170 Responses to MONDAY OPEN THREAD

  1. John Brown says:

    I am sure that people at the BBC look at sites like this and laugh, they don’t care what anyone thinks. They know that they are safe in their ivory tower. The government have had a real opportunity recently to sort them out, but nothing has happened, even though they know that the BBC continually try to undermine them. The only recourse is to have a campaign to refuse to pay the licence fee, but that is probably in itself an offence also. I just don’t see any prospect of anything changing. On the other hand, what would UKIP do ?

       31 likes

  2. Old Goat says:

    They really don’t like having to mention UKIP, do they? Poor old Naughtie this morning – I’m sure it’s all sticking in his throat.

       37 likes

  3. David Brims says:

    This weeks Radio Times, dated 24-30 November, turn to page 11. One of the most vomit inducing articles I’ve ever read by a woman called Libby Purvis.

    ” My infuriating Auntie, ( God, that’s highly irritating ) The BBC is a favourite elderly relative.”

    ” Our poor dear BBC has had a personal crisis lately ( no kidding ? ) toxic uproar in her innards ( is that what you call child sex abuse ? ) and dizziness around the head. It can make it hard to love as we should and as, the whole world does. ” ( show us the evidence, please )

    And it goes on.

    ” Auntie, warts and all, aunts are always cut a bit of slack at Christmas.” ( Nah, let’s not )

    ” She’s a great lady though. In earlier days, like Miss Marple , rigorously training house maids to dust china, she taught the most brilliant cameramen. We worry, because we love her.”

    Let’s carry on with this irritating ” BBC is an Auntie ” analogy, shouldn’t this Aunt who’s suffering from incontinence and verbal diarrhea be put out of her misery, euthanasia perhaps ?

    As for Libby, I think she should be committed under the mental health act.

       36 likes

    • Lewis Duckworth says:

      Remember Libby gets a fair bit of her earnings from elderly auntie.

         28 likes

    • Backwoodsman says:

      Libby is actually married to a beeboid camera man/ tech bloke !
      She is an interesting example of how mixing with the wrong crowd can get a sensible girl in trouble. If you read her articles in Yachting Monthly, she comes across as fairly normal.
      She must be one of the ones that hasn’t done her common purpose training yet !

         13 likes

      • Buggy says:

        Isn’t Libby Purvis married to Paul Heiney ? (Whose “Countrywise” progs on ITV incidentally contain more of actual interest in any given 30 secs than you’ll get from “Countryfile” in six months).

           5 likes

    • Chop says:

      Off to the dignitas center with poor old Auntie.

         2 likes

  4. David Brims says:

    John Brown

    I suspect BBC employees do care, like everyone else in show business, they’re all neurotic , paranoid, narcissistic and egotistical , just listen to Nicky ” the ego has landed ” Campbell on Radio 5.

    They care desperately what other people say about them, because they want to be loved.

    If BBC employees don’t read this website personally, friends or to be more precise, so called ” friends ” will tell them, just to stick the knife in.

       22 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      wouldn’t dream of listening to Nikki ‘Yerve Only Gorragoogle Thatcher and Paedophile’ Campbell.

         10 likes

  5. Sinniberg says:

    I’m not sure if this has been posted but I stumbled across it last night. I know a lot has been said about this particular “journalist”(Jon Donnison) but this “article” takes the biscuit.

    The death of any child is particularly sad and tragic but this “article” is beyond the pale in its Palestinian bias.

    I’m yet to see an article of this kind on an Israeli family…..

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20466027

       14 likes

    • Cassandra King says:

      To the BBC the life of a non Jew is worth far more than that of a Jew, thats the reality of the tragedy. Today and after all the lessons we should have learned after the centuries of organised and entrenched official persecution of the Jews we have learned nothing at all. Instead of stamping out the evil of anti semitism Western governments not only tolerate it but finance its spread. This could be the 1930s and not the 21st century when you see Western governments and their media act the way they do.

         22 likes

    • uncle bup says:

      I had the misfortune to hear this howl piece.

      Utterly disgusting. This clown should be sacked. He’s supposed to be a journalist not a campaigner.

      I mean what *is* the Head of News thinking about, allowing this sort of crap to go on. Oh wait, she’s ‘stepped aside.’

      I forgot.

      My bad.

         22 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Donnison was given several minutes on From Our Own Correspondent to tell this story. Yes it is sad – but WHEN will Donnison or anyone at the BBC report clearly and consistently that Hamas is committing war crimes by placing its launch sites and rocket stores in civilian areas. On Radio 4 he conceded that it might have been a mis-launched Hamas rocket, but basically accused Israel of callously murdering the child.

      The plain fact is that it is Hamas causing the deaths. Hamas killed this child, by constantly rocketing Israel and deliberately wanting Israel to strike back at launch sites – which are in local neighbourhoods.

      THAT is the narrative the BBC should be repeating. Then they might discourage Hamas from its attacks. Playing the Hamas narrative simply stokes the fires. And in that sense, the bias of the BBC contributes to the deaths.

         23 likes

  6. Forester126 says:

    This morning at 08:46 on Today. Sarah Montague was asking a man from the Environment Agency about cuts being a possible cause of the flooding in the South West.
    He would not play ball and gave a list of all the projects they have recently spent money on. She seemed quite miffed by his answer.

       32 likes

    • PhilO'TheWisp says:

      The BBC have been banging on all morning, not about the deaths, damage, disruption and heartache caused by the floods directly. That’s the little peoples’ problem, they can get on with it unless Islington or the second home gets flooded.

      No, their angle is all about how the nasty government won’t cough up the money for the nice insurance companies to continue providing cover. Great, an opportunity to gain political capital out of disaster. Of course they had the usual endless string of lobbyists, quangos and climate zealots available for immediate comment. The BBC’s phone system speed dial memory must be impressive.

      Where are the BBC on the far bigger issue of the EU ruling that effectively bars insurance companies from offering differential rates for female motorists? They are facing huge premium rises as a result.
      Nowhere! It has not been covered in detail despite its imminent introduction. Because in Beeboid LaLaLand Tories are evil, EU is benign.

         15 likes

    • Dickmart says:

      An absolutely disgraceful, unprofessional interview, with the interviewer asking closed questions on the supposition that “cuts” had made homes more vulnerable to flooding. Determined not to let facts get in the way of prejudice.

         6 likes

  7. DYKEVISION says:

    Just read Matt Rudd’s Sunday Times TV ‘critique’ of the marvellous current Harry and Paul series on the BBC….

    ‘In the opening sketch of last week’s Harry & Paul, they teased Him & Her’s Russell Tovey for sounding like Ricky Gervais. You have to sound like Gervais to get on in comedy, they’re saying. This is terribly clever and observant. So is the Scottish nationalist in the pub. And Parking Pataweyo, the sadistic Nigerian traffic warden. And the proprietor of I Saw You Coming, now running a rip-off coffee shop. Enfield and Whitehouse have reached post-post-post-post-postmodern comedic exposition, a world record. They are sending up the thing that sends up the thing that sends up the thing x4 that is ridiculous. It doesn’t matter that it’s not actually funny, that watching it is like the longest paint-drying half-hour ever. That’s the point. They’re laughing at us not laughing at them. They’ve Seen Us Coming. The joke’s on us. Genius.’

    Absolute tosh in my ever so humble opinion.

