OPEN THREAD


Friday draws to a close, the weekend beckons, and so a NEW Open Thread for you. It’s endorsed by the IMF and Merkozy, so what more need I add….go for it…

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129 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. David Preiser (USA) says:

    The Today segment on the “bitter division” in the Jewish community is a real one-sided deal. Chief Rabbi Sachs is going to retire in a couple years, so what will the next one be? The Reform sect is portrayed as tolerant and liberal (they’re liberal but not tolerant, in my experience), as opposed to “orthodox” Jews. We’re told the Reform Jews are sympathetic towards not only homosexual couples but parents who don’t want to circumcise their boys.  Well, that’s the very first covenant with God, so if they’re abandoning that, all bets are off.  
     
    The complaint about the current Chief Rabbi highlights the folly of such a position, but the BBC plays it from one side only.  The only problem, apparently, is that Rabbi Sachs doesn’t like the Reform Jews.  It’s wrong, we’re told, to have such a divisive figure as Chief Rabbi.  Well, why would an über-liberal trendy Rabbi be any better?  If it’s a woman, she’d hardly be tolerant or accepting of the orthodox community.  Nor would a gay Rabbi be any more of a uniter.  
     
    The whole idea is a joke, of course, as there is no such thing as a heirarchy in Judaism as there is in organized Churches.  The piece does admit that the position of Chief Rabbi was basically a convenience set up so the Jews would have some representation in certain circumstances back in the day, but surely today the title is a misnomer, as he isn’t Chief of anything.  The position has no authority, and he’s little more than a token representative at various functions.  I guess that has its purpose once in a while, but that’s about it.  So what difference does it make if he likes homosexual marriage or Jews who don’t do any of their traditions at all?  It’s a stupid debate.  
     
    The real division is the same as it has been since Moses Mendelson started writing about finding one’s own path through reason rather than dogma.  Hell, if you want you can go back nearly 2000 years to the rival schools of Hillel and Shamai. There are any number of levels of orthodoxy among Jews, which is of course too complicated for the BBC’s simplistic segment.  Here we’re left with either the extreme liberal end or an undefined orthodox tradition.  It’s impossible to get a reasonable picture of reality from this, as there’s no discussion whatsoever of the middle ground where most Jews dwell.  
     
    Naturally, as this is the BBC, they side with the liberals, and the only answer is that the next Chief Rabbi must be accepting of people who don’t follow any Jewish traditions at all except attending the superficialities of a few holidays.  In fact, the entire segment is rather offensive to observant Jews.

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    • Demon1001 says:

      Interesting David.  I don’t know too much about the ins and outs of Judaism apart from what I have picked up here and there.  My American cousin once sent me an email telling me that his new son had had his Bris.  I had to think about what it meant and guessed, I then confirmed my guess with an Israeli on a football site I’m a member of. 

      He told me that he and his wife had refused to do the same to their son as they regarded it as barbaric.  I was surprised as it was the first time I had heard that any Jews had not gone in for it.  I had assumed that it was a fundamental tenet of being a Jewish male. 

      Back to the point of what you wrote, it’s always the same with the BBC (with one glaring exception) that anything old and traditional is evil and anything modern, particularly if it scores points in the BBC lexicon of worthiness (active promotion of homosexuality, feminism etc.), must be trumpeted from the highest high.  That definitely includes Christianity (there was a thread on this the other day) and Judaism.  It particularly backs anyone that is anti-Zionist like the modern, very secular BBC-lovey-Jewish born type.  Anybody that wants to defend Israel is considered beyond the pale. 

      No prizes for guessing the one glaring exception mentioned above.  This is the one old, totally unreconstructed medieval belief system that the BBC can’t get enough of.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Ritual genital mutilation is definitely a fundamental tenet of being a Jewish male.  It’s when the child is officially named, officially becomes a person.  People are certainly entitled to feel that it’s barbaric.  But that doesn’t mean it’s an optional part of Jewish tradition. It’s not. It’s most likely the oldest tradition there is, going back hundreds of years before any laws were handed down. Obviously, that’s part of the whole  argument about liberal Reform and all that.

        My complaint is that Piggott framed the entire issue as the extreme Liberal position (which fits in with the BBC’s post-modern relativist worldview) being equally valid (which is only one opinion), and that someone with an orthodox perspective is divisive and somehow not good enough to represent Jews.

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    • cjhartnett says:

      The BBC were off like rabbits to Maidenhead where their favourite Reform Jew…Jonathan Romaine I think his name is…has his synagogue.
      I`m pretty sure he`s the bloke that doesn`t want faith schools, and is prepared to give up the Jewish schools in the cause of Labours EU Grand Vision of no religion but the NHS.
      He`s clearly the house approved Jew of choice…so there`s no reason to doubt that his view will be the one I set my face against.
      The Today piece twice mentioned women dancing and siniging with the men…and the piece ended on that wonderful vision of Kabul nail bars and a creche at the Al Aqsa Mosque!
      I rate Jonathan Sacks even more now…if he`s an Orthodox fundamentalist in disguise it only shows how skewered the BBC version of a faith is.
      Except for Islam of course…the macho greased gold plated poseur of a faith with semtex in its trunks…the Beeb seems to get a kick out of that…wonder why?

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    • Deborah says:

      I heard the segment on the Today programme – immediately after the story about Cameron using his veto.  I guess at that point the Today really hadn’t decided how they were going to attack him.  So the next most important story after Europe was the appointment of the Chief Rabbi in 2013?  I am not really sure this is a story for non-Jews at all until the appointment is decided.  Who decided it was that important – and why now?

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    • Millie Tant says:

      There is a synagogue a mile down the road from me where I used to attend evening lectures and studies in Jewish theology, Rabbinic literature, history, culture etc once a week.
      I had no idea when I first went there that this was a Liberal synagogue or what that meant though I did find out that they were progressive, modern and keen on the rights of women and homosexuals. I don’t recall about circumcision, though. The rabbi there at the time was a human dynamo, always and everywhere in the thick of things, involved in wider communal activity, setting up Christian and Jewish dialogue groups, being a local elected Councillor and magistrate as well as lecturer, writer, congregational Rabbi, husband and father. He is now the chief executive of the UK’s Liberal Jews, who are like the American Reform Jews and are the third major group, numerically, in the UK. The other two in the UK are the Orthodox and the Reform groups. The UK Reform Jews are modern too but more conservative than the Liberals and have a bigger organisation with more synagogues. These days, my local synagogue has a young female Rabbi, combining motherhood and family life with her religious role.

      I enjoyed this story from the Reform web site:

      Perhaps the most telling story relating to the development and authority of halachah is the story of the Oven of Akhnai, in which Rabbi Eliezer engages in a disagreement with the rest of the Rabbis. He calls on a series of miracles to prove his case but in each case the Rabbis retort that no proof can be brought from miracles. Finally, Rabbi Eliezer calls on God to prove his case, and a Heavenly Voice attests that he is correct. The Rabbis retort “It is not in heaven,” which is explained as meaning that since God had given the Torah to human beings and since the Torah says that we should always follow the majority opinion (Ex. 23:2), we pay no attention to a Heavenly Voice that contradicts the majority! The end to this remarkable story is that at that hour God laughed with joy, saying “My children have defeated Me, My children have defeated Me.” (Babylonian Talmud: Bava Metzia 59b).

      http://www.reformjudaism.org.uk/a-to-z-of-reform-judaism/contemporary-issues/halachah.html

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    • deegee says:

      Just for the record according to Wikipedia:
      Religion
      There are some 409 synagogues in the UK, and it is estimated that 74 percent of the country’s Jews are affiliated with one. Of those affiliated, the affiliations are distributed across the following groupings:
      Central Orthodox (“consisting of the United Synagogue, the Federation of Synagogues and independent Orthodox synagogues”) – 54.7%
      Reform (Movement for Reform Judaism and Westminster Synagogue and Chaim V’Tikvah) – 19.4%
      Strictly Orthodox (“synagogues aligned with the Union of Orthodox Hebrew Congregations and others of a similar ethos”) – 10.9%
      Liberal (Liberal Judaism and Belsize Square) – 8.7%
      Sephardi – 3.5%
      Masorti (Assembly of Masorti Synagogues) – 2.7%

      In other words, assuming the Chief Rabbi is elected and voting goes with affiliation whoever succeeded Rabbi Sachs would have a clear majority. Actually if the election came down to a Reform and an United Synagogue (the largest synagogue body in the UK) candidate the win would be even more decisive as the Strictly Orthodox (Ultra?) and Sephardi would inevitably form an alliance with him.

