264 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. Guest Who says:

    Stephanie Flanders ‏ @BBCStephanie
    Grateful (?) to @evanhd for brdcasting my vote idiocy. Too defensive to note polling station is opposite my house, & was covered with signs?

    Defensive? A Beeboid in their own spotlight? The very idea!

       6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      On a related note, a tweet worthy of sharing:
      Sophie Brendel ‏ @sophiebr

      Central BBC news Twitter guidance is unchanged. Retweets & replies are encouraged. Our guidelines are here: http://bbc.in/rhkfQr
      The irony being those ‘guidelines’ being on a blog littered with censorships and, of course, now closed.

         4 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        A senior editor keeps an eye on tweets from these accounts after they’re sent out.

        Yeah, right. If that’s the case, then whoever is watching the watchers here is just as biased as the rest of them. Nobody with any impartial common sense would allow some of Katty Kay’s tweets on her officially sanctioned account.

           3 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘Nobody with any impartial common sense’
          I think I may have spotted a possible explanation, if not valid excuse for their uniquely flexible oversight methodology.
          I just love the two-faced !@£$%’s po-faced claiming they ‘want to hear your views’ whilst obliterating any means to give them or, on the few left open, censoring any that don’t suit.
          @chrishamsSocial Media Editor for @BBCNews. I’m also to blame for @BBCBreaking and @BBCWorld. Opinions mine, all mine.
          London · http://news.bbc.co.uk/

          Did he mention the BBC in there at all, before the ‘views all mine’ bit?
          His RT’s interesting, as is..
          Chris Hamilton ‏ @chrishams
          Fascinating to watch @tom_watson / @LouiseMensch exchanges. Impossible before Twitter. Impact on democracy?

          What is fascinating, Chris, is the impact on democracy of colleagues rather selectively tweeting about or RT’ing who and what they like approvingly, and dissing any they don’t. Guys like one Mr. Vine and his BFF Tom Watson. Oh, and the driving campaigns via twitter and broadcast thing, as pioneered by social media trainer Stuart Hughes…. so not cool.
          All this, via a £4Bpa compelled funding biased PR machine that reaches into every nook and cranny of this fair land 24/7 might well have an impact on democracy, eh, Chris?

             5 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            Meanwhile, from the wonderful world of weasels..
            Sophie Brendel
            @sophiebr
            Head of Digital Communications at the BBC, arts lover, Fulham FC supporter, traveller – views here are mine on any of the above.

            Semantically, does ‘on’ the BBC mean sanctioned ‘by’ the BBC, given her title and seniority?
            It may explain the tonality, which seems more responsible, even though she sounds like a 12 year old ‘It-girl’ with a very nice gig at work and home.

               4 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Having realized that they can affect the news even more via Social Media, the Beeboids decided to update the metrics they use to gauge effectiveness. Volume of followers is no longer good enough. Now they expect real interaction with the audience.

            Most likely that’s also a load of BS, as the exchanges are far more likely to be with their fellow travelers and not with actual audience members. But that would take real time to pin down, which isn’t what they do.

            This just highlights all the more the dangers of allowing personal expression into the realm of journalism while still trying to maintain a facade of impartiality. One complaints apparatchik told Guest Who that they believe their audience prefers to engage with them via personal accounts rather than official ones. The result is that “don’t do anything stupid” becomes a daily problem for them.

            It seems so simple to make a distinction between “personal” and “personalized”, which is what I bet their surveys found the audience really wants. The latter ought to be the correct approach, yet they just don’t get it. Probably the arrogance and elite protected status makes some Beeboids very upset when told they can’t express themselves openly, so the wet management allows it to continue, shrugging their shoulders at how difficult it all is to figure out.

            So the problem continues pretty much unabated, more rules thrown around as a gesture towards getting it about right.

               3 likes

            • Guest Who says:

              ‘the wet management allows it to continue’
              That’s wet… but highly paid to market rate levels.
              As rewards for failures, too many, too often, too generously pensioned off and too cynical to be true.
              The chipping away does bear fruit, as those ‘open expressions’ can blow the oft-repeated lies out of the water when confronted by evidenciary proof that what they say is seldom what happens in reality.

                 1 likes

            • Guest Who says:

              Oh, and the wettest of management is the one who tried the dampest squib in reigning in the tweetages only to be ignored, and is tipped for DG.
              Unique.

