123 Responses to MONDAY OPEN THREAD…

  1. ScottishCalvin says:

    Well I’ve just gotten back from the States and my first look at the BBC’s output?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-20178655

    It’s almost not surprising really. Autocratic communist dictatorship beats democractic government? Of course it does in London W12. Woops! I forgot, it’s the BBC so I should have written “evil American facism” because that’s what the Guardian lets us know it is. Let’s hope comrades that they repent and vote for the ethnic, European centrist again because that’s what matters!

       16 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Find out more
      Just… not too much…
      Martin Jacques is an economist and author of When China Rules the World
      And, that’ll do for context.
      Send your comments using the form below and we will publish a selection
      I imagine that’s just how it works in China, especially with state entities discussing the less wonderful aspects of the air quality or ground water around a wind turbine plant or recycling landfill or upstream from a dam.
      Now I can see why the notion of propaganda backed by censorship gets the red flag frilly knickers all a bit moist in some quarters, and how compelled funding gets it broadcast out across the gulag no matter what, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
      And if my Parliamentary representative is too thick or too addicted to the DP sofa still to see how he won’t be on it much longer, then he deserves all he reaps, but that really doesn’t help me much with the single most powerful, enduring, unaccountable and untrustworthy entity imposing on me 24/7.

         9 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Maybe the BBC should have reminded us that Martin Jacques was the editor of the now-defunct Marxism Today ?

      So how much did this commie get paid for that load of tripe ?

         4 likes

      • capriole, peter says:

        I think I still have a copy of Martin Jacques interview with Patten in the same rag.

           0 likes

  2. Phil Space says:

    Robin Aitken, a former BBC journalist who wrote a book called ‘Can We Trust the BBC?’ and did several excellent discussions on the subject (which by the way are available to view on YouTube) is reported to have once said: “you couldn’t have raised a cricket team of Tories from the London (BBC) news operation.” I actually suspect it is worse than that. You might be hard pressed to get a five-a-side football team of Tories in the BBC newsroom together. If you think of it 33% of people in the UK vote solidly Tory. The number wavers a bit but the core Tory support is about 33%. So if the BBC was representative of that in terms of their employees 1 in 3 would be a natural Tory voter. Then think of the people you know at the BBC, try and imagine which ones would vote Tory. Quite difficult isn’t it?!

       49 likes

    • Stewart S says:

      Anyone who hasn’t already read Aitkens’ book should .A bit dated now but very revealing

         12 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      I hear there are some actual conservatives in the IT and accounts departments. Maybe even one or two cameramen.

         11 likes

  3. +james says:

    BBC rather quite about this one

    Three Brits remanded in custody over Ayia Napa death of soldier

    Three British tourists have been remanded in custody on suspicion of fatally stabbing an off-duty British soldier in Cyprus.

    The soldier died from stab wounds to the chest on Sunday following an altercation at a nightclub in the Ayia Napa resort.

    One of the suspects, whom police identified as Mohamed Abdulkadir Osman, 19, comes from London. The two other suspects are both 17.

    http://www.itv.com/news/update/2012-11-05/three-brits-in-custody-in-connection-with-ayia-napa-death-of-british-soldier/

       40 likes

  4. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    Chalara fraxinea, the fungus that is probably going to kill most of our ash trees, is giving left-wing politicians and the bBBC a lot of trouble, because the best way to try to keep disease out of our native plants is to use our natural advantage of being an island, and enforce tight border controls with health inspections.
    The Labour government was advised in 2009 to stop imports of ash trees, but refused.
    Now the bBBC is keen to tell us that Scientists say the infection in native trees has been caused by spores of a fungus – carried on the wind from mainland Europe thus implying that it is a natural phenomenon and nothing could be done about it. In fact three-quarters of the outbreaks in Britain have been traced to diseased imported stock.
    They don’t want anyone drawing the obvious analogies with human traffic.

       48 likes

    • Ken Hall says:

      And they are also reporting that people will sue “the Government”, thus implying that the current government are to blame for an infection brought here under the rule of the previous government and it was that government that refused to take the required action to stop or mitigate that disease.

      You will not hear the BBC blame the previous labour government though.

         44 likes

    • PhilO'TheWisp says:

      The prime 8.10 slot on Toady this morning was given to a spokesperson from the Horticultural Trades Association who claimed that the disease came from infected trees that their members spotted on a buying trip to Denmark in 2008. They reported this to DEFRA in 2009 (a year later!). They want to pursue a compensation claim against the British government because their members were importing trees they knew to be diseased and the government didn’t ban them from doing so. It boggles the mind!
      Of course the BBC chose not to question the actions of the tree importers. Nor question why Labour, who were in power in 2008 to 2010 did nothing.
      The BBC’s lack of natural curiosity is against all normal, decent journalistic standards and instincts when it suits their story of the day.

         34 likes

      • MartinW says:

        The same story was broadcast earlier in the programme, in the 0715-0745 slot: presumably it was essentially the same broadcast an hour later. It was made abundantly plain by the Horticultural spokesman that they warned the government in 2009 and strongly recommended a ban on imports. The obvious thing for the Today programme should have been to try to interview Hilary Benn, the Labour minister at the time to get his side of the story. But the Today programme failed to even mention that it was a Labour government in power in 2009, and they did not ban imports of ash. I would at least have expected (well, no not really) to hear the words “we invited the then minister or any of the 2009 Labour government to comment, but none were willing to be interviewed”. That is certainly what we would have got had it been a Conservative government. This news item proved to me conclusively that the BBC Today programme protects Labour from as much criticism as it feels it can possibly get away with (not that I needed further proof – it’s been obvious for years).

           28 likes

  5. Manfred VR says:

    I picked up a link on Guido from “bogeyman” to this hilarious description of Beeboids and Guardianistas at play. It’s a bit long, but worth a read.

