OPEN THREAD

Well, it’s Friday – thank God-  and time for an Open Thread to see us off into the weekend. I’m off to the Open – the Irish Open that is! – so over to you. What has been annoying you about BBC coverage….?

Bookmark the permalink.

135 Responses to OPEN THREAD

  1. Guest Who says:

    BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight
    Interview with Julian Assange coming up on Newsnight

    …..
    …..
    BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight
    Julian Assange tells ‪#newsnight‬ it’s very unlikely he will obey summons to police station tomorrow morning

    BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight
    Julian Assange tells Newsnight he believes there is a Grand Jury process against him in the US

    So, rather tellingly, not so much an interview, as…what now?

       11 likes

    • George R says:

      Don’t expect ‘Newsnight’ to repeat ‘questions’:-

      “Is this some kind of joke?’”

      “Do you ever wake up in the morning and think, ‘My god, what am I going to be told today’?”

      “You ever think you’re incompetent?”

         7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Just saw these on my morning surf:
      04:00 UK time, Thursday, 28 June 2012
      Robert added analysis to:
      More banks facing rigging probe

      Barclays has admitted that a group of traders lied about what it was costing the bank to borrow.
      Now, why does this matter?
      Read full article

      23:31 UK time, Wednesday, 27 June 2012
      Robert added analysis to:
      Barclays fined over manipulation

      Barclays has admitted that a group of traders lied about what it was costing the bank to borrow.
      Now, why does this matter?
      Read full article

      Is ‘added analysis’ the new ‘watertight oversight’, as I see Mr. Peston and Mr. Robinson are avid practitioners of ‘added analysis’, albeit the variety that shoehorns in new stuff that serves the narrative and, oddly, leaves out anything that may not serve so well, especially anything damaging to their sacred cows that appears in media options other than our most trusted £145.50pa ‘news’ monopoly.

         3 likes

  2. George R says:

    Back from his Rio jaunt, high-cost Beeboid greenie, BLACK reports, through gritted teeth:

    “‘Fracking’ safe with strong regulation, report says.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-18611647

       15 likes

    • George R says:

      Of course, BLACK’s propaganda includes photo and claim that anti-fracking is extremely popular in USA.

      There is NO counter evidence from Black (nor photo) to indicate that shale gas development is popular.

         9 likes

    • George R says:

      Apparently not what Beeboids want:

      “The end of OPEC despotism.
      The shale gas revolution is fast-eroding the ability of the cartel run by the world’s leading despots to hold the West and Israel to ransom.”

      By Peter Glover.

      http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1361/the_end_of_opec_despotism

         13 likes

    • Phil Ford says:

      As usual, Comrade Black neglects to provide any evidence to back up such moronic scare-mongering as:

      “In the US, concerns have been raised that the gas or the chemicals can enter drinking water supplies…”

      Who raised those concerns, Richard? Your activist comrades in Greenpeace? Where is their evidence?

      Here is the other side of the fracking story, the side the BBC will never want you to see or hear:

         10 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Gasland well and truly busted (if you need any more convincing. Just like Michael Moore’s tripe you barely need to scratch the surface to get the truth (something they are ALWAYS intent on hiding or twisting. They are busted so many times you’d think they’d learn.

           5 likes

        • Pah says:

          Youtube is weird – I just drilled down a couple of clips and found a comedian I’d never heard of called Bill Burr. Don’t expect to see him on the BBC anytime soon …

             1 likes

          • Reed says:

            Very unlikely – not just because he’s non-PC, but also because he’s actually quite funny.

            He’s the anti-Brigstocke.

               0 likes

            • Pah says:

              Brigstocke is just Rick from the Young Ones …

              Saw him do King Arthur in Spamalot and spent a happy two hours glaring at him and trying to put him off. He was crap needless to say.

              Ah happy memories …

                 1 likes

    • George R says:

      “David Cameron’s shale gas lifeline.”

      By James Delingpole

      http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100168298/david-camerons-shale-gas-lifeline/

         2 likes

  3. Umbongo says:

    The last item on Today this morning was “How much is enough wealth?” and to “discuss this” “the economist and historian Lord Skidelsky and his son Edward, a philosopher at Exeter University” were dragged on. Well, “dragged on” is a bit of a misnomer, they’ve got a book to plug. And not just a book – the Skidelskys are right in there reserving first class seats on the “sustainability” bandwagon. The message to the West is that “the main challenge [now is] to ensure that the fruits of the new abundance [ are] democratically distributed” Oh yes we know exactly what that means and the BBC is also right in there to enable the biens pensants power to issue the ration books.
    As this site devoted to the economics of the Austrian School comments on the Skidelsky prescription for our ills “He [Skidelsky] says that the “system of the past 30 years… has been retained for the benefit of a predatory plutocracy that creams off the riches.” This is indeed going on. But this is not a plutocracy of honest businessmen and women. It is a crony capitalist plutocracy linking politicians, bureaucrats, public union leaders, trial lawyers, Wall Street, and many other government dominated and directed industries. It is a crony capitalism that has been created and defended by the very economic policy ideas which Skidelsky espouses and for which, as it turns out, the BBC acts as a prime enabler.
    Forget the sideshows of BBC support for Occupy and UKUnCut: that’s just anti-Conservative kneejerkism. No, the Narrative supports a corrupt political class in retaining and expanding its power over the rest of us.

       14 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      ‘…the “system of the past 30 years… has been retained for the benefit of a predatory plutocracy that creams off the riches.”

      That’s right, we all know the NHS can get along quite nicely without their taxes, thank you.

         0 likes

    • Louis Robinson says:

      Perhaps Beeboids should ask themselves: how expensive is a “too expensive” bottle of wine?

         7 likes

  4. As I See It says:

    O/T but wasn’t sure where to park this one.

    The mention of North Korea does seem apt somehow.
    H/T to Guido Fawkes…

    http://www.popbitch.com/home/2012/06/28/rock-n-roll-behind-the-scenes-at-hackney-weekend/

    ‘Radios 1′s Hackney Weekend is part of the London Festival 2012. We please ask that you do not reference the Olympic Games in a negative or derogatory way. Thank you’.

    So that would explain a lot of BBC reporting on what they see as their Olympics.