                 2 likes

  2. whitey says:

    BBC have axed the comedy series ‘ My Family ‘ because it is too middle class.
    Apparently a new politically correct version is being written to replace the old out of date middle class format.

    Shilpa, a young asian twenty something, one armed unemployed lesbian dentist on benefits ………….

       10 likes

    • Sydney Harbour-Bridge says:

      What a shame they didn’t axe the show 5 years ago, for the different reason that it’s total shite….

         4 likes

  3. AARRGH. Just had the full, knock on the door, letter treatment for no licence. So I have paid. GOD IT DRIVES ME BONKERS. This whole country is falling apart at the seams. But by God, the BBC will make sure you pay for your TV licence. Its well beyond Orwellian. Its positively evil.

       8 likes

    • Pah says:

      Did they come to the door and claim to have evidence that you had a TV? If so did you ask to see the evidence? If so (2) what was it?

      Just curious.

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I was just last night enlightening someone here in the US about the reality of the license fee. Even people who love the Britcoms and costume dramas and think the World News is really good have no idea and are shocked by it.

      With sincere apologies and sympathy, don’t mean to rub it in…

      License Fee cost: £140pa

      The look on liberals’ faces when I tell them about the frowning men sent round to your house if you don’t pay: Priceless.

         4 likes

  4. will says:

    More than a million people may have lost their jobs unnecessarily because the Labour Government failed to act on warnings from the Bank of England which could have prevented the recession, Sir Mervyn King claims. The Bank governor claimed that action by Gordon Brown’s administration had been “too late” to prevent the banking crisis causing a recession, which led to the sharp increase in unemployment. Sir Mervyn said that he argued “from the beginning of 2008” that British banks required more than £100bn of extra funding to avert a crisis. Mr Brown and other senior ministers failed to bail out the banks until October 2008, which was “too late to prevent the financial crisis from spilling over into the world economy”, he claimed, according to The Telegraph.

    Can’t find any of this angle reported by the BBC. They turn instead to Brown’s favourite economist Blanchflower for a balanced response to King’s speech.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-17929120

    The governor of the Bank of England, Sir Mervyn King, has rejected blame for the financial crisis.

       10 likes

    • As I See It says:

      BBC News 24 headline their report with ‘Mervyn admits responsibility’. God forbid any blame is attached to that man named Brown.

      Remember how ITVs Roger Cook used to doorstep dodgy dealers with the catchphase ‘….are these people going to get their money back?’

      Hint for BBC: Don’t bother looking for Brown at his supposed place of work, try his home in Fife.

         11 likes

    • chrisH says:

      And Martha Kearney continues to be the meme required of Labour.
      She started todays World at One with a mocking reference to how the economic recovery was being counted( by the number of cranes on building sites apparently!),…but we`re so much more nuanced now aren`t we?
      Then follows Martha asking how many cranes there are ,then; in Londons office building…and then out in the regions.
      Not good news of course…does Monbiot agree with the BBC that we need more office space then?
      Martha then asks a carpet mogul(Lord Harris) and-of course-the National Pawnbrokers Association-to try to shaft the Tories and their quisling Mervyn King. The BBC will NOT tolerate news of anything other than the Toricutz….no ther game in town.
      Being Kearney however; no more than a miasma of patchouli and old dope was the result.
      No mention of Vederas “green shoots of recovery” either-this was solely the boast of Lamont , so it transpires.
      Got to getr a job-too much World at One could be bad for my “self-esteem or mental health”…surely!

         10 likes

  5. As I See It says:

    BBC News 24 appear to have granted Wales full independence.

    This wonderful coastal path about which the Beeboids sound so enamored – developed, I hear by the Welsh Government – makes Wales the first country in the world to have opened a public pathway along its entire coastline.

    Trouble is the Beeb are so keen to set Wales on the world stage that I think they may be telling us some porkies.

    How much truth is there in this BBC claim for Welsh world beating status in this field?

    The EU have this to say about the E9 European Coastal Path (Path Sentier Europeen du littoral)…..

    ‘…..The path then follows the coast of Belgium, the Netherlands and into Germany, where it continues inland to avoid the Jutland peninsula, joining the Baltic coast into Poland to the Russian border at Braniewo.’

    So I take it that there is already a path in place on the coasts of Belgium, Holland, Germany and Poland?

       12 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      In which of those countries does the BBC consider nationalism equivalent to racism?