    To most TripAdvisor readers, the term North London will convey nothing more than a point of the compass. But to readers of the satirical magazine Private Eye, it carries a very special meaning.

    North London is shorthand for the metropolitan elite, that politically correct, left-leaning species of luvvies who dictate what we read, see, hear and eat. Most of them work in “meeja” – publishing, advertising and journalism, notably at The Guardian and the BBC.

    They are neatly captured in the Private Eye cartoon characters Jez & Quinn, two cohabiting are-they-gay men with ridiculous glasses, trendy haircuts, pseudo-bohemian lifestyles and an absurdly pretentious taste in art, music and food.

    They live in places like Hampstead, Highgate and Islington where a modest terraced house won’t give you much change from a million.

    And there they all were – packed into the Bull & Last, a gastropub situated a stone’s throw from Hampstead Heath. (Why does the TA address show as Harmondsworth? Harmondsworth is in West London near Heathrow Airport, absoloootely not our kind of place, darling, unless you have to pass through on the way to visiting Polly in Tuscany).

    You will not hear what the police call a London accent (Cockney / Estuary / Jafaican) at the Bull & Last. Voices range from cut-glass Queen’s English, through ya-ya Sloaney to “cultured mockney”, that once-neutral Home Counties accent doped with glottal stops and strident nasality carefully cultivated in an attempt to hide your middle / upper-middle class background, thereby improving your cred as a man of the people. Plus the odd perfectly groomed and perfumed foreigner – typically Spanish or French – speaking equally perfect English.

    These are the “opinion formers” who, more than anyone else, insist we all celebrate the rich and vibrant diversity of multicultural London and yet, and yet… the clientele is almost entirely white. Just the odd brown face; an exotically dressed Chinese woman; a man of non-caucasian stock with hair crafted like a cockerel’s comb, decked head to toe in expensive designer gear; two Afro-Caribbean ladies exquisitely coutured and manicured.

    As for the others, they were mostly thirty/forty-somethings and children. Yes, children. And babies. In a pub. After all, it is so important to introduce them at an early age to delicacies like the Homemade Charcuterie Board of Duck Prosciutto, Ham Hock Terrine, Chicken Liver Parfait, Rillettes, Pig’s Head, Pickles, Remoulade & Toast. All for only £15. Unfortunately for adults ordering this dish they were, indeed, children’s portions.

    At one table was a group of Cheltenham Ladies College alumni on a gals’ night out; elsewhere a smattering of Old Etonians.

    Men’s hair fashions of the day tended to be Byronesque or foppish, or – most popular – the head close-shaved to disguise premature baldness.

    Then there were a couple of intimate young ladies with dog tucking into steaks (the ladies, not the dog). Correction – not a steak, a “Dedham Vale Rib Cutlet” (£28). Similarly a couple of intimate males, no dog.

    Yes, dogs are allowed downstairs (we’re soooo inclusive here!!) as long as they are Labrador or Bichon Frise. You won’t see Staffies (chavvy) or handbag dogs (so, sooooo cruel).

    The children were all well behaved, as you would expect. If optically defective they wear the latest Gok Wan specs to help them pick through their Cornish Roast Cod, Oxtail Ragu, Lemon & Truffle Gnocchi & Monksbeard (£21).

    I saw one woman disappear into the toilet carrying a baby in a papoose. Since I’d just spotted a man coming out of the same door, this seemed odd. All was revealed when I ventured in – the finest example of awkward oh-isn’t-this-fun equality: Unisex loos. No Ladies and Gents here, just two adjacent cubicles, both with flimsy swing doors, complete with baby changing facilities (help yourself to nappies) and sanitary disposal bin forged of gleaming chrome. In a pub. How wonderfully, gloriously North London.

    So here we have it: A human zoo of free-range, zero-carbon, organic, GM-free intelligentsia, the ones who tell us how to live our lives, holed up in their own gated community where only the well-heeled may enter.

    There was a time when you could go to the pub for a pie, a pint and a ciggie with your mates. Not any more, thanks in part to the influential Hampstead set who saw such places as attracting smelly people like mechanics, farmworkers and lorry drivers who smoked and told dirty jokes. They didn’t want them despoiling the landscape so they had to go. This, in extremis, is what’s left.

    Oh, the food. Sorry, I forgot. Generally tasty, a bit pretentious (cod with oxtail ragu? Interesting but nah, didn’t quite work), portions none too generous. Service by our efficient, charming and knowledgeable waitress was exemplary, spoiled by slow arrival of the food itself.

    Hideously expensive for a boozer – just shy of £60 a head for meal plus wine (no desserts) – but worth double just to watch the human exhibits.

    http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g1076991-d717900-r128283410-Bull_and_Last-Harmondsworth_Middlesex_England.html
    • Visited April 2012

       46 likes

    • NotaSheep says:

      I quite like the Bull and Last and don’t recognise the description of customers at all. The last time I went, it was full of under 30s, vaguely trendy, quite edgy and boho. I fely a little old and fat.

         4 likes

    • Scrappydoo says:

      In the real world above Watford Gap, £60 for a meal in a pub is obscene. Nice to know they are enjoying spending our hard earned license fee.

         9 likes

  6. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    The bBBC’s latest anti-government rant comes courtesy of a study reporting that, whilst deaths from heart disease have fallen generally, the death rates in poor areas have not fallen as much as in rich areas.
    The study covered the period 1982 to 2006 but The researchers say the findings are important because the current poor economic situation and austerity measures are likely to disproportionately affect more deprived communities. Dr Perviz Asaria, who worked on the study, said: “If people’s jobs are less stable, they may be forced to change their diet, or drink and smoke more.”
    Not a word from the bBBC asking why poor people are forced to drink or smoke, just unquestioning bBBC reporting of this drivel.

