#bbctbq Sun BBC1 at 10: Tommy Robinson, Dr Matthew Goodwin, Mo Ansar, Jamie Bartlett on; Is Britain complacent about the far right?
Sounds like fun and please read DB’s post below to understand the significance of Mo’s presence.
#bbctbq Sun BBC1 at 10: Tommy Robinson, Dr Matthew Goodwin, Mo Ansar, Jamie Bartlett on; Is Britain complacent about the far right?
Sounds like fun and please read DB’s post below to understand the significance of Mo’s presence.
The above quotes are taken from the Twitter feed of a guest on tomorrow’s edition of The Big Questions where one of the topics will be: “Is Britain too complacent about the far right?” The same guest also pondered a conspiracy at the highest level of French government following the recent Toulouse murders. The views of a wacky far-right nutter dug up by a BBC researcher?
No, not exactly. A friend of the presenter, actually.
With opinions like that he should be able to find some common ground with the EDL guest.
That would be the “poor soul” who murdered seven people, including three children, and filmed himself doing so.
Mo is very good at promoting himself as a go-to media Muslim, but he also has the added help of an unofficial publicist working on his behalf:
The Big Questions presenter even shares his more private opinions with Mr Ansar (for those unfamiliar with Twitter, “dm” = Direct Message, i.e. for the recipient’s eyes only) :
And it looks suspiciously like they’re coordinating ahead of tomorrow’s programme:
That doesn’t seem right (pardon the pun).
UPDATE. Nicky Campbell says he was just discussing “logistics” with Mo Ansar in his tweets today. Here are a couple more screengrabs – @rynascribe is Nick Ryan, author of a book on right-wing nationalists called Homeland. I get a sense something more was going on here than train times and hotel reservations.
(Note – when I first posted the tweet which begins “Yesterday reports were of a Neo Nazi…” I had cropped out the time when the tweet was sent. I’ve now updated it to include the time so it can be seen that the “Sarkozy knows no limits” tweet followed immediately after.)
Let me get this straight. The Unite trade union which has been behind the threat of the great petrol strike has had a great week. The BBC has wilfully ignored the fact that it was Unite, not the Coalition Government, which has fanned the flames of panic , by implying that it MIGHT strike over the Easter holiday. Yes, the Government could have handled it better, and I think Frances Maude is generally woeful, but it was Unite that initiated the possible crisis. They got off largely scot-free on this central issue, using the “Health and Safety” excuse without any real detailed query from the State Broadcaster. Having milked the publicity and seen the inept Government twist on the media generated wind, Unite now calls the strike off, at least for the moment. The Government then changes its advice to motorists and the BBC screams this latest change as major news. Also note that it also seeks to once again link the woeful Maude to the woman in York who suffered severe burns while decanting petrol in her kitchen. It’s as if the BBC is the broadcasting arm for Unite. Surely not.
Been a busy morning for the Nanny Staters. If the Coalition wants decent publicity and a soft ride on the BBC, it needs to come up with views that are all about IMPOSING the will of the State on people. So Dame Sally Davies, Chief Medical Officer, pops up on Today @ 8.50 to explains the serious health problems caused by second hand smoke. She made some tenuous connections between children wheezing as a direct consequence of second hand smoke and was allowed to get away with them, unchallenged. In fact she was being encouraged by Humphrys to suggest that we will only really change behaviour if there is legislation so perhaps we need a law to stop us smoking on their own property. To be clear; I have never smoked and hate the smell of it BUT I fail to see why the State, encouraged by the State broadcaster, seeks to remove choice from people in terms of what they do in their homes, in their cars.
Well then, it looks like “Red” Ed Miliband and Trade Union baron “Red” Len LcCluskey do enjoy dining together. Yes, the uber militant Unite Leader McCluskey and Miliband have had 8 meals together since Ed became leader – care of McCluskey and the comrades and the BBC dutifully report this. And then leave it there.
