I don’t know if the BBC’s political correspondent, Carole Walker, has a dog which she walks in the park but if she does she should not be alarmed if some man sidles up to her and slips her a brown envelope full of cash.
That could well be a very grateful member of the Labour Party who has seen her latest report that provided apparent, and no doubt unintended, backing to Ed Balls’ malicious allegations against George Osborne.
This is what Osborne said about welfare and the Philpott case:’
“I think there is a question for government and for society about the welfare state, and the taxpayers who pay for the welfare state, subsidising lifestyles like that.
“And I think that debate needs to be had,” said Mr Osborne.
All perfectly reasonable and fair, you might think.
Not to Ed Balls who says:
“I believe George Osborne’s calculated decision to use the shocking and vile crimes of Mick Philpott to advance a political argument is the cynical act of a desperate chancellor. For the chancellor to link this wider debate to this shocking crime is nasty and divisive and demeans his office.”
Nothing cynical, nasty or desperate about our Shadow Chancellor.
However Osborne made no link between the deaths and the welfare system. He specifically separated the issues…..his reference to welfare was solely linked to Philpott’s lifestyle and not linked to his crime.
The BBC’s Carole Walker has decided, against the quite clear evidence of Osborne’s actual statement, that he did make the link…her title for the report says exactly how she wants to play this…a cynical political gamble by Osborne……just as Balls claims in fact….
Analysis: George Osborne’s Philpott gamble
‘Chancellor George Osborne chose his words carefully when he was asked about Mick Philpott on an official visit to Derby.
But it was clear the Tories’ chief election strategist was happy to link the shocking case of a man convicted of killing six of his children with the need for far-reaching changes to the welfare system.’
A very clever and slippery sentence from Walker.
Note her use of ‘Torie’s chief election strategist’…why use that instead of’ ‘Chancellor‘ in which capacity he was speaking……because she wants to imply that his comments are merely an highly cynical ‘election ploy’.
Walker doesn’t directly say Osborne specifically named the welfare system as the cause of the deaths…but she makes sure that is the message you get from her words throwing in some emotive language to spice it up and manipulate your perceptions….‘happy to link…….shocking case….killing of children….need for far reaching changes to welfare system’.
Pretty clear what she intends you to think.
As Walker actually points out later in the report Labour are on the wrong side of this argument….it is in fact Balls who is using the death of these children as the most cynical and opportunist way of scoring some political points against Osborne.
Balls says:
“Chancellors have to think very carefully before they comment on the issues of the day. How they do so says a lot about the character of their chancellorship.’
The trouble is, even with the misplaced support of the BBC, Labour won’t win this one….the Public do want to see welfare reformed and they think cases like Philpott’s, where he led a lifestyle that most of them couldn’t afford, and yet were in fact paying for, are a prime example of what has gone wrong with the welfare system.
I think it says an awful lot about the character of Ed Balls that he makes poltical capital out of dead children whilst at the same time trying to prevent the necessary and urgent reform of the welfare system.
This report from Carole Walker says a lot about BBC reporting…either she doesn’t understand what Osborne said or she cynically ignored the intended meaning and went for a heading and interpretation that would paint Osborne in the worst light possible..that of a politician gambling with children’s lives for political gain.
She finishes off her report with this statement:’
‘The real test will come when voters come to terms with the changes on the daily lives – rather than hearing of the bizarre life and appalling crimes of one particular claimant.’
So once again linking welfare reform with Philpott’s crime and Osborne’s statement and policies.
Walker says Philpott’s life was ‘bizarre’…by that she presumably means unique and unusual…a lifestyle that is by no means everyday…and therefore shouldn’t be used to invoke changes to the welfare system.
I think Walker and the BBC are just out of touch with reality. I would wager that most people reading this could name at least one family, if not many more, who have a similar lifestyle, not necessarily with a live in lover as well as the wife…but the multiple children being used to provide an income….along with numerous other examples of excessive state funded generosity…after all how many families can afford to keep three horses? It seems not to be a problem for some unemployed families when the State is paying.
The welfare system is enormously generous for some things whilst being incredibly tightfisted over others…..the balance is wrong and needs to be sorted out to provide a fairer, more equal distribution of the pot…..Strange that the BBC and Labour, both fans of equality and fairness, seem unable to agree that this is needed.
Carole Walker is a professional journalist, she knows exactly the effect her words will have and she no doubt chose them carefully and fully considered what the reader might take from them.
Therefore you have to think that her report knowingly attacked Osborne and deliberately attempts to make it appear he links the children’s deaths with welfare reform.
Conclusion…on the face of it you would say that she is doing Labour’s job for them.
“I would wager that most people reading this could name at least one family, if not many more, who have a similar lifestyle, ………………………………”
I can’t Alan, can you?