      As noted the authority of the Chief Rabbi extends no further than those synagogues that chose to accept it however having a representative of the Jewish Community is important for ceremonial occassions.  

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  2. john in cheshire says:

    As a general observation : why is it that arsehole countries such as Belgium and Luxembourg feel they can lecture us, the UK, on matters; any matters. I believe that Belgium wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for us. And luxembourg is just ridiculous; benelux. It sounded wonderful, I suppose in the 1950s. Now, it is risible. Thanks to the EU and our prostrate political stratum, every piece of flotsam in the world thinks they can abuse us with impunity. That’s what you get with socialism.

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    • cjhartnett says:

      Hear Hear!
      To see pigmies from Lithuania as well as the likes of Prodi and Juncker(the clue is in the name!) getting the BBC slavering over their well oiled spats only shows how craven and reduced we are as a nation.
      That Cameron didn`t let Sarkozy do a vasectomy on what remains of the nations cojones in the early hours of the morning seems to be the crime.
      That the BBC elect are so appalled at the chance of not getting a croissant at Berleymont this weekend really seems to have upset the journos and the junkets.
      Poor old Justin Webb seemed awful upset as he continually squauked at wee Willie Hague this morning. Like Jim yesterday…the poor drooling Tourettes of the tolerant liberals seems to be most evident when the chance comes to take the British oiks out of any loop that ensures plumped cushions and sinecures on the gravy train for them…and carnage for we the white trash that don`t see just how great and self-evident they and their prognostications really are!
      Too much of matrons slipper and cod liver oil at prep school I`m guessing…

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      • Span Ows says:

        benelux…now if that isn’t perfect for “beneficial electrical appliances for all your household needs”…

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  3. Cassandra King says:

    From Anne Coulter telling a story that the BBC do not want you to hear about their favourite OWS  rent a rabble.

    Last week, the great minds of the OWS movement, bored with playing bocce ball and getting stoned, decided to protest at the homes of Wall Street’s robber barons. They then proceeded to walk right past George Soros’ apartment building to protest at the homes of Rupert Murdoch and David Koch.
    THEY’RE NOT WALL STREET!
    You may not like Koch and Murdoch’s products – fertilizer and media – but neither one has anything to do with Wall Street. Unlike money manipulators such as John Corzine (Democrat), Robert Rubin (Democrat) and George Soros (Democrat and Obama’s biggest supporter), Koch and Murdoch make money from corporations that actually produce something.
    They take risks, make things and get menaced by the government. Wall Street schemers take no risks, produce nothing and get bailed out by the government.
    Even assuming, for purposes of argument, that Koch and Murdoch are as evil as these morons seem to think, the protesters call their demonstration “Occupy Wall Street,” not “Occupy Businesses Whose Products We Disapprove Of.”
    This would be like protesting the Holocaust by walking past Adolf Hitler’s house and protesting at O.J. Simpson’s house.
    The Flea Partiers try to win good will by pretending to protest “Wall Street” – but they ignore Wall Street’s villains. They claim to speak for 99 percent of Americans, but their sponsor, George Soros, would be delighted if America collapsed and the 99 percent were impoverished. All he cares about is his own power and pocketbook.
    Recall that when the markets first opened after 9/11 and little grandmothers in Iowa were patriotically calling their local savings banks to find out how to buy a share of stock so that the American stock market wouldn’t crash because of the terrorist attack, Soros said: Sell, sell, sell!
    Now he’s helping the cretinous Occupy Wall Street protesters.
    Liberals love mob movements because you can’t get mobs to think, which is perfect for Democratic ideas.
    Do the Wall Street protesters even know that Obama got more money from Wall Street than any other candidate, ever?
    These pea-brained protesters either admire or have never heard of the most egregious of the Wall Street looters and their co-conspirators: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick, Jim Johnson, Rahm Emanuel, Chris Dodd and Barney Frank. Democrats all!
    They have no idea that George Soros has a hand-in-glove relationship with the Democrats, having bought a whole slew of them, including Obama, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Charles Schumer, Joe Biden, John Kerry, Patrick Leahy, John Corzine, Barbara Boxer, Mary Landrieu, as well as the Democratic National Committee.
    Hamptons-vacationing, helicopter-flying, Russell Simmons party-attending New York bankers always give about 80 percent of their political contributions to Democrats.
    And the Democrats always return the favor.
    In the 1990s, President Bill Clinton repeatedly bailed out his friends at Goldman Sachs and Citibank under the tutelage of his treasury secretary, Robert Rubin – former chairman of Goldman Sachs. U.S. taxpayers were fleeced to prop up nations that were about to default on risky bonds purchased by Goldman and Citibank, such as Mexico (in 1995), Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea (in 1997) and Russia (in 1998).
    Of course, if the bonds turned a profit, only Goldman and Citibank would benefit.
    This is the Democrats’ idea of “capitalism”: Rich, Democratic-donating bankers get to engage in wild risk-taking; if the bets pay off, they keep all the winnings, but if the bets lose, they still keep the winnings, and the taxpayers get stuck with the bill.
    Democrats are firm believers in the welfare state for their own constituents, whether that’s a crack addict mother of five or a Wall Street banker.
    Of course, if the bonds turned a profit, only Goldman and Citibank would benefit.

    to be continued:

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    • Cassandra King says:

      Part 2

      This is the Democrats’ idea of “capitalism”: Rich, Democratic-donating bankers get to engage in wild risk-taking; if the bets pay off, they keep all the winnings, but if the bets lose, they still keep the winnings, and the taxpayers get stuck with the bill.
      Democrats are firm believers in the welfare state for their own constituents, whether that’s a crack addict mother of five or a Wall Street banker.
      Are the protesters aware that the Democrats’ 2010 “financial reform” bill provides for future bailouts of reckless banks? Goldman Sachs and Citibank strongly supported the bill.
      The protesters don’t care – they have no interest in actual malfeasance by actual Wall Street bankers. They’re too busy denouncing Fox News (which did not, incidentally, receive a taxpayer-funded bailout).
      And these are the intellectuals of the Occupy Wall Street movement! Never mind the ones who just think stuff should be free and America is the moral equivalent of al-Qaida. They either know that they are benefiting Wall Street looters or are utterly brainless.
      Given a choice between Wall Street looters and protesters defecating in the street, throwing rocks at police and chanting “F— the USA,” most people will choose Wall Street.
      As always, the mob is serving liberalism.

      Here we have the truth that the BBC does not want the public to know about, it is protecting the likes of Corzine and Soros and all the rest of the carpet bagger profiteers. Their part in the collapse of the West is a story the BBC will not be telling.

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      • john in cheshire says:

        Cassandra, and I think that if the OWS dross had maybe spent some of their free time reading Atlas Shrugged, they would perhaps have seen themselves for the useful idiots that they undoubtedly are.

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      • Cassandra King says:

        Now the moral of the story is that some of the absolute dregs and scum of the earth have a symbiotic relationship with rent a rabble protest groups like OWS.

        Stunningly ignorant foot soldiers of the new order are essential whether they are OWS or anti austerity or CND or anti war or anti capitalist. They are useful idiots which the snake oil conmen use and abuse. While these useful idiots are manipulated the real villains get rich and richer, they pull the levers of power and manipulate the press and control their useful idiots.

