Monthly Archives: July 2012

Over 3,000 BBC staff are using tax avoidance schemes.

You might think that this would be of great interest to a news organisation which has set itself the task to root out corrupt and ‘immoral’ practices in politics, banking and , er, other media companies.

You would be wrong.

As the Daily mail points out when given the chance to talk to the chairman of the public accounts committee they dodged it…..

On Monday, Newsnight, introduced by Kirsty Wark, should have devoted an item to BBC chief Zarin Patel’s gripping testimony to the Commons public accounts committee. Guess what? They found much else to talk about.

Amazingly, Margaret Hodge, chairman of the public accounts committee to which Miss Patel had given evidence earlier in the day, was invited to talk about the London Olympics. Tax avoidance by BBC presenters was not once mentioned. It is a subject far too close to home ever to be discussed on the BBC.

The BBC seem very excited about the recent event in Syria that took the lives of  three of Boy Bashar’s inner circle. The BBC is presenting this as a “bomb” attack but it was a human bomb attack – the preferred mechanism of the Jihadi. You may accuse me of being overly sensitive but the BBC seem to almost “admire” this grotesque act of terror. It is being plainlyy portrayed by them as moving Syria “to the endgame”.  Isn’t this encouraging further such events?

Then there is the question of what lies at the end of  the endgame. Just as in other instances of the “Arab Spring” the conflict is being presented by the BBC as being between the forces of oppression (Assad) and Liberation.  But WHO are the “liberators”? Does the fact they favour suicide bombers provide a clue and if so, why does the BBC seem so reluctant to probe deeper? I have no time for the thug Assad but the BBC has a duty to at least be honest about those seeking to remove him from power.

I was listening to the BBC report on yesterday in the Lords on Today. It was tucked away around 6.45am but what struck me was the incredible pro-Labour spin the report. Combined with the sneering tones of the presenter, there was little in this report to suggest balance. It’s all part of the pro-Miliband riff that the BBC is playing and it is 24/7.

The BBC intended to broadcast a show that gave a platform to last year’s rioters so that they could excuse their actions and blame society for their behaviour…which let’s not forget involved…..‘The riots across England in August 2011 should need no introduction. Following the police shooting of Mark Duggan, a peaceful protest in Tottenham developed into explosive violent disorder.  Over five days trouble spread across the country with people looting, setting fire to property and attacking the police.  Five people died and over 2,500 shops and businesses were damaged. To date 1,290 rioters have been sent to jail.’

But as the BBC tells us:  ‘A court order has been made preventing the BBC from broadcasting the programme as planned on 16 July. The BBC will broadcast the programme at a later date. You will be able to comment on Nicola’s post when the programme airs.’

No reason is given, it may have to do with ongoing criminal proceedings but whatever the reason it’s a welcome block on the BBC’s campaign to white wash and excuse the arsonists, looters, rioters, killers, thieves and thugs who took the opportunity to have their fun at many other people’s expense.

This is what the BBC believe the programme represents:  ‘As a TV production team, we were faced with the decision whether to use this important and illuminating piece of work, even though it granted anonymity to criminals.  In our view it was justified because of the insights it provides into why and how the riots had happened.’

‘Illuminating, important, insightful’?  Hardly, it makes all the old excuses…the report (from left wing Guardian and LSE) this programme is based upon fingers bad parents, bad schools, bad government and of course bad policing but fails to mention the truth….that a hard core of criminally minded people took the opportunity to raise hell and destroy as much as they could and steal whatever they could carry away….and enjoyed themselves immensely.

It wasn’t ‘raging at the system’,  it was unbounded pleasure and criminality….the fact that the secondary riots only occurred when it was realised the police weren’t going to intervene shows that it was too little ‘system’ not too much that encouraged the riots.

The Guardian and LSE already had the answers they wanted to finish up with…they just needed to get the dogs to bark the right tune. Who knows what ended up being written out of the report, what questions were asked, what answers were really given, and what is on the cutting room floor.

Look at the format of the programme….actors are repeating the words of the rioters, it is not a normal, rigorous, in depth interview with rioters being asked to back up any statement…….

‘Whilst we are able to listen in to these accounts to garner fresh insights, viewers may feel frustrated or even angry because the tone of the interviews is very different to what we might expect from BBC TV: as journalists we challenge our interviewees and ask them to justify their words, but we can’t here.

Similarly we can’t elucidate what our characters say or ask them to explain references that they make.

Some speak in a street vernacular that is likely to be unfamiliar to many BBC Two viewers and some of the nuances and context of what they talk about are in danger of being lost.’

In other words the rioters are able to say what they liked with no questions asked….the one question that can be asked is would you believe them?