       24 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘Not a word from the bBBC asking why poor people are forced to drink”
      Well, taking the example of Becks & Claire above, they are pressured into it.
      Uniquely.
      Me, I am more driven to the odd sherry by finding that what I am, actually, forced to fund in terms of broadcast information and education is in fact barely a fraction of the whole story.

         18 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Not too sure the BBC has thought through the concept of force in context too well.
      Smoking or drinking are options that one has to choose to part with money to enjoy by free will.
      The BBC’s output is something one is forced to pay for by compulsion, simply by seeking the right to enjoy information, education or entertainment from the global village in the year 2012.
      A unique imposition on those in but one country.
      How do the powers doing so account for that?
      ps: The BBC’s policy of naming names made for an interesting read on the bevvy of medical experts involved in what so far appears no more than a PR punt seeking credulous media support for rather uni-directional funding.

         13 likes

      • Glen Slagg says:

        Sorry GW, have to correct you on something there – I live in Sweden and we also have a TV licence. Never met anyone who actually pays it, though, and I presume that, nationally, very few pay it also – because, as of next year, SVT / SR will be funded from taxation.
        P.S. They also claim to have detector vans but no one has ever seen one.

           5 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          My apologies.
          I stand corrected.
          Thank you for the information and manner of sharing.
          Which I don’t think in complement hurts the point being made:)

             6 likes

          • Glen Slagg says:

            I thought it would be best to pass on the correction myself before one of the cherry vultures started their shift and, armed with Google, dived in to correct you, thus proving that the BBC is in no way biased, does not harbour nonces and is entirely fit for purpose.

               2 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Funny how the BBC never pose the question to these poor, underprivileged victims of the cruletorycutz: ‘Why don’t you go and get a couple of bags of fresh veg and meat from Lidl for the same price and cook it yourself?’

         4 likes

  7. David Lamb says:

    Mardell plays the race card. Note how he depicts Republicans as not racist in the conventional sense, which suggests that they are still racists.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-20184109

       19 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      It’s obviously the white Republicans who are racists. Not the 96% of black American voters who just happened to support the candidate with a black skin.

         35 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Sir Arthur, the BBC will tell you that non-whites are allowed to vote ethno-centrically because they are an oppressed minority. Racism is actually political power and all that. There are instances where the BBC understands and accepts voting on the basis of race.

           15 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      @#$% Mardell. He’s still pushing the crypto-racism angle. For more than three years this man has been slandering millions of people this way. But it’s perfectly okay for him to demean Mormon religious beliefs in his blog posts.

      Even though he says “very few” of the Tea Partiers he’s met are openly racist, he spends more time talking about the one drunk woman talking about “Them” than on any assurance that most of us aren’t racism. Even his laundry list of people’s justifications for supporting the movement, or just not voting for the President, are presented in world-weary fashion, offered with a sly wink and figurative thumb pointed over at the @#$%s in the corner.

      We want to take the country back not just from the Community Organizer-in-Chief, but from the extra-legal activities of the EPA, the IRS, the Energy Dept., and ObamaCare. For Mardell to acts as if there’s not a single thing the President has done or said might possibly have caused concern among people with what he describes as conventional conservative beliefs defies credibility. He’s actually still acting as if there are no legitimate policy reasons to oppose the President.

      He offers the anecdote of a woman who worried that the President wanted to introduce Tsars as some silly old bitch. Well, He has in fact done just that: several of them (plus quite a few more not listed in the HuffPo piece), and has stated that He wants to introduce another one next year: a business czar. YCMIU.

      Actually, Mardell has dredged this up from Oct. 2010. He mentioned it in a blog post in which he sneered at the same people he’s denigrating now. Rather than attempt to grasp the point of a bevy of unelected, extra-legal appointments, he chose to mock the woman for misusing the term.
      Just like everything else everyone not of the Left has been telling Mardell since he set foot in this country, he chooses to ignore the point and stick with his underlying assumptions.

      Also, he makes it quite clear that a vote for Romney is a vote against the wishes of people of color, destroys their hopes and dreams, and is a willing nod to the racist past.

      While he’s on about race, he tells the same lie the BBC has told over and over again: the attempts to control the border with Mexico is about trying to stop “immigrants” from taking part in the American dream, with no mention of the word “illegal”. Mardell believes that this, just like everything else, is about racism, and nothing to do with the law or crime or anything else he’s been told.

      And of course, he slams home the most important BBC Narrative of all: the US is hopelessly divided now, more than ever before.

      You know what? This was obvious a year ago when he made that now infamous appearance at the BBC College of Journalism. Much of what he says here, he said then (For anyone who still hasn’t seen this disgusting spectacle, I recommend putting aside an hour or so on weekend, just to learn what these Beeboids really think, and how it informs their reporting). He’s learned nothing since. This is Mardell’s intellectually dishonest legacy. For shame.

         28 likes

  8. noggin says:

    another al bbc “jolly” on us …. as an exodus of pinaar, fatty nolan, “yes we can” r bacon, and many many more, in fact too many to mention (ie smug money wasting hangers on) …
    all jet off for frolics in the US … this is not necessary at all, are there no tv/radio outlets in the US? … no satellites
    bias is not enough it is blatant abuse … i for one would like to see the bill

       22 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Don’t forget to include the other expenses for those all-important special documentaries on how racist and divided and hopeless we are, from Andrew “What, me worry about snogging my producer?” Marr, non-Beeboid young historian Tim Stanley (who says we’re not actually so divided but are in fact largely united by our conservative religious beliefs, desire for racial segregation, and growing tolerance for homosexual marriage), and all those extra hires for “bespoke” video magazine pieces.

         11 likes

      • noggin says:

        could you even imagine the champagne bill … WE … would have to pay … should their personal “messiah” hold on?
        it is literally obscene … don t think you ll find that as a question on “your call”
        😀 anytime soon … do you?

           8 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        “What, me worry about snogging my producer?”

        Holy shit, she must be desperate!

