Monthly Archives: January 2012

THE WAR ON WEALTH

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It seems to me that the BBC cannot get through any current news programme without informing us how evil “big business” really is and how the bankers, in particular, broke Britain. They know that repetition of this meme rams it into the heads of those listening and this is one of the things that is most dangerous about the Corporation. With Comrade Vince Cable doing his best to slay the capitalism “red in tooth and claw”, the BBC brought on Nicola Horlick who agreed that “something” must be done about “excessive pay” for “executives. I suspect that the BBC probably support the ravings of George Monbiot over at The Guardian and his demand for a “maximum wage” as well as a “minimum wage”. At no point is anyone allowed to turn around and say that it is NO BUSINESS of Government to tell private businesshow much it should pay those who work for it. And if Nicola Horlick thinks that excess pay is such an issue why not bring up the massive £800,000 that Mark Thompson earns, care of those of us forced to pay for the BBC?

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SALAMI SLICING THE COALITION?

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Been a busy day, which started with me debating the Bishop of Hulme, Stephen Lowe, on the BBC this morning here. Go to 30 minutes in here and listen for half an hour, if you dare! Meanwhile, back on the Today programme, Justin Webb was on the attack against the very well spoken (if a tad dripping wet) Andrew Lansley. Yesterday it was IDS who got the treatment and today it was Lansley – same tired BBC meme, namely that reform of any part of the Public Sector is just, well, impossible. I though the hectoring and interruption by Webb did him no favours and I liked the way the parroting of Stephen Dorrell’s comments by Webb were nicely countered by Lansley. Don’t get me wrong – there is nothing wrong with a Government Minister being robustly challenged on the BBC – that is fine by me – BUT during the long hard Labour years, there was a stunning silence from the BBC when Brown and co went about building up a bloated and inefficient NHS. Now, they go on the attack when the Coalition try to do something about it! The pro-Statism meme is always in play and it just surfaces in al kinds of places!

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THOMPSON ON LEVESON

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Perhaps you may wish to comment on this from BBC DG Mark Thompson to the Leveson Inquiry this morning?

“The BBC is not a business and it might well be that someone running a media business might take a different view from the view that I took as director general of the BBC.

“The BBC is a public service broadcaster. It is committed to be the most trusted, trustworthy source of news in the world and we want to maintain the highest possible standards in all matters, including matters relating to privacy.”

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THAT WELFARE CAP

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Did you catch this VERY hostile and interrupting interview by Evan Davies of Iain Duncan Smith on the BBC this morning? How very dare Government try to limit Welfare! I’ll be on the BBC myself later today (BBC Birmingham  around 12.40) discussing this topic. My view is that whilst the principle of a cap is a good one, £26,000 seems an excessive amount. What about those many people who earn so much less than this? Why did Evan Davies not pursue this line?

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THE NIGERIAN NIGHTMARE

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In the wake of further acts of Jihad by the Boko Haram Islamists in Nigeria, I was somewhat surprised to hear the Bishop of Durham on the BBC this morning pointing out that the “conflict” there is not really about religion but just as much about the lack of job opportunities for the young. Amazing – the BBC must have dhimmified clerics on speed dial!

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IPPR A DAY…

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It’s becoming an almost daily feature on the BBC. I refer to the “left-leaning” IPPR getting high profile for one of their “reports.” This morning it was all about voters living in England placing more emphasis on their English rather than British identity. Whilst one absolutely welcomes the wishes of English people being giving attention (at last) one also must be careful about where this leads. The EU, for example, would love to see the UK break apart into a mass of small controllable regions, and the encouragement of this via an IPPR study is surely a watch out. The other point is that this study claims most English people would like to see “Devo Max” for Scotland but this is surely a misrepresentation by the IPPR and BBC as to what exactly “Devo Max” actually constitutes? As I understand it, Devo Max will ensure that the taxes from England will still continue to flow north of the border but in addition Scotland can then vary taxes even further.

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UNEMPLOYED MAN STRUGGLING TO FIND WORK

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In today’s Independent on Sunday:

It’s just after breakfast time and Giles Fraser is smoking his third fag of the day. Clad in faded black jeans and a baggy black T-shirt, he flicks haphazardly into a full ashtray on the floor and scrolls down the Twitter feed on his computer. As a morning ritual it is pretty familiar to scores of the jobless. Then again, the Reverend Dr Giles Fraser, to give him his full honorific, is unemployed…

Tomorrow he starts working shifts on the leader desk at The Guardian, which he plans to do for the remainder of his notice period. He also has a documentary planned with the BBC and will continue to do his regular slot on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day.

In the past month on the BBC:

19/12/11 Start The Week with guest Giles Fraser.
23/12/11 Thought For The Day with Giles Fraser.
24/12/11 Saturday Review with guest Giles Fraser.
25/12/11 Constantine – the man who invented Christmas presented by Giles Fraser
1/1/12 Sunday with guest Giles Fraser.
5/1/12 Newsnight with guest Giles Fraser.
6/1/12 Thought For The Day with Giles Fraser
13/1/12 Thought For The Day with Giles Fraser

During his recent appearance on Newsnight one of the programme’s producers – Sara Afshar – tweeted “Giles Fraser is great” and “I actually cheered at one point“. With his adoring lefty fans at the Guardian/BBC, one thing the Reverend Dr need never worry about is being unemployed.

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WALK LIKE AN EGYPTIAN?

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Well, I think that more than few of us forecast this but because the BBC narrative insists that the “Arab Spring” was a “good” thing, our concerns were swept aside. It was all going to work out swell ;

The final results in Egypt’s first post-Mubarak parliamentary elections confirm an overwhelming victory for Islamist parties. The Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) won the largest number of seats under Egypt’s complex electoral system. The hardline Salafist Nour party came second.

 Is this suggesting that the MB are not “hardline”? Really?  Is this the next phase in the odious contortions the Dhimmified BBC performs. First the prospect of Islamic supremacy was dismissed. Now we are being told that the MB are not hardline! What next – blowing up the Pyramids is showing cultural sensitivity!!?

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PRESS TV

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This is quite an interesting discussion on the issue of the closure of the Mad Mullahs Press TV. I think Evan Davies conducts himself quite well, and in particular in the exchanges with the bizarre Yvonne Ridley. However when he declares that the BBC “is not a mouthpiece for the government” one wonders WHICH Government he refers to? When Labour were in power and following a left wing agenda, the BBC seemed to be quite accepting of what was being done. To this day, the situation prevails and the BBC is a mouthpiece for left wing values.

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