    [I recently noted Will Gompertz (BBC Arts Editor) doing his bit for the propaganda]

       7 likes

  5. Guest Who says:

    Just been party to an example of why it is wise to make a page capture of the page being complained about when submitting a complaint.
    To the attempted CECUTT rebuttal of ‘We’ve had a look and it’s not like you claim’, it is..
    a) nice to send them a page grab with the words ‘But it was… see. Your move’, and:
    b) suggest that if they obviously can’t trust their own systems and colleagues on accuracy, why and how are BBC licence fee payers meant to, or any observer trust their output.
    I do love the Mac Safari ‘Mail contents of this page’ option:)

       6 likes

  6. As I See It says:

    Those wonderful BBC Olympics again

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18640141

    ‘Calls for the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre to be remembered with a minute’s silence at the opening of the London 2012 have been rebuffed by the organisers.’

    Some nice touches from the report by our BBC correspondent:

    ‘Many of those who died, including a West German police officer, were killed in a botched rescue effort.’

    Yes, and funnily enough just yesterday I was reading a BBC report on the Bomber Command Memorial. It included lots of news about Britain’s botched attempt at fighting Nazi Germany in World War Two.

    ‘Five Palestinian hostage takers were killed others were tracked down and subsequently killed by Israeli intelligence forces over the following years.’

    I guess the BBC implies here that Israel ought to have gone down the route of applying for legal arrests and extraditions?

    Mrs Spitzer told the BBC: “Our message is not one of hatred or revenge….”We want the world to remember what happened there so that this will never happen again.”

    That statement will require some ‘BBC balance’….

    ‘Games organisers Locog and the International Olympic Committee may fear provoking a walkout from some Arab countries and are keen to avoid the games being politicised.’

    Nice vague unattributed statement of something that we suspect to be true. So BBC you can’t pick up the phone to – for example – the Egyptian, Saudi or Turkish embassy and ask the question ‘Will you have your athletes walk out?’ No of course not. Wouldn’t want to refuffle any feathers would we?

       17 likes

  7. As I See It says:

    Boris Johnson and not Ken Livingstone must be the Mayor of London.

    I know this because the BBC have suddenly come over all concerned about the tax payer.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-18619936

    ‘The new Thames cable car, spanning the river, has opened to the public.’

    ‘….It’s all come at a price though….’ Says our intrepid reporter. Boris is then pressed hard to justify the expense.

    ‘The Dubai-based airline Emirates is sponsoring the cable car for 10 years at a cost of £36m.
    The total cost of the project is about £60m, £45m of which went towards building it, TfL said.’

    Fair enough. Watch out of the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

    ‘A single adult fare on the pay-as-you-go Oyster card will cost £3.20 while the cash fare is £4.30. But the fares are not included in travelcards or Oyster capping, TfL said.’

    Make up your mind BBC, do you want to spend tax payer money on this project or not? I guess the instinct to spend is there but the fact that this is a Boris project just sticks in the old BBC craw.

    Now remind me of the total cost of the Blair/Livingstone Olympics?

       16 likes

    • Reed says:

      Boris missed a trick there – he should have just painted five coloured rings on each car – they’d leave well alone then.

         10 likes

    • Reed says:

      …and Livingstone has admitted to lying about the cost of the games in order to secure funding for redevelopement…

      ————————————
      “I didn’t bid for the Olympics because I wanted three weeks of sport,” he told an audience at St Martin in the Fields church in Trafalgar Square.

      “I bid for the Olympics because it’s the only way to get the billions of pounds out of the Government to develop the East End.
      ————————————

      http://www.metro.co.uk/news/144415-mayor-ken-in-olympics-bid-revelation

      …once a liar….

         7 likes

      • Fred Bloggs says:

        He has said something similar a few years ago on LBC. “If we had told the gov the real cost they would never have signed it off”. Is not submitting false accounts FRAUD.

           15 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          Sheer, unadulterated, shameless arrogance. A prime example of how low politics has sunk in this country.

             12 likes

  8. noggin says:

    sunday morning live bbc sunday –
    would you let your teenager have sex at home

    our presenter
    “Moh Answar, has faced off the EDL” ??? …
    which obviously 😀 must make him a perfect commentator on the subject, and playwright Francis Beckett

    “well you know theres a mohamheds guide book for schools”?
    Oh! … Do we? … know? … (shudder) catagorically perish the thought
    but obviously if your a “al bbc” presenter you know ALL about it.

    One wonders if they know, if following their perfect example “mohs”, guide, that teenagers were a bit late, supposedly in his eyes, for sex or marriage or slavery …

    hmm there s so much just plain … “wrong” here

       9 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Well, as in a multicultural society all cultures are equal, he’s entitled to take centre stage on this one and there’s sweet FA we can do about it!

      Up next, Tommy Robinson (he faced down Islamic extremists in Luton) on ‘Asian’ paedophile gangs. Not.

         11 likes

  9. Guest Who says:

    Newsnight continues to excel. From my lunchtime surf these two new tweets…
    tim samuels ‏@TimDSamuels
    See what 26 yrs fighting for innocence in Florida death row/prison has done to Londoner Kris Maharaj @BBCNewsnight soon pic.twitter.com/mrvA30Yh
    Retweeted by BBC Newsnight

    Not weathered well, unsurprisingly. But… who is he? What are the facts behind the crime one presumes he was accused of? If a capital crime, one presumes any victim(s) may now look a bit worse. What about them?This seems nothing more than proxy emotive advocacy, driven by only playing twitter within the bubble. Not the remit of an objective broadcaster.

    BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight
    Back from the brink – EU leaders have made series of moves averting catastrophe @paulmasonnews blogs http://bbc.in/LkRWkQ

    Going to look pretty darn silly if it turns out your EU mates have done no such thing, eh Paul?
    Again, this smacks of opinion dressed as fact.
    Never fear though, for sailing on no matter what crashes you get into or cause, Ms. Two Eds makes the Titanic look like the Ohio.

       7 likes

    • Reed says:

      “Back from the brink – EU leaders have made series of moves averting catastrophe”

      How many times have we heard this from these hopelessly hopeful halfwits? Another summit, another pretence of an agreement, another couple of weeks before another set-back, another call for another summit….and so it goes. They expect us to have confidence in their ‘leadership’, and these BBC muppets expect us to take their reports seriously. Thankfully, we’re not all that stoopid, as the public’s clamour for a referendum demonstrates.

