give France in the IslamoArabization stages… to the Palestinians!

      The French have already stated that nothing is worth fighting for. Besides, France has better irrigation and soil than the West Bank and Gaza strip. It’s the perfect solution. The French won’t even fight back.

      And how about a new name for this Franco-Palestine? How about Frankenstine?

      Let there be peace on Earth and let it begin with the French.

         0 likes

      • Reed says:
        October 16, 2011 at 4:23 am

        Not a bad idea, Teddy – just a little too close to home for my liking. Grievance-mongers often tend to maintain their victimhood status as a way of life. The English Channel isn’t wide enough to provide a sufficient buffer from that kind of mindset. We have enough in our midst already.

           0 likes

      • Span Ows says:
        October 16, 2011 at 7:13 am

        Frankenstine…very good  😀

           0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:
      October 15, 2011 at 9:38 pm

      The Yasser Arafat who  on the same day he signed the Declaration of Principles on the White House lawn in 1993, explained his actions on Jordan TV thus “Since we cannot defeat Israel in war, we do this in stages. We take any and every territory that we can of Palestine, and establish a sovereignty there, and we use it as a springboard to take more. When the time comes, we can get the Arab nations to join us for the final blow against Israel.”? That Yasser Arafat? These people tell the truth about their objectives over and over again but the BBC and others of that mindset just don’t seem to listen; odd isn’t it?!

         0 likes

  19. The Beebinator says:
    October 15, 2011 at 5:04 pm

    was reading al beebs news about the moonbat protesters around the globe and the story contained a link to a site that wanted  the people of the world to rise up! and gave details how to do it.

    and then at the bottom of the page, Al Beeb wanted protesters to contact them
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15319924

    http://15october.net/

    shocking

       0 likes

    • George R says:
      October 15, 2011 at 5:12 pm

      “City protest – Coalition will be delighted that bankers are getting the blame ”

      (by Harry Mount)

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/harrymount/100056944/city-protest-coalition-will-be-delighted-that-bankers-are-getting-the-blame/

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:
        October 16, 2011 at 7:25 am

        Slow news means such news as there is has to be helped along.

        Hence the handful of trusafarian numpties and back-end-of-bussers (seen more bad skin and teeth with posh accents than a Tim & Hortense Nice-but-Dim reunion) interviewed.

        And the thrust… again…

        ‘How ‘angry‘ are you….?’ Oh, awfully angry’

        “How disproportionate were the police?’ ‘Oh, they were beastly. I saw people touched by burly men‘

        What has been missing from our media estate, desperate for ratings nicely provided by the latest stirrers… ‘“What the heck are you actually on about?’

        Because so far, other than ‘down with this kind of thing’, these useful tools seem to have no idea.

        And the media appears to find that fine and dandy so long as they get the shots and vox pops they need to fill the 24/7 news maw.

           0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 16, 2011 at 7:35 am

      ‘and then at the bottom of the page, Al Beeb wanted protesters to contact them  
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-15319924  ‘

      This has to stop.

      The BBC is suppposed to be a news medium.

      Between twitter and such as this it is no more than a self-monitoring propaganda tool.

      Bet Mr. Mason’s iPhone is abuzz with scoops from within, even if he’s been told to ease of the imartiality-suicidal tweets. Well…

      paulmasonnews Paul Mason I have left the demo lots of groups discussing and camps setting up also lot of ppl leaving. Will blog monday.
      Can’t wait.

         0 likes

  20. George R says:
    October 15, 2011 at 5:20 pm

    EGYPT: Arab Spring/Islamic Winter.

    Will INBBC report this?:

    Egyptian state TV admits false reports of soldiers’ deaths, used to incite Muslims against Copts

    [Opening excerpt]:

    “As the army plowed armored personnel carriers into the crowd of protesters, state television worked to incite Muslims to ‘protect the army‘ from the Christians, and mobs of Muslims took to the streets to attack anyone they suspected of being a Christian. The abuse was compounded even in death as death certificates were falsified with causes of death such as ‘cardiac arrest caused by fear.’
    Future aid to Egypt should be in jeopardy over the massacre and over these developments. Rewarding Egypt through inaction invites more of the same behavior.”