           0 likes

    • leha says:

      wasn’t Jane Hill pretty in her publicly-financed red coat? THe view of capitol hill was nice also.

         7 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Is the entire BBC here in the US except for the One Show and the couple of dozen Beeboids with proper foreign assignments who are still at their posts? Wonder if I should head downtown to see if they’re filming Bargain Hunt or a Hairy Bikers Take Manhattan special. They already did Doctor Who in Central Park.

        Maybe next time they should combine Glastonbury with the US elections and kill two junkets with one stone.

           16 likes

    • Scrappydoo says:

      Yes they are in a different world, most struggle to go on Holiday once a year, some have dropped it altogether in the present economic climate, but life at the BBC just gets better and better.

         3 likes

      • Reed says:

        …and yet these are the same metro-elite snobs that are on board with the idea that the ‘little people’ should be priced out of their horrid little budget airline flights (oh, the remorseless expansion, who will save all the climate refugees) once every other year to Spain or France for a well earned holiday – because we all need to learn to live with less, fly less, and cut down our carbon footprints.

        It’s never the important people – those with the most profligate lifestyles that the rest of us simply can’t imagine, let alone afford.
        F. U. Al Gore.

           11 likes

    • Scrappydoo says:

      They mentioned that Nolan is not coming back till next week! and the election will be over by Wednesday.

         2 likes

  9. leha says:

    has anybody noticed the bBC news output has resorted to “bonfire night” instead of Guy Fawkes night?, maybe its not PC anymore.

    more jiggery-pokery from the bBC cultural death-star.

       19 likes

    • Earls court says:

      How long before they ban ghosts. Seeing ghosts usually have a white sheet and the KKK wears white sheets.

         10 likes

    • Richard Pinder says:

      Maybe the BBC would like us to return to an even more old fashioned tradition of burning an effigy of the Pope. The Pope would regard the Cess Pit of sodomy at the BBC as a greater sin than the BBC’s Cess Pit of paedophilia

         8 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      They have a weather forecaster who can refer to it as ” Great uncle Guy’s night”
      Who he?
      Chris Fawkes.

         0 likes

  10. Mice Height says:

    After seeing her on Question Time last week, I have a new found respect for Shami Chakrabarti. Anyone taking part in ‘Movember’ can’t be all bad.

       26 likes

  11. Mice Height says:

    It’s mentioned above, but worth comparing these two stories about the murder of the soldier by ‘British (passport holding) tourists’.
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2228090/David-Lee-Collins-stabbing-3-tourists-remanded-custody-murder-British-soldier.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20208630

       8 likes

  12. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Here’s yet another high-profile Beeboid galavanting around the US at your expense. Huw Edwards is visiting the all-important Ohio to talk to some fellow Welshmen (and women) and sample political opinion. Actually, he just talks to one woman, and no politics are discussed. Maybe there was more to it that got cut out of this clip? Or was Edwards gathering more info off camera which he’ll bring up tomorrow night? “Well, I was speaking with some people in Ohio, and they said….”

    Gotta love the lack of self-awareness in the accompanying blurb:

    The sharp focus of this year’s presidential election on the state of Ohio brought a great opportunity to sample some American politics in a remote Welsh corner of the USA.

    A great opportunity for a nice trip to the US, anyway. Sometimes the BBC does approve of ethno-centricity.

       14 likes

    • Beeboidal says:

      Richard Bacon is doing a debate/results programme for 5Live tomorrow night from Florida. Nice work if you can get it. All he needs now is an Obama win. How’s it looking for Obama on your HuffPo phone app, Richard?

         10 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        If the President wins, the halls of Broadcasting House might not be filled with empty champagne bottles after all: they’re all over here!

           10 likes

  13. David Preiser (USA) says:

    Jonny Dymond wants you to think that this man doesn’t exist, and Mark Mardell would prefer that you ignored him.

    http://www.officialarturdavis.com/2012/10/the-case-for-mitt-romney/

    Same with this guy:

    http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/332458/doug-wilder-sours-obama-john-fund

       4 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      Would that be Jonny Diamond, the bBBC’s Washington Correspondent, whose latest biased offering says (Romney) has over the past few months offered a preposterously easy target for the Democrats – a plutocratic asset-stripper, unable to connect, wooden on the stump. And his shape-shifting on policy has served him ill.?

         7 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        The very same. Also the same Jonny Dymond who keeps telling you that the US is becoming more and more racist since we elected a black man, and that the Republican Party is dying out because it’s all white (to cite just one example of his racialist focus).

           12 likes

  14. Dave s says:

    What do we really expect? The BBC is committed to Obama. Crystal clear.
    The parallells with GB and especially England are all too apparent.
    The left has given up on the mainstream and has gone for a coalition of minorities- racial, sexual , religeous and environmental -you name it -to take power .
    The majority that actually makes the country work , particularly the indigenous, male part of it has to be constantly denigrated unless it has signed up to the metropolitan leftwing views of our would be elites.
    Fraught with future danger is this course but they are too stupid to see it.
    It guarantees future instability in a country. Wait and see what 2020 looks like both here and in the USA.

       16 likes

  15. George R says:

    SYRIA.

    INBBC headline:-

    “Several killed in Syria car bombings.”

    Questions for INBBC:

    1.) How many is “several”?

    2.) Who are, and what are aims of jihadist murderers?

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20205432

    ‘Jihadwatch’:-

    “Syria: ‘We want to instate the Koran. To hell with freedom, we want an Islamic caliphate. To hell with being peaceful, we want weapons.'”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2012/11/syria-we-want-to-instate-the-koran-to-hell-with-freedom-we-want-an-islamic-caliphate-to-hell-with-be.html

       6 likes

  16. It's all too much says:

    Fan Arrested for ‘Monkey gesture’. This is the Third most important story on planet Earth at the moment according to the BBC

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20212989

    Two thoughts here – 1) why does the BBC think that this is such big news? 2) I guess that the police really work hard to prioritise the use of their limited resources (especially in light of the evil ideologically driven Tory Cutz) and only focus on the critical stuff – and anyway it is not as if the country is stiff with Grooming Gangs roaming around debauching girls in council run care homes, or Labour MPs claiming loads on bogus invoices for their home office which is an unconverted garage, or gangs of ‘stateless’ pickpockets making Oxford Street unpleasant etc etc. Is a racist gesture really that significant? Looking at the simian making it I think he is on thin ice anyway: it is to accurate to be co-incidental!