         12 likes

  10. Reed says:

    Over at The Spectator…

    At the BBC, the Arab Spring has only just ended –
    Rod Liddle

    Have you seen much on the BBC news about the persecution and indeed murder of Syria’s Christian population by the liberal-minded and agreeable rebel forces who are not at all Islamist maniacs allied to al-Qa’eda? Nope, me neither….

    …Maybe it was on, and I missed it. But I don’t think so because I would have remembered a piece of journalism from the BBC which suggested that the rebels were anything other than brave, secular students and academics fighting with their bare hands to overthrow fascism. I haven’t seen one of those pieces yet, but one lives in hope.

    http://www.spectator.co.uk/issues/30-june-2012/at-the-bbc-the-arab-spring-has-only-just-ended

       16 likes

  11. Fred Bloggs says:

    Proof that Miliband is brain dead. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18640916 He cannot remember that himself, Balls and Brown were at the centre of the lax control of the banks. This is the epitome of irony.

       12 likes

    • Reed says:

      …and nobody at the BBC was available to hold them to account, except for the briefest of mentions that Ed Balls was a champion of ‘light touch regulation’ and to relay his quote that their inquiry “would get to the bottom of bad regulation that he said dated back to the 1980s.”

      BBC rule no. 1
      When Labour are in trouble – feign amnesia to blank out Labour’s 13 years, shout Fatcha!!!!!!!!!

         16 likes

      • dez says:

        feign amnesia
         
        Interesting you should say that.
         
        What was Conservative Party policy at the time? Have you forgotten?
         
        Letwin promises Tories will abolish FSA

        http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/2889945/Letwin-promises-Tories-will-abolish-FSA.html
         
        “Oliver Letwin, the shadow chancellor, said that the party was increasingly concerned by ‘the intrusive regulatory regime’ imposed by the City watchdog.”
         
        “The complaints include claims that the FSA is over-regulating.”
         
        “The FSA is like a ship adrift at sea. There is excessive regulation.”
         
        When’s the last time you heard this mentioned by the BBC?
         

        Oops!

           5 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          The fact remains the BBC are feigning amnesia regarding Labour’s record, and thus showing their bias.

             7 likes

        • uncle bup says:

          yawn at Dopey Dez The Dimwit Droid.

          There’s two kinds of regulation.

          There’s the type of regulation that forces City employees to count the number of Financial Times’ they read over a quarter.

          And there’s they type of regulation that tries to prevent incompetent employees blowing up the financial system.

          In the City there was and is far too much of the former and far too little of the latter.

          Hope this helps.

          And btw the financial system blew up on Labour’s watch, and what the Tories may or may not have said and the fact that some other countries also blew up their financial systems, removes not one scintilla of blame from right where it belongs. Your and the BBC’s beloved Labour Party.

             8 likes

        • Andrew Johnson says:

          Contrary to your assertion, events have shown that Mr Letwin was correct. The fatal error the FSA engaged in was to focus on micro regulation and ignore the bigger picture. Many thousands of city workers were forced to create unproductive and costly paperwork to satisfy the FSA regulators, while the really big decisions which have proved to be so finaincially damaging to Britain, were taken over “nod nod, wink wink” lunches betweeen the (Labour)Government, Senior regulators and the heads of financial insititutions.
          If you doubt this, go ask any City worker who had to liaise with the FSA regulators at this time, who knew full well what was happening.
          It is always the major policy decisions which require regulating, as an trained and working manager knows.

             11 likes

  12. johnnythefish says:

    An interesting take on the current health of the environmental movement, backed by some useful figures:

    http://thegwpf.org/opinion-pros-a-cons/6076-rio20-international-environmentalism-is-dead.html

    Let’s hope he’s right.

       5 likes

  13. johnnythefish says:

    this is Lord Monckton’s amusing but razor-sharp take on the Rio Earth Summit.
    If you want to find out about the real UN agenda on ‘sustainability’ and ‘climate change’, read on – it’s as far away from Harrabin and Black as a nuclear-powered spacetanker in hyperdrive carrying a cargo of fracked oil piloted by Rupert Murdoch:

    http://sppiblog.org/news/lord-monckton-reports-from-rio

       8 likes

  14. Reed says:

    Get ready for the BBC to regain their interest in Leveson with increased vigour next week, as Ed Miliband (among others) prepares to deliver his recommendations for the future of press oversight. This is the stage where the real agenda of the BBC/Guardian/Labour nexus will be revealed. For them, this was never about phone-hacking or any of the other improprieties, but about limiting the span and influence of the Evil Murdoch Empire, and eliminating as much of the opposing right-of-centre competition as possible. Anyone who still thinks that Labour and their friends in the media are predominantly concerned about press standards and plurality, and not self-interest, is a deluded fool. Also worthy of note is their apparent interest in limiting market share not just by purchase but also by growth, revealing their desire to place constraints on the success of right-wing alternatives, not just the breadth of their ownership. Unable to compete, their last resort is to try and rig the market. It’s all part of the left’s inate desire to control others…and no mention of the BBC’s dominant position in the nation’s media, of course…

    Dan Hodges at The Telegraph…
    ———————————————————-
    In the next few days Labour will submit their recommendations for Module 4 of the inquiry. That’s the stage at which the various participants make their individual recommendations about what the post-phone-hacking media landscape should look like….

    …The second area is ownership. Here Labour is predictably keen to tighten the regulation on cross-media ownership, but is also said to be looking at a potential cap on what sources are describing as “newspaper concentration”. This, in effect, is a potential limit on the number of print outlets any one person or company could own. Or, more specifically, a limit on the number of newspapers Rupert Murdoch can own. Thought is also being given to granting an expanded regulatory role to Ofcom, with a view to “keeping an eye on the market” to limit capture of market share by “growth” as well as acquisition.
    —————————————————-
    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danhodges/100168209/ed-miliband-looks-to-the-leveson-inquiry-to-define-his-labour-leadership/

       12 likes

    • Leha II says:

      It was never really about Millie Dowler, it was all about putting a cap on free speech, unless of course, your the bBC. I expect social media will be next for the hatchet…..

         8 likes

    • As I See It says:

      Absolutely correct on what Leveson is really all about. The BBC/Guardian/Labour nexus knows very well that Miliband has a chance to build his reputation on this issue (and not much else).

      ‘Leveson has been the making of Ed Miliband. At least Ed Miliband thinks it’s been the making of Ed Miliband, and for the moment that’s all that counts.’

      Anyone care to guess how many national newspapers they would like us to have in, say, five years from now?

