OPEN THREAD…

Here’s a new one to follow on from David’s last one. Thatcher is still the BIG news story so detail it here. I can’t recall being this annoyed at the BBC in ages.

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241 Responses to OPEN THREAD…

  1. Leha says:

    Reading University / al beeB said that transatlantic flying will become increasingly turbulent in the years to come due to global warming and increasing carbon dioxide, their computer models said so, so it must be true……

    * tumbleweed

       51 likes

    • Leo says:

      They might be right that GW will affect the planet. Their planet though, not the one the rest of us live on!

         37 likes

    • Bob Nelson says:

      This was also reported in a Guardian article yesterday. It states categorically that global warming has caused the shift in the position of the jet stream although even the Met Office has said they cannot explain this.

      Many more in-flight injuries are confidently predicted.

         28 likes

      • Ian Hills says:

        Just waiting for the other two horsemen to show up now…

           18 likes

      • murgatroyd says:

        The best comment I heard was that the position of the jet stream is moving so all the wind farms, carefully positioned to get the most wind will be in the wrong places………

           32 likes

    • MartinW says:

      This preposterous compter-model ‘research’ was given an airing on the BBC Readio 4 Today programme, which gave Reading University the sole credit for it. However, as I understand it, this was a joint research project of Reading and …. wait for it … the University of East
      Anglia Climate Research group. Well, well, I wonder why the BBC didn’t mention that?

         44 likes

    • GBA says:

      Looks like the BBC will soon be telling us that we’ve b******* up the climate on the Sun too!
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2290289/NASA-warns-unexpected-happening-Sun-year-supposed-peak-sunspot-cycle.html

         18 likes

  2. noggin says:

    the new youth police commissioner has already stood down, crikey! getting as bad as head of bbc …
    the bbc of course making the utmost of this absurd perceived “waycist” tweets nonsense, had Thatcher not croaked one can assume they would have really gone for her.
    In my opinion the only crime for this tearful little “un”, is having a continuous “bad hair day” which should confine her to action by the fashion police ….
    I ve read that little Paris was apparently the best of all the ahem “candidates” too? …
    the mind boggles.

    The beeb obviously think she is too “hideously white”
    they will have to find and champion a multi culti choice
    won t they … they seem to be a bit late on all this “yoof” commissioner “down wiv da kidz” scene don t they? … maybe her name fooled them Paris Brown … wouldn t take much, would it 😀

       40 likes

  3. Alex says:

    I’ve lost count the amount of times I’ve herd the word ‘divisive’ on the BBC, this week; and how they can interview/quote former IRA murderers for their opinions beggars belief. However, the BBC seem to be very quiet on the actions of those scum who’ve been out in the street breaking into charity shops, throwing bottles at the police in an utterly disorderly and aggressive manner and ‘celebrating’ the death of an elderly lady. It’s an utter disgrace! What has this country come to? The Left have created a monstrous youth movement who are beginning to make the Nazis look like Dad’s Army! Unbelievable… It makes you fed up of living here, to be honest, as I see no way whatsoever of reasoning with these socialist fascists.

       96 likes

    • Bannerman says:

      Time to revisit the tuition fee’s!

         15 likes

    • #88 says:

      It’s all in the name of BBC ‘balance’, Alex.

      Of course the BBC could have ‘balanced’ Laura Trott’s (BTW: how appropriate a name is that?!) report from Liverpool today – in which she said that Thatcher’s cabinet had discussed a managed decline in Liverpool, with the fact that Thatcher herself would have none of it and despatched Hesseltine to Merseyside to provide support.

      They could have ‘balanced’ the Milk snatcher jibe that I heard today, with the fact that she withdrew milk from junior school children – it had previously been with drawn from seniors by a Labour education secretary Edward Short.

      And they could have ‘balanced’ the mountain of polemic from a multitude of callers by asking them to justify their assertions and by challeng them – I heard not one challenge from any presenter this morning, a challenge that might have at least ‘informed’ the listener;

      I would for example have expected presenters to have briefed themselves and at least been able to offer a challenge on;

      – the state of our economy in 1979
      – our failing heaving industries
      – what the state of Industrial relations were like
      – the undemocratic subjugation of the workers by their unions
      – soviet funding of the unions
      – That Thatcher didn’t close all of the pits, Labour closed more
      – That Thatcher wasn’t involved in a Hillsborough cover-up but the Blair / Straw e-mails show that they cynically played a game to shut the Hillsborough families up
      – The Belgrano wasn’t a ‘troop ship’ but a warship that was within the theatre of war and a threat. It wasn’t turning for home but had been ordered to rendezvous with other warships within the exclusion zone

      I could go on…but it was of course too much to expect the likes of Stephen Nolan to have spent an hour or so in preparation.

      The BBC have a strange idea about ‘balance’

         73 likes

      • #88 says:

        Ooops ! That should be ‘heavy industries’

           6 likes

      • uncle bup says:

        I would for example have expected presenters to have briefed themselves…
        —————————————————————–

        I wouldn’t. They never have so why start now. A quick five minutes scanning briefing notes prepared by an intern is all you can expect.

        Lazy bastards.

           25 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          This allegedly unbiased pieced summarizes Thatcher’s accomplishments with the following two statements:

          If she had fallen under a bus in 1978, would Britain today be so different? Her champions and her critics would answer with a firm yes. But I doubt it.

          And:

          And in several centuries’ time, when the minutiae of the Falklands War or the poll tax have been forgotten, I suspect that what Britain will remember about Margaret Thatcher is the simple fact of her femininity.

          Thatcher herself might not agree, but in the end, the interesting thing about the Iron Lady was not that she was made of iron. It was that she was a lady.

          Other than that, she was merely a trend-rider, apparently.

             12 likes

          • Rufus McDufus says:

            That’s an incredibly sexist comment of the BBC to make isn’t it? We won’t remember any of her achievements, just that she was a woman. Neanderthal.

               1 likes

        • johnnythefish says:

          ‘……..after decades of underinvestment, asset stripping, grotty management and belligerent unions’.

          Ahhh, what a balanced picture you paint, Colditz.

             3 likes

        • Dickmart says:

          Don’t you mean the briefing note supplied by Labour HQ?

             4 likes

    • ROBERT BROWN says:

      Yep, and i guess most rioting were born after 1979. Time to get ugly with looters, three warnings then real bullets, stuff the wasters.

         25 likes

    • Albaman says:

      “the BBC seem to be very quiet on the actions “……………… and again perhaps not.
      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-22077072

         10 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        They could have at least mentioned why she was staying at the Ritz, as opposed to mentioning it out of context.

           14 likes

        • Albaman says:

          Do you mean something along the lines of: “Lady Thatcher, who retired from public speaking in 2002, had suffered poor health for several years. She had been staying at the Ritz hotel since being discharged from hospital at the end of last year.”
          http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22067155

             10 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            In the first story you posted, dude, not a different one. Try again.

               13 likes

            • Albaman says:

              The story in the second link preceded the link in my first post. Why should the BBC need to qualify the status of her residence in the Ritz in every article. You must really be clutching at straws to perceive this as “bias”.