No follow up news items on Today or any other programme as to WHY the Labour leader seems to want to dine on such a frequent basis with a man who hangs a photo of Lenin on his wall. No follow up questioning as to how such meetings could be seen by even the most neutral observer as undermining Miliband’s claims that he is not a puppet of the Unions, the Unions whose activism and votes placed him in his current role.
I am sure some people may share MY view that the Labour Party under Miliband in particular is behaving simply as an extension of the hard left Trade Unions like Unite (the single biggest funder) and yet the BBC seem curiously reluctant to flag this up as an issue worthy of prime time discussion. They are, of course, delighted to question every nuance of where the Conservatives get their money, who Cameron chooses to dine with in Number Ten – and in my view rightly so BUT why the reticence when it comes to Labour? If the Labour Party is an extension of the Trade Union agenda, is the BBC simply the broadcasting wing ?
It seem to me that the lack of independence of Labour from those who fund it (Unions now hand over 90% + of cash and non cash funding) is a genuine news story – every bit as important as what Frances Maude says. But it is not something the BBC seeks to run with for reasons we can but speculate.
Why is ITV left to do the investigating concerning Operation Motorman and the broader aspects of the phone hacking scandal?
B-BBC contributor Alan notes…
“Can it be that the BBC are solely intent on one target…Murdoch and News International?
‘Motorman’ and its indications of widespread illegal practises throughout the newspaper industry has been available for everyone to see for a long time.
And yet the BBC showed no interest in its contents….perhaps because the Guardian, in the shape of the ‘Observer’ is also implicated.
http://www.itv.com/news/2012-03-28/do-not-publish-do-not-publish-do-not-publish/?tw_p=twt
http://www.itv.com/news/2012-03-28/backgrounder-do-not-publish-do-not-publish/
‘ITV News has been given unique access to perform a detailed analysis of information seized from private investigator Steve Whittamore in 2003 by investigators acting for the Information Commissioner’s Office. Mr Whittamore specialised in obtaining information on behalf of clients in the media…..information appears to have been obtained illegally from organisations who have either been tricked into handing it over, or from a corrupt source within the organisation. The organisations concerned are the Police, the DVLA, BT, and mobile network providers.’
Here’s a Bradford West approved Open Thread to see you off into the weekend! Enjoy.
Guest contributer hippiepooter writes:-
“Hewie’s in my manor!
Caught his report on Spain’s General Strike on News24 tonight.
He concluded his report informing us that the Spanish Government (centre-right Partido Popular) will announce its austerity measures tomorrow. “The fear is this country, already in recession, will be locked in a downward spiral”. Whose fear exactly Gav?
The Partido Popular achieved an overall majority in the general election in November last year.
In regional elections in Andalucia a couple of days ago PP recorded its best ever result, getting the largest vote for the first time, falling just short of an overall majority.
It’s vote in Asturias was also up nearly 2% on the previous year’s regional elections.
Somehow this failed to get a mention in Mr Hewitt’s report.
The fear in Spain, Mr Hewitt, is that union wreckers are going to make the crisis even worse with their stupid strikes. “
Biased BBC contributor Alan notes….
“The BBC in conjunction with another media group and the British Labour Party are conducting a secret campaign to silence if not destroy a rival to their political views and commercial interests……
I might suggest such actions are probably illegal, certainly go against the spirit of the BBC Charter and in silencing any voices they don’t like they destroy democracy and in effect set up a one party state…regardless of who is in power the only voices of influence will be the BBC’s and its fellow travellers.
The BBC’s Panorama programme dug up a 10 year old story and have presented it as ‘proven fact’ when they have as yet shown not a shred of evidence to back up their central claim……Murdoch is plotting his revenge….
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17547568
‘Rupert Murdoch plans to “hit back hard” following allegations that one of his companies used hacking and piracy to sabotage rival TV competitors.
A BBC Panorama documentary accused NDS – a News Corp subsidiary – of leaking information which allowed ITV Digital’s services to be accessed for free.
“Seems every competitor and enemy piling on with lies and libels,” Murdoch wrote on Twitter.