      Well, there will be the Guardian……

      Unsurprisingly Milly and his mates at the Beeb are keen to keep the inquiry ball rolling…

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18640916

      ‘Labour leader Ed Miliband has called for a public inquiry into banking after a series of scandals in the sector.’

      Secure in the knowledge that the Governmet will side step this one. Can you really imagine an inquiry looking into Balls-Gordon Brown ban regualtory system?

         6 likes

  15. George R says:

    EGYPT.
    INBBC’s Muslim Brotherhood Cairo bureau, over-excited again and politically misleading on Mursi and Tahrir Square.

    INBBC censors this:
    “Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood planning to impose Sharia and work toward restoration of caliphate”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/06/egypt-muslim-brotherhood-planning-to-impose-sharia-and-work-toward-restoration-of-caliphate.html

    But INBBC goes for this:

    “Egypt President-elect Mohamed Mursi hails Tahrir crowds”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-18648399

       7 likes

  16. Jeff Waters says:

    The people on the right who invoke “liberal fascism” should be bundled off
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18645370

    Yes, of course they should. What is remotely fascist about jailing someone for expressing an opinion?

    Jeff

       11 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Send us your comments and we’ll publish a selection’
      We are sure you will, Dr. Joseph… quite sure.

         7 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Funny how liberalism has come to be the preserve of the Left, in the same way fascism has become the preserve of the Right – all in left-wing eyes, of course. Similarly the prefix ‘neo’ is only used to describe an individual or movement with right-leaning affiliations (because of its obvious association with ‘neo-nazi’).
      The Left are masters at manipulating our language to their own advantage, specifically using words which have a strong emotional association – typically one of revulsion. Thus the popularising of ‘fascist’ by the Left when describing anyone or anything remotely right-wing. Then we have the recently-coined ‘denier’, with its unequivocal associations with The Holocaust.
      It is nothing more than a tactic to discredit and marginalise the target, and leave no room for debate – which, of course, is a form of fascism in itself.

         8 likes

      • deegee says:

        One of my strongest memories was of Trotskyites and Spartacists (two minuscule Marxist splinter groups so close in ideology that only they can see the difference) abusing each other at a demonstration. calling the other fascists.

           7 likes

  17. Pounce_uk says:

    This blog has for years highlighted numerous examples of how the bBC has become remiss in reporting anything that brings the good name of Islam into disrepute which is why in this report of schoolgirls in Afghanistan the bBC concentrate more on how schoolgirls are taught about the life of the prophet Mohammed (he’s not my f-ing prophet bBC) than just who are attacking schoolgirls
    Afghan girls defy prejudice and attacks on schools
    Watching the above you find the bBC don’t mention the Taliban one bit. Not when they mention the old regime, not when they mention the conservative muslims who don’t want females to undergo an education nor the so idiots behind the ‘Alleged’ poisoning of school girls. In fact watching the above you get the impression that actually the Afghan government are the ones to blame, I mean just why did they close down so many schools.
    Then there’s the coverage from Israel, oh they can give us a report about how Pals reacted when
    Bethlehem sites given Unesco World Heritage status
    Read up on how:
    When the result of the secret ballot was announced, there were loud cheers and fist pumping from the Palestinian delegation, reports the BBC’s Jon Donnison in Ramallah.”These sites are threatened with total destruction through the Israeli occupation, through the building of the separation wall, because of all the Israeli sanctions and the measures that have been taken to stifle the Palestinian identity,”

       16 likes

    • Pounce_uk says:

      Read up on how:
      When the result of the secret ballot was announced, there were loud cheers and fist pumping from the Palestinian delegation, reports the BBC’s Jon Donnison in Ramallah.”These sites are threatened with total destruction through the Israeli occupation, through the building of the separation wall, because of all the Israeli sanctions and the measures that have been taken to stifle the Palestinian identity,”

         5 likes

    • deegee says:

      Nothing to worry about. As soon as the last Christian flees Bethlehem, if not sooner, the Muslims will declare the sites Islamic holy places that have been holy for ever and protect them. Their first act of protection will be an attempt to foil the desecration of the the Tomb of Rachel by the evil Jews who have been lying about it since at least the fourth century.

         3 likes

  18. Pounce_uk says:

    But has anybody heard the news of how mortars and rockets are still getting launched from Gaza on a daily basis. No I wonder why? But hey a beauty contest for ex holocaust victims allows the bBC to portray Jews as evil.

       8 likes

    • Pounce_uk says:

      Yup, according to the bBC mandate Muslims can never be seen in a negative light. Which is why they haven’t reported on how that young British girl was brutally sexually assaulted by peaceful Muslims in Eygpt.

         12 likes

  19. Pounce_uk says:

    You know what f-ck this stupid posting shit on this blog

       5 likes

  20. Daphne Anson says:

    Anyone want a nice evening out, to ask ’em some curly ones?
    Here’s an announcement from the CoJo website:
    With trust, impartiality and objectivity in journalism facing new challenges every day, we look at whether these values can survive in the digital age.

    The core principles of serious, public interest journalism are under pressure – and even attack – in the new digital environment. The democratisation of mass digital and social media, user generated content and the 24-hour news culture is having a major impact on the expectations of ethics and values in journalism.

    In this panel discussion we’ll ask: can we maintain trust, ethics and values in the digital age?

    The debate coincides with the publication of a report by Richard Sambrook for the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism called ‘Delivering Trust; Impartiality and Objectivity in the Digital Age’.

    Panel

    Helen Boaden, director BBC News Group

    John Lloyd, director of journalism, Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism

    Richard Sambrook, professor of journalism and director of the Centre for Journalism at Cardiff University

    Where

    Sheikh Zayed Theatre
    London School of Economics
    New Academic Building
    Lincoln’s Inn Fields
    London WC2A 2AE

    When

    6.30pm to 8pm
    Tuesday 3 July 2012

       8 likes

    • George R says:

      Future alternative lectures:

      -“How BBC-NUJ gets away with blatant political bias daily.”

      -“How BBC-NUJ translates its blatant political bias as ‘impartiality'”.

      -“How BBC-NUJ always says ‘we got it about right.'”

      -“Why the next Director General will be a Labour Party supporter.”

         9 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Sheer panic. Their Leftist world view is being challenged by this new tinterweb gadget. An emergency meeting is being called to formulate a new strategy for controlling news output. Perhaps they need to ‘lobby’ (ha!) to get the remit of Leveson widened.
      The BBC must particularly hate it because it gives a platform to all those scientists who have been marginalised by the fascistic climate alarmists from within their own profession.
      All hail the internet, the greatest boost to free speech since the invention of the printing press.