                 9 likes

              • David Preiser (USA) says:

                Not really clutching. Pretty much all stories about some public figure dying mention the location, don’t they? Died at home, in the hospital, etc. But a news organization with a special requirement to avoid appearing partisan – especially considering the circumstances – ought to realize the class war implications of the Ritz. It’s careless if not deliberate. They wouldn’t be so careless if it wasn’t such a hated figure.

                   17 likes

                • David Preiser (USA) says:

                  This assumes that everyone who reads the website watches or listens to the same things you do. They don’t. All readers of either article know is that she stayed at the Ritz. The actual valid reason for it is censored for some reason.

                     13 likes

              • johnnythefish says:

                Albaman: little-read BBC website articles do not provide any kind of balance to the reports and views seen and heard by millions via BBC radio and television.

                   19 likes

                • Albaman says:

                  Those “little-read BBC website articles” (and even less read “tweets”) are used by many posting here to evidence perceived bias. You can’t have it both ways.

                     10 likes

                  • David Preiser (USA) says:

                    That logic doesn’t quite work. Bias in an on-line article is not diminished because less people read it. At best you’d have a case that “little-read” articles don’t do much to support our argument about the vast influence the BBC has on the public conversation.

                       12 likes

                  • johnnythefish says:

                    The vast bulk of the examples of bias on here are from television and radio.

                       9 likes

                  • deegee says:

                    As the BBC doesn’t necessarily put everything broadcast online and those out of the UK may not have access to them if they do links to text are the only practical way to provide evidence for a claim.

                       1 likes

        • Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

          I pointed out in yesterday’s Margaret Thatcher, RIP thread that the bBBC deliberately changed the first line of its news item to get in the subliminal class-warfare dig. Thanks to newssniffer for tracking it: http://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/628301/diff/5/6
          Previous version (15.00):
          Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died “peacefully” at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke, her family has announced.
          Next version (16.15):
          Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher has died “peacefully” at the age of 87 after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London.

             10 likes

          • That's just stupid says:

            They just updated the story as more information became available. If the aim was to fuel “class-warfare” why did The Sun put the fact about the Ritz into its front page headline? http://news.uk.msn.com/margaret-thatcher-dies-newspaper-front-pages-271819?page=4
            Biased-BBC; That’s just stupid.

               4 likes

            • Wild says:

              BBC using “class warfare” language to pursue a self-interested political agenda – unthinkable!

                 3 likes

              • Albaman says:

                Yes, it is all the BBC’s fault that she was staying at the Ritz at the time of her death. They were probably even footing the bill from the license fee.

                   4 likes

                • Wild says:

                  BBC using “class warfare” language to pursue a self-interested political agenda – unthinkable!

                     8 likes

                • Andy S. says:

                  The management of the Ritz offered her a suite gratis for as long as she lived. The only cost was to the hotel management.

                     2 likes

          • carr says:

            Why isn’t Lady Thatcher being buried without such a public ceremony as other prime ministers have been? And why is The Queen attending the funeral, something which politicises the Monarchy and so will make it even more unpopular than it is in certain quarters?

               1 likes

            • Wild says:

              What has that got to do with the BBC? Take it up with your Republican friends.

                 11 likes

            • Pounce says:

              Why isn’t Lady Thatcher being buried without such a public ceremony as other prime ministers have been?

              Because unlike any Labour PM, Maggie put the country before everything else.

              why is The Queen attending the funeral,

              Maybe because she actually knew the woman. Its what people who knew somebody do when they die.

                 4 likes

  4. Chilli says:

    BBC pushing the bogus ‘divisive’ and ‘controversial’ characterisation again and again on Mews24. No mention of the fact she won 3 general elections with a majority Cameron could only dream of. Sick to the back teeth of the BBC and their endless agitprop for socialism.

       47 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      While I’m not sure that calling her ‘divisive’ is entirely bogus, let’s consider how the BBC describes Tony Blair, George Bush, and the current US President. Is Blair described routinely as ‘divisive’ or ‘controversial’? He won the same amount of elections as Thatcher. George Bush won the two he ran, as has The Obamessiah.

      The BBC has described Bush as , whatever that means, in a profile piece entitled “one of the most divisive presidents in recent memory”Divided America: The Bush factor (No negative character traits were ascribed to those who opposed his policies, unlike how the BBC kept describing the true motivation of opponents of the current President’s policies.)

      We kept hearing in the run-up to the last election how divided and polarized the US had suddenly become, but no one at the BBC has ever suggested the He is a “divisive” figure. Blame was always shifted elsewhere.

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12149152

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/8564159.stm

      http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19667384

      No, in some cases, the dividing factor is the leader, and in other cases, blame lies with those who don’t like the leader.

      It’s interesting to see how differences of opinion on policies are treated in different ways, depending on the leader in question.

         34 likes

      • Alex says:

        I agree and I’d say that 99.9% of leaders will be naturally be divisive; it’s the nature of modern politics I suppose. However, in the BBC’s eyes some leaders are more divisive than others, depending on which side of the political fence they stand!

           20 likes

        • David Preiser (USA) says:

          Sometimes it seems that “divisive” or “controversial” simply mean that it’s something the writer doesn’t like. Not everyone is going to approve of any policy or leader, but differing opinions aren’t necessarily such an extreme situation. Yet with some people and policies, the BBC defines them as such, while in other cases where there is an equal amount of disagreement, not so much.

             4 likes

        • Ian Hills says:

          I’d love a return to “divisive” politics. Instead we have the EU/global warming/high spending party with three names.

             19 likes

  5. Sinniberg says:

    It was a disgrace the way the BBC went for this 17 year old girl over some remarks she made THREE years ago.

    And now they’ve got what they wanted.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-22083032

    What a truly cretinous organisation.

       16 likes

    • DJ says:

      Meanwhile, Labour Parliamentary candidate John O’Sullivan’s self-confessed support for both the IRA and the Argentine Junta is just confirmation that he’s a loveable jack the lad, he was only joking and it was all a long time ago anyway.

         43 likes

      • #88 says:

        And the BBC haven’t even bothered to report Chuka Umunna’s remarks about his fellow Londoners and night club goers;

        ‘London is full of trash and wanabees.’

        Imagine if Boris had said that.

           58 likes

    • stewart says:

      This is the face of the liberal inquisition laid bare
      There will be more of this to come.

         21 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Who the BBC go after, and for what remarks, on twitter or elsewhere seems to be variable to a unique extent.
      It seems to be more a matter of who you are than what you say.
      One is sure Carol Thatcher may agree.
      The subject of hypocrisy is raised often, and often with cause.
      But when it is Britain’s publicly-funded national media monopoly the most shameless culprit, there is something very rotten afoot.

         28 likes

    • Llew says:

      How odd, the BBC went after her for “offensive” tweets made years ago, yet remain silent on all the offensive tweets made since yesterday lunchtime, even not noticing the nasty tweets from those employed by, or paid by, the BBC.

         42 likes

      • Mark says:

        There own staff and reporters having been tweeting MT hatred. What a discusting corporation, all on our money…..

           31 likes

        • Llew says:

          Which is why I mentioned elsewhere that all these vile tweets and comments from BBC employees, or those who are linked to / paid by the BBC should be recorded on a permanent webpage as a reminder of just who ultimately gets money from your BBC Telly Tax.

             17 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Llew, check the “In Their Own Tweets” page via the tab at the top. If you find more, please post links or embed in the comments.