    Matt Rudd misses the point completely. Harry and Paul is actually very funny and incredibly perceptive, not [sic] ‘post,post… modern comedic exposition.’
    He just can’t accept the fact that right of centre humour (virtually non-existent on the BBC )of Harry and Paul is just good comedy. However, not surprisingly, the series has been buried on BB2, late on Sunday night.

    Anyone who takes the Michael out of Evan Davies gets my vote!

       18 likes

    • As I See It says:

      Agree wholeheartedly about Harry & Paul.

      I think it was last week when Parking Pataweyo hoped to put White Van Man Delroy out of business with a string of fines that he wished would force Delroy to become something useful, such as a parking warden, just like Pataweyo.

      I almost fell off my sofa in wonder. Comedy and some of it from a right of centre viewpoint – on the BBC!

      This Stephen Fry, is he a queer?

      Even the opening credits mock the USSR

      I’m guessing this will be their last series.

         16 likes

      • chrisH says:

        With you there.
        The Sunday Times dope misses the point.
        The good bits are THAT good, that we can indulge the occassional duff sketch.
        At last, a comedy act who can see how it`s all going…no wonder the numpties in the broadsheets won`t approve….

           9 likes

    • Demon says:

      I can’t comment about Harry and Paul as I have not watched it. But As I See It’s comment about it being a last series if it perceived as right of centre (Although it would surprise me for Harry Enfield to be honest) rings some old bells. There used to be a comedy programme called “Friday (or Saturday) Night Armistice” with Armando Iannucci and others – it had the effrontery to mock the new Blair government as much as the Conservatives, and was funny. As far as I remember it only made two series, I also assumed that it was taken off for not being slavishly left-wing.

         11 likes

    • Rufus McDufus says:

      Thanks for telling me – I didn’t realise there was a new series! They kept that one quiet…

         4 likes

      • Roland Deschain says:

        I didn’t either.

        Harry Enfield does have history for taking the mickey out of subjects many other comedians wouldn’t.

           6 likes

  8. Umbongo says:

    On TFTD, Giles Fraser preached on “fairness” and gave the usual drive-by kicking to the coalition in respect of the (non)cutz. He noted that his experience as “chair” (God forbid he should say chairman) of the Tower Hamlets Fairness Commission. Not wishing to give a boring sermon on religion, Fraser expressed his exasperation that the inhabitants of the prosperous part of the borough could not be taken out, shot and their possessions shared out (by Giles) to the poor of the borough.
    This crap had no religious or philosophical content. It was an overtly political rant demanding the impoverishment of the wealthy, near-wealthy and not-so-wealthy – certainly those who work for a living – to reward (this being Tower Hamlets) largely those whose life has been blighted by the necessity to travel here from the third world and suffer the indignity of living at the taxpayers’ expense for the rest of their lives.

       20 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Good old Giles eh?
      None of that bible stuff from him, when there`s a TUC policy document that serves as TRUE Holy Writ from the Church of Occupy…and its ever-ready Press Office that is the BBC.
      Do tell us Giles-this Tower Hamlets Fairness Forum of yours…do you and what`s left of your church pay the jizya/dhimmi taxes just yet in the cause of “sharing the pain, imposed by the Coalition”…or are the Muslims in Sharia-bound Tower Hamlets happy to let you defer for a year at least.
      I posted on Giles nasty little piece in the Observer about ignoring the evangelical old bats who won`t allow women bishops, as he sees it.
      Giles turns out to be just the kind of vicar that the LibLefties will allow to stand as a Potemkin Cathedral…so the raging atheists and Jesus hatefreaks didn`t like me daring to quote “bloody scripture” at him…and he`d be happy with them in his corner as opposed to me.
      Fair enough…I`m a bibliolatrist I think!

         9 likes

  9. George R says:

    BBC and winning the Lottery.

    Being employed in, or departing from, the upper echelons of the BBC,
    is like winning the national Lottery.

    “BBC to agree new National Lottery deal, report says.”

    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a440811/bbc-to-agree-new-national-lottery-deal-report-says.html?

    “MPs criticise £4.2m ‘golden goodbyes’ for BBC bosses”

    http://www2.askgrapevine.com/news/article/2012-11-26-mps-criticise-4-2m-golden-goodbyes-for-bbc-bosses/?

       3 likes

  10. George R says:

    Consequences of BBC-NUJ’s advocacy of ‘multiculturalism’:

    Given the BBC-NUJ’s advocacy of ‘multiculturalism’ it will be reluctant to distance itself very far politically from the stance of the Labour Rotherham Council which takes children away from foster parents on the political grounds of membership of UKIP, because it does not advocate ‘multiculturalism’.

    Which, BBC-NUJ, is the perpetrator of socialist persecution?:

    -Rotherham Labour Council, and its impostion of ‘multiculturalism’,

    or,

    -UKIP?

    “It’s not this family who are bigots — it’s the multicultural
    thought police”
    By MELANIE PHILLIPS

    [Excerpt]:-

    “Let us be clear: the claim that it is racist to oppose multiculturalism is the opposite of the truth. This is because multiculturalism does not, as is so often mistakenly believed, mean being tolerant of other cultures. It is a creed which holds instead that no one culture can trump any other.

    “That means you can’t uphold human rights, equality for women or freedom of religious belief over cultures that don’t uphold these values.

    “So multiculturalism inescapably involves abandoning certain ethnic minorities to violence, inequality and persecution. And that is truly racist.”

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2238374/Ukip-row-Its-foster-family-bigots–multicultural-thought-police.html

       15 likes

    • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

      No-one seems to have commented that the foster-parents have been so indoctrinated by the thought-Police that they think they have to teach the foster-children to speak a foreign language. Even if they came from Poland, if they are going to live here the children should learn English.

         16 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        Well they were, until recently, Labour voters. Whatever changed their minds, it doesn’t surprise me that there would be a few lingering traces of that particular psychological imbalance, one of which is manifestly a devotion to muli-culti. Give them a few years and, like Melanie Phillips, they’ll wonder how they could have lived all those years with their eyes tight shut.

           14 likes

    • SouthEastVoter says:

      How does multiculturalism sit with Ed “the BBC’s Messiah” Milband’s One Nation?

         11 likes

      • pah says:

        Simple.

        It’s one nation or state ruling multiple cultures.

        Or divide and conquer as it used to be known.

           14 likes

      • Buggy says:

        “How does multiculturalism sit with Ed “the BBC’s Messiah” Milband’s One Nation? “

        Well he didn’t specify which nation……..

           3 likes

  11. Bigt says:

    Stuck at home today for a change… watched BBC news for an hour… now thoroughly indoctrinated.

    Gaza…… Israel’s fault
    Rain… Governments fault would have been all sunshine under Labour
    Economy… all current governments fault, (even though the labour spokesman didn’t know the difference between debt and deficit!)
    Spending… were not doing enough of it we should be borrowing and spending on everything and anything
    UKIP and Rotherham… BBC never heard of them… but did do a nice assassination of any possible deal between Cons and another party ….. UKIP maybe….
    Immigration…. every thing fine and everyone assimilating well…
    Religion….. Christians are stupid, Jews are to be despised as warmongers, Islam no mention except religion of Peace…

    Going to turn over to get some adult information now…… Russia Today… lot less bias and better reporting… who would have thought that a few years ago!

       24 likes

    • George R says:

      BBC and Immigration.

      I have never heard the BBC-NUJ say that there should be an upper limit to the numbers of immigrants allowed into the U.K.