        This is the reality of the West in terminal decline and the rich vermin behind this decline a reality the BBC will not show, will not reveal not least because it is an integral and central player.

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      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Good stuff, Cassie. I’d love to see Mardell or Dymond or some other supposedly credible Beeboid do a story on George Soros and the various Democrat and Progressive movements in the US.  I won’t hold my breath, though.

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  4. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Continuing the Occupy theme, the BBC’s little darlings just shut down filming of an episode of Law and Order here in NYC.  Apparently the show is doing some story line involving the Occupiers (no word yet on whether it’s about the rapes, the drug dealing, the vandalism, or the deaths, although it’s most likely totally sympathetic to their free speech demands), and set up a mock encampment in a park across from the city court, trying to replicate the tents at Zuccotti Park before it was cleared out.

    The Occupiers didn’t like that at all, and about 100 of them stormed the set and shut down production, causing the city to kick the Law and Order production out of the park altogether.

    It’s schadenfreude time, because all the Law and Order luvvies are of the Left, just like their Hollywood brethren, and mostly support the Occupiers as much as the BBC does.  They deserve each other, quite frankly.  I wonder if any of the Occupy cheerleaders at the BBC will report this?

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    • Louis Robinson says:

      David P: the closing down of “Law and Order” couldn’t happen to a nicer unit! The creator (millionaire/billionaire) Dick Wolf is a huge Lib and has been peppering his show with snide leftist comments for years. Now it’s nice to see him being bitten in the butt – and of course NBC who transmits the show here in the US.

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  5. Lewis Duckworth says:

    Should the BBC not relocate their main headquarters to Brussels?

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    • john in cheshire says:

      New Leningrad, more like.

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      • Louis Robinson says:

        I think the BBC’s move to Salford is punishment enough. (Sorry, Salford). Just think, if you live in Birmingham and are employed by the Beeb the only show you can work on now is – “The Archers”. Also, the year they move to the north, they all have to return to London for the Olympics. Hotels. “Away from home” expenses. That’s clever. Never mind, the income stream is a steady one. hand over more cash…

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        • NotaSheep says:

          I always thought the timing of moving the BBC’s sports radio station from Londin to Salford less than a year before the LONDON 2012 Olympics was beyond belief.

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    • London Calling says:

      And for the same reasons as moving the BBC to Brussels (to save on taxi receipts), perhaps they should relocate Richard Black to Antarctica, so he can report briefly live from an iceberg shared with a hungry polar bear.

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  6. Daniel Smith says:

    Its been hilarious to see the glum faces on the BBC over Cameron’s rare show of backbone over Europe. In funereal tones they mumble out “isolated”, “the consensus here is against them”, “alone”, “Majority of one”
    Now on BBC NEWS24 gave a long soapbox to coalition liberal member Lord Oakshot to savage the “Tory rightwing” and talk about job cuts unchallenged, while Amroliwallah kept saying “majority of one” and repeating back to him Nick Clegg’s own criticisms of Cameron. Then a Conservative was brought on to receive the same questions.

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  7. Martin says:

    It is quite amusing to see the BBC (and C4 news) try to tell us that we’re no longer at the heart of Europe. We never were, nor should we be.

    Britain was (and should still be) a global trading nation, the EU is an inward looking protectionist bunch of corrupt wankers, I’d leave them to it.

    If the Euro lot want a trade war then fine, but I suspect the bosses at BMW, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, VW, Peugeot, Renault, Citroen, Ferrari and Fiat wouldn’t be impressed, especially as outside of the USA we’re one of the biggest markets for top mark cars. 

    Add in German, French and Italian wine etc and we could hurt them just as much as they us and I’m quite sure at the moment no one needs a trade war.

    What the BBC is really gutted about is that Cameron has made himself look a tougher leader and most people will like that. I’m betting that there will be a couple of opinion polls out this weekend showing him to be seen as doing the right thing, you can bet if that is the case the BBC will simply ignore those polls.

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    • john in cheshire says:

      I won’t buy german cars on principle. At least the Japanese have created jobs in our country, and they have the most reliable and affordable cars. I’d be happy to drink only New World and American (North and South) wines because they’re good and affordable. I really dislike german wines because they’re to sweet and french wines, the very expensive ones are world beating, but generally are quite poor.
      What else do we need the main EU countries for? What we need, we can get elsewhere and for lower prices.
      And a main benefit would be to recover our fishing grounds; the EU have despoiled them for decades and devastated our indigenous fishing communities (yes, an indigenous set of communities).
      We could repeal all the atrocious HSE and Human Rights/Equality legislation, and get rid of vast numbers of people off the public teat and export millions of immigrants to the rest of the EU, and let them benefit from their enrichment.

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    • NotaSheep says:

      If you read my old pieces on the BBC’s Poll Tracker you will discover how and when the BBC choose to report opinion polls and when not 😉

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  8. fred bloggs says:

    Flanders News24 19:45  She has just said that Cameron has jep[odised Europe for the sake of our finacial industy, which is a small percentage of GDP.   Sack the silly cow.

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    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      If she did in those terms, it certianly was an opinion that seems incompatible with national broadcasting objectivity, and at odds with the vast spectrum of expert view unfolding still.

      In aniteresting staking of position, and reputation.

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      • fred bloggs says:

        it is also an example of the continual negative comments and innuendo given by the bBC against their core anti subjects.

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      • NotaSheep says:

        But as expected from someone who previously had ‘relations’ with Ed Balls and Ed Miliband.

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  9. Hugh says:

    Interesting exchange on Jeff Randall Live on Sky. Joel Hills who is presenting a Eurozone Crisis edition just interviewed Derek Scott, Tony Blair’s former chief economic advisor. Clearly Hills thought he could peddle the BBC/Miliband ‘ … isolated in Europe’ line and found that Scott thought this utter drivel, as in his view, the Euro is going to tank because many member states are economically uncompetitive, and throwing more money at the situation will just make it worse. Hills tried the line several times and was met with a fierce rebuttal each time. Scott reminded Hills that the UK had stood along before and was often right to do so.   
     

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    • cjhartnett says:

      I do wonder about the quality of staff that Jeff leaves behind.
      This Hills bloke was a classic Beeboid in the vacuous bland Webb mould…he was put in his place repeatedly by wiser older men, but up he popped like a weeble.
      Randall is foolish to let the chance of asking the Lawsons, Scotts and Terry Smiths questions that will help the rest of us understand.
      To expect any sense from Oakeshott, Miliband etc is typical Beeb stuff…yet there was Rupert letting Hills cut his teeth.
      Quality control please Mr Randall!

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  10. ap-w says:

    Amazing that even when the BBC is having the busiest day of European propaganda overdrive in living memory it still finds the space among the “out in the cold” stories to put up the headline “Thatcher’s Belgano critic dies”. For anyone for whom this wasn’t a key moment in their life, this is to bring to public light the passing away of the lady who during the Falklands War thought that from Cirencester the sinking of a defenceless enemy warship looked a bit rum. Anyone who saw the BBC-produced tribute to its own programme “Nationwide” a couple of years ago will know quite what a hero she still is (sorry, was) to the BBC.  Recalling the incident, Roger Bolton told how Denis Thatcher after the programme dared to say out loud “Bloody BBC pinkos”. “He really said that” assured Bolton. “What a cliche”. 

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    • Buggy says:

      According to her obituary in the DT today (and Lord knows its presence there is a further indication that the Telegraph is continuing to drive towards the cliff with the foot firmly fixed to the gas pedal, bearing in mind that e.g. Susan Strasberg only got two lines in the addendum section a few years back (pre Barclay Terror) rather than the proper obit she surely deserved):

      “The encounter has since been rated by readers of the Radio Times as the ninth best interview of all time.”