               8 likes

            • Llew says:

              Thanks for that, I hadn’t noticed the link! Glad these things are kept – just need more of the public to see them.

                 1 likes

    • chrisH says:

      It`s as if Jimmy Savile hasn`t gone away isn`t it?

         0 likes

  6. Guest Who says:

    In other news, I was just scoping two stories from an email summary I get, for free, from a source I value highly, not least because of it citing sources and explaining arguments in detail beyond #prsasnews cut ‘n paste ‘beliefs’:
    http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/9/questions-to-ministers.html
    This sounds awfully familiar:
    ‘Questions relating to the work of the Met Office on global warming are being put in the UK parliament, and the Met Office is refusing to answer them. Parliamentary Questions have a history going back centuries. Giving answers, or giving a valid reason for not answering, is required. The stand-off is yet to be resolved.’
    Maybe they are going to borrow Hugs’ legal team and try and swing an exemption on the basis of it being ‘for the purposes of climate, weather, warming, wierding and extremes’?
    The BBC pulled it off for less.
    Of course, one can simply pull another old Aunty trick, stick fingers in ears and pretend nothing is amiss..
    http://www.bishop-hill.net/blog/2013/4/8/the-bbc-and-the-great-levelised-costs-lie.html
    ‘it reminded me of an exchange I’d had with a BBC journalist about the use of levelised costs by advocates for windfarms. I had explained how misleading levelised costs are, a point that elicited the following response:

    “…this is the current standard measure – used by governments, industry, academics and international bodies. Any such measure, by its nature, will have limitations.”

    It doesn’t matter that it’s misleading. Everybody is being misleading.
    Being astounding uncurious seems poor value at £145.50pa for an entity claiming professional integrity in educating and informing.
    If the output is worth nothing, charging for it is more like fraud.

       21 likes

  7. Mark says:

    During his junk aftenoon show Richard Bacon, (5 live trash) had interviews with a Sheffield news paper editor who carried a “gloating” front page headline about Mrs. T passing away & a catholic editor of an Ulster news paper (so nice & balanced).

    As if the 5 minutes of absolutely disgraceful journalism wasn’t enough Bacon (probably getting off on one by now) mentioned the comment to the Sheffield editor that “apart from the confronting miners & running down the steel industry, most people in Sheffield held suspicion over Mrs. Thatcher about Hillsborough! “didn’t they”

    This shows how sadistic the left loonies are and how far they will go to try and recover from the years of beating Mrs. T gave them……. All fronted by our licence fee money, what an utter disgrace.

       48 likes

  8. George R says:

    Update:

    “Will the haters try to wreck Maggie’s send-off?
    Police plan massive security operation for Baroness Thatcher’s £8million funeral.”

    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2306155/Margaret-Thatcher-funeral-date-plans-Wednesday-April-17-St-Pauls-Queen-WILL-attend.html#ixzz2Pz86zUgw
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

       4 likes

    • Expat John says:

      “Fix bayonets.”

         13 likes

    • Albaman says:

      When the Daily Mail pose a question such as that then the answer is usually “No”.
      As those commenting/posting here all have access to a PC perhaps you could explain why you find it necessary to post a link to every Daily Mail story?

         8 likes

      • Chop says:

        Shouldn’t you be sat in front of a “The Witch Is Dead” banner, swigging special brew, waving a copy of “Socialist Worker” at all, and anyone passing by Alba-Person?

           25 likes

        • Albaman says:

          Not really, why?

             8 likes

          • Chop says:

            Just generalizing, same as you numb nuts.

            I guess my satire was wasted on you?

               22 likes

            • Albaman says:

              “numb nuts” – interesting phrase, is that another example of your satire?

                 9 likes

              • Chop says:

                That was a statement in response to your actions, not satire intended with that one.

                Oh, and stop liking your own messages with your other accounts….it’s embarrassing.

                   23 likes

                • Albaman says:

                  Sorry, but I don’t have any “other accounts” with which to like my posts. Is that what you do?

                     7 likes

                • Albaman says:

                  Did a little “googling” and it would appear that you really meant to type “numbnuts”. Must be rather embarrassing when you are corrected by: “The stupidest of the stupid. A complete dumbass, one whose intelligence quotient does not surpass that of the average rock.”

                     8 likes

                  • Chop says:

                    I notice no one is liking your comments any more, after I just called you out on it.

                    Oops.

                       21 likes

                    • Albaman says:

                      You must be right then – I have obviously closed all those “other accounts” which only exist in your mind.

                         8 likes

                  • Leha says:

                    my dad is bigger than your dad

                       11 likes

                    • Chop says:

                      LOL…thanks Leha 🙂

                      I’m sure Alba-Person can go and google “LOL” for us all now.

                         12 likes

      • Expat John says:

        Surely the point is that you can choose to buy the Daily Mail, or not, depending on your inclinations.
        That’s called Freedom of choice.
        I have no freedom not to pay for the largest media organisation in Britain, regardless of my inclinations.
        It is the BBC’s defenders that have to answer this point, not those of us who realise that a free market in news, as with any other commodity, is the best defence of liberty that there is.

           26 likes

        • Well you're an expat says:

          So it’s got nothing to do with you. Logging on to a website to complain about something in another country just seems a bit odd. But there’s a lot of that on here.

             1 likes

          • Guest Who says:

            ‘So it’s got nothing to do with you’
            Interesting projections and precedents there.
            The BBC does comment a fair bit on what happens elsewhere, and I believe claims to be one of the larger media influences globally, so those it talks about and to may feel that what the BBC meddles in does affect them and have some justification in chipping in upon.
            Then, domestically, reading more into its branding and believing more of its internal hype than may be warranted, the BBC does claim to ‘speak for the nation’, so even those who may not actually be physically within the UK but get held to account by others for what our spokespersons choose to broadcast, may also feel ‘it’ is still something to do with them.
            So perhaps the only odd part is what you are seeking to impose, and from which position.

               5 likes

          • David Preiser (USA) says:

            Well, you’re an expat but you apparently have no idea about the BBC’s relentless expansion into the US, for one thing. You apparently have no idea that the BBC has a whole battalion of employees creating content for broadcast and the website targeted specifically at the US audience. BBC World News America may have been cut down to half an hour and relegated to the elite hinterlands of PBS, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and isn’t made for a US audience.

            Well you’re an expat but not very informed.

               7 likes

          • Expat John says:

            and don’t presume I don’t pay British taxes, either…

               3 likes

  9. Colonel Blimp says:

    from what I could make out from the subtitles in the gym earlier, News24 seemed to have two women on violently agreeing with each other than Mrs T was no feminist and that she was bad for women.

       20 likes

  10. Beness says:

    Lefties should maybe stop ad think for a minute. without the cold war we would have had the space race, we would not have had the arpanet and then the internet. without the benfits of entrepeneurs we would not have smart phones and the access to social media.

    Bet theres a few who would rather us not have acess to social media.

       11 likes

    • Cosmo says:

      Tony Benn ( actualy Anthony Wegwood Benn ) whats this a red doing a bit of re-branding to be more consumer friendly, he ran the GPO, a great socialist national monopoly. With him or his ilk still in charge you would be on a 24 month waiting list for a party line phone. Don’t even think of a mobile network.