      Advocacy of mass immigration into the U.K is at the core of BBC-NUJ/Labour Party ‘multiculturalism’; it amounts to the colonisation of Britain, without limit.

         21 likes

      • Jim Dandy says:

        Why would they say that? Would that be balanced in your eyes?

           2 likes

        • Glen Slagg says:

          Given that unlimited immigration is a large issue to the licence payers who live outside of the intellectual elite (and Hampstead), one would assume that it would be a subject at least worthy of a documentary or two that maybe, in the interests of that famous BBC impartiality, at least “challenged” the notion…just a little bit?
          Of course, given that to even question the numbers involved is tantamount to being chief pointy hat wearer in the KKK, I think we are unlikely to see that editorial stance any time soon.

             9 likes

  12. feargal the cat says:

    Apropos of nothing; I asked these questions on the end of the last open thread, not realising you had all moved on.
    Any clues as to why, having had to pay the tv tax, all of the bBC radio channels appear to finish around 17.00 on Freeview? I would prefer the choice to listen to some of the older comedies on R4 extra on an evening. Typing of older comedies, why is G.O.L.D. a subscription service when it appears to mainly consists of bBC shows, i.e. already paid for by the tv tax? Maybe I should just get out more……

       6 likes

  13. George R says:

    Will e.g. BBC ‘Panorama’ investigate the leftist propaganda of social work training?:-

    “Social work training is where the seeds of scandal are sown”

    http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2012/11/social-work-training-is-where-the-seeds-of-scandal-are-sowed.html

       11 likes

  14. George R says:

    Will BBC-NUJ investigate Rotherham Labour Council and ‘social services’ enforcement of ‘multiculturalism’, or simply regurgitate Labour Council and Labour Parliamentary non-apologetic platitudes?

    “Weak LGA response to the Rotherham scandal as Labour council leader dithers.”

    [Excerpt]:-

    “So no apology. No resignations. No details of quite which facts
    he” [ the Labour council leader in Rotherham, Cllr Roger Stone] “feels he needs to discover before being able to say that removing the children was wrong.

    “Joyce Thacker said on Saturday she had ‘no regrets’ over the removal of the children. It is acnowledged by everyone that the only reason they were removed was the foster carer couples membership of UKIP.

    “Miss Thacker is the head of the Children’s Services Department. Is she now investigating herself?

    “The plot thickens and the smell grows.”

    http://conservativehome.blogs.com/localgovernment/2012/11/weak-lga-response-to-the-rotherham-scandal-as-labour-council-leader-dithers.html?

       12 likes

  15. Umbongo says:

    The BBC’s policy of being soft on ethnic scrotes was applied again last night.
    On BBC1 London News at around 10:15 pm we were informed that an 11-year old girl had been raped in Enfield in an ostensibly closed park. There were interviews with locals and we were told that police were looking for witnesses etc etc.
    Unfortunately the BBC report omitted to inform Londoners of the colour of the alleged perp. I turned to Mrs U and remarked that since the BBC report didn’t say anything – and this being Enfield – the suspected perp was probably black. More to the point, I added, had he been white we would have been told.
    Mrs U, aghast at my cynicism (you’d think she’d be used to it by now!) replied that surely the BBC, had it known, would not deliberately omit such an obvious characteristic as skin colour if it genuinely wished to help the police catch the perp. I replied that she should watch and wait.
    Sure enough, in this morning’s Daily Telegraph in a column with a timeline of 4:21PM GMT 25 Nov 2012 (ie the BBC knew the salient descriptor) we read that “Police described the suspect as a black male with afro hair wearing a dark grey top and black baggy jeans”.
    It’s disgraceful that by BBC editorial decision (based presumably on a policy of not wishing to offend one of its client groups) a dangerous criminal is allowed to roam free for longer than necessary because the public is not informed of his most obvious characteristic.

       29 likes

    • Big Ben says:

      Surprisingly enough the initial reports I read on the BBC news site did in fact state that the suspect was black. A far cry from their description of amongst many others the Rochdale serial rapists/groomers.

         2 likes

      • Umbongo says:

        Since, I suspect, most people get their immediate up-to-date information from the broadcast TV or radio news, not the website, it raises the question of why the BBC opted to omit the suspected perp’s skin-colour from the broadcast info yet included it online.

           7 likes

        • feargal the cat says:

          Simple, it allows the cherry-picking beeboids hovering over this site to claim the bBC did report all the facts. Even when those facts are stuck away in a local news part of the website.

             16 likes

        • Doublethinker says:

          Because they probably think it would be racist to mention that he wasn’t white. Of course it would not be racist if he was white to say he was.
          Just another example of the Orwellian world into which the BBC and their lefty chums are consigning all of us.

             13 likes

        • As I See It says:

          BBC London News is a particularly left -leaning PC outfit. Sometime in the 1990s it morphed out of being a local news source into a wouldbe vanguard of the right-on. My comment at the time was ‘BBC London News seems to have been taken over by the community unit!’ I was naive back then.

             6 likes

    • Chop says:

      I saw the 1st report of it on “The Wright Stuff” this morning….as published in the Mirror…”horrible, horrible…” said the dizzy blonde on the paper review, but not once was it mentioned that the perpetrator was black…I kind of guessed it might be…still, we don’t have to pay channel 5 for their services.

         3 likes

    • Jim Dandy says:

      That exact wording is included in the BBC report here:
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20489279

         3 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Can I direct your attention to the first two sentences of Umbongo’s comment:

        “The BBC’s policy of being soft on ethnic scrotes was applied again last night. …On BBC1 London News at around 10:15 pm we were informed that …” [my emphasis]

           2 likes

        • Jim Dandy says:

          The accusation is the BBC is covering up when it clearly isn’t. So clearly not ‘BBC policy’.

          Here you can clearly hear bbc London describe the man

          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-20489279

          Possible I suppose they dropped the reference because the police were close to an arrest and the BBC were advised. But the accusation stands as nonsense.

             3 likes

          • Umbongo says:

            In your cited clip the alleged perp was indeed described as black. However, in the broadcast on BBC1 London News last night the final 5 seconds or so of the clip (the only part to mention the alleged perp’s colour) was not broadcast. Presumably this was an editorial decision and not an accident.

               6 likes

            • Jim Dandy says:

              If what you say is right then Indeed, but not for the reason you state given its prevalence elsewhere.

                 0 likes

          • johnnythefish says:

            Yet again you are using the BBC website as a balance to their broadcast output, which it isn’t.

            But keep plugging away with your propaganda.

               1 likes

  16. John Brown says:

    As I said earlier the Conservatives had a golden opportunity to stop journalism like this by making sweeping changes to the BBC, but they didn’t. I just wonder if the Conservatives are really Conservative at all. Who do they represent? Perhaps it’s all a fraud to make us think we have a democracy when in fact they are really all in it together.

       10 likes

  17. chrisH says:

    Ah, just when we thought that Naughtie was a padded verbose windy charlatan eh?…
    There was me thinking that he spent his apres-heures patronising the ROH at taxpayers subsidy.
    But no-does he not mix it with the young cutting edge feministas like Anne Nightingale and Fearne Cotton?
    Yes indeed-Annie got kicked off the stage area by the Stones management way back…oh, how simply outre, my dears.
    So then. Whilst Naughtie gassed of cheap and easy rebellion, we find it`s not so cheap after all-for the cost of seeing the Rolling Stones at the O2 last night stated at nearly £100.
    And yet-no “fairness agenda” here…no outrage from charities worrying over the exclusivity and marginalisation of those of us on low incomes who surely deserve the right to fair access to our cultural heritage.
    Who cares for we the “Salt of The Earth”?…oh, don`t tell me that the BBC don`t care for our being discriminated against, mother!
    No BBC campaign against fat cats like Mick n Keef now is there?…for this is a style rebellion and harms nobody…unlike Jimmy Savile.
    Good rebellion BBC!…as ever!