         10 likes

    • johnyork says:

      The only path the BBC is interested in taking you up is the Garden One.

         9 likes

    • Pah says:

      Hmm, wasn’t there supposed to be a path around the whole of England’s coast line? IIRC the only bit that was not completed was the bit that went through Tony Benn’s property on the Thames Estuary …

      A story not coming to a BBC newsroom any time soon.

         7 likes

  6. Sue says:

    Yolande Knell has reported the UN Special Rapporteur’s support of the Palestinian prisoners who have been on hunger strike including his harsh condemnation of Israel. It’s hardly surprising that Yolande Knell would pass on a message from someone renowned for antisemitic and anti-Israel views. However, it did surprise me that the article refers to him as Robert, not Richard Falk.
    Perhaps it’s her pet name for him?

       11 likes

  7. Iain says:

    Reading comprehension test. Read this article, then answer the following question: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-17933864

    Former US Presidential candidate John Edwards is affiliated with which political party?

       7 likes

    • chrisH says:

      No…can`t say which party Edwards might be from.
      I do bet, however; that if he`d been a Tea Party candidate….Republican too…the BBC would be more than happy to tell us.
      I`d worry if the BBC was NOT so unsubtly biased these days…truly transparent in their lazy liberal games.

         8 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      It’s worse than you think: the “Former US presidential candidate” is very intentional and NOT JUST to avoid saying Democrat: they know that the Republicans are the ones deciding on a candidate for POTUS so the very clear message from the BBC is not only intended to hide the truth but also intended to fool the reader into thinking the opposite.

         2 likes

  8. noggin says:

    thats told em – thank-you and goodnight, (phew! … keep the car running)
    Showing who’s boss update
    “Suicide bombers kill 7 after Obama leaves Afghan capital,”
    Michael Georgy/Mirwais Harooni
    Reuters, May 2

    all together … “what a difference a day makes, 24 little hrs etc”

    El Beeb world service – obama “new era in US-Afghan relations”… lots of fluff “Complicated realities”, “Afghanistan is now designated by the US as a major “non-Nato ally” 😀

    so of course, obamaphile chimp in residence R Bacon, bleats mission accomplished on 5live … hurrah?

       8 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Mission Accomplished, thanks to the surge He voted against, and the general He got rid of for telling tales out of school, and the intelligence gathering done using info obtained by naughty waterboarding which He said was wrong and He would never do and banned after taking office. I guess it’s not an illegal war when He’s in charge?

         2 likes

  9. Roland Deschain says:

    Oh dear. Global warming predictions have not been apocalyptic enough, it seems.

    Scientific models are failing to accurately predict the impact of global warming on plants, says a new report.

       7 likes

  10. Umbongo says:

    I haven’t seen mention on the BBC of this incident reported by the Evening Standard. I daresay we’ll hear about it from the state broadcaster after 10:00 pm today but right now (at 15:30) if this google search covers the reporting field. Thuggery by Respect and/or Labour doesn’t count as “news” at the BBC of course.

       5 likes

    • Umbongo says:

      Sentence should end ” . . the reporting field – nothing!”

         2 likes

      • Reed says:

        Just like the MSM in the US were reluctant to report voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers.

           3 likes

  11. Roland Deschain says:

    According to the BBC website, the most important story in the land is, it seems, the actions (or rather inactions) of a cleric with regard to paedophiles in a foreign country over 35 years ago.

    Can it really be the case that there isn’t any more recent paedophilia amongst clerics, perhaps a little closer to home?

       4 likes

  12. Sue says:

    Over at CiFWatch I learn that the Palestinian Festival of Literature (PalFest) is to feature a BBC World Service producer Bee Rowlatt – (unusual name? – yes, she is married to Justin). The festival’s mission is to reinvigorate cultural ties between Arab Countries and “it endorses the Palestinian call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel”
    Nice ethical couple.

       12 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Worth a full post, I think.

         5 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      How’s our busy Bee getting there?
      I just ask, ‘cos…
      http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/7508366.stm
      He met some ‘activists’ who he has no idea about, despite meeting earlier… maybe an intro from Paul Mason and advice from Stuart Hughes on using the BBC for campaigning purposes?
      5.24 in, see the fam in Tenerife.
      7.30 has our hero in Jamaica to make a point. A unique one. Bee wanted to know why, but that was then. Rubbish & shallow, eh, luv? Possibly.. lame? Maybe she deserves a few emails for her jolly now? Or is it different now on account of the boycotting that needs coordinating?
      Maybe credibility-offsetting is the answer?