       0 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:
      October 16, 2011 at 8:33 pm

      They BBC have reported it. They might have missed a few nuances, like it was the Egyprtian state media who provoked Muslims to attack the Copts, claiming they were attacking the soliders, although they were peacefully demonstrating. And that the soldiers purposefully shot, beat, and ran over the Copts with their vehicles, and that the claim that soldiers were killed by the Copts was false.

      The opening paragraph in their article really explains the BBC position on this story
      Egypt’s ruling council has denied that troops opened fire on Coptic Christian protesters and drove military vehicles into crowds during recent clashes, but many Egyptians have been left with a deepening sense of disenchantment with the authorities.

         0 likes

  21. George R says:
    October 15, 2011 at 7:29 pm

    “BBC spends TEN times more on Welsh radio than on English station with same number of listeners”

    By Daniel Miller

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049513/BBC-spends-TEN-times-Welsh-radio-English-station-number-listeners.html#ixzz1asdFAlPJ

       0 likes

  22. cjhartnett says:
    October 15, 2011 at 8:51 pm

    Being Saturday, the Today shows editors get to release the hounds for a good constitutional.
    Sadly, Sarah Montague continuse to chase parked cars-hence the rather flat nose and say eyes.
    Her hounding of Sir Michael Wishaw this morning was laughable. He will be the new OFSTED stooge who will preside over the graveyard rites of state sponsored compulsory schooling…but he`ll be one of Blairs/Browns “can-do” guys who will do it with brio.
    Poor Sarah-not being subject to state schooling, not ever and certainly not for her Jacastas and Justins-began the fearless inquisition on behalf of the non-listening unwashed.
    Will Sir Mike tell this programme how many teachers are crap?
    Well he couldn`t…not yet appointed.
    Sarah would have none of it…give us a percentage before the news will ya bub?
    No can do…so Sarah carries on regardless.
    Basically…it`s the fault of crap teachers and not superheads like Mike. The BBC knows nothing about crap employees…and how could it when they`re all as great as prep school Monty?
    Maybe whenever the BBCS presenters choose to spout on about state schools…the ones that they won`t do their “Any Questions” from…they might send us an icon of a stinky washing basket with tongs lifting out the unwasheds leotards after a “sesshun of meeja and danse studiz”.
    How much ARE Montys school fees…or is she hoing to keep the Hampstead Surestart going until she doesn`t need it?

       0 likes

  23. John Horne Tooke says:
    October 15, 2011 at 8:57 pm

    Even BBC “video journalists” have to be on side.
    https://twitter.com/#!/TonyNewsCamera

       0 likes

  24. John Horne Tooke says:
    October 15, 2011 at 9:06 pm

    I see the communists are copying the communists in Wall Street.
    https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23occupylsx

    “Police now have dogs and full riot gear to clear protest. Is there anyone left who cannot people see the democracy sham yet?”
    https://twitter.com/#!/willcommon

    Someone else who does not know what the woprd “democracy” means. Come on BBC why don’t you “Inform, Entertain and Educate” these idiots?

       0 likes

  25. Philip says:
    October 15, 2011 at 9:26 pm

    Even more censorship of Muslim sexual grooming by al-Beeb today.

    Prominence (with video no less), is given to a story of a Christian Pastor on the other side of the pond, who apparently failed to report child abuse in his diocese; but not a peep about the Swindon Imam found guilty of systematic child sexual abuse over a period of seven years.

    Something is seriously awry at the BBC when a local news story in Kansas City Missouri is given national promincence by a British news organisation-which completely ignores a similar (but arguably much more serious) story on its own patch.

    It is time something was done about the wilful self censorship of Muslim crime and the relentless pro-Islam shilling of our national broadcaster. It has gone way too far to be dismissed as merely ‘bias’.

       0 likes

  26. George R says:
    October 15, 2011 at 10:13 pm

    Will BBC-NUJ report this, at least for its demonstrating chums?:-


    “Taxpayers’ millions lost by EU-funded regional schemes.