    We now live in a BBC ‘reality’ where an offensive gesture has the though police rounding people. Well done the BBC, you and your fellow travelers have managed to turn the police force into a politicised service that prioritises ideological crimes (and of course lucrative vehicle related fines) rather than the usual assault, theft, fraud, murder etc.

    21st Century Britain is quite insane

       27 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Maybe they think it’s worthy of a news brief because there’s at least one Beeboid still sane enough to realize this way lies madness?

         0 likes

  17. jonsuk says:

    BBC Newsreaders wearing black…..

       0 likes

  18. Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

    Newsnight has begun, Paxo and Mark Urban providing wonderful crystal ball gazing.
    Sod this, away to my bed, yaaaawwwn.

       5 likes

  19. jonsuk says:

    Does Kevin Maguire of the Daily Mirror have any links with the BBC? He certainly talks a load of bollocks

       8 likes

  20. jonsuk says:

    Bruce Springsteen….fucking hell

       9 likes

    • chrisH says:

      It`s easy to be all Woody Guthrie, when you`re as “rich as King Farouk”, and have that talent and capacity for hard work….most un-Democrat in my book!
      He`s only a pale American copy of Billy Bragg though. The BBC have only given him another half hour slot to show us why he`s so shit in some series of theirs.
      How does that Labour barnacle manage it?…bit like keeping the appendix, and chucking the body away!
      “Bellicose Quack”…whoever said that on this site STILL makes me laugh!

         1 likes

  21. zemplar says:

    Nice slip on ‘Today’ this morning:

    “milions of Americans go to the polls today to elect their President, Barack Obama”

    Has Grosvenor Sq. already given them the result? Or is the Ministry of Truth just wishfully thinking?

       13 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Yes-very Freudian(Clement Freudian, liberal and self satisfied relative of someone who DI change things for good or ill…uncanny parallels with the Dimblebys.
      Well wort a listen at 7.30…truly His Aunties Voice!

         1 likes

  22. Privatise the BBC says:

    Watched Have I got News For You last night and what a contrast.
    Plenty of jokes at the expense of all politicians and no sense of any bitter, snidey, underlying resentment to anything non-Socialist, I actually enjoyed it!
    To me, this proves that the flavour of the programme can be influenced by the presenter – last night was Jeremy Clarkson.
    Perhaps I’ll put together a list of previous hosts and any political persuasion they may have to see if this programme does appear to be slanted to the left.
    The high point for me was when the Picture of Balls was shown wearing a Nazi uniform. The audience went completely quiet for a few seconds then started laughing albeit nervously, goes to show that some are too blinkered to see what their political icons get/got up to?

       15 likes

  23. Privatise the BBC says:

    I trust that somebody has already penned the FOI request to the BBC to find out how many staff have been sent to the US in the last 3 months to cover the election (maybe easier to ask how many were *not*) and how much the whole thing cost us?

       8 likes

  24. Guest Who says:

    Not sure the guy the UK public pay to represent our interests with the BBC has really achieved what he was seeking in his threat to anyone seeking to hold the most powerful media monopoly in the country, with propagandist and censorious tendencies, to account:
    http://www.metro.co.uk/news/916952-maria-miller-threatens-bbc-with-full-public-inquiry-over-jimmy-savile#ixzz2BKfUn88d
    ‘The broadcaster must also publish all evidence to the investigations, which it has so far refused to do, she insisted.
    While you’re at it, love…

       5 likes

  25. noggin says:

    the al bbc are now obsessed, with this care home abuse scandal that appears to be clouding the waters with the bbc itself ala savile …… convenient?
    anyway … they should be all over this then ……
    shouldn t they???

    “POLICE are investigating shocking new claims that gangs of … “Asian”? men gang-raped and abused vulnerable under-age girls from CARE HOMES in the North West.”

    http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/girls-in-care-homes-gang-raped-1415318

    ahhh bbc news ….
    May to outline abuse probe plans Theresa May is to set out plans for a fresh inquiry into allegations of child abuse ……… hmm no
    around children’s homes in north Wales. ….. hmm no
    PM orders sex abuse inquiry probe ….. hmm no
    Abuse victims ‘must come forward’ ……. hmm no
    it appears that will be a no then?

       2 likes

  26. Guest Who says:

    See what they did there?
    BBC Newsnight ‏@BBCNewsnight
    Loughton: “Why should we be surprised by political connection? We’ve had the BBC, the church. Every institution must examine itself.”

    Nah, if it’s all the same, I’d prefer institutions with an ignoble history of finding they get themselves about right didn’t examine themselves.

       4 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      And there’s a thing, a connection in a direction that suits, and the BBC’s Nick Robinson is off like a rat up a drainpipe… and he’s chosen ‘Learning lessons’ already to do it!
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20210268
      Get in while it’s still open.
      I doubt they will be getting the views they are hoping for.
      And hey, cherry vultures, maybe you can chip in on the use of ‘sources’ when the whole thing hinges on evidence and testimony.
      ‘One source close to the prime minister told me “it reeks”.
      I know how much such sloppy allusions bug you on websites.
      ‘Number 10 is trying to learn from the BBC’s handling of allegations about Jimmy Savile’
      Yes, well, a great template there.
      ‘PS: The BBC, in line with many other news organisations, has chosen not to name the politician at the centre of these very serious allegations as we have no evidence beyond the interviews aired on Newsnight on Friday.’
      So, despite no evidence, just getting the party name out there as much as possible? Cute.