      Strange that I don’t remember it at all then, even though as a committed junior warmonger (we had a beflagged map on the classroom wall, much to the despair of our right-on form mistress) I was pretty much viewing and reading everything to do with Falklands II at the time.

      Couldn’t be that the dear old house organ’s competition wasn’t entirely on the level, surely ? 😛

      I’d put good money on No.1 on the list being Paxo vs Howard.

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      • ap-w says:

        Funnily enough the Paxman v Howard interview also came to mind as one of the other moments the BBC loves to self-perpetuate as being great television, along with the time Ian Hislop laid into Jeffrey Archer’s wife on Question Time, which was in their compilation of all-time greatest moments of Question Time a couple of years ago when they were inducing themselves into a state of excitement about some anniversary of it. My own favourite Question Time moment was when David Dimbleby was grilling Boris Jonson on whether he could accept a herditary House of Lords, and Boris Johnson pointed out that sometimes a bit of nepotism isn’t such a bad thing – “look at the excellent Dimblebys for example”. Never seen that one repeated though.

        Anyway, sleep well folks, it’s our first full day in isolation from Europe tomorrow.

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        • Reed says:

          Anyway, sleep well folks, it’s our first full day in isolation from Europe tomorrow.

          I like to think of it as the first day of our gradual ‘emancipation from Europe‘, but I know that’s very optimistic. 🙂

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          • Reed says:

            Quote of the Day at Guido’s :

            Terry Smith, CEO of City broking firm Tullets, says…

            “The UK is as isolated as somebody who refused to join the Titanic just before it sailed “

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      • Ron Todd says:

        My memory of the time was that very few people cared which way the Belgrano was pointing. It was an enemy boat that could have done great harm.

        If it was outside the exclusion zone so what. The point of the exclusion zone was not to limit where we would attack the enemy but the limit inside which any boat was likely to be shot at.

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  11. Umbongo says:

    If you believe everything broadcast by BBC 24, exultant eurosceptic Conservative MPs held a gun to Cameron’s head and said “veto this or else!!” and were rewarded in spades.  Literally everybody else in the world – all 7 billion of them – as viewed through the BBC lens, is weeping that Britain will be “isolated” in a “2-speed” Europe, 3 million jobs dependent on Europe are in imminent danger of disappearing, Britain has lost its place at the “top table”, Britain will lose all influence  – oh the humanity!! 
     
    The BBC informs us that the LibDems are going berserk except for Cleggie who equivocates unconvincingly to hold on desperately to the deputy premiership, the first and last government position he’ll ever hold.  Miliband – unchallenged – says it (whatever “it” is: he’s not too clear on that one) is awful.  Mind you, in Miliband’s opinion, whatever Cameron might or might not have done would be awful so this argument doesn’t hold that much water. 
     
    So far there’s not been one non-negative response mentioned on the BBC 24 ticker-tape and, if there has been an interview with a pro-veto independent voice or one minute without one of the BBC announcers relaying the news that “some think this is the worst news since mum caught her tits in the mangle”, I’ve missed it.  It’s the BBC in panic mode.  As Matthew Amroliwala* might have said (or as the BBC has decided) “F**k impartiality this is serious!” 
     
    * or Ben Beeboid as David Preiser referred to him in an earlier comment

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  12. Cassandra King says:

    You know what the saddest and most pathetic thing about the BBC coverage is?

    They have no imagination, no originality. Its the same old recycled leftist/integrationist clap trap they pimped before Maastricht and after, the same old positions and talking points dusted off and used again and again.

    The train is leaving the station and we are not in the train blah blah, we need to be at the heart of Europe to influence it blah blah. the UK is isolated and alone against everyone else blah blah.

    Its the same old tripe they used decades ago, no imagination not realising that the majority have moved on, back then the argument had traction because the EU looked like the future. Its all they have, take BBC coverage from 1990 and it looks exactly the same as 2011, they have not moved on because there is nowhere for them to move on to, these leftists have no intelectual capacity to evolve, what they believed in university from some 5th rate Marxist lecturer is what they believe now, its a kind of mental stasis.

    Its what the EU is all about, a lack of imagination, a group of people getting together and sharing their retarded world view and making their vision a reality regardless of who they hurt and what damage they do in the process. The EU is like building a 1975 Morris Marina for todays market place, its out of date, its rubbish, people will not buy it if given the choice, its an out of date concept built on quick sand and the only people who cannot see it are the people who built it.

    The world of the 21 century has moved on, it is in fact the EU which is islolated by their own inability to evolve past their retarded ideology, the EU is the dinosaur and they dont even realise just how irrelevant and redundant the concept has become. An inward looking top down uncompetative closed off and isolated little non entity and it will fail, that much is certain whether we are in or out.

       0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      Croatia though, Croatia, how does one explain that? Spain (and others) got the first tranche of EU redistribution money and have wonderful infrastructure as a result, the latter joiners could expect EU redistribution money, but what is Croatia expecting?

         0 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        It’s not “Croatia” that’s expecting anything: it’s Croatian politicians who might thereby be able to strut on the world stage.  Who in the real world (outside Croatia) cares what a Croatian politician does or thinks? But for a traitorous worm who can join the European political class (in return for selling out his country’s independence) and become a member in good standing of the European nomenklatura, the temptation – and the rewards – are irresistible.

           0 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          as Nigel Farage said ther other day (in the EU parliament), Croatian politicians are being bribed (literally) and there was a 10,000 prize for anyone who could come up with an anti EU story in the Croatian media there is no free press there). EU flags already fly there and many of the ruling elite are already in EU posts.

             0 likes

  13. james1070 says:

    Ah some common sense from Farage..but not on BBC.

       0 likes

    • james1070 says:

      Actually the BBC version is not that bad….

         0 likes

      • NotaSheep says:

        The BBC either use Farage as a useful stick to beat Cameron with from the right, rather than the usual left, and thus help create divisions within the Conservative party OR as their loon on the right to laugh at.

           0 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          I thought Ben Beeboid fell right into Farage’s (uninentional) trap. The BBC obviously knew Farage would play to type and say this was a clear sign that the UK must get out of the EU, but he gave them a bonus by saying that Cameron messed up.

          Ben jumped at what he thought was an opening and asked if Farage agreed with the Lithuanians who said that Europe was united and Britain was isolated (buzzword bingo). I was worried for a second myself, as I wasn’t sure if Farage had all his ducks lined up. But he did, and smacked the attack down by bringing up the Swiss deal. Perfectly played, and the Beeboids must be crestfallen.

             0 likes

  14. BBCwaste says:

    The Mail is spot on again…

    How Europhile BBC turned triumph over Britain’s veto into disaster

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072307/How-Europhile-BBC-turned-triumph-Britains-veto-disaster.html#ixzz1g4u2jeDN

       0 likes

  15. Bupendra Bhakta says:

    The world’s greatest newsgathering organisation and a tenth of the story.

    There is a weekly ‘domestic’ chez nous as Mrs Bup, Ranamana-something-or-other, strongarms me into watching a quiz called Only Connect – and then accuses me of ‘ruining it for everyone’ if I dare to venture an answer to any of the questions.

    Anyhoo, the quiz is chaired by Victoria of the BBC’s Coren Dynasty who always wears dresses two sizes too small for her.  Or, more accurately, dresses for which she is two sizes too big.

    A question this week was to find the connection between June 4th, Reform Through Labour, Falun Gong, and Tibet Independence Movement. Answer – they are all internet search terms banned by China.

    ‘Worrabout June the 4th’, pipes up Jessica Rabbit’s Granny, ‘why woo’that be banned.’

    ‘Tiananmen Square’, replied the contestants as one.

    ‘Yes’, said JRG, ‘June the 4th was the date of the 1989 protests in Tiananmen Square’.

    Now can anyone (outside the group-think, revisionist, pretrendy-leftie stemcell-dead BBC media bubble) come up with anything else, other than ‘protests’, that might have happened in Tiananmen Square on 4th June 1989 that the Chinese government might want to be kept quiet?