         2 likes

  13. Louis Robinson says:

    I’m listening to the “Natural World” on R4. Quentin Cooper is examining the practicalities of expanding wind farms in the North Sea, getting to grips “with the big questions on how to wire up the sea for electricity production”. Nothing less than a giant grid based in the North Sea serving all of Europe. Two very earnest men are discussing the topic. As is usual with environmental debates on the BBC, one chap says wind farms are great – while the other one says wind farms are great.
    Meanwhile I’m reading an article about how wind power raises CO2 emissions.
    http://news.heartland.org/newspaper-article/2010/07/13/study-wind-power-raises-co2-emissions
    I wonder who to believe? No, don’t rush me. Wait a second. Let me think….

       8 likes

  14. FYI we’re up to our arses in crocodiles in Australia- our socialist regime has just offered 300 bucks a head for illegal immigrants to be accomodated by normal Australians. The ABC thinks it’s a brilliant idea.

    Polls are running 87-90 per cent opposed.

    It is nothing more than the same deliberate attack on culture that Labour in the UK carried out as its scorched earth policy against the native British peoples.

       12 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Sure they’re “illegals”? That said if if they are a not you mention one possible ideal solution: feed them to the salties. :mrgreen:

         4 likes

  15. George R says:

    “Has the BBC banned ‘The Dictator’ from its shows?”

    http://entertainment.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/03/11521337-has-the-bbc-banned-the-dictator-from-its-shows?=

       0 likes

  16. George R says:

    “Final poll puts Boris Johnson ahead by six points in Mayor race ”

    http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/mayor/final-poll-puts-boris-johnson-ahead-by-six-points-in-mayor-race-7710841.html

    -But somehow there will be a victory celebration for Livingstone by much of ‘Question Time’s rigged audience in London this evening.

       5 likes

  17. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Beeboid Jane O’Brien has written what appears to the uninformed to be a reasonable piece about an upcoming change in laws for cross-state alcohol sales. If you don’t actually know about the US scene and trust her for your information, you’ll be led to believe the following:

    States’s rights to control their internal commerce is “unprecedented”

    Changing the law will harm minority-owned businesses.

    Small businesses will be destroyed by big-box chains

    Children will be able to order booze over the internet

    Reality: States have had the right to control their own commerce since 1790 (when the Constitution was ratified by the last State to approve). The rules after Prohibition in some states are silly in an unprecedented way, sure, but that’s not the same as what O’Brien wrote:

    give individual states unprecedented rights to regulate sales and consumption within their borders.

    They’ve always had the right. They just didn’t make it so silly until then. The Federal Government has also always had the right (due to the Commerce Clause) to impose restrictions on how States can sell booze within their own territory. There have always been restrictions on selling to Indian groups and reservations. Even before Prohibition.

    In several states, as she says, liquor sales are done exclusively through state-controlled “package stores”. You can’t buy it in grocery stores or at your local 7/11. There’s an Odd-Bins in New Haven, CT, for example. In Pennsylvania, there are only a handful of places where one can buy individual bottles of anything. Although, they do have a great selection in many places. But they generally aren’t open at convenient hours, and it’s a pain in the ass for consumers and business owners.

    In New York, stores can sell either wine and spirits, or beer. Can’t sell beer and wine in the same place. And you can’t buy it before noon on Sundays. In places like Arizona and California, though, it’s a free-for-all. Stores can sell everything they want. There are even drive-thru liquor stores. They card everyone, of course.

    But these state-controlled deals are restrictive monopolies. The amount of hoops a restaurant or retailer has to jump through to get a license is ridiculous. Never mind what a brewer or distiller has to go through to sell their stuff in other states. Craft spirits are the next big thing in the US, as it happens, and this will help them as well as craft brewers and small winemakers. It’s not just about the wholesalers O’Brien got quotes from.

    The thing is, all the minority-owned businesses will still be able to get licensed to sell alcohol if these state-controlled monopolies are broken. Nobody is stopping them. If anything, they’ll get even more business because they’ll be able to sell more stuff, and imports will be less restrictive. Children can’t buy drugs or adult anything over the internet now, and that’s not going to change just because an Oregon winery will be able to ship a case of $80 per-bottle pinot noir from the Willamette Valley to a yuppie couple in Park Slope. Way more people buy what they want to drink immediately than would buy cases over the internet they won’t be able to drink until next week. It’s silly to think this would drive the local shop out of business in most areas.