         6 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        You need to check in often, as the mods are referring some interesting ones, doubtless until the dust settles.

           1 likes

  27. As I See It says:

    The BBC are clearly disconcerted by the upcoming elections for police and crime commissioners. So off we go with the Beeb’s favourite tests of public opinion:
    1. Vox Pops. The BBC admit these are ‘unscientific’. Anyway they do one in South Wales.
    2. People ‘texting in’.
    These fun and games tell the BBC that people are confused by the candidates and that they have not been told enough about these elections.

    Could it simply be that the BBC are irritated by what they term the ‘mixed bag’ of independent candidates?

    Could it be that the self-selecting listenership, then BBC-selecting from those-they-like, would be more comfortable with candidates properly labelled as Labour – so that they could follow their normal tribal instincts?

       2 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      We have three. Conservative, Labour and Independent.
      3 old duffers whose online blurbs are interchangeable.
      Despite the Indy being an ex-copper, I am heading there and voting Judge Dredd.
      In this county the Labour guy has a hope in hell, the Tory will likely win but needs a ‘message’ sent, and while I empathise with our plod, handing one a few hundred k more on top of his index-linked in the current climate… not on my watch.
      One, of course, with get in, and claim a mandate.
      But this is a political process that propels the floaters at the top of the sewer to a lucrative Big Brother or Aussie jungle gig on our tab.

         2 likes

  28. John Anderson says:

    They just can’t stop themselves, can they ?

    Alvin Hall at 9.30am Radio 4 gives his first piece on Alastair Cooke and his Letters from America. Not too bad – except it would have helped if he started by saying how Cooke got to be in the US in the first place. But a fairly sympathetic description of Cooke – including a neighbour who said that Cooke never pushed his own views on politics – “he was an observer”.

    But then Hall blows it in the last minute. He asserts that Obama has failed only because he was blocked by people in Congress who disliked him intensely. ie those nasty Republicans. Who have destroyed the “Hope” – just like the hope around Jack Kennedy especially among black people was destroyed in Dallas.

    Hello ? How’s about the plain fact that for Obama’s first 2 years the Dems controlled both the Senate and the House of Representatives ? So he had a clear run – and totally blew it. It’s just the old old raaaaaacist tag again, the BBC’s fallback line on Obama.
    ………………………………………………………………………..

    Meanwhile I have heard no-one on the BBC suggest that this could be a triumph for Romney, an electoral blow-out tonight. Yes, averaging the polls show things looking very close – but does no-one at the BBC recognise that a lot of the polls are stacked with an excess proportion of Dems being phoned. Like – in one case, Dems 45% to Repubs 26%, not reflective of any likely mix of the population. The leftie media deliberately rig a lot of the polls to show their candidate in a good light.

    But underneath, if you re-balance the polls, Obama looks to me to be in a real mess. And senior US journalists like Michael Barone (the US version of David Butler for his knowledge of elections) and George Will are predicting Romney to take well over 300 electoral college votes, a very big win. It is obvious that the BBC clowns read only the leftie reporters, watch only the leftie TV shows.

    I think there will be a big disconnect between the BBC’s line “it is a very close race……maybe Obama a notch ahead” and the outcome, Obama could be absolutely smashed. And this may be clear from the early Eastern seaboard exit polls – which could swing the vote even further to Romney in later-voting central and western states.

    My reckoning of the swing states ? In order of likelihood,

    Obama will scrape by in Nevada but Romney will win North Carolina. That would put them level – but each needing another 60-odd votes.

    Romney will romp home in Florida (which the BBC persists in calling close !) 29 electoral college votes ! And he will win in Virginia – another 13. That would take him to 248, just 22 short of the magic 270.

    Romney MIGHT win Ohio – 18 or Wisconsin – 10 or Iowa 6, or Colorado 9 or New Hampshire 4. Ohio (it is neck and neck there) plus any one of the others would give Romney his win. Or maybe he loses in Ohio but wins Colorado and Wisconsin.

    The real blowout will be if Romney wins a lot of the mid-west – and tops it all up with one or other of Minnesota – 10, Pennsylvania – 20 – or even Michigan 16. These are longer shots, but Romney has made very large gains in the polling in these states over past weeks, never reported by the BBC of course.

    So here’s li’l ole me predicting a potential landslide for Romney – or certainly a win by Romney – against the dozens of hacks the BBC has sent to the US who hardly allow for any possibility of a Romney win.

    I want to see their smug bloody faces go ashen when the exits polls start coming in.

    But then – as David Preiser says, BBC hacks can always say that Obama was kicked out because of an underlying streak of racism, or bad luck, or whatever. NEVER because he has been an absolute failure, was never equipped for the job, is intellectually arrogant but actually ignorant, and has been the most partisan President for decades.

       12 likes

    • jarwill101 says:

      A former British diplomat isn’t swooning over Benghazi Barry:
      http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1978/mitt_romney_the_hope_and_change_candidate_

         4 likes

    • zemplar says:

      Romney wins, no problem. He wins Ohio, and very possibly PA. You will see that any states that can be called for Obama will be called as early as possible, even before the polling ends in that state. Any states Romney wins will be called as late as possible, when they’ll have no other option but to announce it. That’s how they’ll play this. The MSM and the polling companies have been a total disgrace during this campaign, utterly shameful.

      The attack dogs of the BBC will start as soon as the election is called for Romney – you watch.

         6 likes

    • deegee says:

      Obama was Hope & Change; the One; the Messiah and the smartest man in the room. Romney is just the Republican candidate.

      If he barely scrapes through to win it will still be a major come down to human size.

      Mr. Soros, don’t buy any more votes than I need to win. You don’t want to pay for a landslide.