     “Millions of pounds have been lost through mismanagement of a string of bizarre taxpayer-funded schemes.”


    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/8829410/Taxpayers-millions-lost-by-EU-funded-regional-schemes.html

       0 likes

  27. John Horne Tooke says:
    October 15, 2011 at 10:56 pm

    “Now that Dr Fox has gone, watch as the emboldened established powers turn their fire on Mr Gove – or on whichever secretary of state is trying most actively to take power from the bureaucracy which has misruled us for so long.”
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/8827281/With-Liam-Fox-gone-Michael-Gove-will-also-be-weakened.html

    It will be worth watching the BBC on this one.

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 16, 2011 at 9:39 am

      I think IDS is the only real conservative left on the front bench.
      If only they could get rid of him then Dave would have his dream team of spineless socialist weaklings.

         0 likes

  28. John Horne Tooke says:
    October 15, 2011 at 11:05 pm

    “Here’s how the Beeb might save some cash”
    http://www.spectator.co.uk/rodliddle/7301683/heres-how-the-beeb-might-save-some-cash.thtml

    Actually a better way would be to swap the “self promoting trailers” for advertisments. Some of them must last as long as the adverts on ITV.

       0 likes

  29. As I See It says:
    October 16, 2011 at 8:37 am

    Will Self – when he wasn’t drug addled – used to be an interesting and independently-minded satirist. I note he’s taken the BBC shilling. Up he pops on Radio 4 and he ticks all the BBC boxes. Anti-colonial – tick. Pro-windfarm – tick. According to a survey he has personally undertaken (on foot – that must have been some bender) the land between central London and the south coast has plenty of space for more people and more wind turbines! Mr Self: ‘Where do I sign for the licence payer funded cheque?’

       0 likes

  30. My Site (click to edit) says:
    October 16, 2011 at 9:07 am

    Newswatch this week was good value..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b015v23z/Newswatch_15_10_2011/?t=1m52s

    ‘To the most powerful, unelected and unaccountable person in the room.. Jeremy..’

    I’d say he did not like that one bit.

    Oh, and Mr. Paxman, what you and your merry band ARE not asking, but demanding from the public, is a compelled fee to fund your million plus salary to push your niche agendas via a £4Bpa propaganda tool. You like to dish it out mate; you sure can’t take it.

    ‘Are these charges fair..? We are joined by another braindead, arrogant, smug wimmin head of BBC tripe for a comfy exchange with smarmy Uncle Ray to say she doesn’t think it is.’

    Job done. Hilarious.

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 16, 2011 at 9:13 am

      Oh, and Jezza, that IS a big difference, in that I can choose my elected representative every few years, and kick ’em out if they fall short.

      You, dude, I have to put up with for ever, no matter what.

         0 likes

  31. Deborah says:
    October 16, 2011 at 10:04 am

    Yesterday morning on Radio 4 (it might have been Today or a later news bulletin) it was reported that ‘the BBC had heard that Gus O’Donnell’s investigation into Liam Fox’ would not be very positive towards Dr Fox.  Who was leaking what to whom I wonder.

    Then early evening we had Jim Murphy on the news using smear and innuendo (and apparently no substance) to link Werrity did to David Cameron. ‘Cameron must have been informed earlier’ and I want an investigation into what Cameron knew. (Or words to that effect).

    And by 11 pm last night on BBC News we were told ‘A Labour MP’ – when his name was given it wasn’t one we had ever heard of telling the police they should be investigating Werrity for fraud.  I wasn’t aware that MPs had the power to instruct the police to do anything.

    Dear Old Auntie will give a platform to any Labour anybody who ‘might’ ‘could’ or ‘suggest’ anything as long as it is anti Conservative.

       0 likes

  32. Craig says:
    October 16, 2011 at 10:13 am

    The was a report from Matthew Wells on the new anti-illegal immigration law in Alabama on Ed Stourton’s ‘Sunday’ this morning. This law, which Wells described as “the harshest law in state history”,  must be truly indefensible because there was not even one person in his report who had a good word to say about it, not even a police chief tasked with enforcing it. Either that or it was just another of those totally one-sided reports the BBC specialises in when discusses illegal immigration issues in the U.S. 