       10 likes

  18. ltwf1964 says:

    listening to Steve Wright on R2 and apparently Steve and the gang cannot understand now the climate-change- the record hooha in Doha is going basically unreported 🙂

    here’s a bit of a hint Stevie boy

    the penny is starting to drop with people-I mean,without even a hint of irony,he stated that 17,000 (yes,that’s thousands) from all over the world are gonna be attending

    how did they get there?canoes? hang gliders? did they swim it?

    no-of course not.

    Most likely business class flights on those dirty smelly polluting jets they’re trying to get everybody to stop using

    hypocrisy much?

       17 likes

  19. Shirk says:

    Jim Naughtie kicked off Today with a plug for tonight’s Panorama. It’s a joint investigation into….can you guess?… bad business behaviour with….can you guess?…the Guardian.

    Well at least it’s not the Bureau of Incompetent Journalism this time.

       4 likes

  20. George R says:

    Apparently, BBC-NUJ wants freedom of speech for its broadcasting empire, but not freedom of speech for the press (least of all for e.g. News International, and ‘Daily Mail’).

    “Rotherham’s ‘political commissars’ reinforce the need for a free press”
    By David Blackburn .

    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2012/11/rotherhams-political-commissars-reinforce-the-need-for-a-free-press/

       2 likes

  21. tckev says:

    Roger Harabin has just told me that the type of rain that we now get is different from what we are used to and that as our climate changes it will get worse.
    He must have some magic method that can differentiate qualities of the rain from the past and the current weather. Or is it that he chooses not to read any weather or climate history of this isle.

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Well on Sky News just now we have had terrible scenes of unprecedented Welsh flooding that has never happened before, well, since the 60’s. Interviews poor soul who lives next to a river, but for some reason felt that insurance was what ‘the Government’ needs to supply for such a location choice.
      Meanwhile the airwaves are alive with market rate airheads who wouldn’t know a sensible contingency plan if they fell over one put in place by the new breed of heroes in a hi-vis who are more likely to direct funds on your voting record or to their pensions than any sensible maintenance.
      If I was one of the pensioners being handed a sandbag by a councillor or local MP, I might be less concerned with global warming or ‘cuts’, but more interested in why the drains have not been cleared whilst they gallop over hill and dale tarmacing over soil to offer more and more affordable housing to more and more registered voters.
      And by way of irony, my mobile just rang to inform me that the risk of flooding here is now over, so we can bring the kids down from the hills…. which everyone ignored as again the footy pitch got damp.
      Odd that those folk in Wales were caught napping in the middle of the night with all this awesome tech to hand.
      Maybe there is money, but simply in the wrong hands going to the wrong places?

         6 likes

      • Andrew Johnson says:

        Due to major flooding in an urban area, I’ve had extensive interaction with the Environment Agency, Water Companies, Local Authorities, Riparian rights owners, Police and Emergency Services.
        The EA water engineers are brilliant. If ony the senior managers were as able.
        Show me an engineer who doesn’t want to fix something. John Redwood MP told Parliament “Flood Defence is not rocket science!” How true.
        What it comes down to is this. First there is a considerable environmental lobby ( and a statutory duty) within the EA which also has a statutory duty concerning flood and coastal defence. Flood Defence v The delicate symbiotic relationship of the River and riverside, or coastal environment. Guess who usually wins!
        There is a one Professor, reviled by the “Green Lobby” who suggests that all of Britain’s rivers are managed so that when a river or stream is in flood, the water is either diverted to underground aquifers or to a reservoir. This would virutally eliminate all flooding. He also thinks Britain should construct a national water distribution network.
        You can go without food for up to 40 days, but you die within 3-4 days without water. I know of no better solution. It is both practical and achievable and would create wonderful new amenities and lots of jobs.
        Flooding can be dealt with and so can water shortages, but only if sufficient funding is made available. Like everything else in life, it all comes down to that commodity which the Good Book says is a source of all kinds of evil – Money!

           1 likes

  22. noggin says:

    hilariously, panto campbell this morning, your call wants to question, tsk tsk why? WHY?
    political correctness has lead to children being removed re ukip/rotherham …
    although the extreme political correct mantra droned out 24/7 on by him his cronies and the bbc! never crosses his mind at all :-D.

    verbal contortions abound, as they spend an hour going in ever decreasing circles … while no-one can state the blindingly obvious, that the only REAL requirement is
    1/. genuine care, with good carers to administer to GENUINE needs 2/, EVERY child be treated the same ….

    ah the slippery slope … hilarious in its absurdity ROFL.
    an example
    Q – is there any belief system?, that would, or could trouble you today? ….
    T Lawton, MP, so long as parents don t have potentially damaging views, that could possibly damage the children and their views –
    you couldn t make it up …
    our orchestrated line up of callers – tow the line – an hour of absolute drivel.

       10 likes

  23. As I See It says:

    I note that our dear old Auntie continues to enhance the seedy side of her reputation. Perhaps they should consider putting some bromide in the beverages at the BBC staff canteen.

    ‘Love behind the autocue: BBC stars kept apart on screen after affair’

    http://www.standard.co.uk/showbiz/celebrity-news/love-behind-the-autocue-bbc-stars-kept-apart-on-screen-after-affair-8352350.html

    [Lets have Frankie Howerd comment on this story from today’s Evening Standard – you’ll see why]

    [The Prologue…]

    Two BBC presenters have been banned from appearing on screen together after having an affair.

    Tim Willcox and Sophie Long, who are both married,

    [Ooh, yes, Missus!]

    have told their partners the marriages are over, and they have fallen in love
    .
    [It came to pass….]

    But the pair, who in the past have been co-presenters on the BBC’s 24-hour news channel, have been told they cannot appear on screen together until the situation has settled down.

    [Wo, wo and thrice wo]

    Long, 35, only got married two years ago, to childhood sweetheart Will Green, 35, a sales director for a Plymouth-based yacht company. Willcox, 49, attended the wedding and took his trumpet to serenade the couple.

    [Madam, PLEASE!]

    Now Long has told her husband she is leaving him for her colleague. He has broken the news to wife Sarah, 49, the mother of his four children.

    [Please, don’t mock the afflicted]

    In the next few weeks the four will be deciding who will remain at their respective marital homes. A friend of Willcox said: “He is very charming and has lots of female fans

    [Fancy that….?]

    but he is also very honourable so all this will have been very difficult for him.”

    [Nay, Nay and thrice Nay!]

    In September 2010, not long after he attended Long’s wedding, he was sent to Chile to report on the rescue of 33 miners trapped underground.

    He was praised for his extensive live coverage, became a “pin-up” of the miners’ wives,

    [Ooh ‘ere, No!]

    and was the only foreign correspondent to interview Chilean president Sebastián Piñera.

    In March last year he reported live from the disaster zone during the Japanese earthquake and tsunami, and a few weeks later was reporting from Libya on the civil war there. A graduate in Spanish from Durham University, Willcox started his journalism career on a Sunday newspaper. Before switching to the BBC he had worked as a presenter for ITN.