    What’s silly about this is I can order a load of Grimbergen Optimo Bruno right now from BelgianShop.com, and have it sent from Belgium right to my home. But it’s a problem when Greg’s in New Jersey can send me a few bottles of $10 table wine? It’s really more about allowing consumers a wider choice than what they can get locally, not about undercutting local business who can’t sell the stuff in the first place.

    If small minority-owned businesses would be destroyed be these new laws, then they should already have been ruined by the fact that I can walk a half mile from my home to a wholesaler – which can quite legally sell anyone beer at a reduced retail price – and buy a case of Chimay Rouge for about sixty percent of the price I’d have to pay if I bought individual bottles from the minority-owned small bodega down the block. Yet these minority-owned businesses do a mint selling beer, and could make even more if they were allowed to sell wine. Yet the BBC wants you to think these monopolies protect minorities. They don’t.

    There’s another kind of small business the BBC ignores here: brewers and distillers and vintners. They face lots of obstacles selling their stuff outside their own State. This will open up new markets for them in a major way. In Illinois, for example, the powerful big boys who control everything in league with the State use the laws to help kill sales of craft brewers from other states. That happens in a lot of places. But that doesn’t help the “ooh everyone will start boozing it up, think about the children!” Nanny State angle the BBC always pushes when reporting on alcohol.

    Just because O’Brien gets statements from what appears to be both sides of the issue doesn’t make this a balanced piece. She missed out talking to the actual small businesses who would benefit, and didn’t tell you that lots of states don’t have stupid laws. And in most places we don’t have quite the Nanny State mentality this article pushes.

    Rant ends.

       6 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:

      Perhaps the national broadcaster should concentrate on the pathetic state of drunkenness in the UK. The last time I was East Grinstead – we’re talking posh Sussex here – the place was awash with abusive louts throwing up in the street. I guess if you live in a society you don’t notice the changes as starkly as if you simply visit.

         1 likes

  18. Louis Robinson says:

    Johnny Ball admits the Play School presenters were high on drugs and screwed around. Surely not! Next they’ll be telling us the same about Five Live!

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2138825/Sex-drugs-childrens-TV-Documentary-lifts-lid-debauchery-BBC-Television-Centre.html

       6 likes

  19. David Preiser (USA) says:

    More Occupy news the BBC will be censoring:

    Vigilante neo-Nazi suspected in deadly Arizona shooting

    What’s that you say? There’s nothing in this AP report about the murderer being an Occupier? Here’s photo evidence:

    Horror!… Neo-Nazi #Occupy Phoenix Protester Goes On Shooting Rampage – 5 Dead

    That’s right: a Neo-Nazi, white-supremacist, militia nutbag is one of the Occupiers, darlings of the BBC.

    Mark Mardell and Katty Kay and Kevin “Teabagger” Connolly and Jonny Dymond and Laura Trevelyan were unavailable for comment. Yeah, he went mad and killed his girlfriend, her mother, her grandmother, and a little baby daughter, so it’s just another one of those crimes of passion, nothing unusual, not at all part of the traditional Occupy violence. But if he was part of the Tea Party movement, you’d hear about it from the BBC.

       7 likes

  20. chrisH says:

    I find myself being pathetically grateful to Eddie Mair for going at Chris Bryant and his flurry of non-sequiters in regard of non-EU nationals being left to wait at Heathrow too long.
    Really gets your interest when a Labour lollard is forced on the defensive, hectored and asked what gives him the authority to say what he`d do…because he and his party sure did nothing about any of it when THEY were in power!
    Bryant clearly had not expected the BBC to do a Malthouse on him, and he was clueless and shown to be a cynical opportunist….which is all that the Labour husk of a playpen party is now and for ever.
    Rest of the show the usual slug trail…but for a few minutes, a Beeber actually did his job and Labour were revealed for what they are.

       10 likes

    • Phobic-ist says:

      I wonder how long it will be before some liebour shite starts bleating about right wing bias at the BBC because of this . . .