    We heard from an attorney, who called the law a “tragedy”, an 18-year old illegal who talked of the “fear” brought by the law, a business owner protesting against the law, a religious educator who also talked of “fear” (and, in Wells’ words, believes there’s “old-fashioned racism in the air”), a Catholic priest who quotes “Welcome the stranger among you” and that reluctant police chief.

    As well as this parade of enemies of the law, Wells talked of eerie, deserted streets, and blamed the closure of businesses on the new law. “Illegals are needed around here but no longer wanted,” he said. “If life’s to return here, they’ll need more immigration, not less,” he also said. This may or may not be true, but isn’t America in a recession at the moment? Might that not be part of the problem too? Matthew wasn’t saying.

    Surely someone supports the Alabama law. Presumably those who framed it support it. Surely some (doubtless a lot) of the voters of Alabama support it. Couldn’t Matthew Wells bring himself even to speak to such people? Who does he think he’s kidding when he airbrushes the other side of the argument out of his story?

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    • Craig says:
      October 16, 2011 at 10:32 am

      The other report on ‘Sunday‘ was a Kevin Bocquet report from Middlesbrough on youth unemployment. This was another of those reports where you’d be forgiven for thinking that all Middlesbrough’s many, long-standing problems were caused by the government that came into power in May last year (and the one that was in power before 1997, after the golden days of the 1970s).  
       
      Talk of poverty from someone at a youth mission, a young unemployed graduate talking of “government cuts”, a bishop says the area is being ignored and that people there are very cynical about Cameron’s ‘Big Society’, members of a charity talking of people going without food last winter, a young Muslim saying families are “being forced apart by economic need”, another Muslim “who runs a jobs club for people in the black and Asian communities” complains about a rise in racism and, finally, back to the bishop to moan about the government.   
       
      The reports on ‘Sunday’ always seem to be like this.

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      • david hanson says:
        October 16, 2011 at 11:05 am

        “another Muslim “who runs a jobs club for people in the black and Asian communities” complains about a rise in racism.”

        They just don’t see the irony do they? Presumably the whites can form their own sodding “job club” then.

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    • dave s says:
      October 16, 2011 at 6:01 pm

      I was driving early and heard this. I could barely credit such a one sided and clearly biased report. Not one single person in Alabama appeared to be in favour of enforcing the law of the land.
      Beyond bias into the absurd. That reporter had no intention of doing his job properly.
      Items like this do the BBC no credit at all.

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  33. D B says:
    October 16, 2011 at 10:22 am

    I just clicked on the livestream from the Occupy London website. A couple of protesters were talking to a journalist about media coverage of the protests. Unfortunatley the sound was terrible so I couldn’t make out much of what was being said but I did hear the journalist ask if what they were filming was being streamed live. On being told it was he said he was a bit uncomfartbale about it. “Yeah, your job could be on the line,” said one of the protesters. “It’s just that I’m not an official BBC spokesman,” replied the journo. Whatever was being discussed it all looked very cosy.

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    • D B says:
      October 16, 2011 at 10:28 am

      “uncomfartbale” meant “uncomfortable” of course, although the sound was so poor he may well have said uncomfartbale.

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      • cjhartnett says:
        October 16, 2011 at 11:32 am

        Happily though…Laura Penney is safe and free to blog the Beeb from sunny Madrid!
        Why was she there then?…a better class of sangria to swill as you phone in your tripe for the Statesman…and, of course: those agitprop groomers at the BBC?
        Who knows…but heavens to Betsey…couldn`t she have seen a good burn up here without adding to the carbon footprint?
        She`s no friend of Gaia is she boys and girls?

           0 likes

        • My Site (click to edit) says:
          October 16, 2011 at 2:28 pm

          Blimey, last I knew she was being cheered on by Mr. Mason as she sorted out Washington.