This is highly dangerous polemics…it is giving the BBC’s sanction to rioting and looting.  It is  meant to precipitate government pouring millions, if not billions of pounds into helping the rioters turn over a new leaf and become honest citizens.

The BBC is acting as a part of a large left wing pressure group that spins a web of lies to ensure that politicians are embarrassed and pressurised into ever more generous handouts from the tax payer’s funds….let’s remember…these aren’t ‘forgotten families’…these are families that get massive amounts of state money thrown at them already…far beyond the normal benefits of free schools, NHS, dental and opticians, policing, housing and a judicial system to protect them….they also get endless social workers, counsellors, special needs teaching, never mind constant police attention and free room and board at Her Majesties Pleasure.

Only this morning on ‘Today’ it was stated that one family was estimated to cost a council upwards of £250,000 to help keep them under control. 

These are not ‘forgotten families’.

The programme is in two parts…the first the rioters, the second the police…..no victims then?  And no voice of the man on the street who wasn’t in the riots…surely their views count for something?…..but the BBC and Guardian want to shut them out…because they suspect, rightly, that there will be little sympathy for the rioters from the vast majority of people in Britain.

The BBC is manipulating the facts for political ends and the consequences are that massive amounts of government funds are diverted to pay for the wrong solutions and subsequently wasted rather than being spent on people and projects who would benefit vastly from it and would appreciate what’s being done to help them…and go on to change their lives because of it.

It is a shame more of the BBC’s programmes are not forced to undergo judicial review before being broadcast….but then again that wouldn’t leave much on the telly if all the biased, highly partial, politicised, Labour supporting, polar bear hugging, Muslim extremist apologising, anti-Israel claptrap was taken off air.

Given the events in Bulgaria and BBC non coverage so far, I can just about bring myself to make you aware of this programme “Great British Islam” on BBC 1 tonight…

“As Ramadan approaches, this documentary tells the little-known story of three English gentlemen who embraced Islam at a time when to be a Muslim was to be seen to be a traitor to your country. Through personal journeys of still surviving relatives, the programme looks at their achievements and how their legacy lives on today”

It says a lot.

Breaking news. At LEAST 3 people have been killed and 27 hurt in an attack on an Israeli bus in Bulgaria. 24 minutes into the main BBC 5 O Clock PM news, not a mention of it. Utterly shameful from this £3.5BN a year broadcaster. I presume they are too busy getting Jenny Tonge on speed dial…

The jihad against smokers was only the beginning. Next came the assault on those who enjoy drinking alcohol.  Today we see that those who do not exercise are now  in the cross-hairs.

A lack of exercise is now causing as many deaths as smoking across the world, a study suggests. The report, published in the Lancet to coincide with the build-up to the Olympics, estimates that about a third of adults are not doing enough physical activity, causing 5.3m deaths a year. That equates to about one in 10 deaths from diseases such as heart disease, diabetes and breast and colon cancer. Researchers said the problem was now so bad it should be treated as a pandemic.

This is the sort of nonsense from the left wing Lancet that the BBC so enjoys repeating. Relax though, the State (and it’s broadcaster) will soon be working out how much exercise you must take. Not sure how they will apply this to the bloated chavs that so concern Owen Jones and the rest of the political left?

Delingpole on good form here…

“The BBC has nothing whatsoever to do with the free market. Nor – I’d wager – do most of those 148 BBC stars channeling their earnings through private companies to avoid tax. With the possible exceptions of Jeremy Clarkson (and frankly even he’s a bit politically suspect what with his rampant brown-nosing of the Cameron set) and Andrew Neil, small-government, free-market, low-tax types just don’t get a look-in at the Beeb.

“Why isn’t the government doing more to solve this problem?” On any given subject, this is the BBC’s default position. Indeed, one of the reasons our state sector is now so bloated (and ruinously expensive) is because for decades our national broadcaster, with its compulsory licence fee and quasi-monopolistic stranglehold over television and radio, has been propagandising on its behalf. Of all the organisations that have contributed to Britain’s economic and political decline, there is probably none that has done quite so much insidious and long-term damage as the BBC.

If – as its stars’ tax arrangements suggest – the BBC is now tentatively embracing the free market then I applaud its good sense. Perhaps we can now do our bit to helping it in this direction by scrapping the licence fee.”

You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at the irony;

“A presenter on the BBC consumer affairs show Rogue Traders has been jailed for 12 weeks for benefit fraud totalling more than £24,000. Dan Penteado, 40, from Bournemouth, admitted eight offences of dishonestly or knowingly claiming housing and council tax benefits.”