         22 likes

      • chrisH says:

        And he was Energy Secretary at a time when the Labour lot were closing down mines faster than even Thatch managed.
        Any news on that then?…course not.
        For they were necessary to bring us all closer to our inner wind turbine, and save the polar bears.
        As for Thatchers Environmental speech where she said that he were only tenants on the earth on lease from our grandkids(first by a western leader back in 89 or suchlike?)…not a peep!
        Hypocritical partial scum at the BBC and Guardian, Greenpeace and FoE…but we`d expect nothing less of the evil filth that passes for “media analysts” these days.

           24 likes

  11. Daniel O'Flaherty says:

    Read out uncritically on BBC breakfast this morning:
    Climate Change to effect Flight Paths
    Yes, seriously.
    I had to pick my jaw up off the floor. The BBC are STILL using discredited C02 modelling ‘science’ in headline news stories. Unbelievable.
    I had to check online to see it in black and white, just in case I dreamt it.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22063340

       26 likes

  12. Guest Who says:

    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/how-i-am-doing.html?
    ‘the current online forms (which are apparently “a nightmare” – this from the organisation that streamed all of the Olympics and developed the iPlayer)’
    And, lest we forget, reluctant FoI responses that are on parchment so denuded that the might of of a global media monolith is incapable of providing convenient e-versions and often attempts to claim it will need to be sent as illuminated script via carrier pigeon.
    Maybe market rate management should spend a year on it all, before telling staff that ‘they all have got it about right, as always’, and award each other newer, shinier jobs and double pensions?
    ps: To the options offered in the graphic, as a public compelled funder, I’m going for c)

       4 likes

  13. Fred Bloggs says:

    It’s always there: R4 news 6:10, they talking about Thatcher of course and how ‘she took on the NUM’. The NUM against their own rules called a strike without a ballot. They would have lost a ballot, but the bBC does not phrase it ‘the NUM tried to take down the Thatcher gov’. Always try to make the left look better than they are.

       34 likes

  14. David Brims says:

    Nicky Campbell ” She called Nelson Mandela a terrorist ! ”

    ” Was Margret Thatcher a waaycist ? ”

    Groan.

       36 likes

    • David Brims says:

      At least he’s stopped babbling on about that non story Paulo Di Canio is a Fascist.

         23 likes

  15. Beness says:

    did Arthur scargill becomre life president of the NUM?

       8 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Yes, just like Thatcher was apparently still ruining the country until Monday night……

         29 likes

    • Fred Bloggs says:

      I read recently that the union took Scargill to court as he had refused to vacate a NUM funded house that he lived in for free.

         26 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Mentioned by BBC industrial correspondent Nicholas Jones here, as well as the fact that the NUM has severed all ties with him. I wonder if Jones is due up on Newsnight any time soon?

           14 likes

  16. pedro says:

    keith vaz comrades,,,oh yes the odious keith vaz,,this man and the left wing press(including the 2 faced daily mail) have succeded in hounding out that poor child paris brown in her job as youth police commissioner just because some left wing fascists trolled through her tweet account and went grassing her up,,,the latest is she will be investigated by the police,,,are these the same police who decided to take no action against the racist and fascist muslim extemist anjem choudary who called for david cameron and barack obama to be killed…are these the same police who took no action against lord ahmed who made racist and anti semetic rants against the jewish community,,,,,thats where a get back to keith vaz comrades…all week he has been calling for that poor child paris brown to be hounded and sacked out of her job..funny how he did not do the same to his mate anti semetic and racist lord ahmed who is still sitting in the house of lords,,,what hypocrites with double standards are keith vaz and co comrades,,,they make me sick…..

       36 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Whoever this vacuous airbrain of a kid is…she`ll make a better MP and a more credible Select Committee oilrag that Vaz.
      Does she sell passports?..if not, she`s in!

         13 likes

  17. DB says:

    BBC Radio 4 Word of Mouth presenter Michael Rosen – another of Radio 4’s hardcore lefty brigade tenured for life on the licence fee:

       41 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Another BBC lifer. Oxbridge pedigree included, naturally.

         26 likes

    • Mark says:

      Rat-faced git Rosen is another SWP supporter

         25 likes

      • ltwf1964 says:

        SWP

        that’ll be the “sex without permission” party

        google SWP and rape cover ups

           13 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Oh the wit!
      How many stories has Rosen told kids in schools over the years?…yet his own miserable existence depends on being a Highgate luvvie bankrolled by the BBC.
      The horror story is that Thatcher never scraped the hull of BBC barnacles and state limpits like Rosen, Taylor and Toksvig…and we still have to put up with the lefty contempt of the bedwetting class.
      How long though?

         32 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      No defence of Rosen from Colditz and co?

      How strange.

         16 likes

    • Andrew says:

      If children want horror, just take a look at Rosen and the BBC – they are horrible.

         15 likes

      • Wild says:

        Why should a Stalinist like Michael Rosen be opposed to Margaret Thatcher? It is a puzzle.

           6 likes

    • paul says:

      Parents, be careful when explaining to your children tonight who Jimmy Savile was and the way the BBC papered over the story. Dont forget to not pay the TV tax and go so sleep with a smile on your face

         6 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        LOL. And the top mandarins pretended not to know about it, while the other thousands said they knew all along. Somebody has gone out with a smile on their face anyways…….

           3 likes

  18. Jeff Waters says:

    ‘The once indomitable “Margaret Thatcher the milk snatcher” is now frail and bewildered by callous contemporary Britain: a culture she had a large hand in creating.

    The irony is lost on the old lady portrayed by Meryl Streep, but not on the viewer. Thatcher’s political children have not turned out as she thought they would, but to her bafflement, society has: There is no longer such a thing.’

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22072552

    If Will Gompertz understood what Mrs Thatcher meant when she said that there was no such thing as society, he wouldn’t have embarrassed himself with the above reference. Let’s have the full quote:

    there is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women, and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look to themselves first. It’s our duty to look after ourselves and then, also to look after our neighbour. People have got the entitlements too much in mind, without the obligations, because there is no such thing as an entitlement unless someone has first met an obligation.

    So all Mrs Thatcher was saying basically is ‘don’t depend on ‘something for nothing’ handouts from the state. Try to stand on your own two feet and look after yourself, your family and your community’.

    Jeff

       38 likes

    • DB says:

      “a culture she had a large hand in creating” – what bollocks, straight from lefty luvvie groupthink central. No wonder he got the job as BBC arts ed.

         26 likes

      • David Preiser (USA) says:

        Looks like Gompertz needs to talk to the historian who wrote that Viewpoint article explaining how Thatcher had essentially no influence because things were moving in that direction already and Britain would be where it is now regardless.

        BBC opinion: Thatcher was either bad for the country or ultimately irrelevant. Love her or loathe her, eh?

        Except Stephanie Flanders who said on air that Thatcher fixed the lousy economy she inherited, and that she was responsible for shifting the economy out from under so much government control. I wonder whose credentials I’m supposed to respect: Flanders’ or Dominic Sandbrook’s?

           19 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      Will Gompertz is just another BBC Lefty; they deal in slogans not ideas.

      He may look like the nutty professor but he’s actually quite dim.

         27 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        They are certainly good at using quotes out of context for their own ends.

           9 likes

        • Wild says:

          Will Gompertz was too thick even to study for A levels so it is no surprise he is the BBC Arts correspondent – clearly a case of who you know.