    Long also worked for ITN before joining the BBC. Before her journalistic career she was as an election monitor in Cambodia. She moved to Reuters news agency before a stint as a newsroom assistant with ITV. She gained a BBC scholarship

    [Titter ye not]

    — endowed in honour of the late Jill Dando — to do broadcast journalism before gaining a job with the corporation in the regions.

    Willcox can be seen presenting bulletins on the BBC 24-hour news channel at weekends, as can Long, although they usually cover different slots.

    [Shut yer faces! – Really, the riff raff in here!]

    The BBC declined to comment.

    [Oh well, please yourselves]

       12 likes

    • ltwf1964 says:

      he’s doing more than serenading her with his trumpet now

      fnarrrrr fnarrrrrrr

         8 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        “Willcox can be seen presenting bulletins on the BBC 24-hour news channel at weekends, as can Long, although they usually cover different slots…”

        Oh I say!

           5 likes

        • noggin says:

          aaah! – the “power” of the bbc newsroom … the aphrodisiac of being on screen … all that bbc self important ego massaging eh!
          blush! … the …. “dando” award, swoon/faint
          blush! …chilean miners wives… PIN UP… swoon/faint ……. ya da ya da ya da

          … you see my wife could never understand 😀
          … you see my husband could never understand 😀
          …. now! … how to divide the assets?
          hmmmmm

             5 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Actually, I thought Willcox did a great job on the Chilean miners scene. He’s fluent in Spanish, which helped with interviews, and basically did a really good job for the two weeks or so he was there.

            Unfortunately for him, though, right before the end of the saga, when it was clear that the miners would indeed be rescued, Matt Frei (also fluent in Spanish) swanned in to hog the limelight with his OTT style (“This cauldron of hope…”), and all of Willcox’s work was quickly shunted aside for the bigger names on the last couple of days when the miners were finally brought to the surface.

               3 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      LOL!

         2 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      That explains why I once heard Willcox – after a lightweight feature about something or other involving flexibility – ask Long on air if she could put her legs up behind her ears.

         7 likes

    • Glen Slagg says:

      I love the “very honourable” comment. Rather like saying of a wife murderer “He’s not violent, so it was difficult for him”.
      Awww…..Bless……

         3 likes

  24. The link below is to a lecture given by by Professor Eugene Kontorovich at NYU about Israel’s borders and international law. I t is a tour de force.

    http://www.torahcafe.com/jewishvideo.php?vid=33fb484b5

       2 likes

  25. JaneTracy says:

    A bad day for the BBC’s Robert Peston. Via his father Lord Peston the Labour finance peer he gets all the scoops like Northern Rock. But when the “insiders” tell him the wrong names he regurgitates them meaning that Mark Carney the new Governor of the Bank of England was not on his list!

    Never mind I am sure a few more BBC programmes will plug his book for him…

       10 likes

  26. As I See It says:

    You may recall that last year our arch-feminist and pseudo-harridan Baroness Nicky Campbell threw a hissy over the composition of the short list for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. (I know, who cares?)

    Too much testosterone for our Nicky it seems. Let me rephrase that. There were no sports ‘wimmin’.

    Well this sparked a groundswell of righteous PC revolt against the existing system of newspaper and magazine sports editors choosing their favourites. (I know, who cares?)

    So BBC/Common Purpose have taken the selection of the shortlist in-house. Now the list will be properly gender/ethnicity/region/abled-disabled balanced. 99% skewed towards the Olympics, mind you.

    (I know, who cares?)

    Well the BBC flogging this one to us has simply served to remind me of this

    ‘Olympic athlete seeks asylum in Britain’

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/9428041/Olympic-athlete-seeks-asylum-in-Britain.html

    ‘Immigration officials have warned that as many as two per cent of Olympic competitors, officials and fans may try and claim refuge in the UK or stay on after their visas have expired.’

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/sep/09/congo-political-asylum-olympians

    ‘Six members of the Olympic and Paralympic teams from the Democratic Republic of Congo are planning to claim political asylum on Monday after the conclusion of the 2012 games. ‘

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/news/9458906/Cameroon-athletes-missing-from-London-2012-Olympics-amid-asylum-fears.html

    ‘Cameroon athletes ‘missing’ from London 2012 Olympics amid asylum fears’

    ‘The seven athletes, including the entire boxing team and half its swimming team, were reported missing earlier this week in a major embarrassment for the African nation.’

    ‘The group are not yet breaking British immigration rules after new accreditation rules, introduced to bypass normal visa procedures, meant all Olympic athletes, and their families, could stay in the country until early November.’

    We’re well into November now.

    Given the massive interest from the Beeb in all things Olympic and with goodness knows how many journalists on the payroll and plenty of partner organisations to call on for investigative journalistic collaborations (don’t make me laugh) – so where’s the follow up story about how many Olympic asylum seekers the UK gained this year?

    Assuming the Beeb aren’t bothered, FOI request anyone?

       15 likes

  27. George R says:

    INBBC clings to its belief in Mursi and Muslim Brotherhood.

    But Barry Rubin sees what INBBC doesn’t:-

    “The Islamist Regime’s Game Plan for Egypt”

    http://rubinreports.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/this-article-is-published-on-pjmedia.html

       1 likes

  28. George R says:

    “Patten hints at second
term with BBC Trust”

    http://www.scotsman.com/news/patten-hints-at-second-term-with-bbc-trust-1-2661214?

       2 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘“Patten hints at second
term with BBC Trust”
      Maybe today’s effort was a rubber stamp oral interview?

         0 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Actually the way he’s going, he’ll be joining a few other marker rate colleagues serving terms all right.

         1 likes

  29. As I See It says:

    Gameshow Nicky Campbell is the BBC performer who likes to take the ‘fall’ out of pratfall.

    This morning there’s some innocuous story about a school banning mobile phones. Panto Nicky and his sidekick (who likes to keep one eye on London property prices) are joined in the studio by the head of the school.

    The newspaper report we learn was this mornings….wait for it….Daily Mail! Boo hiss).

    Nicky seems to get on well with teachers. He kids around with the head of this school about his appearance in the dreaded Mail. ‘Oh Gosh! Oh Dear!’

    Subtext is clear. We all hate the Daily Mail.

    Nicky then creates radio comedy gold (he thinks) by tearing the article from the offending organ.

    I have to ask: is this continual attack on a news rival permissable under the BBC Charter. Is this part of ‘Bringing the World to Britain?’

       10 likes

    • Regag says:

      He certainly believes himself intellectually superior to Daily Mail readers but this morning’s show of contempt for them showed him up as the arrogant and small-minded person he really is under all the bonhomie.

         4 likes

  30. noggin says:

    catching up on marr ,(i know, i know… why? :-D)

    al bbc news room, “human mad comic” marr? no its tory f-ckwit “little willy” vague
    bound to be a few setbacks but we must keep faith with the Egyptian movement for democracy and the Arab Spring is still on course. ? 😀 ROFL

    http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/26/251886.html
    begs to differ
    democracy protests, and successive attacks on security forces in Sinai, attacks on Muslim Brotherhood offices and on mosques, point to a possible bloody reaction against liberals …… oh! smell those “spring” flowers eh!

    i mean … what could go wrong? 😀

       3 likes

  31. uncle bup says:

    Why Poverty?
    3. Stealing Africa
    An investigation into the behaviour of multi-national companies in Africa
    ……………………………………………………

    Yawn.