    The droids, they’re sumthin else, ain’t they just.

       0 likes

    • Buggy says:

      I trust your not complaining about Vicky C.’s dresses Bupendra: they’re one of the highlights of the week !

      And especially so since this week’s final followed straight on from the tit of a Merton, Oxford captain (Mr “We thought we’d better enter this year, because the government’s plans mean there won’t be any university education next year) and his crew getting happily squashed by their opponents on the latest ep. of University Challenge. Swinging around on his chair, gurning, and being so eminently punchable it’s a tribute to my restraint that the TV screen remains intact.

      Almost as good as  Only Connect shedding the utterly ghastly “Trades Unionists” team of smuggoes in the semi-finals !

         0 likes

  16. Radio2LunchTimeLoather says:

    Damn… I was hoping to be offended again, but Auntie BBC has interfered:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/09/jeremy-clarkson-qi-shelved-one-show

       0 likes

    • Bupendra Bhakta says:

      Stephen Fry – a stupid person’s idea of a clever person – and his never-ending stream of cock-up-the-arse joke is of course ‘edgy’ rather than ‘offensive’ – if you’re Mark Thompson that is.

         0 likes

  17. Jeff Waters says:

    ‘Sometimes our dispassionate flavour of broadcasting frustrates people who have got very, very strong views, because they want more red meat.’
    Mark Thompson
    From http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1308215/Yes-BBC-biased-Mark-Thompson-admits-massive-lean-Left.html
    No kidding…
    Jeff

       0 likes

  18. noggin says:

    “Check out this video by the BBC” (marginally altered by vladtepesblog)      

     

    for all the other “moderate” islamists out there    we believe you……well apparently some of us…      “A rose by any other name”

    Jihad Awareness Month (Hat Tip: Barack Obama) D Wood sharp as ever.  http://youtu.be/gEWdd4Js1Dk

     

     

    “Anti-Islamic Hyperventilation” Time Magazine   Dec 8:

     

    Exchange from hearing, Wed. between Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Calif., and

    Paul Stockton, Assistant Defense Secretary for Homeland Defense:

    The terrorist threat/Hasan/Ft Hood massacre

     

     

    “REPRESENTATIVE DANIEL LUNGREN (R-CA): Secretary Stockton, are we at war with violent Islamist extremism?

    MR. STOCKTON: No, sir. We are at war with al-Qaida, its affiliates –

    REP. LUNGREN: OK, I understand that. My question is, is violent Islamist extremism at war with us?

    MR. STOCKTON: No, sir. We are being attacked by al-Qaida and its allies.

    REP. LUNGREN: Is al-Qaida — can it be described as being an exponent of violent Islamist extremism?

    MR. STOCKTON: They — al-Qaida are murderers with an ideological agenda –

    REP. LUNGREN: No, I — that’s not my question. That wasn’t my question. My question was, is al-Qaida acting out violent Islamist extremism?

    MR. STOCKTON: Al-Qaida is a violent organization dedicated to overthrowing the values that we intend to advance –

    REP. LUNGREN: So is it yes or no?

    MR. STOCKTON: Can I hear the question again? I’ll make it as clear as I can. We are not at war with Islam. And it is not –

    REP. LUNGREN: I didn’t ask that — I did not ask that, sir. I asked whether we’re at war with violent Islamist extremism. That’s my question.

    MR. STOCKTON: No, we’re at war with al-Qaida and its affiliates.

    REP. LUNGREN: Well, al-Qaida — how does al-Qaida define itself? Are they dedicated to violent Islamist extremism?

    MR. STOCKTON: Al-Qaida would love to convince Muslims around the world that the United States is at war with Islam.

    REP. LUNGREN: I didn’t say that.

    MR. STOCKTON: That’s a prime propaganda tool.

    REP. LUNGREN: Sir –

    MR. STOCKTON: And I’m not going to aid and abet that effort to advance their propaganda goal.

    REP. LUNGREN: No, no, my question is, is there a difference between Islam and violent Islamist extremism?

    MR. STOCKTON: Sir, with great respect, I don’t believe it’s helpful to frame our adversary as Islamic with any set of qualifiers that we might add, because we are not at war with Islam.

     

    ???????????????????????????????????????

     

       0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I have to agree with Stockton there.  It’s too bad the BBC pushes that propaganda tool at every opportunity and abets Al Qaeda and other extremist Muslims in their goal.

         0 likes

      • noggin says:

         “I don’t believe it’s helpful to frame our adversary as Islamic ”
        david either youve mistaken the name, or your wrong bud

           0 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          I stand sort of corrected, noggin. I meant I agreed with this bit:

          “Al-Qaida would love to convince Muslims around the world that the United States is at war with Islam.”

          And that the notion that we’re at war with Islam, full stop, is a useful propaganda tool which does “radicalize” US citizens and others.  I have no problem with saying that there is a problem with Muslims who think they’re at war with us, and defining Al Qaeda and the other Islamo-nutters as Islamic.

          I just don’t believe this to be a war against Islam itself.  The caveman version and the cavemen who believe in the extreme part, yes.  All Islam and all Muslims everywhere, no. I’m not at war with the Muslims who run the bodega on the corner who sell me my beer and tuna fish sandwiches, nor are they at war with me.  There are Muslims who believe their religion tells them they’re at war with me, but it’s not all of them everywhere.

          Telling them we’re at war with all of Islam is a very useful tool to get them to try to kill me, as opposed to telling them they have some co-religionists with a problem that needs sorting out.

             0 likes

          • noggin says:

            Really, it the same “ol meat n potatoes” ……. thank goodness not all muslims are nut jobs, (just ordinary joes). but dave that is in spite of the ideology, not because of it.
            The ideology wants every one under islam, and i mean under, not just you or me or the US…everyone
            now is a crucial time, it cannot be more so, the MB and their groups are a big step nearer, “Armi” s martyr dream of a solid red shia cresent is on course.

            Obamas “ostrich” impression, & this nonsense spouted by a so called defence rep, like in my post above will not cut it, it is now TRUE leadership is needed, what do you think, MB front groups, salafists/jihadist all make of that B/S … yup! no deterent, back to the plan,
            it is so weak on so many levels.

               0 likes

            • David Preiser (USA) says:

              I don’t disagree with you there, noggin. But these Muslim groups are not all Muslims everywhere. They are dangerous and must be confronted and shown up for the hatemongers and destructive forces that they are.  But that’s not the same thing as saying that Mohammed down the block is my enemy and must be deported or destroyed. It’s not weak to say that the latter is incorrect.

                 0 likes

    • deegee says:

      Mainstream Islam divides the world into two parts Dar al Islam and Dar al Harb. (House of Islam/Peace and House of non Islam/War). It vhas been argued that as neither the Koran nor the Hadith use these terms that they an early Muslim response to geo-political realities that simply do not exist today in a globalized world of international law.

      Nevertheless, the Hanafi school which produced the idea is the largest in Sunni Islam. There is fortunately a concept in Islam that Jihad can be postponed when the other side is too strong. Thus for many Muslims they are in what is theoretically a state of war with the West but not actually fighting. 

         0 likes

  19. George R says:

    INBBC’s next Binyam Mohamed?  
     
     
    INBBC:  
     
    “BBC in court bid to interview terror suspect”  
     
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16111981
     
     
     
    A reprise on a version on Binyam Mohamed which INBBC never provided:- 
     
    “Binyam Mohamed: The false martyr”


    By Thomas Joscelyn  
     
    Read more: http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/02/binyam_mohamed_the_f.php#ixzz1g5E6XwiN
     
     
     
     
    About INBBC’s BABAR AHMED:-  

    a.  
    UK: Terror Suspect ‘Tried to Buy 5,000 Tons of Sulphur’  
     
    b.  
    Terror suspect ‘ran jihad web network’ from South London  
     
    c.  
    UK police bug Muslim MP in meeting with jihadist; uproar ensues  
     
    d.  
    UK: Imprisoned jihadists complain that prison walls too high, inspectors agree with them  
     
     
    Of course, INBBC is not so interested in exposing the perpetrators of e.g. Muslim sex gangs, nor in the fate of their white female English victims.