          What a busy bee.

          Fomenting revolution seems a lot more air-miles heavy these days.

          I wonder how they handle upgrades to ‘Business’ Class?

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  35. John Horne Tooke says:
    October 16, 2011 at 10:53 am

    Its funny how the bankers were “greedy” under Labour but these communist rabble did not “occupy” anything then.

    Lets hope the new cheif at the Met is not like the last one. Protest is legal occupation is not.

    “to require that free passage along the highway is not wilfully obstructed in any way (Highways Act, 1980, Section 137).

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  36. Craig says:
    October 16, 2011 at 10:54 am

    When the BBC were investigating scandals in private care homes for the elderly, many at B-BBC noted how reporters and interviewers kept remembering to include the word “private” in their pieces, not just saying “care homes”. So when the Care Quality Commission’s damning report into standards of care in 100 NHS hospitals is being discussed, you might expect a BBC presenter to keep on saying “NHS hospitals” rather than just “hospitals”. Not so Shaun Ley, previewing ‘The World This Weekend’ for Paddy O’Connell this morning:  
     
    “Meanwhile the Charity ‘Action on Elder Abuse’ will be talking about last week’s report from the CQC on neglect of the elderly in hospitals.”  
     
    Shaun, they were “public”, “NHS” hospitals failing the elderly so scandalously. 

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  37. Craig says:
    October 16, 2011 at 11:09 am

    Paddy O’Connell (who probably has Walter Mitty-like fantasies of heroically leading the People to victory over capitalism) is trying to get the term ‘Financial Spring‘ flying, to describe the many hundreds of anti-capitalist protesters spreading like a very, very small contagion around the world. He means this as a counterpart to the ‘Arab Spring’, of which he and his programme (‘Broadcasting House’) were such happy-clappy exponents. 

    He tried in out on Twitter last night: 

        Protests: Get ready for “Financial Spring,”

    I put the term into ‘Search’ on Twitter and it looks like he’s the only one using the term.

    He pushed it again on his show this morning:

    Protestors seeking a ‘Financial Spring’ took to the streets in co-ordinated events this weekend.

    Paddy Spart is at it again.

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    • cjhartnett says:
      October 16, 2011 at 11:28 am

      Typical of the Gucci socialists and Bollinger Bolshevik types that have infested the public media in this country.
      How many Haw Haws are we expected to put up with? Are we so stupid as to just offer them an open vein and let these blood sucking parasites drink themselves stupid.
      They sound stupid enough already.
      I note that the BBC keep telling us that these bob a job wastrels “speak with one voice”…oh really?
      Apart from them folding back of stuff about the Tory cuts as dished up to by the BBC, I don`t hear TOO much about the EU/Eurozone/ BBCs hegemony on the public discourse.
      Nor do I see too much about Liam Fox or phone hacking…but I imagine the Blue Peter munchkins are sending down camera-friendly placards for the 6pm news bulletins as I write.
      So…no stuff about unaffordable aid, nothing about the EU/democratic scandals and absolutely NOTHING about having to pay a compulsory levy to be brainwashed by our BBC overseers!
      It reall is about time we hurled these media monkeys off our backs and started again.
      If it`s not on medium wave or analogue…we really ought to take it to the ECJ in regard of being forced into signing up to the Beebs carbon catastrophe of all those tellies and radios we can no longer use.
      What of “our BBC”…what of “our rights not to be excluded”…what about whiteys rights here m`lud?
      I`m feeling so vulnerable today…where`s Cherie or Shami when I need them?

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      • Craig says:
        October 16, 2011 at 12:29 pm


        Paddy O’Connell talked first to a London protester called Ronan. These are his questions, which will tell you all you need to know about that interview:  
         
        “Welcome to our programme, Ronan. Why are you there?”         “Do you feel linked to women in New York, youths in Greece, old men in Rome?”  
        “You’re telling me there’s a politicisation of a generation perhaps [no, he wasn’t telling Paddy that. That’s just what Paddy apparently wants to believe]. I wonder if you can tell me about the scene. Are you going to move? You must be cold!”          
         