         10 likes

  21. gordon-bennett says:

    gavin esler in high dudgeon on newsnight tonight (Friday). Apparently he was disgusted with the fact that brevik received a fair trial in Norway.

    I got the clear impression that he felt the murders were especially ghastly because the dead were socialists.

    I believe that had the victims been Israelis it wouldn’t have mattered a fig to beeboids. After all, you never hear condemnation of hamas terrorists, do you?

       18 likes

  22. jonsuk says:

    i wonder when the BBC will do a ‘documentary’ about ‘Anal Sex and Hollywood’?

       2 likes

  23. techno says:

    Great BBC quote on last summer’s riots:

    By his account, he went out to watch after hearing reports the riots had reached Manchester. But he put on a balaclava to hide his identity, and when the police charged – he ran.

    I don’t know about you but I never go out without my trusty balaclava. You never know when you might need it.

       9 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      Come on, it was the middle of winter and snowing, no wonder he had it…eh? what’s that? …oh.

         9 likes

    • Reed says:

      “As the first anniversary of the England riots approaches, three men who were jailed for their parts in the disorder reflect on their punishment and the impact it has had on their lives.”

      As the first anniversary approaches, I’m wondering if we will see the BBC provide us with any articles about the impact on the lives of the innocent who were burnt out of their homes and whose businesses were ransacked? Waiting…

         9 likes

  24. George R says:

    ‘Daily Mail’ has this critical article on the economics and politics of ‘aid’
    to Africa (Ghana).

    “How your money is being squandered: African village where every family gets £7,000 from the British taxpayer.”

    By Ian Birrell

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2166697/African-village-family-gets-7-000-British-taxpayer.html#ixzz1zG5bis3L

    BBC-NUJ will be unaffected, and ‘Today’ propagandists will continue to fly out to Liberia to inculcate British people with its political message.

       8 likes

  25. George R says:

    BBC-NUJ-Labour does all it can in its political support for Miliband.

    Today, its online ‘news’ pages have Miliband as top story for:-
    1.) ‘Home page, 2.) ‘Politics’ page, 3.) ‘Business page.

    And what’s the vital BBC-NUJ-Labour story?
    -That Miliband, whose past Labour government could not control banks (unmentioned), wants a banks’ inquiry!

       8 likes

    • George R says:

      Has some Beeboid been reprimanded on this?

      All three Miliband headlines (above) have now been dropped , and replaced with:

      “Ministers to order Libor bank rate review”

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18640916

      BBC-NUJ instructions for news staff: be less politically blatant for a few days until new pro-Labour Director General is appointed.

         9 likes

  26. As I See It says:

    Lugubrious BBC Newsnight economics editor Paul Mason is a tedious leftwing campaigner.

    Just like Balls and Miliband he got drunk on Keynesian economics back in the naughties and he had so much fun that he was annoyed to see his joyride come to an end when the money ran out.

    Naturally as a leftist he blames the nasty capitalists and bankers for curtailing his enjoyment.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18644219

    With little in the way of economic insight he continually bangs on about growth over austerity and he has his favourite fringe leftwing interests. Never mind the Euro-induced slow motion car crash. The only time he seems to get his dander up are when leftwing activists get all sexy on the streets.

    He shows his true colours here…

    ‘That leaves only one major economy committed to austerity first and growth maybe. It is an economy that could do with a bit of effective banking supervision itself. If the bond markets become convinced Europe is stabilised, they may now look quizzically at this last major economy, mired in a double-dip recession and with – on the admission of its industry minister – no real growth strategy. [Or so you wish Paul!] Meanwhile that country’s people see the 17-member eurozone racing towards a banking union and locked-in fiscal policies [wistful that we’re not in there Paul?].

    ‘To put it another way: the battle of Europe is over (for now). The battle of Britain may be about to begin.’

    [Bad analogy Paul. Remember we won that one!]

       8 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Of all the EU countries only Germany has more favourable bond rates than the UK. Coincidence, magic, or sound economic policy? You decide, Paul. On second thoughts, don’t bother you Leftist hanger-on of the binge-spending, country-wrecking debt junkies.

         5 likes

  27. George R says:

    For BBC-NUJ-Labour: IMMIGRATION.

    “Only a bigot frets about poor pay and failing schools, surely?
    Labour’s treatement of those who have voiced concern over immigration is deplorable.”

    by Graeme Archer.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ed-miliband/9364978/Only-a-bigot-frets-about-poor-pay-and-failing-schools-surely.html

       8 likes

  28. Span Ows says:

    Today I read that “Ed Miliband added his voice to calls for an inquiry”…imagine my surprise to read that the headline had changed to “Ed Miliband calls for banking inquiry”

    Luckily Newsniffer is on the case!

    http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/530524/diff/11/12

       8 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘The article has changed 20 times’

      Looks like the BBC is having a rare old time getting things to…ahem… ‘fit’.

         7 likes

  29. George R says:

    Labour Party activist, RICHARDS, favourite as next Director General.

    “Ofcom boss Ed Richards moves step closer to taking job as BBC’s director general”

    By Paul Revoir.

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2166799/Ofcom-boss-Ed-Richards-moves-step-closer-taking-BBC-crown.html#ixzz1zGcaecFz

       4 likes

  30. Deborah says:

    Saturday – 8am Today programme Radio 4 – why did it lead on an article in The Times by Milliband calling for a public enquiry on the banks. Apart from the fact that this is yesterday’s news, this was an article by someone not in power and yet was considered the most important story of the day. If there is a public enquiry I hope that its terms of reference include what effect the light touch approved by Brown, Balls and Milliband had on banking.

       12 likes

  31. George R says:

    Islam Not BBC (INBBC) ears burning?:-

    “Double Dutch standards on Islam ”

    (inc video).

    http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/06/double-dutch-standards-on-islam.html

       4 likes

  32. Sparkione says:

    Just recovering from apoplexy after today’s ‘The Now Show’ on R4. I only listen to nurture my masochistic side. But even that can do without the vitriolic rantings of that odious little lefty oik Marcus Brigstocke. Somebody please pull the chain…

       8 likes

    • Reed says:

      …it’s no good – that one’s too big to flush, and the BBC rather like the kind of stink he produces.