             8 likes

    • Reed says:

      The biggest projection is that she made British society more selfish, a charge made by the same people who despised the stifling conformism of pre-Beatles England. Whether you personally like that change or not, it was the 1960s that made Britain more individualistic, and more self-centred; freedom and selfishness, that’s the trade-off.

      When these people shout that Maggie made everyone selfish, are they just projecting their own guilt? Possibly.

      blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100211299/dont-blame-margaret-thatcher-for-britain-being-selfish-blame-your-hippy-parents/

         14 likes

  19. johnnythefish says:

    The Left hate Thatcher principally for 2 reasons:

    1) She put the Socialist cause in Britain back at least 20 years.

    2) She was instrumental in the fall of the Soviet empire.

       43 likes

  20. Jeff says:

    What a splendid advert for the Left showing their ugly celebrations at the death of an old woman. I wasn’t a huge fan of Mrs T. when she was PM, but dear God, it is surely right to show some respect at her passing. Not surprisingly the repulsive George Galloway hoped “she is roasting in hell fire.” Terrorist, Gerry Adams, accused her of costing lives in Northern Ireland (seriously!) and that charming and sensitive chap Billy Bragg wants demonstrations on the day of her funeral.
    Just so long as he promises not to sing…

       41 likes

    • noggin says:

      adams – terrorist – liar
      allahway – terrorist sympathiser – liar
      bragg – terrorist to the ears – couldn t spell or play the lyre, (mind you, he struggles with the guitar)
      the al bbc prime choice sadly, whats new eh!

      don t agree she should get a ceremonial funeral at all
      it is not warranted, give her a family one, after all they can afford it, and it would be peaceful.
      because you know i don t believe this one will be.

         14 likes

      • Alan Larocka says:

        Don’t forget us in Scotland who had the opinions of Tommy Sheridan. Yet another convicted liar. These ‘people’ all crawling out out from under the rock which the BBC has conveniently lifted for them.

           17 likes

      • chrisH says:

        So long as they screw the BBC for the filming rights beforehand.
        Wouldn`t it be great if-in death-she still managed to bring down the BBC?
        And-given the likes of Galloway, Sheridan and Campbell being revealed as the preferred voices by the BBC…this one may well yet run.
        Savile was the bomb…maybe the Great Margaret may yet provide us with the flame for the fuse!
        The angels are with her anyway…

           8 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      She’s dead, nobody connected to her is in power, so what’s the point other than making them all feel good about themselves? Any BBC analysis about this forthcoming?

         9 likes

    • Mark says:

      With any luck “Socialist Worker” will go under, thanks to its repulsive venomous poster rejoicing at MT’s death.

      I will have to stay away from any town this Saturday, or I would not be held responsible for any actions if I were to confront anyone trying to peddle that vile waste of a tree.

         26 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        We can be sure Hacked Off are keeping an eye on these offensive publications with a view to bringing court action on behalf of the bereaved family members.

        No?

        Why not?

           23 likes

    • Andrew says:

      Touching to see Gerard Adams so concerned about loss of human life.

         26 likes

    • chrisH says:

      “Sing” eh?
      After forty years of his “bellicose quackery”..why would he start to sing NOW?

         6 likes

    • John Guest says:

      Ah, George Galloway – a skidmark on the underpants of British politics.

         3 likes

  21. tommy atkins says:

    It starts here
    a special “tell us about your family experiences of “fatch””:
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22076593

       7 likes

  22. tommy atkins says:

    @jeff
    Billy Brag may have forgotten to mention that he is organising his demonstrations from Dorset where he has been celebrating the left’s multicultural utopia that is London by living in the most mono-cultural part of England for the past 25 odd years.

       46 likes

    • Mark says:

      He’s just typical of the wealthy socialists who chose not to live in a vibrant multicurtural Labour-run city.

         25 likes

    • DJ says:

      Biily Bragg? Oh yeah, I remember, this guy:

         20 likes

      • chrisH says:

        Yuk yuk! Arf arf tee hee and titter!

           1 likes

        • london calling says:

          Sheer bloody genius. The Pythons saw right through the faux-Left pretenders. Takes a posh education to do that.

             5 likes

          • Mark says:

            THe Pythons also saw through the bores who kept bleating about ‘the bad old days’, with each speaker giving a more ridiculous account than the previous one.
            “FOUR YORKSHIREMEN”
            “Luxury. We had to get up at five in the morning, work twenty-nine hours a day down t’mill and pay t’mill o owner permission, and when we got home, our dad would slice us in two with a broken bottle if we were lucky.”

               1 likes

  23. All Seeing Eye says:

    I’m going to start an online petition to have the BBC’s new headquarters renamed ‘The Owen Jones Television Centre’ in acknowledgement of his repeated contributions to their utterly impartial news output.

       36 likes

  24. Framer says:

    The ‘divisive’ meme is all over Sky News who are trying to emulate the BBC. (Wait till Murdoch stops funding that loss maker.)
    There must be a chattering class ‘line’ arranged in London HQ.

       9 likes

  25. Sir Arthur Strebe-Grebling says:

    There’s a letter in The Times today from John Tate (Director Policy & Strategy BBC – no, me neither, isn’t that what we’re paying Purnell £300,000 for?). Tate asserts that ‘the licence fee model has shown itself resilient, enjoying greater public support today than it did 20 years ago’. He doesn’t cite any evidence, of course.

       22 likes

    • tommy atkins says:

      This is NOT due to increased public support for the BBC
      1. There are about 1.5m more households than 20 years ago.
      2. About 15 years ago the TV Licencing Authority put the frighteners on commercial addresses – factories, and offices which may now have TVs on, (all watched by people with licenses at home anyway!)
      3. Black and White TV licenses have declined sharply over the past 20 years.

         11 likes

    • Mark says:

      It’s only like “Animal Farm” when Squealer keeps reeling off lists of statistics saying that everything on the farmwas invariably getting better and better. He was true in one sense, in that everything was getting better and better – for the pigs alone !

         1 likes

  26. Dave666 says:

    Ok you remember I complained to BBc as follows
    Complaint Summary: Under occupancy Penalty report

    Full Complaint: After seeing your report on the “demonstration” by the Halton anti “bedroom tax group” I feel I must complain about how this report was pitched. After already seeing this bunch stage a non event demonstration earlier this year. When reported in the local press it was obvious the number who turned out was extremely low. The report on North West tonight showed no counter view. It may be hard to believe but some of us think it’s unfair housing benefit should be paid in full to persons in who are living in property’s that too large. I watched the video complete with camera angles to make the crowd look larger. There were obviously not many people there. I’ve used the camera angle “trick” myself in the past when I was involved in politics. Please can you explain why you decided to only report one side of this story. Please do not do what your normal action is with a complaint. That is to say ignore it as I will only then re-complain about your lack of response.

    So what do you think the reply was? Give up?
    Thanks for taking the time to contact the BBC.

    We understand you feel there has been insufficient coverage of the protests that took place in opposition to changes to housing benefits.

    These reforms have featured heavily in our news programmes and we believe we have accurately and fairly reflected the nature and extent of the opposition.

    On Saturday 16th March, the demonstrations were covered on the main BBC One evening news bulletin and featured throughout the day on the BBC News Channel.