        There was then an interesting double interview with “student organiser” Mark Bergfield and Tim Congden, professor of economics. Paddy kept plugging away at his Revolting Generation angle before saying, “Mark, can I ask you finally, can you tell me do you really feel connected with Annalise in Times Square. Here’s what she told a microphone about why she’s out there: “We’re out here as citizens, we’re out here as women, we’re here to talk with, to learn more from other people who are frustrated with the system. We’re here with people who know they are frustrated, they’re suffering and, like,want to have something done about it.” Is she speaking for you?”  
         
        After Mark said ‘yes, she is’, Paddy turned to his other guest and tried out his new slogan again, “That’s a ‘Financial Spring’ he wants Professor Congden!”   
         
        You couldn’t make Paddy O’Connell up!

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  38. hippiepooter says:
    October 16, 2011 at 11:27 am

    It was quite noteworthy that the BBC have been quoting Daily Mail revelations over Fox/Werrity.  
     
    Just read this piece today in the Mail by Craig Murray alleging that Fox was the dupe of a Mossad plot.  
     
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049642/Was-Mossad-using-Fox-Werritty-useful-idiots-Ex-Ambassador-reveals-links-advisers-set-alarm-bells-ringing.html      
     
    The following statements struck me as rather odd and prompted a bit of research into the author of the piece, Craig Murray:-  
     
    “Israel is not a military ally of the UK.”  
     
    “Let us hope that Fox’s fall will remind future Defence Secretaries that there is only one country whose interests they should seek to defend”  
     
    Ahh .. *This Craig Murray:-  
     
    http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2010/03/mossad_murder_f/  
     
    “I still recall the passion of David Mellor when an FCO minister, on seeing the suffering of Palestinians at first hand. There was a man with the same approach diplomatic as me!”  
     
    And here we have Mr Murray singing the praises of Peter Oborne  
     
    http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2011/10/radio-4-on-fox/  
     
    “Peter Oborne managed to get me on a BBC Radio 4 programme he was guest hosting”  
     
    Tories dont have much access to BBC airwaves, least of all on R4, but being a rampant anti-Semite always helps.  
     
    Harry’s Place has more info on how Murray will shill for an anti-Semitic nutjob regime:-  
     
    http://hurryupharry.org/2007/03/29/murray-and-galloway-lay-the-blame/

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  39. D B says:
    October 16, 2011 at 12:38 pm

    @MsNiftyThrifty Alexandra Thrift Back at #LFF for my fourth film, Nick Broomfield’s SARAH PALIN- YOU BETCHA! Looking forward to seeing her for the fool that she is!
    And what does Ms Thrift do? “I work in publicity for the BBC.”

       0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:
      October 16, 2011 at 2:15 pm

      So, Ms. Boaden, this DNA-borne impartiality we are paying for… how’s that working out?

         0 likes

      • My Site (click to edit) says:
        October 16, 2011 at 2:17 pm

        Good publicity mind. At least, in reaching a broader audience.

        Just… less sure the message is quite as ‘on’ as my be hoped within hive central.

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    • John Horne Tooke says:
      October 16, 2011 at 2:47 pm

      I wonder how much these “publicists” cost to employ.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/contacts/publicist_a.shtml

      “As a publicist it is extremely important to conduct business with the most professionalism and ethical mannerism as possible.”
      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Publicist

      So how did she get the job?

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        October 16, 2011 at 2:57 pm

        Unfortunately, we now know from Mark Mardell’s appearance last month at the BBC College of Journalism that they believe Twitter doesn’t have to follow BBC rules. They can say whatever they like, be as biased and partisan and vicious as they like, and get away with it.

           0 likes

    • hippiepooter says:
      October 16, 2011 at 2:59 pm

      Hope you manage to find some time DB to do that complementary B-BBC for what Twitter shows us – no shortage of material!