Chase Carey, News Corp’s chief operating officer, issued a statement condemning “the BBC’s inaccurate claims….The BBC’s Panorama programme was a gross misrepresentation of NDS’s role as a high quality and leading provider of technology and services to the pay-TV industry.”.
“Panorama presented manipulated and mischaracterised emails to produce unfair and baseless accusations.’
“Wow what an integrate twisted tale of events!”
Remarkably the investigative powers of the police, the prosecution service’s authority and the judicial system have been co-opted by the BBC for a trial by television.
The BBC have launched yet another attack on their commercial and political nemesis, News Corp, claiming in a Panorama programme, ‘Murdoch’s TV Pirates’ (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01dlvbm/Panorama_Murdochs_TV_Pirates/)
that his company was behind the commercial destruction of ITV’s ‘OnDigital’ service.
The allegation was based solely on the word of a computer hacker with nothing substantial to corroborate his words.
Panorama claims this is ‘the biggest Murdoch hacking scandal of all…’piracy was the killer blow for the business…there is no question’…..a secret operation inside a Murdoch company hacked down the competition.’
and yet there is no proof…let alone a legal ‘trial’.
Panorama claimed to have emails that were a smoking gun but the ones shown certainly revealed no evidence that Murdoch’s company had authorised the piracy and release of the code for OnDigital’s subscription card….the emails in fact are so innocuous (so far) that Labour’s Tom Watson has put out a Twitter appeal for help reading them:
RT @tom_watson: Australian Financial Review needs help with crowdsourcing a review of some interesting emails! afr.com/p/download_the_ema…
http://www.afr.com/p/download_the_emails_4otBluEZ7OMKeUWkk0FdFL
Good to see Tom Watson and the BBC working hand in hand again.
These emails were ‘obtained’ by the Australian ‘Financial Review’….
‘The Financial Review has published thousands of emails from an archive of 14,400 emails held by former Metropolitan Police commander Ray Adams who was European chief for Operational Security from 1996 to 2002.’
‘The emails, which come from several different folders within that drive – thus there is some duplication – were passed to The Australian Financial Review by an anonymous source. The Financial Review has undertaken its own inquiries to verify the emails.’
You may want to ask why all this has come to light now…this suggestion that Murdoch’s company was involved in ‘piracy’ was made in 1999 and went to court in 2002…so strange timing…suddenly a ‘key witness’ appears after 10 years silence and a load of emails also appear simultaneously.
Panorama claimed that a court case brought by Canal Plus regarding card hacking failed because Murdoch bought out the complainant company….but the emails actually disprove that….as News Corp were after the company long before:
‘Date: 2/2/2000 10:27:20 PM Subject: FW: Industrial Espionage Article
Enclosed is a scanned article sent by Arieh Moller – taken from the Sunday Times about a case of Industrial Espionage conducted against the British Aerospace company by the French Secret Service. ?
Bearing in mind News Corp.’s attempt to join forces with Canal+ which failed
because the French didn’t want ‘foreigners’ controlling Canal+… – and in light of the recent industrial espionage case we’ve had in China -? this can be an interesting example of nationally endorsed industrial espionage – to show relevant NDS personnel… ‘
also this from the Guardian in 2002:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2002/mar/13/media.citynews
‘For its part, NDS says the whole piracy claim is an outlandish fabrication. A statement from Abe Peled, the company’s president and chief executive, last night said the counterfeiters had simply targeted an inferior technology and succeeded without any help from anyone.
He suggested that Canal Plus is in commercial trouble and revealed that the French firm had approached NDS before Christmas suggesting a merger, adding that the French had been trying to poach the NDS employee accused of leaking Canal Plus’s code.’
Panorama also hides some other interesting titbits:
OnDigital was launched when David Cameron, now UK prime minister, was head of communications at Carlton Communications, the ITV franchise owner….the same man who launched the anti-Murdoch Leveson Inquiry (and now has been hit by the Murdoch Times for ‘cash for access’…ha ha)
It also merely called one Steve Hewlett a ‘media analyst’…but he is presenter of Radio 4’s Media Show and former director of programmes at Carlton Television.