       0 likes

  20. Jeff Waters says:

    Creator of Yes Minister launches blistering attack on the ‘bias-ridden’ BBC
    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072268/Creator-Yes-Minister-launches-blistering-attack-bias-ridden-BBC.html#ixzz1g5KByScg

       0 likes

  21. Martin says:

    I see the Mail is also having a go at the BBC for its “we’re all doomed” BBC coverage of Cameron and the rest.  
     
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072307/How-Europhile-BBC-turned-triumph-Britains-veto-disaster.html  
     
     
    Here’s an interesting bit from the article  
     
    Conservative MPs said the broadcaster’s ‘biased’ coverage began on Radio 4’s flagship Today programme and continued throughout the day on radio and television.  
     
     
     
     
    How often have many of us here noted how the BBC starts a story off then uses the full force of it’s output to blow the story up into what IT wants the story to be about?  
     
    Perhaps some Tories are finally reading this blog? If so what are they going to do about it?  
     
    Either they now need to cowboy up and get heads rolling at the BBC or get rid of the TV tax or have a proper regulator for the BBC and not the lefty BBC trust.

       0 likes

  22. George R says:

    INBBC will really go against Newt GINGRICH for stating this truth:

    Gingrich: “Palestinians” an “invented people”

       0 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Wouldn’t it be lovely to have a US President stating some home truths like Gingrich does on the Middle East situation ?

      And – he has said he wants John Bolton for Secrretary of State !

         0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:

        Be great to have Mr Bolton somewhere where he can tell it how it is!
        Just one thing though…and it`s a question for David P and other fine friends for Gods own country…how does that great nation do so mnay things right?…but do such awful wigs and toupees?
        Trump?…Bolton and so many others?…all we`ve got is Brucie and Paul Daniels…and they`d be A1 graded Stateside I fear?
        Such are the great issues of the day…and only hope this in not a fatal flaw in the Atlantic Alliance being caused here!

           0 likes

        • noggin says:

          hey man, you re behind the times, the tom selleck moustache is back “in”
          & as for the strange top bonce apparel, i think the yanks have a penchant for them :-D, just like the strange shades of brown or black, that suddenly appear on seniors overnight, with the well tried excuse
          ……….”thats just , the colour it goes after its been grey”…….
          classic 😀

             0 likes

          • noggin says:

            mind you don t start me on D Trump, that hair … Unbe-weave-able
            he wants to see Obamas B. Cert, i want to see his hairline, it comes from parts of the head nobodies ever heard of 😀

               0 likes

    • noggin says:

      the TRUTH about refugees

      http://youtu.be/g_3A6_qSBBQ

         0 likes

    • George R says:

      Supplementary:

      -from Glenn Beck’s ‘The Blaze’: (inc video clips)

      “Newt Gingrich: Palestinians are an ‘Invented’ People, Peace Process ‘Delusional’”

      http://www.theblaze.com/stories/newt-gingrich-palestinians-are-an-invented-people-peace-process-delusional/

         0 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      And that is why the BBC will oppose and try to destroy Newt just as they did with Hermain Cain.

         0 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        I’m not so sure the Leftoid media will try to destroy Gingrich. They probably believe he’s too obnoxious to defeat The Obamessiah, especially with the press working overtime again on His behalf.  I don’t think he can win either. Too many former Clinton supporters who are really disappointed in The Obamessiah still hate Gingrich and won’t vote for him.  So I think they’ll more likely give him enough rope in the hopes that he hangs himself.

           0 likes

        • hatethebias says:

          Mr P,  they’ve already started.

          There is a programme over here called “Profile” on Saturday evenings, devoted to potted biographies about people in the news, complete with interviews. Today it was Gingrich’s turn.

          From the start it was slanted against him. They brought out very early on that LIE, long repeated (and many times refuted) that Gingrich had visited his wife in hospital, where she was recovering fom cancer surgery, to discuss their impending divorce. His daughter and ex wife (with whom he has remained on good terms) have repeatedly contradicted this LIE, as has Newt himself (see “HotAir” (or “Hot Gas” as Rick Perry would have it!) and many other websites). I’m sure you know this story in much more detail than I do.

          It was a vile smear, but since when has that fact ever stopped the Beeb before?

          The rest of the programme was similsrly biased. There were one or two supporters, but the overwhelmihg majority waere anti-Gingrih, as were the conclusions.

          This programme and it’s pesenters are always fawningly sycophantic to those on the Left – for those on the Right it veers between mild contempt to outright loathing.

          All very horribly biased. 

          No change there

             0 likes

      • deegee says:

        Notasheep. The BBC didn’t destroy Herman Cain. as much as they may have liked to. He did that all by himself.

           0 likes

  23. noggin says:

    what THIS J Bolton………goody goody!

    http://youtu.be/tiPuqvO6qT8

    criticising BBC 😀

    http://youtu.be/2NOmPnHg1i0

       0 likes

    • john says:

      Excellent noggin.
      Is there any chance of you sending that to Tory HQ ?
      It could well wake up the dozy sods !

         0 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Excellent indeed and so true. let’s guess whether that interviewer has changed his method (or lost his job?)…well, waste of time guessing.

         0 likes

    • My Site (click to edit) says:

      ‘1 out of 10… not bad in some leagues’.

      So… that makes the BBC, what, the 10%…well, in accuracy?’

      Best let’s call it… a split, then.

         0 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      It’s the first John Bolton, not the second one. Although the second one was spot on about how there would be a backlash against what the Democrat SuperMajority in Congress would do with The Obamessiah as President.  100% correct as we all know now, and the exact opposite of what all Beeboids predicted.

         0 likes

  24. Jeff Waters says:

    From http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9659116.stm:

    BBC Radio 5live pundit Danny Mills on Liverpool’s Uruguayan striker Luis Suarez, who has been charged by the FA for improper conduct this week : “Sometimes the South American mentality is not quite what we are used to. We don’t completely understand it. He needs to understand what makes England and the Premier League tick.”

    But of a sweeping – some might say racist – generalisation.

    Perhaps Danny Mills, could have expanded on what he means by the ‘South American mentality’, and what qualifies him to make such sweeping generalisations.

    I think he knows that, even at the height of his skill, a top Brazilian or Argentine striker would have run rings around him so effortlessly that it wouldn’t even be funny!

    Jeff

       0 likes

    • john says:

      Indeed !
      That Pelé chap from South America was another player who enjoyed a notorious reputation for improper conduct.
      All that swearing and spitting at the fans, let alone his conviction for murdering 6 Nuns.
      Now if only Pelé had understood what makes England and the Premier League tick, he could have turned into a half decent player.

         0 likes

      • cjhartnett says:

        Like many fans, I could appreciate Socrates who played for Brazil and clearly was a good all round polymath of his day…like Jonathan Miller but with humour, and humility!
        That said, the BBC loved him most for his championing of Che,Lennon and all the other icons of sloppy leftish sentiment…hence the “tribute” to him on Last Word.
        I`d have thought that because he smoked and drank; he`d not be seen as an appropriate role model for the sprogs of Guardianistas…and all this before the 9pm watershed!
        Poor old Socrates deserves better…let`s hope Paolo di Canio gets a similar plaudit for his political certainties when he eventually leaves the orbit of Luvvieland!

           0 likes

  25. My Site (click to edit) says:

    The rich seam that is The Editors blog, especially from Giles ‘I’ll get back to you, er, after the blog is closed’ Wilson, delivers again…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/12/rss_feeds_for_bbc_news_corresp.html

    We’ve also started including correspondents’ tweets on their pages. … The growth of web-based short-form journalism, seen also in our Live Pages, is fascinating and is one of the ways in which our blogging is kept fresh’

    Bacon fresh? Kennedy fresh? How fresh can the national treasure make their ‘news’, before the public catches a whiff of something roitten?