         0 likes

  40. Craig says:
    October 16, 2011 at 3:01 pm

    Andrew Marr began his show today by reading out, in the light of the Fox affair, a mystery quote in the Observer from a politician warning of the dangers of lobbyists and the like. It turned out to be David Cameron from a few years ago. Fair enough, but he later decided to repeat it and add the politically-charged (but correct) point, “And yet we haven’t seen much done about it.” He made that political point to Baroness Helena Kennedy (Labour), of all people. She failed to take the intended bait as she wanted to attack wicked right-wing American neo-cons instead. He also put the same point to William Hague, who he gave an interruption-heavy grilling over Foxy – and those nasty neo-cons Hague has had dealings with – for some seven minutes before moving on to foreign affairs (and few interruptions). 

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    • Grant says:
      October 16, 2011 at 4:03 pm

      Funny how the BBC did not address these issues when Labour were in power.  I wonder why ? 

         0 likes

  41. Craig says:
    October 16, 2011 at 3:03 pm

    The interview with former U.S. peace envoy George Mitchell showed, to my mind, the simplistic ‘Israel is the stumbling block” mindset of our friends at the Beeb. On why he resigned his post, Marr asked, “Did you think that, actually, in the end, the United States didn’t have enough heft to shift the Israelis?” and then said, “Quite a few commentators, nonetheless, after President Obama made his great speech in Cairo and raised so many hopes, wondered why America didn’t do more, because in terms of military contacts and commercial contacts and cultural contacts and all the rest of it, it was [sic] the ability to put sort of pressure on Mr Netanyahu? You know, he’s a tough character, we all knew where he was coming from [laughing] and there didn’t seem to be that kind of pressure. Absent of that pressure, it was hard to see how things were going to change.”  
     
    Why do so many BBC types (Esler was another one on a recent ‘Newsnight’) keep hailing that Cairo speech as “great”? Is that for them to say, what with supposedly being impartial and all that?

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  42. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 16, 2011 at 3:11 pm

    The BBC woke up to fact that Herman Cain is now at the top of the Republican heap.  Mardell said he wouldn’t go far, and as recently as a month ago was dismissing the “pizza millionaire”.  Their profile of him lays out the biographical details without editorializing or sneering or playing it down, even allowing someone to say that he’s long been a favorite of the Tea Party movement.  Nowhere does Tom Goeghegan say this might mean they’re not driven by the crypto-racism Mardell is convinced is behind it all.

    But the intent of the whole piece is to dismiss Cain as a clown, a joke, a flash in the pan.  All quotes are about how he doesn’t really have a chance, or about questioning his plans and performance.  How unlike the glowing tributes to Candidate Obamessiah, which played down His utter lack of experience in the real world and were full of tributes rather than questions.

    The Beeboids are in lock-step with the US media and usual inside-the-Beltway suspects: Romney will be the nominee.

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    • Grant says:
      October 16, 2011 at 4:06 pm

      Funny, I would have thought, judging by Mardell’s physical appearance, he is very fond of pizzas.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:
        October 16, 2011 at 4:24 pm

        Mardell doesn’t object to pizzas: he objects to someone becoming relatively wealthy in the corporate world by – among other administrative accomplishments – turning around a corporation which employs over a thousand people to make them.

        The sneer is for the millionaire.  It’s amazing how Mardell’s session at the BBC CoJ is so directly relevant to what’s going on right now.

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  43. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 16, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    Occupy Minnesota led by Democrat precinct chairman.  This is grass-roots, BBC?

       0 likes

  44. Bupendra Bhakta says:
    October 16, 2011 at 3:48 pm

    ‘And by 11 pm last night on BBC News we were told ‘A Labour MP’ – when his name was given it wasn’t one we had ever heard of’ 

    ————————————————

    That would be John Mann, picked because he was ‘Mr Clean’ on expenses when details of all that thievery broke.

    He had and presumably has his wife on his (ie our) payroll under ‘her professional name’ – her maiden name to you and me.

    I would be the last to suggest that hiring her under ‘her professional name’ was in any way an attempt at obfuscation.

