102 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. John Anderson says:
    June 25, 2012 at 2:22 am

    David Preiser and Louis Robinson

    Can you please correct any of the following – which we have not heard from Mark Mardell :

    1 Operation “Fast and Furious” was ignored by mainstream media including the BBC for over a year – in spite of a year of Congressional hearings.

    2 Operation Fast and Furious involved an agency of the Department of Justice allowing the sale of several thousand guns to Mexican gangsters. Hundreds of Mexicans have since died from those guns – and one (two? ) US law enforcement officers have also died.

    3 The operation did NOT require any GPS modules on the guns. They were therefore untraceable. Whereas a similar Bush operation tracked all the weapons – far fewer weapons. And the recipients were immediately arrested. Plus – the Bush operation was in cooperation with the Mexican Government. The Mexican Government knew nothing about “Fast and Furious” – and are bloody annoyed about being kept in the dark.

    4 Eric Holder, the Attorney General, denied to Congress any knowledge of the operation until a late date. He was forced to retract this.

    5 Congress has been trying to track down from the DoJ via Eric Holder – “who knew what, and when”

    6 Holder has filibustered for a year, refusing to release more than 10% of the relevant documents

    7 The DoJ is a creature of Congress – not of the White House – so is required to provide documents – especially when they have been subpoenered.

    8 As matters have reached their climax, with a threat of Eric Holder being charged with contempt of Congress, Obama has suddenly tried to throw up a cloak of “executive privilege”

    9 Most commentators – right or left – see this claim of executive privilege as invalid – it can only be invoked to cover White House consideration of policies. It cannot be extended to cover DoJ or any other department. (The White House and Holder have always denied that Obama or his people were involved – maybe they were ? – which makes matters worse – is that why it has been invoked ?)

    10 “Fast and Furious” is WAY WORSE THAN WATERGATE. Watergate was a bungled burglary of Democrat party offices, set up with authority from Nixon and his Attorney General. NO-ONE DIED. Under F and F, hundreds of people have died.

    11 What brought Nixon down was not the stupid burglary – it was the cover-up, the denials. (Just like what felled John Profumo (and Macmillan) was not the Minister’s peccadillo – but the cover-up, the denial.)

    ………………

    Fast and Furious has been deliberately ignored by most of the media until this past week – until Holder has been formally charged with contempt of Congress.

    US TV channels are scrambling to explain what this one-year fuss is all about – having kept people in the dark about it all for a year. Likewise the BBC – which has still not described the issues properly.

    Fast and Furious – just like Solyndra – is a potential albatross round Obama’s neck.

    …………………..

    Will Mark Mardell spell this out – even as a “maybe”

    Will pigs fly ?

       22 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:
      June 25, 2012 at 2:44 am

      11 out of 11, Mr Anderson. Go to the top of the class.
      (For new readers) Both David Preiser and I (independently) have been banging on about this for months. How will the sudden appearance of such a serious topic seem to the casual BBC reader/listener/viewer who have so far been left in the dark? I cannot imagine?
      Prediction: The Democrats will try and kick this can down the road passed the election. The Republicans will try and bring it up as often as they can (media permitting) during the campaign.
      If the shit really hits the fan it’ll contribute to an Obama defeat – but he’ll simply pardon everyone involved on the way out the Oval office door.
      Please – SOMEONE in the BBC – get some decent coverage of the US!

         18 likes

      • John Anderson says:
        June 25, 2012 at 3:07 am

        Louis

        Many thanks.

        Bill Whittle asserts that Fast and Furious was actually designed to make a case – back in the US – to ban the sale of assault weapons – to alter the First Amendment’s right to bear arms. My sense is that it may not have had any such intent. But that hardly matters, we will never know what the root of it all was.

        Either way – the issue is not what happened. It is “who knew what, when ” AND – has there been a high-level cover-up for over a year. A cover-up by Eric Holder the Attorney General – blithely ignored by most of the media including the BBC.

        It was the cover-up that blew Nixon apart. Not the petty botched Watergate burglary. Which killed no-one.

        http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=56&load=7103

           10 likes

  2. John Anderson says:
    June 25, 2012 at 3:26 am

    Googling “fast and furious Holder” gets 89 MILLION links. Not really surprising – the issue has been going on for well over a year, people want to know what it is about.

    Search the BBC million-page website – gives 8 hits over 18 months – some of which read like Democrat talking points/press releases, any side-quotes are also from Democrats.

    Or – now it has really blown – “it is just a witch-hunt by the Republicans”

    So it is all obviously not important to the BBC. “Nothing to see here, move along”. 300 Mexicans dead – what is that alongside a handful of Palestinian terrorists being hit ?

    Dez – care to chip in ?

       12 likes

    • John Anderson says:
      June 25, 2012 at 3:35 am

      Search the BBC website “Gaza militants” – over 1200 articles, dozens and dozens since Fast and Furious came to view. 6 in the past month for Gaza, versus 8 for F and F since the fuss started early last year.

      News values and balance ? No bias ? No BBC agenda ?

         16 likes

      • Daphne Anson says:
        June 25, 2012 at 7:30 am

        I don’t think these two links of mine on the previous Open Thread (since it was devoted to “Open Borders”) received the attention I think they deserve:

        http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/69063/bbc-apologises-over-itamar-massacres-coverage
        &
        http://www.thejc.com/node/69121

        BBC bosses on two occasions last week actually apologised – Mark Thompson to Louise Mensch MP re coverage of the Fogel murders & Head of Programming North-West Aziz Rashid for failing to respond to complaints from Jewish representatives protesting the axing (without consultation from the BBC!) of the Jewish show on Radio Manchester … which despite Mr Rashid’s apology for the snub remains kaput.

        Michael Fabricant MP protested to the BBC Trust about ithe BBC’s coverage of Israel and Gaza.
        http://conservativehome.blogs.com/platform/2009/01/michael-fabrica.html
        I’ve never read anything about what response, if any, was forthcoming. Does anybody know?

           12 likes

      • uncle bup says:
        June 25, 2012 at 9:44 am

        Same old same old with the pretrendy left. Wet their underwear over Guantanamo Bay (our one not Castro’s prisons there) where maybe half a dozen are inmates who shouldn’t be, but don’t give a flying … stuff over Darfur, say, where 300,000 are killed who shouldn’t have been.

        Very, very selective with their ’causes’.

        How I love the smell of rank hypocrisy with my shipping forecast.