    In addition to these reports, the BBC News website has also included extensive coverage. Examples of articles include:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21816736
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21815636
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-21981163
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-21980599

    We therefore feel we gave the demonstrations an appropriate level of coverage.

    We’d also like to assure you that we’ve registered your complaint on our Audience Log. This is a daily report of audience feedback that’s made available to all BBC staff, including members of the BBC Executive board, channel controllers and other senior managers.

    The Audience Logs are seen as important documents that can help shape decisions on future BBC programmes and content.

    Once again, thank you for contacting us.

    Kind Regards

    Errrr? Is it just me?

       15 likes

    • stewart says:

      No I think you got the puplicans farewell

         1 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Curious how none of the links provided feature anything from the other side of the story other than one sentence from the Government. Which is only in two of the four. Two of them had the same video of the same protest, possibly the one you saw? The last one had a similarly presented video of a protest in Wales, with full face time for a complainer. None of the video footage featured anything from an alternative perspective, which was the salient part of your complaint, if I understood correctly.

      They’ve covered it extensively? How about showing both sides of the argument extensively? ZZzzzzz

      Seems like the BBC deliberately dodged the point of your complaint because they had nothing serious to offer in their defense. But they sure have reflected the nature of the opposition, if over-egging the extent. Which seems to have been their goal, and they’ve proudly told you they accomplished it, while ignoring the actual point of your complaint.

         11 likes

    • Dave666 says:

      Ok so that will be another complaint. They decided to answer a question I didn’t ask and they still haven’t answered the question I did ask. However this is not the first time this has happened to me with a complaint to the BBc.

         8 likes

      • Guest Who says:

        “They decided to answer a question I didn’t ask and they still haven’t answered the question I did ask”
        —–
        Classic BBC CECUTT attrition SOP. And you are not alone.
        To progress, you will need to reengage, and using their self-created Beware of the Leopard system logic, and spurious ‘saving the licence fee payer money’ termination excuses, they may well claim they can flounce away (from questions they can’t and hence don’t want to be further embarrassed by failing to answer).
        Their capacity for semantic weasels to avoid being held to account would make Bill Clinton blush.
        A complaint can run to 1500 characters tops. The BBC will run default denials that may not even be human in origin (see the Press Gazette story linked before). Simply hurdling these will count against you.
        It will then get to BBC ECU and up through to a BBC Director, who will get comfortable in their belief that the BBC has no case to answer and, best so far, the BBC doesn’t ‘feel’ that the BBC would have any prospect of the BBC finding itself in error, and hence there’s no point in them having to answer any more.
        Were interviews with Humphrys or Paxman handled this way by pols equally reluctant to be nailed down.
        You may get as far as ‘the BBC Trust’, but they will only ‘investigate’ themselves internally, in secret, and will only allow in what the BBC wants and will only inform you what they choose. All redacted and FOI excluded, so you have no idea if it ever really happened.
        In rare cases you may prevail.
        Usually, they will use the volume of guff their own systems generate as an excuse to ban you.
        Unique indeed.

           8 likes

    • Doublethinker says:

      No we all understand what you meant. But if your first language is not English it may be easy to misunderstand.
      We all need to recognise that many BBC employees find English difficult to master and of course find British customs totally incomprehensible.
      The BBC is trying to improve its employees English, but the BBC answer to the problem of our odd British customs and culture, is to change our culture and customs and embrace those of its non British employees.

         11 likes

  27. Daphne Anson says:

    Shome mishtake shurely:
    http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/the-bbc-trust-hold-a-public-inquiry-into-pro-israeli-bias
    It would be laughable if not for the fact that it enables the BBC to claim that on the subject in question they get things “about right”.

       8 likes

    • johnnythefish says:

      Scary, rather than laughable. You bet they have some link to Hacked Off somewhow, somewhere, through somebody. And Labour. And the BBC. And Common Purpose. And….(complete with your own hated leftie anti-free speech group).

         9 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Complaints from both sides……

      Of course, I can’t recall any Beeboid tweeting an emotionally-fraught photo faked by Israel. Nor can I recall a Beeboid spending hundreds of pounds to create a story which portrays the Palestinians as mean with water. Nor can I recall a Beeboid shedding a tear over an Israeli leader being on death’s door. Nor can I recall the BBC allowing a Middle East editor who has a personal grudge against Hamas or Fatah or the PLO.

      The useful Jews (Tim Franks and Katya Adler) got out years ago, so they don’t even have that fodder anymore.

         12 likes

  28. T Smith says:

    YET AGAIN…..I have been away from the news all day today and have just tuned in to that truly awful bbc news 24…..What did I happen to see first of all…….yes a female newscaster debating with two other female interviewees what Mrs Thatcher had done for women and their prospects. It was following the usual bbc technique of attaching a feminist, or racist, or sexist, or religious or whatever minority issue one can find to a debate/issue but in this case a feminist one. Not being able to stomach this usual bilge I turned over to view sky news (equally awful these days) to hear being interviewed some Scottish fellow saying how much he hated Mrs. Thatcher and that he hoped that she burned in hell etc etc. I must say that this tragic event (Mrs. T’s demise) has really managed to show out the unpleasant characters that these people seem to be. If, for example Kinnock or similar had died I wouldn’t celebrate the death or state publicly how much I hated him (even though I didn’t agree with his politics) I would feel sadness and humanity towards his family etc.
    By the way, I am still waiting for the bbc to fly one of their ‘independent’ reporters over to the Falkland Islands to ask what they have to say about Mrs. T’s death (that’s what they did after the latest Argentinian attempt to raise the issue)……YET AGAIN……Is it because they might hear something that they did not wish to broadcast?

    Let us all just wait and see how many ordinary, normal people turn out to pay their respects on the day of her funeral…I have absolutely no doubt that we will all be fed video footage of 20 odd scum bag types celebrating her demise instead of the 1000’s and 1000s of people trying to pay their respects.
    I do wish that they would just close the bbc down (for good). I do honestly believe that they are bring the moral and reputation of the Country down

       38 likes

  29. T Smith says:

    sorry….morale

       1 likes

  30. RGH says:

    Here’s a little problem for the BBC…reported around the world…but as of now not seen on BBC site

    ‘The Vatican sent a letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron affirming that Pope Francis was “saddened” by the death of Thatcher, recalling “with appreciation the Christian values which underpinned her commitment to public service and to the promotion of freedom among the family of nations.”

    “Entrusting her soul to the mercy of God, and assuring her family and the British people of a remembrance in his prayers, the Holy Father invokes for all those whose lives she touched God’s abundant blessings,” the text added.’

    In the Telegraph and elsewhere…worldwide.

       19 likes

  31. It's all too much says:

    Draft history curriculum: ‘list-like’ and ‘too narrow’

    A draft history curriculum for England is “list-like”, “prescriptive” and omits “the histories of Britons who are not white Anglo-Saxons”, says a report.

    The group, Curriculum for Cohesion, of teachers, academics and employers calls the draft “unteachable, unlearnable and un-British”.

    They warn that if adopted the curriculum may alienate pupils from ethnic and religious minority groups.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-22072703

    And who are the”Curriculum for Cohesion” BBC? Do they have any particular political or religious affiliations?

    http://curriculumforcohesion.org/

    For Fu**s sake BBC that is a LOBBY GROUP advocating SPECIAL INTERESTS and is headed up by leading members of the Labour Party and Islamic academics. Perhaps we didn’t need to know that. Strange isn’t it how we must know about evil ‘right wing’ reports though.