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  45. George R says:
    October 16, 2011 at 7:03 pm

    Will this affect INBBC ‘thinking’ on Islamic jihadists?:

    “The middle-class terrorists: More than 60pc of suspects are well educated and from comfortable backgrounds, says secret M15 file”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2049646/The-middle-class-terrorists-More-60pc-suspects-educated-comfortable-backgrounds-says-secret-M15-file.html#ixzz1ayNZpsYe

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  46. George R says:
    October 16, 2011 at 7:34 pm

    A story for BBC-greenies to censor for sake of their Brighton Green chums?:-  
     
     
    “Greens buy 4x4s to save them from global cooling.  
     
     
    Brighton’s Green-controlled council is banking on another big freeze this winter. ”  
     
     
    (by Christopher Booker). 
     
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/christopherbooker/8829407/Greens-buy-4x4s-to-save-them-from-global-cooling.html

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  47. George R says:
    October 16, 2011 at 7:55 pm

    Why didn’t INBBC get IRAN regime’s ‘PRESS TV’ to file this on jihad in TEXAS?

    Here is BBC PERSIAN SERVICE apologetics propagandising  sympathy for Iranian Muslim jihad suspect in Texas:

    “Friends’ shock at ‘Iran plot’ suspect Manssor Arbabsiar”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-15325686

    Ahmadinejad could hardly have put it better himself!

    We licencepayers love paying for all your propaganda, INBBC.

    Keep it up, and soon everyone will see through it.

       0 likes

  48. George R says:
    October 16, 2011 at 8:19 pm

    INBBC ‘reports’ EGYPT: ‘EGYPT’S GUEVARA DEAD’.

    Such is the dogmatic ‘leftist’ mindset of the likes of INBBC’s Ms KNELL, that she can only recognise the Islamic persecution of the Christans by her reference to Che Guevara.

    “Cairo’s Copts mourn their ‘Egyptian Guevara'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15312194

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:
      October 16, 2011 at 8:24 pm

      Wow.  Did this guy personally execute as many people as St. Che did?  Please remind us, BBC.

         0 likes

  49. sue says:
    October 16, 2011 at 8:44 pm

    Those naughty BBC headline writers are insinuating that Liam Fox was one of Mossad’s “useful idiots”.

    Ironic that they’re using a term normally applied to left-wing moralists like themselves, who champion Islam. (Whether deliberately, or even more ironically, inadvertently.)

    The BBC must have been listening to Craig Murray and Inyat Bunglawala. Inyat is a great admirer of Peter Oborne’s  “superb” C4 Dispatches documentary, (Jewish Lobby) so he would love this ridiculous theory, but should the BBC repeat this sort of gossip from useless agenda-driven hypocrites?

       0 likes

  50. David Preiser (USA) says:
    October 16, 2011 at 8:56 pm

    The most divisive President in US history just made things worse.  He gave a speech at the dedication of the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial today.  He said this:

    Progress, he said, can often be a slow and painful process. During the civil rights movement, “progress was purchased through enduring the smack of billy clubs and the blast of fire hoses. It was bought with days in jail cells and nights of bomb threats.” Every victory was met with setbacks and defeat, Obama said. Today’s America can draw strength from that struggle, from King’s belief that we are one people and from his refusal to give up, the president said.

    “Let us not be trapped by what is,” Obama said. “We can’t be discouraged by what is. We’ve got to keep pushing for what ought to be.”

    He noted that King “will stand for all time, among monuments to those who fathered this nation and those who defended it. A black preacher, no official rank or title, somehow gave voice to our deepest dreams and our most lasting ideas.”

    “I know we will overcome,” the president said. “I know there are better days ahead. I know this because of the man towering over us.”

    In other words, the oppression of blacks in the past is the same thing as what the Occupiers are complaining about today.  If you think I’m reading something into it that isn’t there, think again:

    “As we dedicate this monument, I can hear my father saying that oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever,” she said. “The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself … I hear my father saying what we are seeing now, all across the streets of America and the world, is a freedom explosion.”

    She called for “a radical revolution of values and reordering of priorities in this nation.”

    I won’t say that this President has always intended to destroy this country, but it’s hard to imagine what He’d do differently if that was His goal.

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