         6 likes

  33. Reed says:

    So…Lord Bounty is back in the house….but what’s that?…no explanation from Labour as to why ?

    ——————
    Labour confirmed the suspension had been lifted but did not explain why.
    A Labour Party spokesperson said “Lord Ahmed is no longer suspended from the Labour Party” but would not expand on that statement.
    ——————

    A quick reminder of what he’s alleged to have said…

    “If the US can announce a reward of $10m for the captor of Hafiz Saeed, I can announce a bounty of £10m on President Obama and his predecessor George Bush.”

    In response to the article, Lord Ahmed said: “I’m shocked and horrified that this whole story could be just made up of lies….

    …lies?…what – all of it…oh, I see…

    “I never mentioned President Obama, I never mentioned the word bounty.”

    …all cleared up then. Ask no more.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18658233

       6 likes

  34. uncle bup says:

    Gameshow Nikki interviewing a Tory politician about the banks on Friday, the Tory rightly blaming the Labour government for poor regulation.

    ‘Buworrabou’, jumps in Gameshow, ‘David Cameron and George Osborne they were calling for light touch regulation.’

    The Tory put Gameshow back in his box by pointing out that only two politicians were named in the FSA report on the collapse of RBS – viz Fatty Balls and Mad Gordon MacRuin.

    Back game Gameshow twice more with

    ‘bu other politicians’…, and,

    ‘buworrabou David Cameron?’.

    Then about two minutes later, clearly after Gameshow had written

    ‘Google David Cameron and light touch regulation will ya’ handed it to one of his minions and got the return message, out he came with,

    ‘So worrid David Cameron mean when he said in 2006 …’ and off he went again with yet another blah on Cameron and ‘light touch regulation’.

    Poor Gameshow, thinks he is Ed Balls’ bezzie, but in fact he’s Balls’ useful idiot.

    Or, based on Friday’s performance, meh not so useful.

       13 likes

  35. uncle bup says:

    And on the subject of the evergiving gift I caught Young Owen Shoutie who had been given the freedom of the BBC airwaves last night. Before I got to the off switch, and God knows I rushed, Shoutie was (snigger) giving his prescription for the future of the UK financial system.

    ‘Hey the Tories commissioned a report, I think it was called the Volcker Report, they kicked it into the long grass, it’s just going to stay there for years.’

    I don’t suppose it would occur to Shoutie to ask himself why a UK government would commission a report on the UK financial system by someone who was Chairman of the US Federal Reserve in the 70s and 80s. So I’m guessing that Shoutie, our self-anointed financial expert, has never heard of Paul Volcker.

    Begs the question why the BBC are so in love with this halfwit. Not an ounce of insight in him, his comments don’t rise beyond the bog-standard Labour party cut’n’paste guff, and just makes it up as he goes along’.

    The BBC don’t care that he’s thick as pigshite, they just care that he’s a (pretrendie) leftie.

       12 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      The BBC don’t care that he’s thick as pigshite, they just care that he’s a (pretrendie) leftie.

      Very much so; Owen is almost a caricature of what you would produce as a standard lefty student trot that gets Citizen Smith on the brain and screams a lot but falls down whenever any detail or depth is needed.

         11 likes

      • Pah says:

        It could be cleverer than that. The BBC give this numbskull uninterupted airtime to spout his drivel as long at it is in line with the Dear Leader’s talking points.

        If anyone challenges this they can always point out that the guy is a numbskull and they are giving him enough rope etc.

        Just a thought.

           3 likes

    • johnyork says:

      A MESSAGE FROM SHOUTIE’S EX SPONSORS :
      DURACELL

      After incurring considerable costs inserting our most advanced and powerful batteries into Owen’s rectum we have had to sack all our top scientists as we are no longer in a position to turn him off.
      Nowhere was our emarrassment more evident than when his like minded friends at the BBC allowewd him to let rip over things he knew nothing about.

      The Duracell XXXX MARXIST- PLUS has been withdawn.

         11 likes

  36. noggin says:

    Obama administration considers turning Taliban detainees over to Afghanistan,”
    Associated Press
    June 29,
    i m just so glad he isn t a muslim, somebody could think he was stitching us up 😀
    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/29/obama-administration-considers-turning-taliban-detainees-over-to-afghanistan/?test=latestnews#ixzz1zF9OwACB

    well maybe they re reformed 😀 . … el beeb
    “moderate islamists”
    guesshatnothing on el bbc yet 😀

       7 likes

  37. Millie Tant says:

    SATURDAY EVENING MUSIC – Radio 3

    5 00 PM: Jazz Record Requests

    6 00 PM: Opera
    Verdi’s Falstaff
    “Verdi’s late, great Shakespeare-based opera is a comic tour de force, overflowing with energy and a seemingly infinite succession of musical ideas.”
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01k9s9b

    MIDNIGHT: Geoffrey Smith’s Jazz
    =========
    Sunday night Radio 2

    11 PM: Frank Sinatra: Voice of the Century
    Final episode of 13-part series.

       4 likes

  38. John Anderson says:

    The blindness and bias of the BBC towards Islam.

    A report on Nigeria in today’s From Our Own Correspondent on Radio 4 presented the troubles there as conflict between Islamist “insurgents”, “militants” and the Christians. The reporter goes to a church that had been bombed. But deliberately fails to mention that people had been killed – let alone specifying how many Christains had been killed. But he does slip in that angry young Christains had then killed local Muslims.

    Even when reporting on Boko Haram, the BBC covers up for the evils of jihadist Islam. The idiot even tried to say that the problems were etcnic rather than religious !

    ……………………………

    The new President of Egypt is a Truther, ant-Semite and generally a nutter who cons the useful idiots at the BBC that he is “moderate”. Another example of his nastiness – in his acceptance speech he called for the release of the Blind Sheikh – another MB nutter who organised the first bombing of the World Trade Centre in 1993 :

    http://hotair.com/archives/2012/06/29/new-president-promises-egypt-ill-work-to-free-the-blind-sheikh-convicted-after-the-first-wtc-bombing/

    Fascism, pure and simple. But the BBC turned a blind eye to fascism in the 1930’s, just par for the course.

       8 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      George R – I have just seen you raised this (using a different source) earlier in the thread.

      So – amateurs like us come across news about the real nature of the new Egyptian President. Either the BBC can’t find the same news (impossible) – or it suppresses the news.