    —————————————-

    We will never see the likes of Mrs Thatcher again. We are led by political pigmies and the BBC coverage of some spiteful gloating fuc*wits disgusts me to my very core. It is a hateful and despicable organisation biased in every fiber of its bloated 4bn per year body politic. May it fall into ruin. I for one will gloat and dance on ITS grave given the chance!

       23 likes

    • John Anderson says:

      Given that English / British history is about the past, and there was no appreciable immigration after the Norman Conquest – can anyone name any significant figures who were not from Saxon, Angle, Celtic, Roman or Norman/Viking stock ?

      Trust the BBC to pick up on this phony rubbish

         9 likes

  32. ltwf1964 says:

    bbc trash

    utter trash

    a SERIOUS boycott of the tv tax really needs to kick off to add to the million or so who don’t pay it at the moment

    bbc radio ulster had some lefty scumbucket on discussing how Mrs T was portrayed as a “cross dressing,cigar smoking,urinal using” PM who was surrounded by vegetables in her cabinet

    and the interviewer could clearly be heard laughing as she talked to him

    there are no words to adequately describe how I detest the leeches

       20 likes

  33. thoughtful says:

    Well it’s 8:20 and the bBC has found someone whose cause they support, it doesn’t matter to them that only .4% of the membership responded, and that they were self selecting.

    So .4% of the Girl Guides were asked and 85% of them said they wanted to ban page three girls in the Sun newspaper.

    Does anyone here think this is worthy of a 10 minute slot on the Today program?

       13 likes

  34. thoughtful says:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-22082286

    An incredible piece of over reaction, normally we see bias from the BBC but this is as bad as any screaming tabloid.

       1 likes

    • AsISeeIt says:

      This statement had me laughing…

      ‘Mrs Munns said: “He’s not a roamer and never goes far….”Perhaps it’s a case of mistaken identity and someone thinks he’s a tom running around after females, but he isn’t’

      Yeah, and I bet he was a promising GCSE student, would-be social worker and aspiring footballer.

         6 likes

    • Rufus McDufus says:

      Like most things on the BBC that story was reported elsewhere several days ago.

         0 likes

  35. George R says:

    ‘Telegraph’ (£) – Tim Walker asks:

    “Is it time for BBC to re-air The Falklands Play?”

    [- Ian Curteis’s play, with Patricia Hodge as Margaret Thatcher.]

    Part 1 here (other parts may be available):-

       6 likes

  36. Jeff says:

    Someone has already mentioned the Falklands. I have heard opinions about Mrs Thatcher from George Galloway, Billy Bragg, Ken Livingstone, Tony Benn and Yasmin Alibaih Brown. I also seem to have heard from every former miner in the country and the Beeb have broadcast the sage-like thoughts of murderers like Gerry Adams. Why no comment from the Falkland Islanders?

       38 likes

  37. Alex says:

    The BBC just can’t contain themselves any longer… the pretense if over. Now, the selective views/criticisms are raining in aplenty…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22087702

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-22076837

    … and what a headline –

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-22076593

    They just have to slip this one in…

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22077190

    Unbelievable!

       20 likes

    • John Wood says:

      I don’t think the last one is too bad – there are some very positive comments from a couple of the residents in it.

         1 likes

  38. Andrew says:

    Thinking of Orwell’s “1984”, Mrs Thatcher seems to have become the BBC’s equivalent of Emanuel Goldstein – someone who can be blamed for EVERYTHING.

       18 likes

  39. Bob Nelson says:

    Amusing that the day after the BBC, Reading University, UEA and The Guardian state that Global Warming is causing the Jet Stream to move south, it lurches significantly northwards.

    Gaia has a mind of it’s own.

       24 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Clearly Gaia was just paying her respects to the Iron Lady, who made a significant contribution to saving the planet by closing all those awful coal mines.

      (Nobody spoil it by reminding us that Labour closed more. The BBC won’t allow that to change the Narrative anyway.)

         15 likes

  40. w111tey says:

    Just read this sanctimonious offering from Russell Brand which appeared in the Guardian today.
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2013/apr/09/russell-brand-margaret-thatcher
    All the lefties on twitter and other media networks are creaming themselves over Brand’s perceived genius narrative.
    Amidst the assassination he reveals ” I’d become a delinquent, living on heroin and benefit fraud ”
    What a beautifully ironic position from which to make a moral judgement of others.

       23 likes

    • 1327 says:

      Does anyone else think Russell Brand tries just a little to hard ? With every interview we hear further detail on just how “bad” he was before he was famous. A drug addict living of benefit fraud etc etc. Next week we will remember having leprosy while living rough on the streets of Calcutta. You can just imagine that he was in fact a very good little student and hard working member of the drama club 🙂

         2 likes

  41. George R says:

    “BBC staff have £750,000 worth of gadgets lost or stolen in three years.
    “Laptops, tablet computers and mobile phones among the 785 electrical items lost by corporation staff since 2010.”

    By Josh Halliday.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/apr/10/bbc-lose-750000-pounds-gadgets?

    The hypocritical, vindictive, small-mindedness of ‘the left’:

    ‘let’s save on the funeral, unless it’s Mandela’s’.

       18 likes

    • Andrew says:

      The BBC may be following Proudhon:

      “Property is theft”

      How long before we get:

      “Universal suffrage is counter-revolution” ?

         8 likes

      • stewart says:

        Were there allready

           4 likes

        • Andrew says:

          Still, if you accept that property is a “petit bourgeois” notion, why not help yourself? It’s only the stupid taxpayers’ money in any case! It was probably Thatcher’s policies that forced them to steal …

             12 likes

    • Teddy Bear says:

      I find it very suspicious, especially considering the statistics: In 2010 only 69 were reported stolen, but last year the figure had almost trebled to 195.
      Since crime has not trebled in that time, it’s not too far fetched to think that perhaps the staff are seeing that one can easily get away with claiming it was stolen or lost.

      I also wonder why the BBC need to pay £1500 for a laptop when a very good one can be purchased for under £500. With the bargaining power the BBC would have for buying in bulk, no doubt it could be less than that.

      I would love to sneak a look in any of the BBC staff households who claimed to have had one stolen. Just judging by the mindset and lack of ethics they display on a continual basis, what’s a bit of theft to add to it?

         9 likes

      • johnnythefish says:

        The BBC obviously takes the public sector approach to procurement: ‘Who cares, it’s only taxpayers’ money!’

           4 likes

  42. matthew says:

    Here’s a jaw-dropping piece of left-wing propaganda.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-22077190

    It is titled “Right-to-buy: Margaret Thatcher’s controversial gift”

    It starts with a full section lauding Marx, and council housing (no mention of the many crime-ridden sink estates, just a paean to the socialist heroes of the 70s):

    “The Whittington estate in north London is an extraordinary monument to the far-sighted council dreamers of the 1970s, to its talented Hungarian architect, and to Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy.

    The estate, which tumbles down a hillside below Highgate, opened in 1979, the year she came to power.

    Every flat here has its own south-facing balcony or courtyard. There is an abundance of greenery, designed as a visual continuation of the wild space of Highgate cemetery, which borders the estate.