           13 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 25, 2012 at 7:04 am

      “it is just a witch-hunt by the Republicans”
      This seems the latest, and equally risible ‘technique’ when the facts are so obvious that it becomes embarrassing to ignore it any longer: admit it exists but can only be of interest to/spun up by perceived tribal foes on the presumption their focus can’t matter (ABC ratings getting ignored as a measure of speaking with the public in favour of such as The New Statesman’s finest, who speak to the BBC’s corporate agenda).
      The BBC is not alone in this of course, as I watch the SKY News review. A very PC ‘actress’ decides that any discussion of immigration issues is just ‘playing to the Daily Mail’. A collection of white males and blondes promptly goes in fudge mode to avoid telling her that is simply trying to shut down discussion by invoking the racism or ‘you don’t understand poverty as well as people like me’ card. Though the Sun editor did manage a mumble on how it was an issue of concern to many readers.
      ps: Noticing that when cherry vultures decide to chip in the only areas of contribution seem rather limited, and the calibre of content suggests the chips are shoulder-mounted.

         10 likes

  3. Daphne Anson says:
    June 25, 2012 at 6:56 am

    Nice bit of trivialisation of pariah Powell here, and no surprises at what article the BBC links to:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/magazinemonitor/

       5 likes

  4. RCE says:
    June 25, 2012 at 7:17 am

    I wonder if a sister-website could be set up to act as a share point for BBC complaints and responses?

    They won’t lIke that one bit.

       7 likes

    • Daphne Anson says:
      June 25, 2012 at 7:37 am

      Good idea! Although judging by my own experience there’ll be far more complaints than responses, I’ll wager! The “response” to my complaint during Cast Lead of outrageous bias in Jeremy Bowen’s online Diary remains unanswered (and I specifically requested a response).

         9 likes

      • RCE says:
        June 25, 2012 at 8:29 am

        That’s exactly the sort of thing that needs to be centralised.

        And, of course, the contradictions, lies and humbug.

           10 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 25, 2012 at 8:49 am

      It has been suggested ‘officially’, by Sue, I think. I’d certainly see value in it. Seeing the cookie cutter nature of some complaints replies, but also the truly dire attempts at blowing them off shows the entire BBC CECUTT system up for the farce it is. The experiences shared by Jeff and LTL certainly helped me in my dealing with them, not only on matters of procedure but also to simply know one was not alone.
      As a consequence a few attempted plug-pulls have been fought up to and now pending with ‘The Trust’.
      Under no illusions as to the eventual result, which means that when they do ‘feel comfortable that it was got about right’, if with a ‘note’ in the log (not used in their much-trumpeted ‘complaints upheld’ delusion tally), posting their fact-free, subjectivity-laden navel-gazing ‘investigation’ results at least be shared for all to see… and deride.
      And that… they really don’t like. Which means it must be having an effect.
      ‘Just keep it between us’ they rule… ‘plaster their own words in public’… they fall.

         7 likes

      • RCE says:
        June 25, 2012 at 10:37 am

        I see it as a win-win. If they kick up a stink then they clearly don’t want the scrutiny. If they let it ride they’ll be seen as the two-faced liars that they are.

        I predict the former, with Balen-esque levels of spending if necessary.

           5 likes

        • Guest Who says:
          June 25, 2012 at 10:52 am

          ‘with Balen-esque levels of spending if necessary’
          I brought my plans to go ‘off DD’ to my MP, along with my intention to do so up front on why, and if a day in court ensues, so be it. Let the ‘system’ hear why and either uphold justice or be seen as just another establishment tool.
          His advice was revealing. He said it was a very bad idea to go up against the BBC in such a way as they have a limitless legal war chest and would win. And in any case the notion of actually pleading a case isn’t the reality. It’s a shovel-through rubber stamp of an area’s worth of fee objectors, all found guilty en masse.
          The new UK for you.
          My MP said there was not much else he could suggest.
          He is a Tory.
          He will be out of work next election.
          Some aspects of democracy still stand a chance of working, though too many are either abusing it or failing to recall the lessons of history.

             8 likes

          • Alan says:
            June 25, 2012 at 12:37 pm

            I believe you can insist on a jury trial and therefore have your day in court.

               4 likes

            • Guest Who says:
              June 25, 2012 at 2:58 pm

              Yes, possibly, though it would be good to have a more certain appreciation of the ‘rules’ and also the way the ‘game’ is played.
              Again, my MP, who seem well versed in such things, suggested that no matter what the validity of one’s objections and hence arguments, the BBC can simply ensure it prevails in a court case by attrition and outspending. Legal results can, of course, be bought, and while the BBC would decry this in cases where those with deep pockets crush those without, one is sure in their own cases the ‘unique’ rationales would get deployed.

                 4 likes

        • Guest Who says:
          June 25, 2012 at 11:02 am

          Hence the value of the suggested forum.
          It’s what the BBC fears most.
          Because once folk share and collate and aggregate their responses, they will be seen for the bluster and empty husks they are.
          Enough share and others will take notice and questions will be asked that will not be easily be diverted away with ‘comfort’ in ‘belief’ of ‘getting it right’.
          Facts and URLs will need explaining, and they will struggle when the court of public opinion is spectating from massed stands as opposed the the cosy ‘When did you last see your Father’ Star Chamber number they try and pull on individuals with the ‘let’s keep this just between us’ weasel at the end of their emails.
          I have the Trust stumped on written, recorded evidence of them actually surfing the internet for critiques and trying to conflate these with legitimate complaints, which is about as STASI-esque as it gets.
          And for every waffle they are coming back with, I am sticking to ‘explain this… now’, and they seem very uncomfortable.
          Like Al Capone’s taxes, what may bring them down could be something as trivial as this.
          Being the worst example of nanny state, data-protection, privacy intrusion abuse… whilst claiming to be a free speech champion… is an hypocrisy too far. Even for their Graun-reading power-base.