I am actually a monarchist, au fond, but a lifestyle of sexual peccadillos, bloodletting and living off taxpayers money does rather put me in mind of various royal families.
Just saying.
Those Spaniards … those practices …
Albaman, what do you thnk?
And is that all you’ve got to say…nothing about the substance of the post?
What do you think Albaman…is Walker right or wrong about Osborne’s words?
Albaman raising the topic of what s/he does not know is brave indeed. Especially whilst highlighting what they don’t want to talk about vs. what they do.
As for ‘Analysis’ from the bbc, it is pretty clearly what they intend you to think.
IDS is openly criticising the BBC over their coverage of his welfare reforms. He’s basically saying they’re running with Labour’s ball.
They’ve been doing this for over 30 years, they’ve been running with Balls against Osborne; what does it take for the Conservative Party to clearly state the obvious that the BBC acts as a propaganda arm of the left and bring about reform to restore it’s statutory impariality on that basis?
In a revolution or a coup, the first thing the revolutionaries do is take over broadcasting.
In Britain they have done this in a shot and all our other institutions have fallen like a deck of cards.
Can we still really be called a democracy when Big Brother controls the airwaves and instead of defending democracy the ‘Conservative Party’ meekly falls in line behind it and embraces cultural Marxism?
We’re heading to the cliffs, it’s as simple as that. I give it 10 years.
We have no credible political party to defend our Judeo-Christian heritage and values that is the bedrock of our freedom.
I dunno about Alan knowing families like this…
But i certainly do, wanna try me on that one, numb nuts?
Here’s a little background for you:
Born and lived in Oldham for 16 years, I think we all know that Oldham is a multi-culti council estate shithole of the highest order, even a dumb northerner like me ran out of fingers & toes to count up the number of scum families with similar lifestyles to the Tosspotts.
A Labour stronghold.
Moved to Atherton, yup, the same small town that Bev Concannon lives, I know her personally, a woman with 5 kids, was a grandmother at the age of 36, has never worked a day in her life.
Atherton has 2 towns neighboring, each with their own versions of the Hag Fold estate Bev lives on, Tyldesley has The Shakerley estate, and Leigh has the Westleigh estate, all 3, despicable hellholes, breeding grounds for the feckless.
A Labour stronghold.
Wanna ask your question to someone who actually knows and lives in the real world again Alba-Person, instead of trying to shoot Alan who was providing a service only as the messenger?
Here’s the final slap in your horribly white chops Alba-Person, I am, and always have been Conservative…kind of ruins the narrative the Beeb have on Northerners, eh?
Burnley has got its share too. As have Colne and Nelson. Padiham. Accrington. Even Clitheroe.
Exactly….just because Alba-Person, in his ivory tower can’t see it, does not mean that it does not exist, and is not out there right now.
This is the problem with the progressive liberal breed, they never mix in the real world, they never see the country as it really is…I mean, you can’t can you, when you live in sheltered Islington or the like.
Can I just ask Chop, what did Concannon do with the kids because the house was only a 2? bed or had they moved out and started breeding by the time the dogs killed the girl?
Yeah, the other 3 had moved out, no idea if they began breeding to be fair, I haven’t been back to Atherton for 6 years now.
Don’t get me wrong, Bev is NOT an evil, or even bad person, she is what she is…a victim?…trapped?….willful to remain a life claimant?…all of the above I guess.
Chop, I can bet you one thing. The BBC will not be seeking you out on the strength of what you’ve put on this message board to ambush Ed Balls for his opposition to welfare reform.
They never see the country their neo-Marxism has created.
Any problems are always the wicked Tories’ fault and we need more neo-Marxism to solve it. These preening egos are always too clever and ‘morally superior’ to be wrong about anything.
Still, when everything goes 100% tits up no doubt they’ll then convert to Islam and foist that upon us as a solution.
Psychopathy, psychopathy, seek it out, it is emiting a poisonous gas from its gangrened ivory tower that is choking the nation to death.
The whole thing is, if people claim benefits without intending to work, the law requires that they are not only taken off benefits but that they’re prosecuted. But for some insane reason the law is not enforced, which is why we’re a breeding ground for parasites and why so many come to do the jobs that unemployable underclass Britain is not prepared to do.
Things are reaching a head. There is no democratic party willing to risk losing an election by speaking the truth to the British people like Margarat Thatcher did. We’re going to end up with something very ugly and evil to get us out of this mess and thugs they’ll be hiring will be the likes of the Philpott’s and their spawn.
I’m sure we can rely the BBC to spin this for the monster they’re creating.
Yes, Albaman, I can! In fact I can name dozens of families who have made a career of living on benefits.