         9 likes

    • A classic “believe what I say” moment on the R2 08:00 news earlier by Nick Robinson:
      They might have been only local elections, fewer than 1 in 3 of those with a vote may have bothered to use it, and there are three years until the next general election so some may claim, surely, that the results are without national consequence. Well, they’d be wrong.
      Opinion, not fact, I feel.
      He went on:
      Victories … will allow Ed Miliband to claim that Labour is on its way back as a credible challenger for power. His leadership, questioned just a few weeks ago, will now be secure.
      And with those words from the Wise Man of BBC Politics an audible sigh of relief emanated from BBC premises across the land.
      Jeremy Vine did his thing on BBC1 last night, but I only saw enough to note that he was unfortunately sans fancy dress on this occasion. What a shame, and how can we ever forget: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7JX8D1Kb88

         3 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        The whole point of these high-profile BBC editors like Robinson (Peston, “Two Eds”, Mardell, Hewitt, Bowen, et al) is that they’re opinion-mongers. We’re supposed to pretend they’re journalists with integrity because they have sources and access to insider gossip and occasionally do report actual information. But they’re there to give their opinion.

        Another reason the BBC’s claim to impartiality is a joke.

           0 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          ‘We’re supposed to pretend they’re journalists with integrity’
          They keep telling us that but, for some, that’s one circumnavigating the globe those with more upstairs than most still ain’t buying.

             0 likes

  21. George R says:

    For BBC-Democrat to note and censor:

    “‘Justice for Trayvon’: 15 Whites Beaten By Gangs of Black Thugs… So Far”

    http://pjmedia.com/blog/justice-for-trayvon-15-whites-beaten-by-gangs-of-black-thugs-so-far/?singlepage=true

       3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Plus, a third NBC employee has been fired for a third segment of Zimmerman’s phone call to the police, deliberately edited to make him sound like a racist.

      This transcript is even worse than the previous two:

      Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good or on drugs or something. He’s got his hand in his waistband. And he’s a black male.

      Dispatcher: Are you following him?

      Zimmerman: Yeah.

      Dispatcher: Okay, we don’t need you to do that.

      But here’s how the call really went:

      Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about.

      Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he white, black, or Hispanic?

      Zimmerman: He looks black.

      The bit I’ve bolded was taken from a later part in the conversation and dropped in here to make Zimmerman sound racist. Any “justice” violence is directly and deliberately inspired by NBC and the rest of the mainstream media.

      If they can do it in the US where we don’t have an official state broadcaster with a legacy of generations of trust, just imagine what the BBC can do.

         5 likes

  22. jonuk says:

    are there any Conservative supporting celebrities?

       1 likes

  23. John Anderson says:

    Just a thought about BBC Twitterati.

    I bet a lot of them are provided with mobile phones by the BBC itself ? Certainly I was provided with a mobile over the 10 years before I retired.

    So are WE paying for their twittering ?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10910170

    see para 22 here :

    Click to access summary_expenses_policy_sms.pdf

       2 likes

  24. Reed says:

    Good video here…

    Paul Weston and British Freedom 20 point plan for reclaiming basic liberal values and individual liberties
    http://vladtepesblog.com/?p=47614

    ..actually – it’s just one point he makes in the video, but an extremely important one none the less.

       1 likes

  25. noggin says:

    UH OH!
    alarm bells
    not for libcons, not for labour
    but for anyone with eyes tightly shut to reality on …
    muslim insular herd mentality .ie bradford
    does anyone else matter? … not anymore 😀
    enclave …hey hey hey
    halal food there to stay, and sharia compliance on its way.
    tower hamlets? rochdale? leicester?

       1 likes

    • noggin says:

      “does anyone else matter … not anymore”
      not in Bradford, expect new increased tensions, (if thats possible) more bias in favour of all things islam, in schools, in the council chamber,
      on the high street, on already weak/soft touch policing etc.

      yes, the ALWAYS repeated, islamic staple of first
      demanding rights others don t have, then consolidating that over ALL the rest of the community, then backing it with political clout.

      in Bradford does any one else matter? ask the new council leader, his priorites,
      (just like el bbc s head of religious programs 😀 )

      as bill cotton used to say “wakey wakey!