             8 likes

          • Nicked emus says:
            June 25, 2012 at 1:43 pm

            Don’t talk about it — do it. If, as you say, it will highlight the deficiencies of the BBC system then you are doing everyone, the BBC included, a favour. You could bring about the change you have so long discussed.
            Openness and transparency are always to be welcomed (genuine issues of national security notwithstanding)

               1 likes

            • Guest Who says:
              June 25, 2012 at 3:13 pm

              ‘Don’t talk about it — do it.’
              Get thee behind me, Nick.
              With such advocacy in support one is tempted; but as an angel, a bit of fearing before treading may be in order.
              Imagine that one prevails; the precedent that would get set. No more having to pay by compulsion for a service that is not as promised. And no more getting threats for saying that’s not good enough in this day and age. 24,999,999 other folk may feel the same way for the same reasons. Then what?
              The establishment would have a conniption (my MP would have no more invites to chat with Neil & Diane on the comfy sofa to boost his high-profile ambitions up the greasy pole). And some folk of £X00,000pa would be out of a job, with no obvious new locations to impose their market rate ‘talents’.
              Hence a certain amount of preparatory circumspection in advance seems prudent. One might imagine such a gravy train may find itself well guarded by all the interests invested in it rolling on.
              You’ve teased out another response from me. Who knows, I may even keep you posted:)

                 2 likes

            • RCE says:
              June 25, 2012 at 3:18 pm

              Alas, I wouldn’t know how to create a website if my life depended on it.

              I’ve got plenty of material to upload onto it though.

                 3 likes

              • Guest Who says:
                June 25, 2012 at 3:28 pm

                I suspect there are people who could easily create such a site.
                And online, thereafter, content is king.
                Ensure what is uploaded is legal, decent, honest and truthful and no one will be able to argue… except, perhaps those who feel control of the truth was and should remain their sole preserve.
                Uniquely.

                   2 likes

                • Nicked emus says:
                  June 25, 2012 at 4:01 pm

                  The technical side of it is trivial — there are any number of such sites available off the shelf.
                  What is more of an issue is keeping it on track. After all this site is supposed to be about tracking the bias of the BBC, but often strays into more general areas which have the effect of weakening the core message.
                  No one can argue against openness. Copies of all of the complaints and replies would be a good service. If you have the evidence then putting it all in one place for everyone to see would be a useful thing to do.

                     4 likes

                • Guest Who says:
                  June 25, 2012 at 4:16 pm

                  In the spirit of fair exchange and positivity, I cannot fault most.. probably any (preventing OT straying is inevitable on a free, unmodded site, and simply needs to be accepted and/or indulged as such) of that. Thank you.

                     1 likes

  5. George R says:
    June 25, 2012 at 8:00 am

    EGYPT.

    Islam Not BBC (INBBC) is very reluctant to analyse independently the history and policies of its Muslim Brotherhood (MB); apparently we are to be re-assured by INBBC’s Abdelhari that the MB is not ‘conservative’, despite its permanent manifesto campaign to impose Sharia law on Egypt, and on the whole ofthe world.

    Just as U.S and British governments campaign to get Islamic Turkey’s 80 million Muslims into the E.U, so the same Western governments now welcome the Islamising MB Mursi, promising endless funds to Islamising Egypt from we taxpayers.

    INBBC:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18574342

    Alternative, by Barry Rubin:-
    “Egypt: A Muslim Brotherhood President Does Not Prove That We Are All ‘Chimps’”

    http://pjmedia.com/barryrubin/2012/06/24/a-muslim-brotherhood-president/?singlepage=true

       5 likes

  6. Guest Who says:
    June 25, 2012 at 8:36 am

    @bbcnickrobinson via Twitter
    Reasons PM talking about welfare cuts now : 2. Cheers up Tories angry re Lords Reform & omnishambles budget
    The BBC’s impartial politics editor does like a certain word so much, he seems addicted to using it.
    Shame it seems also to be part of the mandated lexicon of near any Labour talking head, as that rather places him firmly in their camp every time he uses it in his ‘reporting’.

       8 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 25, 2012 at 1:35 pm

      It’s a shame he wasn’t as keen to use the word ‘disfunctional’ in relation to New Labour’s tribal cabinet wars during the years of the Blair/Brown standoff…but then we all know he kept quiet about all that.

         6 likes

  7. noggin says:
    June 25, 2012 at 8:37 am

    Radio 5Live, talks at length to a rep from the LSE,(london school of extremists) this morning, over Egypt … (shakes head) yep!, thats a load off 😀
    lots of talk of democracy and transition ???

    you want a real laugh? … check out
    BBC Egypt election results – Your Views
    “Once in government Dr Mursi can begin the process of reconciliation” ??? … must be talking about El BBCs “moderate” islamists?

    as an update, Radio 5Live trumpet
    the MB/Mursi state, “our struggle for democracy goes on ” 😀 what? … could go wrong?

    is he being ironic?
    apparently, he say he will find a way to put “a woman”
    in the government? … phew! thats alright then

       11 likes

  8. Fred Bloggs says:
    June 25, 2012 at 8:52 am

    R4 Today 7:12am: Evan Davis, quite a revelation while interviewing Liam Byrne. Byrne answered a question with typical labour bullshit making out a value was much larger as he had added several years together, but had not mentioned that fact. Davis stopped him cold and demanded he made it clear. So it can be done when they want to.

       9 likes

  9. Neil Turner says:
    June 25, 2012 at 9:28 am

    I’m sure most of you will have seen the ePetition requesting a National Referendum on the BBC’s Lice Fee, but if not….

    http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/34655

    Please share widely

       5 likes

    • Roland Deschain says:
      June 25, 2012 at 1:15 pm

      “the BBC’s Lice Fee”

      I don’t know if that’s deliberate, but if not it’s one hell of a Freudian typo.

         5 likes

      • Neil Turner says:
        June 25, 2012 at 6:23 pm

        Nice one 🙂

        BTW, we’re now at 600 signatures. 1000 is a good milestone to get on the radar, so anything you folks can do will help.

        We’re all in this together..

           1 likes

  10. Guest Who says:
    June 25, 2012 at 10:26 am

    ‘Penny’s non-violent clash with Starkey’ http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/blogs/steerpike/2012/june/pennys-nonviolent-clash-with-starkey @spectator The BBC’s, and Paul Mason’s favourite clas/race/’ism warriorette doing well ‘for the cause’, one sees.
    Still keen to know why and how it is such as this young lady is so indulged, as she appears to represent few, and only serves to create heat over any light.

       10 likes

  11. zemplar says:
    June 25, 2012 at 10:42 am

    A sign of a new benign, tolerant Egypt full of people committed to “freedom and justice”?

    Plumber beats pregnant wife to death for not voting for Muslim Brotherhood:

    http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/06/24/222413.html

       10 likes

  12. zemplar says:
    June 25, 2012 at 1:38 pm

    Great post by John Anderson re f&f. Bang on the money. Holder is the most venal, despicable AG in US history.