You know,some of us inhabit the real world and I have spent thirty years dealing with people like Philpott. In that time I’ve met hundreds like him, finessing the benefit system to maximise their taxpayer funded handouts. I even know a local Labour councillor who has spent the past 25 years living on invalidity benefits, who waved £10 notes in peoples’ faces at the local working mens’ club and calling them all mugs for working for a living. He’s so disabled that he’s previously spent the summer months cleaning chalets at Butlin’s in Skegness. He’s pissed off so many people with his sponging that he’s been “dropped” to the DSS on numerous occasions, but he’s managed to wriggle out of every investigation. Can’t work but he’s fit enough to be a Labour Councillor without it affecting his benefits.
Obviously you don’t take much notice of recent events or you would remember the mother of Shannon Matthews arranging for the kidnapping of her own daughter, the Bardsley family, and that woman with eleven kids demanding, and having, the council build a bigger house at a cost of £400,000. All these people milking the system and part of the benefit dependant underclass that proliferated under the previous government.
Decent people finding themselves unemployed through no fault of their own get minimal help from the state when they need it, but the likes of Philpott spend all their waking hours finding ways to milk the system, and the authorities seem happy to oblige them.
Alabaman is a leftie wilfully blind to what’s happening.
Another person who the BBC will not be asking to ambush Ed Balls for them.
Another person who the BBC will not be contacting to ambush Ed Balls for them.
What a non-story this is.
When I heard it, Osborne was replying to a specific questioner, so for the likes of Paxman to say that Osborne “waded into the row” is a disgrace.
Typical perpetual BBC efforts to make their souffle rise…yet again, the BBC are only happy if they themselves make the news and create all the necessary sidewinds and squalls to create the never ending narrative that Balls and chums could never do themselves.
Because they are shallow shits, with a track record to terrify and hell-bent on finishing off this country….and if the BBC didn`t blow fetid air into the confection, there`d be absolutely nothing to see.
About time everybody went to iPlayer and campaigned to ensure no license fees for these lefty scum.
Balls is perhaps the vilest, most arrogant thug in the Labour Party.
He is also in Parliament due to a rather dubious win in his constituency, aided and abetted by the use of that wonderful Labour introduction….Postal votes.
The Tories have had plenty of opportunities to roll back the Liebour ‘progress’ unfortunately leftie Dave has failed to do so.
Can’t disagree with that Thoughful.
Even though I am “Conservative”, I no longer have a real Conservative party, the closest thing I have to real Conservatism is UKIP.
I know lots of ” Conservative supporters, think the Tories , are not right wing enough , but , I am afraid a vote , for UKIP , at the next election is only ,gonna give Millipeed an even bigger mandatate , a case of cutting of ones nose to spite their face !
err
off!
@Big Dick – So what you are saying is ‘don’t vote for a party that reflects the views and aspirations of the population and the real Tories – because you might get the return of the Labour Party who itself reflects the views of the pseudo Tories that everyone is begging you not to desert in case the Labour party gets in again.’
If everyone voted UKIP you know, you just might get a change.
I can understand what Big Dick is saying, it is a catch 22 situation, but again, Michele hits the nail on the head…Tory or Labour, it’s the same arse, just a different cheek of it right now, we are not in a 2-3 party democracy any more, it is a one party system masquerading as 3.
UKIP are out of their control, and it scares the shit out of the big 3…or big one, whatever way you look at it.
Look how scarred the Beeb are of UKIP, they either do not cover anything said by them, or they demonize or attempt to ridicule them.
A similar argument is taking place on the left. Kenneth Loach stimulated a discussion on the need for a left version of UKIP in Any Questions, others have wrote about it in the Guardian. Left Unity is veering towards the creation of a new socialist party.
http://leftunity.org/
If they put up candidates it might even equal the damage UKIP could inflict on Cameron’s party. I would conclude that it is best to vote for the policies you believe in, tactical voting is becoming unpredictable. http://leftunity.org/
I think the BBC is a collosal impediment to Conservtives getting their message across.
A Thought Police broadcaster is for a dictatorship, not a democracy. Very soon we’ll be living in dictatorship.
Indeed: he as asked “are the Philpotts vile products of welfare UK?” and as Alan rightly points out Osborne was also extremely careful to separate the issues: that the Philpotts were responsible for their crimes but raising the question about taxpayers subsidising Mick Philpott’s lifestyle.
We do know that the benefits system corrupts and a tax credit based system corrupts absolutely.
The various tweaks to the tax credits system are followed by the populace in a very precise manner. When the number of hours worked affects a tax credit EVERYONE adapts their hours to maximise their yield.
And so it is with every tax credit on offer.