       0 likes

    • Reed says:

      If they’re asking us to accept that BBC staff’s twitter offerings qualify as ‘short-form journalism’ then they really are straining the definiton of ‘journalism’. But then the BBC have been doing that for some time with their regular news broadcasting, so I suppose it’s all par for the course.

         0 likes

  26. David Preiser (USA) says:

    BBC News Channel just had Dick Black reporting from Durban, his disappointment palpable. He said that one major obstacle to a deal ist that “major emitters like the US, India, and China don’t trust each other” enough to do a deal.  Typical BBC, putting the US first as the bad guy, even though China is the worst emitter and the US has way more stringent rules in various places than either China or India.

       0 likes

    • cjhartnett says:

      Global warming shown to be an irrelevant sideshow, and the EU in its death throes?
      Can it get any worse for the Beeboids and the hymn sheet harpies of the Guardian and the Times etc?…we can only hope so!
      A good week for us all!

         0 likes

  27. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Another idiotic question from a Beeboid just now on the News Channel. Some guy on talking about people getting into post-holiday debt and a rise in people seeking relief from pay-day loan companies, which rip people off and make debt worse.  People should seek debt advice, work out a budget, etc., says the credit maven.  
     
    Female Beeboid then asks if banks are “doing enough” to help people.  What the hell are banks supposed to do?  Forgive debt and screw themselves and their depositors and shareholders? Loan money to people who can’t pay it back, which is what caused the original financial crisis and will cause the next one?  Are all BBC employees that stupid?

       0 likes

  28. George R says:

    Now we have to pay for INBBC’s Arabic ‘QT’!

    Islam  Not BBC (INBBC) undemocratically forces British taxpayers/licencepayers to pay for Arabs/Muslims in Middle East and beyond to view Quran compliant Arabic ‘Question Time’ because of ‘Arab Spring’/Islamic Winter!

    “Arab Spring prompts BBC to air provocative show”

    -Provocative to British people who don’t want to pay for INBBC’s undemocratic diktat aimed at further servicing Muslims of the Arab world, whom we already subsidise to the tune of over £25m a year for Arabic TV service  from Mecca-facing East Wing of Broadcasting House, London.

    http://www.thenational.ae/business/media/arab-spring-prompts-bbc-to-air-provocative-show

    INBBC licencepayers will replace British taxpayers and will pay for all BBC world propaganda output, including Islam-compliant stuff from about 2013.

    http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonathanmarks/2312501612/

       0 likes

  29. Millie Tant says:

    I love Saturday evenings on the radio. There’s jazz, opera and tonight also a prog on Radio 4 about Ted Hughes that I’d like to hear but will miss because of this:

    On Beeboid Radio 3: from 6 – 10 10 pm: Faust:

    When the New York Metropolitan Opera opened in 1883 the very first opera to be staged was Gounod’s Faust and it has been enormously popular there ever since. It tells the famous story of Dr Faust and how he sells his soul to the devil, Mephistopheles, in order to regain his youth. It’s the opera that features in the plot of ‘Phantom of the Opera’ and it’s music includes some very famous numbers, including the ‘Jewel Song’ and the Soldiers Chorus. Initially something of a failure, Gounod’s Faust has been providing a great night out at the opera (and a great challenge to star singers) ever since its first revival in 1863 and will no doubt do so for many years to come.
    Presented by Margaret Juntwait with guest commentator Ira Siff.
    Faust…..Jonas Kaufmann (tenor)
    Méphistophélès…..René Pape (bass)
    Marguerite…..Marina Poplavskaya (soprano)
    Valentin…..Russell Braun (baritone)
    Wagner…..Jonathan Beyer (baritone)
    Siébel…..Michèle Losier (mezzo-soprano)
    Marthe Schwerlein…..Wendy White (mezzo-soprano)

    New York Metropolitan Opera Orchestra and Chorus
    Conductor…..Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

       0 likes

  30. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Pape is great, perfect role for him.  But I just don’t get Kaufmann.  I haven’t been excited by any of his Bayreuth appearances, and don’t understand why they all like him so much.  Too bad I have to miss this.  I’ll try to remember to look for a rebroadcast next week.

       0 likes

  31. David Preiser (USA) says:

    What a shock.  Herman Cain is apparently getting hired as a Fox News contributer, and the inevitable result is a partisan anti-Fox News tweet from a Beeboid.  This time it’s from dishonest immigrant Beeboid Franz Strasser, endorsed and retweeted by partisan Beeboid Katty Kay:

    Re: Cain – Going forward, can we make GOP candidates declare if they actually want to run for POTUS or a job w/ Fox News?

    Katty Kay’s reply: Of course! Who didn’t see that one coming?

    No wonder she’s a contributor on MSNBC and guest host on NPR.

    (I say Strasser is dishonest because he did a series of dishonest reports about immigration in the US.  Never once mentioned the word “illegal” or discussed the actual concern about illegal immigration, even though he filed reports from two Sanctuary Cities which openly defy US law on immigration.  Anyone wondering why I call Katty partisan should just click on her name in the tag cloud on the right.)

       0 likes

  32. David Preiser (USA) says:

    You know your movement’s over when:

    The Utopian dreamers of Occupy Boston are leaving behind a disgusting field of filth on the formerly scenic Rose Kennedy Greenway, where trees will have to be replanted, grass resodded, sprinklers repaired or replaced and the entire area power-hosed in a massive cleanup that could take weeks.

    BBC: We don’t want you to know about this. We’ve moved on and so should you.

       0 likes

  33. As I See It says:

    From Our(?) Own Correspondent.

    BBC veteran Mark Tully made a curiously modern BBC comment this morning.

    The story was about Bangladesh and the 40th anniversary celebrations of the surrender of the Pakistani army to the Indians at Dhakar in 1971. In other words the birth of a nation and a cause for celebration surely?

    Of course Tully saw some of this conflict at first hand. He reported on the shelling, the destructive anti-insurgency campaign and the scorched earth policy of the Punjbi police and the Pakistani army.

    But Tully is at pains to warn that Bangladesh and particularly India ought not to celebrate in a triuphialist way.

    He is against ‘pouring salt on Pakistan’s wounded pride’. He thinks it important that Pakistan should not be reminded of its humiliation.

    Could it be that Tully is buying in to the Beeb meme that criticism of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a no go area?

    After all historic British colonial excesses are served up in large helpings on a regular basis by our(?)BBC correspondents.

    Is Pakistan’s guilt for past transgressions a dish too hot for the modern BBC palate?

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  34. Jonathan S says:

    wouldn’t it be funny if on next year’s Stricly Come Dancing they have a gay celeb partnered with one of the ‘cough’ straight male professional dancers 

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  35. Jeff Waters says:

    Police logs raise questions over deletion of Milly Dowler voicemails – http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/dec/09/milly-dowler-voicemails-police-logs-inquiry

    ‘Police found that some messages had also been deleted before the News of the World began hacking into [Milly Dowler’s] voicemail.’

    Given the BBC’s keen interest in phone hacking, you’d think they’d be all over this story…

    Jeff

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  36. My Site (click to edit) says:

    These days, when browsin’ for a closin’ on the BBC blogs, it’s no surprise to find one terminated mid-flow pretty much each day.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16035543

    Actually, this one was interesting, but not for the timing (2 days), or the numbers in that time (306… it’s looking like more and more ‘viewers’ are turning out to express views).

    It wasn’t the highest rated, starting at +69 for, shall we say, ‘views’ that seem less often spoken by the voice of the nation. Guessing Editor’s Picks were disabled before headline news on broadcast could be primed.

    Not even, in a similar ‘representative’ vein, what comments found the least favour.