       6 likes

  13. Reed says:
    June 25, 2012 at 2:20 pm

    Click over and have a read of this… 🙂

    9. And Jesus did look out at the crowd and did ask the multitude, “Why is it that you have come to see me?”

    10. And a voice from the crowd said “It is because of the good work you do that does encourage us to do good works amongst the poor, and the sick and the infirm of mind and body. Your goodness is an inspiration to us”

    11. And Jesus said “Don’t give me all that. The ruling bodies and those that govern and the tax collectors should do the good work; I just facilitate access”

    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1345/the_gospel_according_to_st_rowan_of_canterbury

       2 likes

  14. George R says:
    June 25, 2012 at 2:22 pm

    Absurd Islamic inhuman rights which appeal to INBBC?:

    ‘Jihadwatch’:-

    “Taliban jihadist wins fight to stay in UK — to spare him from persecution by the Taliban”

    [Excerpt]:-

    “Dhimmitude in Britain long ago reached the tipping point of absurdity. Now British officials have to go to greater and greater lengths to top one another in their capitulation to Islamic supremacism. It would all make more sense if it turned out to be something like an extended reality-based Monty Python movie.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/06/taliban-jihadist-wins-fight-to-stay-in-uk—-to-spare-him-from-persecution-by-the-taliban.html

       4 likes

  15. Reed says:
    June 25, 2012 at 3:28 pm

    Guido has put up video of the Penny-Starkey rumpus…

    http://order-order.com/2012/06/25/exclusive-laurie-penny-vs-starkey-video/

       3 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:
      June 25, 2012 at 3:33 pm

      On that entry is a comment at position 49:

      49 roy says: June 25, 2012 at 3:13 pm
      a racist is someone that’s winning an argument with a guardian reader – no more, no less

      I had to share it!

         9 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 25, 2012 at 3:35 pm

      One presumes that, in addition to her guarantee as a 24/7 spokeswoman for the nation across the BBC broadcast estate, her fees will doubtless also be enhanced to reflect her new status in the ratings infirmament. I don’t know why the BBC don’t just hand The One Show over to her and Mehdi and have done with it. As examples of all that is wrong with ‘news’ and ‘commentary’, these two charmers pretty much epitomise the malaise.
      Fine if folk are prepared to pay… but on the compelled public dime, I think questions should be asked of the powerful serving such folk up, to account for the thinking that inspires it….over and over… ad nauseam.

         6 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 25, 2012 at 3:45 pm

      Spoilt child has tantrum – shouldn’t be allowed at the grown-ups’ table anymore.

      Starkey – “Then every member of the committee is lying, and you clearly, as usual, are telling the truth”.

      That’s always the way with MS. Penny – she’s the lone voice of truth amongst the oppressive, exploitative noise of the Imperialist Patriarchy of Capitalism. (or some such horseballs)

      Apparently, this is the moment that the “violent old thug” Starkey “attacked” her (bit of ageism there, Laurie)

      http://www.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/blogs/steerpike/2012/june/pennys-nonviolent-clash-with-starkey

      When you believe your own storytelling, you drift out of reality into a fantasy world of your own creation.

         7 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 25, 2012 at 3:57 pm

      She got her ̶h̶i̶t̶ ̶p̶i̶e̶c̶e̶ reply in quickly…

      http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/laurie-penny-the-violent-prejudices-of-dinosaur-david-starkey-7879710.html

      Comments not really going her way.

         4 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 25, 2012 at 7:33 pm

      Update via Bill quango over at Guido’s…

      ———————————————————-
      Really didn’t want to… However, I was in a rent crisis at the time, and thought it might be worth the stress..I could earn enough from it to cover the money I was missing, which was several hundred pounds. I asked the Thomas Paine society if they could afford that, and as I expected, they said no – which I was glad about, and I made up the rent money elsewhere.

      Right….Or you could have just said no thanks, like a normal person.

      What kind of self justification is this?
      “I wasn’t demanding too much money, but I needed a lot of money and if they’d have given it to me I would have done the gig, and taken the large {ish} fee, but they didn’t which means I wasn’t asking too much as I didn’t want to do the thing anyway?”

      Only in some airhead, teenager land could that make sense.
      ————————————————-

      http://order-order.com/2012/06/25/coogan-takes-the-murdoch-shilling/#comment-1332678

      http://www.twitlonger.com/show/i14jf1

      Everything is a ‘crisis’ in Ms. Penny’s exaggerated little world.
      “Having breakfast – tea or coffee? – beverage crisis!”

         3 likes

      • Reed says:
        June 25, 2012 at 7:38 pm

        Notice the ‘pleading poverty’ BS – another pretendy “lowly, oppressed and downtrodden by the Capitalist system” middle-class, well educated, comfortable faux-revolutionary.

           6 likes

      • Buggy says:
        June 25, 2012 at 11:04 pm

        “Being a multi-millionaire who loves publicity, Professor Starkey may not understand what it’s like to be a low-earning journalist in your early twenties”

        Lordy, that’s beautiful ! Does poor Laurie live in a tiny wee garrett, lit by a single guttering candle (damp permitting), and with half a cream cracker as a special treat for dinner ?

        How frightful !

        I demand “Penny Aid”, wiv lots of ginormous concerts featuring that nice Mr Bonio and his gang of charity rascals, to be broadcast on ALL of Aunties platforms (i.e. just like bloody “Glasto”), all with the laudable intention of sending Lorry somewhere nice for a holiday.

        On a one-way ticket.

           9 likes

        • Buggy says:
          June 25, 2012 at 11:07 pm

          Incidentally, if I was earning the apparent pittance dear Lorry is, I think the first thing I’d economise on would probably be red hair dye.

          A handy savings tip from me to you: You’re welcome.

             8 likes

        • DJ says:
          June 25, 2012 at 11:13 pm

          But does Dave have a Trust Form like Sister Penny of the Bleeding Heart?

             2 likes

  16. JaneTracy says:
    June 25, 2012 at 6:03 pm

    Is there any reason why suddenly you cannot comment on todays’s blog article of BBC Economics Editor Stephanie Flanders?

    Perhaps this might be it on a day the Italian equity market dropped by 4%…

    “Certainly, the Greek election result has taken the temperature down a few notches in the markets. “

       3 likes

    • johnyork says:
      June 25, 2012 at 7:02 pm

      Yes Jane there is.
      The “little people” with their silly comments about far away countries of which they know nothing will be censored.
      Those at the BBC on fantastic salaries will tell you all you need to know – ergo : Useful Licence Fee Idiots can all Blog Off should they want to question the wisdom of Stephanie Iwonderwhatdayitis Flanders.