         2 likes

  26. Guest Who says:

    Paddy Ashdown just accused peroxide sink on SKY of misquoting a fellow Limp Dim to try and stir up a coalition clash (the very idea… I am shocked, I tell you, shocked). She didn’t get on her high horse so possibly he was correct.
    I would like to see this counter-stirring forthrightness happen more often.
    Beeboids, even when bang to rights, usually froth into full flounce mode on their integrity.
    Interestingly, as with Murdoch v. Brown, or Sarkozy v. Hollande, when direct accusations of lying are made these days on the MSM, when it doesn’t suit the holding to accountants to check the facts, they go a little vague and/or ‘move on’.
    Our media these days are of little value on so-called ‘news’ from what they choose (or don’t), who they choose to ‘analyse/discuss’ (or leave out) and how they ‘edit’ what they have have already pre-rigged.
    The Conservative Coalition is reaping all it has sowed as much for what it has not done as has. In many ways this is a winnowing of the weak.
    The problem comes when the selection to fill the void is anything but natural, driven by a skewed, undemocratic media estate.
    Hence Labour, as planned by the latter, is somehow now again seen as a solution to the problems 13 years of their own misrule.

       4 likes

    • Beeboidal says:

      Paddy Ashdown was also on 5Live Breakfast this morning. To Rachel Burden and Nicky Campbell after a clip had been played to him:.

      “Honestly, you guys are very naughty. I mean, let’s not spend too much time on this because there’s big messages to get across. But first of all, you need to play the whole of the Manchester leader’s comments because actually what he said is that despite all this, the party is doing the right thing and we’ve got to stick to the course. And for you to clip a little bit out of that and pretend he said something different is really….”

      Burden then interrupts without addressing Ashdown’s point about the clip. Eventually, Ashdown is allowed to continue…

      “You guys are naughty. You have to be fairer in your presentation of this. And by the way, play the whole thing. Don’t to a context clip [he surely means an out of context clip] which makes the point you want to make, because that’s not the point he was making”.

      So my question is, has Sky sunk to the depths of the BBC?

         0 likes

  27. Guest Who says:

    Took a bit of finding on the website (I am sure it was top of the hour news, though), but the BBC has covered the latest Argentinian salvo in easing tensions over the Falklands.
    Seems it has annoyed the Falklanders.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17946838

    Now, I know the BBC does not speak for me either, but had I been asked I would have agreed that it did not seem optimal in easing the sabre-rattling racket even this side of the pond too.
    But maybe trying to stir up a British mea culpa over the sinking of a hostile warship during a shooting war is considered a more appropriate focus for a propaganda system with a rather odd perception of whose country’s interests and national population they are here to represent.

       3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Given the BBC’s ‘influence’ in many areas, I found this interesting on matters of free speech and democratic expression..
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/worldtonight/2012/04/does_murdoch_matter.html?postId=112427821#comment_112427821
      All the more because the topic is… was… about Murdoch, yet the BBC and Mr. Lustig seem very chilled out on the less than House Rule-conforming rhetoric of those in their support taking matters to other, darker places, whilst clamping down on those who may not conform to the demands of the hive, probably with one of their convenient ‘off topic’ purgatory placings on those not on the home team.
      If this is how the BBC sees the ‘World Tonight’, much is explained if not excused.

         0 likes

  28. Roger C says:

    The BBC just cannot contain their glee, every comment on the news starts with Labour gains! Bias, what bias?

       3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Allegra Stratton ‏ @BBCAllegra

      Heading to Harlow later – is Ed Mili’s southern discomfort over and how badly is Cam struggling with Essex Man?
      It’s the BBC version of a Q&A session.
      They ask the questions to which they have the answers, and folk to provide them, already set up.
      The Coalition is a mess, yes. But pitching Labour as the solution…. quaint.
      Tonight’s Newsrigged will be a treat.

         5 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Oh c’mon Roger, please they are running a superbly important story about someone turning back odometers in second hand vehicles.
      Next news, bear defecates in woods, pope found to be catholic.

         5 likes

  29. Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

    INBBC’s coverage so far this morning has identified 4 parties: Labour, Conservative, Limp dems and Others

    I object to not having seen an “others” choice on my ballot paper. I must have been defrauded of my electoral rights.
    Oh no! they have just identified one of the others, which one …errrr.UKIP perhaps? dont be so bloody silly…it’s RESPECT of course that well known national party ! Traitorous c*nts

       3 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Oh by the way, I haven’t seen Charlie Staytt look so pleased with himself since someone in Norway told him the mass killer was white and blonde haired. Just saying thats all!

         4 likes

  30. Guest Who says:

    ‘Freedom of the press’ UK-style, today.
    The right wing media trashes the Coalition because it is useless and ineffectual.
    The left wing media (lead by a £4Bpa broadcast monopoly) trashes anyone who doesn’t give them what they want, and blindly supports those who will.
    Even in a democracy, the result is hardly surprising.