         8 likes

    • Nicked emus says:

      But the BBC turned a blind eye to fascism in the 1930′s
      Did it? I wasn’t aware that it did. The Daily Mail’s support for Hitler and Oswald Mosely is well known, but I wasn’t aware that the BBC supported fascism.

         0 likes

      • Nicked emus says:

        Lest anyone think I am trying to score cheap points (as if), The Daily Mirror was also a supporter of Mosely too. I was not aware that the BBC was.

           1 likes

      • John Anderson says:

        The then Director General, John Reith, kept Churchill off the airwaves for years during the 1930s – when Churchill was warning about Hitler. By contrast Chamberlain’s appeasement policy was supported by the BBC.

        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Reith,_1st_Baron_Reith#Pro-fascist_sympathies

           9 likes

        • John Anderson says:

          Way back in the 1930’s – Reith saw the BBC as a means of manipulating public opinion.

          Yet still people deny it has any effect ? They must be stupid.

          Reith admitted in his diaries his pro-fascist views :

          http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/blog_comments/democracy_bbc_style

          ………………

          Good cameo tonight on Loose Ends, Radio 4 – David Starkey being interviewed fairly aggressively by Clive Anderson – with James Naughtie in support of Anderson. After about two minutes on the genuinely interesting topic of Starkey’s new Channel 4 programme on Churchill and his ancestor the Duke of Marlborough, and Churchill’s unique and self-taught sense of history, to Starkey’s recent spat with nonentity Laurie Penny.

          As usual – the BBC trivialising things.

          When this pile-on started, and someone quoted the phrase “a malice of historians”, Starkey responded with “yes, you can have a pride of lions, a malice of historians – and an arrogance of BBC presenters”

          OUCH !

             10 likes

          • Nicked emus says:

            Thank you for the link. Interesting stuff. We live and learn.

               3 likes

            • Guest Who says:

              A gracious response. And if one more now questions those sources who presume to educate and inform (including off-narrative omissions, then the learning process of shared experience would appear to be prevailing… for the better.

                 6 likes

        • George R says:

          Supplementary.

          “Reith of the BBC”

          [Excerpt]:-

          “Since admiration for Hitler was Reith’s blind spot, he was contemptuous of Churchill’s early rallying cry urging Britain to prepare itself to meet the coming assault by the Nazis on free countries. His diaries express his approval of Germany. He was positive the Nazis ‘would clean things up.’ It is not surprising that he went on to extend his admiration to include Mussolini. Chamberlain had taken office as Prime Minister in 1937 and Reith eagerly obeyed him by denying Churchill adequate opportunity to rouse the British by speaking to them over the radio as they sat in the threatened security of their peaceful homes.”
          http://www.winstonchurchill.org/learn/in-the-media/churchill-in-the-news/692–reith-of-the-bbc

             8 likes

  39. Dave s says:

    I was driving along the road today and suddenly realised I could help solve the economic crisis. I am deranged of course.
    !. We are in a recession approaching a depression so activity is slowing down.
    2. The state takes nearly half of a shrinking GDP, Tax receipts are falling but the state wants more and more. The cuts don’t really exist.
    3. That means the private sector and the citizens have less to spend so activity lessens yet more.
    4. Printing money will lead to inflation sooner or later
    5. The only answer is to let us keep more of our money so that the state takes much less than 50%.
    6. Then business will pick up
    7. And this is my masterstroke. Abolish the TV tax. This will put around 150 pounds into the pockets of people who will go out and spend it. It will mean the end of the BBC as we know it but as the man said” It’s a start” .Once we have got rid of the BBC we can start on all the other tax eaters. Without the BBC it will that be much easier.

       16 likes

  40. +james says:

    <b.The Ethnication of History

    Just watched the BBC’s new production of Richard II. According to Shakespeare the Empire Windrush pulled up at Cheapside in Anno Domini 1390. And due to affirmative action many West Indians rose to prominence in civic life such as a Lord and the Bishop of Carlisle.

    And the BBC historical advisers who have researched this era claim that the Medieval Welsh were like rejects from the Rock tribe in One Million Years BC. I was half expecting Raquel Welch in a fur bikini and a Pterodactyl to turn up.

    Apart from that it was rather good. Rupert Goold’s direction and script editing was rather good. He cut out about half the text which made it more punchier for TV.
    The locations were excellent adding to the atmosphere, but making the acting more difficult,

    The best directed scene was in the deposition sequence where Richard lies back on the floor to give his ‘snow’ speech. The crown looks as if it is levitating off the floor. I do not know if this is a CGI sequence or an optical illusion.

    The best additions to this the production was the gold armour, the St Sebastian style death ( I don’t think it was done before) and making Aumerle the assassin (an actual improvement on the play).

       3 likes

    • George R says:

      Of course, in the programme immediately after the Richard II play, ‘Shakespeare Uncovered’, actor David Jacobi (with Beeboid Sargeant) only used one modern British political example to illustrate the ending of power: that of Conservative PM Thatcher; she was a democratically elected leader of Britain for 11 years, but was compared with the undemocratic weak king.
      That’s the Beeboid/luvvies anti-Tory take on Richard II.

         8 likes

      • wallygreeninker says:

        It seems to bring thha out in people. At the time of the Essex rebellion the rebels tried to use the play to draw parallels between what they hoped would be the overthrow of Elizabeth I and that of Richard II.

           2 likes

        • Pah says:

          Exactly, the plays of the tetrachy are political with a definitive message about the ‘hollow crown’ and the body politic.

          An in the Jubilee year too! I don’t suppose they could have chosen other plays to do could they?

             1 likes

  41. TomR says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18645370
    He goes straight from saying the Right are wrong for invoking Hitler to saying the Right are Nazis.

    Despicable.

       6 likes

    • Biodegradable says:

      This part is specially absurd, and wrong. Anyone who criticises Islam is a Nazi, and the Muslims are the new Jews:

      Hatred of difference – notice I carefully did not say racial hatred, or religious hatred. Hitler hated Jews because of their religion, and because of their race, but he hated them above all because of their otherness.

      When I read well-intentioned people talking about the impossibility of assimilating Muslims in my adopted country of France, for instance, I become frightened when I see that they are usually entirely unaware that they are repeating – often idea for idea and sometimes word for word – the themes of the anti-Semitic polemics that set off the Dreyfus affair a century ago. For those writers, too, believed not that Jews were eternally evil, but that Judaism was just too different, too foreign to France, and tied to violence against the nation and its heritage.