         8 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 25, 2012 at 7:40 pm

      ‘why suddenly you cannot comment’
      Do I infer that one at first could, and then the thread was removed, taking all that had been committed with it?
      If so, it would be good if there was a ‘before’ grab. (After is easy enough if this is the one referred to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18577570). Because it seems to be happening a lot.
      Then it is worth asking those lovely folk at CECUTT to explain why they have yet again vanished a bunch of legitimate comments from BBc licence fee payers.
      Even better if they restore them later, try and claim you are mistaken, and then have to deal with the evidence proving them to be either incompetent at best, or plain lairs.

         1 likes

  17. Reed says:
    June 25, 2012 at 6:37 pm

    For an antidote to the BBC’s Euro cheerleading, here’s a withering article from Jeff Randall…

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/jeffrandall/9353394/The-euro-should-now-be-put-to-the-sword.html

       2 likes

  18. Millie Tant says:
    June 25, 2012 at 7:13 pm

    Radio 4’s book of the week looks interesting for its depiction of life in a rural English village in the early 19th century as much as for its lurid mystery murder story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k1lp3
    “Peter Moore’s account of the infamous case is a also fascinating glimpse into the darker side of English rural life at the beginning of the nineteenth century, far away from the civilised drawing rooms of Jane Austen. The country was exhausted and nervous: dogged by Pitt’s war taxes, mounting inflation and the lingering threat of a French invasion, violence was rife, particularly in rural communities where outsiders were regarded with deep suspicion. With a cast of characters straight out of Hardy, ‘Damn His Blood’ is also a gripping true story of brutality, greed and ruthlessness in a rural community gone wildly astray.”
    The first episode is repeated late tonight (at 12 30 am), sandwiched between the midnight news and the shipping forecast.
    Further episodes at 9 45 am daily this week. (I presume also repeated as above each night.)

       3 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:
      June 26, 2012 at 11:21 am

      A literary historian who appears to have forgotten his O’level history.The Napoleonic wars were a boom time for agriculture – land was ploughed up then that hadn’t been touched since the 13th century population boom and was never used again afterwards – the corn laws of 1815 were passed to try and keep the good times rolling. Also the Speenhamland system of outdoor relief inaugurated at the time was generally looked back on as being less harsh towards the working man than the 1833 poor law that replaced it.

         1 likes

  19. Eadwulf Cudel says:
    June 25, 2012 at 7:26 pm

    If you think the BBC is bad, you must see this
    http://www.itv.com/news/tyne-tees/story/2012-06-25/benefit-plans-cause-anger-in-north-east/

    Blatant bias – but these days it seems that one cannot ask questions like – Who is the father of the baby? Why is he not supporting you? Do you think it is right that tax payers should subsidize your “lifestyle choices”?

       5 likes

  20. As I See It says:
    June 25, 2012 at 7:39 pm

    Laurie Penny or as BBC Newsnight’s economics editor Paul Mason likes to call her ‘My Muse’.
    Where to begin?
    One quote from her will suffice to see where she is coming from….
    ‘Free speech means being free to use technology and participate in public life without fear of abuse’.
    Interesting to wonder who might judge what would constitute ‘abuse’ in fair Penny’s free speech utopia?
    I expect ‘abuse’ will equate to something which is felt to have been ‘offensive’. By the person on the receiving end, I mean, who has chosen to take offence.

    As a bored Leveson watcher I have noticed our Brian make a couple of references to giving additional protections not just to individuals (such as the Dowlers or the McCanns) but to ‘GROUPS’.
    Do you see where that thought might lead?
    I doubt our Penny has thought this through all on her ownsome but her leftist instincts are sound enough to be in tune with the way that Leveson is thinking.
    I may not like what you say but I defend your right to say it?
    No no no.
    I may not like what you say and (if I am a member of an approved group) I will prevent you from saying it!

    Gosh I wonder what national broadcaster is likely to lend its voice to the vanguard of calls for the opening of that little can of worms?

       10 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 26, 2012 at 8:01 am

      She is, at least, in street terms, a smart lass.

      In a sane world she would be ignored.

      With no discernible talent other than the ability to get tweets read out loud by a clearly infatuated Paul Mason and others, with the deck of cards that is her journalistic ability collapsing in complement to almost Hari-esque self-destructive character flaws and rampant hypocrisy clear to all bar the most besotted groupies, she appears to be now going for the Hunt the Queen of Spades (another name entirely at school)/Black Maria play: namely simply going postal in hope of digging out in one notorious leap from the hole each setback of the last several months has excavated further downward.

      It may work, because her profile is high enough in certain quarters she is ensured of a response/following no matter how much she really deserves to be sidelined in favour of any young person doing, well, anything… much less productive and value. And there are a lot.

      So… prod enough wasp’s nests and get stung enough for doing so, and martrydom is ensured. Young, angry, anti-establishment, female, deceptively gamin and childlike in articulation. Penny of Ack.

      Clever girl if she can pull it off. And there are enough brain-dead ‘news’ producers with her mobly in their iPhones to ensure she has enough pulpits to possibly carry it off.

      Bar the what she says, does and how she says and does ‘em bit. That may let the side down a tad.

      But words and actions seldom seem to concern those who commission ‘guests’ if the sniff of a rating beckons.

         2 likes

  21. As I See It says:
    June 25, 2012 at 7:48 pm

    We needn’t really worry over the likes of Laurie Penny, Owen Jones and their ilk. They may pop up on the BBC more than seems appropriate but they are only what I would call failed leftie crowd surfers. They fall flat on the floor just as often as they are sent soaring upward on a crest of BBC approval.
    You know the really successful leftie movers and shakers are not these gobby teens but the Baroness Ashtons, the Arch Bishop of Canterburys and the…..mmmm…let me think……the DGs of the BBCs!

       8 likes

    • Earls Court says:
      June 25, 2012 at 8:06 pm

      Laurie Penny is just another immature champagne socialist brat. She has no life experience and is just another spoilt rich kid, mockney type. She has no talent of any kind and people like her are the main reason why the left and feminists are so hated.
      At least Owen Jones might not be very bright but at least he is funny when he is on the BBC in a frank spencer type of way.

         10 likes

  22. George R says:
    June 25, 2012 at 8:48 pm

    Is BBC-NUJ, which politically opposes the ENGLISH DEFENCE LEAGUE , interested in the denial of basic freedom of this woman supporter of the EDL?