       2 likes

  32. George R says:

    ‘Cranmer’ has:-

    A non-BBC NUJ Canadian TV report on Labour Council of Rotherham and political kidnapping:-

    “A Political Kidnapping – UKIP goes global”

    (7 min video)

    http://archbishop-cranmer.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/a-political-kidnapping-ukip-goes-global.html

       1 likes

  33. Umbongo says:

    I didn’t see Panorama last night. I didn’t have to since the results of its “investigation” were highly predictable and set out here. Given that its report was “part of a joint investigation with the Guardian newspaper and the Washington-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists ” the strictly impartial results would be expected to mirror the impressive work done for Tonight by the (UK based) Bureau of Investigative Journalism.
    In the real world, not that of showbiz sham-investigative journalism (see what I did there!), if instead of taking a resources heavy expenses-paid trip round the Caribbean, the reporters had sat down for a couple of hours with any vaguely knowledgable company formations agent in London, the reporter would have discovered everything he’d wanted to know. Every person in the business knows that nominee director set-ups can be and are used both legally and illegally. They can give you chapter and verse on how arrangements are made.
    Of course, the vast majority of CFAs (as confirmed by HMRC) wouldn’t touch such arrangements with a barge-pole. But a good smearing of “the rich” and their advisers by lefty organisations enabled by the BBC is too good an opportunity to pass up. The truth is, as far as the use of offshore or onshore arrangements are concerned, once you decide to do or assist in perverting such arrangements for illegal purposes all bets are off: the regulators trying to stop money laundering have real difficulties in dealing with those not applying the regulations. Anyone surprised by this should not be allowed out on his own.
    Analogously imagine, for instance, you were a journalist or journalistic organisation which wanted to smear – to take at random – a political party and decided, in furtherance of such an aim, to junk any notion of journalistic “ethics”. I suggest you would set up an “investigation” the results of which would imply that a former high-up in the political party you targetted, active during an administration you loath was probably a child-abuser. Ridiculous example I know but, smearing all offshore financial arrangements and those concerned in creating or advising on those arrangements on the basis that some are illegal, is analogous to damning all the investigative work carried out by the paper press on the basis that most of the BBC’s investigative work is hopelessly compromised by its political agenda.

       6 likes

  34. George R says:

    -Expect Mrs Carney to appear on BBC’s ‘Woman’s Hour’, etc:-

    “Mark Carney, Next Bank Of England Governor, Married To An ‘Eco-Warrior'”

    http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/11/27/bank-of-england-diana-carney_n_2196182.html?ref=topbar

       0 likes

  35. George R says:

    Rotherham Labour Council admonishes critics of political kidnapping;
    ‘we know best’.

    ‘Telegraph’:-
    “Ukip fostering row: senior councillor in Rotherham accuses people of ‘wading in to pass judgement'”

    By Steven Swinford and Sam Marsden.

    [Excerpt]:-

    “Josephine Burton, a cabinet member at Labour-run Rotherham metropolitan borough council, told a member of the public that she was ‘disappointed’ by coverage of the case.

    […]

    “However, Mrs Burton told a member of the public: ‘It may be advisable to wait until you have a better understanding of fostering and the current legislation that surrounds it, before wading in to pass judgement.'”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/9705335/Ukip-fostering-row-senior-councillor-in-Rotherham-accuses-people-of-wading-in-to-pass-judgement.html

    Certainly, BBC-NUJ seems to have gone quiet on the issue.

       3 likes

  36. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    They just can’t help themselves (probably because it’s in their DNA).
    The report of Patten’s appearance before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee manages to mention Thatcher and child abuse in its third sentence.

       5 likes

  37. James Morrison says:

    Not sure if this has been discussed elsewhere, since it is a week old (I did do a search on this site). But I noticed the BBC “ViewPoint” article from 21st November entitled “How experts see UK role in EU” only gets the opinion of 7 experts who say that we should remain in the EU. I submitted a claim to the BBC about the obvious bias of this article in not providing any opinions explaining the benefits of our leaving the EU, and this was the response I have just received:

    “Thank you for your comments on our viewpoint piece: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-20412306. We are disappointed that you consider it to be biased.

    There are myriad opinions about the EU in Europe, which cannot all be reflected in our piece. The aim here was not simply to mirror the UK debate about UK/EU relations; we wanted a range of views from non-UK European experts about the UK’s role in the EU and whether it should pull out. We feel it is important to seek informed opinion, and we wanted to hear from people very familiar with the way the EU works.

    We sought a wide range of views from different European countries, selected because most are immediate neighbours of the UK in Europe, including Norway, which is not in the EU. Also, we wanted comment from eastern Europe, so we chose Poland, and at least one other big player in EU politics – so we had Italy.

    Besides a centre-left politician (Schulz) and a liberal (Bonino) we have two conservative politicians (Mariton and Sikorski) and a Eurosceptic MEP (Eppink). The think tank analysts (Sverdrup and Brady) were chosen because of their expertise on the EU and because they come from two interesting countries from the UK perspective: Norway and the Republic of Ireland.

    Mr Sverdrup runs a current affairs think tank and participated in an official Norwegian study examining the country’s relations with the EU: http://www.eu-norway.org/Global/SiteFolders/webeu/NOU2012_2_Chapter%2013.pdf . Mr Brady has spent his career researching EU issues – he has worked at the Department of Foreign Affairs in Ireland and as a researcher at the Institute for European Affairs in Dublin. Derk-Jan Eppink is a Eurosceptic, critical of waste in the EU bureaucracy and budget. He is vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, which includes the UK Conservatives. His “Battle of the Budget” video shows how close his views are to those of many British Eurosceptics: http://www.djeppink.eu/en/blog/dj-battle-budget.

    We could not predict what interviewees would tell us, and we were not to know that none of them would voice support for a UK withdrawal. But this was not an opinion survey and was not designed to show strength of opinion in any country or EU-wide.

    Regards,

    Europe desk, BBC News website”

       3 likes

  38. George R says:

    “BBC spent £200,000 on staff legal costs in ‘expensive’ Jimmy Savile inquiries.
    “The BBC inquiries into the Jimmy Savile scandal will be ‘expensive’with more than £200,000 spent covering the legal costs of staff so far, Lord Patten has said.”

    By Rowena Mason.

    [Opening excerpt]:-

    “The chairman of the BBC Trust said the corporation has covered legal bills costing about £10,000 per person, but they are prepared to go as high as £50,000 each.
    “BBC staff are being probed in two separate inquiries. Dame Janet Smith, a former High Court judge, will look into whether the its culture allowed sexual harassment and assault to take place while Jimmy Savile was one of its biggest stars for 40 years.
    “In a separate inquiry, Nick Pollard, the former head of Sky News, will look at whether a BBC’s Newsnight programme probing Savile’s past was shelved to cover-up his alleged abuse.
    “So far 40 people have given evidence to the Pollard Review, but not all have been given legal help.
    “Lord Patten said the licence fee payer would have to ‘bear the cost’ as any inquiries involving lawyers are likely to be expensive.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/jimmy-savile/9705551/BBC-spent-200000-on-staff-legal-costs-in-expensive-Jimmy-Savile-inquiries.html

       5 likes

    • As I See It says:

      The Pollard Report into whether a BBC’s Newsnight programme probing Savile’s past was shelved to cover-up his alleged abuse was promised in 4-6 weeks on 23rd October.

      I’m beginning to think we may need an urgent internal BBC inquiry into whether the BBC Pollard Report was shelved to cover-up BBC embarassment.