He appeared this morning on the ‘Today’ programme where he stated that (vhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/b006qj9z/console) 1 hr 52 mins:
Piracy was an issue (in the downfall of OnDigital) but it is fair to say that there were other issues….it is very expensive to launch a digital service, there are high costs and high risks and ITV did not have the appetite for that risk….or the money. ITV also did not have any premium content that viewers wanted to watch (bit of a problem) and finally the shareholders could never decide on anything….he stated ITV Digital probably wouldn’t have worked whatever Murdoch did.
Panorama also failed to mention one of its star witnesses, computer hacker Oliver Kommerling, had been hired by Murdoch’s NDS, but was later employed by the rival Canal Plus who were complaining of piracy.
Panorama also fails to mention that a computer hacker and ‘witness’ named Jan Saggiori was a consultant to News Corp’s competitors, the French media group Canal Plus.
Panorama also claimed that it was impossible for anyone but a powerful organisation with unlimited funding to hack these cards….but this is not true…NDS was set up to catch people hacking such cards….indeed the ITV OnDigital card/Canal Plus card was revealed to the world by Canadian ‘pirates’ who offered $1 million dollars to anyone who could hack another card….’In April 1997, the Canadian pirate dealers were offering up to $1million for a top-flight hacker to crack the DirecTV NDS card.’
These same Canadian hackers smuggled two Bulgarian hackers, Plamen Donev and Vesselin Nedeltchev (known as Vesco) into Canada under false papers, then into the US, where they had hired the University of Montana physics lab to crack the P2 card (a Murdoch card).
So Panorama’s programme rests on very dodgy ‘facts’ and the evidence of a man who we don’t know whom he works for now, nor do we know his motives for making these claims.
The whole programme was clearly constructed to try and tie this into the phone hacking scandal, and seemed more intent on proving this meant Murdoch was not a ‘fit and proper’ person to hold a broadcasting license.
The Today programme summed up the attitude with Sarah Montague getting to the point she had been desperately working towards….’What damage do these allegations do to News Corporation?’
Steve Hewlett obliged with the reply that this indicates a ‘Broader cultural issue within News Corporation.’
i.e… they are not ‘fit and proper’.
As in another failed case against Murdoch the impression is what counts….’In the event, the allegations never stuck. But the mud did.’
This of course would be a massive coup for the BBC and the Left. The BBC would love to
Allahu Akhbar! Gorgeous George Galloway, Saddam’s representative on Earth, has won the Bradford West by election and the BBC has a problem. Yes they love the Labour Party but they will always genuflect to the pro-Jihad Respect party. So, this morning with my old pal George sleeping after his historic victory care of “Asians” apparently, on trooped Salma Yaqoob to the Today programme @ 8.10AM. The climax of the interview was contrived to enable her to say that Respect did not support the killing of British soldiers in Afghanistan. She didn’t. Instead she talked of her support for the “right to resist” to the obvious chagrin of the BBC interviewer.
Further, she was able to claim that Galloway had obtained support from “all parts of the community” in Bradford West. I was speaking to a friend this morning who had visited the electoral battleground in Bradford West in the past few days. I am told that all of the Muslim areas were bedecked with Respect posters, the Islamic community was fully energised to deliver support for the crusader (!) Galloway and elsewhere apathy reigned. How come the BBC’s world class reporters missed this? Why do they hide behind the false claim that Galloway represents a broad cross section of the Bradford people?
Here we have a situation where militant minded anti-British Muslims rally around the demagogue Galloway and the best the BBC can do is question Baroness Warsi as to why the Conservatives did not do better! Mind you, they also let Harriet Harperson declare “The lesson that we learn this morning is that we must learn lessons from this.” Perhaps Harriet’s nonsense provides us with something to smile about, but the BBC’s obsequious to Respect reminds me of how it also grovelled to Sinn Fein.