       3 likes

  31. David Preiser (USA) says:

    I don’t normally rate Tim Stanley’s observations of the US too highly, but this bit concerning the fuss about revelations of dog-eating and fake characters from “Dreams From My Father” is correct, and something we all noticed in 2008, yet the BBC still refuses to acknowledge:

    What stands out from the composite story isn’t that Obama amalgamated characters, it’s that the press hadn’t noticed until now. As with the dog story, this confirms the suspicion that the mainstream media gave Obama a free pass in 2008 and declined to check too deeply into his background. Even The Atlantic’s Graham admits that he’s never read Dreams From My Father, and neither, it would seem, has anyone else in the press corps. They have the excuse that the book is incredibly narcissistic and boring, but otherwise isn’t this exactly the sort of character assessment/assassination that should have happened four years ago?

    When some outside the Left-wing media try to vet Him now, they still try to stifle it. That’s why I still think the media is in the tank for Him and will do everything possible to keep Him in power. NBC’s and ABC’s insane fakery to incite racial hatred in a year where the first black President is up for re-election and fighting against low approval ratings is just the tip of the iceberg.

       2 likes

  32. Guest Who says:

    Sophie Brendel‏ @sophiebr
    V interesting- brand new BBC research on how UK audiences participate online- a huge 77% people participate http://bbc.in/IsS5A7 #bbconline

    What might be interesting is how many only get to ‘participate’ because they toe the BBC line, and how many get modded or closed out when that line looks like getting crossed at all, but don’t get logged.
    Things on the BBC of this nature are only ‘huge’ when it suits whatever they are ttying to rig, push or both.

       1 likes

  33. Guest Who says:

    This just in from the ‘butter wouldn’t melt..’ channel that is the BBc ‘The Editors’, of ‘ to join in, all you need do is add a comment’ fame. Only, again, we’ll see how far that goes…
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2012/05/china_censorship_and_world_pre.html
    —-

    ‘..jammed by Chinese authorities during stories they regard as sensitive.’

    Of course any authority interfering with any view on the basis of sensitivities that the authority in question arbitrates upon itself can get rather sticky, precedent and multiples of standard-wise, even closer to home.

    ..to block our impartial news and prevent it reaching audiences.

    As is blocking any communication from reaching others. Not sure if adding ‘impartial’ to the self-description is entirely, or any more convincing, but worth a shot.

    ‘New tactics have been introduced which should be of deep concern to all those who believe in a free and independent international media.’

    Maybe give up on more traditional means and expect folk to interact via twitter and FaceBook. Like Newsnight?

    ‘All journalists should be allowed to operate freely and any attempt to intimidate those known to them, is very concerning’

    Indeed. In fact intimidation by authority, especially of families, simply for some having non-supportive alternative views, is a concern. But again, it can happen closer to home. For instance with companies such as Capita.

    Trust and independence are vital and valued, but stating that you are over and over doesn’t automatically make these applicable, and if not practicing what is preached at home, this can reduce the effectiveness of appeals elsewhere.

    No matter how unique the circumstances.

       0 likes

  34. DB says:

    Remember my blogpost about GOP-hating BBC business & technology editor Tim Weber a couple of weeks ago? Well, he’s leaving the BBC:

    Tim Weber, who helped launch the BBC News website, is to leave the corporation after more than 20 years.

    Weber will leave the BBC in June after most recently serving as business and technology editor for BBC News Interactive.

    Perhaps he’s got a job lined up with Democrats Abroad UK.

       1 likes

    • DB says:

      The latest US jobs report shows the highest ever number of Americans not in work and the lowest rate of participation in the labour force for 30 years. The unemployment rate fell very slightly, but only because hundreds of thousands continue to remove themselves from the job market altogether and are therefore not counted in the statistics. It’s getting increasingly difficult for Obama-friendly hacks to spin those figures as positive. Better to just quit, it seems.

         1 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Good spot, DB. The number of people giving up entirely has been getting larger for some time now.

           0 likes

  35. jonuk says:

    this ‘middle class’ thingy at the BBC made me laugh, as none of the luvvies at the BBC are ‘working class’

       0 likes

  36. Graham Norton has just described the Flag waving British participants in the Green Room as looking like a BNP rally.
    Sums up the BBC mindset

    I

       0 likes