         6 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      After legals, buy-offs, pay-offs, silencing and duplicated step-aside payments, plus present and coming fines, the BBC staff party is looking like a grim affair.
      Indeed if they are still around to again celebrate their rigging Labour back into power, as the public might notice if EastEnders has moved to Kracow to save on costs, the floors will probably be strewn with lipstick-tipped bottles of White Lightning and Buckfast this time.
      Not sure what the BBC women drink. other than enough to get through the promotion ‘interview’.

         5 likes

  39. George R says:

    The ‘multicultural’, pro-Labour Party, BBC-NUJ goes stum on Rotherham Labour Council.

    ‘spiked’:-
    Brendan O’Neill-
    “It’s not just UKIP parents who are under suspicion.
    The Rotherham fostering controversy isn’t a mad one-off – it’s the logical conclusion to the intensification of state meddling in parents’ lives.”

    [Excerpt]:-
    “The Rotherham foster family controversy has scandalised Britain. Understandably so. Rotherham council’s decision to remove three children from a fostering couple simply because the couple are members of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) reeks of a McCarthy-like political authoritarianism. It is not surprising that the decision has been slammed by the press as ‘ugly’, ‘poisonous’, ‘prejudicial’, ‘Orwellian’ and ‘arrogant’.

    “Yet this very reaction, not only from the press but also from leading politicians, who have described Rotherham council’s behaviour as ‘indefensible’, gives the impression that what happened in Rotherham was a one-off, an act of extremism by a crazy council. It wasn’t. Rather, the Rotherham mess is the logical conclusion to the ever-more embedded idea that the state should get to say who would make a good parent and who would not; that the state has the right to determine which political, cultural and lifestyle attitudes it is okay for parents to have and which ones it is not okay for them to have. It is this idea – promoted by some of the same people now getting irate over Rotherham – which leads to a situation where foster parents who have the ‘wrong’ views can have their kids removed.

    “The most striking thing about the Rotherham case is how open the council was about its prejudices.”

    http://www.spiked-online.com/site/article/13121/

       5 likes

  40. George R says:

    “Snapshot: ‘Do you want to know my toilet habits?’
    “Michael Deacon watches BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten and Tory MP Philip Davies clash bitterly at the Culture, Media and Sport select committee.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9705933/Snapshot-Do-you-want-to-know-my-toilet-habits.html

       1 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      “Snapshot: ‘Do you want to know my toilet habits?’
      On par with wanting to know about Lord Creosote’s Olympian bulemic projectile vomiting attempts.
      But if there are also snapshots too… I doubt my even my sons’ gross filters would protect this PC from the horror.

         1 likes

  41. As I See It says:

    It can’t be much fun when your BBC editor says ‘Hey, get your anorak on and get up to North Wales to report on the floods’. And there you were fresh out of CoJo and keen to hold power to account. So I guess we should cut them some slack. But it is still a pity that they can’t get the story straight.

    ‘St Asalph….as its never been seen before!’, alarms the BBC News 24 report headline at the top of the hour.

    ‘It’s a relatively unique event’, opines the council chief. Well be fair, he would get it in the ear for insufficient preparations if he ever owned up to having expected floods.

    ‘A place synonymous with floods’, the BBC report does a quick U-turn there.

    So no real surprise that this part of the world floods when it rains a lot. But don’t take my dodgy ‘saxon’ word for it.

    Denbighshire County Council
    Strategic Flood Consequence
    Assessment
    March 2007
    FINAL REPORT

    Table 2-1 Flood history in Denbighshire

    16/08/1879 1879 August 16/17 Rainfall observer at Nant-y-Glyn, S. W of Denbigh, noted,
    p[19], “5 in. of rain fell in the two days (16th and 17th); much damage was
    done by floods in the neighbourhood; the railway viaduct at Llandulas was
    washed away.”
    08/1879
    1879 August Observer at Abergele (Garthewin)I, noted p[46]: “Great damage
    was done by floods, roads, bridges, and viaducts being washed away.” [ha
    066, R. Gele]
    1882
    1882 Observer at St Asaph (Nantlys) noted (p[106]) “Total rainfall 4 in. above
    the average of 16 years, yet fewer floods in the river than for some years…”
    05/1886
    1886 May “… rivers and their tributaries which were flooded and overflowed
    their banks: … ” [ha 066]
    07/07/1896 1896 July 7/8 p[11] “Serious flooding occurred through thunderstorm rains,
    notably at ….. Rhyl…”
    31/08/1896 1896 August 31 Rainfall observer at St Asaph noted, p[14], “Great rain and
    floods, the Holywell Road, near Clwyd bridge, was under 6 ft. of water.
    Flooding also at Colwyn Bay and Denbigh.”
    29/04/1913 1913 April 29 quoting The Times,.. “Serious damage to crops and property
    was reported from various parts of North Wales in consequence of the heavy
    floods. The Rivers Dee, Severn, Wye and Clwyd have overflowed their banks,
    and thousands of acres of crops and pasturage are inundated. Sheep and
    cattle have been carried down by the floods.”
    01/12/1914 1914 December 1 Observer at Denbigh (Asylum) noted p[22] “Thunderstorm
    with hail and 0.75 in. of rain. rivers in flood.”
    10/03/1919 1919 March 10-11 (p63) “…Westerly districts in England and Wales
    experienced 2 inches on both days. In the low-lying parts of Merioneth and
    Denbighshire large tracts were flooded. Near Beaumaris, in Anglesey,
    landslides occurred.”
    12/12/1964 No specific details were found.
    January
    1976
    Approx 50 residential properties in Rhyl and Prestatyn affected by coastal
    flooding
    November
    1977
    Approx 60 residential properties in Rhyl and Prestatyn affected by coastal
    flooding
    February
    1990
    Coastal defences in Rhyl over topped, 55 residential properties affected by
    flooding. Coastal defences in Prestatyn some overtopped, some breached.
    108 residential properties affected by flooding. Severe damage to sea front
    commercial properties in Prestatyn.
    28/10/2000 Extensive flooding in Ruthin with 1900 properties affected across North Wales.

    Perhaps Horrible Histories should get onto it?

    The Wet Welsh?

       7 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      ‘‘It’s a relatively unique event’’
      Relatively unique, eh?
      The BBC won’t like that. You are either fully unique and immune, or the facts may get you.
      Still it does in this context well complement ‘Unprecedented! Since it last happened… in the 60’s!’ for plain and simply engaging ringfenced pension protections before engaging microphone. Or brain.

         4 likes

      • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

        It’s a pedantic point I know, and I have no wish to begin a “pedant’s corner” here, but you can not qualify the word unique, such as relatively unique. Something is either unique or it isn’t unique, and doesn’t exist is any other form.
        Just saying that’s all.

           1 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Da iawn ti!

         0 likes

  42. George R says:

    “Lord Patten told to quit over BBC boss George Entwistle pay-off”

    http://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/lord-patten-told-to-quit-over-bbc-boss-george-entwistle-payoff-8360300.html

       3 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Can the licence-fee payer afford it?

         4 likes

    • DYKEVISION says:

      Chris Pataweyo using the ‘cheapest option defence’ for us tax payers to find 450,000 spondoolies to get rid of George Catweazel.

      How much to get rid of his smugness!

         11 likes

      • noggin says:

        dear dear 😀 lord “fattun”
        catagorically shows “they don t like it up em” …
        mind you, “don t panic-don t panic”
        doesn t appear to fit, his persona.
        whats he going to do for an encore eh! ………. fall asleep!