    It appears that BBC-NUJ is more interested in the Muslim Brotherhood imposing Sharia law!
    -from ‘SPIKED’:-
    “Punished for
    supporting the EDL?
    “A mum in northern England believes her kids were taken because of her political views. She talks to spiked.”

    http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/12563/

       7 likes

  23. hippiepooter says:
    June 25, 2012 at 9:32 pm

    Watching the last half of Humphrys’ Panorama skit on Greece at the moment.

    He refers to the Greeks turning to parties outside of the mainstream. He refers to the emergence of Syrizia, and calls them ‘left’, then to the rise of ‘Golden Dawn’ and calls them ‘extreme right’.

    He conducts an interview with a Golden Dawn MP and rightly asks searching questions, he next ‘interviews’ young people on the left who want revolution, and just gives them a platform.

    It has long been my view that Humphrys is a bent left wing scuzz who represents everything that is wrong with the BBC.

       9 likes

  24. matthew says:
    June 25, 2012 at 9:45 pm

    Piece on BBC3 now, typical BBC left-wing propaganda.

    ‘Can We Trust The Police?’

    They have found random bits of ‘police brutality’, one spotty youth who ‘wanted to be a police man’ but was savaged by a police dog and now ‘hates the police’.

    “Documentary presented by Adam Deacon. Growing up in Hackney, Adam has always been wary of the police and says that he has seen examples of police racism and brutality first-hand. He wants to understand if the public’s perception of the police has changed – has the mistrust that people in inner cities feel towards the police spread to all parts of the country? His investigation takes him inside different aspects of policing – from firearms training with armed police to policing large scale events such as the FA Cup semi-final at Wembley and late night patrols in a seaside town, to try to understand the job from the inside out. He meets people who feel let down by the police and will never be able to trust them again, from a football-loving family who were left hospitalised after being set upon by police dogs to a middle-class mother who says police incompetence and inaction led to the death of her daughter, who was stalked and shot by an ex-boyfriend.”

    This is the presenter:

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

       4 likes

    • Earls Court says:
      June 25, 2012 at 9:59 pm

      How about doing a series about can we trust the BBC. They could interview Israel and ask them about their baised coverage against them.

         7 likes

    • DJ says:
      June 25, 2012 at 11:22 pm

      Uh oh…. a Professional Angry Black Dude with a complete lack of any qualifications whatsoever, except an ability to produce overwrought stories supposedly based on his life on da streets with da yoof.

      All he needs now is to sort out that Hawaiian birth certificate and he’ll be on his way….

         8 likes

  25. DJ says:
    June 25, 2012 at 11:40 pm

    Just wasted an hour listening to Annie Nightingale on Radio 2 babbling on about Elvis Costello’s whiny song ‘Shipbuilding’. Needless to say, this was just a hook for her to interview a bunch of retarded minstrels about how Fatcha sucks!

    Yep, it’s President Obama and the Prophet Mohammed, but our former PM is always Fatcha. Also, building warships is ‘shameful’ and the Falklands War was about seizing land for our Empire. Plus the ship yards only wanted ‘incentives’ to build ships – a strange way to describe a constant IV full of taxpayer’s cash.

    Various pieces of Eighties wreckage appeared to talk about how daring it was to speak out against Fatcha back then, and they even got a Murdoch reference in there. Apparently, he stoked up the press in Australia, all of which meant…. well, beats me actually, but Murdoch!

    Sanity was partially restored when they interviewed two guys from the yards who said that, actually, no one ever did get ‘filled in’ for opposing the war. Plus there was a veteran and a war widow, both of whom were extremely dignified, all of which rammed home the weirdness of asking a bunch of druggie flotsam to comment on the war anyway.

    It was nice to see how smoothly the BBC moved past the whole question of just whose broadcasts let the Argies know their bombs weren’t fused properly. Ditto, the Goose Green Early Warning System wasn’t mentioned. That might have led to a serious discussion about the role of broadcasters in a nation at war, but then that would have cut into the time dedicated to some Hamish McTosser jabbering about, like, the military-industrial complex.

    The same time constraints also prevented the show using any of the following words and phrases: invasion, junta, ‘military dictatorship’, ‘the disappeared’ or self-determination. Throwing people out the back of planes is bad, but not nearly as bad as beating Labour three times.

       12 likes

  26. Guest Who says:
    June 26, 2012 at 8:06 am

    Always a rich seam…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/ker-ching.html
    ‘at the saintly Independent, staff are being encouraged to work from home to save money spent on office rent, and thus increase the company’s income. That’s the sort of objective many at the BBC would prefer.’
    Yes, one can see that.
    In fact soon they would probably ‘prefer’ we simply pay the licence fee to cover the pension obligations for them to tweet ‘views not those of their employers’ from Rio or an ‘Angry Athens’ as Dad’s Army repeats rotate endlessly.

       3 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 26, 2012 at 4:23 pm

      I’d certainly pay most BBC ‘comedians’ to stay home if that meant I never had to see or hear from them again!

         1 likes

  27. uncle bup says:
    June 26, 2012 at 8:58 am

    Hubris always comes before a fall

    Commentators at the time would have thought, ‘Oi, the games up for the Empire now’, when they heard about Nero making a senator of his horse.

    The New Labour ‘project’ saw the beginning of its end when one of its myriad of PR bunnies, on hearing that three and a half thousand had just been murdered, could only think, ‘Ooh, this is a good day to bury bad news’.

    And the last bell was sounded loud and clear in The Levant when Qu.. Gha.. Gadaffi (whatevs) ordered himself a consignment of gold-plated automatic pistols.

    And so to today, when Radio 5 Rusting Iron Lung droids think the world has nothing better to do than look at a picture of their chewed fingernails.

    http://twitpic.com/a0nfyk

    Now this is not the end, but hopefully it’s the beginning of the end.

       3 likes

  28. uncle bup says:
    June 26, 2012 at 9:17 am

    Can We Trust the Police?
    Documentary presented by actor/rapper Adam Deacon, who wants to know if the mistrust that many people in inner cities feel towards the police has spread to all parts of Britain.
    ——————————————————————————

    Yawn. How about a documentary by someone wanting to know if the ‘mistrust’ of these ‘many people’ is because they want to be able to carry out their criminal activities unhindered, and are quite happy to see trendy white middle-class ‘social liberals’ such as the BBC rush to their defence.

       6 likes

    • uncle bup says:
      June 26, 2012 at 9:19 am

      Sorry, did I say, ‘the police’?

      I meant of course, ‘da polis’.