    No, what intrigued me was the irony of the comment that for some inexplicable reason was last when the thread was shut down…

    306. jon112dk 
    7TH DECEMBER 2011 – 18:12

    #304

    Wow, you mentioned the ‘elephant in the room’ issue.

    Usually that just ends up with your post being deleted. 

    Hope you get away with it – it’s such an obvious issue it’s a shame no one is allowed to discuss it.

    Maybe just a coincidence. Along with the one it refers to still remains too.

    Could it be that there are folk within that are having trouble with simply obeying orders, and hence do so in ways that are eloquent enough in their way?

     

     

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  37. Jeff Waters says:

    MPs say BBC must reveal details of journalists’ commercial deals
    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072645/MPs-say-BBC-reveal-details-journalists-commercial-deals.html#ixzz1gBhgVh5m

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  38. Rated says:

    This, I’m pretty sure, is what BBC journalists write when they want something to masturbate over: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16129004 

    No real comment needed on that….

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  39. Beness says:

    totaly off topic. Check this out.

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  40. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Meanwhile, elsewhere on the BBC, questions are being asked…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2011/12/rss_feeds_for_bbc_news_corresp.html?postId=111144038#comment_111144038

    ‘I’d be interested in knowing which of the team came up with the utterly digraceful article “Clegg attacks Cameron over EU Veto”? There isn’t a single fact in it to support the ludicrous and OTT headline, just a load of second hand gossip.’

     

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  41. My Site (click to edit) says:

    Meanwhile, the world’s most predictable programme:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qjrk2

    Kevin Backhurst, again, saying ‘they got it about right’, again.

    And a bunch of questions with zero (to the valid critique on the Newsnight/LSE/Graun stitch up), or non-answers sold as ‘response’. Again.

    So… more repeats. Again.

    And that gurning numptie Ray Snoddy just blathers on with ‘tell us your views… which we won’t reply to but I’ll smile and wallow in my ignorance’.

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  42. Jeff Waters says:

    Now Sports Personality of the Year choice is all female… the Young Sports Personality of the Year that is
    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2071692/BBC-Sports-Personality-2011-Youth-award-candidates-female.html#ixzz1gE3abExQ
    I bet Harriet Harman is disgusted at this blatant discrimination…

    Jeff

       0 likes

    • Millie Tant says:

      At least they sound like worthy contenders, including a world champ and a British champ but the article does not tell us who the also rans are and whether they have a greater claim to be in the top three.

      Lucy Garner, the junior road race world champion, two-time European Paralympic gold medalist Eleanor Simmonds and British Ladies’ Open amateur golf champion Lauren Taylor are the three top candidates.
      The shortlist was decided on by a panel chaired by BBC presenter John Inverdale. The panel also included presenters Jake Humphrey and Sonali Shah, Newsround’s Ore Oduba, previous winner Amy Spencer and representatives from the Youth Sport Trust and the BBC Sports Personality of the Year editorial team.

      Garner became the junior road race world champion in Copenhagen this year, making her Britain’s first medallist in the event since Nicole Cooke a decade earlier. She also claimed victory in the Youth Commonwealth Games road race.
      Simmonds won four medals in individual events at the European Swimming Championships in Berlin – two gold, a silver and a bronze. She previously won the Young Sports Personality of the Year award in 2008, following her superb performances at the Beijing Paralympic Games.
      Taylor became the youngest ever winner of the Ladies’ British Open Amateur Championship at Royal Portrush.

      Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-2071692/BBC-Sports-Personality-2011-Youth-award-candidates-female.html#ixzz1gEO7YKmz

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  43. George R says:

    MPs say BBC must reveal details of journalists’ commercial deals

    By Miles Goslett

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2072645/MPs-say-BBC-reveal-details-journalists-commercial-deals.html#ixzz1gECDC8gI

    -And that means you:

                                      HARRABIN, MONTAGUE, ESLER,

                                      ETC,ETC,ETC, ETC.

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  44. RGH says:

    Perhaps someone has already spotted this about a communist called ‘Celia Sanchez’ on the BBC website.

    The article is pure Marxist hagiography; part of the Castro sanctioned mythology presenting the communist take over as some romantic adventure.

    Yet the BBC presents this to the world with no caveats whatsoever…and the whole piece sjould come with a health warning like everything from the romanticised received account of Fidel and Guevara.

    The ‘revolution’ created a romanticised narrative as a deliberate act of policy. This is how ideological legitimacy was attained. Cuba libre and all that.

    This romanticism is wholly in evidence in the BBC’s piece.

    This saint of the revolution is presented as a heroine..selfless, unperturbed under fire   and married to the revolution.

    The ‘speculation’ as to her relationship to Castro …the ‘hero’ is pure romanticism. It just doesn’t matter except that the relationship would rupture the image. Sully the ‘sanctity’ of the revolution it has been observed elsewhere.

    The BBC just has a student politics vision of history. The nature of the Cuban dictatorship is not to be gleaned from their accounts.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15986857

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    • D B says:

      “student politics vision of history”

      Exactly the same thought struck me RGH – it’s the latest in a long line of teenage radical BBC sanitised accounts of Cuba which downplay or ignore the fact that the country is an authoritarian one-party state born out of firing squad mass murder and maintained by brutal Stalinist repression.

      Thanks to the licence fee and the patronage of like-minded lefty editors BBC hacks need never grow up. Peter Pan journalism. 

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    • As I See It says:

      I also caught some of this Cuban revolutionary tripe on BBC radio. The only slight question mark raised by the Beeboid was whether this Celia Sanchez has been given sufficient credit for her part in creating the Marxist dream in this favourite lefty Caribbean backwater.

      Roll up your Che posters boys and girls, we have a new female heroine!

      Perhaps the Beeboids scouring the history books for lefty heros ticking minority group boxes will discover Georges Couthon – a French Revolutionary law-maker and wheelchair user.

      ‘Following the acceptance of Couthon’s new decree, executions increased from 134 people in early 1794 to 1,376 people between the months of June and July in 1794. In total close to 20,000 people were legally executed according to the 22 Prairial’

      Right on!

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  45. David Preiser (USA) says:

    So a report comes out tomorrow that the FSA is crap and failed in its job to oversee the big banks. The FSA will be partially blamed for the RBS failure as well as others. The News Channel report just now previewing it made no mention whatsoever of who formed the FSA and shifted banking oversight away from the Bank of England, or  who pressured the FSA into being hands-off so much that the bank debt got out of hand.  Will tomorrow’s BBC coverage be a game of Spot the Missing Labour Chancellor and Prime Minister?

    I’m sure Robert Peston has been up all weekend working out how to spin this and shift blame away from his biography subject. Can’t wait to see the BBC coverage tomorrow.

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    • Reed says:

      The thing is, since he ‘saved the world’ and all, it’s only right that he be given a pass on anything that might cast his record in a negative light. Plus – since we now have a nasty party coalition, the only government record the BBC considers for criticism is that of the current one : May 2010 is year zero, remember. I’m wondering if they’ll somehow find a way to subtly mention something that was done during the Thatcher years, not to blame directly but just to ring that bell and leave it lingering in the viewers ears. It must be an irresistable urge.

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      • Buggy says:

        Awww….Arabella Weir still loves him ! 😀 I bet she loved Benn and Don Qui-Jacket too…….

        (ST mag today, bookended by Prickstocke and AW: what the hell IS going on there ? )

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  46. Millie Tant says:

    Beeboid fakery – again!

    Frozen Planet fakery row: Polar bear filmed in zoo

    Read more: http://www.mirror.co.uk/2011/12/12/frozen-planet-fakery-row-polar-bear-filmed-in-zoo-115875-23628713/#ixzz1gGxockiZ

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    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Time for another bogus review and a few production staff members forced to sit through an online course about why one shouldn’t lie to the public. Lessons learned, new guidelines implemented, continue to hand over the cash, thanks.

         0 likes