         1 likes

  29. Earls court says:

    Joseph Smith is supposed to have said before he died that a Morman president would save America in its hour of greatest need.

       2 likes

    • noggin says:

      Smith is believed to have then said, in 1840, that when the Constitution would hang by a thread,
      a Latter Day Saint elder would step in on the proverbial white horse/or maybe to the white house to save the country.

         2 likes

  30. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:
  31. As I See It says:

    I must admit that I’m a little confused by the media coverage of the US elections – particularly the BBC’s take.

    Given that the race is a close one and that it will be swayed by how effective the two sides are at getting their vote out – how come they both put out the message that they are winning? Surely such confidence will only lead to apathy? I guess the Yanks really can only love a winner.

    One thing is for sure….

    If a leftist wins a tight race the BBC will hail it as a landslide.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17975660

    “French socialist Francois Hollande has won a clear victory in the country’s presidential election.

    Mr Hollande – who polled just under 52% of votes in Sunday’s run-off – spoke of his pride at becoming president.”

    Meanwhile if a rightist wins…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17946742

    “London mayor: Boris Johnson wins second term by tight margin”

    “Boris Johnson has won a second term as London mayor, beating Labour rival Ken Livingstone by 3%”

       9 likes

  32. propatea says:

    EXCLUSIVE: BBC left-wing political bias illustrated through UK political funding revelations
    A freedom of information request has revealed shocking BBC bias towards left-wing political parties in the United Kingdom
    http://www.thecommentator.com/article/1953/exclusive_bbc_left_wing_political_bias_illustrated_through_uk_political_funding_revelations

       1 likes

  33. George R says:

    A Very Beeboid Coup:-

    Beeboid Nick Robinson demands PM Cameron gives him more power and less to Beeboid Frank Gardner!

    “David Cameron arms trip reporter restrictions anger BBC editor.
    “Nick Robinson voices dissatisfaction of journalists’ lobby over Middle East trip, despite access given to BBC’s Frank Gardner.”

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/nov/06/david-cameron-arms-trip-reporter-restrictions?

       1 likes

    • George R says:

      A classic case of Beeboids’ political self-importance, and gross over-staffing.

         1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘a series of complaints from Westminster journalists, with the political editor of the BBC, Nick Robinson, taking the unusual step of going on the record to echo dissatisfaction shared widely across the lobby.’
      Now, I wonder, is this the same complaints system as the British uniquely-compelled poll tax public get?
      If so, I’d be keen to see our Nick treated the same way as his corporation treats the rest of us.
      First off he can be told there’s nothing to answer, then spend a year being run round the houses before getting ‘expedited’ for having the gall to complain in a ‘series’ as they decide they are comfy in a belief in their own rectitude.
      However, like all else BBC, one presumes their complaints are ‘unique’?
      How’s he doing over ‘I can only gossip about the Tories so far’ sources-say special?
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20210268
      Still open. Interesting what comments are getting negatives..
      “10. mattmatt81
      5TH NOVEMBER 2012 – 21:02
      The BBC were not that bothered about these victims 6 months ago .

      in fact they only developed a conscience when they needed I some way of diverting attention away from Saville .

      As with phone hacking , its not the victims , but the political opertunism that drives the frenzy .

      The bbc ‘s message is clear . You investigate us , we will dig up dirt on you .”

         3 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      “There has always been a tension between politicians desire to control the media and political reporters need for access to those in power. For years No 10 has dreamed of stopping journalists travelling on prime ministerial trips. It is important that they remain just that – dreams.”

      So Robinson is saying that Gardner is not a worthy journalist? If I were Gardner, I’d be more than a little pissed off at this.

      I know Robinson is only thinking of himself and doesn’t mean to denigrate his colleague. After all, his only claim to fame is that precious insider access, and he’s more or less admitted before that he’ll do what it takes to keep it.

         2 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        ‘The bbc ‘s message is clear . You investigate us , we will dig up dirt on you ‘
        Looks like Lord Patten is not the only one keen on thinly veiled ‘warnings’..
        It is important that they remain just that – dreams.”
        By what means, Nick?
        Make nice or you’ll dig up another source…who says… anything you fancy?
        And what’s so key about a free ride on a trip? Get yourself there and, I don’t know… report.
        It’s not like the BBC can’t arrange a flight, as every Transatlantic airline with spare Business Class capacity will happily testify.
        This odious little status-obsessed, position-jockeying weasel really embodies all that is not great about the BBC’s petty ‘political’ staff.

           1 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Cameron says: I have enough toenails already !

         0 likes

  34. As I See It says:

    BBC advocacy against immigration rules.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20207357

    How UK immigration laws are splitting families apart
    By Beth McLeod

    Where is the balance?

    Beth McLeod?

    I report for @BBCWorldTonight on Radio 4. Welsh with a Scottish surname and English accent. All views here are my very own.
    London

    That is a lot of nationality bases covered there.

    I wonder if our Beth is a left winger?

    ritula shah ‏@ritula

    Bad news;Hobsbawm sequence on @BBCWorldTonight cut to 2mins.Reporter @bethrmc first commission too..but Good news; hour long special R4 9pm
    Retweeted by Beth McLeod

    Yep, she’s a lefty.

       4 likes

    • As I See It says:

      ritula shah
      @ritula

      Presenter BBC Radio 4 World Tonight. I talk too much and never sleep enough.. These are my thoughts not the party line…

         2 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      If splitting families apart is the criterion on which we should judge the validity of laws, then what about putting fathers in jail for burglary, murder, or rape? Surely many more families are split up by cruelly ripping fathers (or mothers) from their children over these things.

         1 likes

    • Shirk says:

      You’d have to have a heart of stone not to scream with laughter at BBC Beth’s report. Pure emotional blackmail, not very successfully disguised as reporting.