      My bad 🙁

         4 likes

  29. George R says:
    June 26, 2012 at 10:23 am

    Compare and contrast two reports on problems caused for British customers of Nat West Bank:

    1.) ‘Daily Mail’

    “Computer system that caused chaos for thousands of Nat West bank customers was being supervised from India.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164664/NatWest-glitch-Computer-caused-chaos-thousands-supervised-India.html#ixzz1ytALV6ix

    2.) BBC-NUJ:

    “NatWest computer glitch ‘fixed but backlog remains'”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18561426

       2 likes

  30. George R says:
    June 26, 2012 at 10:30 am

    Of no interest to BBC-NUJ, which continues to political concentrate on building its ‘left’-Islam alliance.

    “A Taliban fighter claiming asylum in Britain? This is a Wolverhampton wanderer we’d be better off without.”

    By Richard Littlejohn.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2164691/A-Wolverhampton-wanderer-wed-better-without.html#ixzz1ytEojpUL

       5 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:
      June 26, 2012 at 12:03 pm

      You’re right:
      BBC news website: “Sorry, there are no results for ‘Zareen Ahmadzai’ in the category ‘News’. ”
      Still, our judiciary insist we cannot deport hair-raisingly dangerous jihadis so frequently, perhaps the Beeb are reduced to reporting only a randomly selected sample number of cases.

      I noticed an item about Samanha Lewthwaite, the widow of one of the 7/7 bombers being implicated in a grenade attack in Mombasa linked to, on the same Mail page. The two and a half minute Beeb report on her case predictably included a neighbour who had known her since childhood (named Raja Khan) who was shocked! shocked! -it wasn’t the Samantha he had known (they must have cut the bit where he said she was always good to her mother). Apparently she became radicalised, which would appear to be a phenomenon similar to catching measles (no mention of he ‘M’ word of course – this is the BBC) and then the reporter moves on to what he regards as much safer ground – attacking the competence and efficiency of our security forces for not keeping an eye on her.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17627423

      .

         5 likes

      • Reed says:
        June 26, 2012 at 4:50 pm

        Yes! – I hate the use of that phrase “Became radicalised” as if it were an entirely passive transformation that required no input from the ‘victim’.

        …and then there’s the flip side of this ambiguous dishonesty, used in relation to the real victims of radicalisation – those who ‘lost their lives’ on 9-11 and 7-7. Their lives were taken, not lost.

        It isn’t just the BBC at fault here, all broadcasters lazily fall into this convention. It has the effect of diluting the responsibility for these events. It’s also just plain inaccurate, not to mention infuriating.

           5 likes

  31. As I See It says:
    June 26, 2012 at 10:41 am

    Monday night comedy on the BBC?
    Well no it was just another attempted bail out for that fast sinking flagship – Newsnight.

    But I have to be fair to the Beeb on this occasion, I must give some credit crunch where a debt bail out is due.

    The BBC is – at long last – giving some debating time to the EU and the British ‘in/out’ question. Late in the day, literally 11 o’clock on a Monday and late in the debate.
    Maybe assumuing that since no one is watching its now safe? But still small mercies and all that. And it was genuinely entertaining.

    The Newsnight format chosen was similiar to what they did for their breast implant episode, but with a tweak – oooops, I see what I just did there.
    Do you remember that carebear garden of a shambles when ordinary wimmin flocked into the studio and screeched how the taxpayer should give them some new big tits. Paxman sat on the sidelines looking a little bewildered – like something in a trace – the right word escapes me.
    Would love to have been a fly on the wall for the debriefing meeting the next morning between Allegra and Paxo. I expect he just put a note on his office door that read ‘Gone Fishing’.

    In any debate we will always have some traditional BBC touches. But even the Beeb must surely fail to net a public audience that was pro-Eruo. Admittedly there was a pleasant young gentleman of Middle Eastern appearance sat prominently in the front row who begged us to be ‘Good Europeans’.
    Ah, the cradle of civilisation, Greek philosophy and democracy, our Judeo-Christian heritage, the Renaissance, the industrail revolution, the rights of man, universal suffrage……..yeah but the Arabs made some beautiful ceramics…..

    The four politicians on hand to guide us through the debate were an interesting statement of where we are with this debate. Nigel Farage and David Davies were putting the case for the prosecution (hurray!) while Paddy Pantsdown and Peter Hain bowled up for the defence (ha ha ha!).

    Private Paddy of Dad’s Euro Army of last resort had the odd notion that we need to park the Euro tanks on the Chinese and Russian lawns. Here’s a thought Paddy, how about we leave the expense of defending our Eastern European borders to the German taxpayers for a change?
    of course we always get at least one leftie weasel statistic: 3.5 million British workers will immediately implode if we upset M. Hollande!

    The fact that the anti-apartheid museum relic tangerine -skinned (what secret campaign-funding cash stash?) Peter Hain, the Clyde Barrow (there’s one for the teenagers) of the Labour Party got the short straw shows where Labour are on this debate. Nowhere!

    But the BBC seem to think this should be about real people. So in true Beeb style in addition to the audience (they can’t be relied upon to the full BBC balance) an odd mix of commentators is provided.

    It is Punk Jubilee Year this year. (You didn’t know? Don’t you watch the BBC?) So we get Tony Parsons (I liked him on this subject – perhaps Billy Bragg got buried in some Godforsaken muddy foreign field – just across the Solent?).
    Jeantte Winterson. Nows there’s someone who can see beyond the narrow issue of Greek debt and really tell us how people are hurting out there on the Island of Lesbos.

    It was left to an Italian female journalist based in London (aren’t they all) to provide us with the moment of the evening when she took the President Barroso Euro theme and started to riff on it all being the fault of the meany old Yanks.
    “Tripe!” yells Paxo.
    A leftie slogan being trashed as nonsense by a Beeboid?

    La Journalist looked stunned.

    How to explain this weird turn of events?

    What will Allegra and Comrade Mason say?

    Could Jezza simply have been ordering his late night supper from the BBC canteen?

       8 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 26, 2012 at 5:00 pm

      Great post! I missed that episode, so I might have to dig it out on iplayer…sounds like a reasonable knock-about…and with a Davis-Farage combo too!

      “I expect he just put a note on his office door that read ‘Gone Fishing’.”

      Off to cover Leveson, then. 🙂

         2 likes

  32. +james says:
    June 26, 2012 at 12:37 pm

    Our coverage of the Arab Spring was over-excited, admits BBC

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2164536/BBCs-coverage-Arab-Spring-sporadic-ignoring-uprisings-failed-favour-big-stories-Libya-Egypt.html#ixzz1ytk1V7m5

    Over excited, biased and deliberately misleading more like…

       4 likes

    • As I See It says:
      June 26, 2012 at 1:02 pm

      Funny how the Beeb keep getting so many things just a little bit wrong.