    Karl Marx, buried among the ivy and brambles, would surely have applauded a publicly funded project that upgraded the lives of its working-class inhabitants.

    But the thought of Mrs Thatcher spreading her philosophy of home ownership here may well have felt as if the lady herself was walking across his grave.”

    “”The people who own flats take a pride in the place, and often get involved in community groups. So the policy had positive benefits.”

    Lying in his shady grave next door, Marx would never have agreed.

    For this was a policy that attempted to cut across all class lines, and fulfil the very capitalist aspirations of acquiring a home and putting money in the bank.”

    So in other words the late Margaret Thatcher and her policies is, according to the BBC ,’controversial’, whereas the late Marx is some sort of hero for the ages, one whom we can all agree was right about everything.

    What a bizarre world the BBC inhabit, where Thatcher is controversial but Marx is not.

       32 likes

    • stewart says:

      I had the ‘honour’ of living in the GLCs concrete ‘workers paradise’ Thamesmead for 20yrs
      So lauded by the bourgeois intelligentsia(architects,sociologists and left wing planners of all descriptions),so loved by art school anarchists and campaigning film makers.they all refused to spoil it by living there.

         25 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Wait: Is it controversial because it worked rather well, or controversial because it didn’t work well enough?

      Also, a laugh-out-loud moment:

      “A lot of people who bought couldn’t afford the repayments, because the economy went down under Mrs Thatcher,” he says

      The economy was doing well before? And Thatcher invented Clinton’s Community Reinvestment Act and the whole scheme of sub-prime mortgages?

      I know, it was really controversial because it was a Thatcher plan. No other reason necessary.

         14 likes

  43. George R says:

    The ‘left’ (inc Beeboids) have strongly hostile feeings against a British P.M. Margaret Thatcher, who ordered the defending of the Falkland Islanders from Argentina’s invasion.

    The ‘left’ views on ‘Birmingham men’ is more politically empathetic:-
    “Two Birmingham men guilty of terror charges”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22091107

    INBBC censors out the centrally relevant fact of explicit Islamic motivation, as much as it can.

       23 likes

  44. ROBERT BROWN says:

    Vile Giles Fraser on the BBC 1pm news spouting off about Mrs T’s divisive attitude, the man is a disgrace to the Church.

       28 likes

    • chrisH says:

      I mention this elsewhere, and was appalled.
      Giles was the bloke who allowed St Pauls cathedral to be desecrated and defecated upon by his new chums in Occupy-his parishioners could not get to services because of the abuse, the lockouts-and of course all those laptops and IPhones needing to be charged-Jesus could pay for it all eh Giles.
      Hope the worthless lefty likes of Giles will just scoot off and create a cult to St Gerri( sorry if I offended anybody`!)-the exact opposite to Jesus, to St Paul…and , just the epitaph that will cover the likes of Giles, Gerri and all the other liberal slitherings who are pronouncing vile and bile on the BBC etc today.
      Thatchers epitaph will be something other…and Poles, Israelis, Russians will be visiting her grave to read it. long after Giles, George and Russell are consigned to a wicca basket facing well away from Mecca.
      Margaret deserved better-but at least evils face is fat, chubby and coins its thirty pieces(plus pension rights) from the Guardian Trust(Cayman Isles)…and we can all see it now!
      Turns out that Fraser as a gloomy undertaker in Dads Army is the real Christian these days bearing that name,

         13 likes

  45. George R says:

    Meanwhile in EGYPT:

    -INBBC’s Cairo Bureau censors this:

    “US tear gas arrives in Egypt for Muslim Brotherhood use.”

    [Opening excerpt]:-

    “Obama’s foreign policy in microcosm.”

    http://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/04/us-tear-gas-arrives-in-egypt-for-muslim-brotherhood-use.html

       10 likes

  46. John Paul Jones says:

    Oh. Here’s the bit about JUMPING

       12 likes

    • Guest Who says:

      Thanks for that.
      She even said no… and then no, no, no… with perfect comedic timing.
      Dave, Nick & Ed would all have been nursing headaches within seconds from trying to see who could get how high.
      What an exquisite example of what leadership should be about, even in a media-dominated age.

         12 likes

    • David Preiser (USA) says:

      Great line about Gorbachev.

         6 likes

  47. Guest Who says:

    In the spirit of balance, it must be said the BBC is not the only public sector monolith with a penchant for creating new or ever more odd roles to dip further into the bottomless public funding purse.
    The latest new one was the beehive with a girl under it as the new yoof fuzz commissioner. That went well.
    Now from the archives I read:
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/9982628/National-Union-of-Students-elects-president-who-doesnt-believe-in-university.html
    ‘the first president of the union not to have attended university’
    Now the notion of being spoken for by person or persons unknown to any realities of life is not unheard of, but when this moppet is wheeled out as the voice of the young undergrad by the BBC when the next cuts-related diatribe needs an empathetic blonde spokesperson, I do wonder if the inevitable peroxide sink empathising across the table may get a small niggle in the noggin that when speaking for a group, actually having the foggiest clue what they do or face might be a minimum qualification.
    My recollection of our Uni NUS was a bunch of clowns from the arts faculty who attended one lecture a month and held votes when the rest of us were in lectures.
    They once went too far and sent some funds earmarked for the bar to buy some guns for the ANC or someone, so we all cut class (& got docked) voted the buggers out and restored the student’s union to looking after young students vs. serving as a job creation scheme for 30yo trots to work out their Wolfie Smiff fantasies.

       9 likes

  48. Guest Who says:

    Market rate deckchair re-arranging, and words to conjure images…
    http://tradingaswdr.blogspot.co.uk/2013/04/passion-play.html?
    ‘to fill a Cohen-shaped hole ‘
    One has to wonder what that shape might be, and how one follows in the footsteps of ‘Snog, Marry Avoid’ in achieving quality and creative integrity.
    One can only await with eager anticipation the kind of projects ‘only the BBC would make’.

       2 likes

  49. Dave s says:

    Pm tonight had an extraordinary piece on climate change and our gardens. At least I think that was it. No dissenting view allowed. Climate change is real and we are the cause. Sheer propaganda.
    The BBC is past reforming.
    Oh and the endless Lady Thatcher split the country. Not my bit of it. She was always number one.

       13 likes

  50. GCooper says:

    Charles Moore was on excellent form on PM this evening and sliced the oily Eddie Mair in two with a well-aimed comment about how the BBC behaved itself quite reasonably since Baroness Thatcher;s death… for the first 24 hours, since when it has returned to its its usual vile and bigoted behaviour.

    Being live, there was nothing much Mair could have done, other than hit the panic button, so he resorted to silence.

    It’s rare to hear the BBC given both barrels, such is its broadcasting hegemony, and so sweet on the rare occasions that it happens.

       12 likes

    • chrisH says:

      Yes, how true.
      Simon Hoggart tried to make out it was not just the BBC promoting the efforts to make “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead”, but he`s a Guardian oil slick.
      Hope the BBC get done for product placement, or is iTunes paying for the constant free plugs.
      Shall we write that tribute song for Jimmy Savile and his choice of Wood Lane for his camper van…and see if the BBC will promote it for us…any rhymes for “paedo breeding BBC” appreciated

         7 likes