           5 likes

        • wallygreeninker says:

          The concluding verdict of R4’s PM was to quote a tweet by Ben Bradshaw (Labour MP for Exeter) “Patten a class act, Tim Davie acting BBC DG displayed reassuring grip in their joint appearance before DCMS Select Committee “, so an unbiassed report there, then.

             5 likes

  43. George R says:

    In case BBC-NUJ hasn’t noticed:-

    “The Orwellian nightmare is with us.
    Rotherham’s UKIP witch-hunt is the shape of things to come”

    By Nick Wood.

    http://wood.dailymail.co.uk/2012/11/the-orwellian-nightmare-is-with-us-rotherhams-ukip-witch-hunt-is-the-shape-of-things-to-come.html

       5 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Notice no Cherry Vultures commenting on this very well-written and sobering article. Probably just sitting there smiling smugly and thinking ‘Yes! Mission almost accomplished’.

      Orwell’s premonition come true of a ruthless, devious, shameless fascist left in control.

         0 likes

  44. Pounce says:

    Have a look at this bBC report on a nonce of an MP.
    Sir Cyril Smith: Former MP sexually abused boys, police say
    Sir Cyril Smith was a sex abuser of boys in the late 1960s, police have accepted. The news comes as the Crown Prosecution Service admitted he should have been charged with the crimes more than 40 years ago. In a statement, Greater Manchester Police said the boys “were victims of physical and sexual abuse” by the ex-Rochdale MP. Mr Smith was never charged despite investigations in 1970, 1998, and 1999.

    So picked up just what is missing from that article. Something which funny enough was added in another bBC article about men who like children but which in the end turned out to be false.

       3 likes

    • Big Ben says:

      Clearly not a Tory.

      Do I win the fiver?

         2 likes

    • Mark says:

      If Cyril Smith did indeed commit the crimes he was accused of, then this is a shocking story. However there are a few points to note here, especially as regards ‘social norms’ of the 1960s and 1970s. Fifty years ago, corporal punishment of offenders in schools and elsewhere was still seen as a ‘normal’ form of discipline, whilst sexual deviancy was condemned outright. In the 1970s, the career of Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe was destroyed after allegations of a gay affair with male model Norman Scott, whereas nowadays ‘coming out’ would have been a huge boost. Finally, I can’t see Tom Watson being over-enthusiastic, because Cyril Smith was a LABOUR MP at the time of some of the earlier allegations.

         0 likes

      • Mark says:

        Sorry – Cyril Smith was a Labour councillor, not an MP, in the 1960s !

           1 likes

      • Albaman says:

        Why bring Tom Watson into the equation when it was Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP for Rochdale, Smith’s old seat, that called for an inquiry into the alleged abuse?
        http://www.theyworkforyou.com/debate/?id=2012-11-13a.243.3

           1 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          The lady doth protest too much. He mentioned Watson because Watson was the one who brought up the “paedophile ring at No. 10” during PMQs and fed the flames of a week of screaming headlines about “paedophile leading Tory of Thatcher era”. Surely as the peadofinder general this sort of abuse would be just up his street top ask for investigations. THAT is why Mark mentioned Watson.

             7 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      To make it worse they do mention Labour, once:

      “Investigations were stepped up two weeks ago when current Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk (Labour) made a parliamentary statement, calling for a new police inquiry.”

      By mentioning it as the ‘current’ MP it actually gives the impression that Smith wasn’t Labour. How about screaming “Labour MP of the Wilson era abused boys” BBC?

         3 likes

      • Albaman says:

        Probably because he was never a Labour MP!!!

           3 likes

        • Span Ows says:

          That would explain it! (oops) but not the lack of mention of party by the BBC. Same applies!

             2 likes

        • Guest Who says:

          As that has been pointed out already by Mark, slap wrist for Span Owls for handing the morning shift a quota filler, and an extra exclamation mark for the red-eye brigade commissar, who may get a treat come breaktime from team leader, though maybe a slight ticking off for not being all over Mark when the window for a full correction as opposed to lame one was open.
          Mr. Smith’s affiliations, and when, and how reported, or not, still rather topical though.
          BBC no-mates won’t like highlighting that much.

             3 likes

    • Span Ows says:

      stealth edit alert:

      BBCNewsSirCyrilSmithFormerMPsexuallyabusedboyspolicesay.png

         2 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        what a surprise, the time and date (27 November 2012 Last updated at 20:25) in the screen shot taken early this morning STILL appears on the latest (edited) page…

           2 likes

  45. GCooper says:

    One of the many sneaky ways the BBC biases its coverage is through selectivity. It covers this story but not that one. Hard to prove, of course, so the BBC’s apologists try to brush it aside,

    None the less, here’s a prime example of selectivity. The BBC’s ‘news’ website’s latest coverage of the Rotheram scandal has links beneath to alternative news sources.

    Leading the array? The Huffington Post – the Left wing media outlet that makes Fox News look like the Guardian.
    Completely absent from parade? The Daily Mail or, more particularly, The Telegraph, which broke this story and has led the field thus far.

    And so it goes on… the BBC – relentless in its bias.

       9 likes

  46. Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

    Newsnight….Oh my Paxo is hosting….is this the first time he’s crawled out from the safety of his rock , since the shit hit the fan?

       4 likes

    • Dysgwr_Cymraeg says:

      Just got worse, comrade mason to report on the failure of back to work initiative. Time for the off switch…..there I feel MUCH better now.

         4 likes

  47. Mavis Ramsbottom says:

    Newsnight…..waffle, left wing waffle, waffle, left wing waffle…etc……

       5 likes

  48. Mavis Ramsbottom says:

    i wish the BBC would do QT from Chariots Sauna in Streatham

       2 likes

  49. Framer says:

    Benghazi story beginning to ravel:

    Susan Rice (UN Ambassador) was accompanied by acting CIA Director Michael Morell and was not seen by reporters, but later issued a statement saying: ‘We explained that the talking points provided by the intelligence community, and the initial assessment upon which they were based, were incorrect in a key respect: there was no protest or demonstration in Benghazi.’

    ‘While, we certainly wish that we had had perfect information just days after the terrorist attack, as is often the case, the intelligence assessment has evolved,’ she lied.

    ‘We stressed that neither I nor anyone else in the Administration intended to mislead the American people at any stage in this process.’

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2239478/Susan-Rice-Republicans-blast-UN-ambassador-closed-door-hearings-Benghazi-attack.html#ixzz2DTEinq85

       2 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Yeah, right. Nothing new here, at least not to readers of this blog. This is what we’ve been saying here for almost two months, although BBC audiences will be shocked to learn there was a controversy. The truth will slowly come out, and the MSM will be powerless to keep a lid on it any longer. The BBC might even be forced to wonder why the President is trying to get Amb. Rice made into Secretary of State. I doubt they’d dare suggest that it’s down to His massive arrogance, though.

      The US President editor is busy fretting over how nasty Republicans are going to block His every move to save us from the fiscal cliff, so he won’t have to analyze why the President is nominating such a flawed candidate.

         5 likes

      • Span Ows says:

        Yep, Mardell’s report is cringeworthy again, begins by making it sound a bit of a dig at Obama but leads into that he has his work cut out and then half the article on how it’s all the Republicans fault even before anything has happened. Just like the Republicans will ruin Christmas for everyone if they don’t lie down.

           3 likes