         5 likes

      • John Anderson says:
        June 26, 2012 at 1:40 pm

        Yes. But only a teeny weeny bit wrong!

        Oddly – its errors all seem to be in the same multiculti direction.

           4 likes

        • As I See It says:
          June 26, 2012 at 2:27 pm

          I also noticed a tone of regret from the Beeb that they may have underreported on Bahrain. A hint there that they didn’t quite do their bit in toppling that regime? There always has to be a right-on caveat to every BBC admission.

             4 likes

  33. adam says:
    June 26, 2012 at 2:43 pm

    BBC Rogue Traders’ Dan Penteado admits benefit fraud

    A presenter on the BBC consumer affairs programme Rogue Traders has admitted illegally claiming housing and council tax benefits totalling £24,000.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-18592468

       3 likes

    • wallygreeninker says:
      June 26, 2012 at 4:02 pm

      Why are you wasting our time with trivial stories of interest only to people who live in Dorset?

         1 likes

  34. Guest Who says:
    June 26, 2012 at 3:35 pm

    The BBC’s political editor is behaving like a kid who has learned a new word and just has to use it all the time…
    @bbcnickrobinson via Twitter
    Latest part of plan to reverse omnishambles from Osborne – freezing duty added to U turns on pasties & caravans , Gove-levels & welfare cuts
    Thing is, that word seems to be one mandated be used by the Labour Party as a party political attack.
    Is it really appropriate for an impartial broadcaster’s mouthpiece to be intoning it over and over like Ed Ball’s autistic Tourette’s-suffering inbred cousin?
    It is now the centre-piece of three tweets on his homepage: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/correspondents/nickrobinson/

       5 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 26, 2012 at 5:05 pm

      They’re quite keen on that phrase in general, it would seem…

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/search/news/?q=omnishambles

         1 likes

      • Guest Who says:
        June 26, 2012 at 5:22 pm

        Thanks for that.
        And thanks to that I now know this…
        http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-politics-17844352
        (staggered to all of 12 comments before closing, too)
        ‘Mrs Gillan’s Labour shadow, Peter Hain, recorded the first known use of “omnishambles” during Welsh questions…
        Rather maintaining the question as to why a Labour-created attack point is not only now BBC pervasive lexicon, but its political editor’s most favourite word. However, from that story I suspect the question is rhetorical, being that he may yet apologise or whatever passes at the BBC for such, ‘ …but his point was made.’
        Just, the £4Bpa compelled funding national broadcaster acting as an unelected de facto opposition megaphone really seems counter the requirements of the Charter, really.

           4 likes

    • Guest Who says:
      June 26, 2012 at 5:44 pm

      Might be worth noting the other two preceding, in case one of those ‘story evolutions’ the BBC now likes obliterates them…
      07:52 UK time, Monday, 25 June 2012
      @bbcnickrobinson via Twitter
      Reasons PM talking about welfare cuts now : 2. Cheers up Tories angry re Lords Reform & omnishambles budget
      13:30 UK time, Thursday, 21 June 2012
      @bbcnickrobinson via Twitter
      Bring back O levels, attack Jimmy Carr’s tax avoidance, defend the Falklands – attempt to reverse damage of omni shambles perchance?
      Oddly, that last one, the one I have a complaint in about currently, now indeed seems to not be on the BBC Political Editor’s blog roll any more. Can’t think why.
      Maybe… felt ‘a bit much’ after, well this,not long before:
      18:27 UK time, Tuesday, 29 May 2012
      Nick added analysis to:
      U-turn on pasty tax ‘a shambles’
      974
      This is the price our politicians pay in order to try and persuade the Tory press to become Tory once again
      Read full article
      Or, this, before it…
      20:19 UK time, Monday, 28 May 2012
      Omnishambles revisited?
      The government is on the brink of making two Budget U-turns. The so-called “pasty tax” and caravan tax are not being dropped but heavily amended.
      Most takeaway pasties and sausage rolls will not now have VAT levied on them as planned. Static caravans will now pay a new 5% VAT rate, instead of the planned 20%.
      Read full article

      Oh, anyway, he has a new thread:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18595158
      Current highest comment:
      1. AndyC555
      That’s quite a spin.

      George Osborne announces that he won’t increase fuel duty and you manage to give credit to Ed “if it moves we’ll tax it” Balls.
      Speaking for the people, Nick, as always. Just, which people?
      Can a closing be far off?
      Think I may pop an extra question over to BBC CECUTT on why what I was complaining about has vanished now with no explanation, whilst other manifestations of the same politically-skewed views as ‘analysis’ appears to be springing up elsewhere like the weeds in my garden.
      Hardly coherent… but probably still ‘unique’.
      Lucky, for when they again try and tell me it didn’t happen, I have a page grab to show it did.
      They always seem to appreciate that.

         4 likes

  35. George R says:
    June 26, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    BEEBOIDS, young and old, apparently obsessed with their ‘life-style’, and their ‘death-style’.

    “BBC broadcaster John Simpson says he plans to commit suicide rather than allow young son to see him as a ‘gibbering wreck’ in old age.”

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/bbc-broadcaster-john-simpson-says-he-plans-to-commit-suicide-rather-than-allow-young-son-to-see-him-as-a-gibbering-wreck-in-old-age-7888678.html

       3 likes

    • Reed says:
      June 26, 2012 at 6:26 pm

      “BBC broadcaster John Simpson says he plans to commit suicide rather than allow young son to see him as a ‘gibbering wreck’ in old age.”

      …bit late for that.

         7 likes

  36. Jeff Waters says:
    June 26, 2012 at 8:20 pm

    Nice unbiased tweet from Newsnight’s Paul Mason:

    Greek govt just can’t meet spending targets, central bank predictions toast, constant tax u-turns…. Oops, sorry that’s the Brits!

       3 likes

  37. Jeff Waters says:
    June 26, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    Living life under the arches! EastEnders’ Ian Beale looks unrecognisable as he returns to Albert Square as a bearded homeless wreck

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2164876/EastEnders-Ian-Beale-looks-unrecognisable-returns-bearded-homeless-wreck.html#ixzz1yvjOuPp7

    A plotline clearly designed to get across right-on messages about mental illness…

    Jeff

       1 likes