      And indeed there were Jewish anarchists in Europe, as there are Muslim extremists now. But there was never a Jewish problem in France, any more than there is a Muslim problem now.

         5 likes

      • Deborah says:

        Yes Bio I was horrified when I heard this spoken on the radio. Dislike for Islam I think is based on the Islamic intolerance for other religions – not because Islam is a measure of ‘otherness’. And I understand that contrary to what is written there is a Muslim problem in France.

           10 likes

        • Biodegradable says:

          There is a “Muslim problem” in France and elsewhere in Europe because Muslims in general won’t assimilate, unlike Jews have done.

          “Jewish anarchists in Europe” have never ever caused the kind of problems and committed the kinds of crimes that Muslims are involved in (Toulouse?) so the comparison made in that paragraph I quoted is complete and total irrational and illogical nonsense.

             9 likes

  42. Daphne Anson says:

    Demonisation of America from the Frontline Club in association with the BBC College of Journalism (CoJo):
    http://daphneanson.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/with-bbcs-connivance-fledgling.html
    Isn’t a Royal Commission on BBC bias long overdue?

       5 likes

  43. Sue says:

    Here is a self-explanatory letter from ‘Davka’ :
    ____________________________________________
    “Dear Mr Stourton

    Harriet Sherwood in her interview with you this morning on the Sunday programme (1.7.12) spectacularly misses the point when she blames Christian distress at the Palestinian Authority’s successful move to get the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem declared a UNESCO World Heritage site on intra-Christian squabbling.
    And you don’t UNESCO to help mend a leaking roof.

    Unmentioned by Ms Sherwood, the Christian leaders continue to be haunted by the 2002 siege of the Church of the Nativity when Palestinian terrorists took priests and nuns hostage, used Bibles as toilet paper and defecated in the church. The siege was only ended through patient negotiation by the Israelis. The UNESCO move only means the Church will cede further control to the Muslim-dominated Palestinian Authority. Under the PA the Christian majority in Bethlehem has been whittled down to some 10 percent through Islamist intimidation and oppression of the Christian population.

    The PA campaign for UNESCO intervention legitimises its control over the holy sites of other religions and conforms to a pattern of claiming them as Muslim sites. Thus they have claimed Rachel’s tomb also near Bethlehem as the shrine of a minor Muslim prophet, a claim they invented during the 1990s to delegitimise Judaism’s claim to the site.

    The campaign to take over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which the PA regularly claims was never the site of the Jewish Temple, is another example of how it has sought to exert control while trying to erase all traces of the historic Jewish presence by digging up priceless evidence. This can only be described as a monstrous archaelogical crime and the very antithesis of what UNESCO stands for.

    Yours sincerely
    Davka”

       9 likes

  44. deegee says:

    Further to the BBC coverage of the PLO’s successful attempt to have Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity made an endangered site. Bethlehem sites given Unesco World Heritage status The BBC faithfully repeats the Palestinian claim “These sites are threatened with total destruction through the Israeli occupation, through the building of the separation wall, because of all the Israeli sanctions and the measures that have been taken to stifle the Palestinian identity,” permanent delegate Elias Wadih Sanbar said. but neglects to mention that the PALESTINIAN CLAIM was the site was threatened by WATER LEAKS! It also failed to mention that sites in Israel (!), Palau, Indonesia and Morocco were also listed. Politics trumps all.

    One must wonder if the BBC simply regurgitates press releases and are too lazy to obey the basic journalist imperative to check and confirm claims before publishing.

       8 likes

  45. As I See It says:

    That awkward stickman, Andrew Marr, is a master of his own universe on a Sunday morning at the Beeb. Pootleing through impossibly empty London streets in a toy car on his way to BBC ‘work’, he is seemingly untouched by any real world social or economic forces.
    The opening sequences ought to alert us to the fact that we have left reality and entered the Peoples Socialist Republic of Trumpton.
    Crime, unemployment, immigration, social breakdown, poor educational standards – all that boring grown up stuff is of merely acedemic interest with our licence fee warrior for truth as he enters the lift that takes him up to the hermetically sealed BBC world (as always armed with his sword of truth, his copy of the Guardian tucked under his arm).
    The newspaper review is as predictable as ever as the Labour peer and barrister Helena Kennedy and one of the Vine brothers incestuosly join Andy (the Marxist pinocchio who despite all his super injuncted lies and misdemenours grew up to be a big Beeboid – “I want to be a real boy!” – ah he still can’t escape the cartoon world.).
    His playmates on the sofa soon agree:
    1. Ed Miliband has the right take on the banking scandal
    2. The PM’s nonsense about EU referendums is indeed nonsense.
    This is a great show – if you are a Labour supporting publicly employed bod with a tenuous grip on economics or a complaisant view of what goes on in the real world and you enjoy some Saturday morning escapism.

       15 likes

  46. George R says:

    INBBC’s Asian Network, fulfilling its political role in serving the interests of Muslim Labour peer, Ahmed:-

    “Labour lifts Lord Ahmed’s suspension”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-18658233

       3 likes

  47. Pah says:

    Apologies if this has already been mentioned.

    So now the BBC are dumping comedies because of the eviiiiil Torieeeeez; and not simply because they are crap with low audiences …

       5 likes

  48. Pah says:

    And then there is this astonishing piece of revisionism.

       2 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Yet another rent-a-Leftoid for a US viewpoint. Every. Single. One. Defenders of the indefensible won’t touch this one.

         2 likes

    • Andrew Johnson says:

      Not only revisionism, but redefinition of standard dictionary definitions of several key words which form the basis of his hypothesis.
      e.g. This is what millitarism is:-
      1a : predominance of the military class or its ideals
      b : exaltation of military virtues and ideals
      2: a policy of aggressive military preparedness.
      I don’t think the writer has read Mein Kampf.
      The “fact” that there is no problem with Muslims in France will come as welcome news to the DCRI:Central Directorate of Interior Intelligence – Direction centrale du renseignement intérieur. tasked with counter-espionage, counter-terrorism and the surveillance of potential threats on French territory. The BBC “Getting it about right again”

         0 likes

  49. wallygreeninker says:

    Poetry please did a special to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the publication of the firs two cantos of Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the lengthy narrative that made Byron famous. Being the Beeb, they couldn’t resist including among the short sections that were read out , the lines denouncing Lord Elgin for stealing the marbles.

       6 likes