      Poor “widow” Nadya, a caring doctor, only allowed to visit her “tiny” two-month old granddaughters (pictured, aaaah!!) and not allowed to live here forever, all because of the nasty UK government and its mean immigration policy. It’s soooooo unfair!

      Next, an Indian doctor (another caring doctor). Aaah, he’s an “only child”. God knows why Beth needs to tell us that but, hey, this is a BBC report that’s trying to emotionally blackmail us into being against the government’s immigration policy, so anything goes. His mum can’t come to live here because of them. He’s so sad. His mum’s so sad. It’s all so sad.

      A lawyer then attacks the government for “using a hammer to crack a nut”.

      After paragraph after paragraph of this sort of thing, we finally get “The Immigration Minister Mark Harper declined to be interviewed on this subject [the complete and utter bastard!], but provided a [very short] statement, which it’s enough for me to quote to make this an impartial BBC report. P.S. Why not vote Labour and let Nadya and the good Indian doctor’s mum live here? You would be an evil racist not to. Bethxx”

         6 likes

      • Justin Casey says:

        Shirk I too couldn`t believe the content of that article….. It beggars belief…

           2 likes

  35. Dave666 says:

    I see Newround has an election special. Am i suprised ..no I’m not. They even have a reporter in the USA , suprised..no I’m not. As this program is aimed a6t young teens, or so the BBc told me when I had a sense of humour failure about their “Evil English” slant on their description of British rule in Ireland. Are teenagers really interested in this. Funny my teenage nephews are more interested in Fifa 13 (other video games are available ) Oh look they even managed to fit in slavery and racism..and I suprised..no I am not.

       4 likes

  36. Dinsdale says:

    if you thought there was 1 thing that the bbc could not blame the evil tory government for, then think again.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-20213337

       1 likes

    • Llew says:

      Great, I just go and create an account to make a comment and they’ve closed it for comments. Guess they mind read what I was going to say and played safe to protect their latest anti (tory) Government pop – and I am still stupid enough to pay £145 each year for this pathetic left wing, criminal loving, organisation.

         3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Closed in a day.. unique.

         1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      They need a Minister for Marshes now?

         1 likes

  37. lojolondon says:

    I see Saville has slipped right off the radar in BBC land – although they do have some article about tom Watson saying that some Tories are paedos….

    Brave Dave is organising a judicial enquiry into a children’s home. BUT not into the BBC, because they are doing a DIY job.

    Can you imagine the News Of The World being allowed to investigate themselves over charges of phone hacking?

    Why is the BBC allowed to investigate themselves over multiple child rape, paedophile rings and the whole systematic, corporate cover-up?

    I can tell you, this is NOT justice!!

       12 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      That’s Dave for you, or as I call him:
      Dopey Dave!
      the guy who wants 80 million Turks in a borderless EU.

         3 likes

  38. Jeff Waters says:

    ‘US votes in neck-and-neck contest’ says the BBC news website.

    If that’s the case, why do the odds on Betfair give President Obama a 77% chance of winning the election?

    Perhaps the BBC are preparing the ground for their post-election narritive. Maybe they want to portray the election as a really close-run thing so that they can show Obama’s probable victory as the cumulation of a difficult and heroic struggle, rather than as a cakewalk…

       1 likes

    • Jim Dandy says:

      Good question. Nate Silver gets hammered as a Democrat shill for saying Obama is favourite to win. And yet the BBC underestimating his chances is evidence they ‘re in it for Obama.

      The reality is they’re sitting on the fence. And quite right too.

         2 likes

      • Jeff Waters says:

        Thanks.

        If the evidence suggests that Obama is the heavy favourite to win (and Betfair markets are extremely accurate), then surely that’s what the BBC should be reporting. It’s not rocket science. 🙂

           0 likes

  39. Louis Robinson says:

    Obama wins! Turkeys vote for Christmas!

       4 likes

    • Jeff Waters says:

      With so many people in America on benefits of one kind or another, it’s not surprising. The problem, though, is that someone has to pay for government spending, and you can’t just go on printing money forever. Sooner or later you pay the piper or end up like Greece!

         2 likes

  40. deegee says:

    The BBC distributes Pallywood photo opportunity. Do they do this blindly or do they really not have a clue?

    Israel court jails Palestinian activist Bassem Tamimi There’s plenty to complain about with this article, from the circumstances of Tamimi’s latest arrest to the gratuitous cut-and-paste illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this. boilerplate. This is unfortunately old news.

    The new news is their use of a staged scene to illustrate the article. It shows a blond child in apparent confrontation with an Israeli soldier and is captioned Bassem Tamimi has helped organise protests in Nabi Saleh against land seizures by settlers Could this be ironic? Is the BBC admitting that Tamimi incites children to confrontations with soldiers in the hope of a photo-op? Stealth edit to the caption on the way?

    This particular child has become a Palestinian rock star for her ‘bravery’ despite videos of her mother (W.T.F.) encouraging her into situations that could lead to injury or worse. Pallywood: Crying Blond Arab Girl Resurfaces, Arab media enamored with staged video of girl confronting IDF soldiers, Cheap Shots: Tamimi Girl Ups the Ante

    The BBC has a history of illustrating articles with dubious photographs, particularly against Israel,but how could supposed professional journalists and editors have missed the controversial origin of this one?

       0 likes

  41. George R says:

    At last-

    “BBC ‘TALENT’ TO BE PAID AS STAFF”

    http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/356690?

       0 likes

  42. Roland Deschain says:

    Apologies if anyone’s already linked to this.

    A jolly little piece by the BBC’s ‘environment analyst’ Roger Harrabin has a new report ‘blaming the government for leaving the UK’s water resources at the mercy of the weather’.

    The originator is an outfit called the Wildlife and Countryside Link and very quickly it emerges that it is a green front organisation, claiming 38 members who collectively ’employ over 11,000 full-time staff, have the help of 174,000 volunteers and the support of over 8 million people in the UK’.

       0 likes