No wonder people won’t work, have babies, pretend to be ill etc. We the tax payer are totally fed up with it.
Good point about labeling Osborne as “election strategist”, when he was speaking as Chancellor. Sure, the case can be made that this is a political issue with a mind towards an election……two years away. But the BBC will justify it that way anyway. Philpott wouldn’t be in the news at all if not for the crime, which means Osborne wouldn’t have used him as an example otherwise, but then there would be plenty of other examples to choose from anyway. So it’s not like there would be no concerns at all about the benefits lifestyle without the Philpott story. After all, didn’t we see this same kabuki dance around this time last year? With the BBC taking the same role?
As Carole Walker says ‘Chancellor George Osborne chose his words carefully …‘ but she then wrote the rest of her report as if he hadn’t.
Typical BBC bias.
You have beaten me to the comment Sir Arthur, George was very careful in what he said; evidence that a careless word said by a Tory would give the BBC plenty of evidence to use against them.
I don’t know why I do it, but I was listening to the Today programme this Saturday morning and once again felt I was listening to a Labour Party political broadcast. I have to say, this Ed Balls fellow, is he on tablets?
Hotel bound last weekend I
scanned two What The Papers Say on BBC 24 tv … both had loud shouty leftist harpies “commenting” on their favourite news … both biased and out of control … not very Reithian …
I think that the BBC are trying to put words into Osborne’s mouth and distort what he said to try and damage the Tory party on welfare. But it will backfire on them because many people actually agree with what the BBC claim Osborne actually meant and the Tories will gain votes from the BBC attack.
The BBC and their liberal left elite chums are so out of touch with what the country actually thinks that they want to try and bury the link between Philpot’s crime and his life style of exploiting the welfare system. Whereas the public know that billions of tax payers hard earned money is wasted on supporting the feckless ,lazy ,scroungers like him and are fed up with it and despise Labour, and increasingly, the BBC for supporting this sort of lifestyle.
“My days on the breadline, a disgraceful BBC and the wife whose love sustains me: Iain Duncan Smith hits back at the left.
“Mr Duncan Smith has been reviled for trying to reform benefits.
“But the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has had enough.”
By ANDREW PIERCE.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2304833/My-days-breadline-disgraceful-BBC-wife-love-sustains-Iain-Duncan-Smith-hits-left.html#ixzz2Pfe31Irg
Interesting piece and a marked contrast in the way Ian Duncan Smith condemns the BBC to the way that David Cameron was quoted in the Telegraph yesterday as thinking that the BBC was one of the things that the UK could be most proud of.
As IDS says ‘ the BBC is always negative , never explains, never talks about why we are reforming ,or the fact that the national debt is rising to terrifying levels.’
Why Cameron should choose to laud them in his speech is beyond me. Clearly some people in the cabinet recognise them for the leftist propaganda machine that they are.
Come Tories get stuck into the BBC and cut them down to size and give us all a £100 year tax break by reducing the License Fee to £45! A lot more people will support you than the BBC would ever like you to think.
£45? Zero more like.
A great piece by Andrew Pierce, but then he totally undermines it by claiming the BBC should be acting as cheerleader for IDS.
We want a BBC that facilitates debate, not dictates debate for one side or the other.
I listened to no more than a couple of minutes to ‘Any Answers’ – ‘tweets’ mentioned were those saying how terrible Osborne should use the deaths of the 6 children in Derbyshire for political ends – he didn’t (Balls did) but of course but of course reporting other people’s tweets means the Biased BBC are reporting not opinionating. I switched off.
Yes, a standard BBC piece of work, making Osborne’s remarks (rather than Philpott’s abuse of children, women and child benefit) the issue on both “Any Q’s?”, where it was the first item, and on “Any A’s?”, where it was dealt with at excessive length, meaning the only other issue fitted in was the nuclear defence one. Objectionable too was the return to the first questioner and her patronising praise for Ms Abbott’s on-message contribution.
I agree-when the first questioner was able to back up Abbotts answer-the questioner herself got a round of applause.
I`m sure Dimbly could surmise the Labour-loving tone of the question; hence the new “free go” to top and tail Abbotts vacuous lefty musings.
Typical lefty crap!
Philpott, the benefits system’s poster child, set fire to his house to regain custody of five children and the associated benefits.
But (if you’re a pretendy leftie) this has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with ‘the benefits system’.
… and he hoped to get a bigger and better house out of it, at our expense of course.
Well he’s got a bigger house out of it alright, though perhaps not the one he had in mind. Problem is, he’ll have to share it with several thousand other criminals. I expect he’ll need to watch his back now.
Mary Beard has yet to weigh in on this … we need her guidance just as we needed it on the impact of immigration on Boston, Lincolnshire …